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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM MARCH 29, 2010
Moscow made a rare appearance as the Story of the Day. Both NBC and CBS led with the morning rush hour bombs at the Lubyanka and Park Kultury stations in its subway system. A pair of suicidal women set off separate explosions that killed almost 40 fellow passengers. NBC's correspondent was on the scene; CBS voiced over the videotape from London. To mark the start of Holy Week, ABC led with a Christian story. No, not the Roman Catholic Church's defense of its handling of pedophile priests. ABC selected the Michigan-based Hutaree, a self-styled Christian militia, accused by the FBI of hatching a plot to assassinate police officers.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR MARCH 29, 2010: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
MOSCOW METRO STATIONS BOMBED Moscow made a rare appearance as the Story of the Day. Both NBC and CBS led with the morning rush hour bombs at the Lubyanka and Park Kultury stations in its subway system. A pair of suicidal women set off separate explosions that killed almost 40 fellow passengers. NBC's correspondent was on the scene; CBS voiced over the videotape from London. To mark the start of Holy Week, ABC led with a Christian story. No, not the Roman Catholic Church's defense of its handling of pedophile priests. ABC selected the Michigan-based Hutaree, a self-styled Christian militia, accused by the FBI of hatching a plot to assassinate police officers.
Both NBC's Jim Maceda and ABC's Alex Marquardt were in Moscow to cover the subway bombs. "After six years of relative quiet, terror had returned to the capital," Maceda announced. "Today's attack echoed a wave of female suicide bombings almost a decade ago by so-called Black Widows, named after the wife of a slain Chechen commander seeking her revenge." Maceda pointed out that the Russian suppression of a Chechen secessionist uprising 15 years ago left 100,000 dead. From London, CBS' Mark Phillips reminded us of some of the brutality of that conflict: a hostage siege at a Moscow theater and the dead children at their school in Beslan.
ABC's Marquardt marveled at how unphased Muscovites were: "Amazingly, by late afternoon, Moscow's entire subway system was back up and running. People headed home past remnants of the day's carnage and small memorials to the dead. Tonight, no signs of the chaos and carnage seen earlier."
SCIUTTO STATISTICS FAIL All three newscasts monitored the response by the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church to the pedophile priests scandal. Again, ABC and NBC had correspondents on the scene at the Vatican; CBS had Elaine Quijano narrate the videotape from in front of a church in New York City. NBC's Anne Thompson picked up on a phrase from the Palm Sunday sermon by Pope Benedict XVI in which he decried the "intimidation of petty gossip." She reminded us that "petty gossip" was the phrase that church authorities used decades ago in Boston to dismiss reports of child rape.
Right in the middle of this discussion, ABC's Jim Sciutto came up with a completely confusing set of statistics. This is what he actually said: "An estimated 5% to 9% of US priests are abusers compared with 4% to 8% in the general US population; 0.08% of American teachers have been found guilty of abuse."
First, is it really true that between 4% and 8% of the entire population of this country abuses children sexually? Well no. Sciutto's reference was RegisteredOffendersList.org. It lists all registered sexual offenders, including those who have abused in the past and are no longer doing so, and those whose crimes were sexual in nature but did not involve the abuse of children.
Second, is it really true that between 5% and 9% of all Roman Catholic priests in this country are abusing children sexually? Sciutto cited "Bishop Accountability" as his source, which seems to be the official accounting by the church hierarchy. Go to the Website, however, and it is not. Bishop-Accountability.org is an activist group in Massachusetts that seeks to hold the bishops accountable for their lack of full documentation--quite different from the actual documentation.
Third, are schoolteachers really so much less abusive than priests? The difference in the percentages looks huge until one realizes that it compares apples with oranges. The 0.08% is the proportion of schoolteachers criminally convicted of the sexual abuse of children, per the Associated Press. The 5% to 9% refers to unofficially documented complaints, not guilty verdicts in a court of law.
ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS An apocalyptic religious group seeking to spark civil war by the assassination of dozens of police officers: that was the allegation against the Hutaree Militia from the FBI after eight members were arrested in Michigan and neighboring states. According to its Website, Hutaree identifies members of law enforcement as working for the anti-Christ and seeks to precipitate the final conflict by exploding IEDs at a police funeral. ABC's Dan Harris covered the round-up from New York City. NBC's Pete Williams filed from the Justice Department. Yet neither used the T-word to describe the alleged plot. ABC's Harris called them "one part anti-government militia and one part fundamentalist apocalyptic Christian army." NBC's Williams saw "paramilitary exercises." CBS' Bob Orr distinguished between Hutaree and the vigilance of mass transit officials by calling the militia "a different domestic threat," in other words a non-terrorist one.
KABUL RECAP NBC's Andrea Mitchell offered a recap of President Barack Obama's weekend visit to Bagram Air Force Base to inspect the troops and to Kabul for talks with Hamid Karzai, his Afghan counterpart. She relayed the perception that their diplomacy was "noticeably tense," fearful that the corruption of Karzai's regime would undercut military progress on the battlefield.
By the way, Mitchell noted that the healthcare reforms signed into law last week are "still opposed by a majority of Americans." The latest results from NBC News' own opinion poll contradict that assertion. Chuck Todd cited 45% opposition two weeks ago. By a broader measure it turns out she is right--but only by a whisker. Pollster.com's poll of polls finds average opposition at 50.4%.
CBS' Ben Tracy filed an update on one provision of healthcare reform, the rule that insurance companies will not be allowed to refuse to cover children if they have pre-existing conditions. It turns out there is a loophole in the law's language: "Insurance companies say that just means if they choose to cover a child, they have to cover the pre-existing condition and its costs but they do not actually have to offer new coverage." The compulsory coverage does not kick in until 2014. ABC had David Wright move on from healthcare to the next item on the President's domestic agenda--reform of the public schools. He updated us on Race to the Top, the program that turns No Child Left Behind into a competition, already covered by CBS' Tracy.
OCCUPYING IRAQ WITH GERBIL CAGES CBS tagged Elizabeth Palmer's package from Joint Base Balad in Iraq with its Afghanistan logo The Road Ahead because much of the materiel being packed up at the base is not returning home but moving from one theater of war to the next. The logistics of pulling the US military out of Iraq will cost $150bn, she reported. Among the gear that was requisitioned for the army of occupation she found a dog kennel, a container full of snowboots and cages for gerbils.
CHINA IMPORTS ABC and NBC filed a pair of China stories. ABC's Bianna Golodryga told us that the next time we buy a Volvo, it will not be a Swedish car, nor one produced by Ford Motors, its current owner. Geely has bought the brand for $1.8bn: "What China lacks is quality and fashionable brand names that consumers both in China and abroad want to buy." NBC's Mark Potter reminded us that back in 2005, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the construction trades suffered a shortage of drywall. That gap was filled by Chinese imports, product that is now decaying, emitting pungent fumes, corroding wiring and sickening residents. Potter's report was a follow-up on initial suspicions about fake gypsum this time last year. In the meantime CBS' Armen Keteyian and ABC's Elisabeth Leamy have both filed updates.
JUNK FACTS Sharyn Alfonsi made plenty of claims about the scourge of heroin in the first part of her expose on ABC--but offered no facts to back up her generalizations. Her anchor Diane Sawyer even teased Alfonsi's report by telling us that heroin was being marketed in the suburbs "to all those children and teens." Alfonsi never told us about a single child using the drug. Sawyer promised a report on "the skyrocketing use of heroin by teenagers in the suburbs." Alfonsi offered no trendline statistics. She told us that "across the country, heroin use is skyrocketing and teenagers are dying" but did not offer a body count.
Maybe we shall hear the facts about junk in part two.
Both NBC's Jim Maceda and ABC's Alex Marquardt were in Moscow to cover the subway bombs. "After six years of relative quiet, terror had returned to the capital," Maceda announced. "Today's attack echoed a wave of female suicide bombings almost a decade ago by so-called Black Widows, named after the wife of a slain Chechen commander seeking her revenge." Maceda pointed out that the Russian suppression of a Chechen secessionist uprising 15 years ago left 100,000 dead. From London, CBS' Mark Phillips reminded us of some of the brutality of that conflict: a hostage siege at a Moscow theater and the dead children at their school in Beslan.
ABC's Marquardt marveled at how unphased Muscovites were: "Amazingly, by late afternoon, Moscow's entire subway system was back up and running. People headed home past remnants of the day's carnage and small memorials to the dead. Tonight, no signs of the chaos and carnage seen earlier."
SCIUTTO STATISTICS FAIL All three newscasts monitored the response by the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church to the pedophile priests scandal. Again, ABC and NBC had correspondents on the scene at the Vatican; CBS had Elaine Quijano narrate the videotape from in front of a church in New York City. NBC's Anne Thompson picked up on a phrase from the Palm Sunday sermon by Pope Benedict XVI in which he decried the "intimidation of petty gossip." She reminded us that "petty gossip" was the phrase that church authorities used decades ago in Boston to dismiss reports of child rape.
Right in the middle of this discussion, ABC's Jim Sciutto came up with a completely confusing set of statistics. This is what he actually said: "An estimated 5% to 9% of US priests are abusers compared with 4% to 8% in the general US population; 0.08% of American teachers have been found guilty of abuse."
First, is it really true that between 4% and 8% of the entire population of this country abuses children sexually? Well no. Sciutto's reference was RegisteredOffendersList.org. It lists all registered sexual offenders, including those who have abused in the past and are no longer doing so, and those whose crimes were sexual in nature but did not involve the abuse of children.
Second, is it really true that between 5% and 9% of all Roman Catholic priests in this country are abusing children sexually? Sciutto cited "Bishop Accountability" as his source, which seems to be the official accounting by the church hierarchy. Go to the Website, however, and it is not. Bishop-Accountability.org is an activist group in Massachusetts that seeks to hold the bishops accountable for their lack of full documentation--quite different from the actual documentation.
Third, are schoolteachers really so much less abusive than priests? The difference in the percentages looks huge until one realizes that it compares apples with oranges. The 0.08% is the proportion of schoolteachers criminally convicted of the sexual abuse of children, per the Associated Press. The 5% to 9% refers to unofficially documented complaints, not guilty verdicts in a court of law.
ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS An apocalyptic religious group seeking to spark civil war by the assassination of dozens of police officers: that was the allegation against the Hutaree Militia from the FBI after eight members were arrested in Michigan and neighboring states. According to its Website, Hutaree identifies members of law enforcement as working for the anti-Christ and seeks to precipitate the final conflict by exploding IEDs at a police funeral. ABC's Dan Harris covered the round-up from New York City. NBC's Pete Williams filed from the Justice Department. Yet neither used the T-word to describe the alleged plot. ABC's Harris called them "one part anti-government militia and one part fundamentalist apocalyptic Christian army." NBC's Williams saw "paramilitary exercises." CBS' Bob Orr distinguished between Hutaree and the vigilance of mass transit officials by calling the militia "a different domestic threat," in other words a non-terrorist one.
KABUL RECAP NBC's Andrea Mitchell offered a recap of President Barack Obama's weekend visit to Bagram Air Force Base to inspect the troops and to Kabul for talks with Hamid Karzai, his Afghan counterpart. She relayed the perception that their diplomacy was "noticeably tense," fearful that the corruption of Karzai's regime would undercut military progress on the battlefield.
By the way, Mitchell noted that the healthcare reforms signed into law last week are "still opposed by a majority of Americans." The latest results from NBC News' own opinion poll contradict that assertion. Chuck Todd cited 45% opposition two weeks ago. By a broader measure it turns out she is right--but only by a whisker. Pollster.com's poll of polls finds average opposition at 50.4%.
CBS' Ben Tracy filed an update on one provision of healthcare reform, the rule that insurance companies will not be allowed to refuse to cover children if they have pre-existing conditions. It turns out there is a loophole in the law's language: "Insurance companies say that just means if they choose to cover a child, they have to cover the pre-existing condition and its costs but they do not actually have to offer new coverage." The compulsory coverage does not kick in until 2014. ABC had David Wright move on from healthcare to the next item on the President's domestic agenda--reform of the public schools. He updated us on Race to the Top, the program that turns No Child Left Behind into a competition, already covered by CBS' Tracy.
OCCUPYING IRAQ WITH GERBIL CAGES CBS tagged Elizabeth Palmer's package from Joint Base Balad in Iraq with its Afghanistan logo The Road Ahead because much of the materiel being packed up at the base is not returning home but moving from one theater of war to the next. The logistics of pulling the US military out of Iraq will cost $150bn, she reported. Among the gear that was requisitioned for the army of occupation she found a dog kennel, a container full of snowboots and cages for gerbils.
CHINA IMPORTS ABC and NBC filed a pair of China stories. ABC's Bianna Golodryga told us that the next time we buy a Volvo, it will not be a Swedish car, nor one produced by Ford Motors, its current owner. Geely has bought the brand for $1.8bn: "What China lacks is quality and fashionable brand names that consumers both in China and abroad want to buy." NBC's Mark Potter reminded us that back in 2005, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the construction trades suffered a shortage of drywall. That gap was filled by Chinese imports, product that is now decaying, emitting pungent fumes, corroding wiring and sickening residents. Potter's report was a follow-up on initial suspicions about fake gypsum this time last year. In the meantime CBS' Armen Keteyian and ABC's Elisabeth Leamy have both filed updates.
JUNK FACTS Sharyn Alfonsi made plenty of claims about the scourge of heroin in the first part of her expose on ABC--but offered no facts to back up her generalizations. Her anchor Diane Sawyer even teased Alfonsi's report by telling us that heroin was being marketed in the suburbs "to all those children and teens." Alfonsi never told us about a single child using the drug. Sawyer promised a report on "the skyrocketing use of heroin by teenagers in the suburbs." Alfonsi offered no trendline statistics. She told us that "across the country, heroin use is skyrocketing and teenagers are dying" but did not offer a body count.
Maybe we shall hear the facts about junk in part two.
