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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM DECEMBER 15, 2009
President Barack Obama's invitation to his fellow Democrats from the US Senate to come to the White House to talk healthcare reform may have supplied the photo-op for the Story of the Day. Yet only one of the 60-person caucus was in the spotlight--and he is not even a member of the President's party. Joseph Lieberman, the independent from Connecticut, insisted that a pair of provisions be excluded from healthcare legislation and because all 60 votes are required to overcome the Republicans' filibuster, Sen Lieberman got what he wanted. ABC and CBS both led with Lieberman's success. NBC chose a consumer product safety story instead.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR DECEMBER 15, 2009: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
THE INDEPENDENT LIEBERMAN HOGS THE LIMELIGHT President Barack Obama's invitation to his fellow Democrats from the US Senate to come to the White House to talk healthcare reform may have supplied the photo-op for the Story of the Day. Yet only one of the 60-person caucus was in the spotlight--and he is not even a member of the President's party. Joseph Lieberman, the independent from Connecticut, insisted that a pair of provisions be excluded from healthcare legislation and because all 60 votes are required to overcome the Republicans' filibuster, Sen Lieberman got what he wanted. ABC and CBS both led with Lieberman's success. NBC chose a consumer product safety story instead.
"Gone is one of the central tenets of the compromise reached last week," ABC's Jonathan Karl declared. "The expansion of Medicare is stripped out because of the objections of Joe Lieberman." Lieberman was called "the decisive 60th vote" by CBS' Chip Reid and the politician who has "suddenly become the man of the hour" by NBC's Savannah Guthrie. "Mystifying," CBS' Nancy Cordes called it. She reported that even close colleagues "were at a loss to explain his apparent about-face. After all the proposal to allow younger Americans to buy into Medicare had been crafted specifically as a compromise for Lieberman…The Connecticut senator has championed the buy-in idea for nearly a decade and reiterated his support just three months ago."
Even without an expansion of Medicare and without the so-called public option to compete with private insurance companies, Republicans are still "virtually unanimous in opposition," CBS' Reid reported. They call the Democratic argument that the bill will cut healthcare costs "nonsense." Furthermore, public opinion polls show "a majority disapprove of the bill that is now before the Senate," stated George Stephanopoulos on ABC while new opposition is forming from liberal Democrats, led by Howard Dean, the party's former chairman, ABC's Karl pointed out.
So what is left? ABC's Karl ticked off three elements: a mandate to get insured; subsidies for those with lower incomes to help buy it; and insurance regulations including a ban on denial of coverage because of preexisting conditions." NBC's Guthrie quoted the warning from Vice President Joe Biden on Morning Joe on MSNBC: "If healthcare does not pass in this Congress then it is going to be kicked back for a generation." At the White House, the President's aides told CBS' Reid "they do not have the votes."
GITMO ON THE IOWA LINE ABC assigned its White House correspondent to the day's second major story from Barack Obama. The President decided what to do after the detention center at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay closes. "Residents of Thomson Ill did not react the way you might think," speculated ABC's Jake Tapper, when Obama decided that the federal government would buy the town's recently-built Correctional Center and move 100-or-so alleged terrorists there from Cuba. "They like the idea," Tapper told us.
The maximum security prison in Thomson was built in 2001 but because of budget cuts in Illinois it never housed more than 200 minimum security inmates. CBS sent Dean Reynolds to Thomson, three hours west of Chicago on the Iowa line. He found a facility with a modern surveillance system and a courtroom for trials, ready to hire 3,000-or-so locals. "The transferred terrorists will be totally isolated, receiving visitors only from their own attorneys, federal officials and the Red Cross."
NBC chose the Pentagon angle, assigning Jim Miklaszewski to check into the legality of the Commander-in-Chief's plan: "Federal law says Guantanamo detainees can only be brought to the United States to stand trial. Administration officials say, however, that some 30-to-40 detainees may never go on to trial…Without granting all detainees legal rights, human rights advocates accused the President of simply creating another Guantanamo in America."
THE UN-CSI Kudos to CBS' Armen Keteyian for the two-part Investigation he filed last month (here and here) into the failure of prosecutors in cities around the country to investigate rape cases. Keteyian reminded us that he discovered "more than 20,000 rape kits in major American cities that were never tested; an additional 6,000 languishing in crime labs, waiting months even years." Back in 2004, Congress approved funding to reduce this forensic backlog and the Senate called hearings to find out why it persists. Witness Steve Redding gave credit to Keteyian's investigation.
LAX PROTECTION OR GOVERNMENT OVERREACH? ABC's Elisabeth Leamy and NBC's Tom Costello had opposite takes on the decision by the Consumer Product Safety Commission to order the recall of 50m sets of window shades and blinds. The CPSC's warning concerned the cords, chains and strings used for raising and lowering the window coverings. They can form a loop that is big enough to become a noose for a child's head: some choke on the cord; in the past eight years, eight infants have been strangled to death. ABC's Leamy wanted to know why the window industry took so long to address the danger. NBC's Costello wondered about overkill: "Critics say it is unrealistic to recall 50m of them. Why is this not government overreach?" "Well, this is the Consumer Product Safety Commission. We protect consumers."
THESE CHILDREN ARE TEENAGERS CBS has a habit of referring to teenagers as "children"--see anchor Katie Couric's two-part expose of child prostitutes in July (Tyndall Report comments here and here) that mostly featured females older than the age of consent--so it was no surprise that Seth Doane's latest entry in CBS' Children of the Recession series should focus on some of the nation's 1.6m homeless teenagers. Doane took to the back alleys of Salt Lake City to check out the warehouses, rooftops and abandoned buildings used by youthful squatters looking for a place to sleep. A hotline finds that more teenagers are turning to "panhandling, prostitution, selling drugs and stealing to survive." Doane made the important point that not all homeless teenagers have run away; many were thrown out by their parents.
HOLT THE BUFF HYPES HIS BOSSES’ ENGINES NBC anchor Brian Williams called Lester Holt an "aviation buff" as he introduced Holt's pre-taped hangar tour of the Boeing production line in Everett Wa. Holt had already returned to New York when Boeing's new Dreamliner finally took its maiden flight--after five postponements and two-and-a-half years of delay. His praise for its technological marvels had been wisely put on hold until the jet actually left the ground: "The key to the 787's efficiency," he tapped the skin, "you are listening to it. That is not aluminum like you would find in a traditional plane; rather it is carbon-fiber reinforced plastic." By the way, Holt properly reminded us that his bosses stand to benefit if the 787 turns out to be a success: "Its new generation of engines includes versions built by NBC's parent company, General Electric."
CHARISMATIC CHRISTIANITY All three newscasts treated Oral Roberts' life as historic enough to assign a correspondent to file an obituary when he died at the age of 94. All agreed that his significance was at the intersection of born-again religion and the medium of television. "He will be remembered as a man who fused old-time tent revival religion with TV technology," was how NBC's George Lewis put it, with Pat Robertson among his proteges…"By the '60s and '70s he was among the first televangelists," ABC's David Muir stated…"The father of televangelists, among the first preachers to take religious revivals from tents to television," recalled CBS' Don Teague.
As for his religious practice, NBC's Lewis flat out stated that his "specialty was faith healing." The other correspondents were more deferent. "Many called him a faith healer," mused ABC's Muir, "but Roberts said God Heals; I Don't." CBS' Teague characterized Roberts' theology thus: "Through his ministry he brought charismatic Christianity into the mainstream--the belief that God bestows His powers on man, including healing."
GIBSON’S THIRTY FOUR YEARS Monday World News' soon-to-retire anchor Charles Gibson began his retrospective of his career at ABC News with a tribute to the politicians of his hometown in the District of Columbia. Now Gibson relives some of the history to which he has been eyewitness over the last 34 years. The two "most memorable" stories of his entire career both occurred during its final decade--the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, which he covered from his desk at Good Morning America; and, from Election Headquarters, the victory of Barack Obama last November.
CHECK OUT DAN’S LONG ORANGE TAIL Somewhere jumping around the canopy of the rain forest of Papua New Guinea is a crittercam attached to the back of a tree kangaroo nicknamed Dan. Local clans captured Dan for National Geographic by scaring it out of the treetops 100 feet above the ground. ABC showed Dan jumping down to the ground and surviving. Previously ABC's Ned Potter and NBC's Anne Thompson have showed us how the crittercam works. Now Dan Harris shows us how Dan 'Roo got his name.
"Gone is one of the central tenets of the compromise reached last week," ABC's Jonathan Karl declared. "The expansion of Medicare is stripped out because of the objections of Joe Lieberman." Lieberman was called "the decisive 60th vote" by CBS' Chip Reid and the politician who has "suddenly become the man of the hour" by NBC's Savannah Guthrie. "Mystifying," CBS' Nancy Cordes called it. She reported that even close colleagues "were at a loss to explain his apparent about-face. After all the proposal to allow younger Americans to buy into Medicare had been crafted specifically as a compromise for Lieberman…The Connecticut senator has championed the buy-in idea for nearly a decade and reiterated his support just three months ago."
Even without an expansion of Medicare and without the so-called public option to compete with private insurance companies, Republicans are still "virtually unanimous in opposition," CBS' Reid reported. They call the Democratic argument that the bill will cut healthcare costs "nonsense." Furthermore, public opinion polls show "a majority disapprove of the bill that is now before the Senate," stated George Stephanopoulos on ABC while new opposition is forming from liberal Democrats, led by Howard Dean, the party's former chairman, ABC's Karl pointed out.
So what is left? ABC's Karl ticked off three elements: a mandate to get insured; subsidies for those with lower incomes to help buy it; and insurance regulations including a ban on denial of coverage because of preexisting conditions." NBC's Guthrie quoted the warning from Vice President Joe Biden on Morning Joe on MSNBC: "If healthcare does not pass in this Congress then it is going to be kicked back for a generation." At the White House, the President's aides told CBS' Reid "they do not have the votes."
GITMO ON THE IOWA LINE ABC assigned its White House correspondent to the day's second major story from Barack Obama. The President decided what to do after the detention center at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay closes. "Residents of Thomson Ill did not react the way you might think," speculated ABC's Jake Tapper, when Obama decided that the federal government would buy the town's recently-built Correctional Center and move 100-or-so alleged terrorists there from Cuba. "They like the idea," Tapper told us.
The maximum security prison in Thomson was built in 2001 but because of budget cuts in Illinois it never housed more than 200 minimum security inmates. CBS sent Dean Reynolds to Thomson, three hours west of Chicago on the Iowa line. He found a facility with a modern surveillance system and a courtroom for trials, ready to hire 3,000-or-so locals. "The transferred terrorists will be totally isolated, receiving visitors only from their own attorneys, federal officials and the Red Cross."
NBC chose the Pentagon angle, assigning Jim Miklaszewski to check into the legality of the Commander-in-Chief's plan: "Federal law says Guantanamo detainees can only be brought to the United States to stand trial. Administration officials say, however, that some 30-to-40 detainees may never go on to trial…Without granting all detainees legal rights, human rights advocates accused the President of simply creating another Guantanamo in America."
THE UN-CSI Kudos to CBS' Armen Keteyian for the two-part Investigation he filed last month (here and here) into the failure of prosecutors in cities around the country to investigate rape cases. Keteyian reminded us that he discovered "more than 20,000 rape kits in major American cities that were never tested; an additional 6,000 languishing in crime labs, waiting months even years." Back in 2004, Congress approved funding to reduce this forensic backlog and the Senate called hearings to find out why it persists. Witness Steve Redding gave credit to Keteyian's investigation.
LAX PROTECTION OR GOVERNMENT OVERREACH? ABC's Elisabeth Leamy and NBC's Tom Costello had opposite takes on the decision by the Consumer Product Safety Commission to order the recall of 50m sets of window shades and blinds. The CPSC's warning concerned the cords, chains and strings used for raising and lowering the window coverings. They can form a loop that is big enough to become a noose for a child's head: some choke on the cord; in the past eight years, eight infants have been strangled to death. ABC's Leamy wanted to know why the window industry took so long to address the danger. NBC's Costello wondered about overkill: "Critics say it is unrealistic to recall 50m of them. Why is this not government overreach?" "Well, this is the Consumer Product Safety Commission. We protect consumers."
THESE CHILDREN ARE TEENAGERS CBS has a habit of referring to teenagers as "children"--see anchor Katie Couric's two-part expose of child prostitutes in July (Tyndall Report comments here and here) that mostly featured females older than the age of consent--so it was no surprise that Seth Doane's latest entry in CBS' Children of the Recession series should focus on some of the nation's 1.6m homeless teenagers. Doane took to the back alleys of Salt Lake City to check out the warehouses, rooftops and abandoned buildings used by youthful squatters looking for a place to sleep. A hotline finds that more teenagers are turning to "panhandling, prostitution, selling drugs and stealing to survive." Doane made the important point that not all homeless teenagers have run away; many were thrown out by their parents.
HOLT THE BUFF HYPES HIS BOSSES’ ENGINES NBC anchor Brian Williams called Lester Holt an "aviation buff" as he introduced Holt's pre-taped hangar tour of the Boeing production line in Everett Wa. Holt had already returned to New York when Boeing's new Dreamliner finally took its maiden flight--after five postponements and two-and-a-half years of delay. His praise for its technological marvels had been wisely put on hold until the jet actually left the ground: "The key to the 787's efficiency," he tapped the skin, "you are listening to it. That is not aluminum like you would find in a traditional plane; rather it is carbon-fiber reinforced plastic." By the way, Holt properly reminded us that his bosses stand to benefit if the 787 turns out to be a success: "Its new generation of engines includes versions built by NBC's parent company, General Electric."
CHARISMATIC CHRISTIANITY All three newscasts treated Oral Roberts' life as historic enough to assign a correspondent to file an obituary when he died at the age of 94. All agreed that his significance was at the intersection of born-again religion and the medium of television. "He will be remembered as a man who fused old-time tent revival religion with TV technology," was how NBC's George Lewis put it, with Pat Robertson among his proteges…"By the '60s and '70s he was among the first televangelists," ABC's David Muir stated…"The father of televangelists, among the first preachers to take religious revivals from tents to television," recalled CBS' Don Teague.
As for his religious practice, NBC's Lewis flat out stated that his "specialty was faith healing." The other correspondents were more deferent. "Many called him a faith healer," mused ABC's Muir, "but Roberts said God Heals; I Don't." CBS' Teague characterized Roberts' theology thus: "Through his ministry he brought charismatic Christianity into the mainstream--the belief that God bestows His powers on man, including healing."
GIBSON’S THIRTY FOUR YEARS Monday World News' soon-to-retire anchor Charles Gibson began his retrospective of his career at ABC News with a tribute to the politicians of his hometown in the District of Columbia. Now Gibson relives some of the history to which he has been eyewitness over the last 34 years. The two "most memorable" stories of his entire career both occurred during its final decade--the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, which he covered from his desk at Good Morning America; and, from Election Headquarters, the victory of Barack Obama last November.
CHECK OUT DAN’S LONG ORANGE TAIL Somewhere jumping around the canopy of the rain forest of Papua New Guinea is a crittercam attached to the back of a tree kangaroo nicknamed Dan. Local clans captured Dan for National Geographic by scaring it out of the treetops 100 feet above the ground. ABC showed Dan jumping down to the ground and surviving. Previously ABC's Ned Potter and NBC's Anne Thompson have showed us how the crittercam works. Now Dan Harris shows us how Dan 'Roo got his name.
