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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM AUGUST 7, 2009
A pair of headlines virtually tied for Story of the Day status. All three newscasts led with July's jobless data. They counted 247,000 more layoffs and calculated an unemployment rate of 9.4%, marginally better than in June. Yet the continuing vociferous protests against healthcare reform at Congressional town hall meetings attracted fractionally more attention, pipping joblessness for the top spot. CBS anchor Katie Couric took off the long weekend with Jeff Glor in the substitute's chair.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR AUGUST 7, 2009: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
LOST JOBS & NOISY HALLS A pair of headlines virtually tied for Story of the Day status. All three newscasts led with July's jobless data. They counted 247,000 more layoffs and calculated an unemployment rate of 9.4%, marginally better than in June. Yet the continuing vociferous protests against healthcare reform at Congressional town hall meetings attracted fractionally more attention, pipping joblessness for the top spot. CBS anchor Katie Couric took off the long weekend with Jeff Glor in the substitute's chair.
"At least the country is losing jobs more slowly," shrugged CNBC's Erin Burnett. All three newscasts--Burnett on NBC, Betsy Stark on ABC and Anthony Mason on CBS--repeated the same spin on July's statistics to make them seem sort of positive: in the last three months, layoffs have been only half as bad as they were during the first three months of 2009. "The bad news is getting better," was the cold comfort offered by CBS' Mason while ABC's Stark called it "another sign the worst is behind us."
Can we get real here, please? "Appalling," declared ABC's Stark. Then all three repeated the same spin on July's statistics to make them seem especially negative: for the first time ever the number of jobless Americans who have been unsuccessfully looking for work for at least six months exceeds 5m. On Thursday CBS' Cynthia Bowers warned that 1.5m unemployed will become ineligible for jobless benefits by the end of the year, with 17 states already being forced to borrow federal funds to keep benefit checks from bouncing. Now CBS' Mark Strassmann points out that layoffs cause longterm damage to a worker's wages, citing the results of a recent study: "Most people who lose a job are still earning less 15 or 20 years later."
NBC’S TODD CALLS GODWIN ON LIMBAUGH ABC sent correspondent Jonathan Karl to attend one of those raucous town hall meetings to view the noisy protests against healthcare reform first hand. "What outrages them most is being called a mob," he observed of Democrat Tom Perriello's Congressional constituents in rural Virginia. NBC had Kelly O'Donnell cover the protests from afar on Capitol Hill; CBS used a similarly remote Chip Reid from the White House.
"Critics of health reform say it is genuine grassroots anger but Democrats say activists are orchestrating the protest," reported CBS' Reid, citing online coordination by Conservatives for Patients' Rights, or CPR for short. NBC's O'Donnell contrasted the Democratic National Committee's advertising claim that "desperate Republicans and their well-funded allies are organizing angry mobs" with the warning from freedomworks.org that politicians "should be careful about so easily dismissing this many people." NBC's O'Donnell did not tell us whether or not she considers freedomworks.org to be a well-funded ally of the Republican Party.
Both Reid and O'Donnell were presenting a false choice. Of course it is possible for political activism to be authentic and coordinated at the same time. In fact the most effective activists aspire to both. On ABC, George Stephanopoulos countenanced such an explanation: "This widespread anger you are talking about is really something…There are real questions out there."
CBS' Reid and NBC's O'Donnell both also pointed to the talkradio opposition to healthcare reform legislation from Rush Limbaugh. O'Donnell used one soundbite: "The Obama healthcare logo is damned close to a Nazi swastika logo." Reid used another: "Adolf Hitler, like Barack Obama, also ruled by diktat." From the White House lawn, NBC's Chuck Todd almost invoked Godwin's Law: "It is almost a way of ending the argument--and it could end up backfiring."
WHAT IS A VERY IMPORTANT PERSON? CBS' Sharyl Attkisson followed up in her Follow the Money series with an update on last week's investigation into the Friends of Angelo program at Countrywide Financial. That was Angelo Mozilo's VIP rewards scheme to offer special rates on home mortgages to preferred customers. Attkisson found that Rep Edolphus Towns, the Brooklyn Democrat--who happens to run the House committee that is investigating Countrywide--took out three Countrywide mortgages. Towns "personally is blocking the effort to subpoena Countrywide documents."
Towns told Atkisson he "neither sought nor received any special mortgage benefits," a claim she did not contradict. Yet she did call him a member of "the growing government list of VIPs who received loans," which is a slippery use of the term. Did she mean VIP in the colloquial sense or as a term of art referring to Mozilo's insider customers? Either way, if Towns was a Countrywide customer it seems he should recuse himself. Attkisson did not raise that issue. Perhaps she is leaving that for her next Follow the Money follow-up.
STAY IN SCHOOL, SAY CDC The drumbeat of coverage leading up to this fall's influenza season continues. All three newscasts covered the guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control for school districts concerning closings in the event of an outbreak of the H1N1 swine 'flu virus. "Most schools should try to stay open," was the top line from NBC's Robert Bazell. CBS' in-house physician Jon LaPook explained that "the benefits of closing schools are often outweighed by the disruption." If students or teachers become infected, "isolate them with masks until they leave school; clean areas that staff and students regularly touch; emphasize hand washing," ABC's Lisa Stark instructed. The CDC reduced the recommended period between the end of a 'flu fever and return to the classroom from seven days to one day. "As for colleges, students who live in dormitories and cannot get home so easily create a special set of problems," noted NBC's Bazell. Those CDC guidelines will be ready in a few weeks.
MEHSUD’S LEG MASSAGE INTERRUPTED ABC led its newscast Thursday with Martha Raddatz reporting on speculation that Baitullah Mehsud had been assassinated by the CIA. Now his death seems certain. "It is the first time the claim has credibility from intelligence experts and from Mehsud's own lieutenants," reported CBS' Richard Roth from London. ABC's Nick Schifrin filed from Islamabad in Raddatz' update: "Locals cut off the village where the attack took place. A massive funeral has been held but still it is virtually impossible for anyone outside the village to gain access." ABC's Raddatz reported that Mehsud had been killed by a missile from an unmanned Predator drone launched from Shamsi Air Force Base inside Afghanistan. He was having his legs massaged by his wife on the roof of her house in southern Waziristan on the Pakistani side of the border when he was terminated.
NBC's Richard Engel told us about Mehsud's reputed prowess: he commanded between 10,00 and 20,000 fighters and was blamed by the United Nations for 70% of all suicide attacks inside Pakistan. The United States had offered a $5m bounty on his head. For Asif Ali Zardari, the President of Pakistan, "killing Mehsud was personal, revenge for his wife," Benazir Bhutto, whose assassination Mehsud is suspected of masterminding. Reporting from Kabul, NBC's Engel advised that Mehsud's death would do nothing to weaken Taliban forces inside Afghanistan.
CUPPA TEA TAKES THE EDGE OFF Mandy Clark, CBS' newly hired correspondent in Afghanistan, corrected any misconception that its opium poppies may be primarily an export crop, fueling the globe's heroin habit. She quoted United Nations estimates that at least one million of the local population are addicted to the drug. For poor women with many children, opium tea "suppresses hunger pains, is cheaper than a meal." Both mother and children routinely drink it.
FRIDAY FEATURES ABC anchor Charles Gibson offered a tip of the hat to a viewer from Washington State for suggesting his network's Person of the Week. He introduced us to Jorge Munoz, a bus driver in Queens NY, who runs an ad hoc food pantry serving 100 meals a day on city streets. Gibson need not have waited for his own viewer. He could have checked out Seth Doane's The Other America series on CBS, which profiled the same Munoz a year ago.
NBC's closer took Ron Allen to the Poconos in Pennsylvania where John Annoni runs Camp Compass Academy for urban teenagers. Annoni is Making a Difference by teaching youth shooting, fishing and archery, "sharing his passion for hunting and outdoor sports."
And Assignment America on CBS featured a reading club that was inspired by Water for Elephants. An odd couple on Boston Common--a "well-healed, high-powered attorney" with a "swank condo in the Back Bay" and a "street-schooled, often ignored, homeless person"--shared the book and started the group. Steve Hartman introduced us to its members and their latest topic, O Henry's short stories.
"At least the country is losing jobs more slowly," shrugged CNBC's Erin Burnett. All three newscasts--Burnett on NBC, Betsy Stark on ABC and Anthony Mason on CBS--repeated the same spin on July's statistics to make them seem sort of positive: in the last three months, layoffs have been only half as bad as they were during the first three months of 2009. "The bad news is getting better," was the cold comfort offered by CBS' Mason while ABC's Stark called it "another sign the worst is behind us."
Can we get real here, please? "Appalling," declared ABC's Stark. Then all three repeated the same spin on July's statistics to make them seem especially negative: for the first time ever the number of jobless Americans who have been unsuccessfully looking for work for at least six months exceeds 5m. On Thursday CBS' Cynthia Bowers warned that 1.5m unemployed will become ineligible for jobless benefits by the end of the year, with 17 states already being forced to borrow federal funds to keep benefit checks from bouncing. Now CBS' Mark Strassmann points out that layoffs cause longterm damage to a worker's wages, citing the results of a recent study: "Most people who lose a job are still earning less 15 or 20 years later."
NBC’S TODD CALLS GODWIN ON LIMBAUGH ABC sent correspondent Jonathan Karl to attend one of those raucous town hall meetings to view the noisy protests against healthcare reform first hand. "What outrages them most is being called a mob," he observed of Democrat Tom Perriello's Congressional constituents in rural Virginia. NBC had Kelly O'Donnell cover the protests from afar on Capitol Hill; CBS used a similarly remote Chip Reid from the White House.
"Critics of health reform say it is genuine grassroots anger but Democrats say activists are orchestrating the protest," reported CBS' Reid, citing online coordination by Conservatives for Patients' Rights, or CPR for short. NBC's O'Donnell contrasted the Democratic National Committee's advertising claim that "desperate Republicans and their well-funded allies are organizing angry mobs" with the warning from freedomworks.org that politicians "should be careful about so easily dismissing this many people." NBC's O'Donnell did not tell us whether or not she considers freedomworks.org to be a well-funded ally of the Republican Party.
Both Reid and O'Donnell were presenting a false choice. Of course it is possible for political activism to be authentic and coordinated at the same time. In fact the most effective activists aspire to both. On ABC, George Stephanopoulos countenanced such an explanation: "This widespread anger you are talking about is really something…There are real questions out there."
CBS' Reid and NBC's O'Donnell both also pointed to the talkradio opposition to healthcare reform legislation from Rush Limbaugh. O'Donnell used one soundbite: "The Obama healthcare logo is damned close to a Nazi swastika logo." Reid used another: "Adolf Hitler, like Barack Obama, also ruled by diktat." From the White House lawn, NBC's Chuck Todd almost invoked Godwin's Law: "It is almost a way of ending the argument--and it could end up backfiring."
WHAT IS A VERY IMPORTANT PERSON? CBS' Sharyl Attkisson followed up in her Follow the Money series with an update on last week's investigation into the Friends of Angelo program at Countrywide Financial. That was Angelo Mozilo's VIP rewards scheme to offer special rates on home mortgages to preferred customers. Attkisson found that Rep Edolphus Towns, the Brooklyn Democrat--who happens to run the House committee that is investigating Countrywide--took out three Countrywide mortgages. Towns "personally is blocking the effort to subpoena Countrywide documents."
Towns told Atkisson he "neither sought nor received any special mortgage benefits," a claim she did not contradict. Yet she did call him a member of "the growing government list of VIPs who received loans," which is a slippery use of the term. Did she mean VIP in the colloquial sense or as a term of art referring to Mozilo's insider customers? Either way, if Towns was a Countrywide customer it seems he should recuse himself. Attkisson did not raise that issue. Perhaps she is leaving that for her next Follow the Money follow-up.
STAY IN SCHOOL, SAY CDC The drumbeat of coverage leading up to this fall's influenza season continues. All three newscasts covered the guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control for school districts concerning closings in the event of an outbreak of the H1N1 swine 'flu virus. "Most schools should try to stay open," was the top line from NBC's Robert Bazell. CBS' in-house physician Jon LaPook explained that "the benefits of closing schools are often outweighed by the disruption." If students or teachers become infected, "isolate them with masks until they leave school; clean areas that staff and students regularly touch; emphasize hand washing," ABC's Lisa Stark instructed. The CDC reduced the recommended period between the end of a 'flu fever and return to the classroom from seven days to one day. "As for colleges, students who live in dormitories and cannot get home so easily create a special set of problems," noted NBC's Bazell. Those CDC guidelines will be ready in a few weeks.
MEHSUD’S LEG MASSAGE INTERRUPTED ABC led its newscast Thursday with Martha Raddatz reporting on speculation that Baitullah Mehsud had been assassinated by the CIA. Now his death seems certain. "It is the first time the claim has credibility from intelligence experts and from Mehsud's own lieutenants," reported CBS' Richard Roth from London. ABC's Nick Schifrin filed from Islamabad in Raddatz' update: "Locals cut off the village where the attack took place. A massive funeral has been held but still it is virtually impossible for anyone outside the village to gain access." ABC's Raddatz reported that Mehsud had been killed by a missile from an unmanned Predator drone launched from Shamsi Air Force Base inside Afghanistan. He was having his legs massaged by his wife on the roof of her house in southern Waziristan on the Pakistani side of the border when he was terminated.
NBC's Richard Engel told us about Mehsud's reputed prowess: he commanded between 10,00 and 20,000 fighters and was blamed by the United Nations for 70% of all suicide attacks inside Pakistan. The United States had offered a $5m bounty on his head. For Asif Ali Zardari, the President of Pakistan, "killing Mehsud was personal, revenge for his wife," Benazir Bhutto, whose assassination Mehsud is suspected of masterminding. Reporting from Kabul, NBC's Engel advised that Mehsud's death would do nothing to weaken Taliban forces inside Afghanistan.
CUPPA TEA TAKES THE EDGE OFF Mandy Clark, CBS' newly hired correspondent in Afghanistan, corrected any misconception that its opium poppies may be primarily an export crop, fueling the globe's heroin habit. She quoted United Nations estimates that at least one million of the local population are addicted to the drug. For poor women with many children, opium tea "suppresses hunger pains, is cheaper than a meal." Both mother and children routinely drink it.
FRIDAY FEATURES ABC anchor Charles Gibson offered a tip of the hat to a viewer from Washington State for suggesting his network's Person of the Week. He introduced us to Jorge Munoz, a bus driver in Queens NY, who runs an ad hoc food pantry serving 100 meals a day on city streets. Gibson need not have waited for his own viewer. He could have checked out Seth Doane's The Other America series on CBS, which profiled the same Munoz a year ago.
NBC's closer took Ron Allen to the Poconos in Pennsylvania where John Annoni runs Camp Compass Academy for urban teenagers. Annoni is Making a Difference by teaching youth shooting, fishing and archery, "sharing his passion for hunting and outdoor sports."
And Assignment America on CBS featured a reading club that was inspired by Water for Elephants. An odd couple on Boston Common--a "well-healed, high-powered attorney" with a "swank condo in the Back Bay" and a "street-schooled, often ignored, homeless person"--shared the book and started the group. Steve Hartman introduced us to its members and their latest topic, O Henry's short stories.
