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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM JUNE 08, 2010
The gusher of crude oil polluting the Gulf of Mexico was, no surprise, Story of the Day again, extending its streak to 21 straight weekdays. CBS and NBC led with marine research that confirmed the existence of massive submarine plumes of oil particles in addition to the surface contamination. ABC chose BP's tardy response to the economic crisis afflicting coastal communities yet the crisis coverage is moderating just a hair. For the first time in a week, the oil disaster accounted for less than half (44%--25 min out of 58) the three-network newshole. It was, after all, also Primary Election Day in twelve states.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR JUNE 08, 2010: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
OIL LEAK NO LONGER FILLS HALF THE NEWSHOLE The gusher of crude oil polluting the Gulf of Mexico was, no surprise, Story of the Day again, extending its streak to 21 straight weekdays. CBS and NBC led with marine research that confirmed the existence of massive submarine plumes of oil particles in addition to the surface contamination. ABC chose BP's tardy response to the economic crisis afflicting coastal communities yet the crisis coverage is moderating just a hair. For the first time in a week, the oil disaster accounted for less than half (44%--25 min out of 58) the three-network newshole. It was, after all, also Primary Election Day in twelve states.
ABC's David Muir came up with the latest estimate of BP's debt to the coastal communities of the Gulf of Mexico in compensation for their loss of livelihood. $14bn. He outlined two problems facing small businesses as they seek payment: first, the three-year time frame to establish what their normal income would have been--that period is abnormal because it includes the worst of the regional calamity caused by Hurricane Katrina; second, bureaucracy--"owners say they have been required to turn over a mountain of paperwork." CBS' Kelly Cobiella, too, picked up on BP's bureaucratic runaround confronting an artificial reef builder: "The first office lost his paperwork; the second told him he did not qualify; and the third told him to hire an accountant."
"BP has been all but absent here," ABC's Yunji de Nies observed from Magnolia Springs Ala. So the local volunteer fire department raised local money to rent nine barges and line of containment boom to protect the mouth of Weeks Bay from the encroaching oil. The do-it-yourself project is costing $6,000 a day. The town has three weeks before it runs out of money.
ADMIRAL ALLEN CLAIMS HE KNOWS HOW BIG THE LEAK IS How much oil is gushing into the Gulf of Mexico? ABC anchor Diane Sawyer asked Admiral Thad Allen of the Coast Guard, who is in charge of the federal government's response. "Do you know how much oil is coming out of the well today?" "We have an estimate, yes." The anchor proceeded to tell the admiral what his daily estimate was--between 12K and 25K barrels. "Could it possibly be 60K barrels per day?" "I do not know if it would be that high." CBS' Mark Strassmann reported that BP is now siphoning off 14.8K barrels each day through its containment cap, what he called "more than half the government's current high-end estimate."
All three networks covered the confirmation that giant undersea plumes of oil particles had been identified some 3,300 feet below sea level. CBS' Strassmann gave credit to the feds, citing NOAA, calling it "thin, dispersed oil;" NBC's Anne Thompson cited findings by the University of South; Sam Champion, Good Morning America's weathercaster, reporting for ABC, credited the University of Georgia: "When microscopic oil and gas particles mix it is a substance that you or I have never seen before because these two things behave differently at these depths and these temperatures and these pressures."
SHRIMPERS NOW HELP TURTLES NBC's Kerry Sanders was in the brackish waters of Barataria Bay where a symbolic graveyard has been built: "The crosses on Grand Isle mourn the sea life that fishermen fear may never return." Dead turtles include giant loggerheads and endangered Kemp's Ridley. "Until now the leading cause of accidental deaths of turtles has been getting caught in shrimpers' nets. Now it is those very shrimpers, out collecting the oil, who may wind up saving the turtles' lives."
Meanwhile, Sanders' colleague Mark Potter filed from Orange Beach Ala where containment booms and skimmer boats are trying to protect the tourist beaches.
KARMA & GAZA Amid all the attention devoted to the Gulf of Mexico, both NBC and CBS filed features from overseas. CBS' Terry McCarthy continued his Thundering Third series, which follows a Marine battalion as it goes to war in Afghanistan. Part one last week showed us the 3rd's training at Camp Pendleton. Now McCarthy takes us to Patrol Base Karma, where the deployment suffered its first two deaths--"two angels" as those killed in action are nicknamed--killed by a boobytrapped bomb that left a waistdeep crater in the road the men were minesweeping.
NBC's Tom Aspell filed the first nightly newscast package from the Gaza Strip since the plight of its 1.5m inhabitants there was publicized by the nine deaths at the hands of IDF commandos on the so-called Freedom Flotilla last week. Aspell showed us the poignant sight of children sifting through sand for pebbles to act as construction cement because Israel bans proper building materials. "Israel says there is no humanitarian crisis," Aspell assured us, since food and medicine is allowed. Instead he found "deep poverty and also despair." He called the Gaza Strip "a 140 square mile prison."
WATCHING WHITMAN NBC did not consider the statewide primary elections newsworthy enough to assign a correspondent to cover them. CBS concentrated on California, with Jeff Greenfield in Los Angeles profiling the pair of onetime Silicon Valley executives--Meg Whitman of eBay and Karly Fiorina of Hewlett Packard--who are now running statewide in Republican primaries, Whitman for Governor, Fiorina for Senate. ABC's Jonathan Karl generalized that "this might just be the year of the Republican woman," adding in contests in Nevada and South Carolina. ABC had George Stephanopoulos offer some analysis. He pointed to Whitman and to Nikki Haley in South Carolina and predicted that, if they should win in November, "they instantly become national leaders in the Republican Party."
FIREBALLER MAKES KARL DO DOUBLE DUTY ABC's Jonathan Karl had also put a trip to Syracuse in the can. Syracuse is where the minor league Chiefs are a farm club for the Washington Nationals. Karl scouted the Nationals' new pitcher in anticipation of his major league debut. The phenom attracted "the largest recorded crowd for professional baseball" in Syracuse, which has been hosting games since the mid-C19th. He is 21 years old. He has a 100 mph fastball. His name is Stephen Strasburg.
ABC's David Muir came up with the latest estimate of BP's debt to the coastal communities of the Gulf of Mexico in compensation for their loss of livelihood. $14bn. He outlined two problems facing small businesses as they seek payment: first, the three-year time frame to establish what their normal income would have been--that period is abnormal because it includes the worst of the regional calamity caused by Hurricane Katrina; second, bureaucracy--"owners say they have been required to turn over a mountain of paperwork." CBS' Kelly Cobiella, too, picked up on BP's bureaucratic runaround confronting an artificial reef builder: "The first office lost his paperwork; the second told him he did not qualify; and the third told him to hire an accountant."
"BP has been all but absent here," ABC's Yunji de Nies observed from Magnolia Springs Ala. So the local volunteer fire department raised local money to rent nine barges and line of containment boom to protect the mouth of Weeks Bay from the encroaching oil. The do-it-yourself project is costing $6,000 a day. The town has three weeks before it runs out of money.
ADMIRAL ALLEN CLAIMS HE KNOWS HOW BIG THE LEAK IS How much oil is gushing into the Gulf of Mexico? ABC anchor Diane Sawyer asked Admiral Thad Allen of the Coast Guard, who is in charge of the federal government's response. "Do you know how much oil is coming out of the well today?" "We have an estimate, yes." The anchor proceeded to tell the admiral what his daily estimate was--between 12K and 25K barrels. "Could it possibly be 60K barrels per day?" "I do not know if it would be that high." CBS' Mark Strassmann reported that BP is now siphoning off 14.8K barrels each day through its containment cap, what he called "more than half the government's current high-end estimate."
All three networks covered the confirmation that giant undersea plumes of oil particles had been identified some 3,300 feet below sea level. CBS' Strassmann gave credit to the feds, citing NOAA, calling it "thin, dispersed oil;" NBC's Anne Thompson cited findings by the University of South; Sam Champion, Good Morning America's weathercaster, reporting for ABC, credited the University of Georgia: "When microscopic oil and gas particles mix it is a substance that you or I have never seen before because these two things behave differently at these depths and these temperatures and these pressures."
SHRIMPERS NOW HELP TURTLES NBC's Kerry Sanders was in the brackish waters of Barataria Bay where a symbolic graveyard has been built: "The crosses on Grand Isle mourn the sea life that fishermen fear may never return." Dead turtles include giant loggerheads and endangered Kemp's Ridley. "Until now the leading cause of accidental deaths of turtles has been getting caught in shrimpers' nets. Now it is those very shrimpers, out collecting the oil, who may wind up saving the turtles' lives."
Meanwhile, Sanders' colleague Mark Potter filed from Orange Beach Ala where containment booms and skimmer boats are trying to protect the tourist beaches.
KARMA & GAZA Amid all the attention devoted to the Gulf of Mexico, both NBC and CBS filed features from overseas. CBS' Terry McCarthy continued his Thundering Third series, which follows a Marine battalion as it goes to war in Afghanistan. Part one last week showed us the 3rd's training at Camp Pendleton. Now McCarthy takes us to Patrol Base Karma, where the deployment suffered its first two deaths--"two angels" as those killed in action are nicknamed--killed by a boobytrapped bomb that left a waistdeep crater in the road the men were minesweeping.
NBC's Tom Aspell filed the first nightly newscast package from the Gaza Strip since the plight of its 1.5m inhabitants there was publicized by the nine deaths at the hands of IDF commandos on the so-called Freedom Flotilla last week. Aspell showed us the poignant sight of children sifting through sand for pebbles to act as construction cement because Israel bans proper building materials. "Israel says there is no humanitarian crisis," Aspell assured us, since food and medicine is allowed. Instead he found "deep poverty and also despair." He called the Gaza Strip "a 140 square mile prison."
WATCHING WHITMAN NBC did not consider the statewide primary elections newsworthy enough to assign a correspondent to cover them. CBS concentrated on California, with Jeff Greenfield in Los Angeles profiling the pair of onetime Silicon Valley executives--Meg Whitman of eBay and Karly Fiorina of Hewlett Packard--who are now running statewide in Republican primaries, Whitman for Governor, Fiorina for Senate. ABC's Jonathan Karl generalized that "this might just be the year of the Republican woman," adding in contests in Nevada and South Carolina. ABC had George Stephanopoulos offer some analysis. He pointed to Whitman and to Nikki Haley in South Carolina and predicted that, if they should win in November, "they instantly become national leaders in the Republican Party."
FIREBALLER MAKES KARL DO DOUBLE DUTY ABC's Jonathan Karl had also put a trip to Syracuse in the can. Syracuse is where the minor league Chiefs are a farm club for the Washington Nationals. Karl scouted the Nationals' new pitcher in anticipation of his major league debut. The phenom attracted "the largest recorded crowd for professional baseball" in Syracuse, which has been hosting games since the mid-C19th. He is 21 years old. He has a 100 mph fastball. His name is Stephen Strasburg.
