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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM NOVEMBER 3, 2009
It is Election Day in a few places around the country: gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey; Congressional special elections in California and New York; mayoral contests in New York City, Houston, Atlanta and elsewhere; same-sex marriage is on the ballot in Maine. Those races were the Story of the Day and the lead on NBC and CBS, where Harry Smith was the substitute anchor. ABC led with a preview of a Nightline investigation into jammed accelerator pedals that have caused 2,000-or-so runaway accidents in Toyotas since 2002.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR NOVEMBER 3, 2009: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
NETWORKS OFFER NATIONAL COVERAGE OF LOCAL RACES It is Election Day in a few places around the country: gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey; Congressional special elections in California and New York; mayoral contests in New York City, Houston, Atlanta and elsewhere; same-sex marriage is on the ballot in Maine. Those races were the Story of the Day and the lead on NBC and CBS, where Harry Smith was the substitute anchor. ABC led with a preview of a Nightline investigation into jammed accelerator pedals that have caused 2,000-or-so runaway accidents in Toyotas since 2002.
"Predicting national trends from off-year elections is something like predicting the World Series winner from spring training," shrugged CBS' Jeff Greenfield, before he tried to do it anyway. In the gubernatorial races, he noted that Democrats are relying on a big turnout from the demographic groups--young voters and African-Americans--that helped Barack Obama win the General Election: "It is a faint hope." In New York City, he pointed to money--incumbent Michael Bloomberg has outspent his opponent by a 13-to-1 ratio--as the key factor: "Bloomberg is expected to cruise to a third term." And in the House race in upstate New York, "a Conservative victory will likely embolden the right to challenge moderate Republicans across the nation in primaries."
These being national newscasts, all three networks sought the national angle. "Even though President Obama was not on the ballot, his presence was felt," opined NBC's Chuck Todd from the White House while Jake Tapper at ABC repeated the spin from White House aides that "this is no way a referendum on President Obama." On CBS, Face the Nation anchor Bob Schieffer (at the tail of the Greenfield videostream) described himself as "not one who thinks that local candidates are ever helped out much by national candidates who come in." NBC's Todd looked at early exit poll data from Virginia, indicating that Obama's base of support from 2008 was sitting this vote out. He called it an "irony" that "we talked about whether this is a referendum on the President or not; maybe Democrats needed it to be a referendum on the President."
ABC selected a pair of unusual frontrunners in the mayoral races. Steve Osunsami introduced us to Mary Norwood from "old money" Atlanta, who may become the city's first white mayor in a generation. And check out the hilarious reaction of Houston mayoral candidate Annise Parker to Ryan Owens (at the tail of the Osunsami videostream). "The impression is you do not like to talk about your personal life. You do not want to talk about your being a lesbian." Parker was literally dumbfounded.
THE PUNNING BILLIONAIRE News of corporate takeovers is normally confined to the financial networks and rarely warrants a correspondent's assignment on the nightly newscasts. Accordingly, CBS and NBC merely mentioned in passing the $34bn offer by Berkshire Hathaway to buy Burlington Northern, the freight railroad. ABC was the exception. Bianna Golodryga covered the story--but not out of interest in railroads. It was Berkshire Hathaway owner Warren Buffett who caught Golodryga's eye. She punningly reminded us of her previous Exclusive profile of the billionaire, in which Buffett had offered the tip that "when it comes to gauging whether or not the economy is on track," freight railroad activity is a favorite indicator.
BITTER PILL Corporate corruption caught Armen Keteyian's eye on CBS. "When it comes to selling drugs to nursing homes, Omnicare has a prescription for success--a market share in excess of 70%, more than $6bn in sales last year alone--but that success, it appears, came with a strong dose of dishonesty." Omnicare paid a $98m fine to the Justice Department for soliciting kickbacks from pharmaceuticals firms like Johnson & Johnson in exchange for recommending their brands of medicine. Omnicare still insists it acted properly: "Omnicare denied any wrongdoing but the company was willing to swallow a nearly-$100m pill to make this headache go away."
SHOCKING ‘FLU DEATH TOLL AMONG ELDERLY Both CBS and NBC picked up on research in the Journal of the American Medical Association that, at first blush, seemed to imply that the H1N1 swine strain of the influenza virus is not the bane of the younger generation after all. The research analyzed more than 1,000 patients in California. It found that their death rate was 11% overall, but much higher, up to 20%, for those patients who were older than 50 years of age.
"While H1N1 mostly strikes younger patients, older ones are not immune," warned CBS' in-house physician Jon LaPook. "While the new virus is mostly a disease of children and young adults, it can strike older people as well," was how NBC's Robert Bazell put it.
Confused? The explanation lies in how the JAMA researchers selected the 1,000 people they analyzed. They were not a sample of the general population or even of those who were infected with the virus. They were a much smaller subset--those whom the virus made so seriously sick that they required hospitalization. CBS' LaPook explained that fully two thirds had underlying medical problems.
This research had such potential to mislead the newscasts' disproportionately elderly audience that ABC was wise to decide to leave it unreported.
RUNAWAY TOYOTAS A couple of months ago, ABC's Lisa Stark brought us the horrifying crash of an out-of-control Lexus, complete with a backseat passenger's desperate cellphone call to 911 in the last seconds of his life. His last words: "Hold on! Pray!" Now Nightline files a follow-up and Brian Ross led off World News with a preview. Toyota's explanation for the crash--and 2,000 or so similar runaways caused by a jammed accelerator--was that faulty floor mats could cause the gas pedal to be stuck. The automaker ordered a recall to change the mats.
ABC's Ross was skeptical. He quoted a Transportation Department statement that the floor mat recall "is simply an interim measure not a remedy to the underlying defect." He offered the stories of a pair of runaway motorists who had correct mats when their accelerator jammed. He showed statistics that indicated that runaways increased after 2002, when Toyota installed a new electronic throttle system. And he quoted reporting by the Los Angeles Times that there may be a problem in the design of the floor and the pedal itself.
CANNED PLASTIC Consumer Reports attracted the attention of ABC and NBC for its chemical analysis of 19 brands of canned food. The chemists were looking for traces of Bisphenol-A. "In humans it is thought to be a hormone disrupter, linked to diabetes and heart disease," NBC's Tom Costello reminded us. Traces of BPA had already been found to leach from plastic used for baby bottles. Now Consumer Reports examined the plastic lining of canned foods. ABC's Lisa Stark told us that the highest levels were found in green beans from Del Monte and vegetable soup from Progresso.
WHILE KATIE’S AWAY… CBS did the right thing to wait for anchor Katie Couric to take a day off before filing Nancy Cordes' cute closing feature on Auto-Tune. Cordes demonstrated that the software "is a computer programs that can perfect your pitch and finesse any off notes, a kind of Photoshop for the voice." Then she went to Brooklyn to introduce us to the Gregory Brothers, who use Auto-Tune to set TV news talking heads to music. All that attention that the brothers lavished on Couric's questioning style would have seemed too self-serving for the anchor to introduce in person.
OVERWHELMING GENEROSITY NBC's Making a Difference closer was anchor Brian Williams' opportunity to flatter his audience. He reminded us that he ended last week's reporting trip to Afghanistan with a fundraising appeal on behalf of Andisha Farid and her orphanage in Kabul. Farid, he announced, is "overwhelmed at the generosity of our viewers." No, he cautioned, Afghan law forbids members of the NBC Nightly News from adopting any orphans. Instead, what was needed was sponsorship. As of Tuesday night, NBC's audience of more than eight million viewers had pledged $50,000 to sponsor 130 children.
"Predicting national trends from off-year elections is something like predicting the World Series winner from spring training," shrugged CBS' Jeff Greenfield, before he tried to do it anyway. In the gubernatorial races, he noted that Democrats are relying on a big turnout from the demographic groups--young voters and African-Americans--that helped Barack Obama win the General Election: "It is a faint hope." In New York City, he pointed to money--incumbent Michael Bloomberg has outspent his opponent by a 13-to-1 ratio--as the key factor: "Bloomberg is expected to cruise to a third term." And in the House race in upstate New York, "a Conservative victory will likely embolden the right to challenge moderate Republicans across the nation in primaries."
These being national newscasts, all three networks sought the national angle. "Even though President Obama was not on the ballot, his presence was felt," opined NBC's Chuck Todd from the White House while Jake Tapper at ABC repeated the spin from White House aides that "this is no way a referendum on President Obama." On CBS, Face the Nation anchor Bob Schieffer (at the tail of the Greenfield videostream) described himself as "not one who thinks that local candidates are ever helped out much by national candidates who come in." NBC's Todd looked at early exit poll data from Virginia, indicating that Obama's base of support from 2008 was sitting this vote out. He called it an "irony" that "we talked about whether this is a referendum on the President or not; maybe Democrats needed it to be a referendum on the President."
ABC selected a pair of unusual frontrunners in the mayoral races. Steve Osunsami introduced us to Mary Norwood from "old money" Atlanta, who may become the city's first white mayor in a generation. And check out the hilarious reaction of Houston mayoral candidate Annise Parker to Ryan Owens (at the tail of the Osunsami videostream). "The impression is you do not like to talk about your personal life. You do not want to talk about your being a lesbian." Parker was literally dumbfounded.
THE PUNNING BILLIONAIRE News of corporate takeovers is normally confined to the financial networks and rarely warrants a correspondent's assignment on the nightly newscasts. Accordingly, CBS and NBC merely mentioned in passing the $34bn offer by Berkshire Hathaway to buy Burlington Northern, the freight railroad. ABC was the exception. Bianna Golodryga covered the story--but not out of interest in railroads. It was Berkshire Hathaway owner Warren Buffett who caught Golodryga's eye. She punningly reminded us of her previous Exclusive profile of the billionaire, in which Buffett had offered the tip that "when it comes to gauging whether or not the economy is on track," freight railroad activity is a favorite indicator.
BITTER PILL Corporate corruption caught Armen Keteyian's eye on CBS. "When it comes to selling drugs to nursing homes, Omnicare has a prescription for success--a market share in excess of 70%, more than $6bn in sales last year alone--but that success, it appears, came with a strong dose of dishonesty." Omnicare paid a $98m fine to the Justice Department for soliciting kickbacks from pharmaceuticals firms like Johnson & Johnson in exchange for recommending their brands of medicine. Omnicare still insists it acted properly: "Omnicare denied any wrongdoing but the company was willing to swallow a nearly-$100m pill to make this headache go away."
SHOCKING ‘FLU DEATH TOLL AMONG ELDERLY Both CBS and NBC picked up on research in the Journal of the American Medical Association that, at first blush, seemed to imply that the H1N1 swine strain of the influenza virus is not the bane of the younger generation after all. The research analyzed more than 1,000 patients in California. It found that their death rate was 11% overall, but much higher, up to 20%, for those patients who were older than 50 years of age.
"While H1N1 mostly strikes younger patients, older ones are not immune," warned CBS' in-house physician Jon LaPook. "While the new virus is mostly a disease of children and young adults, it can strike older people as well," was how NBC's Robert Bazell put it.
Confused? The explanation lies in how the JAMA researchers selected the 1,000 people they analyzed. They were not a sample of the general population or even of those who were infected with the virus. They were a much smaller subset--those whom the virus made so seriously sick that they required hospitalization. CBS' LaPook explained that fully two thirds had underlying medical problems.
This research had such potential to mislead the newscasts' disproportionately elderly audience that ABC was wise to decide to leave it unreported.
RUNAWAY TOYOTAS A couple of months ago, ABC's Lisa Stark brought us the horrifying crash of an out-of-control Lexus, complete with a backseat passenger's desperate cellphone call to 911 in the last seconds of his life. His last words: "Hold on! Pray!" Now Nightline files a follow-up and Brian Ross led off World News with a preview. Toyota's explanation for the crash--and 2,000 or so similar runaways caused by a jammed accelerator--was that faulty floor mats could cause the gas pedal to be stuck. The automaker ordered a recall to change the mats.
ABC's Ross was skeptical. He quoted a Transportation Department statement that the floor mat recall "is simply an interim measure not a remedy to the underlying defect." He offered the stories of a pair of runaway motorists who had correct mats when their accelerator jammed. He showed statistics that indicated that runaways increased after 2002, when Toyota installed a new electronic throttle system. And he quoted reporting by the Los Angeles Times that there may be a problem in the design of the floor and the pedal itself.
CANNED PLASTIC Consumer Reports attracted the attention of ABC and NBC for its chemical analysis of 19 brands of canned food. The chemists were looking for traces of Bisphenol-A. "In humans it is thought to be a hormone disrupter, linked to diabetes and heart disease," NBC's Tom Costello reminded us. Traces of BPA had already been found to leach from plastic used for baby bottles. Now Consumer Reports examined the plastic lining of canned foods. ABC's Lisa Stark told us that the highest levels were found in green beans from Del Monte and vegetable soup from Progresso.
WHILE KATIE’S AWAY… CBS did the right thing to wait for anchor Katie Couric to take a day off before filing Nancy Cordes' cute closing feature on Auto-Tune. Cordes demonstrated that the software "is a computer programs that can perfect your pitch and finesse any off notes, a kind of Photoshop for the voice." Then she went to Brooklyn to introduce us to the Gregory Brothers, who use Auto-Tune to set TV news talking heads to music. All that attention that the brothers lavished on Couric's questioning style would have seemed too self-serving for the anchor to introduce in person.
OVERWHELMING GENEROSITY NBC's Making a Difference closer was anchor Brian Williams' opportunity to flatter his audience. He reminded us that he ended last week's reporting trip to Afghanistan with a fundraising appeal on behalf of Andisha Farid and her orphanage in Kabul. Farid, he announced, is "overwhelmed at the generosity of our viewers." No, he cautioned, Afghan law forbids members of the NBC Nightly News from adopting any orphans. Instead, what was needed was sponsorship. As of Tuesday night, NBC's audience of more than eight million viewers had pledged $50,000 to sponsor 130 children.
