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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM APRIL 27, 2009
The prospect of a pandemic outbreak of a brand new strain of influenza overshadowed all other news. Coverage of the Mexican-based swine 'flu, which had been a nine-minute Story of the Day on Friday, gained momentum. It occupied fully 61% of the three-network newshole (34 min of 57), leading off all three newscasts with the public health angle and then following up from Mexico City. The death toll in Mexico has now reached 149, with a handful of non-lethal cases occurring in Queens NY and elsewhere around the globe.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR APRIL 27, 2009: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
SWINE ‘FLU ATTRACTS SATURATION COVERAGE The prospect of a pandemic outbreak of a brand new strain of influenza overshadowed all other news. Coverage of the Mexican-based swine 'flu, which had been a nine-minute Story of the Day on Friday, gained momentum. It occupied fully 61% of the three-network newshole (34 min of 57), leading off all three newscasts with the public health angle and then following up from Mexico City. The death toll in Mexico has now reached 149, with a handful of non-lethal cases occurring in Queens NY and elsewhere around the globe.
ABC and NBC led their newscasts with the international response to the influenza outbreak as the World Health Organization raised its pandemic watch to Level Four on a one-to-six scale. NBC's Robert Bazell explained that Level Four means "sustained disease outbreaks of a new and potentially dangerous" virus. ABC's John McKenzie interpreted the WHO move as "further acknowledgement that this swine 'flu is both potent and on the move." He noted "jitters around the globe." On CBS, Kelly Wallace concentrated on the domestic public health watch, as the Centers for Disease Control analyzed 28 cases at a parochial high school in Queens NY, some of whose students traveled to Mexico for spring break.
All three newscasts included President Barack Obama carefully calibrated soundbite to the nation in their lead: "This is obviously a cause for concern and requires a heightened state of alert but it is not a cause for alarm."
‘FLU FAQS Both ABC and NBC followed up with public health FAQs. NBC anchor Brian Williams quizzed his network's science correspondent Robert Bazell. ABC anchor Charles Gibson checked in with in-house physician Timothy Johnson and Julie Gerberding, the former head of the CDC, now an ABC News Contributor.
What is there to fear about this outbreak? "The people in Mexico who have died have been in their twenties, thirties and forties and that is what happened in 1918"--Bazell.
Will it be serious? "The virus can mutate easily. It can get much more serious but it could also be even more mild. I mean it is that unpredictable"--Johnson.
Why does the 'flu seem so virulent in Mexico but not elsewhere? "One explanation may be that in Mexico only the sickest patients have come to medical attention"--Gerberding.
Why is there no protection from a vaccine? "It would takes months of production"--Bazell.
Should people take preventive antiviral medicine? "That would be totally foolish. It would help build resistance. It would not do any good. We need to reserve the stockpiles we have for actual cases"--Johnson.
Should people wear masks? "They do very little good…The virus passes through"--Bazell.
Is eating pork dangerous? "There is no evidence whatsoever that eating pork is dangerous in terms of causing the 'flu"--Bazell.
MEXICO CITY SHUTS DOWN At first, NBC's Michelle Kosinski reported from Mexico City, public health authorities were unaware that the sick were suffering from a new strain of influenza. "It appeared to be a few bad 'flu cases at the end of a normal season--until some developed into severe pneumonia." The outbreak probably began with a sick toddler in early April in a small community next to a large pig farm in Veracruz State, ABC's Terry McCarthy reported. Now it has spread to the capital, population 22m, which is "filled with empty streets," he observed, in a felicitous turn of phrase. NBC's Kosinski showed us vacant stadiums for soccer games and warned that public transportation may be shut down. The video rental store is one place that is busy, ABC's McCarthy noted, "except for horror movies. For most Mexicans these days real life is scary enough."
CNN's Sanjay Gupta talked to protesting healthcare workers at a Mexico City hospital for CBS. He found a shortage of medicine and breathing masks. NBC's Kosinski reported that "hospitals have been inundated…They have set up mobile health clinics in public squares to meet demand." ABC's McCarthy asked public health experts why the virus has killed Mexicans but none elsewhere: "Some poorer people might be delaying treatment, which could have deadly consequences. Another theory is that the virus itself might be mutating and getting less virulent as it moves."
GOING GLOBAL The State Department advised Americans not to travel to Mexico except on essential business. The European Commission advised its people to avoid both Mexico and the United States. The travel warnings inspired both ABC and NBC to roll out a global wheel. NBC focused on airports, kicking off with Tom Costello at Dulles in Washington to Stephanie Gosk at London's Heathrow to Lee Cowan at LAX to Adrienne Mong at Beijing International. ABC's report ended at Beijing too with Lama Hasan, having passed through Lisa Fletcher on the Cal-Mex border, starting with David Muir in New York.
LOW KEY IN EL PASO CBS assigned Dean Reynolds to zero in on the Tex-Mex border at El Paso where the bustling border crossing was "business as usual." He asked customs officials why entry and exit were not being interrupted by routine health questions. "A program of passive surveillance," was the answer. "Visitors displaying symptoms would be questioned and isolated if need be," the rest would cross "no different than any other day."
HOT HOGS MAY HELP MUTATION Smithfield Foods is the Virginia-based hog farmer whose new operations in Mexico had already attracted an alert from the Pew Charitable Trust as possible "breeding grounds for new strains of the 'flu," Hari Sreenivasan told us on CBS. Pew warned that warm weather might make the hog farms a fertile mutation ground. Sreenivasan laid out the scenario that worried Pew's scientists: "Flies carrying avian 'flu come into contact with farm-raised pigs. The avian 'flu virus mutates in the pigs and gets transmitted as swine 'flu to farmworkers who infect their local communities." As for Smithfield Foods, they "deny being the source and say they are cooperating with health officials."
JUMBO JITTERS Not pandemic but shades of 9/11 shook the nerves of the high rise office workers of Wall Street. "Panic they did. People self-evacuated pouring out of buildings in lower Manhattan," narrated ABC anchor Charles Gibson. The cause of the jitters was the sight of a low flying jumbo jet--the Presidential Air Force One--circling on a similar route that the hijacked jets took in September 2001, followed by an F-16 fighter jet. "It was no disaster," NBC's Mike Taibbi told us after the fact. "The epicenter of 9/11 on a busy Monday workday was just being used as a backdrop for an FAA-approved photo shoot." The White House apologized for creating "confusion and disruption."
PLAN B: GOVERNMENT MOTORS Plan B by General Motors, after the Obama Administration rejected the first draft of its plan to remain a viable business, would normally have been Story of the Day. Influenza buried that alternate lead.
Still, GM's plan was swingeing enough: "For a company that has spent decades restructuring this is the equivalent of ripping off the Band-Aid," was how ABC's Eric Horng put it. The unionized workforce will be cut by 21,000, CBS' Anthony Mason summarized, 40% of dealerships will be closed and four brands will survive--Cadillac, Buick, Chevrolet, GMC--while four will be axed--Saab, Hummer, Saturn and Pontiac. That leaves holders of GM bonds as the last group to take a haircut. CBS' Mason saw them facing "huge losses: for every $1,000 of GM debt they hold, they are being offered just 225 shares of GM stock, today worth less than $500." The upshot, CNBC's Phil LeBeau told us on NBC, will be that the federal government will end up owning "up to half the shares."
EXPECT MILLIONS, DELIVER BILLIONS AIG, the nationalized insurance conglomerate, was the focus of a CBS Investigation by Armen Keteyian. His sources told him that Justice Department criminal investigators are zeroing in on AIG's Financial Products subsidiary. In the crosshairs for prosecution are Joseph Cassano, the former head of the AIGFP office in London; Andrew Forster, its Executive Vice-President; and Thomas Althan its Managing Director. Their suspected crime is lying in financial statements. The evidence is estimates of expected losses at the end of 2007 of between $352m and $550m; by February 2008 they turned out to be $11.5bn.
Cassano and Forster refused to comment to CBS. Althan's lawyer told Keteyian that "his client arrived at AIGFP after it sustained substantial losses and was working to help minimize the continuing risk."
FLY IN THE FOOTBALL OINTMENT On such a busy day of news, CBS found time for a cheerful, if compromised, sporting closer. CBS' Seth Doane traveled upstream on the Delaware River to the twin towns of Phillipsburg and Easton. Since 1905 their two high schools have enjoyed a fierce football rivalry. Never was a game closer than in 1993, when they fought to a 7-7 tie. To resolve that deadlock more than 15 years later, both teams--even their cheerleading squads--returned to training in person for a rematch. This weekend they played again in front of a crowd of 10,000. Watch the videostream if you want to find whether New Jersey prevailed or Pennsylvania. This would be an unambiguously heartwarming feature except for that compromising fly in the ointment. The replay turns out to double as advertising, a publicity stunt for its sponsor Gatorade.
ABC and NBC led their newscasts with the international response to the influenza outbreak as the World Health Organization raised its pandemic watch to Level Four on a one-to-six scale. NBC's Robert Bazell explained that Level Four means "sustained disease outbreaks of a new and potentially dangerous" virus. ABC's John McKenzie interpreted the WHO move as "further acknowledgement that this swine 'flu is both potent and on the move." He noted "jitters around the globe." On CBS, Kelly Wallace concentrated on the domestic public health watch, as the Centers for Disease Control analyzed 28 cases at a parochial high school in Queens NY, some of whose students traveled to Mexico for spring break.
All three newscasts included President Barack Obama carefully calibrated soundbite to the nation in their lead: "This is obviously a cause for concern and requires a heightened state of alert but it is not a cause for alarm."
‘FLU FAQS Both ABC and NBC followed up with public health FAQs. NBC anchor Brian Williams quizzed his network's science correspondent Robert Bazell. ABC anchor Charles Gibson checked in with in-house physician Timothy Johnson and Julie Gerberding, the former head of the CDC, now an ABC News Contributor.
What is there to fear about this outbreak? "The people in Mexico who have died have been in their twenties, thirties and forties and that is what happened in 1918"--Bazell.
Will it be serious? "The virus can mutate easily. It can get much more serious but it could also be even more mild. I mean it is that unpredictable"--Johnson.
Why does the 'flu seem so virulent in Mexico but not elsewhere? "One explanation may be that in Mexico only the sickest patients have come to medical attention"--Gerberding.
Why is there no protection from a vaccine? "It would takes months of production"--Bazell.
Should people take preventive antiviral medicine? "That would be totally foolish. It would help build resistance. It would not do any good. We need to reserve the stockpiles we have for actual cases"--Johnson.
Should people wear masks? "They do very little good…The virus passes through"--Bazell.
Is eating pork dangerous? "There is no evidence whatsoever that eating pork is dangerous in terms of causing the 'flu"--Bazell.
MEXICO CITY SHUTS DOWN At first, NBC's Michelle Kosinski reported from Mexico City, public health authorities were unaware that the sick were suffering from a new strain of influenza. "It appeared to be a few bad 'flu cases at the end of a normal season--until some developed into severe pneumonia." The outbreak probably began with a sick toddler in early April in a small community next to a large pig farm in Veracruz State, ABC's Terry McCarthy reported. Now it has spread to the capital, population 22m, which is "filled with empty streets," he observed, in a felicitous turn of phrase. NBC's Kosinski showed us vacant stadiums for soccer games and warned that public transportation may be shut down. The video rental store is one place that is busy, ABC's McCarthy noted, "except for horror movies. For most Mexicans these days real life is scary enough."
CNN's Sanjay Gupta talked to protesting healthcare workers at a Mexico City hospital for CBS. He found a shortage of medicine and breathing masks. NBC's Kosinski reported that "hospitals have been inundated…They have set up mobile health clinics in public squares to meet demand." ABC's McCarthy asked public health experts why the virus has killed Mexicans but none elsewhere: "Some poorer people might be delaying treatment, which could have deadly consequences. Another theory is that the virus itself might be mutating and getting less virulent as it moves."
GOING GLOBAL The State Department advised Americans not to travel to Mexico except on essential business. The European Commission advised its people to avoid both Mexico and the United States. The travel warnings inspired both ABC and NBC to roll out a global wheel. NBC focused on airports, kicking off with Tom Costello at Dulles in Washington to Stephanie Gosk at London's Heathrow to Lee Cowan at LAX to Adrienne Mong at Beijing International. ABC's report ended at Beijing too with Lama Hasan, having passed through Lisa Fletcher on the Cal-Mex border, starting with David Muir in New York.
LOW KEY IN EL PASO CBS assigned Dean Reynolds to zero in on the Tex-Mex border at El Paso where the bustling border crossing was "business as usual." He asked customs officials why entry and exit were not being interrupted by routine health questions. "A program of passive surveillance," was the answer. "Visitors displaying symptoms would be questioned and isolated if need be," the rest would cross "no different than any other day."
HOT HOGS MAY HELP MUTATION Smithfield Foods is the Virginia-based hog farmer whose new operations in Mexico had already attracted an alert from the Pew Charitable Trust as possible "breeding grounds for new strains of the 'flu," Hari Sreenivasan told us on CBS. Pew warned that warm weather might make the hog farms a fertile mutation ground. Sreenivasan laid out the scenario that worried Pew's scientists: "Flies carrying avian 'flu come into contact with farm-raised pigs. The avian 'flu virus mutates in the pigs and gets transmitted as swine 'flu to farmworkers who infect their local communities." As for Smithfield Foods, they "deny being the source and say they are cooperating with health officials."
JUMBO JITTERS Not pandemic but shades of 9/11 shook the nerves of the high rise office workers of Wall Street. "Panic they did. People self-evacuated pouring out of buildings in lower Manhattan," narrated ABC anchor Charles Gibson. The cause of the jitters was the sight of a low flying jumbo jet--the Presidential Air Force One--circling on a similar route that the hijacked jets took in September 2001, followed by an F-16 fighter jet. "It was no disaster," NBC's Mike Taibbi told us after the fact. "The epicenter of 9/11 on a busy Monday workday was just being used as a backdrop for an FAA-approved photo shoot." The White House apologized for creating "confusion and disruption."
PLAN B: GOVERNMENT MOTORS Plan B by General Motors, after the Obama Administration rejected the first draft of its plan to remain a viable business, would normally have been Story of the Day. Influenza buried that alternate lead.
Still, GM's plan was swingeing enough: "For a company that has spent decades restructuring this is the equivalent of ripping off the Band-Aid," was how ABC's Eric Horng put it. The unionized workforce will be cut by 21,000, CBS' Anthony Mason summarized, 40% of dealerships will be closed and four brands will survive--Cadillac, Buick, Chevrolet, GMC--while four will be axed--Saab, Hummer, Saturn and Pontiac. That leaves holders of GM bonds as the last group to take a haircut. CBS' Mason saw them facing "huge losses: for every $1,000 of GM debt they hold, they are being offered just 225 shares of GM stock, today worth less than $500." The upshot, CNBC's Phil LeBeau told us on NBC, will be that the federal government will end up owning "up to half the shares."
EXPECT MILLIONS, DELIVER BILLIONS AIG, the nationalized insurance conglomerate, was the focus of a CBS Investigation by Armen Keteyian. His sources told him that Justice Department criminal investigators are zeroing in on AIG's Financial Products subsidiary. In the crosshairs for prosecution are Joseph Cassano, the former head of the AIGFP office in London; Andrew Forster, its Executive Vice-President; and Thomas Althan its Managing Director. Their suspected crime is lying in financial statements. The evidence is estimates of expected losses at the end of 2007 of between $352m and $550m; by February 2008 they turned out to be $11.5bn.
Cassano and Forster refused to comment to CBS. Althan's lawyer told Keteyian that "his client arrived at AIGFP after it sustained substantial losses and was working to help minimize the continuing risk."
FLY IN THE FOOTBALL OINTMENT On such a busy day of news, CBS found time for a cheerful, if compromised, sporting closer. CBS' Seth Doane traveled upstream on the Delaware River to the twin towns of Phillipsburg and Easton. Since 1905 their two high schools have enjoyed a fierce football rivalry. Never was a game closer than in 1993, when they fought to a 7-7 tie. To resolve that deadlock more than 15 years later, both teams--even their cheerleading squads--returned to training in person for a rematch. This weekend they played again in front of a crowd of 10,000. Watch the videostream if you want to find whether New Jersey prevailed or Pennsylvania. This would be an unambiguously heartwarming feature except for that compromising fly in the ointment. The replay turns out to double as advertising, a publicity stunt for its sponsor Gatorade.
