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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM JUNE 15, 2010
The Gulf Coast oil disaster moved inside the Beltway on the 26th straight weekday on which it has been Story of the Day. All three newscasts filed reports both from their White House correspondent and from their Congressional correspondent. On Capitol Hill, executives from Big Oil testified about the safety of their deepwater drilling operations. At the White House, President Barack Obama prepared for a primetime TV address to the nation from the Oval Office. ABC led from the Hill; CBS led from the White House. NBC, with substitute anchor Lester Holt, led from Louisiana, where BP plans to siphon off yet more crude from its seabed gusher.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR JUNE 15, 2010: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
OIL DISASTER SHIFTS INSIDE THE BELTWAY The Gulf Coast oil disaster moved inside the Beltway on the 26th straight weekday on which it has been Story of the Day. All three newscasts filed reports both from their White House correspondent and from their Congressional correspondent. On Capitol Hill, executives from Big Oil testified about the safety of their deepwater drilling operations. At the White House, President Barack Obama prepared for a primetime TV address to the nation from the Oval Office. ABC led from the Hill; CBS led from the White House. NBC, with substitute anchor Lester Holt, led from Louisiana, where BP plans to siphon off yet more crude from its seabed gusher.
White House aides made sure that the key points of the President's address were disseminated in advance via the networks' three correspondents: Jake Tapper at ABC, Savannah Guthrie at NBC, and Chip Reid (no link) at CBS. BP will be asked to establish an independently-administered escrow fund to compensate those harmed by the pollution. The Gulf Coast ecosystem will be restored to its condition before Hurricane Katrina. Congress will be pressed to pass energy legislation to convert from fossil fuels to renewables.
Saying it does not make it so.
SAVE THE WALRUSES The five bosses of Big Oil offered some theater at House hearings: BP plus Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Conoco-Phillips and Shell. On the one hand there was a split in the ranks as BP was dumped on by its rivals: "The CEOs of the other Big Oil companies placed the blame squarely on BP," noted ABC's Jonathan Karl. They say "they are sharing everything--people, equipment, resources--to try to help but they do not want to share in any of the blame," quipped NBC's Kelly O'Donnell. CBS' Sharyl Attkisson saw the five stand "shoulder to shoulder for their oath--then tried to distance themselves from BP."
On the other hand, the committee had access to each firm's safety planning in the event that its deepwater oil well should have a similar disaster. "Their spill response plans are strikingly similar to BP's, flaws and all," was how CBS' Attkisson characterized the criticism. A go-to marine biology expert has been dead for five years and the list of Gulf of Mexico wildlife to be protected included Arctic walruses. After all that lambasting, ABC's Karl commented that across the hall in the Senate, a proposal to cancel a program of $35bn in tax subsidies for Big Oil for production and development went down to defeat.
19, 50, 60, 80--WHO’S COUNTING? Remember the days when, at its worst, that seabed gusher might be leaking 19K barrels of crude each day? It was less than two weeks ago that Sharyl Attkisson of CBS was needling BP for "spinning the numbers" in order to minimize future pollution fines. Now NBC's Tom Costello reports on BP's plans to siphon off between 15K and 50K barrels each day from the partially-capped well. Yet the leak will still continue to pollute, since the current estimate of its daily volume is 60K barrels. Then Costello added that by mid July, BP plans to capture maybe 80K barrels each day: "It seems every week the estimates of how much oil is flowing go up." You can say that again.
CLEAN-UP UPDATES NBC's Thanh Truong and ABC's David Muir both filed from Grand Isle where the state of Louisiana has decided to go ahead with its coastal protection schemes without waiting for federal permission. ABC's Muir showed us a contraption with floating trucks and vacuum suction while NBC's Truong pointed to a blockade of partially submerged barges. "They are acting now. They will ask for forgiveness later," declared ABC's Muir. CBS' Mark Strassmann, meanwhile, examined the bottom of Barataria Bay and showed us "oil hidden underwater in sand that holds the food for shrimp, oysters and a host of shellfish."
NEWS COUSTEAUS CBS' Kelly Cobiella and NBC's Robert Bazell filed from Florida. NBC's Bazell visited the Harbor Branch Institute of Florida Atlantic University where marine biologists are already breeding baby fish to restock the Gulf of Mexico waters once the pollution is cleaned up. CBS' Cobiella was the latest network correspondent to go scuba diving for the nightly newscasts (NBC's Kerry Sanders and ABC's Sam Champion have also played news-Cousteau). She checked out a nine-year-old submarine nursery where new coral is cultivated to renew damaged reefs.
PETRAEUS, THE PROSTATE, THE PENIS & PUBLICNESS My friend Jeff Jarvis at Buzzmachine has worked hard to persuade me of the virtues of going public about personal health issues. In our case, we have both undergone prostate surgery for cancer. He argues against the inhibitions of Too Much Information and against the risks of self-indulgent emotional exhibitionism in favor of publicness--an open discussion of our penises and their failings, their incontinence and their impotence. Jarvis argues that the converse of publicness is often not privacy but shame--especially where the penis is concerned.
So I hope I am not being presumptuous when I offer a comment, in solidarity, to David Petraeus, a fellow prostate cancer sufferer. When the general fainted during his testimony to a Senate panel, ABC's Martha Raddatz covered the collapse decorously, with the advice that "you have to stay hydrated." CBS' David Martin went into a little more detail, telling us that "the famously fit Petraeus had avoided liquids so he could make it through the hearing without a bathroom break."
Neither reporter mentioned the general's prostate gland, which he apparently has had treated with radiation. If Petraeus' secret fear was of an incontinent leak while testifying, then this would be a vivid vindication of Jarvis' point (here is his entire prostate thread). In the context of publicness, instead of privacy, a leak would be nothing to be ashamed of. After all, it is only urine.
INNOCENT! From London, both NBC's Jim Maceda and CBS' Mark Phillips covered the British government's apology for the 1972 massacre of Irish Republican civil rights marchers, the day that became known as Bloody Sunday. NBC's Maceda reminded us that the initial British report blamed the victims, falsely finding that the 14 dead had been armed and were shooting at soldiers. CBS' Phillips called the videotape of the outrage "the best recruiting video the IRA ever had." You should check out Phillips' stirring footage of the families celebrating their belated vindication. Innocent, they declared over and over again.
CUTTING THE CLITORIS Female Genital Mutilation has been banned in the United States since 1996. Yet some immigrant families want to continue the ritual of marking their daughters' chastity. So Doug Diekema, a pediatrician, devised a symbolic reenactment of the brutal surgery, applying a harmless pinprick to the hood of a girl's clitoris, a so-called "ritual nick." The American Academy of Pediatrics initially approved the procedure as a culturally sensitive gesture but later retracted because "it had caused too much confusion and controversy." Without recourse to the ritual nick, some parents are taking their daughters back to their ethnic homelands to undergo the vicious full-blown female castration. ABC's in-house physician Richard Besser filed a detailed Investigation.
FOOTBALL CRAZY The latest World Cup feature was filed by Martin Fletcher, a longtime NBC correspondent, now a volunteer with the Filmaid International NGO. He followed Filmaid founder Caroline Baron, whose movie productions include Monsoon Wedding and Capote, to Port-au-Prince for her latest project. Back in April, NBC's Janet Shamlian told us that the Haiti national soccer stadium had been used as a tent city for those made homeless by January's earthquake. It is now back in its proper role just in time for the World Cup. Not that Haiti is playing in South Africa--but "everyone here loves soccer. I mean, everyone," Fletcher averred. He was on hand as the satellite uplink for the stadium's giant TV screen was connected just in time for Filmaid International to supply a live feed from Johannesburg.
White House aides made sure that the key points of the President's address were disseminated in advance via the networks' three correspondents: Jake Tapper at ABC, Savannah Guthrie at NBC, and Chip Reid (no link) at CBS. BP will be asked to establish an independently-administered escrow fund to compensate those harmed by the pollution. The Gulf Coast ecosystem will be restored to its condition before Hurricane Katrina. Congress will be pressed to pass energy legislation to convert from fossil fuels to renewables.
Saying it does not make it so.
SAVE THE WALRUSES The five bosses of Big Oil offered some theater at House hearings: BP plus Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Conoco-Phillips and Shell. On the one hand there was a split in the ranks as BP was dumped on by its rivals: "The CEOs of the other Big Oil companies placed the blame squarely on BP," noted ABC's Jonathan Karl. They say "they are sharing everything--people, equipment, resources--to try to help but they do not want to share in any of the blame," quipped NBC's Kelly O'Donnell. CBS' Sharyl Attkisson saw the five stand "shoulder to shoulder for their oath--then tried to distance themselves from BP."
On the other hand, the committee had access to each firm's safety planning in the event that its deepwater oil well should have a similar disaster. "Their spill response plans are strikingly similar to BP's, flaws and all," was how CBS' Attkisson characterized the criticism. A go-to marine biology expert has been dead for five years and the list of Gulf of Mexico wildlife to be protected included Arctic walruses. After all that lambasting, ABC's Karl commented that across the hall in the Senate, a proposal to cancel a program of $35bn in tax subsidies for Big Oil for production and development went down to defeat.
19, 50, 60, 80--WHO’S COUNTING? Remember the days when, at its worst, that seabed gusher might be leaking 19K barrels of crude each day? It was less than two weeks ago that Sharyl Attkisson of CBS was needling BP for "spinning the numbers" in order to minimize future pollution fines. Now NBC's Tom Costello reports on BP's plans to siphon off between 15K and 50K barrels each day from the partially-capped well. Yet the leak will still continue to pollute, since the current estimate of its daily volume is 60K barrels. Then Costello added that by mid July, BP plans to capture maybe 80K barrels each day: "It seems every week the estimates of how much oil is flowing go up." You can say that again.
CLEAN-UP UPDATES NBC's Thanh Truong and ABC's David Muir both filed from Grand Isle where the state of Louisiana has decided to go ahead with its coastal protection schemes without waiting for federal permission. ABC's Muir showed us a contraption with floating trucks and vacuum suction while NBC's Truong pointed to a blockade of partially submerged barges. "They are acting now. They will ask for forgiveness later," declared ABC's Muir. CBS' Mark Strassmann, meanwhile, examined the bottom of Barataria Bay and showed us "oil hidden underwater in sand that holds the food for shrimp, oysters and a host of shellfish."
NEWS COUSTEAUS CBS' Kelly Cobiella and NBC's Robert Bazell filed from Florida. NBC's Bazell visited the Harbor Branch Institute of Florida Atlantic University where marine biologists are already breeding baby fish to restock the Gulf of Mexico waters once the pollution is cleaned up. CBS' Cobiella was the latest network correspondent to go scuba diving for the nightly newscasts (NBC's Kerry Sanders and ABC's Sam Champion have also played news-Cousteau). She checked out a nine-year-old submarine nursery where new coral is cultivated to renew damaged reefs.
PETRAEUS, THE PROSTATE, THE PENIS & PUBLICNESS My friend Jeff Jarvis at Buzzmachine has worked hard to persuade me of the virtues of going public about personal health issues. In our case, we have both undergone prostate surgery for cancer. He argues against the inhibitions of Too Much Information and against the risks of self-indulgent emotional exhibitionism in favor of publicness--an open discussion of our penises and their failings, their incontinence and their impotence. Jarvis argues that the converse of publicness is often not privacy but shame--especially where the penis is concerned.
So I hope I am not being presumptuous when I offer a comment, in solidarity, to David Petraeus, a fellow prostate cancer sufferer. When the general fainted during his testimony to a Senate panel, ABC's Martha Raddatz covered the collapse decorously, with the advice that "you have to stay hydrated." CBS' David Martin went into a little more detail, telling us that "the famously fit Petraeus had avoided liquids so he could make it through the hearing without a bathroom break."
Neither reporter mentioned the general's prostate gland, which he apparently has had treated with radiation. If Petraeus' secret fear was of an incontinent leak while testifying, then this would be a vivid vindication of Jarvis' point (here is his entire prostate thread). In the context of publicness, instead of privacy, a leak would be nothing to be ashamed of. After all, it is only urine.
INNOCENT! From London, both NBC's Jim Maceda and CBS' Mark Phillips covered the British government's apology for the 1972 massacre of Irish Republican civil rights marchers, the day that became known as Bloody Sunday. NBC's Maceda reminded us that the initial British report blamed the victims, falsely finding that the 14 dead had been armed and were shooting at soldiers. CBS' Phillips called the videotape of the outrage "the best recruiting video the IRA ever had." You should check out Phillips' stirring footage of the families celebrating their belated vindication. Innocent, they declared over and over again.
CUTTING THE CLITORIS Female Genital Mutilation has been banned in the United States since 1996. Yet some immigrant families want to continue the ritual of marking their daughters' chastity. So Doug Diekema, a pediatrician, devised a symbolic reenactment of the brutal surgery, applying a harmless pinprick to the hood of a girl's clitoris, a so-called "ritual nick." The American Academy of Pediatrics initially approved the procedure as a culturally sensitive gesture but later retracted because "it had caused too much confusion and controversy." Without recourse to the ritual nick, some parents are taking their daughters back to their ethnic homelands to undergo the vicious full-blown female castration. ABC's in-house physician Richard Besser filed a detailed Investigation.
FOOTBALL CRAZY The latest World Cup feature was filed by Martin Fletcher, a longtime NBC correspondent, now a volunteer with the Filmaid International NGO. He followed Filmaid founder Caroline Baron, whose movie productions include Monsoon Wedding and Capote, to Port-au-Prince for her latest project. Back in April, NBC's Janet Shamlian told us that the Haiti national soccer stadium had been used as a tent city for those made homeless by January's earthquake. It is now back in its proper role just in time for the World Cup. Not that Haiti is playing in South Africa--but "everyone here loves soccer. I mean, everyone," Fletcher averred. He was on hand as the satellite uplink for the stadium's giant TV screen was connected just in time for Filmaid International to supply a live feed from Johannesburg.
