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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM MARCH 02, 2009
Financial assets on the stock market has lost half their value since October 2007, according the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Its latest haircut of 299 points leaves the index at 6763, representing no return on investment whatsoever in the 12 years since the spring 1997. The Story of the Day was the decline of one particular business, the insurance conglomerate AIG, which now happens to be 80% federally owned and posted $61bn in losses in the fourth quarter of 2008. We taxpayers, in response, ponied up another $30bn in capital, bringing our total bailout to $180bn-or-so. NBC and ABC both led with AIG. ABC was anchored from the road, with Charles Gibson in Los Angeles. CBS decided to lead with personal finance instead of high finance as consumers decided to save more.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR MARCH 02, 2009: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
AIG HEMORRHAGES RED INK Financial assets on the stock market has lost half their value since October 2007, according the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Its latest haircut of 299 points leaves the index at 6763, representing no return on investment whatsoever in the 12 years since the spring 1997. The Story of the Day was the decline of one particular business, the insurance conglomerate AIG, which now happens to be 80% federally owned and posted $61bn in losses in the fourth quarter of 2008. We taxpayers, in response, ponied up another $30bn in capital, bringing our total bailout to $180bn-or-so. NBC and ABC both led with AIG. ABC was anchored from the road, with Charles Gibson in Los Angeles. CBS decided to lead with personal finance instead of high finance as consumers decided to save more.
CNBC's Trish Regan reported from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange for NBC that AIG represented "the biggest quarterly loss of a public company in history." There were two questions that reporters attempted to answer. Why is AIG losing so much money? Why is the government refusing to allow it to fail? ABC's Betsy Stark gave us the Treasury Department's official line in answer to the second: "Given the systemic risk AIG continues to pose, the potential cost to the economy of government inaction would be extremely high."
ABC's John Berman took us back to the bursting of the housing bubble to explain why AIG has lost so much. It sold "a type of insurance--so-called Credit Default Swaps--to banks and financial institutions that invested in the mortgage market. If the bank started losing money on mortgages, AIG would help cover those losses. AIG was raking in huge money selling this insurance, betting and betting big that the economy would keep humming along." The bets went wrong and "the house--AIG--could not pay."
So why not let AIG go broke? Nancy Cordes put it this way in her CBS explainer What it Means: "AIG is at the hub of the global financial system, insuring pensions, money markets, banks and insurance companies against losses in 130 different countries. If AIG fails the whole wheel could deflate." Booz & Co economist Seamus McMahon used a different analogy for ABC's Stark: "AIG is at the center of a spider's web. The filaments, the strands go all over the world into thousands of organizations. If there is a tear in the center, the whole web collapses."
ABC's Berman summed up the situation as "an unpleasant choice between unsavory scenarios." His colleague Stark suggested "we could be talking about trillions rather than billions."
THE PARADOX OF THRIFT CBS had business correspondent Anthony Mason lead with the law of unintended consequences. "As the savings rate actually fell below 0% just four years ago economists were begging Americans to change their ways," he recalled. Well, they have. The personal savings rate has grown in just the past six months from 1% of income to 5%, with Americans "socking away money at rates we have not seen in more than a decade." The upshot is less spending in an economy where consumers had once accounted for 70% of all activity. "The recovery, when it finally comes, could be significantly weaker because Americans are saving more," Mason warned.
IMMIGRANTS DO NOT COUNT FOR GIBSON ABC anchor Charles Gibson began his California coverage with a survey of the bleak state of the state's economy, which may be large--"twice the size of India's"--but is shrinking. Consumers are not spending: a NASCAR race in Fontana had to discount tickets to fill the stands. Employers are not hiring: 4,500 applied for 500 part-time jobs at Dodger Stadium. Homes stand unsold: in the Inland Empire communities of Pomona and Covina and Rancho Cucamonga "swimming pools sit vacant and become breeding grounds for mosquitoes." Gibson insinuated that California's population is contracting too, citing the carefully-qualified statistic that the state has 1.5m fewer non-immigrants than a decade ago. Why do immigrants not count as residents too?
STUCK OUTSIDE SPARTANBURG A late winter storm stretching from Alabama to New England earned coverage by correspondents on all three newscasts. NBC's Peter Alexander celebrated the snow day, calling it "certainly very cool for the kids." CBS assigned the task to Early Show weathercaster Dave Price, who in turn used soundbites from WBDJ-TV's Tim Saunders in Virginia and WBZ-TV's Mish Michaels in Massachusetts. ABC deployed its own reporters, with David Muir introducing Gigi Stone amid the flight delays at Logan Airport in Boston and Steve Osunsami stuck in a 40-mile traffic jam outside Spartanburg SC: "We have been trying to get to Charlotte for the last 14 hours."
FISHING FOOTBALLERS Normally the plight of a quartet of weekend recreational fishermen, caught in a 21-foot boat by 14-foot waves off the Gulf Coast of Florida would be a local story. Because the four happen to be athletes--two NFL players, two former college footballers--all three national newscasts covered the Coast Guard search that started Sunday morning: Mark Potter filed from Miami for NBC; Jeffrey Kofman from Jacksonville for ABC; Kelly Cobiella from Tampa on CBS. A lone fisherman was found, Nick Schuyler, who once played for the University of South Florida. He was clinging to the engine of the capsized boat, dehydrated and hypothermic but alive, after two nights in 62F waters. The two professionals, Marquis Cooper of the Raiders and Corey Smith of the Lions, were still missing.
PLUS POPCORN, PLUS BABYSITTER NBC became the third of the three newscasts to notice that movie theater box office business is booming and to point to the dire state of the economy to account for it. CBS' Sandra Hughes noticed the trend before Christmas and Good Morning America anchor Robin Roberts covered it on ABC just before that network's Academy Awards telecast. Now NBC's Chris Jansing tells us that January's ticket sales were 17% higher than a year previously. Slumdog Millionaire has the strongest post-Awards take of an Oscarwinner since Titanic in 1997. Jansing even slipped in some shameless cross-promotion, allowing studio head Ron Meyer of Universal, NBC News' sibling in NBC Universal, to make his pitch: "Even if you add the popcorn and pay a babysitter and get a burger afterwards, I think it is still an economical evening."
SEE YOU ON THE RADIO Rush Limbaugh was the radio celebrity to catch the ear of NBC and ABC. Both networks' White House correspondents covered Limbaugh's appearance at CPAC. ABC's Jake Tapper told us that "Limbaugh brought a convention full of conservatives to their feet over the weekend." NBC's Chuck Todd reminded us about the build-up to Newt Gingrich's revolution of 1994: "The last time Republicans were in the political wilderness, Limbaugh helped lead them out." At issue was Limbaugh's avowed wish that Barack Obama's economic policies should be unsuccessful: "I hope he fails."
ABC's Tapper saw the White House "pounce," posing the question to Limbaugh's ideological soulmates whether they too wished for fiscal failure in the midst of a recession. "That question has resulted in discord in conservative ranks," Tapper judged. NBC's Todd was not so convinced that Rush was such a useful wedge to splinter the right wing: "This feud presents risks for both parties," he mused. "Does the President want to be in a partisan food fight with a talkradio host? Do the Republicans want Limbaugh as their face?"
CBS turned to its in-house radio star for its closer. Charles Osgood paid tribute to his colleague and rival Paul Harvey of ABC Radio, who started his national broadcast in 1951 and is now dead at age 90. Osgood quoted Harvey: "Radio is the ultimate visual medium." He admired his writing--"he would create word pictures"--and his delivery--"that fantastic voice of his and the inflections and the pauses."
Listening to Harvey read copy was like listening to jazz.
CNBC's Trish Regan reported from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange for NBC that AIG represented "the biggest quarterly loss of a public company in history." There were two questions that reporters attempted to answer. Why is AIG losing so much money? Why is the government refusing to allow it to fail? ABC's Betsy Stark gave us the Treasury Department's official line in answer to the second: "Given the systemic risk AIG continues to pose, the potential cost to the economy of government inaction would be extremely high."
ABC's John Berman took us back to the bursting of the housing bubble to explain why AIG has lost so much. It sold "a type of insurance--so-called Credit Default Swaps--to banks and financial institutions that invested in the mortgage market. If the bank started losing money on mortgages, AIG would help cover those losses. AIG was raking in huge money selling this insurance, betting and betting big that the economy would keep humming along." The bets went wrong and "the house--AIG--could not pay."
So why not let AIG go broke? Nancy Cordes put it this way in her CBS explainer What it Means: "AIG is at the hub of the global financial system, insuring pensions, money markets, banks and insurance companies against losses in 130 different countries. If AIG fails the whole wheel could deflate." Booz & Co economist Seamus McMahon used a different analogy for ABC's Stark: "AIG is at the center of a spider's web. The filaments, the strands go all over the world into thousands of organizations. If there is a tear in the center, the whole web collapses."
ABC's Berman summed up the situation as "an unpleasant choice between unsavory scenarios." His colleague Stark suggested "we could be talking about trillions rather than billions."
THE PARADOX OF THRIFT CBS had business correspondent Anthony Mason lead with the law of unintended consequences. "As the savings rate actually fell below 0% just four years ago economists were begging Americans to change their ways," he recalled. Well, they have. The personal savings rate has grown in just the past six months from 1% of income to 5%, with Americans "socking away money at rates we have not seen in more than a decade." The upshot is less spending in an economy where consumers had once accounted for 70% of all activity. "The recovery, when it finally comes, could be significantly weaker because Americans are saving more," Mason warned.
IMMIGRANTS DO NOT COUNT FOR GIBSON ABC anchor Charles Gibson began his California coverage with a survey of the bleak state of the state's economy, which may be large--"twice the size of India's"--but is shrinking. Consumers are not spending: a NASCAR race in Fontana had to discount tickets to fill the stands. Employers are not hiring: 4,500 applied for 500 part-time jobs at Dodger Stadium. Homes stand unsold: in the Inland Empire communities of Pomona and Covina and Rancho Cucamonga "swimming pools sit vacant and become breeding grounds for mosquitoes." Gibson insinuated that California's population is contracting too, citing the carefully-qualified statistic that the state has 1.5m fewer non-immigrants than a decade ago. Why do immigrants not count as residents too?
STUCK OUTSIDE SPARTANBURG A late winter storm stretching from Alabama to New England earned coverage by correspondents on all three newscasts. NBC's Peter Alexander celebrated the snow day, calling it "certainly very cool for the kids." CBS assigned the task to Early Show weathercaster Dave Price, who in turn used soundbites from WBDJ-TV's Tim Saunders in Virginia and WBZ-TV's Mish Michaels in Massachusetts. ABC deployed its own reporters, with David Muir introducing Gigi Stone amid the flight delays at Logan Airport in Boston and Steve Osunsami stuck in a 40-mile traffic jam outside Spartanburg SC: "We have been trying to get to Charlotte for the last 14 hours."
FISHING FOOTBALLERS Normally the plight of a quartet of weekend recreational fishermen, caught in a 21-foot boat by 14-foot waves off the Gulf Coast of Florida would be a local story. Because the four happen to be athletes--two NFL players, two former college footballers--all three national newscasts covered the Coast Guard search that started Sunday morning: Mark Potter filed from Miami for NBC; Jeffrey Kofman from Jacksonville for ABC; Kelly Cobiella from Tampa on CBS. A lone fisherman was found, Nick Schuyler, who once played for the University of South Florida. He was clinging to the engine of the capsized boat, dehydrated and hypothermic but alive, after two nights in 62F waters. The two professionals, Marquis Cooper of the Raiders and Corey Smith of the Lions, were still missing.
PLUS POPCORN, PLUS BABYSITTER NBC became the third of the three newscasts to notice that movie theater box office business is booming and to point to the dire state of the economy to account for it. CBS' Sandra Hughes noticed the trend before Christmas and Good Morning America anchor Robin Roberts covered it on ABC just before that network's Academy Awards telecast. Now NBC's Chris Jansing tells us that January's ticket sales were 17% higher than a year previously. Slumdog Millionaire has the strongest post-Awards take of an Oscarwinner since Titanic in 1997. Jansing even slipped in some shameless cross-promotion, allowing studio head Ron Meyer of Universal, NBC News' sibling in NBC Universal, to make his pitch: "Even if you add the popcorn and pay a babysitter and get a burger afterwards, I think it is still an economical evening."
SEE YOU ON THE RADIO Rush Limbaugh was the radio celebrity to catch the ear of NBC and ABC. Both networks' White House correspondents covered Limbaugh's appearance at CPAC. ABC's Jake Tapper told us that "Limbaugh brought a convention full of conservatives to their feet over the weekend." NBC's Chuck Todd reminded us about the build-up to Newt Gingrich's revolution of 1994: "The last time Republicans were in the political wilderness, Limbaugh helped lead them out." At issue was Limbaugh's avowed wish that Barack Obama's economic policies should be unsuccessful: "I hope he fails."
ABC's Tapper saw the White House "pounce," posing the question to Limbaugh's ideological soulmates whether they too wished for fiscal failure in the midst of a recession. "That question has resulted in discord in conservative ranks," Tapper judged. NBC's Todd was not so convinced that Rush was such a useful wedge to splinter the right wing: "This feud presents risks for both parties," he mused. "Does the President want to be in a partisan food fight with a talkradio host? Do the Republicans want Limbaugh as their face?"
CBS turned to its in-house radio star for its closer. Charles Osgood paid tribute to his colleague and rival Paul Harvey of ABC Radio, who started his national broadcast in 1951 and is now dead at age 90. Osgood quoted Harvey: "Radio is the ultimate visual medium." He admired his writing--"he would create word pictures"--and his delivery--"that fantastic voice of his and the inflections and the pauses."
Listening to Harvey read copy was like listening to jazz.
