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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM APRIL 22, 2009
Earth Day saw all three newscasts file green features--ABC on global warming and alternate energy, NBC on problems in the oceans, CBS on sustainable technology for the Third World--but there was no hard environmental news to qualify as Story of the Day. In fact, there was no news of any kind that was rated important enough to be covered by correspondents from all three networks. CBS led with a follow-up on the CIA torture story; NBC chose a report from the Census Bureau; ABC kicked off with an apparent suicide at FreddieMac. Amid such a confused agenda, the Story of the Day turned out to be a throwback to 2004: the Senate Armed Services Committee issued a report on the notorious abuses by military guards at Iraq's abu-Ghraib Prison.
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FLASHBACK TO ABU-GHRAIB Earth Day saw all three newscasts file green features--ABC on global warming and alternate energy, NBC on problems in the oceans, CBS on sustainable technology for the Third World--but there was no hard environmental news to qualify as Story of the Day. In fact, there was no news of any kind that was rated important enough to be covered by correspondents from all three networks. CBS led with a follow-up on the CIA torture story; NBC chose a report from the Census Bureau; ABC kicked off with an apparent suicide at FreddieMac. Amid such a confused agenda, the Story of the Day turned out to be a throwback to 2004: the Senate Armed Services Committee issued a report on the notorious abuses by military guards at Iraq's abu-Ghraib Prison.
"Stress positions, removal of clothing, use of phobias," topped the list of techniques used against prisoners, NBC's Andrea Mitchell reminded us. The Senate committee traced the abuses from abu-Ghraib, through Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, back to the Pentagon, contradicting assertions at the time that the outrages were the responsibility of a handful of freelancing rogue guards. CBS' David Martin pointed out that the abusive techniques were researched by brass in July 2002 and approved by then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld five months later. Rumsfeld "subsequently rescinds that memo" but the tactics continued to be used anyway. Martin quoted a general as labeling them "depravity and degradation rather than humane treatment." NBC's Mitchell added that members of Congress, including now-Speaker Nancy Pelosi and soon-to-be CIA Director Porter Goss, were briefed at the time "and reportedly did not dissent."
As for the CIA's torture of detainees, CBS' Martin pointed out that the Senate Intelligence Committee made clear "it was done with the full knowledge and permission of the White House. Then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice personally gave then-CIA Director George Tenet the go-ahead."
VOCABULARY WATCH Continuing our search for the T-word…CBS' anchor Katie Couric has backtracked since Tuesday. Then she flat-out used the phrase "the topic of torture;" now she inserts a pusillanimous "what some call…" NBC's Andrea Mitchell used no stronger language for the abu-Ghraib abuses than "harsh techniques." CBS' David Martin pointed out that waterboarding "was once prosecuted as a war crime." CBS' White House correspondent Chip Reid did not beat around the bush. He referred to Barack Obama's discussion of the CIA's interrogations as "his remarks on torture" and he called Attorney General Eric Holder's probe of Justice Department lawyers an "investigation of Bush-era torture policy." Quite right too. No so-called or some say qualifiers for Reid.
CATCH 22 AT THE FIREHOUSE When a civil service examination for promotion of firefighters produces results that find only white firefighters qualified, is it racially biased? And when the municipality throws out the examination's results, depriving qualified white firefighters of promotion, is that racially biased? NBC's Pete Williams and ABC's Jan Crawford Greenburg both sat in on the latest affirmative action arguments at the Supreme Court where white firefighters were suing the city of New Haven to have their successful test scores count. "The city was caught in a Catch 22," mused ABC's Crawford Greenburg. "The Justices today struggled," noted NBC's Williams, before leaning towards expecting a reversal for New Haven's diversity policy.
HELPING YOUNGER TEENAGERS GET PREGNANT It is three years, ABC's Lisa Stark reminded us, since Plan B--dubbed the morning-after pill--was promoted from the prescription shelves of the pharmacy to availability over-the-counter. "Supporters call it an emergency contraceptive. Opponents say it is equivalent to an abortion pill." Whatever its name, the Food & Drug Administration ruled back in 2006 that only adult women could purchase such post-coital pregnancy prevention--not unprotected teenagers. Now girls who happen to be 17 years old are eligible. "The FDA is making this decision because a federal judge ordered it to," said Stark. The judge called the adults-only restriction "clearly based on politics not science." What about the teenagers' younger sisters? "The court did open the door for this, telling the FDA to review its entire policy on the morning-after pill."
HIS QUIETUS MAKE A death by hanging in suburban Washington DC, presumed to be a suicide, made it onto the national news agenda because the dead man happened to be in the center of the home mortgage crisis. FreddieMac, which was nationalized last fall along with FannieMae, is "now widely blamed for putting too many people in homes they could not afford," as CBS' Sharyl Attkisson put it. The firm posted losses of $50bn in 2008, noted ABC's Pierre Thomas, and is "under investigation for possible fraud." David Kellerman, the dead man, happened to be FreddieMac's acting Chief Financial Officer. Attkisson's unnamed "law enforcement sources" told her that Kellerman "was not a focus in the criminal probe. Just last month FreddieMac granted Kellerman protection from any lawsuits." Thomas' unidentified source "familiar with the investigation" reassured him that Kellerman "was not a target of the federal probe but the accounting division he oversaw is under scrutiny." So, Thomas concluded, "as of tonight there are no answers. Only grief."
YOU CANNOT GO WEST YOUNG MAN Not since 1962, the Census Bureau found, have so few residents of the United States relocated as they did in 2008. NBC's Lee Cowan explained that homeowners cannot sell; homebuyers cannot borrow; and relocators cannot find a new job. "The thought of starting over somewhere else now seems a dim dream…For a society that is historically one of the most mobile in the world, the downturn has become the anchor weighing them down." Cowan's expert sources had one grim consolation for the home moving industry: their new customers may be homeowners who "move out of their big homes to smaller homes, perhaps even moving in with their families in order to help pay the bills."
EARTH DAY NBC's Sea Change series and ABC's A Closer Look both brought bad news for the planet on Earth Day. ABC's Bill Blakemore told us about global warming "rising faster than worst case scenarios projected just a few years ago." The world's three biggest carbon polluters are China, the United States and Indonesia. Glaciers are vanishing. Species are becoming extinct. Coral reefs "could be gone by mid-century." NBC's Ian Williams traveled to Tasmania to focus on marine ecology's vicious cycle: because excess carbon in the atmosphere is absorbed by salt water, the oceans are becoming more acidic; because of the higher acid, shellfish are unable to grow; "and critically since the shells are carbon absorbers the world loses a vital buffer against climate change."
CBS' Daniel Sieberg and ABC's Dan Harris searched for a green future. ABC's Harris showed us synthetic carbon-dioxide-absorbing trees and technology to recycle algae and methane. CBS' Sieberg traveled to the village of Ventanilla in Peru--he doubled up on this trip, telling us about microloans last week--to bring us a low-tech invention from MIT's D-Lab. The D-Lab makes affordable, reparable, sustainable, efficient appliances for Third World communities. Sieberg introduced us to La Sagrada Familia orphanage--600 children, two tons of laundry each week--that uses MIT's $125 bici-lavadora to clean clothes. He punningly demonstrated the pedal-powered washing machine: "one gear for wash; one for rinse; even one for the spin cycle."
THEODICY CBS ended its newscast not with news but with moral philosophy. Cynthia Bowers was assigned to address the question of theodicy: if God is good and all powerful, how can we explain that He allows evil to exist? Bowers' test case was Mackintyre Garton, a nine-year-old from rural Missouri, who was struck dead with a brain aneurysm. When he was six years old, the boy drafted plans to build a church on the farm where he lived. His family, friends and volunteers executed his plans posthumously. "There is a reason for this. God just did not take a child for no reason at all. There is a reason for this and we are going to build this church," was how Stacy Garton, the bereaved mother, recalled her motivation. "If there was a God, He would not have taken your little boy like that," Bowers proposed. "You can be angry. You can be selfish. And you can ask Why? a hundred times…" was the mother's response. Theodicy still unresolved.
"Stress positions, removal of clothing, use of phobias," topped the list of techniques used against prisoners, NBC's Andrea Mitchell reminded us. The Senate committee traced the abuses from abu-Ghraib, through Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, back to the Pentagon, contradicting assertions at the time that the outrages were the responsibility of a handful of freelancing rogue guards. CBS' David Martin pointed out that the abusive techniques were researched by brass in July 2002 and approved by then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld five months later. Rumsfeld "subsequently rescinds that memo" but the tactics continued to be used anyway. Martin quoted a general as labeling them "depravity and degradation rather than humane treatment." NBC's Mitchell added that members of Congress, including now-Speaker Nancy Pelosi and soon-to-be CIA Director Porter Goss, were briefed at the time "and reportedly did not dissent."
As for the CIA's torture of detainees, CBS' Martin pointed out that the Senate Intelligence Committee made clear "it was done with the full knowledge and permission of the White House. Then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice personally gave then-CIA Director George Tenet the go-ahead."
VOCABULARY WATCH Continuing our search for the T-word…CBS' anchor Katie Couric has backtracked since Tuesday. Then she flat-out used the phrase "the topic of torture;" now she inserts a pusillanimous "what some call…" NBC's Andrea Mitchell used no stronger language for the abu-Ghraib abuses than "harsh techniques." CBS' David Martin pointed out that waterboarding "was once prosecuted as a war crime." CBS' White House correspondent Chip Reid did not beat around the bush. He referred to Barack Obama's discussion of the CIA's interrogations as "his remarks on torture" and he called Attorney General Eric Holder's probe of Justice Department lawyers an "investigation of Bush-era torture policy." Quite right too. No so-called or some say qualifiers for Reid.
CATCH 22 AT THE FIREHOUSE When a civil service examination for promotion of firefighters produces results that find only white firefighters qualified, is it racially biased? And when the municipality throws out the examination's results, depriving qualified white firefighters of promotion, is that racially biased? NBC's Pete Williams and ABC's Jan Crawford Greenburg both sat in on the latest affirmative action arguments at the Supreme Court where white firefighters were suing the city of New Haven to have their successful test scores count. "The city was caught in a Catch 22," mused ABC's Crawford Greenburg. "The Justices today struggled," noted NBC's Williams, before leaning towards expecting a reversal for New Haven's diversity policy.
HELPING YOUNGER TEENAGERS GET PREGNANT It is three years, ABC's Lisa Stark reminded us, since Plan B--dubbed the morning-after pill--was promoted from the prescription shelves of the pharmacy to availability over-the-counter. "Supporters call it an emergency contraceptive. Opponents say it is equivalent to an abortion pill." Whatever its name, the Food & Drug Administration ruled back in 2006 that only adult women could purchase such post-coital pregnancy prevention--not unprotected teenagers. Now girls who happen to be 17 years old are eligible. "The FDA is making this decision because a federal judge ordered it to," said Stark. The judge called the adults-only restriction "clearly based on politics not science." What about the teenagers' younger sisters? "The court did open the door for this, telling the FDA to review its entire policy on the morning-after pill."
HIS QUIETUS MAKE A death by hanging in suburban Washington DC, presumed to be a suicide, made it onto the national news agenda because the dead man happened to be in the center of the home mortgage crisis. FreddieMac, which was nationalized last fall along with FannieMae, is "now widely blamed for putting too many people in homes they could not afford," as CBS' Sharyl Attkisson put it. The firm posted losses of $50bn in 2008, noted ABC's Pierre Thomas, and is "under investigation for possible fraud." David Kellerman, the dead man, happened to be FreddieMac's acting Chief Financial Officer. Attkisson's unnamed "law enforcement sources" told her that Kellerman "was not a focus in the criminal probe. Just last month FreddieMac granted Kellerman protection from any lawsuits." Thomas' unidentified source "familiar with the investigation" reassured him that Kellerman "was not a target of the federal probe but the accounting division he oversaw is under scrutiny." So, Thomas concluded, "as of tonight there are no answers. Only grief."
YOU CANNOT GO WEST YOUNG MAN Not since 1962, the Census Bureau found, have so few residents of the United States relocated as they did in 2008. NBC's Lee Cowan explained that homeowners cannot sell; homebuyers cannot borrow; and relocators cannot find a new job. "The thought of starting over somewhere else now seems a dim dream…For a society that is historically one of the most mobile in the world, the downturn has become the anchor weighing them down." Cowan's expert sources had one grim consolation for the home moving industry: their new customers may be homeowners who "move out of their big homes to smaller homes, perhaps even moving in with their families in order to help pay the bills."
EARTH DAY NBC's Sea Change series and ABC's A Closer Look both brought bad news for the planet on Earth Day. ABC's Bill Blakemore told us about global warming "rising faster than worst case scenarios projected just a few years ago." The world's three biggest carbon polluters are China, the United States and Indonesia. Glaciers are vanishing. Species are becoming extinct. Coral reefs "could be gone by mid-century." NBC's Ian Williams traveled to Tasmania to focus on marine ecology's vicious cycle: because excess carbon in the atmosphere is absorbed by salt water, the oceans are becoming more acidic; because of the higher acid, shellfish are unable to grow; "and critically since the shells are carbon absorbers the world loses a vital buffer against climate change."
CBS' Daniel Sieberg and ABC's Dan Harris searched for a green future. ABC's Harris showed us synthetic carbon-dioxide-absorbing trees and technology to recycle algae and methane. CBS' Sieberg traveled to the village of Ventanilla in Peru--he doubled up on this trip, telling us about microloans last week--to bring us a low-tech invention from MIT's D-Lab. The D-Lab makes affordable, reparable, sustainable, efficient appliances for Third World communities. Sieberg introduced us to La Sagrada Familia orphanage--600 children, two tons of laundry each week--that uses MIT's $125 bici-lavadora to clean clothes. He punningly demonstrated the pedal-powered washing machine: "one gear for wash; one for rinse; even one for the spin cycle."
THEODICY CBS ended its newscast not with news but with moral philosophy. Cynthia Bowers was assigned to address the question of theodicy: if God is good and all powerful, how can we explain that He allows evil to exist? Bowers' test case was Mackintyre Garton, a nine-year-old from rural Missouri, who was struck dead with a brain aneurysm. When he was six years old, the boy drafted plans to build a church on the farm where he lived. His family, friends and volunteers executed his plans posthumously. "There is a reason for this. God just did not take a child for no reason at all. There is a reason for this and we are going to build this church," was how Stacy Garton, the bereaved mother, recalled her motivation. "If there was a God, He would not have taken your little boy like that," Bowers proposed. "You can be angry. You can be selfish. And you can ask Why? a hundred times…" was the mother's response. Theodicy still unresolved.
