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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM JUNE 03, 2010
The count is now 18…18 straight weekdays that the crude oil polluting the Gulf of Mexico has been Story of the Day. CBS led with the visual angle--the appearance of slimed brown pelicans on Louisiana's beaches. NBC and ABC led with technology--BP's announcement that its robots had succeeded in cutting through the pipe out of which the crude was gushing. It is possible that the resulting jagged opening can now be fitted with a containment cap to prevent some oil from escaping into open water.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR JUNE 03, 2010: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
SLIMED PELICANS ON THE SURFACE; SAWED-OFF PIPELINE DOWN BELOW The count is now 18…18 straight weekdays that the crude oil polluting the Gulf of Mexico has been Story of the Day. CBS led with the visual angle--the appearance of slimed brown pelicans on Louisiana's beaches. NBC and ABC led with technology--BP's announcement that its robots had succeeded in cutting through the pipe out of which the crude was gushing. It is possible that the resulting jagged opening can now be fitted with a containment cap to prevent some oil from escaping into open water.
NBC's Kerry Sanders described the "heartbreaking discovery" on Louisiana's barrier islands. "Where the thick oil is lapping the shoreline, birds are trapped, dying in the ooze." CBS' Mark Strassmann called the day's images "troubling--and remember, this is a crisis with no end in sight…When you get a sense of the thickness of this crude you also start to understand something else: why this pelican never stood a chance and why so many other birds are now at risk as this oil keeps coming ashore."
Meanwhile NBC's Mark Potter and CBS' Kelly Cobiella were on the tourist beach in Pensacola waiting. Cobiella picked up on "a growing sense of hopelessness and doom." Potter found hotels "already reporting cancelations." Florida Panhandle tourism may suffer first but Cobiella foresaw miles and miles of tarnished beaches. She counted six different computer models, "all showing oil moving around south Florida and up the east coast."
BP’S PROGRESS COULD MAKE MATTERS WORSE The view from the sea bed was less gloomy. NBC's Anne Thompson speculated that "BP may be a small step closer 45 days into this environmental catastrophe--finally progress" and ABC's Matt Gutman concurred, seeing "just a little bit of progress. What began as a delicate surgery became an exercise in brute force earlier today. A shear as heavy as a battle tank crunched through that 21-inch riser." Next, Gutman previewed, "underwater robots are preparing to jam that cap atop the severed pipeline. They are betting that the weight of the new 5,000-foot steel pipeline will force it snugly over the uneven pipe." BP's nickname for the new dome is Top Cap. Thompson quoted BP's chief executive Tony Wayward as acclaiming the cutting of the pipeline as "a milestone" even though, she added, "it could increase the flow of oil."
ABC’S ROSS FINGERS COAST GUARD FOR ABETTING BP SECRECY ABC's Brian Ross flashed back to the first 20 days of the oil leak, when the videostream of the seabed gusher was kept secret. "BP says the tapes were in the hands of the Coast Guard and the government all along but the Coast Guard says BP would not release the tapes." Ross reran soundbites from both Admiral Mary Landry of the USCG and Secretary Janet Napolitano of the Department of Homeland Security, warning back then against a "fixation" on measuring the volume of the leak. He explained that it would be in BP's interest for the videostream to be suppressed, since it would prevent an independent calculation of the per-barrel-per-day fine that the corporation will eventually have to pay.
Ross concluded that the Coast Guard's relationship with BP is "far too cozy."
NBC’S COSTELLO EXPLAINS RELIEF WELL Check out Tom Costello's explainer for NBC on the prospects that BP's relief well will be the "best and final way to end the flow of oil." He reminded us that the same technique took ten months to plug a leak off Mexico in 1979. This time it may succeed before Labor Day using magnetic sensors. "It has been described as trying to hit a dinner plate two miles under the ocean floor."
NBC’S WHEEL LETS THE STORY TELL THE STORY On Tuesday and Wednesday, NBC relied on anchor Brian Williams to lead its oil slick coverage as he broadcast from Louisiana. Williams consoled a shrimp fishing family…he misleadingly interviewed a former Shell Oil executive…he answered FAQs with in-house physician Nancy Snyderman…he toured polluted spoonbill nesting grounds. Now, with Williams back behind his anchor desk in New York City, NBC tried a more dynamic technique for summarizing the day's oil developments. Using a wheel of correspondents, anchor Williams introduced Anne Thompson to tell us about the seabed drilling, who handed off to Lisa Myers on BP's corporate fate, who handed off to Chuck Todd on Barack Obama's political leadership, who handed off to Mark Potter on Pensacola's missing tourists, who handed off to Kerry Sanders on Louisiana's tarry shores.
Well done, NBC. A lively nine minutes of television that put the story, not the anchor, first.
BP CONFESSES ITS LACK OF PREPAREDNESS 20/20 anchor Chris Cuomo maintained his oversight of BP for ABC by securing a commitment from the corporation that there would be no reprisals against workers who report toxic side effects from working on the oil clean-up. NBC's Lisa Myers surveyed the impact of the disaster on BP as a whole. The corporation is now worth 35% less than it was on the day the explosion happened. CEO Tony Hayward is now on the record as confessing that BP was not prepared to cope with the emergency: "We did not have the tools you would want in your toolkit." The firm's PR ad campaign calls the leaking well "a tragedy that should never have happened." Myers quoted unidentified experts as speculating that top executives may be fired.
POLICY COVERAGE OFF THE TABLE; DRAMA CRITICISM INSTEAD CBS anchor Katie Couric claimed an Exclusive for her interview with Bob Graham and William Reilly, the co-chairmen of Barack Obama's Presidential Commission investigating the Gulf of Mexico catastrophe. Amazingly, the commission is forbidden from concluding that this type of well was too dangerous to be permitted. Here is how Chairman Graham described his brief--to "make recommendations as to what we think will be necessary for the United States to continue to have a deepwater oil drilling industry." Even in slime-ravaged Louisiana, the idea of a drilling ban seems unthinkable. NBC's Kerry Sanders quoted Bobby Jindal, the state's Republican governor: "The reality is we should not have to choose between safe, domestic production of energy and safeguarding our wildlife and our coast and our way of life."
Just because Jindal does not want to make that choice, it does not mean that he might not have to.
In all the hours of coverage of all the angles of this environmental disaster, the policy question of the wisdom of deepwater offshore drilling has been routinely underplayed. Instead, political correspondents have decided to become drama critics.
Wednesday, ABC's White House correspondent Jake Tapper covered the critique leveled at Barack Obama that his Method Acting rendition of outrage was lacking in conviction. Now CBS' Chip Reid (no link) and NBC's Chuck Todd offer their reviews. Todd referred to a "perception that he is not as engaged as he should be." Reid quoted unidentified critics as carping that "his kind of calm and methodical tone is not appropriate in a disaster like this." All three networks covered the President's self-defense in an interview on CNN's Larry King Live: "You know I am furious at this entire situation…I would love to just spend a lot of my time venting and yelling at people…Ultimately this is not about me and how angry I am."
But it is about whether deepwater drilling should be allowed to continue and Obama has refused to allow his commission even to address such a question. And CBS anchor Couric failed to challenge that limitation when Graham cited it.
THURGOOD’S CLERK CBS' legal eagle Jan Crawford claimed an Exclusive for the papers she uncovered in the Library of Congress. They were memos written to Justice Thurgood Marshall by his Supreme Court clerk, a self-described "27-year-old pipsqueak." That pipsqueak's comments covered abortion rights, school desegregation, recognition of marriage and gun control. Crawford concluded that those views "may encourage liberals" about the prospect of finding an ally on the court itself. The pipsqueak's name is Elena Kagan.
FOUR IDF BULLETS IN THE HEAD Jim Maceda filed an update for NBC on the nine deaths on the Marmara cruise ship when it tried to run supplies past the Israeli navy into the Gaza Strip. Maceda was in Istanbul for the Death to Israel protests that accompanied their funerals. ABC's Simon McGregor-Wood flowed up from Jerusalem with the news that one of the dead--shot four times in the head by IDF commandos--was a citizen of the United States. McGregor-Wood made radio contact with the Rachel Corrie, an Irish-flagged ship 80 miles away in the Mediterranean Sea carrying "cement and paper for Gaza's schools." Israel insists that it, like the Marmara, must dock at an Israeli port instead.
IF IT IS GOOD ENOUGH FOR THE WATER COOLER… …then it is good enough for the network nightly newscasts. ABC anchor Diane Sawyer claimed that "it was nearly impossible to find any place where people were not buzzing" about pitcher Armando Galarraga's oh-so-nearly-perfect game for the Detroit Tigers. NBC anchor Brian Williams argued that "people talked about this story across the country more than any other."
So all three newscasts assigned a correspondent to tell us about umpire Jim Joyce's falsely calling a baserunner safe for what would have been Galarraga's final out…then Joyce checked the post-game replay and acknowledged his error…then Galarraga accepted Joyce's personal apology…then Joyce burst into tears when Galarraga presented his team's line-up at the next game of the homestand.
NBC's Mike Taibbi heard "grace notes after an episode of injustice…28 batters, 28 actual outs, Perfection Plus."
ABC's John Berman mused that "one man missed the chance to be perfect but two men seized the chance to be good and being good in life trumps being perfect in baseball."
CBS' Dean Reynolds quoted Yogi Berra: "If the world was perfect, it would not be."
NBC's Kerry Sanders described the "heartbreaking discovery" on Louisiana's barrier islands. "Where the thick oil is lapping the shoreline, birds are trapped, dying in the ooze." CBS' Mark Strassmann called the day's images "troubling--and remember, this is a crisis with no end in sight…When you get a sense of the thickness of this crude you also start to understand something else: why this pelican never stood a chance and why so many other birds are now at risk as this oil keeps coming ashore."
Meanwhile NBC's Mark Potter and CBS' Kelly Cobiella were on the tourist beach in Pensacola waiting. Cobiella picked up on "a growing sense of hopelessness and doom." Potter found hotels "already reporting cancelations." Florida Panhandle tourism may suffer first but Cobiella foresaw miles and miles of tarnished beaches. She counted six different computer models, "all showing oil moving around south Florida and up the east coast."
BP’S PROGRESS COULD MAKE MATTERS WORSE The view from the sea bed was less gloomy. NBC's Anne Thompson speculated that "BP may be a small step closer 45 days into this environmental catastrophe--finally progress" and ABC's Matt Gutman concurred, seeing "just a little bit of progress. What began as a delicate surgery became an exercise in brute force earlier today. A shear as heavy as a battle tank crunched through that 21-inch riser." Next, Gutman previewed, "underwater robots are preparing to jam that cap atop the severed pipeline. They are betting that the weight of the new 5,000-foot steel pipeline will force it snugly over the uneven pipe." BP's nickname for the new dome is Top Cap. Thompson quoted BP's chief executive Tony Wayward as acclaiming the cutting of the pipeline as "a milestone" even though, she added, "it could increase the flow of oil."
ABC’S ROSS FINGERS COAST GUARD FOR ABETTING BP SECRECY ABC's Brian Ross flashed back to the first 20 days of the oil leak, when the videostream of the seabed gusher was kept secret. "BP says the tapes were in the hands of the Coast Guard and the government all along but the Coast Guard says BP would not release the tapes." Ross reran soundbites from both Admiral Mary Landry of the USCG and Secretary Janet Napolitano of the Department of Homeland Security, warning back then against a "fixation" on measuring the volume of the leak. He explained that it would be in BP's interest for the videostream to be suppressed, since it would prevent an independent calculation of the per-barrel-per-day fine that the corporation will eventually have to pay.
Ross concluded that the Coast Guard's relationship with BP is "far too cozy."
NBC’S COSTELLO EXPLAINS RELIEF WELL Check out Tom Costello's explainer for NBC on the prospects that BP's relief well will be the "best and final way to end the flow of oil." He reminded us that the same technique took ten months to plug a leak off Mexico in 1979. This time it may succeed before Labor Day using magnetic sensors. "It has been described as trying to hit a dinner plate two miles under the ocean floor."
NBC’S WHEEL LETS THE STORY TELL THE STORY On Tuesday and Wednesday, NBC relied on anchor Brian Williams to lead its oil slick coverage as he broadcast from Louisiana. Williams consoled a shrimp fishing family…he misleadingly interviewed a former Shell Oil executive…he answered FAQs with in-house physician Nancy Snyderman…he toured polluted spoonbill nesting grounds. Now, with Williams back behind his anchor desk in New York City, NBC tried a more dynamic technique for summarizing the day's oil developments. Using a wheel of correspondents, anchor Williams introduced Anne Thompson to tell us about the seabed drilling, who handed off to Lisa Myers on BP's corporate fate, who handed off to Chuck Todd on Barack Obama's political leadership, who handed off to Mark Potter on Pensacola's missing tourists, who handed off to Kerry Sanders on Louisiana's tarry shores.
Well done, NBC. A lively nine minutes of television that put the story, not the anchor, first.
BP CONFESSES ITS LACK OF PREPAREDNESS 20/20 anchor Chris Cuomo maintained his oversight of BP for ABC by securing a commitment from the corporation that there would be no reprisals against workers who report toxic side effects from working on the oil clean-up. NBC's Lisa Myers surveyed the impact of the disaster on BP as a whole. The corporation is now worth 35% less than it was on the day the explosion happened. CEO Tony Hayward is now on the record as confessing that BP was not prepared to cope with the emergency: "We did not have the tools you would want in your toolkit." The firm's PR ad campaign calls the leaking well "a tragedy that should never have happened." Myers quoted unidentified experts as speculating that top executives may be fired.
POLICY COVERAGE OFF THE TABLE; DRAMA CRITICISM INSTEAD CBS anchor Katie Couric claimed an Exclusive for her interview with Bob Graham and William Reilly, the co-chairmen of Barack Obama's Presidential Commission investigating the Gulf of Mexico catastrophe. Amazingly, the commission is forbidden from concluding that this type of well was too dangerous to be permitted. Here is how Chairman Graham described his brief--to "make recommendations as to what we think will be necessary for the United States to continue to have a deepwater oil drilling industry." Even in slime-ravaged Louisiana, the idea of a drilling ban seems unthinkable. NBC's Kerry Sanders quoted Bobby Jindal, the state's Republican governor: "The reality is we should not have to choose between safe, domestic production of energy and safeguarding our wildlife and our coast and our way of life."
Just because Jindal does not want to make that choice, it does not mean that he might not have to.
In all the hours of coverage of all the angles of this environmental disaster, the policy question of the wisdom of deepwater offshore drilling has been routinely underplayed. Instead, political correspondents have decided to become drama critics.
Wednesday, ABC's White House correspondent Jake Tapper covered the critique leveled at Barack Obama that his Method Acting rendition of outrage was lacking in conviction. Now CBS' Chip Reid (no link) and NBC's Chuck Todd offer their reviews. Todd referred to a "perception that he is not as engaged as he should be." Reid quoted unidentified critics as carping that "his kind of calm and methodical tone is not appropriate in a disaster like this." All three networks covered the President's self-defense in an interview on CNN's Larry King Live: "You know I am furious at this entire situation…I would love to just spend a lot of my time venting and yelling at people…Ultimately this is not about me and how angry I am."
But it is about whether deepwater drilling should be allowed to continue and Obama has refused to allow his commission even to address such a question. And CBS anchor Couric failed to challenge that limitation when Graham cited it.
THURGOOD’S CLERK CBS' legal eagle Jan Crawford claimed an Exclusive for the papers she uncovered in the Library of Congress. They were memos written to Justice Thurgood Marshall by his Supreme Court clerk, a self-described "27-year-old pipsqueak." That pipsqueak's comments covered abortion rights, school desegregation, recognition of marriage and gun control. Crawford concluded that those views "may encourage liberals" about the prospect of finding an ally on the court itself. The pipsqueak's name is Elena Kagan.
FOUR IDF BULLETS IN THE HEAD Jim Maceda filed an update for NBC on the nine deaths on the Marmara cruise ship when it tried to run supplies past the Israeli navy into the Gaza Strip. Maceda was in Istanbul for the Death to Israel protests that accompanied their funerals. ABC's Simon McGregor-Wood flowed up from Jerusalem with the news that one of the dead--shot four times in the head by IDF commandos--was a citizen of the United States. McGregor-Wood made radio contact with the Rachel Corrie, an Irish-flagged ship 80 miles away in the Mediterranean Sea carrying "cement and paper for Gaza's schools." Israel insists that it, like the Marmara, must dock at an Israeli port instead.
IF IT IS GOOD ENOUGH FOR THE WATER COOLER… …then it is good enough for the network nightly newscasts. ABC anchor Diane Sawyer claimed that "it was nearly impossible to find any place where people were not buzzing" about pitcher Armando Galarraga's oh-so-nearly-perfect game for the Detroit Tigers. NBC anchor Brian Williams argued that "people talked about this story across the country more than any other."
So all three newscasts assigned a correspondent to tell us about umpire Jim Joyce's falsely calling a baserunner safe for what would have been Galarraga's final out…then Joyce checked the post-game replay and acknowledged his error…then Galarraga accepted Joyce's personal apology…then Joyce burst into tears when Galarraga presented his team's line-up at the next game of the homestand.
NBC's Mike Taibbi heard "grace notes after an episode of injustice…28 batters, 28 actual outs, Perfection Plus."
ABC's John Berman mused that "one man missed the chance to be perfect but two men seized the chance to be good and being good in life trumps being perfect in baseball."
CBS' Dean Reynolds quoted Yogi Berra: "If the world was perfect, it would not be."
