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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM MAY 24, 2010
The crude oil disaster that is poisoning the Gulf of Mexico received its heaviest coverage so far to start the week. It occupied fully 64% of the three networks' Monday newshole (38 mins out of 59), not because of any headline-grabbing new development but because two of the three anchors--ABC's Diane Sawyer and CBS' Katie Couric--decided to introduce their newscasts from the scene. Accordingly NBC (7 min v ABC 15, CBS 15) spent least time on the BP disaster. Brian Williams, its anchor, had already made his trip there three weeks earlier. The oil disaster has now been Story of the Day for the last ten straight weekdays. Back in 1989, the Exxon Valdez disaster logged 270 minutes of coverage in an entire year on the network nightly newscasts. Already BP's mess has attracted 331 minutes of coverage and the relief well to stop this leak may not be completed until August.
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BP’S LEAK IS ALREADY BIGGER NEWS THAN EXXON’S VALDEZ The crude oil disaster that is poisoning the Gulf of Mexico received its heaviest coverage so far to start the week. It occupied fully 64% of the three networks' Monday newshole (38 mins out of 59), not because of any headline-grabbing new development but because two of the three anchors--ABC's Diane Sawyer and CBS' Katie Couric--decided to introduce their newscasts from the scene. Accordingly NBC (7 min v ABC 15, CBS 15) spent least time on the BP disaster. Brian Williams, its anchor, had already made his trip there three weeks earlier. The oil disaster has now been Story of the Day for the last ten straight weekdays. Back in 1989, the Exxon Valdez disaster logged 270 minutes of coverage in an entire year on the network nightly newscasts. Already BP's mess has attracted 331 minutes of coverage and the relief well to stop this leak may not be completed until August.
CBS' Couric took to the air to file a five-minute summary of the state of the Gulf waters. She explained that it is BP's job to oversee the clean-up operation, as required by the Oil Pollution Control Act, which was passed in the wake of Exxon's catastrophe. On board a Coast Guard helicopter, Admiral Mary Landry explained the federal role: "BP is the responsible party…We absolutely have the ultimate responsibility to hold them accountable for the work they are doing."
Enter Tony Hayward, BP's chief executive, who offered an availability to ABC's Jeffrey Kofman as he toured the scene. "I believe we are fighting a battle," the BP boss stated in Churchillian fashion. It is "a battle the enemy is clearly winning," Kofman commented. "I am gutted. I am absolutely devastated," Hayward exclaimed. Kofman quoted Hayward's words back to him: "The Gulf is a very big ocean. It can handle this." He asked: "Do you still feel that way?" No, conceded Hayward: "Clearly the defenses of the shore have been breached."
WATER, BEACH, MARSH ABC anchor Diane Sawyer obtained scuba videotape of underwater conditions 20 miles off shore. "Emulsified oil," was how the diver put it, showing sharks swimming through plumes of oil droplets, jellyfish with clogged tendrils. BP CEO Tony Hayward told ABC' Jeffrey Kofman that the Corexit dispersant that BP was using to break the oil down into these droplets is "no more harmful than dish soap." CBS' White House correspondent Chip Reid (no link) quoted the Environmental Protection Agency's finding that Corexit is toxic, "dangerous not only to humans but to animals, sea life."
NBC's Anne Thompson journeyed out to the site of the leak itself where she showed us "the armada of ships and rigs" that BP has assembled to work on the seabed a mile below. "The Gulf is a Red Sea," she showed us. "It is bleeding oil." With the shrimp fishery closed because of toxins in the food chain, CBS' Mark Strassmann described the response: "Local fishermen, mostly shrimpers, paid by BP to collect oil, were fed up with BP's clean-up so they reorganized and rezoned the response and put boats and booms where they mattered most." The only trouble was with that "paid by BP line"--"they have in some cases worked for a couple of weeks and have yet to get paid."
NBC's Michelle Kosinski updated us on the tourist beaches of Grand Isle. She found them "eerily devoid of life…the only thing you see moving in that water is globs of oil." A sand berm has been built to block the pollution from the shore. She showed us the seaward side--"an absolutely putrid oily mess."
"While beaches can be cleaned up, marshes cannot," noted ABC's Ryan Owens, "and they make up most of Louisiana's coastline." He covered Bobby Jindal, the state's Republican Governor, as he demanded more booms, more skimmers, more vacuums, more barges: "Every day that this oil sits and waits for clean-up is one more day that more of our marsh dies."
BP’S PR FLUBS ABC anchor Diane Sawyer had offered BP a public relations lifeline a couple of weeks ago by publicizing its outreach to inventors, tapping the public imagination for innovative technology to fight the leak. Sure enough BP reported a flood of 20,000 phone calls and 20,000 e-mails with suggestions, ABC's Matt Gutman told us when he followed up. The corporate suggestion box did not appear to be a realistic operation: "It is slow going. We found it can take days just to get the proper form to pitch your idea."
WHITE HOUSE PUBLICIZES ITS RELIANCE ON BP All three networks covered a growing political backlash against the Obama Administration for its inability to make the leak stop. NBC's Chuck Todd saw the White House "very much on the defensive" as it introduced Admiral Thad Allen of the Coast Guard to the press corps. Allen explained that the federal government "does not have the resources or equipment to handle the crisis on its own. They have no choice but to rely on BP." CBS' Chip Reid (no link) was won over by the admiral: "He really is a star perfomer…a straight shooter. He is very smart. He really knows his stuff."
ABC's Jake Tapper was impressed at the full-court spin: "From sending Cabinet secretaries to the Gulf to releasing a photograph of the President on the phone with Gulf Coast governors to bringing a Coast Guard Admiral to the daily briefing, the White House has had one message today--We are on the Case."
WRETCHES Rounding out their visits, both anchors consulted the mood of the people of the Gulf Coast. ABC's Diane Sawyer called her focus group a "town hall meeting" but it was held in the Hosanna Church in Marrero and was more religious than municipal. "It is not too late to save it," she reassured us. "Who do you have faith in at this point?" Sawyer called out. "Jesus Christ!" came the response. Her interviewees ended with a chorus of Amazing Grace.
For her part, CBS anchor Katie Couric was skeptical that salvation is at hand: "It is a disaster in slow motion like a nightmare where you can see a bad thing coming but are helpless to do anything to stop it."
NO FERGIE, JUST MOGADISHU There was only one other story that was newsworthy enough to warrant coverage by a correspondent on all three newscasts. The influence-peddling scandal surrounding Sarah Ferguson, the former wife of Prince Andrew of England, current Duchess of York, involved videotape recorded undercover by a journalistic sting set up by The News of the World, Rupert Murdoch's London based tabloid. Presumably because of copyright clearance issues, none of the networks posted their Fergie coverage as an online videostream.
That leaves Richard Engel's feature from Mogadishu, The Most Dangerous Place in the World, as he titled his NBC two-parter. He filed from the exposed staircase of the bombed out headquarters of the 5,000-man peacekeeping force that is being overrun by the Shabab guerrilla force. "al-Qaeda members are our Moslem brothers. We do not call them foreigners," was how Engel quoted a Shabab commander.
Engel explained that the United States will no longer deploy its own troops on the ground in Mogadishu, following its 1993 defeat, which was immortalized in the movie Blackhawk Down. That is not to say the US has no presence. There is the Pentagon's role: "At night we have been hearing the unmistakable sound of American drones circling in the sky over Mogadishu. They seem to be flying very low and make passes every 10 to 15 minutes." And, according to Engel's unidentified spook sources, the Shabab army includes 50-or-so soldiers from the United States, mostly Somali-Americans.
CBS' Couric took to the air to file a five-minute summary of the state of the Gulf waters. She explained that it is BP's job to oversee the clean-up operation, as required by the Oil Pollution Control Act, which was passed in the wake of Exxon's catastrophe. On board a Coast Guard helicopter, Admiral Mary Landry explained the federal role: "BP is the responsible party…We absolutely have the ultimate responsibility to hold them accountable for the work they are doing."
Enter Tony Hayward, BP's chief executive, who offered an availability to ABC's Jeffrey Kofman as he toured the scene. "I believe we are fighting a battle," the BP boss stated in Churchillian fashion. It is "a battle the enemy is clearly winning," Kofman commented. "I am gutted. I am absolutely devastated," Hayward exclaimed. Kofman quoted Hayward's words back to him: "The Gulf is a very big ocean. It can handle this." He asked: "Do you still feel that way?" No, conceded Hayward: "Clearly the defenses of the shore have been breached."
WATER, BEACH, MARSH ABC anchor Diane Sawyer obtained scuba videotape of underwater conditions 20 miles off shore. "Emulsified oil," was how the diver put it, showing sharks swimming through plumes of oil droplets, jellyfish with clogged tendrils. BP CEO Tony Hayward told ABC' Jeffrey Kofman that the Corexit dispersant that BP was using to break the oil down into these droplets is "no more harmful than dish soap." CBS' White House correspondent Chip Reid (no link) quoted the Environmental Protection Agency's finding that Corexit is toxic, "dangerous not only to humans but to animals, sea life."
NBC's Anne Thompson journeyed out to the site of the leak itself where she showed us "the armada of ships and rigs" that BP has assembled to work on the seabed a mile below. "The Gulf is a Red Sea," she showed us. "It is bleeding oil." With the shrimp fishery closed because of toxins in the food chain, CBS' Mark Strassmann described the response: "Local fishermen, mostly shrimpers, paid by BP to collect oil, were fed up with BP's clean-up so they reorganized and rezoned the response and put boats and booms where they mattered most." The only trouble was with that "paid by BP line"--"they have in some cases worked for a couple of weeks and have yet to get paid."
NBC's Michelle Kosinski updated us on the tourist beaches of Grand Isle. She found them "eerily devoid of life…the only thing you see moving in that water is globs of oil." A sand berm has been built to block the pollution from the shore. She showed us the seaward side--"an absolutely putrid oily mess."
"While beaches can be cleaned up, marshes cannot," noted ABC's Ryan Owens, "and they make up most of Louisiana's coastline." He covered Bobby Jindal, the state's Republican Governor, as he demanded more booms, more skimmers, more vacuums, more barges: "Every day that this oil sits and waits for clean-up is one more day that more of our marsh dies."
BP’S PR FLUBS ABC anchor Diane Sawyer had offered BP a public relations lifeline a couple of weeks ago by publicizing its outreach to inventors, tapping the public imagination for innovative technology to fight the leak. Sure enough BP reported a flood of 20,000 phone calls and 20,000 e-mails with suggestions, ABC's Matt Gutman told us when he followed up. The corporate suggestion box did not appear to be a realistic operation: "It is slow going. We found it can take days just to get the proper form to pitch your idea."
WHITE HOUSE PUBLICIZES ITS RELIANCE ON BP All three networks covered a growing political backlash against the Obama Administration for its inability to make the leak stop. NBC's Chuck Todd saw the White House "very much on the defensive" as it introduced Admiral Thad Allen of the Coast Guard to the press corps. Allen explained that the federal government "does not have the resources or equipment to handle the crisis on its own. They have no choice but to rely on BP." CBS' Chip Reid (no link) was won over by the admiral: "He really is a star perfomer…a straight shooter. He is very smart. He really knows his stuff."
ABC's Jake Tapper was impressed at the full-court spin: "From sending Cabinet secretaries to the Gulf to releasing a photograph of the President on the phone with Gulf Coast governors to bringing a Coast Guard Admiral to the daily briefing, the White House has had one message today--We are on the Case."
WRETCHES Rounding out their visits, both anchors consulted the mood of the people of the Gulf Coast. ABC's Diane Sawyer called her focus group a "town hall meeting" but it was held in the Hosanna Church in Marrero and was more religious than municipal. "It is not too late to save it," she reassured us. "Who do you have faith in at this point?" Sawyer called out. "Jesus Christ!" came the response. Her interviewees ended with a chorus of Amazing Grace.
For her part, CBS anchor Katie Couric was skeptical that salvation is at hand: "It is a disaster in slow motion like a nightmare where you can see a bad thing coming but are helpless to do anything to stop it."
NO FERGIE, JUST MOGADISHU There was only one other story that was newsworthy enough to warrant coverage by a correspondent on all three newscasts. The influence-peddling scandal surrounding Sarah Ferguson, the former wife of Prince Andrew of England, current Duchess of York, involved videotape recorded undercover by a journalistic sting set up by The News of the World, Rupert Murdoch's London based tabloid. Presumably because of copyright clearance issues, none of the networks posted their Fergie coverage as an online videostream.
That leaves Richard Engel's feature from Mogadishu, The Most Dangerous Place in the World, as he titled his NBC two-parter. He filed from the exposed staircase of the bombed out headquarters of the 5,000-man peacekeeping force that is being overrun by the Shabab guerrilla force. "al-Qaeda members are our Moslem brothers. We do not call them foreigners," was how Engel quoted a Shabab commander.
Engel explained that the United States will no longer deploy its own troops on the ground in Mogadishu, following its 1993 defeat, which was immortalized in the movie Blackhawk Down. That is not to say the US has no presence. There is the Pentagon's role: "At night we have been hearing the unmistakable sound of American drones circling in the sky over Mogadishu. They seem to be flying very low and make passes every 10 to 15 minutes." And, according to Engel's unidentified spook sources, the Shabab army includes 50-or-so soldiers from the United States, mostly Somali-Americans.
