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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM JULY 15, 2009
Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor said nothing at her Senate confirmation hearings to justify being treated as Story of the Day for the third straight day. In fact, CBS did not even bother to assign a reporter to cover her testimony. Healthcare reform took center stage instead with action on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. The Senate Health Committee, dividing along partisan lines, proposed legislation to mandate universal coverage. Meanwhile President Barack Obama orchestrated a trio of sitdown interviews with the in-house physician at each network. All three newscasts led with the Senate plan, ABC and NBC from Capitol Hill, CBS from the White House.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR JULY 15, 2009: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
NETWORK DOCTORS MAKE WHITE HOUSE CALLS Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor said nothing at her Senate confirmation hearings to justify being treated as Story of the Day for the third straight day. In fact, CBS did not even bother to assign a reporter to cover her testimony. Healthcare reform took center stage instead with action on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. The Senate Health Committee, dividing along partisan lines, proposed legislation to mandate universal coverage. Meanwhile President Barack Obama orchestrated a trio of sitdown interviews with the in-house physician at each network. All three newscasts led with the Senate plan, ABC and NBC from Capitol Hill, CBS from the White House.
NBC's Kelly O'Donnell called the doctors' house calls "one of the President's high-profile tools" in his campaign to get healthcare legislation passed. The Senate committee plan was approved in a 13-10 vote "with no Republican support," O'Donnell noted. She pointed out that the draft included no proposal for payment: "The Senate Finance Committee is wrestling with the issue of cost and trying to get some Republican support." ABC's Jonathan Karl was skeptical about Republicans backing: "The biggest challenge may be keeping Democrats on board." To that end the Democratic National Committee unveiled a series of issue ads directed at its own members, "Democratic ads targeting Democrats."
ABC's Karl saw insurance agents from around the country arrive on Capitol Hill to lobby against taxation of their industry and against competition from a government-run plan. CBS' Chip Reid found that "the lobbying operation of small business has really kicked into gear so the thinking is"--he did not say whose thinking--"that in the end small business will not be hit as hard as the House bill might suggest."
MOUNTAINEERS WORK WITHOUT HEALTHCARE COVERAGE CBS' Chip Reid introduced us to Chris Warner, worrying about universal healthcare, as the Poster Small Businessman. Warner runs a mountain climbing business in Maryland that makes $280,000 in profits each year yet is worried about going bankrupt if everybody has to be covered. Warner pays annual salaries of $1.4m to his 25 employees--so that averages at $56K per worker--yet offers healthcare coverage to none of them. Reid did not ask him why his firm decided not to offer such benefits, given that they are tax deductible, especially since his firm's business is in such an accident-prone field.
Warner argued that if the legislation passes, his payroll of $1.4m will have to increase to $1.5m to pay for healthcare. He told CBS' Reid that the House bill contained a "double whammy" in that he would have to pay a tax surcharge on any profits above that $280,000 level--which seems to be double counting, since the extra healthcare spending would presumably eat into his profit, bringing him safely below that surtax threshold.
FLATTERING THE PHYSICIANS Flattery was one of Barack Obama's tactics when he sat down with the networks' in-house doctors. "I have enormous faith in doctors," he told CBS' Jon LaPook when he was asked whether they would agree to save money by skipping unnecessary procedures. "Most patients and doctors do not want spend money unnecessarily," the President promised ABC's Timothy Johnson. NBC's Nancy Snyderman asked Obama how he proposed to pay for fixing the healthcare system: "Finance most of the reform through reallocating dollars that are already being paid into the system," he suggested, which sounds like a fancy way of asking healthcare workers to take a pay cut. For example, the President wants to convert many physicians from lucrative specialties to family practice: "Provide a powerful set of incentives for more and more young people who are interested in healthcare, interested in medicine, to go into primary care," he suggested to ABC's Johnson, with a timeline of four or five years for the transition.
PERRY MASON FAN NBC's Pete Williams and ABC's Jan Crawford Greenburg had different ways of describing how Sonia Sotomayor succeeded in avoiding trouble during her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. "The questions were more intense but her answers remained elusive," was the way ABC's Crawford Greenburg put it. "She kept her responses safe." On NBC, Williams judged that "nothing has arisen so far to derail this nomination." He heard the would-be Justice grow "more relaxed and confident, free with gestures and flashes of humor." To that end Williams shared her repartee with comedian-turned-Solon Al Franken over the plot twists of Perry Mason that she watched in black-and-white as a nine-year-old girl. ABC's Crawford Greenburg was all business: "She has followed a time-honored strategy that we have seen from nominees going back 20 years of just not saying too much." CBS decided that Sotomayor had said so little that Wyatt Andrews was not even asked to file on the day's proceedings.
WAR IN HELMAND, TOYS IN KAPISA Gen Stanley McChrystal, the USArmy commander in Afghanistan, explained to ABC's Bob Woodruff (at the head of the Boettcher videostream) the three reasons why the fighting in Helmand Province is so dangerous. Helmand, he listed, is the Taliban's original home; its opium agriculture is lucrative and corrupting; and its porous border with Pakistan affords guerrillas a safe haven. ABC has Mike Boettcher embedded with a Marine Corps company as it advances along the Helmand River valley "in Afghanistan's volatile breadbasket." Boettcher was simultaneously surprised that "unlike past ambushes the Taliban do not attack and hide--they stay and fight" yet at the same time had his expectations confirmed: "Marines expected a tough fight."
Richard Engel painted a peaceful picture at a school in Kapisa Province for NBC. There soldiers from the Georgia National Guard handed out boxes of handmade wooden cars to local schoolchildren: "This is a very poor village and for the vast majority of them these are the first toys they have ever received." The 500 cars, costing $70, were carved at the Holly Creek retirement center in Colorado by military veterans Making a Difference.
MURDERS MOST FOUL CBS' Pentagon correspondent David Martin filed a shocking story from Fort Carson in Colorado. A single 3,700-soldier brigade, which "experienced higher levels of combat than other brigades" during its rotation in Iraq, has produced 14 murderers--either accused or convicted--in civilian life over the past three years.
ABC's Jeffrey Kofman and NBC's Mark Potter, meanwhile, followed up yet again on the investigation into last week's murder of Byrd and Melanie Billings in their Pensacola mansion. It is not clear why this local case continues to attract network attention. ABC's Kofman hinted there may be an international angle. He reported that the FBI and the DEA have been called in to check the murder suspects' reported "links to Mexican drug runners."
JUST SAY NO TO SHARK FIN SOUP CBS' Nancy Cordes introduced us to an excellent assortment of amputees on Capitol Hill. A collection of nine swimmers, surfers and fisherman found themselves in shark infested waters and left pieces of their bodies behind: one lobbyist has a lacerated Achilles heel; another a gash across the stomach; a couple more are now armless. They have decided their attackers are the ones that need protection and are lobbying for stricter regulation of the shark fishery. "A third of shark species are threatened with extinction," Cordes reported. "An estimated 100m sharks are slaughtered every year, three quarters of them just for their fins." So for CBS, the day's major Congressional story was neither healthcare nor a Supreme Court nomination, but a Shark's Tale.
NBC's Kelly O'Donnell called the doctors' house calls "one of the President's high-profile tools" in his campaign to get healthcare legislation passed. The Senate committee plan was approved in a 13-10 vote "with no Republican support," O'Donnell noted. She pointed out that the draft included no proposal for payment: "The Senate Finance Committee is wrestling with the issue of cost and trying to get some Republican support." ABC's Jonathan Karl was skeptical about Republicans backing: "The biggest challenge may be keeping Democrats on board." To that end the Democratic National Committee unveiled a series of issue ads directed at its own members, "Democratic ads targeting Democrats."
ABC's Karl saw insurance agents from around the country arrive on Capitol Hill to lobby against taxation of their industry and against competition from a government-run plan. CBS' Chip Reid found that "the lobbying operation of small business has really kicked into gear so the thinking is"--he did not say whose thinking--"that in the end small business will not be hit as hard as the House bill might suggest."
MOUNTAINEERS WORK WITHOUT HEALTHCARE COVERAGE CBS' Chip Reid introduced us to Chris Warner, worrying about universal healthcare, as the Poster Small Businessman. Warner runs a mountain climbing business in Maryland that makes $280,000 in profits each year yet is worried about going bankrupt if everybody has to be covered. Warner pays annual salaries of $1.4m to his 25 employees--so that averages at $56K per worker--yet offers healthcare coverage to none of them. Reid did not ask him why his firm decided not to offer such benefits, given that they are tax deductible, especially since his firm's business is in such an accident-prone field.
Warner argued that if the legislation passes, his payroll of $1.4m will have to increase to $1.5m to pay for healthcare. He told CBS' Reid that the House bill contained a "double whammy" in that he would have to pay a tax surcharge on any profits above that $280,000 level--which seems to be double counting, since the extra healthcare spending would presumably eat into his profit, bringing him safely below that surtax threshold.
FLATTERING THE PHYSICIANS Flattery was one of Barack Obama's tactics when he sat down with the networks' in-house doctors. "I have enormous faith in doctors," he told CBS' Jon LaPook when he was asked whether they would agree to save money by skipping unnecessary procedures. "Most patients and doctors do not want spend money unnecessarily," the President promised ABC's Timothy Johnson. NBC's Nancy Snyderman asked Obama how he proposed to pay for fixing the healthcare system: "Finance most of the reform through reallocating dollars that are already being paid into the system," he suggested, which sounds like a fancy way of asking healthcare workers to take a pay cut. For example, the President wants to convert many physicians from lucrative specialties to family practice: "Provide a powerful set of incentives for more and more young people who are interested in healthcare, interested in medicine, to go into primary care," he suggested to ABC's Johnson, with a timeline of four or five years for the transition.
PERRY MASON FAN NBC's Pete Williams and ABC's Jan Crawford Greenburg had different ways of describing how Sonia Sotomayor succeeded in avoiding trouble during her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. "The questions were more intense but her answers remained elusive," was the way ABC's Crawford Greenburg put it. "She kept her responses safe." On NBC, Williams judged that "nothing has arisen so far to derail this nomination." He heard the would-be Justice grow "more relaxed and confident, free with gestures and flashes of humor." To that end Williams shared her repartee with comedian-turned-Solon Al Franken over the plot twists of Perry Mason that she watched in black-and-white as a nine-year-old girl. ABC's Crawford Greenburg was all business: "She has followed a time-honored strategy that we have seen from nominees going back 20 years of just not saying too much." CBS decided that Sotomayor had said so little that Wyatt Andrews was not even asked to file on the day's proceedings.
WAR IN HELMAND, TOYS IN KAPISA Gen Stanley McChrystal, the USArmy commander in Afghanistan, explained to ABC's Bob Woodruff (at the head of the Boettcher videostream) the three reasons why the fighting in Helmand Province is so dangerous. Helmand, he listed, is the Taliban's original home; its opium agriculture is lucrative and corrupting; and its porous border with Pakistan affords guerrillas a safe haven. ABC has Mike Boettcher embedded with a Marine Corps company as it advances along the Helmand River valley "in Afghanistan's volatile breadbasket." Boettcher was simultaneously surprised that "unlike past ambushes the Taliban do not attack and hide--they stay and fight" yet at the same time had his expectations confirmed: "Marines expected a tough fight."
Richard Engel painted a peaceful picture at a school in Kapisa Province for NBC. There soldiers from the Georgia National Guard handed out boxes of handmade wooden cars to local schoolchildren: "This is a very poor village and for the vast majority of them these are the first toys they have ever received." The 500 cars, costing $70, were carved at the Holly Creek retirement center in Colorado by military veterans Making a Difference.
MURDERS MOST FOUL CBS' Pentagon correspondent David Martin filed a shocking story from Fort Carson in Colorado. A single 3,700-soldier brigade, which "experienced higher levels of combat than other brigades" during its rotation in Iraq, has produced 14 murderers--either accused or convicted--in civilian life over the past three years.
ABC's Jeffrey Kofman and NBC's Mark Potter, meanwhile, followed up yet again on the investigation into last week's murder of Byrd and Melanie Billings in their Pensacola mansion. It is not clear why this local case continues to attract network attention. ABC's Kofman hinted there may be an international angle. He reported that the FBI and the DEA have been called in to check the murder suspects' reported "links to Mexican drug runners."
JUST SAY NO TO SHARK FIN SOUP CBS' Nancy Cordes introduced us to an excellent assortment of amputees on Capitol Hill. A collection of nine swimmers, surfers and fisherman found themselves in shark infested waters and left pieces of their bodies behind: one lobbyist has a lacerated Achilles heel; another a gash across the stomach; a couple more are now armless. They have decided their attackers are the ones that need protection and are lobbying for stricter regulation of the shark fishery. "A third of shark species are threatened with extinction," Cordes reported. "An estimated 100m sharks are slaughtered every year, three quarters of them just for their fins." So for CBS, the day's major Congressional story was neither healthcare nor a Supreme Court nomination, but a Shark's Tale.
