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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM APRIL 13, 2009
The rescue of Captain Richard Phillips from the hands of pirates was the Story of the Day. All three newscasts led with a computer-animated reenactment of the sniper attack by USNavy SEAL commandos from the deck of the USS Bainbridge that killed three of the captain's captors; the fourth pirate has been arrested. The drama off the coast of Somalia occupied more than a third (21 min out of 58--36%) of the three-network newshole.
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NEWSCASTS ANIMATE THE HIGH SEAS DRAMA The rescue of Captain Richard Phillips from the hands of pirates was the Story of the Day. All three newscasts led with a computer-animated reenactment of the sniper attack by USNavy SEAL commandos from the deck of the USS Bainbridge that killed three of the captain's captors; the fourth pirate has been arrested. The drama off the coast of Somalia occupied more than a third (21 min out of 58--36%) of the three-network newshole.
Apparently the lifeboat from Phillips' ship, the Maersk Line's Alabama, was being regularly supplied from the Bainbridge with food and water. During one supply trip, the fourth pirate, a teenager, was taken back to the ship. The remaining three pirates agreed to have their craft towed by the Bainbridge. At one point two of the three stuck their heads out of the protection of their capsule. At that point their brains were blown away. A trio of snipers on the deck of the destroyer each fired a single successful simultaneous shot.
Given that none of the three reporters--ABC's Martha Raddatz, CBS' Bob Orr or NBC's Jim Miklaszewski--that described the end of the hostage siege was an eyewitness, each mentioned extremely specific details. Why did the fourth pirate surrender? "For medical treatment"--Miklaszewski. Why did the pirates agree to a towing line? To get to "calmer waters"--Miklaszewski. How did the lifeboat get within sniper's range of the destroyer? "The Bainbridge started slowly reeling in the lifeboat closer to the big ship, apparently without the pirates' knowledge"--Raddatz. Why did the pirates expose themselves? "A tracer round was fired from the pirates toward the navy ship and two of the gunmen popped their head and shoulders out"--Orr. How come snipers, bobbing up and down on a warship, could aim so accurately at targets, bobbing up and down in a lifeboat? "They likely had gyrostabilizing weapons"--Raddatz.
ANCHORS AWEIGH The hostage rescue was newsworthy enough that each of the three anchors chipped in. On NBC, Brian Williams landed a telephone interview with Commander Frank Castellano, the captain of the Bainbridge. How did Phillips react to his rescue? "He was ecstatic." What was the mood on his ship? "Honestly it was a very tense situation." ABC's Charles Gibson showed us the photojournalism of Abukar al-Badri from Somalia itself. Most of the pirates were once young fishermen: "A couple of years ago overfishing of Somali waters and toxic dumping was killing the fishing industry." CBS' Katie Couric got quite carried away as she likened Captain Phillips, who saved his crew by allowing himself to be captured, to Captain Sully Sullenberger, who saved his crew and passengers by safely crashlanding his plane: "The waters might be rough for America these days but Captain Phillips reminds us there are still those with the right stuff who can help steer the ship."
COST OF DOING BUSINESS Only ABC had a correspondent on the scene in east Africa. Jim Sciutto was in Mombasa with the crew of the Alabama. The foiling of this lone act of piracy had done little to assuage the fears of others preparing to leave port. Sciutto told us of a German freighter heading for Oman that was charting a course 1,000 miles farther out to sea to avoid pirate-infested waters. From Washington, CBS' Lara Logan put the pirate threat in context. In 2008, there were fewer than 300 incidents of piracy on all the globe's oceans: "Even the highest estimates put the total cost of piracy--from ransoms to patrols--at $50bn worldwide. That does not compare to the costs of the ships or the value of their cargo." She estimated that at $8tr.
SEALS PLAY WATER POLO The skill of the SEALs off Somalia prompted the USNavy to relax its secrecy. NBC's Chris Jansing and CBS' Kimberly Dozier both filed from the usually clandestine Naval Special Warfare Center in Coronado Cal, where commando recruits undergo training hell. The fourth week of their 26-week boot camp is nicknamed Hell Week: "Live-fire exercises, obstacle courses, night-vision training and more, pushing the limits of physical fitness and mental sharpness on four hours sleep a night," was how NBC's Jansing put it. CBS' Dozier told us that its rigors produce a dropout rate that is so high that the SEALs have difficulty reaching their 2,500 complement. The navy's solution is to reach out to endurance athletes in high school--rugby, wrestling, swimming and water polo. A couple of free publicity features on the nightly newscasts cannot hurt, either.
CUBAN SANDWICH On a less dramatic day, the United States' new foreign policy towards Cuba would have made more prominent headlines. NBC and ABC both assigned a correspondent to cover new rules for visits to the island by Cuban-Americans, remittances to family members and telecommunications ties. CBS mentioned them in passing. ABC's Jeffrey Kofman took the half-full angle, calling the changes an "olive branch" from Barack Obama to Havana's Communist regime. NBC's Andrea Mitchell chose half empty: the President "did not propose a far more sweeping step, getting Congress to lift the trade embargo that has lasted for half a century…The Obama Administration still refuses to negotiate directly with Havana."
ARMEN’S NOT GREEN CBS filed an Investigation that featured a flashback to Campaign '08. Drill, Baby, Drill was the chant that represented the GOP's energy policy, Armen Keteyian reminded us. "It was the battle hymn of the Republican National Convention." It turns out that Big Oil does not endorse that plan. He cited Interior Department estimates that 68bn barrels of oil are to be found in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska, "areas already accessible to drilling" yet "nearly half the existing rigs sit idle." Keteyian does not appear to worry about the greenhouse effect. He criticized ExxonMobil for not spending more of its profits on finding hydrocarbons. For its part, ExxonMobil claims to be "investing at record levels to find and develop new supplies of energy"--without specifying whether they happen to be green or greenhouse.
WHAT A LOAD OF BANKERS ABC's Elisabeth Leamy is worried about fake banks; CBS' Sharyl Attkisson about real ones. Attkisson reeled off a litany of increased fees and rates that the banking industry defends as "competitive, reasonable, responsible" that "satisfy consumer needs." Citigroup interest rates are now as high as 30% annually. JP Morgan Chase's no-annual-fee credit cards now cost $120. Wells Fargo hiked its ATM fees by 20%. Bank of America charges fees to use government-issued unemployment benefits debit cards.
ABC's Leamy demonstrated "spoofing," the new telephone software that allows a caller to disguise her voice and her originating number, to fool Caller-ID. The Spoof was recently used in Lancaster Pa by scammers pretending to be a bank, trying to extract account and PIN information. Mark del Bianco is the attorney who represents spoof-makers. "How does the industry justify that voicechanging feature? What is the legitimate purpose of that?" "There may be none." "So why do it?" "Because it is offered by the…it is a part of the…software."
JENNA HAS TWO MOMMIES All three newscasts filed from the new First Family's first Easter Egg roll. NBC and CBS both closed the newscast with an Obamawatch. NBC's Savannah Guthrie enjoyed Barack Obama's "rare form" as he read Where the Wild Things Are for assembled rollers. CBS' Nancy Cordes previewed the arrival of the "ridiculously adorable six-month-old pup" named Bo that the press corps has been "doggedly pursuing." Yes she actually said that. ABC's Jake Tapper could not totally shuck off his hard news instincts--amid his puns about scrambling and shells--noting the Obamas' efforts to make their roll "markedly different" from George Bush's: "About 110 same-sex families with children were expressly invited." His soundbite was from Jenna Bergman: "I have two moms and it is really cool."
Apparently the lifeboat from Phillips' ship, the Maersk Line's Alabama, was being regularly supplied from the Bainbridge with food and water. During one supply trip, the fourth pirate, a teenager, was taken back to the ship. The remaining three pirates agreed to have their craft towed by the Bainbridge. At one point two of the three stuck their heads out of the protection of their capsule. At that point their brains were blown away. A trio of snipers on the deck of the destroyer each fired a single successful simultaneous shot.
Given that none of the three reporters--ABC's Martha Raddatz, CBS' Bob Orr or NBC's Jim Miklaszewski--that described the end of the hostage siege was an eyewitness, each mentioned extremely specific details. Why did the fourth pirate surrender? "For medical treatment"--Miklaszewski. Why did the pirates agree to a towing line? To get to "calmer waters"--Miklaszewski. How did the lifeboat get within sniper's range of the destroyer? "The Bainbridge started slowly reeling in the lifeboat closer to the big ship, apparently without the pirates' knowledge"--Raddatz. Why did the pirates expose themselves? "A tracer round was fired from the pirates toward the navy ship and two of the gunmen popped their head and shoulders out"--Orr. How come snipers, bobbing up and down on a warship, could aim so accurately at targets, bobbing up and down in a lifeboat? "They likely had gyrostabilizing weapons"--Raddatz.
ANCHORS AWEIGH The hostage rescue was newsworthy enough that each of the three anchors chipped in. On NBC, Brian Williams landed a telephone interview with Commander Frank Castellano, the captain of the Bainbridge. How did Phillips react to his rescue? "He was ecstatic." What was the mood on his ship? "Honestly it was a very tense situation." ABC's Charles Gibson showed us the photojournalism of Abukar al-Badri from Somalia itself. Most of the pirates were once young fishermen: "A couple of years ago overfishing of Somali waters and toxic dumping was killing the fishing industry." CBS' Katie Couric got quite carried away as she likened Captain Phillips, who saved his crew by allowing himself to be captured, to Captain Sully Sullenberger, who saved his crew and passengers by safely crashlanding his plane: "The waters might be rough for America these days but Captain Phillips reminds us there are still those with the right stuff who can help steer the ship."
COST OF DOING BUSINESS Only ABC had a correspondent on the scene in east Africa. Jim Sciutto was in Mombasa with the crew of the Alabama. The foiling of this lone act of piracy had done little to assuage the fears of others preparing to leave port. Sciutto told us of a German freighter heading for Oman that was charting a course 1,000 miles farther out to sea to avoid pirate-infested waters. From Washington, CBS' Lara Logan put the pirate threat in context. In 2008, there were fewer than 300 incidents of piracy on all the globe's oceans: "Even the highest estimates put the total cost of piracy--from ransoms to patrols--at $50bn worldwide. That does not compare to the costs of the ships or the value of their cargo." She estimated that at $8tr.
SEALS PLAY WATER POLO The skill of the SEALs off Somalia prompted the USNavy to relax its secrecy. NBC's Chris Jansing and CBS' Kimberly Dozier both filed from the usually clandestine Naval Special Warfare Center in Coronado Cal, where commando recruits undergo training hell. The fourth week of their 26-week boot camp is nicknamed Hell Week: "Live-fire exercises, obstacle courses, night-vision training and more, pushing the limits of physical fitness and mental sharpness on four hours sleep a night," was how NBC's Jansing put it. CBS' Dozier told us that its rigors produce a dropout rate that is so high that the SEALs have difficulty reaching their 2,500 complement. The navy's solution is to reach out to endurance athletes in high school--rugby, wrestling, swimming and water polo. A couple of free publicity features on the nightly newscasts cannot hurt, either.
CUBAN SANDWICH On a less dramatic day, the United States' new foreign policy towards Cuba would have made more prominent headlines. NBC and ABC both assigned a correspondent to cover new rules for visits to the island by Cuban-Americans, remittances to family members and telecommunications ties. CBS mentioned them in passing. ABC's Jeffrey Kofman took the half-full angle, calling the changes an "olive branch" from Barack Obama to Havana's Communist regime. NBC's Andrea Mitchell chose half empty: the President "did not propose a far more sweeping step, getting Congress to lift the trade embargo that has lasted for half a century…The Obama Administration still refuses to negotiate directly with Havana."
ARMEN’S NOT GREEN CBS filed an Investigation that featured a flashback to Campaign '08. Drill, Baby, Drill was the chant that represented the GOP's energy policy, Armen Keteyian reminded us. "It was the battle hymn of the Republican National Convention." It turns out that Big Oil does not endorse that plan. He cited Interior Department estimates that 68bn barrels of oil are to be found in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska, "areas already accessible to drilling" yet "nearly half the existing rigs sit idle." Keteyian does not appear to worry about the greenhouse effect. He criticized ExxonMobil for not spending more of its profits on finding hydrocarbons. For its part, ExxonMobil claims to be "investing at record levels to find and develop new supplies of energy"--without specifying whether they happen to be green or greenhouse.
WHAT A LOAD OF BANKERS ABC's Elisabeth Leamy is worried about fake banks; CBS' Sharyl Attkisson about real ones. Attkisson reeled off a litany of increased fees and rates that the banking industry defends as "competitive, reasonable, responsible" that "satisfy consumer needs." Citigroup interest rates are now as high as 30% annually. JP Morgan Chase's no-annual-fee credit cards now cost $120. Wells Fargo hiked its ATM fees by 20%. Bank of America charges fees to use government-issued unemployment benefits debit cards.
ABC's Leamy demonstrated "spoofing," the new telephone software that allows a caller to disguise her voice and her originating number, to fool Caller-ID. The Spoof was recently used in Lancaster Pa by scammers pretending to be a bank, trying to extract account and PIN information. Mark del Bianco is the attorney who represents spoof-makers. "How does the industry justify that voicechanging feature? What is the legitimate purpose of that?" "There may be none." "So why do it?" "Because it is offered by the…it is a part of the…software."
JENNA HAS TWO MOMMIES All three newscasts filed from the new First Family's first Easter Egg roll. NBC and CBS both closed the newscast with an Obamawatch. NBC's Savannah Guthrie enjoyed Barack Obama's "rare form" as he read Where the Wild Things Are for assembled rollers. CBS' Nancy Cordes previewed the arrival of the "ridiculously adorable six-month-old pup" named Bo that the press corps has been "doggedly pursuing." Yes she actually said that. ABC's Jake Tapper could not totally shuck off his hard news instincts--amid his puns about scrambling and shells--noting the Obamas' efforts to make their roll "markedly different" from George Bush's: "About 110 same-sex families with children were expressly invited." His soundbite was from Jenna Bergman: "I have two moms and it is really cool."
