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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM APRIL 29, 2009
The Mexican swine 'flu was Story of the Day yet again, although it appears that coverage peaked on Monday and is declining gradually (9 min Friday, 34 min Monday, 21 min Tuesday, 18 min Wednesday). All three newscasts led with the decision by the World Health Organization to raise its global pandemic alert to Level Five on a six-point scale. Margaret Chan, WHO's Director General, came up with the scary soundbite: "It really is all of humanity that is under threat." The 'flu is still newsworthy enough to elbow out what was scheduled to be the day's top story--Barack Obama's completion of his first Hundred Days in office with a primetime press conference scheduled to mark the Presidential milestone.
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GLOBAL HUMANITY BRACES FOR SWINE ‘FLU PANDEMIC The Mexican swine 'flu was Story of the Day yet again, although it appears that coverage peaked on Monday and is declining gradually (9 min Friday, 34 min Monday, 21 min Tuesday, 18 min Wednesday). All three newscasts led with the decision by the World Health Organization to raise its global pandemic alert to Level Five on a six-point scale. Margaret Chan, WHO's Director General, came up with the scary soundbite: "It really is all of humanity that is under threat." The 'flu is still newsworthy enough to elbow out what was scheduled to be the day's top story--Barack Obama's completion of his first Hundred Days in office with a primetime press conference scheduled to mark the Presidential milestone.
On all four days of influenza coverage, ABC and NBC have used the same go-to correspondents for their leads: John McKenzie and Robert Bazell. CBS settled on Nancy Cordes as its 'flu specialist only on Tuesday. The WHO alert, ABC's McKenzie explained, means that governments around the globe are being advised to stockpile drugs, to develop vaccines and to formulate emergency plans. NBC's Bazell included worldwide anecdotes, including Egypt's decision to kill all of its pigs--who knew that Egypt had any pigs in the first place?--and Lebanon's ban on kissing as a greeting and Ecuador's plan to halt airline flights to Mexico. CBS' Cordes pointed out that "the situation appears to be stabilizing" in Mexico City, with only one 'flu death daily. The United States suffered its first fatality of the outbreak as a Mexican toddler succumbed in a hospital in Houston two weeks after he had been admitted.
ABC anchor Charles Gibson asked his network's in-house physician Timothy Johnson about Dr Chan's humanity under threat wording at WHO. "Honestly, Charlie, I think that is a bit excessive. It is not true that every single individual in this world, on this plant, is at risk." NBC' Bazell filled us in on the technicalities of WHO's alert: "A pandemic is a worldwide outbreak of a virus to which people have no immunity. That now seems very likely to happen. We know this virus can cause mild disease and it can kill. The big question is: What is the ratio of mild disease to serious cases?"
BRING ME THE HEAD OF EDGAR HERNANDEZ ABC's Jeffrey Kofman earned kudos Tuesday by being the first network correspondent to travel to La Gloria in Veracruz State to introduce us to five-year-old Edgar Hernandez, the first patient to contract this influenza strain. NBC's Michelle Kosinski arrived a day late, but made up for the delay by filing a more visually compelling report than Kofman's: "To say La Gloria is a difficult town to get to is an understatement but five bumpy, dusty hours southeast of Mexico City, young Edgar Hernandez ran outside to greet us." Kosinski's Mexican travelogue scenes would not look out of place in a Sam Peckinpah movie.
WOULD THEY HAVE SHUT DOWN FRIDAY FOOTBALL? ABC's Ryan Owens stayed on the northern side of the border. Besides the dead toddler in the Houston hospital, Texas has 16 confirmed cases of the H1N1 strain of influenza, he reported. In response "every school sporting event and most extracurricular activities statewide have been postponed until the middle of May." Nationwide classrooms for 73,000 children have been closed as a precaution against contagion. The Centers for Disease Control recommend that a school be closed if a single student becomes infected. "Many districts have decided to close them all."
NEWS YOU REALLY CAN USE Tyndall Report is no fan of news-you-can-use features so my heart sank when NBC anchor Brian Williams teased a FAQs explainer by in-house physician Nancy Snyderman on how to behave in the face of 'flu fears. I am happy to report that Snyderman did an excellent, level-headed, even slightly humorous job at reminding us not to panic. It is safe to use mass transit…sniffles do not count as a sign to go to the emergency room…a pork sandwich is just fine to eat…sneeze into your elbow, not your hands…and sing Happy Birthday To You while you wash your hands to make sure you have lathered enough.
NBC TREATS HUNDRED DAYS AS A BIT OF A FAKE "One of those fake holidays that journalists make up." That, according to NBC's Savannah Guthrie, is what Barack Obama's aides call the Hundred Days in the White House corridors. NBC seemed to agree, spending less time than its rivals on the President's performance. ABC and CBS both ran summary features and both brought in their Sunday morning anchors for an assessment. Face the Nation's Bob Schieffer noted Obama's ambitious agenda: "If the President's popularity stays as high as it is right now you are going to see him continue to push big." This Week's George Stephanopoulos praised Obama's #1 political accomplishment as being "to inspire a sense of confidence in the country," quoting improved right-track-wrong-track polling data to make his point.
As for the features, CBS assigned Lara Logan to its The First 100 Days--The Next 100 Days series. From Islamabad, she surveyed Obama's global initiatives from Turkey to Russia to China to France to Venezuela. Her top line was that "the rise of the Taliban in nuclear-armed Pakistan is the most urgent challenge on his foreign policy agenda." On ABC, Jake Tapper ticked off the highlights of "a busy domestic agenda" and "unforeseen economic problems" before concluding with three bouts of "turbulence" during the Hundred Days: North Korea's test fire of a rocket; controversial Cabinet nominations; and outrage at bonuses paid to insurance executives at AIG.
NBC's Obamawatch feature took the soft route. Norah O'Donnell looked at First Lady Michelle's Hundred Days now her approval rating is "even better than the President's."
EMANUEL’S HUBRISTIC SENSE OF HISTORY Rahm Emanuel rounded out the Hundred Days hoopla. The White House Chief of Staff granted interviews to all three network anchors. NBC's Brian Williams and ABC's Charles Gibson filed their q-&-a's by remote with Williams airing just a single soundbite and Gibson a couple of exchanges. CBS sent Katie Couric to sit down with Emanuel in person to ask about the blame game and opinion poll popularity and the Republican Party and Barack Obama's mistakes and accomplishments. "Why do you think the President is more popular than any of his policies?" "Because he is a good guy."
Considering he is only that Hundred Days on the job, Emanuel certainly got carried away as he compared his boss to Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, John F Kennedy and Thomas Jefferson for ABC's Gibson, all "successful Presidents and transformative Presidents…They followed failed Presidents…They were good communicators and they came in at a point of crisis in the country."
LOOK FOR THE SILVER LINING Both CBS and ABC assigned their business correspondent to cover the dismal news that economic activity continued to contract during the first three months of 2009. The Gross Domestic Product shrank at a frightening 6.1% annual rate. So how did ABC's Betsy Stark and CBS' Anthony Mason cover the doom-and-gloom? "Economists saw two good signs," was Stark's spin. Mason agreed: "Businesses have now burned off most of their backed-up inventory and consumers are showing more confidence." Well, that is all right then.
NBC's Savannah Guthrie mentioned the GDP statistics in passing from the White House. She clearly had a different set of sources: "We have not seen numbers like that since the mid '70s. It was worse than what economists expected."
FIRST GLIMMERS OF STIMULUS Inspired by the combination of the Obama Presidency's Hundred Days and the first quarter's Gross Domestic Product statistics, CBS aired an interesting Tennessee-Los Angeles-Maryland wheel--Mark Strassman to Ben Tracy (no link) to Thalia Assuras--surveying the first fruits of the $787bn fiscal stimulus that Congress passed in February. Only $14bn has so far been sent to the states, with another $69bn allocated but already…bridge repairs are under way in almost every county of Tennessee…2,000 public school teachers have been saved from layoffs in LA even though another 1,500 still face pink slips…a community clinic in Nanjemoy Md treating 700 mostly uninsured patients will stay open for the next two years.
GONE FISHIN’ ABC's Terry McCarthy did not have much news to report in his travelogue feature from Sublette County in Wyoming but any story that ends thigh deep in waders with the local mayor looks like a job well done. McCarthy's topic was the field of 13tr cubic feet of natural gas that has been discovered just south of Pinevale Wyo, population 1,412. The gas drilling boom has produced the lowest unemployment rate in the entire country. "And the mayor? Well, he can afford to take the afternoon off and go fishing."
THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’ Amid such a crowded news agenda, only NBC carved out the time to send a reporter to the Supreme Court to hear a challenge to the Voting Rights Act. Pete Williams reminded us that the 1965 law orders almost all of Dixie, and some other states, to submit their election rules to the scrutiny of the Justice Department to check for discrimination against African-Americans. Conservatives from Texas complain about outdated regional bias since the act "does not apply in other states where minority registration is actually lower than in the south." The plaintiffs' proposed remedy is not be to extend protections northwards but to repeal them where they already exist.
SLOWDOWN SPEEDS UP RUSH HOUR For commuters lucky enough to still have a job, ABC's Steve Osunsami came up with the amazing statistic that a mere 3% reduction in the volume of traffic cuts rush hour congestion by a full third. Data come courtesy of INRIX, a firm based in Washington State that has persuaded 600,000 motorists to have GPS units installed in their cars in order to track start-and-stop patterns on 800,000 miles of road. A combination of laid-off workers, a slowdown in commercial traffic and more telecommuting has produced 36% congestion relief at Atlanta's rush hour, 16% in Houston, 24% in Los Angeles and 25% in New York City.
On all four days of influenza coverage, ABC and NBC have used the same go-to correspondents for their leads: John McKenzie and Robert Bazell. CBS settled on Nancy Cordes as its 'flu specialist only on Tuesday. The WHO alert, ABC's McKenzie explained, means that governments around the globe are being advised to stockpile drugs, to develop vaccines and to formulate emergency plans. NBC's Bazell included worldwide anecdotes, including Egypt's decision to kill all of its pigs--who knew that Egypt had any pigs in the first place?--and Lebanon's ban on kissing as a greeting and Ecuador's plan to halt airline flights to Mexico. CBS' Cordes pointed out that "the situation appears to be stabilizing" in Mexico City, with only one 'flu death daily. The United States suffered its first fatality of the outbreak as a Mexican toddler succumbed in a hospital in Houston two weeks after he had been admitted.
ABC anchor Charles Gibson asked his network's in-house physician Timothy Johnson about Dr Chan's humanity under threat wording at WHO. "Honestly, Charlie, I think that is a bit excessive. It is not true that every single individual in this world, on this plant, is at risk." NBC' Bazell filled us in on the technicalities of WHO's alert: "A pandemic is a worldwide outbreak of a virus to which people have no immunity. That now seems very likely to happen. We know this virus can cause mild disease and it can kill. The big question is: What is the ratio of mild disease to serious cases?"
BRING ME THE HEAD OF EDGAR HERNANDEZ ABC's Jeffrey Kofman earned kudos Tuesday by being the first network correspondent to travel to La Gloria in Veracruz State to introduce us to five-year-old Edgar Hernandez, the first patient to contract this influenza strain. NBC's Michelle Kosinski arrived a day late, but made up for the delay by filing a more visually compelling report than Kofman's: "To say La Gloria is a difficult town to get to is an understatement but five bumpy, dusty hours southeast of Mexico City, young Edgar Hernandez ran outside to greet us." Kosinski's Mexican travelogue scenes would not look out of place in a Sam Peckinpah movie.
WOULD THEY HAVE SHUT DOWN FRIDAY FOOTBALL? ABC's Ryan Owens stayed on the northern side of the border. Besides the dead toddler in the Houston hospital, Texas has 16 confirmed cases of the H1N1 strain of influenza, he reported. In response "every school sporting event and most extracurricular activities statewide have been postponed until the middle of May." Nationwide classrooms for 73,000 children have been closed as a precaution against contagion. The Centers for Disease Control recommend that a school be closed if a single student becomes infected. "Many districts have decided to close them all."
NEWS YOU REALLY CAN USE Tyndall Report is no fan of news-you-can-use features so my heart sank when NBC anchor Brian Williams teased a FAQs explainer by in-house physician Nancy Snyderman on how to behave in the face of 'flu fears. I am happy to report that Snyderman did an excellent, level-headed, even slightly humorous job at reminding us not to panic. It is safe to use mass transit…sniffles do not count as a sign to go to the emergency room…a pork sandwich is just fine to eat…sneeze into your elbow, not your hands…and sing Happy Birthday To You while you wash your hands to make sure you have lathered enough.
NBC TREATS HUNDRED DAYS AS A BIT OF A FAKE "One of those fake holidays that journalists make up." That, according to NBC's Savannah Guthrie, is what Barack Obama's aides call the Hundred Days in the White House corridors. NBC seemed to agree, spending less time than its rivals on the President's performance. ABC and CBS both ran summary features and both brought in their Sunday morning anchors for an assessment. Face the Nation's Bob Schieffer noted Obama's ambitious agenda: "If the President's popularity stays as high as it is right now you are going to see him continue to push big." This Week's George Stephanopoulos praised Obama's #1 political accomplishment as being "to inspire a sense of confidence in the country," quoting improved right-track-wrong-track polling data to make his point.
As for the features, CBS assigned Lara Logan to its The First 100 Days--The Next 100 Days series. From Islamabad, she surveyed Obama's global initiatives from Turkey to Russia to China to France to Venezuela. Her top line was that "the rise of the Taliban in nuclear-armed Pakistan is the most urgent challenge on his foreign policy agenda." On ABC, Jake Tapper ticked off the highlights of "a busy domestic agenda" and "unforeseen economic problems" before concluding with three bouts of "turbulence" during the Hundred Days: North Korea's test fire of a rocket; controversial Cabinet nominations; and outrage at bonuses paid to insurance executives at AIG.
NBC's Obamawatch feature took the soft route. Norah O'Donnell looked at First Lady Michelle's Hundred Days now her approval rating is "even better than the President's."
EMANUEL’S HUBRISTIC SENSE OF HISTORY Rahm Emanuel rounded out the Hundred Days hoopla. The White House Chief of Staff granted interviews to all three network anchors. NBC's Brian Williams and ABC's Charles Gibson filed their q-&-a's by remote with Williams airing just a single soundbite and Gibson a couple of exchanges. CBS sent Katie Couric to sit down with Emanuel in person to ask about the blame game and opinion poll popularity and the Republican Party and Barack Obama's mistakes and accomplishments. "Why do you think the President is more popular than any of his policies?" "Because he is a good guy."
Considering he is only that Hundred Days on the job, Emanuel certainly got carried away as he compared his boss to Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, John F Kennedy and Thomas Jefferson for ABC's Gibson, all "successful Presidents and transformative Presidents…They followed failed Presidents…They were good communicators and they came in at a point of crisis in the country."
LOOK FOR THE SILVER LINING Both CBS and ABC assigned their business correspondent to cover the dismal news that economic activity continued to contract during the first three months of 2009. The Gross Domestic Product shrank at a frightening 6.1% annual rate. So how did ABC's Betsy Stark and CBS' Anthony Mason cover the doom-and-gloom? "Economists saw two good signs," was Stark's spin. Mason agreed: "Businesses have now burned off most of their backed-up inventory and consumers are showing more confidence." Well, that is all right then.
NBC's Savannah Guthrie mentioned the GDP statistics in passing from the White House. She clearly had a different set of sources: "We have not seen numbers like that since the mid '70s. It was worse than what economists expected."
FIRST GLIMMERS OF STIMULUS Inspired by the combination of the Obama Presidency's Hundred Days and the first quarter's Gross Domestic Product statistics, CBS aired an interesting Tennessee-Los Angeles-Maryland wheel--Mark Strassman to Ben Tracy (no link) to Thalia Assuras--surveying the first fruits of the $787bn fiscal stimulus that Congress passed in February. Only $14bn has so far been sent to the states, with another $69bn allocated but already…bridge repairs are under way in almost every county of Tennessee…2,000 public school teachers have been saved from layoffs in LA even though another 1,500 still face pink slips…a community clinic in Nanjemoy Md treating 700 mostly uninsured patients will stay open for the next two years.
GONE FISHIN’ ABC's Terry McCarthy did not have much news to report in his travelogue feature from Sublette County in Wyoming but any story that ends thigh deep in waders with the local mayor looks like a job well done. McCarthy's topic was the field of 13tr cubic feet of natural gas that has been discovered just south of Pinevale Wyo, population 1,412. The gas drilling boom has produced the lowest unemployment rate in the entire country. "And the mayor? Well, he can afford to take the afternoon off and go fishing."
THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’ Amid such a crowded news agenda, only NBC carved out the time to send a reporter to the Supreme Court to hear a challenge to the Voting Rights Act. Pete Williams reminded us that the 1965 law orders almost all of Dixie, and some other states, to submit their election rules to the scrutiny of the Justice Department to check for discrimination against African-Americans. Conservatives from Texas complain about outdated regional bias since the act "does not apply in other states where minority registration is actually lower than in the south." The plaintiffs' proposed remedy is not be to extend protections northwards but to repeal them where they already exist.
SLOWDOWN SPEEDS UP RUSH HOUR For commuters lucky enough to still have a job, ABC's Steve Osunsami came up with the amazing statistic that a mere 3% reduction in the volume of traffic cuts rush hour congestion by a full third. Data come courtesy of INRIX, a firm based in Washington State that has persuaded 600,000 motorists to have GPS units installed in their cars in order to track start-and-stop patterns on 800,000 miles of road. A combination of laid-off workers, a slowdown in commercial traffic and more telecommuting has produced 36% congestion relief at Atlanta's rush hour, 16% in Houston, 24% in Los Angeles and 25% in New York City.
