 |           |
TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM JULY 30, 2009
As a news event, it was a nonentity. The White House set up a photo-op for three beer drinkers and a non-alcoholic fourth. The host was President Barack Obama; one guest was Henry Louis Gates, an old friend and Harvard professor; the second was James Crowley, the Cambridge policeman who had arrested Gates as disorderly at his own home--only to have the charges dropped and to be criticized by the President for acting "stupidly." The teetotal fourth was Vice President Joe Biden. All three networks led with the after-work drink, making it the Story of the Day even though there was zero content to cover. ABC used Elizabeth Vargas as its substitute anchor.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR JULY 30, 2009: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
STUPID BEER STORY As a news event, it was a nonentity. The White House set up a photo-op for three beer drinkers and a non-alcoholic fourth. The host was President Barack Obama; one guest was Henry Louis Gates, an old friend and Harvard professor; the second was James Crowley, the Cambridge policeman who had arrested Gates as disorderly at his own home--only to have the charges dropped and to be criticized by the President for acting "stupidly." The teetotal fourth was Vice President Joe Biden. All three networks led with the after-work drink, making it the Story of the Day even though there was zero content to cover. ABC used Elizabeth Vargas as its substitute anchor.
CBS' Chip Reid pushed White House aides about whether they would leverage the drinks into substance. Is there going to be any follow-up? Is there going to be any effort to make this a teachable moment? "The answer has basically been No." Reid showed us the photo-op: "The cameras were kept at a great distance to make sure this conversation remained private. Also the President is not expected to comment after the meeting. It is all part of the White House strategy to just try to get this issue to go away." Reporters were so far away that their coverage amounted to ill-informed guesswork. "I am told the interaction between these two men"--Gates and Crowley--"was actually quite warm," offered NBC's Savannah Guthrie. "It did not look like a particularly friendly meeting," countered ABC's Jake Tapper.
ABC's Tapper quoted the President as confessing that he was "fascinated by the fascination about his drinks." Obama accords the news media too much credit for its heedless hype.
NOT BLACK-&-WHITE BUT MEN IN BLUE Kudos goes to CBS' Jim Axelrod, who recalibrated the sidebar coverage of the Cambridge story. It is not an untapped insight into the state of race relations that the arrest of Henry Louis Gates affords. The insight is about the conduct of police officers. Axelrod took himself off to the Connecticut Police Academy to see how cops are trained to handle argumentative citizens. "Is it a crime to be disrespectful to a police officer?" he asked. No it is not. Yet as recently as 2007, there were 710,000 disorderly conduct arrests nationwide, each "largely dependent on the discretion of the officers."
ABC's Steve Osunsami told us that talkradio callers and black barbershop customers were learning different lessons from this so-called teachable moment but his soundbites contradicted his own reporting. This is what the radio caller said: "If you have an issue with a cop it is Yes sir. No sir and you keep your damn mouth shut." This is from the man with the haircut: "The man who has the badge has the power. That is the big lesson." The two appear to be in accord.
NEDA’S DEATH WAS ONE OF HUNDREDS None of the networks had a reporter on the scene in Teheran for the mourning rally to mark 40 days after the deaths of protestors marching against Iran's apparently rigged presidential election. Mourners headed for the grave of Neda Agha Soltan, the 27-year-old whose death videotape spread virally round the globe. ABC's Jim Sciutto covered the demonstration from London; NBC's Richard Engel filed from Beirut. CBS mentioned the renewed protests only in passing. "Even today, on holy ground, Iran's security forces moved in swinging batons and firing tear gas," NBC's Engel narrated.
NBC's Engel quoted estimates that 1,000 political prisoners are still behind bars in Teheran's "notorious" Evin Prison. ABC's Sciutto repeated opposition claims that 200 prisoners have been killed in custody. He identified five by name: Sohrab Arabi, Nasser Amirnezhad, Mohsen Roohulamini, Mostafa Ghanian, Amir Javadifar. Radio Farda, the station funded by the United States government, quoted a friend describing Javadifar's corpse: "His body was so broken we could not even recognize him. His nails were removed, his teeth broken."
CBS’ MARTIN DISCOUNTS FALSE ARRESTS, UNPROVEN SUSPICIONS CBS' David Martin claimed an Exclusive for his access to the latest estimates made by the Pentagon's spies. The Defense Intelligence Agency has tracked 550 former inmates at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base to measure their current levels of militancy. More than 450 pose no problem; almost 100 are "confirmed or suspected of what the Pentagon calls terrorist activities," according to Martin.
So why did Martin embellish that finding? He quoted defense lawyers as arguing that "indefinite detention without being convicted of any crime drives them to terrorism" yet he ignored that point by asserting that all had "gone back to terrorism." How does Martin know that none was innocent when arrested and converted to terrorism by their experience of abuse? He quoted Juan Zarate, his network's in-house terrorism consultant, describing the latest batch of released inmates as being "harder core, more tied to the terrorist networks and more ideologically committed." So Zarate implies that the early releases were indeed more likely to have been innocent when first captured.
When Martin did the math to assert an 18% recidivism rate he was in effect converting the DIA's "confirmed or suspected" category to a declarative "confirmed." Of the "nearly 100 former detainees back in the fight," Martin told us definitively about only three: one suicide bomber, one commander of Taliban guerrillas in southern Afghanistan, and the chief of the Taliban's military committee.
HEAVY METAL "For almost every country in the world it is illegal to send electronic waste to another country--but not the United States. The US is one of three nations that did not ratify a treaty banning the exportation of this kind of e-waste." ABC's Ron Claiborne was standing on a smoky trash heap in Accra, littered with old computers and discarded electronics that had been shipped from America to Ghana. Children scavenge the trash, setting fires to extract copper wire for resale. The smoke is thick with heavy metals, filling the boys' lungs and stunting their growth with lead, mercury and cadmium.
SCRAPYARD BOUND ABC and NBC both decided to update us on the Cash for Clunkers program, the federal subsidy for upgrading cars from gas guzzlers to efficient new models. "The rebates got automakers advertising again and customers buying again," declared NBC's Chris Jansing, although she cautioned that the program might not be as green as it seems: "A recent study suggested that the more fuel-efficient your car is the more you drive, so it is a questionable benefit to the environment." ABC's Sharyn Alfonsi saw dealerships "drowning in paperwork" as the rebate Website keeps crashing with the volume of deals. "In just six days the government says more than 19,000 drivers have made the swap," which means the $1bn fund is close to being depleted already.
‘FLU AROUND THE WORLD Wednesday's Story of the Day on plans for vaccination against the H1N1 strain of influenza saw a public health follow-up on CBS. In-house physician Jon LaPook worried that "in recent years a backlash against vaccines has picked up steam." He warned that many children will not get their shots because of unfounded fears of autism and fears that the vaccine "could be rushed to market without enough proof it is safe." LaPook's anchor Katie Couric followed up with an interview with Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. What are the odds that the swine 'flu will mutate and become yet more dangerous? "We have teams on the ground in South America, in Central America, in Australia watching very carefully and so far there is not a mutation."
NBC's Adrenne Mong filed a follow-up from Beijing on Tuesday's story about the 'flu that ruined some students' summer trip. "They spent 13 out of 17 days on their vacation in China in quarantine." Now homeward bound to Oregon, at least they could fit in a sightseeing tour of the Summer Palace en route to the airport.
ABC’S BERMAN BEATEN AT HIS OWN GAME For a lighthearted closer, ABC had John Berman introduce us to Universal Record Database, a sort of do-it-yourself Guinness Book of Records. Would-be worldbeaters can invent any wacky category they choose and post their personal bests: most one-handed claps…largest toothpick beard…loudest pop rocks…longest balloon squeak. Of course, the report ended with "the most news signoffs in 30 seconds, John Berman, ABC News, New York, John Berman, ABC News, New York, John Ber…"
This just in, announced substitute anchor Elizabeth Vargas: "Easy come, easy go. We have just learned that ABC's Aaron Katersky has beaten John's record by one signoff. And his name is longer."
CBS' Chip Reid pushed White House aides about whether they would leverage the drinks into substance. Is there going to be any follow-up? Is there going to be any effort to make this a teachable moment? "The answer has basically been No." Reid showed us the photo-op: "The cameras were kept at a great distance to make sure this conversation remained private. Also the President is not expected to comment after the meeting. It is all part of the White House strategy to just try to get this issue to go away." Reporters were so far away that their coverage amounted to ill-informed guesswork. "I am told the interaction between these two men"--Gates and Crowley--"was actually quite warm," offered NBC's Savannah Guthrie. "It did not look like a particularly friendly meeting," countered ABC's Jake Tapper.
ABC's Tapper quoted the President as confessing that he was "fascinated by the fascination about his drinks." Obama accords the news media too much credit for its heedless hype.
NOT BLACK-&-WHITE BUT MEN IN BLUE Kudos goes to CBS' Jim Axelrod, who recalibrated the sidebar coverage of the Cambridge story. It is not an untapped insight into the state of race relations that the arrest of Henry Louis Gates affords. The insight is about the conduct of police officers. Axelrod took himself off to the Connecticut Police Academy to see how cops are trained to handle argumentative citizens. "Is it a crime to be disrespectful to a police officer?" he asked. No it is not. Yet as recently as 2007, there were 710,000 disorderly conduct arrests nationwide, each "largely dependent on the discretion of the officers."
ABC's Steve Osunsami told us that talkradio callers and black barbershop customers were learning different lessons from this so-called teachable moment but his soundbites contradicted his own reporting. This is what the radio caller said: "If you have an issue with a cop it is Yes sir. No sir and you keep your damn mouth shut." This is from the man with the haircut: "The man who has the badge has the power. That is the big lesson." The two appear to be in accord.
NEDA’S DEATH WAS ONE OF HUNDREDS None of the networks had a reporter on the scene in Teheran for the mourning rally to mark 40 days after the deaths of protestors marching against Iran's apparently rigged presidential election. Mourners headed for the grave of Neda Agha Soltan, the 27-year-old whose death videotape spread virally round the globe. ABC's Jim Sciutto covered the demonstration from London; NBC's Richard Engel filed from Beirut. CBS mentioned the renewed protests only in passing. "Even today, on holy ground, Iran's security forces moved in swinging batons and firing tear gas," NBC's Engel narrated.
NBC's Engel quoted estimates that 1,000 political prisoners are still behind bars in Teheran's "notorious" Evin Prison. ABC's Sciutto repeated opposition claims that 200 prisoners have been killed in custody. He identified five by name: Sohrab Arabi, Nasser Amirnezhad, Mohsen Roohulamini, Mostafa Ghanian, Amir Javadifar. Radio Farda, the station funded by the United States government, quoted a friend describing Javadifar's corpse: "His body was so broken we could not even recognize him. His nails were removed, his teeth broken."
CBS’ MARTIN DISCOUNTS FALSE ARRESTS, UNPROVEN SUSPICIONS CBS' David Martin claimed an Exclusive for his access to the latest estimates made by the Pentagon's spies. The Defense Intelligence Agency has tracked 550 former inmates at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base to measure their current levels of militancy. More than 450 pose no problem; almost 100 are "confirmed or suspected of what the Pentagon calls terrorist activities," according to Martin.
So why did Martin embellish that finding? He quoted defense lawyers as arguing that "indefinite detention without being convicted of any crime drives them to terrorism" yet he ignored that point by asserting that all had "gone back to terrorism." How does Martin know that none was innocent when arrested and converted to terrorism by their experience of abuse? He quoted Juan Zarate, his network's in-house terrorism consultant, describing the latest batch of released inmates as being "harder core, more tied to the terrorist networks and more ideologically committed." So Zarate implies that the early releases were indeed more likely to have been innocent when first captured.
When Martin did the math to assert an 18% recidivism rate he was in effect converting the DIA's "confirmed or suspected" category to a declarative "confirmed." Of the "nearly 100 former detainees back in the fight," Martin told us definitively about only three: one suicide bomber, one commander of Taliban guerrillas in southern Afghanistan, and the chief of the Taliban's military committee.
HEAVY METAL "For almost every country in the world it is illegal to send electronic waste to another country--but not the United States. The US is one of three nations that did not ratify a treaty banning the exportation of this kind of e-waste." ABC's Ron Claiborne was standing on a smoky trash heap in Accra, littered with old computers and discarded electronics that had been shipped from America to Ghana. Children scavenge the trash, setting fires to extract copper wire for resale. The smoke is thick with heavy metals, filling the boys' lungs and stunting their growth with lead, mercury and cadmium.
SCRAPYARD BOUND ABC and NBC both decided to update us on the Cash for Clunkers program, the federal subsidy for upgrading cars from gas guzzlers to efficient new models. "The rebates got automakers advertising again and customers buying again," declared NBC's Chris Jansing, although she cautioned that the program might not be as green as it seems: "A recent study suggested that the more fuel-efficient your car is the more you drive, so it is a questionable benefit to the environment." ABC's Sharyn Alfonsi saw dealerships "drowning in paperwork" as the rebate Website keeps crashing with the volume of deals. "In just six days the government says more than 19,000 drivers have made the swap," which means the $1bn fund is close to being depleted already.
‘FLU AROUND THE WORLD Wednesday's Story of the Day on plans for vaccination against the H1N1 strain of influenza saw a public health follow-up on CBS. In-house physician Jon LaPook worried that "in recent years a backlash against vaccines has picked up steam." He warned that many children will not get their shots because of unfounded fears of autism and fears that the vaccine "could be rushed to market without enough proof it is safe." LaPook's anchor Katie Couric followed up with an interview with Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. What are the odds that the swine 'flu will mutate and become yet more dangerous? "We have teams on the ground in South America, in Central America, in Australia watching very carefully and so far there is not a mutation."
NBC's Adrenne Mong filed a follow-up from Beijing on Tuesday's story about the 'flu that ruined some students' summer trip. "They spent 13 out of 17 days on their vacation in China in quarantine." Now homeward bound to Oregon, at least they could fit in a sightseeing tour of the Summer Palace en route to the airport.
ABC’S BERMAN BEATEN AT HIS OWN GAME For a lighthearted closer, ABC had John Berman introduce us to Universal Record Database, a sort of do-it-yourself Guinness Book of Records. Would-be worldbeaters can invent any wacky category they choose and post their personal bests: most one-handed claps…largest toothpick beard…loudest pop rocks…longest balloon squeak. Of course, the report ended with "the most news signoffs in 30 seconds, John Berman, ABC News, New York, John Berman, ABC News, New York, John Ber…"
This just in, announced substitute anchor Elizabeth Vargas: "Easy come, easy go. We have just learned that ABC's Aaron Katersky has beaten John's record by one signoff. And his name is longer."
