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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM APRIL 24, 2009
Visions of the residents of Mexico City wandering around with their faces covered with breathing masks led off all three newscasts. A previously unknown strain of the influenza virus--part swine 'flu, part avian 'flu, part human 'flu--had sickened some 1,000 Mexicans. ABC cited 16 deaths, CBS 20, NBC 60. Because it is a new strain no vaccine is available and antiviral medicines are the only available treatment. The World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control are investigating and the networks made their worry its Story of the Day.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR APRIL 24, 2009: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
MEXICO CITY SPARKS PUBLIC HEALTH ‘FLU ALERT Visions of the residents of Mexico City wandering around with their faces covered with breathing masks led off all three newscasts. A previously unknown strain of the influenza virus--part swine 'flu, part avian 'flu, part human 'flu--had sickened some 1,000 Mexicans. ABC cited 16 deaths, CBS 20, NBC 60. Because it is a new strain no vaccine is available and antiviral medicines are the only available treatment. The World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control are investigating and the networks made their worry its Story of the Day.
Public health authorities in Mexico "closed schools, museums, libraries and other public facilities," noted NBC's Robert Bazell, warning residents "to avoid all large gatherings." Voicing over videotape from the Distrito Federal, CBS' Sandra Hughes showed us "the worried line up for testing, their faces covered with masks."
"There is reason for concern but absolutely, positively no reason to panic," declared CBS' in-house physician Jon LaPook (at the tail of the Hughes videostream), walking that fine line of risking invoking the very emotion he was warning against. ABC's John McKenzie explained the cause for concern: "None of the patients had any contact with pigs. This swine 'flu is spreading from person to person…Doctors are asking, 'Could this be the beginning of a much-feared global pandemic?'" As NBC's Bazell put it: "Any new virus to which humans have no natural immunity holds that possibility." What to do? "All you can do is wait."
ARE STRESS TESTS NOT SEVERE ENOUGH OR RIGOROUS? No banks were mentioned by name yet ABC's Betsy Stark and CBS' Anthony Mason both reported that examiners had combed through the books of the nation's 19 major institutions and finished their so-called stress tests. CBS' Mason ticked off the criteria that were supposed to simulate serious future economic shock: 10/3% unemployment, 3.3% contraction in Gross Domestic Product, a further 29% decline in real estate prices in the housing market. "Some analysts say those assumptions may not be severe enough," he shrugged. ABC's Stark took the results of the test as good news. Regulators "declared the overall system in good health." She called the criteria "a rigorous review."
Instead of high finance, NBC chose the automobile industry for its sector under stress. Phil LeBeau of CNBC brought us an update on Detroit's shrinking Big Three. "Chrysler could be bankrupt within a week," he warned. Ford Motors, thanks to the sale of Jaguar and Land Rover and the success of its Mustang model, is losing money at half the rate of last fall: "Ford says it is turning the tide." General Motors "is going to kill Pontiac," leaving it with just four domestic brands. Predicted LeBeau, those four will have lower sales in this country than Toyota's three combined.
MADOFF’S ROUGH & TUMBLE RIGHT HAND MAN CBS' investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian revealed some inside scoop from "a source with knowledge" of the ongoing investigation into the Ponzi scheme run by disgraced financier Bernard Madoff. Keteyian profiled Frank DiPasquali, Madoff's chief financial officer. "The only non-family member of Madoff's inner circle, DiPasquali is a college dropout who grew up in the rough-and-tumble neighborhood of Howard Beach in Queens. He joined Madoff's firm in 1975, rising over the next 33 years to become his right-hand man." Keteyian reported that DiPasquali has a potential plea agreement with prosecutors that will not implicate any Madoff family members but will divulge how account statements were fabricated, as investigators probe the "funds that helped Madoff raise money."
BROADCAST VS ONLINE SPLIT AT ABC NEWS George on Torture Pics. That is the blunt, accusatory headline that ABC News uses to describe the cautious q-&-a that anchor Charles Gibson conducted with This Week's George Stephanopoulos about the looming release of hundreds of internal Pentagon photographs documenting abuse of its prisoners. The "treatment of terrorism suspects" was how Gibson put it, even though many of the abused prisoners at abu-Ghraib were under no suspicion of terrorism. "Harsh interrogation practices," was as confrontational as Stephanopoulos' verbiage managed to be.
ABC News' headline either exposes Gibson and Stephanopoulos talking out of both sides of their mouth, referring directly to "torture" off air while remaining decorously deferential on air. Or it reveals a boisterous behind-the-scenes editorial disagreement at ABC News between euphemizing broadcasters and plainspoken online staffers.
NBC's Ann Curry and ABC's Martha Raddatz, meanwhile, were on hand in Baghdad where some bona fide terrorist carnage had occurred. "Horrific bombings," ABC's Raddatz called them, as 140 were killed in three separate explosions, including "blasts that tore though crowds of worshippers gathered at the holiest Shiite site in Baghdad." Unfortunately there would be no interrogation--harsh or otherwise--for the perpetrators. They were suicidal. Many of their targets were pilgrims from Iran. Gen Raymond Odierno told NBC's Curry that he believes the dead bombers belonged to al-Qaeda because "three of the four have been female"--a hallmark sign.
HITCHCOCK, IT AIN’T When the FAA published statistics on the number of collisions between birds and jetliner engines, both ABC's Lisa Stark and CBS' Jim Axelrod quoted the questionable claim that there are more birds in the United States now than there were 20 years ago. During those two decades, Axelrod reported, the incidence of bird strikes has "more than quadrupled." He added that "quieter airplane engines do not scare them away like they used to."
I asked Jonathan Alderfer, chief consultant at National Geographic's bird program. "I certainly would not make the broad generalization that the bird population in the country as a whole is growing," he warned. He granted that it is probably true that airports have more Canada geese, starlings and city pigeons--correct name "rock doves"--than they used to have. Canada geese no longer migrate and they like the grass around runways.
Anyway, the reason Axelrod and Stark were assigned to report on the collisions was not because of the bird population but to relive that much-celebrated crash landing of USAirlines Flight 1549 in the Hudson River after geese were sucked into its engines. "The majority of bird strikes do not result in near catastrophe," ABC's Stark reassured us. That did not stop CBS anchor Katie Couric using the hair-raising introduction "a very real danger in the skies" before citing the completely calm statistic that such collisions have resulted in 11 deaths in 19 years.
GREEN JOBS IN SUNSHINE STATE Rounding out a week of Earth Day related features, ABC had Jeffrey Kofman epitomize the promise of green jobs from Martin County in Florida. The unemployment rate there has doubled from 5.3% to 10.2% in just the last year as the residential construction bubble has burst. Enter Florida Power & Light with a commercial construction project of the state's largest solar farm power plant. Kofman showed us thousands standing in line for two years' work as "electricians, carpenters, plumbers and assembly workers."
NO STALLION BUT COLT IS LONGSHOT ABC anchor Charles Gibson handed off his habitual Person of the Week duties to Chris Bury in Louisville where we enjoyed a preview of the Kentucky Derby. Bury profiled a local retired school principal, Thomas McCarthy, who has watched the race each year from the Churchill Downs grandstand since 1955. This time he will be a participant rather than a spectator. His stable has a single horse, General Quarters, purchased in a claiming race last year for $20,000. McCarthy's outsider has already won the Blue Grass Stakes and is now entered in the Run for the Roses. Confusingly, Bury called the colt "a stallion." Gibson set his odds at shorter than 30-1, longer than 18-1.
ALMOST A GREAT FALL For all the Assignment America features Steve Hartman has filed about elderly people on CBS (here is a list of 19 in the last 28 months), you would think he would know better than to send a centenarian out on his scooter for an outdoors shot in bright sunlight. Walter Breuning, at 112 the nation's oldest living human, was blinded by the glare and careened off the sidewalk, almost tottering over into the street. Hartman blamed Fred Pfeiffer, the local KRTV weathercaster in Great Falls, for not warning him of imminent catastrophe. Breuning survived and went out for ice cream.
WATERLOO SUNSET Is life in London "exhilarating" or has "frantic" become the norm? NBC's Dawna Friesen pondered the pressures of rush hour as the Slow Down Festival kicked off its ten-day protest against speed with a march--well really a shuffle--"inching across Waterloo Bridge." Slow Down wants everybody "taking time to stop and stare, putting pen to paper instead of typing your thoughts, eating lunch al fresco instead of el-desk-o."
Public health authorities in Mexico "closed schools, museums, libraries and other public facilities," noted NBC's Robert Bazell, warning residents "to avoid all large gatherings." Voicing over videotape from the Distrito Federal, CBS' Sandra Hughes showed us "the worried line up for testing, their faces covered with masks."
"There is reason for concern but absolutely, positively no reason to panic," declared CBS' in-house physician Jon LaPook (at the tail of the Hughes videostream), walking that fine line of risking invoking the very emotion he was warning against. ABC's John McKenzie explained the cause for concern: "None of the patients had any contact with pigs. This swine 'flu is spreading from person to person…Doctors are asking, 'Could this be the beginning of a much-feared global pandemic?'" As NBC's Bazell put it: "Any new virus to which humans have no natural immunity holds that possibility." What to do? "All you can do is wait."
ARE STRESS TESTS NOT SEVERE ENOUGH OR RIGOROUS? No banks were mentioned by name yet ABC's Betsy Stark and CBS' Anthony Mason both reported that examiners had combed through the books of the nation's 19 major institutions and finished their so-called stress tests. CBS' Mason ticked off the criteria that were supposed to simulate serious future economic shock: 10/3% unemployment, 3.3% contraction in Gross Domestic Product, a further 29% decline in real estate prices in the housing market. "Some analysts say those assumptions may not be severe enough," he shrugged. ABC's Stark took the results of the test as good news. Regulators "declared the overall system in good health." She called the criteria "a rigorous review."
Instead of high finance, NBC chose the automobile industry for its sector under stress. Phil LeBeau of CNBC brought us an update on Detroit's shrinking Big Three. "Chrysler could be bankrupt within a week," he warned. Ford Motors, thanks to the sale of Jaguar and Land Rover and the success of its Mustang model, is losing money at half the rate of last fall: "Ford says it is turning the tide." General Motors "is going to kill Pontiac," leaving it with just four domestic brands. Predicted LeBeau, those four will have lower sales in this country than Toyota's three combined.
MADOFF’S ROUGH & TUMBLE RIGHT HAND MAN CBS' investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian revealed some inside scoop from "a source with knowledge" of the ongoing investigation into the Ponzi scheme run by disgraced financier Bernard Madoff. Keteyian profiled Frank DiPasquali, Madoff's chief financial officer. "The only non-family member of Madoff's inner circle, DiPasquali is a college dropout who grew up in the rough-and-tumble neighborhood of Howard Beach in Queens. He joined Madoff's firm in 1975, rising over the next 33 years to become his right-hand man." Keteyian reported that DiPasquali has a potential plea agreement with prosecutors that will not implicate any Madoff family members but will divulge how account statements were fabricated, as investigators probe the "funds that helped Madoff raise money."
BROADCAST VS ONLINE SPLIT AT ABC NEWS George on Torture Pics. That is the blunt, accusatory headline that ABC News uses to describe the cautious q-&-a that anchor Charles Gibson conducted with This Week's George Stephanopoulos about the looming release of hundreds of internal Pentagon photographs documenting abuse of its prisoners. The "treatment of terrorism suspects" was how Gibson put it, even though many of the abused prisoners at abu-Ghraib were under no suspicion of terrorism. "Harsh interrogation practices," was as confrontational as Stephanopoulos' verbiage managed to be.
ABC News' headline either exposes Gibson and Stephanopoulos talking out of both sides of their mouth, referring directly to "torture" off air while remaining decorously deferential on air. Or it reveals a boisterous behind-the-scenes editorial disagreement at ABC News between euphemizing broadcasters and plainspoken online staffers.
NBC's Ann Curry and ABC's Martha Raddatz, meanwhile, were on hand in Baghdad where some bona fide terrorist carnage had occurred. "Horrific bombings," ABC's Raddatz called them, as 140 were killed in three separate explosions, including "blasts that tore though crowds of worshippers gathered at the holiest Shiite site in Baghdad." Unfortunately there would be no interrogation--harsh or otherwise--for the perpetrators. They were suicidal. Many of their targets were pilgrims from Iran. Gen Raymond Odierno told NBC's Curry that he believes the dead bombers belonged to al-Qaeda because "three of the four have been female"--a hallmark sign.
HITCHCOCK, IT AIN’T When the FAA published statistics on the number of collisions between birds and jetliner engines, both ABC's Lisa Stark and CBS' Jim Axelrod quoted the questionable claim that there are more birds in the United States now than there were 20 years ago. During those two decades, Axelrod reported, the incidence of bird strikes has "more than quadrupled." He added that "quieter airplane engines do not scare them away like they used to."
I asked Jonathan Alderfer, chief consultant at National Geographic's bird program. "I certainly would not make the broad generalization that the bird population in the country as a whole is growing," he warned. He granted that it is probably true that airports have more Canada geese, starlings and city pigeons--correct name "rock doves"--than they used to have. Canada geese no longer migrate and they like the grass around runways.
Anyway, the reason Axelrod and Stark were assigned to report on the collisions was not because of the bird population but to relive that much-celebrated crash landing of USAirlines Flight 1549 in the Hudson River after geese were sucked into its engines. "The majority of bird strikes do not result in near catastrophe," ABC's Stark reassured us. That did not stop CBS anchor Katie Couric using the hair-raising introduction "a very real danger in the skies" before citing the completely calm statistic that such collisions have resulted in 11 deaths in 19 years.
GREEN JOBS IN SUNSHINE STATE Rounding out a week of Earth Day related features, ABC had Jeffrey Kofman epitomize the promise of green jobs from Martin County in Florida. The unemployment rate there has doubled from 5.3% to 10.2% in just the last year as the residential construction bubble has burst. Enter Florida Power & Light with a commercial construction project of the state's largest solar farm power plant. Kofman showed us thousands standing in line for two years' work as "electricians, carpenters, plumbers and assembly workers."
NO STALLION BUT COLT IS LONGSHOT ABC anchor Charles Gibson handed off his habitual Person of the Week duties to Chris Bury in Louisville where we enjoyed a preview of the Kentucky Derby. Bury profiled a local retired school principal, Thomas McCarthy, who has watched the race each year from the Churchill Downs grandstand since 1955. This time he will be a participant rather than a spectator. His stable has a single horse, General Quarters, purchased in a claiming race last year for $20,000. McCarthy's outsider has already won the Blue Grass Stakes and is now entered in the Run for the Roses. Confusingly, Bury called the colt "a stallion." Gibson set his odds at shorter than 30-1, longer than 18-1.
ALMOST A GREAT FALL For all the Assignment America features Steve Hartman has filed about elderly people on CBS (here is a list of 19 in the last 28 months), you would think he would know better than to send a centenarian out on his scooter for an outdoors shot in bright sunlight. Walter Breuning, at 112 the nation's oldest living human, was blinded by the glare and careened off the sidewalk, almost tottering over into the street. Hartman blamed Fred Pfeiffer, the local KRTV weathercaster in Great Falls, for not warning him of imminent catastrophe. Breuning survived and went out for ice cream.
WATERLOO SUNSET Is life in London "exhilarating" or has "frantic" become the norm? NBC's Dawna Friesen pondered the pressures of rush hour as the Slow Down Festival kicked off its ten-day protest against speed with a march--well really a shuffle--"inching across Waterloo Bridge." Slow Down wants everybody "taking time to stop and stare, putting pen to paper instead of typing your thoughts, eating lunch al fresco instead of el-desk-o."
