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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM DECEMBER 2, 2009
The reaction to Barack Obama's speech at West Point in which he ordered an additional 30,000 troops off to war in Afghanistan dominated a heavy day of news. Afghanistan was Story of the Day, accounting for almost half of the three-network newshole (49%--29 min out of 59). All three anchors interviewed a senior Cabinet member: CBS' Katie Couric and NBC's Brian Williams questioned Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Secretary of State; ABC's Charles Gibson traveled to Washington DC to sit down in person with Defense Secretary Robert Gates. CBS (13 min v ABC 9, NBC 8) continued its commitment to the Afghan story that it announced in September with its Road Ahead specials. The day was an anniversary for NBC's Williams as he marked five years in the Nightly News anchor chair.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR DECEMBER 2, 2009: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
OBAMA’S AFGHANISTAN SPEECH REAX The reaction to Barack Obama's speech at West Point in which he ordered an additional 30,000 troops off to war in Afghanistan dominated a heavy day of news. Afghanistan was Story of the Day, accounting for almost half of the three-network newshole (49%--29 min out of 59). All three anchors interviewed a senior Cabinet member: CBS' Katie Couric and NBC's Brian Williams questioned Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Secretary of State; ABC's Charles Gibson traveled to Washington DC to sit down in person with Defense Secretary Robert Gates. CBS (13 min v ABC 9, NBC 8) continued its commitment to the Afghan story that it announced in September with its Road Ahead specials. The day was an anniversary for NBC's Williams as he marked five years in the Nightly News anchor chair.
All three newscasts kicked off with highlights from the Capitol Hill hearings into the President's Afghanistan policy. NBC used its Congressional correspondent Kelly O'Donnell. ABC and CBS both covered the hearings from the White House, with Jake Tapper and Chip Reid respectively. NBC's O'Donnell decided that the crucial angle was not the extra deployment but its eventual termination. The big question at the hearings was: "When can they come home?" She noted that Secretary Gates "seemed to contradict himself," answering that the US military will begin its pullout in July 2001 and at other times that he would evaluate whether such a transition was possible this time next year.
Unidentified sources at the White House told ABC's Tapper that there was no maybe about it: "The surge will create the conditions where 170,000 Afghan troops can be trained by July 2011, a point at which US troops can begin to withdraw." Unnamed critics of the troop reinforcement--identified by CBS' Reid as "anti-war Democrats"--scoffed: "With or without a timeline some troops will be there longer than anyone in the administration has admitted," they predicted.
ASK THE SECRETARIES The two secretaries supplemented their Capitol Hill testimony with network news interviews. CBS anchor Katie Couric relayed a prediction by Sen John McCain that President Hamid Karzai would go into exile or "find himself probably assassinated" once US troops leave Afghanistan. Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton answered: "Well it is a pretty tough neighborhood they live in." Secretary Robert Gates told ABC anchor Charles Gibson that the decision to start withdrawing troops in 2011 might disappoint some in Kabul: "The Afghans live in a very rough neighborhood and my suspicion is a number of them would like for us to stay indefinitely."
Secretary Gates even speculated that the complete 30,000 reinforcement might be aborted if the Karzai government showed no signs of progress: "If I come to the conclusion that these lives were being put at risk for no good purpose I would not sign those orders any more." Secretary Rodham Clinton put the President's policy this way for NBC anchor Brian Williams: "He very clearly said that he wants to see the transfer of authority begin in July 2011."
INCOHERENCE IN AFGHANISTAN ABC's Jim Sciutto filed from Kabul; CBS' Mandy Clark from Bagram AFB; and NBC's Jim Maceda from Kandahar. The three did not hear the same speech. ABC's Sciutto described its "ambitious goal" as "convincing the vast majority of Taliban fighters to stop fighting." NBC's Maceda heard "clear talk about defeating the Taliban by protecting the people." CBS' Clark described the new strategy as calling for "talks with Taliban members who are willing to lay down their arms."
So what does the Pentagon say? CBS' David Martin reported that the new strategy does not mean Defeat the Taliban: "The objective is simply to weaken the Taliban and strengthen the Afghans so they can take over the fight." Martin added that Barack Obama's strategy "lowers the bar for what US troops must accomplish before they can come home."
What about al-Qaeda, a threat that went unmentioned by the Afghan-based correspondents? CBS anchor Katie Couric called in a pair of inside-the-Beltway experts, Nathaniel Fick of the Center for New American Security and Matthew Hoh, who resigned his diplomatic post in Afghanistan in a policy protest. Fick argued that "the most hospitable place in the world" for al-Qaeda to set up training bases for large-scale operations is the "border region" of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Hoh countered that "the presence of large amounts of American ground troops in Afghanistan does not have any effect on al-Qaeda's operations."
CURE FOR JOBLESSNESS: LOWER PAY The week's next task for President Barack Obama is solving the domestic unemployment crisis. ABC had Betsy Stark take A Closer Look at the agenda items for the Jobs Summit to be held at the White House. She selected four proposals that might boost employment: green jobs, a payroll tax holiday, a lower minimum wage, and direct loans to small businesses. Of the four, Stark was most skeptical about cutting the minimum wage: "The idea is probably politically impossible."
MEATBALL’S MAMMOGRAMS The Preventive Services Taskforce made headlines two weeks ago when it recommended fewer mammograms at a later age for women who were not at high risk for breast cancer. The taskforce found that the screening of fortysomethings made many more mistakes and found many fewer lethal tumors compared with those in subsequent decades. ABC's John McKenzie and CBS' Nancy Cordes covered House hearings at which taskforce members accounted for the backlash against their guidelines by blaming their own poor communication, while "holding firm" on their recommendation, as CBS' Cordes put it.
Meanwhile NBC's Robert Bazell was in Chicago for a convention of radiologists, which "fiercely attacked the panel's recommendations." Bazell pointed out that the "radiologists admit they have a conflict of interest. They make their living performing mammograms." The scrupulous Bazell also noted that "many imaging systems are made by General Electric, parent company of NBC."
MAKING A DIFFERENCE VEERS INTO RELEVANCE NBC's feelgood Making a Difference feature usually focuses on anecdotes of individual acts of kindness rather than public policy prescriptions. Roger O'Neil's entry was a pleasant deviation into relevance. He introduced us to Peter Boling, a geriatrician in Richmond Va who makes house calls on his patients. Yet this was not just a heartwarming tale of an old-fashioned bedside manner. Boling is a poster physician for the federal Independence at Home program. Treating elderly patients in their own beds prevents expensive admissions to hospital. He claims his example can save Medicare $50bn each year.
ABC’S AIDS ORPHANS World AIDS Day on Tuesday saw David Muir file from a South African shantytown where a pair of orphaned teenagers looks after two young sisters. Muir accompanied the sibling quartet along a dirt road to the school bus and then followed the elder two as they walked a further four miles to school. Now Muir follows up with the messages of support from World News viewers to the four orphans a continent away. He pointed to "one of the most striking images…the homes just off in the distance. You can see the rooftops on the hillside behind these shacks, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Johannesburg."
SEE FISH JUMP "Their signature jumping style has gotten a lot of grins on YouTube," CBS' Dean Reynolds reminded us. He was referring to the Asian carp, the native of China that infests the Mississippi River system, wiping out native species. The network news is not immune to those signature jumps. NBC's Kevin Tibbles last indulged three years ago. CBS' Reynolds tried to infuse his fish story with seriousness, warning that the carp may bypass the Army Corps of Engineers' underwater electric fence in the shipping canal that connects the Mississippi to the Great Lakes. If the carp infiltrates Lake Michigan, its $7bn perch-and-salmon fishery will be at risk. The Corps' solution is to pour poison into the canal. If electricity will not stop the jumping carp, toxins might.
BURNING BRIGHT Neither NBC's Mark Potter nor CBS' Randall Pinkston (no link) could resist the tabloid US Weekly's expose of an embarrassed voice-mail, apparently from Tiger Woods to a 24-year-old cocktail waitress. The message worried that Mrs Woods was searching through his telephone contacts. It was "in the wake" of that voicemail--as well as numerous other tabloid reports of infidelity, as NBC's Potter put it--that the golf champion posted a message on his Website: "I have let my family down and I regret those transgressions with all my heart." As for rumors that Woods and his wife had come to blows on the night that he crashed his SUV into a fire hydrant outside his Florida mansion, "utterly false and malicious," was his Website's comment.
On ABC, John Berman tried to treat a salacious story from a serious public relations and marketing angle instead. Even as Nike and Gatorade decided to stand by their sponsorship deals, Berman pointed to "new damage to his once pristine image." He asked PR strategists what Woods should do when he next competes in a golf tournament. "Win it."
All three newscasts kicked off with highlights from the Capitol Hill hearings into the President's Afghanistan policy. NBC used its Congressional correspondent Kelly O'Donnell. ABC and CBS both covered the hearings from the White House, with Jake Tapper and Chip Reid respectively. NBC's O'Donnell decided that the crucial angle was not the extra deployment but its eventual termination. The big question at the hearings was: "When can they come home?" She noted that Secretary Gates "seemed to contradict himself," answering that the US military will begin its pullout in July 2001 and at other times that he would evaluate whether such a transition was possible this time next year.
Unidentified sources at the White House told ABC's Tapper that there was no maybe about it: "The surge will create the conditions where 170,000 Afghan troops can be trained by July 2011, a point at which US troops can begin to withdraw." Unnamed critics of the troop reinforcement--identified by CBS' Reid as "anti-war Democrats"--scoffed: "With or without a timeline some troops will be there longer than anyone in the administration has admitted," they predicted.
ASK THE SECRETARIES The two secretaries supplemented their Capitol Hill testimony with network news interviews. CBS anchor Katie Couric relayed a prediction by Sen John McCain that President Hamid Karzai would go into exile or "find himself probably assassinated" once US troops leave Afghanistan. Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton answered: "Well it is a pretty tough neighborhood they live in." Secretary Robert Gates told ABC anchor Charles Gibson that the decision to start withdrawing troops in 2011 might disappoint some in Kabul: "The Afghans live in a very rough neighborhood and my suspicion is a number of them would like for us to stay indefinitely."
Secretary Gates even speculated that the complete 30,000 reinforcement might be aborted if the Karzai government showed no signs of progress: "If I come to the conclusion that these lives were being put at risk for no good purpose I would not sign those orders any more." Secretary Rodham Clinton put the President's policy this way for NBC anchor Brian Williams: "He very clearly said that he wants to see the transfer of authority begin in July 2011."
INCOHERENCE IN AFGHANISTAN ABC's Jim Sciutto filed from Kabul; CBS' Mandy Clark from Bagram AFB; and NBC's Jim Maceda from Kandahar. The three did not hear the same speech. ABC's Sciutto described its "ambitious goal" as "convincing the vast majority of Taliban fighters to stop fighting." NBC's Maceda heard "clear talk about defeating the Taliban by protecting the people." CBS' Clark described the new strategy as calling for "talks with Taliban members who are willing to lay down their arms."
So what does the Pentagon say? CBS' David Martin reported that the new strategy does not mean Defeat the Taliban: "The objective is simply to weaken the Taliban and strengthen the Afghans so they can take over the fight." Martin added that Barack Obama's strategy "lowers the bar for what US troops must accomplish before they can come home."
What about al-Qaeda, a threat that went unmentioned by the Afghan-based correspondents? CBS anchor Katie Couric called in a pair of inside-the-Beltway experts, Nathaniel Fick of the Center for New American Security and Matthew Hoh, who resigned his diplomatic post in Afghanistan in a policy protest. Fick argued that "the most hospitable place in the world" for al-Qaeda to set up training bases for large-scale operations is the "border region" of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Hoh countered that "the presence of large amounts of American ground troops in Afghanistan does not have any effect on al-Qaeda's operations."
CURE FOR JOBLESSNESS: LOWER PAY The week's next task for President Barack Obama is solving the domestic unemployment crisis. ABC had Betsy Stark take A Closer Look at the agenda items for the Jobs Summit to be held at the White House. She selected four proposals that might boost employment: green jobs, a payroll tax holiday, a lower minimum wage, and direct loans to small businesses. Of the four, Stark was most skeptical about cutting the minimum wage: "The idea is probably politically impossible."
MEATBALL’S MAMMOGRAMS The Preventive Services Taskforce made headlines two weeks ago when it recommended fewer mammograms at a later age for women who were not at high risk for breast cancer. The taskforce found that the screening of fortysomethings made many more mistakes and found many fewer lethal tumors compared with those in subsequent decades. ABC's John McKenzie and CBS' Nancy Cordes covered House hearings at which taskforce members accounted for the backlash against their guidelines by blaming their own poor communication, while "holding firm" on their recommendation, as CBS' Cordes put it.
Meanwhile NBC's Robert Bazell was in Chicago for a convention of radiologists, which "fiercely attacked the panel's recommendations." Bazell pointed out that the "radiologists admit they have a conflict of interest. They make their living performing mammograms." The scrupulous Bazell also noted that "many imaging systems are made by General Electric, parent company of NBC."
MAKING A DIFFERENCE VEERS INTO RELEVANCE NBC's feelgood Making a Difference feature usually focuses on anecdotes of individual acts of kindness rather than public policy prescriptions. Roger O'Neil's entry was a pleasant deviation into relevance. He introduced us to Peter Boling, a geriatrician in Richmond Va who makes house calls on his patients. Yet this was not just a heartwarming tale of an old-fashioned bedside manner. Boling is a poster physician for the federal Independence at Home program. Treating elderly patients in their own beds prevents expensive admissions to hospital. He claims his example can save Medicare $50bn each year.
ABC’S AIDS ORPHANS World AIDS Day on Tuesday saw David Muir file from a South African shantytown where a pair of orphaned teenagers looks after two young sisters. Muir accompanied the sibling quartet along a dirt road to the school bus and then followed the elder two as they walked a further four miles to school. Now Muir follows up with the messages of support from World News viewers to the four orphans a continent away. He pointed to "one of the most striking images…the homes just off in the distance. You can see the rooftops on the hillside behind these shacks, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Johannesburg."
SEE FISH JUMP "Their signature jumping style has gotten a lot of grins on YouTube," CBS' Dean Reynolds reminded us. He was referring to the Asian carp, the native of China that infests the Mississippi River system, wiping out native species. The network news is not immune to those signature jumps. NBC's Kevin Tibbles last indulged three years ago. CBS' Reynolds tried to infuse his fish story with seriousness, warning that the carp may bypass the Army Corps of Engineers' underwater electric fence in the shipping canal that connects the Mississippi to the Great Lakes. If the carp infiltrates Lake Michigan, its $7bn perch-and-salmon fishery will be at risk. The Corps' solution is to pour poison into the canal. If electricity will not stop the jumping carp, toxins might.
BURNING BRIGHT Neither NBC's Mark Potter nor CBS' Randall Pinkston (no link) could resist the tabloid US Weekly's expose of an embarrassed voice-mail, apparently from Tiger Woods to a 24-year-old cocktail waitress. The message worried that Mrs Woods was searching through his telephone contacts. It was "in the wake" of that voicemail--as well as numerous other tabloid reports of infidelity, as NBC's Potter put it--that the golf champion posted a message on his Website: "I have let my family down and I regret those transgressions with all my heart." As for rumors that Woods and his wife had come to blows on the night that he crashed his SUV into a fire hydrant outside his Florida mansion, "utterly false and malicious," was his Website's comment.
On ABC, John Berman tried to treat a salacious story from a serious public relations and marketing angle instead. Even as Nike and Gatorade decided to stand by their sponsorship deals, Berman pointed to "new damage to his once pristine image." He asked PR strategists what Woods should do when he next competes in a golf tournament. "Win it."
