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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM DECEMBER 22, 2009
The nightly news agenda is already softening up, getting into the Christmas spirit. There was no consensus on the day's lead. NBC actually started with the non-newsworthy fact that the holiday build-up was under way. The Story of the Day was the prediction that the United States Senate would be in session until Christmas Eve debating healthcare reform--yet none of the three newscasts led with it. CBS chose the latest economic statistics from the real estate housing market. ABC, on Diane Sawyer's second day as anchor, picked on Gen Anthony Cucolo, who is in charge of 22,000 soldiers in Tikrit. The general has ordered that none of the 1600 women under his command may become pregnant while they are deployed in Iraq.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR DECEMBER 22, 2009: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
CUCOLO’S PREGNANCY BAN IS WATERCOOLER FODDER The nightly news agenda is already softening up, getting into the Christmas spirit. There was no consensus on the day's lead. NBC actually started with the non-newsworthy fact that the holiday build-up was under way. The Story of the Day was the prediction that the United States Senate would be in session until Christmas Eve debating healthcare reform--yet none of the three newscasts led with it. CBS chose the latest economic statistics from the real estate housing market. ABC, on Diane Sawyer's second day as anchor, picked on Gen Anthony Cucolo, who is in charge of 22,000 soldiers in Tikrit. The general has ordered that none of the 1600 women under his command may become pregnant while they are deployed in Iraq.
Sawyer's decision to lead ABC's newscast with Kate Snow's story on the ban on military pregnancies in the warzone displayed a morning show sensibility. It is the type of story that sparks plenty of debate around the watercooler--debate about sex and gender roles in a workforce--yet affects very few people. Only four pregnancies have occurred in defiance of Cucolo's order; those women have received no punishment more severe than a reprimand; and they have been sent home from the battlefield just as they would have been had conception not been forbidden.
At the other two networks, Pentagon correspondents NBC's Jim Miklaszewski and CBS' David Martin were assigned to cover Cucolo. Of the three reports, only Miklaszewski's pointed out that the military healthcare system covers neither emergency contraception nor abortion. So even if Cucolo's orders were disobeyed unintentionally, by an unplanned pregnancy, the army would not help that woman stay in the warzone if she wanted, which was the rationale for Cucolo's regulation.
MEDICAL-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX STOX REAX As the healthcare debate drags on in the Senate, ABC and NBC both offered an update from their Congressional correspondents. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell treated Senate approval of the legislation as inevitable and so looked ahead, outlining the differences between the House and Senate versions that will have to be resolved in a conference committee. ABC's Jonathan Karl referred to Wall Street where the value of stocks in the medical industrial complex--insurers and Big Pharma--has risen. "Insurance companies have lobbied hard against this but you would not know that by watching Wall Street. The stock market seems to think that the healthcare bill is a dream come true for the health insurance industry." Karl singled out Aetna, Cigna and United Healthcare as winners--before listing those regulations that will still limit their profits.
HIGH DUDGEON OVER CHUMP CHANGE Indignation is the default tone of voice for investigative correspondents. Both Brian Ross at ABC and Sharyl Attkisson at CBS found federal spending to feel outraged about. In each case the amount of money was minuscule in the scheme of things. So their annoyance was not in proportion to the offense. Ross traveled to the Omni Hotel in Atlanta where the Federal Aviation Administration is holding a $5m conference for 3,600 of its managers. Ross objected to the "pretty serious party animals" who celebrated Christmas "with great relish" during the conference's off hours on their $81 per diem expenses.
Attkisson's problem on Follow the Money was the rules for the $26m-a-year pension plan for 400-or-so former members of the House of Representatives. It was not until 2007 that the rules were revised to disqualify Congressmen who had left office after conviction for corruption. Accordingly, Attkisson tracked down two dozen onetime Solons whose pensions were grandfathered so that she could complain about that stable door and the felonious horses that had bolted.
MEXICO’S WAR ON DRUGS SEEN FROM AFAR Last Thursday, CBS' Bill Whitaker in Los Angeles and NBC's Mark Potter in Miami both relayed news of the deadly police raid in the Mexican city of Cuernavaca that ended in the death of Arturo Beltran Leyva, a leading narcotrafficker. Killed in that shootout was Melquisedet Angulo Cordova, part of the 45,000 federal forces deployed by Mexican President Felipe Calderon in his War on Drugs. Angulo was given a state funeral. Now in a revenge killing, four members of Angulo's family were wiped out in their home. Jeff Glor narrated the grisly videotape from the New York studio for CBS. More than 7,000 have been killed so far this year in Mexico's "horrific and ongoing drug war."
CBS STICKS WITH THE ECONOMY The stuttering recovery from recession was selected by CBS for its pair of lead-off items. Dean Reynolds started from Chicago, telling us about November's improvement in sales of new homes. Credit an $8,000 tax subsidy for first time buyers, lower prices and the Federal Reserve's policy of cheap interest rates. Ben Tracy followed up from Los Angeles on the dismal prospects for small businesses in California. Many small retailers are forced to scale back and banks are no longer extending a safety net of ready credit.
CBS then closed with Barry Petersen's American Spirit feature about the upside of the contracting economy. The housing slump left Alpine Cabinet Company, a Colorado firm of woodworkers, with excess capacity. In their spare time the cabinetmakers are making dolls' houses for local girls.
FOR YE HAVE THE POOR ALWAYS WITH YOU NBC's Christmas story was the softest of lead items. Thanh Truong filed from Delta Airlines' traffic control center in Atlanta with a cross-promotion for NBC's sibling cable network, the Weather Channel. Truong covered disrupted flights, delayed shopping and storm-threatened travel plans. ABC's closer from John Berman was a Christmas feature that was at least adorned by fine art. He showed us the Tiffany stained glass window of St John the Divine at the First Baptist Church in Brattleboro Vt. The church has decided to auction it off in order to raise funds to keep its homeless shelter operating--offering price $75,000.
It is fitting that it was in St Matthew's gospel, not St John's, that Jesus Christ rejected the idea of selling expensive possessions--in that case ointment--in order to raise money to give to the poor.
Sawyer's decision to lead ABC's newscast with Kate Snow's story on the ban on military pregnancies in the warzone displayed a morning show sensibility. It is the type of story that sparks plenty of debate around the watercooler--debate about sex and gender roles in a workforce--yet affects very few people. Only four pregnancies have occurred in defiance of Cucolo's order; those women have received no punishment more severe than a reprimand; and they have been sent home from the battlefield just as they would have been had conception not been forbidden.
At the other two networks, Pentagon correspondents NBC's Jim Miklaszewski and CBS' David Martin were assigned to cover Cucolo. Of the three reports, only Miklaszewski's pointed out that the military healthcare system covers neither emergency contraception nor abortion. So even if Cucolo's orders were disobeyed unintentionally, by an unplanned pregnancy, the army would not help that woman stay in the warzone if she wanted, which was the rationale for Cucolo's regulation.
MEDICAL-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX STOX REAX As the healthcare debate drags on in the Senate, ABC and NBC both offered an update from their Congressional correspondents. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell treated Senate approval of the legislation as inevitable and so looked ahead, outlining the differences between the House and Senate versions that will have to be resolved in a conference committee. ABC's Jonathan Karl referred to Wall Street where the value of stocks in the medical industrial complex--insurers and Big Pharma--has risen. "Insurance companies have lobbied hard against this but you would not know that by watching Wall Street. The stock market seems to think that the healthcare bill is a dream come true for the health insurance industry." Karl singled out Aetna, Cigna and United Healthcare as winners--before listing those regulations that will still limit their profits.
HIGH DUDGEON OVER CHUMP CHANGE Indignation is the default tone of voice for investigative correspondents. Both Brian Ross at ABC and Sharyl Attkisson at CBS found federal spending to feel outraged about. In each case the amount of money was minuscule in the scheme of things. So their annoyance was not in proportion to the offense. Ross traveled to the Omni Hotel in Atlanta where the Federal Aviation Administration is holding a $5m conference for 3,600 of its managers. Ross objected to the "pretty serious party animals" who celebrated Christmas "with great relish" during the conference's off hours on their $81 per diem expenses.
Attkisson's problem on Follow the Money was the rules for the $26m-a-year pension plan for 400-or-so former members of the House of Representatives. It was not until 2007 that the rules were revised to disqualify Congressmen who had left office after conviction for corruption. Accordingly, Attkisson tracked down two dozen onetime Solons whose pensions were grandfathered so that she could complain about that stable door and the felonious horses that had bolted.
MEXICO’S WAR ON DRUGS SEEN FROM AFAR Last Thursday, CBS' Bill Whitaker in Los Angeles and NBC's Mark Potter in Miami both relayed news of the deadly police raid in the Mexican city of Cuernavaca that ended in the death of Arturo Beltran Leyva, a leading narcotrafficker. Killed in that shootout was Melquisedet Angulo Cordova, part of the 45,000 federal forces deployed by Mexican President Felipe Calderon in his War on Drugs. Angulo was given a state funeral. Now in a revenge killing, four members of Angulo's family were wiped out in their home. Jeff Glor narrated the grisly videotape from the New York studio for CBS. More than 7,000 have been killed so far this year in Mexico's "horrific and ongoing drug war."
CBS STICKS WITH THE ECONOMY The stuttering recovery from recession was selected by CBS for its pair of lead-off items. Dean Reynolds started from Chicago, telling us about November's improvement in sales of new homes. Credit an $8,000 tax subsidy for first time buyers, lower prices and the Federal Reserve's policy of cheap interest rates. Ben Tracy followed up from Los Angeles on the dismal prospects for small businesses in California. Many small retailers are forced to scale back and banks are no longer extending a safety net of ready credit.
CBS then closed with Barry Petersen's American Spirit feature about the upside of the contracting economy. The housing slump left Alpine Cabinet Company, a Colorado firm of woodworkers, with excess capacity. In their spare time the cabinetmakers are making dolls' houses for local girls.
FOR YE HAVE THE POOR ALWAYS WITH YOU NBC's Christmas story was the softest of lead items. Thanh Truong filed from Delta Airlines' traffic control center in Atlanta with a cross-promotion for NBC's sibling cable network, the Weather Channel. Truong covered disrupted flights, delayed shopping and storm-threatened travel plans. ABC's closer from John Berman was a Christmas feature that was at least adorned by fine art. He showed us the Tiffany stained glass window of St John the Divine at the First Baptist Church in Brattleboro Vt. The church has decided to auction it off in order to raise funds to keep its homeless shelter operating--offering price $75,000.
It is fitting that it was in St Matthew's gospel, not St John's, that Jesus Christ rejected the idea of selling expensive possessions--in that case ointment--in order to raise money to give to the poor.
