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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM MARCH 10, 2009
The 18-month bear market on Wall Street has seen prices fall so far that a daily move of 379 points on the Dow Jones Industrial Average is once more large enough to be newsworthy. This one-day change of almost 6% in the value of financial assets was especially noteworthy because of its unusual direction--on the buy side. ABC led with stock market action and it was the Story of the Day. CBS and NBC both chose to lead with a notorious decline in the value of financial assets, those purportedly held by Bernard Madoff's investment fund. In a pre-trial hearing in New York City, the disgraced financier's lawyer announced that his client intends to plead guilty this week to eleven counts arising from Madoff's self-styled Ponzi scheme.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR MARCH 10, 2009: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
FINANCIAL ASSETS UPS AND DOWNS The 18-month bear market on Wall Street has seen prices fall so far that a daily move of 379 points on the Dow Jones Industrial Average is once more large enough to be newsworthy. This one-day change of almost 6% in the value of financial assets was especially noteworthy because of its unusual direction--on the buy side. ABC led with stock market action and it was the Story of the Day. CBS and NBC both chose to lead with a notorious decline in the value of financial assets, those purportedly held by Bernard Madoff's investment fund. In a pre-trial hearing in New York City, the disgraced financier's lawyer announced that his client intends to plead guilty this week to eleven counts arising from Madoff's self-styled Ponzi scheme.
"Remember what a rally looks like?" joked CBS' Anthony Mason as the stock market posted its biggest daily increase in three months. The day's action "was what the pros call a bear market bounce," ABC's Betsy Stark pointed out. She pointed to "beaten down financial stocks" as the origin of the buying spree: Citigroup up 38%, Bank of America up 28%, JP Morgan Chase up 23%.
An internal e-mail at Citigroup from Vikram Pandit, its chief executive, had announced that the bank was making profits during the first two months of 2009. CBS' Mason was skeptical: "Citigroup still has tens of billions of dollars of these bad loans--toxic assets--on their books," he warned. "They still have to show at the end of the quarter any possible writedowns from those bad loans." On NBC, CNBC anchor Erin Burnett pointed to reassurance for the financial center banks from Chairman Benjamin Bernanke of the Federal Reserve Board. He declared that "he does not understand" anyone who "still takes the view seriously that we should let a big bank fail…He is not in favor of letting that happen."
ABC anchor Charles Gibson acknowledged reporter Stark's warning that the bear market is still with us yet became a cheerleader on the buy side, regardless. "We were so excited to be able to lead the broadcast with some good news," he gushed as he asked Liz Ann Sonders, the investment strategist at Charles Schwab, if there was a chance that the day's action might mark an end to all that selling. "It is good news that it was good news out of the financials that really started this," was Sonders' tentative ray of optimism.
BARACK THE DERVISH It is now 50 days into Barack Obama's Presidency and all three White House correspondents took stock. ABC Jake Tapper conceded that "you cannot accuse him of dragging his feet" noting "action on nearly every issue under the sun." He called the President "a Whirling Dervish of activity." That is the rub, according to Obama's critics, NBC's Savannah Guthrie noted. He is "getting that accusation that he has taken on too much all at once" rather than confining himself to the priority of ending the recession as quickly as possible.
NBC's Guthrie pointed to this week's coordinated response from the White House on economic talking points: Budget Director Peter Orszag testifying on Capitol Hill; advisor Lawrence Summers making a rare speech; Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner granting an interview to PBS' Charlie Rose; Chairman Benjamin Bernanke speaking in Washington; Speaker Nancy Pelosi mulling a second round of stimulus spending.
CBS' Chip Reid looked at Obama's proposed budget and found two initiatives that are likely to be defeated: cuts in subsidies to agribusiness and lower tax deductions for philanthropy by the wealthy. He sought feedback from his unidentified sources at the White House. They understand that their fellow Democrats have "different agendas" but "in the end the budget that passes Congress will be very similar to the one the President proposed."
WHAT’S THE BEEF IN MOSUL? ABC sent Martha Raddatz to Iraq for a debriefing by Gen Raymond Odierno. The general took her on a battlefield tour of northern Iraq, site of most of the current combat. Hot spots are Diyala Province and the cities of Kirkuk and Mosul. The general estimated that "25% of the country is still fighting off insurgents" but Raddatz did not elaborate on the underlying disputes in those regions. The US military is supposed to stop patrolling Iraq's cities and withdraw to rural bases within three months: "The Iraqis could ask us to stay in Mosul after the end of June. If they ask us to stay then we will probably stay and help them out," the generous general speculated.
DALAI LAMA, THE FAILURE "I publicly accept the failure of our approach." That was the soundbite Ann Curry obtained from the Dalai Lama from his home in Indian exile on the 50th anniversary of his expulsion from Tibet. NBC's In Depth report ran "rare images" from inside Tibet of civil disobedience against the People's Republic. "In recent days Tibetans have been staging a silent protest against China, not eating Chinese food and refusing to speak Chinese." The Dalai Lama acknowledged that his policy "to pursue autonomy for Tibet rather than full independence" has failed. He accused Beijing of "suppression, killing, torture, arrest" and the deaths of "hundreds of thousands" of Tibetans but refused to retract his tactics of non-violence against the Communist regime.
A GUILTY PLEA NOT A PLEA BARGAIN All three networks had correspondents cover Bernard Madoff's court appearance. "This is the man who may have stolen more money from more people than anyone in American history," was the grandiose claim from ABC's Jim Avila. On NBC, CNBC's Scott Cohn pointed out that prosecutors state that Madoff's fraudulent scheme lasted at least 25 years and amounted to $170bn. His pending guilty plea is not the same as a plea bargain, prosecutors urged reporters to clarify. "There is no plea agreement, no deal struck with Madoff to reduce his prison time," as CBS' Randall Pinkston put it. ABC's Avila asked rhetorically: "What is in it for Madoff?" The government says clearly in documents released today: "It made no deals." CNBC's Cohn pointed to the downside: "Without a plea agreement, Madoff is under no obligation to cooperate with investigators trying to find all the money."
ELKHART, THE POSTER TOWN The nightly newscasts (here and here) and President Barack Obama (here, here and here) have already discovered Elkhart Ind as the poster town for a recessionary economy. It is where recreational vehicles used to be built and where even the Dakota Restaurant (here and here) had to shutter its doors. Now Feed the Children, the Oklahoma based charity network, has found Elkhart too. NBC's Kevin Tibbles was on hand when it trucked in 1,600 care packages for local hungry families. "Each box is designed to provide a family of four with the basics for five days--cereal, cooking oil, canned goods, mac-&-cheese."
GREENFIELD ON LIMBAUGH LOYALTY TESTS NBC and ABC had their White House correspondents Chuck Todd and Jake Tapper cover the Rush Limbaugh brouhaha as a news story when it first broke last week. CBS bided its time and now airs a four-minute essay on the phenomenon by political correspondent Jeff Greenfield that sums up the affair quite neatly. He called the question of whether the radio talkshow host is an authentic political leader of the nation's conservatives a "diverting political tempest."
Greenfield recapitulated Limbaugh's desire for the Obama Administration's platform to fail and the White House's challenge to Republicans to disavow Limbaugh's words. "Republicans charge the White House with unleashing a weapon of mass distraction," quipped Greenfield. Democrats "charge that Republicans are cowed by a commentator who is wishing the nation ill."
Greenfield actually lets the White House off lightly, failing to characterize its loyalty test for conservatives as the disreputable McCarthyite tactic that it is. Instead he called it another "old political tactic, trying to define the other side by its most polarizing figure." Limbaugh is for Democrats, he suggested, what Jane Fonda and Jesse Jackson used to be for Republicans. "Polls suggest that only a small minority of Republicans regard Limbaugh as an important leader of their party. Will that stop Democrats from trying to define him that way? Not likely."
CANCER GIRL HAS HOPE BUT NO SPLEEN The human interest story of the day featured Heather McNamara, a seven-year-old stomach cancer patient from Long Island. A tennis ball sized tumor was buried so deep in her abdominal cavity that most doctors deemed it inoperable. Not Tomoaki Kato, an organ transplant surgeon at New York Presbyterian Hospital. In a 23-hour procedure he removed the girl's stomach, her pancreas, her spleen, her liver, her small intestine and her large intestine to get to the cancer, ABC's Sharyn Alfonsi told us. Then "her healthy organs were put back in place." That means that she is missing a stomach--"food pump in her backpack," CBS Kelly Wallace pointed out--a spleen and a pancreas. "She runs the risk of infection"--who knew what a spleen is for?--and is "now a diabetic." What is the patient's conclusion from her ordeal? "That there is hope."
"Remember what a rally looks like?" joked CBS' Anthony Mason as the stock market posted its biggest daily increase in three months. The day's action "was what the pros call a bear market bounce," ABC's Betsy Stark pointed out. She pointed to "beaten down financial stocks" as the origin of the buying spree: Citigroup up 38%, Bank of America up 28%, JP Morgan Chase up 23%.
An internal e-mail at Citigroup from Vikram Pandit, its chief executive, had announced that the bank was making profits during the first two months of 2009. CBS' Mason was skeptical: "Citigroup still has tens of billions of dollars of these bad loans--toxic assets--on their books," he warned. "They still have to show at the end of the quarter any possible writedowns from those bad loans." On NBC, CNBC anchor Erin Burnett pointed to reassurance for the financial center banks from Chairman Benjamin Bernanke of the Federal Reserve Board. He declared that "he does not understand" anyone who "still takes the view seriously that we should let a big bank fail…He is not in favor of letting that happen."
ABC anchor Charles Gibson acknowledged reporter Stark's warning that the bear market is still with us yet became a cheerleader on the buy side, regardless. "We were so excited to be able to lead the broadcast with some good news," he gushed as he asked Liz Ann Sonders, the investment strategist at Charles Schwab, if there was a chance that the day's action might mark an end to all that selling. "It is good news that it was good news out of the financials that really started this," was Sonders' tentative ray of optimism.
BARACK THE DERVISH It is now 50 days into Barack Obama's Presidency and all three White House correspondents took stock. ABC Jake Tapper conceded that "you cannot accuse him of dragging his feet" noting "action on nearly every issue under the sun." He called the President "a Whirling Dervish of activity." That is the rub, according to Obama's critics, NBC's Savannah Guthrie noted. He is "getting that accusation that he has taken on too much all at once" rather than confining himself to the priority of ending the recession as quickly as possible.
NBC's Guthrie pointed to this week's coordinated response from the White House on economic talking points: Budget Director Peter Orszag testifying on Capitol Hill; advisor Lawrence Summers making a rare speech; Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner granting an interview to PBS' Charlie Rose; Chairman Benjamin Bernanke speaking in Washington; Speaker Nancy Pelosi mulling a second round of stimulus spending.
CBS' Chip Reid looked at Obama's proposed budget and found two initiatives that are likely to be defeated: cuts in subsidies to agribusiness and lower tax deductions for philanthropy by the wealthy. He sought feedback from his unidentified sources at the White House. They understand that their fellow Democrats have "different agendas" but "in the end the budget that passes Congress will be very similar to the one the President proposed."
WHAT’S THE BEEF IN MOSUL? ABC sent Martha Raddatz to Iraq for a debriefing by Gen Raymond Odierno. The general took her on a battlefield tour of northern Iraq, site of most of the current combat. Hot spots are Diyala Province and the cities of Kirkuk and Mosul. The general estimated that "25% of the country is still fighting off insurgents" but Raddatz did not elaborate on the underlying disputes in those regions. The US military is supposed to stop patrolling Iraq's cities and withdraw to rural bases within three months: "The Iraqis could ask us to stay in Mosul after the end of June. If they ask us to stay then we will probably stay and help them out," the generous general speculated.
DALAI LAMA, THE FAILURE "I publicly accept the failure of our approach." That was the soundbite Ann Curry obtained from the Dalai Lama from his home in Indian exile on the 50th anniversary of his expulsion from Tibet. NBC's In Depth report ran "rare images" from inside Tibet of civil disobedience against the People's Republic. "In recent days Tibetans have been staging a silent protest against China, not eating Chinese food and refusing to speak Chinese." The Dalai Lama acknowledged that his policy "to pursue autonomy for Tibet rather than full independence" has failed. He accused Beijing of "suppression, killing, torture, arrest" and the deaths of "hundreds of thousands" of Tibetans but refused to retract his tactics of non-violence against the Communist regime.
A GUILTY PLEA NOT A PLEA BARGAIN All three networks had correspondents cover Bernard Madoff's court appearance. "This is the man who may have stolen more money from more people than anyone in American history," was the grandiose claim from ABC's Jim Avila. On NBC, CNBC's Scott Cohn pointed out that prosecutors state that Madoff's fraudulent scheme lasted at least 25 years and amounted to $170bn. His pending guilty plea is not the same as a plea bargain, prosecutors urged reporters to clarify. "There is no plea agreement, no deal struck with Madoff to reduce his prison time," as CBS' Randall Pinkston put it. ABC's Avila asked rhetorically: "What is in it for Madoff?" The government says clearly in documents released today: "It made no deals." CNBC's Cohn pointed to the downside: "Without a plea agreement, Madoff is under no obligation to cooperate with investigators trying to find all the money."
ELKHART, THE POSTER TOWN The nightly newscasts (here and here) and President Barack Obama (here, here and here) have already discovered Elkhart Ind as the poster town for a recessionary economy. It is where recreational vehicles used to be built and where even the Dakota Restaurant (here and here) had to shutter its doors. Now Feed the Children, the Oklahoma based charity network, has found Elkhart too. NBC's Kevin Tibbles was on hand when it trucked in 1,600 care packages for local hungry families. "Each box is designed to provide a family of four with the basics for five days--cereal, cooking oil, canned goods, mac-&-cheese."
GREENFIELD ON LIMBAUGH LOYALTY TESTS NBC and ABC had their White House correspondents Chuck Todd and Jake Tapper cover the Rush Limbaugh brouhaha as a news story when it first broke last week. CBS bided its time and now airs a four-minute essay on the phenomenon by political correspondent Jeff Greenfield that sums up the affair quite neatly. He called the question of whether the radio talkshow host is an authentic political leader of the nation's conservatives a "diverting political tempest."
Greenfield recapitulated Limbaugh's desire for the Obama Administration's platform to fail and the White House's challenge to Republicans to disavow Limbaugh's words. "Republicans charge the White House with unleashing a weapon of mass distraction," quipped Greenfield. Democrats "charge that Republicans are cowed by a commentator who is wishing the nation ill."
Greenfield actually lets the White House off lightly, failing to characterize its loyalty test for conservatives as the disreputable McCarthyite tactic that it is. Instead he called it another "old political tactic, trying to define the other side by its most polarizing figure." Limbaugh is for Democrats, he suggested, what Jane Fonda and Jesse Jackson used to be for Republicans. "Polls suggest that only a small minority of Republicans regard Limbaugh as an important leader of their party. Will that stop Democrats from trying to define him that way? Not likely."
CANCER GIRL HAS HOPE BUT NO SPLEEN The human interest story of the day featured Heather McNamara, a seven-year-old stomach cancer patient from Long Island. A tennis ball sized tumor was buried so deep in her abdominal cavity that most doctors deemed it inoperable. Not Tomoaki Kato, an organ transplant surgeon at New York Presbyterian Hospital. In a 23-hour procedure he removed the girl's stomach, her pancreas, her spleen, her liver, her small intestine and her large intestine to get to the cancer, ABC's Sharyn Alfonsi told us. Then "her healthy organs were put back in place." That means that she is missing a stomach--"food pump in her backpack," CBS Kelly Wallace pointed out--a spleen and a pancreas. "She runs the risk of infection"--who knew what a spleen is for?--and is "now a diabetic." What is the patient's conclusion from her ordeal? "That there is hope."
