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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM MARCH 19, 2009
At first glance it seemed that NBC was sending a signal that the AIG spell had been broken. After three straight days when the insurance conglomerate's bonus scandal dominated the headlines, NBC appeared to break ranks. While ABC and CBS both decided to lead with the vote in the House of Representatives to tax those bonuses retroactively at a confiscatory 90% rate, NBC chose Barack Obama's road trip to California, where few of the citizens he met mentioned AIG. But no, NBC's motives for downgrading AIG were revealed to be self-serving not journalistic. The President's trip culminated with an appearance on NBC's own late night Tonight with Jay Leno. So AIG turned out to be the legitimate Story of the Day for the fourth day this week, since NBC's headline was a glorified promo. NBC and CBS, again, had substitute anchors. Repeating Wednesday's line-up, NBC used David Gregory and CBS Maggie Rodriguez.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR MARCH 19, 2009: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
NBC SELF-SERVINGLY BREAKS RANKS ON AIG At first glance it seemed that NBC was sending a signal that the AIG spell had been broken. After three straight days when the insurance conglomerate's bonus scandal dominated the headlines, NBC appeared to break ranks. While ABC and CBS both decided to lead with the vote in the House of Representatives to tax those bonuses retroactively at a confiscatory 90% rate, NBC chose Barack Obama's road trip to California, where few of the citizens he met mentioned AIG. But no, NBC's motives for downgrading AIG were revealed to be self-serving not journalistic. The President's trip culminated with an appearance on NBC's own late night Tonight with Jay Leno. So AIG turned out to be the legitimate Story of the Day for the fourth day this week, since NBC's headline was a glorified promo. NBC and CBS, again, had substitute anchors. Repeating Wednesday's line-up, NBC used David Gregory and CBS Maggie Rodriguez.
The 328-93 House vote to tax bonuses would target not just the $165m paid at AIG that has provoked such outrage all week, noted ABC's Jonathan Karl, it would apply to any bonus in excess of $250,000 given to anyone working for any institution that has received any federal funds from the Treasury Department's TARP. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell noted that the action was "unusually fast" for the House of Representatives. "The House acted like a house on fire," quipped CBS' Wyatt Andrews. "The bill passed easily despite strong arguments that a 90% retroactive tax is probably illegal."
"What Congress did today looked a lot like a high profile do-over," mused NBC's O'Donnell. At issue, ABC's Karl explained, is "a tiny provision added into last month's stimulus bill that exempts employee contracts signed last year from new limits on pay." Sen Christopher Dodd, the Democrat from Connecticut, had sought the retroactive pay cuts but explained that he had been persuaded to relent for fear of lawsuits by "staff members at the Treasury Department he refused to name," as CBS' Andrews put it. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner appeared on CNN to confirm that his staffers had pressured Dodd with his assent. ABC's Karl commented: "It is Congress not the Treasury Department that writes the laws. Treasury pushed for the loophole but Congress went along with it."
NBC's Lisa Myers wondered how many bonuses were paid on Wall Street last year by the six major banks that received the lion's share of the TARP bailout. Only Bank of America gave her a figure--$1.6bn to 180,000 employees. The other five--Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo--gave her no comment although they claimed that "bonuses had been cut significantly and that top executives received no bonuses at all."
WITHOUT BEING FLIPPANT Inspired by the death threat by garroting that was quoted at the House hearings into the AIG bonuses on Wednesday, ABC assigned Bill Weir to ponder why populist anger is inflamed by tales of mere millions in bonuses even as the federal government has committed whole trillions to failed financial institutions. "It was our system that rewarded their risktaking," Weir wondered, "but people do not get mad at systems, they get mad at people." Enter Elizabeth Palmer on CBS, ringing the doorbell of Joseph Cassano at his luxurious London townhouse. The 54-year-old Cassano was head of AIG's Financial Products Division, which made $3bn a year selling Credit Default Swaps as recently as 2005 before he was "forced to retire" leaving his bosses--and then the rest of us--"on the hook to pay out billions of dollars it did not have."
Palmer dug out this gem of a soundbite from Cassano just two months before the first CDS losses of just $352m were announced: "It is hard for us, without being flippant, to even see a scenario within any kind of realm of reason that would see us losing one dollar in any of those transactions." Cassano refused Palmer any further comment.
ABSOLUTELY HISTORIC OR MERELY AVERAGE? "Absolutely historic," was the comment CNBC economist Steve Liesman made in a brief appearance on NBC Wednesday when the Federal Reserve Board announced it was investing $1.25tr of freshly-printed cash into long-term debt from the USTreasury and the nationalized mortgage firms FannieMae and FreddieMac. Now CBS' Anthony Mason and ABC's Betsy Stark follow the impact of all that new money. The annual cost of borrowing money for a 30-year home mortgage has now fallen below 5%. "The Fed is determined to make interest rates so low reluctant buyers will find them irresistible," was how ABC's Stark put it.
CBS' Mason rounded out his report with Harvard University research into the economic damage from 66 other major financial crises. He quoted averages in four key statistics: a bear market in stocks--down 55%; a bear market in housing--down 35%; the unemployment rate--up 7%; the national debt--up 85%. Just to reach average, housing, joblessness and debt still have to worsen. What happens if this downturn is worse than average?
LINING UP FOR LENO The networks' White House correspondents split on whether it was appropriate for Barack Obama to take his road trip to California while the focus back in Washington was still firmly on the AIG bonuses. NBC's take by Savannah Guthrie--"for a second straight day not a single question at the town hall was about the bonus scandal at AIG"--can be ignored as special pleading, since her package ended with a shameless plug for Tonight featuring fans who had waited in line in Burbank for sixteen hours to see Jay Leno's Presidential show.
Among the neutrals, ABC's Jake Tapper reported that "the AIG controversy followed" the Obama to California and cited Republicans who criticized him for "campaigning not governing and faulted him for allowing the AIG bonuses." Tapper pointed to criticism of senior White House aides for publicly dismissing the AIG backlash. He quoted Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel as calling the furor "a big distraction" and advisor David Axelrod's assertion: "People are not sitting around their kitchen tables thinking about AIG." On CBS, Chip Reid stated that "AIG drew not a single question and only a brief mention" before slipping in a plug for his own network's programming: "Besides Leno, the President appears on 60 Minutes and a primetime news conference--all part of a media blitz to try to change the subject from AIG back to his economic plan."
OBAMA LISTENS TO YOUTH ON YOUTUBE Both ABC and NBC filed a sidebar on Barack Obama's California road trip from the Village Academy High School in Ponoma, where the bursting of the real estate bubble has hit hard. An English class there decided to document the stress the recession is exacting on their teenage lives. The resulting YouTube video Is Anybody Listening? received an answer in the affirmative from the Oval Office. ABC's David Muir was on hand for 20/20 when the White House's e-mail appeared in the school's inbox. NBC's George Lewis was there when the President actually visited Ponoma.
NBC’S FAIRNESS DOCTRINE FOR HAMAS AND IDF A rare event occurred in NBC's In Depth report on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Martin Fletcher gave equal time to a spokesman from Hamas and a spokeswoman from the Israel Defense Force, a parity not observed during the coverage of the fighting in the Gaza Strip over the New Year. "These confessions confirm the criminal and terrorist mentality of the Israelis," was the Hamas soundbite Fletcher used after Israeli soldiers admitted they "intentionally destroyed Palestinian property and killed civilians." The IDF opened an investigation into reports of willful vandalism of Palestinian property and casual murder of women and children. Its counter soundbite went as follows: "It is important for me to say that the IDF policy is to save lives on both sides."
RADDATZ ON SCENE, LOGAN BY REMOTE Martha Raddatz filed from Mosul Wednesday for ABC's Where Things Stand series. Now CBS plays catch-up with night-vision videotape it labeled Exclusive of the arrest by an Iraqi patrol of suspected al-Qaeda carbomb masterminds. CBS' Lara Logan was not on hand to cover the handover of the pair to US troops investigating the combat death of Col Gary Derby, who was mourned by his comrades in Raddatz' report. Logan narrated the footage from the Washington DC studio.
HIGH TIME Marijuana lovers, mark this date.
It was the first time the proposal by Tom Ammiano, the California Assemblyman, to legalize and tax marijuana in his state won a mention on the national nightly newscasts. It was not the main focus of Ben Tracy's report on CBS, which was a summary of various cost-cutting initiatives in the penal system, including early inmate release in Wisconsin and Virginia, jail closings in Los Angeles and an end to executions in New Mexico. The decision to discontinue the death penalty was inspired as much to pinch pennies as to protect human rights, Tracy reported. Several other states may also shut down Death Row, including, astonishingly, Texas. Yet Ammiano's plan to tax pot at $50 an ounce sounds like the criminal reform idea that will attract most coverage in the long run.
BUNNY SLOPE BRAIN DAMAGE Actress Natasha Richardson died. She was famous enough for the freak accident that killed her to attract airtime; not famous enough to warrant an obituary for her thespian career. Accordingly NBC and ABC both assigned a medical reporter, not an arts correspondent, to cover the conundrum of her death: "How can a vibrant 45-year-old woman die from a simple fall, barely moving, on a bunny slope, a beginner's hill?" ABC's John McKenzie wondered. She was not wearing a helmet, he noted, "but few skiers think of brain damage on something so innocent." NBC's in-house physician Nancy Snyderman told us that the injury that killed Richardson, in which blood gets trapped by the skull and compresses the brain, "is rare in midlife. Those at highest risk are young children and adults aged 75 and older."
The 328-93 House vote to tax bonuses would target not just the $165m paid at AIG that has provoked such outrage all week, noted ABC's Jonathan Karl, it would apply to any bonus in excess of $250,000 given to anyone working for any institution that has received any federal funds from the Treasury Department's TARP. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell noted that the action was "unusually fast" for the House of Representatives. "The House acted like a house on fire," quipped CBS' Wyatt Andrews. "The bill passed easily despite strong arguments that a 90% retroactive tax is probably illegal."
"What Congress did today looked a lot like a high profile do-over," mused NBC's O'Donnell. At issue, ABC's Karl explained, is "a tiny provision added into last month's stimulus bill that exempts employee contracts signed last year from new limits on pay." Sen Christopher Dodd, the Democrat from Connecticut, had sought the retroactive pay cuts but explained that he had been persuaded to relent for fear of lawsuits by "staff members at the Treasury Department he refused to name," as CBS' Andrews put it. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner appeared on CNN to confirm that his staffers had pressured Dodd with his assent. ABC's Karl commented: "It is Congress not the Treasury Department that writes the laws. Treasury pushed for the loophole but Congress went along with it."
NBC's Lisa Myers wondered how many bonuses were paid on Wall Street last year by the six major banks that received the lion's share of the TARP bailout. Only Bank of America gave her a figure--$1.6bn to 180,000 employees. The other five--Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo--gave her no comment although they claimed that "bonuses had been cut significantly and that top executives received no bonuses at all."
WITHOUT BEING FLIPPANT Inspired by the death threat by garroting that was quoted at the House hearings into the AIG bonuses on Wednesday, ABC assigned Bill Weir to ponder why populist anger is inflamed by tales of mere millions in bonuses even as the federal government has committed whole trillions to failed financial institutions. "It was our system that rewarded their risktaking," Weir wondered, "but people do not get mad at systems, they get mad at people." Enter Elizabeth Palmer on CBS, ringing the doorbell of Joseph Cassano at his luxurious London townhouse. The 54-year-old Cassano was head of AIG's Financial Products Division, which made $3bn a year selling Credit Default Swaps as recently as 2005 before he was "forced to retire" leaving his bosses--and then the rest of us--"on the hook to pay out billions of dollars it did not have."
Palmer dug out this gem of a soundbite from Cassano just two months before the first CDS losses of just $352m were announced: "It is hard for us, without being flippant, to even see a scenario within any kind of realm of reason that would see us losing one dollar in any of those transactions." Cassano refused Palmer any further comment.
ABSOLUTELY HISTORIC OR MERELY AVERAGE? "Absolutely historic," was the comment CNBC economist Steve Liesman made in a brief appearance on NBC Wednesday when the Federal Reserve Board announced it was investing $1.25tr of freshly-printed cash into long-term debt from the USTreasury and the nationalized mortgage firms FannieMae and FreddieMac. Now CBS' Anthony Mason and ABC's Betsy Stark follow the impact of all that new money. The annual cost of borrowing money for a 30-year home mortgage has now fallen below 5%. "The Fed is determined to make interest rates so low reluctant buyers will find them irresistible," was how ABC's Stark put it.
CBS' Mason rounded out his report with Harvard University research into the economic damage from 66 other major financial crises. He quoted averages in four key statistics: a bear market in stocks--down 55%; a bear market in housing--down 35%; the unemployment rate--up 7%; the national debt--up 85%. Just to reach average, housing, joblessness and debt still have to worsen. What happens if this downturn is worse than average?
LINING UP FOR LENO The networks' White House correspondents split on whether it was appropriate for Barack Obama to take his road trip to California while the focus back in Washington was still firmly on the AIG bonuses. NBC's take by Savannah Guthrie--"for a second straight day not a single question at the town hall was about the bonus scandal at AIG"--can be ignored as special pleading, since her package ended with a shameless plug for Tonight featuring fans who had waited in line in Burbank for sixteen hours to see Jay Leno's Presidential show.
Among the neutrals, ABC's Jake Tapper reported that "the AIG controversy followed" the Obama to California and cited Republicans who criticized him for "campaigning not governing and faulted him for allowing the AIG bonuses." Tapper pointed to criticism of senior White House aides for publicly dismissing the AIG backlash. He quoted Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel as calling the furor "a big distraction" and advisor David Axelrod's assertion: "People are not sitting around their kitchen tables thinking about AIG." On CBS, Chip Reid stated that "AIG drew not a single question and only a brief mention" before slipping in a plug for his own network's programming: "Besides Leno, the President appears on 60 Minutes and a primetime news conference--all part of a media blitz to try to change the subject from AIG back to his economic plan."
OBAMA LISTENS TO YOUTH ON YOUTUBE Both ABC and NBC filed a sidebar on Barack Obama's California road trip from the Village Academy High School in Ponoma, where the bursting of the real estate bubble has hit hard. An English class there decided to document the stress the recession is exacting on their teenage lives. The resulting YouTube video Is Anybody Listening? received an answer in the affirmative from the Oval Office. ABC's David Muir was on hand for 20/20 when the White House's e-mail appeared in the school's inbox. NBC's George Lewis was there when the President actually visited Ponoma.
NBC’S FAIRNESS DOCTRINE FOR HAMAS AND IDF A rare event occurred in NBC's In Depth report on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Martin Fletcher gave equal time to a spokesman from Hamas and a spokeswoman from the Israel Defense Force, a parity not observed during the coverage of the fighting in the Gaza Strip over the New Year. "These confessions confirm the criminal and terrorist mentality of the Israelis," was the Hamas soundbite Fletcher used after Israeli soldiers admitted they "intentionally destroyed Palestinian property and killed civilians." The IDF opened an investigation into reports of willful vandalism of Palestinian property and casual murder of women and children. Its counter soundbite went as follows: "It is important for me to say that the IDF policy is to save lives on both sides."
RADDATZ ON SCENE, LOGAN BY REMOTE Martha Raddatz filed from Mosul Wednesday for ABC's Where Things Stand series. Now CBS plays catch-up with night-vision videotape it labeled Exclusive of the arrest by an Iraqi patrol of suspected al-Qaeda carbomb masterminds. CBS' Lara Logan was not on hand to cover the handover of the pair to US troops investigating the combat death of Col Gary Derby, who was mourned by his comrades in Raddatz' report. Logan narrated the footage from the Washington DC studio.
HIGH TIME Marijuana lovers, mark this date.
It was the first time the proposal by Tom Ammiano, the California Assemblyman, to legalize and tax marijuana in his state won a mention on the national nightly newscasts. It was not the main focus of Ben Tracy's report on CBS, which was a summary of various cost-cutting initiatives in the penal system, including early inmate release in Wisconsin and Virginia, jail closings in Los Angeles and an end to executions in New Mexico. The decision to discontinue the death penalty was inspired as much to pinch pennies as to protect human rights, Tracy reported. Several other states may also shut down Death Row, including, astonishingly, Texas. Yet Ammiano's plan to tax pot at $50 an ounce sounds like the criminal reform idea that will attract most coverage in the long run.
BUNNY SLOPE BRAIN DAMAGE Actress Natasha Richardson died. She was famous enough for the freak accident that killed her to attract airtime; not famous enough to warrant an obituary for her thespian career. Accordingly NBC and ABC both assigned a medical reporter, not an arts correspondent, to cover the conundrum of her death: "How can a vibrant 45-year-old woman die from a simple fall, barely moving, on a bunny slope, a beginner's hill?" ABC's John McKenzie wondered. She was not wearing a helmet, he noted, "but few skiers think of brain damage on something so innocent." NBC's in-house physician Nancy Snyderman told us that the injury that killed Richardson, in which blood gets trapped by the skull and compresses the brain, "is rare in midlife. Those at highest risk are young children and adults aged 75 and older."
