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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM MAY 28, 2009
A very light day of news saw no single story treated as newsworthy enough to warrant a package report from a correspondent on all three networks. The looming bankruptcy at General Motors came closest, thus qualifying as Story of the Day. GM's plan to follow Chrysler's footsteps into a Chapter 11 filing was the lead item at CBS. NBC, with substitute anchor Lester Holt, chose the latest foreclosure statistics from the housing market. ABC selected politics instead of the economy, leading with Day Three of activism around Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR MAY 28, 2009: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
AS CHRYSLER LEAVES, GENERAL MOTORS ENTERS A very light day of news saw no single story treated as newsworthy enough to warrant a package report from a correspondent on all three networks. The looming bankruptcy at General Motors came closest, thus qualifying as Story of the Day. GM's plan to follow Chrysler's footsteps into a Chapter 11 filing was the lead item at CBS. NBC, with substitute anchor Lester Holt, chose the latest foreclosure statistics from the housing market. ABC selected politics instead of the economy, leading with Day Three of activism around Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.
The revolving door of the bankruptcy court was the headline for General Motors. CBS' Cynthia Bowers reported on the vote by the United Autoworkers to accept "sweeping givebacks" in pay and benefits: "Having an agreement in place before bankruptcy means less chance the court will impose even more painful concessions down the road." Some of the company's bondholders took a haircut too, agreeing to what CBS' Anthony Mason called a "sweetened" offer to convert debt into an ownership stake. CNBC's Phil LeBeau filed a brief stand-up on NBC in which he predicted a "quicker, smoother bankruptcy" as a result.
The road map for such a deal is offered by Chrysler, which is on the verge of judicial approval for its merger with Fiat. ABC's Chris Bury was inspired to mix his metaphors involving birds and snakes. General Motors sees the Chrysler bankruptcy "as the canary in the coalmine. Chrysler is shedding its heavy old skin, soon to emerge smaller and perhaps stronger." Fiat will produce "smaller, sporty models" while Chrysler will supply the minivans, trucks and Jeeps.
HOUSING--HALF FULL, HALF EMPTY Both ABC and NBC are keeping an eye on that other distressed economic sector, the residential real estate market. Wednesday ABC's Betsy Stark brought us the good news that prices have fallen so low that first-time homeowners are starting to buy once more. Now CNBC's Diana Olick counters with negative news. "The face of foreclosure is changing," she warned. "For the first time prime fixed rate loans have leapfrogged those risky exotic subprimes." Many of those mortgages are held by the nationalized guarantee firms FannieMae and FreddieMac. They estimate that fully 40% of delinquent buyers are evicting themselves, leaving empty homes behind. As for the surge in first-time buying, CNBC's Olick worried about a recent increase in interest rates: "That could take away some of that newfound affordability that is currently the one bright spot in the housing market."
ABC’S SLOPPY KARL JOINS CBS’ ANDREWS & NBC’S WILLIAMS &vidTyndall Report has already complained about the sloppy reporting of NBC's Pete Williams and CBS' Wyatt Andrews in covering the political attacks on Sonia Sotomayor, the federal judge nominated to the Supreme Court. Now ABC's Jonathan Karl falls into the same trap in attempting to explain why radio talkshow host Rush Limbaugh and former Speaker Newt Gingrich both label Sotomayor a "racist."
This is how Karl characterized Sotomayor's controversial words: "A wise Latina woman would make better decisions than a white male." Let us repeat Sotomayor's overlooked qualifiers that defang that racism rap: her comparison was an aspiration--"I would hope that"--not an assertion…she never said the decisions would be uniformly better, only better "more often than not"…her comparison did not pit that wise woman against every white man but only with those white men who lacked "richness of experiences."
Come to think of it, why do Gingrich and Limbaugh focus on the ethnic facet of the comparison? Sotomayor's comment had at least as much to do with men and women as between whites and Hispanics. Does that not make her sexist too?
In Wyatt Andrews' report on CBS Wednesday, he pointed out that abortion rights activists were unable to find any evidence in Sotomayor's record that she agreed with them. Now NBC's Williams and ABC's Jan Crawford Greenburg find the same uncertainty. "On abortion," noted Crawford Greenburg, "both sides in the contentious debate want to know more." Or as NBC's Williams put it: "With this nominee it is a mystery. Both sides on the abortion issue agree on this, that they are eager to know exactly what Sotomayor thinks about abortion."
I HAVE DONE THE STATE SOME SERVICE… Soldiers committing suicide in the wake of violent domestic disputes upon their return from war is a tragedy older than Othello. Fort Campbell in Kentucky and Fort Carson in Colorado are grappling with the issue right now. ABC's Martha Raddatz on Wednesday and now CBS' Don Teague both covered the three-day suicide-prevention stand-down ordered by Gen Stephen Townsend at Fort Campbell. So far this year eleven of Townsend's soldiers in the 101st Airborne have killed themselves. "Relationship problems or the fear of disciplinary action are the most common causes," ABC's Raddatz reported. Her colleague Bob Woodruff covered the psychological training at Fort Carson, where soldiers are taught to cope with "the mood swings so common after combat" caused by adrenaline withdrawal. Carson's Gen Mark Graham has a sad reason "very close to his heart" for ordering the extra training. His youngest son Kevin, an ROTC cadet, was a suicide.
ROGUE IS BETTER THAN FAILED Wednesday, only NBC's Andrea Mitchell was assigned to report on North Korea's apparent determination to restart the Korean War. Now CBS' David Martin examines its "warlike threats" and concludes that the People's Republic of China alone has the political leverage to persuade Pyongyang to calm down--even though it "cannot afford to be too tough." Beijing's incentive to ensure stability is the prospect of what instability would bring: two million Korean refugees crossing its border. "As a rogue state North Korea is hard to deal with," mused Martin. "As a failed state it would be a nightmare."
BEE ALL THAT YOU CAN BEE ABC anchor Charles Gibson can be forgiven for closing his newscast with cross-promotion for his network's primetime schedule. Usually such self-serving story selection seems crass. In this instance, highlights from the always popular final day of the National Spelling Bee were just charming. As the saying goes: "Can you use these words in a sentence?"
BEAR, BUMP & TRIPLE NBC used the Gray Lady's petticoats to dress up trivia into a national controversy. The New York Times had decided to place a feature on its front page about the moral panic of school administrators at the discovery that today's teenagers tend to greet each other with a hug rather than a handshake. Chris Jansing was assigned to investigate how youth is "embracing the hug." How cute that she found herself on the campus of Reno's Procter Hug High School to file her report. She demonstrated Hug's three most popular hugs: the traditional bear, the boys' bump and the girls' triple.
The revolving door of the bankruptcy court was the headline for General Motors. CBS' Cynthia Bowers reported on the vote by the United Autoworkers to accept "sweeping givebacks" in pay and benefits: "Having an agreement in place before bankruptcy means less chance the court will impose even more painful concessions down the road." Some of the company's bondholders took a haircut too, agreeing to what CBS' Anthony Mason called a "sweetened" offer to convert debt into an ownership stake. CNBC's Phil LeBeau filed a brief stand-up on NBC in which he predicted a "quicker, smoother bankruptcy" as a result.
The road map for such a deal is offered by Chrysler, which is on the verge of judicial approval for its merger with Fiat. ABC's Chris Bury was inspired to mix his metaphors involving birds and snakes. General Motors sees the Chrysler bankruptcy "as the canary in the coalmine. Chrysler is shedding its heavy old skin, soon to emerge smaller and perhaps stronger." Fiat will produce "smaller, sporty models" while Chrysler will supply the minivans, trucks and Jeeps.
HOUSING--HALF FULL, HALF EMPTY Both ABC and NBC are keeping an eye on that other distressed economic sector, the residential real estate market. Wednesday ABC's Betsy Stark brought us the good news that prices have fallen so low that first-time homeowners are starting to buy once more. Now CNBC's Diana Olick counters with negative news. "The face of foreclosure is changing," she warned. "For the first time prime fixed rate loans have leapfrogged those risky exotic subprimes." Many of those mortgages are held by the nationalized guarantee firms FannieMae and FreddieMac. They estimate that fully 40% of delinquent buyers are evicting themselves, leaving empty homes behind. As for the surge in first-time buying, CNBC's Olick worried about a recent increase in interest rates: "That could take away some of that newfound affordability that is currently the one bright spot in the housing market."
ABC’S SLOPPY KARL JOINS CBS’ ANDREWS & NBC’S WILLIAMS &vidTyndall Report has already complained about the sloppy reporting of NBC's Pete Williams and CBS' Wyatt Andrews in covering the political attacks on Sonia Sotomayor, the federal judge nominated to the Supreme Court. Now ABC's Jonathan Karl falls into the same trap in attempting to explain why radio talkshow host Rush Limbaugh and former Speaker Newt Gingrich both label Sotomayor a "racist."
This is how Karl characterized Sotomayor's controversial words: "A wise Latina woman would make better decisions than a white male." Let us repeat Sotomayor's overlooked qualifiers that defang that racism rap: her comparison was an aspiration--"I would hope that"--not an assertion…she never said the decisions would be uniformly better, only better "more often than not"…her comparison did not pit that wise woman against every white man but only with those white men who lacked "richness of experiences."
Come to think of it, why do Gingrich and Limbaugh focus on the ethnic facet of the comparison? Sotomayor's comment had at least as much to do with men and women as between whites and Hispanics. Does that not make her sexist too?
In Wyatt Andrews' report on CBS Wednesday, he pointed out that abortion rights activists were unable to find any evidence in Sotomayor's record that she agreed with them. Now NBC's Williams and ABC's Jan Crawford Greenburg find the same uncertainty. "On abortion," noted Crawford Greenburg, "both sides in the contentious debate want to know more." Or as NBC's Williams put it: "With this nominee it is a mystery. Both sides on the abortion issue agree on this, that they are eager to know exactly what Sotomayor thinks about abortion."
I HAVE DONE THE STATE SOME SERVICE… Soldiers committing suicide in the wake of violent domestic disputes upon their return from war is a tragedy older than Othello. Fort Campbell in Kentucky and Fort Carson in Colorado are grappling with the issue right now. ABC's Martha Raddatz on Wednesday and now CBS' Don Teague both covered the three-day suicide-prevention stand-down ordered by Gen Stephen Townsend at Fort Campbell. So far this year eleven of Townsend's soldiers in the 101st Airborne have killed themselves. "Relationship problems or the fear of disciplinary action are the most common causes," ABC's Raddatz reported. Her colleague Bob Woodruff covered the psychological training at Fort Carson, where soldiers are taught to cope with "the mood swings so common after combat" caused by adrenaline withdrawal. Carson's Gen Mark Graham has a sad reason "very close to his heart" for ordering the extra training. His youngest son Kevin, an ROTC cadet, was a suicide.
ROGUE IS BETTER THAN FAILED Wednesday, only NBC's Andrea Mitchell was assigned to report on North Korea's apparent determination to restart the Korean War. Now CBS' David Martin examines its "warlike threats" and concludes that the People's Republic of China alone has the political leverage to persuade Pyongyang to calm down--even though it "cannot afford to be too tough." Beijing's incentive to ensure stability is the prospect of what instability would bring: two million Korean refugees crossing its border. "As a rogue state North Korea is hard to deal with," mused Martin. "As a failed state it would be a nightmare."
BEE ALL THAT YOU CAN BEE ABC anchor Charles Gibson can be forgiven for closing his newscast with cross-promotion for his network's primetime schedule. Usually such self-serving story selection seems crass. In this instance, highlights from the always popular final day of the National Spelling Bee were just charming. As the saying goes: "Can you use these words in a sentence?"
BEAR, BUMP & TRIPLE NBC used the Gray Lady's petticoats to dress up trivia into a national controversy. The New York Times had decided to place a feature on its front page about the moral panic of school administrators at the discovery that today's teenagers tend to greet each other with a hug rather than a handshake. Chris Jansing was assigned to investigate how youth is "embracing the hug." How cute that she found herself on the campus of Reno's Procter Hug High School to file her report. She demonstrated Hug's three most popular hugs: the traditional bear, the boys' bump and the girls' triple.
