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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM MARCH 18, 2009
Day Three of the brouhaha about the bonuses at American International Group. The $165m paid out to the very traders who triggered a $180bn federal bailout was the Story of the Day, leading all three newscasts for three days straight. The insurance conglomerate's chief executive Edward Liddy took center stage as each network led off with its Capitol Hill correspondent's coverage of his testimony to a House committee. "I have asked those who received retention payments in excess of $100,000 to return at least half," Liddy testified. Both CBS and NBC had substitutes in the anchor chair: Maggie Rodriguez from the Early Show and David Gregory from Meet the Press.
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AIG GOES NINE-FOR-NINE FOR THE WEEK TO DATE Day Three of the brouhaha about the bonuses at American International Group. The $165m paid out to the very traders who triggered a $180bn federal bailout was the Story of the Day, leading all three newscasts for three days straight. The insurance conglomerate's chief executive Edward Liddy took center stage as each network led off with its Capitol Hill correspondent's coverage of his testimony to a House committee. "I have asked those who received retention payments in excess of $100,000 to return at least half," Liddy testified. Both CBS and NBC had substitutes in the anchor chair: Maggie Rodriguez from the Early Show and David Gregory from Meet the Press.
CEO Liddy won the sympathy of reporters. CBS' Nancy Cordes saw him "walking into the lion's den" while NBC's Kelly O'Donnell noted that "Liddy was not in charge when AIG imploded." As ABC's Jonathan Karl put it, "Liddy took over last September at a salary of $1 to fix up a mess he did not create." All three used the soundbite from his testimony demonstrating that hate mail had turned the bonus scandal deadly serious: "All the executives and their families should be executed with piano wire around their necks."
On the merits of the bonuses themselves, the coverage was less supportive. CBS' Cordes heard Liddy "struggle to explain why his executives' contractual bonuses were sacrosanct when workers in so many industries--aviation, trucking, automotive--have seen their contracts broken." NBC's O'Donnell explained Liddy's explanation as "keeping key employees there to finish dismantling the company" while ABC's Karl put it the other way: "The company was desperate to retain employees needed to salvage the Financial Products Division." So what is it--a rescue plan or the wrecking ball?
GOING AFTER GEITHNER NOT BERNANKE Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner turns out to be the political target from the outrage at AIG bonuses, all three White House correspondents concluded. NBC's Chuck Todd sensed "a political storm gathering" and the "storm clouds potentially consuming" the Treasury Secretary. CBS' Chip Reid saw Geithner as "embattled." ABC's Jake Tapper (at the tail of the Jonathan Karl videostream) reported that Republicans are "calling for the head of the Treasury Secretary" while NBC's Todd saw them "setting their sights" on making the Secretary "the fall guy."
It is not clear why Geithner was being targeted. ABC's Tapper reported administration claims that neither Treasury Secretary nor President knew about the AIG bonuses until last week while the Federal Reserve Board, CEO Edward Liddy testified, was informed as early as last November. ABC's Betsy Stark stated that "it was disclosed in a variety of places:" Liddy "was very clear" that he had informed several Congressional staffers about the payments; and AIG itself had disclosed the information in SEC filings in May of 2008. ABC's Tapper quoted Barack Obama: "There is a whole bunch of folks now who are feigning outrage about these bonuses that a year ago--or two years ago or three years ago--said: 'Well, we should never meddle in these compensation plans.'" Obama, Tapper observed, "stood by Geithner literally and figuratively."
ABC's Stark suggested that everyone should calm down: "They have to keep sight of the fact that they are talking about $165m in bonuses and they have a $170bn investment to protect."
SWISS BANK MAY BE REFORM MODEL CBS' Anthony Mason filed an informative What It Means explainer about how the flaws in AIG's bonuses are typical of Wall Street's "incentives to take irresponsible risks." He quoted Rep Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat, as calling the bonuses: "Heads, they win; tails, they break even." In Switzerland, the UBS bank has reformed its structure. "Executives will now have their bonuses deposited into an account: only a third of the amount can be withdrawn annually; and if the company suffers losses the next year the bank can take some or all of the money back." Mason called the UBS plan "a model for reform."
MILITARY MATTERS All three newscasts aired military packages. NBC's was from the Pentagon as Jim Miklaszewski covered the backlash against a White House plan to shift $500m of healthcare costs each year away from the Veterans Administration to private health insurance, if a veteran happened to be covered under both plans. "Wholly unacceptable and unconscionable," was the response of organized veterans' groups. Senators were opposed. Veterans Secretary Eric Shinseki was "strongly opposed." The White House "retreated and dropped the proposal."
CBS' regular anchor, even on her day off, filed the second part of her Katie Couric Reports feature on rape and molestation of women in the military. Tuesday Couric told us the shocking statistic that fully one third of all women on active duty are sexually assaulted during their time in uniform. Now, no shock at all, she revealed that rape is a fact of war. History has taught us that since the Siege of Troy and the Romans and the Sabine women. Couric's twist was that in Iraq and Afghanistan it is not occupied civilian women being raped but American soldiers' comrades in arms. Couric reported that military recruiters' "moral waiver" policy sometimes allows convicted rapists to enlist and that soldiers court martialed and convicted of rape sometimes have a bad conduct discharge suspended to allow redeployment to a war zone.
After a pair of rosy scenarios from Terry McCarthy (here and here) in ABC's Where Things Stand series on Iraq, Martha Raddatz took us to a city where "carbombs, rocket attacks and firefights" are still the order of business. Raddatz decided not tell us what is at issue in the continued combat in Mosul. Instead she opted for an up-close-and-personal profile of a pair of USArmy officers in the First Cavalry Division that she had first covered in 2004 when fighting was still fierce in Baghdad's Sadr City slum. Meet Capt Shane Aguero and Col Gary Volesky, now on their third tour of duty in Iraq.
IMPOTENT & INCONTINENT For every man whose life is saved by treating his prostate cancer, there are 47 men who put themselves at risk of impotence and incontinence by undergoing treatment for a tumor that would not have killed them anyway. That is the medieval statistic presented by NBC's Robert Bazell in his report on a pair of National Cancer Institute studies published in The New England Journal of Medicine. The conclusion, comparing middle-aged men who took a PSA blood test for the cancer with those who skipped it, is that "men who got the PSA tests did not live any longer." ABC anchor Charles Gibson consulted in-house physician Timothy Johnson. Johnson recommended that men between the ages of 50 and 70 should go ahead and have the test anyway. "What we need, desperately need, is a test that will tell us how aggressive a cancer is."
DATELINE QUINTANA ROO Spring break comes face to face with Mexico's narcotics gang violence--it is an irresistible storyline. ABC's Jim Avila was unlucky to file it first, when the State Department sent out a travel warning, since he was stuck in New York City in February covering the diplomatic angle. NBC's Mark Potter was fortunate to wait until the break was under way and wangled a trip to the Yucatan last week. Now CBS' Seth Doane also lands the junket to Cancun's "sugary beaches." He duly contrasted scantily-clad nubile pleasures with "a grisly example of an unsavory undercurrent"--the torture and murder of a retired Mexican army general who was supposed to "overhaul the local police force after it was believed infiltrated by drug cartels."
NOT SO PRETTY, NOR SO WITTY--WHAT A PITY NBC's Mike Taibbi reminded us how urgent the choreography is for West Side Story--and how dynamic the score--when he played clips from its original Broadway production in 1957 and the subsequent movie hit. He also reminded us how clever the lyrics are--by depriving us of them. The current Broadway revival has the words translated so that the Sharks sing in Spanish. Why on earth would any actress give up the intricate rhymes of I Feel Pretty for the sake of mere linguistic naturalism?
OVAL OFFICE POOL ABC took advantage of its sibling relationship in the Disney corporate empire with ESPN to air the First Fan's "Baracketology," as anchor Charles Gibson cornily punned. Barack Obama mapped out his road to the Final Four for espn.com's Andy Katz. Gibson noted that Reggie Love, the President's personal assistant, once played college basketball for Duke University, explaining why Obama predicted Duke's March Madness progress. "No, no, not the whole way," Obama insisted before rubbing salt in any Blue Devils fan's wounds by tipping their archrival to be NCAA Tournament champions: "The Tar Heels that are watching, I picked you all last year. You let me down. This year do not embarrass me in front of the nation."
CEO Liddy won the sympathy of reporters. CBS' Nancy Cordes saw him "walking into the lion's den" while NBC's Kelly O'Donnell noted that "Liddy was not in charge when AIG imploded." As ABC's Jonathan Karl put it, "Liddy took over last September at a salary of $1 to fix up a mess he did not create." All three used the soundbite from his testimony demonstrating that hate mail had turned the bonus scandal deadly serious: "All the executives and their families should be executed with piano wire around their necks."
On the merits of the bonuses themselves, the coverage was less supportive. CBS' Cordes heard Liddy "struggle to explain why his executives' contractual bonuses were sacrosanct when workers in so many industries--aviation, trucking, automotive--have seen their contracts broken." NBC's O'Donnell explained Liddy's explanation as "keeping key employees there to finish dismantling the company" while ABC's Karl put it the other way: "The company was desperate to retain employees needed to salvage the Financial Products Division." So what is it--a rescue plan or the wrecking ball?
GOING AFTER GEITHNER NOT BERNANKE Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner turns out to be the political target from the outrage at AIG bonuses, all three White House correspondents concluded. NBC's Chuck Todd sensed "a political storm gathering" and the "storm clouds potentially consuming" the Treasury Secretary. CBS' Chip Reid saw Geithner as "embattled." ABC's Jake Tapper (at the tail of the Jonathan Karl videostream) reported that Republicans are "calling for the head of the Treasury Secretary" while NBC's Todd saw them "setting their sights" on making the Secretary "the fall guy."
It is not clear why Geithner was being targeted. ABC's Tapper reported administration claims that neither Treasury Secretary nor President knew about the AIG bonuses until last week while the Federal Reserve Board, CEO Edward Liddy testified, was informed as early as last November. ABC's Betsy Stark stated that "it was disclosed in a variety of places:" Liddy "was very clear" that he had informed several Congressional staffers about the payments; and AIG itself had disclosed the information in SEC filings in May of 2008. ABC's Tapper quoted Barack Obama: "There is a whole bunch of folks now who are feigning outrage about these bonuses that a year ago--or two years ago or three years ago--said: 'Well, we should never meddle in these compensation plans.'" Obama, Tapper observed, "stood by Geithner literally and figuratively."
ABC's Stark suggested that everyone should calm down: "They have to keep sight of the fact that they are talking about $165m in bonuses and they have a $170bn investment to protect."
SWISS BANK MAY BE REFORM MODEL CBS' Anthony Mason filed an informative What It Means explainer about how the flaws in AIG's bonuses are typical of Wall Street's "incentives to take irresponsible risks." He quoted Rep Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat, as calling the bonuses: "Heads, they win; tails, they break even." In Switzerland, the UBS bank has reformed its structure. "Executives will now have their bonuses deposited into an account: only a third of the amount can be withdrawn annually; and if the company suffers losses the next year the bank can take some or all of the money back." Mason called the UBS plan "a model for reform."
MILITARY MATTERS All three newscasts aired military packages. NBC's was from the Pentagon as Jim Miklaszewski covered the backlash against a White House plan to shift $500m of healthcare costs each year away from the Veterans Administration to private health insurance, if a veteran happened to be covered under both plans. "Wholly unacceptable and unconscionable," was the response of organized veterans' groups. Senators were opposed. Veterans Secretary Eric Shinseki was "strongly opposed." The White House "retreated and dropped the proposal."
CBS' regular anchor, even on her day off, filed the second part of her Katie Couric Reports feature on rape and molestation of women in the military. Tuesday Couric told us the shocking statistic that fully one third of all women on active duty are sexually assaulted during their time in uniform. Now, no shock at all, she revealed that rape is a fact of war. History has taught us that since the Siege of Troy and the Romans and the Sabine women. Couric's twist was that in Iraq and Afghanistan it is not occupied civilian women being raped but American soldiers' comrades in arms. Couric reported that military recruiters' "moral waiver" policy sometimes allows convicted rapists to enlist and that soldiers court martialed and convicted of rape sometimes have a bad conduct discharge suspended to allow redeployment to a war zone.
After a pair of rosy scenarios from Terry McCarthy (here and here) in ABC's Where Things Stand series on Iraq, Martha Raddatz took us to a city where "carbombs, rocket attacks and firefights" are still the order of business. Raddatz decided not tell us what is at issue in the continued combat in Mosul. Instead she opted for an up-close-and-personal profile of a pair of USArmy officers in the First Cavalry Division that she had first covered in 2004 when fighting was still fierce in Baghdad's Sadr City slum. Meet Capt Shane Aguero and Col Gary Volesky, now on their third tour of duty in Iraq.
IMPOTENT & INCONTINENT For every man whose life is saved by treating his prostate cancer, there are 47 men who put themselves at risk of impotence and incontinence by undergoing treatment for a tumor that would not have killed them anyway. That is the medieval statistic presented by NBC's Robert Bazell in his report on a pair of National Cancer Institute studies published in The New England Journal of Medicine. The conclusion, comparing middle-aged men who took a PSA blood test for the cancer with those who skipped it, is that "men who got the PSA tests did not live any longer." ABC anchor Charles Gibson consulted in-house physician Timothy Johnson. Johnson recommended that men between the ages of 50 and 70 should go ahead and have the test anyway. "What we need, desperately need, is a test that will tell us how aggressive a cancer is."
DATELINE QUINTANA ROO Spring break comes face to face with Mexico's narcotics gang violence--it is an irresistible storyline. ABC's Jim Avila was unlucky to file it first, when the State Department sent out a travel warning, since he was stuck in New York City in February covering the diplomatic angle. NBC's Mark Potter was fortunate to wait until the break was under way and wangled a trip to the Yucatan last week. Now CBS' Seth Doane also lands the junket to Cancun's "sugary beaches." He duly contrasted scantily-clad nubile pleasures with "a grisly example of an unsavory undercurrent"--the torture and murder of a retired Mexican army general who was supposed to "overhaul the local police force after it was believed infiltrated by drug cartels."
NOT SO PRETTY, NOR SO WITTY--WHAT A PITY NBC's Mike Taibbi reminded us how urgent the choreography is for West Side Story--and how dynamic the score--when he played clips from its original Broadway production in 1957 and the subsequent movie hit. He also reminded us how clever the lyrics are--by depriving us of them. The current Broadway revival has the words translated so that the Sharks sing in Spanish. Why on earth would any actress give up the intricate rhymes of I Feel Pretty for the sake of mere linguistic naturalism?
OVAL OFFICE POOL ABC took advantage of its sibling relationship in the Disney corporate empire with ESPN to air the First Fan's "Baracketology," as anchor Charles Gibson cornily punned. Barack Obama mapped out his road to the Final Four for espn.com's Andy Katz. Gibson noted that Reggie Love, the President's personal assistant, once played college basketball for Duke University, explaining why Obama predicted Duke's March Madness progress. "No, no, not the whole way," Obama insisted before rubbing salt in any Blue Devils fan's wounds by tipping their archrival to be NCAA Tournament champions: "The Tar Heels that are watching, I picked you all last year. You let me down. This year do not embarrass me in front of the nation."
