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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM JUNE 24, 2010
Well that did not last long. The 30-weekday win streak logged by the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico was interrupted on Tuesday and Wednesday. For two brief days, BP's pollution had been elbowed out as Story of the Day by the insubordinate Stanley McChrystal. Now the slow drumbeat of environmental devastation has resumed. NBC and ABC both led from the Gulf Coast. CBS stuck one more day with the aftermath of the McChrystal story, covering the comments of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman Mike Mullen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from the Pentagon.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR JUNE 24, 2010: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
BP PARDONS THAT INTERRUPTION Well that did not last long. The 30-weekday win streak logged by the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico was interrupted on Tuesday and Wednesday. For two brief days, BP's pollution had been elbowed out as Story of the Day by the insubordinate Stanley McChrystal. Now the slow drumbeat of environmental devastation has resumed. NBC and ABC both led from the Gulf Coast. CBS stuck one more day with the aftermath of the McChrystal story, covering the comments of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman Mike Mullen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from the Pentagon.
The weather on the Gulf Coast was the angle that attracted NBC's Mark Potter and ABC's Matt Gutman. Gutman worried that Tropical Storm Alex may form off Jamaica and disrupt the containment efforts over the seabed gusher. Potter was on the oil-slimed beach in the sweltering heat of Pensacola, where clean-up crews will have to start working at night for safety's sake. On CBS, Armen Keteyian challenged Gulf Coast governors for their failure to call out the National Guard to protect their coastlines. Gov Bobby Jindal (R-LA) claimed that the Coast Guard was blocking the deployment. "Flat wrong," Keteyian reported, after contacting Adm Thad Allen of the USCG.
NBC made a big deal of landing face time with BP executives. Anne Thompson traveled with Doug Suttles, the firm's Chief Operating Officer, by helicopter over the site of the rig explosion. Anchor Brian Williams interviewed Bob Dudley, the firm's Managing Director. Dudley's talking point was that BP's investigation would produce lessons that would make deepwater drilling safer for the entire industry, not only in the Gulf of Mexico, but in Alaska and "for good, around the world."
The sad story of Allen Kruse was covered by both Sharyn Alfonsi of ABC and Kelly Cobiella of CBS. CBS had interviewed the charter fishing captain weeks ago, when his business dried up: "The day the oil entered the Gulf, my phone quit ringing," was his soundbite. Kruse committed suicide in the wheelhouse of his boat and both reporters used his death to illustrate the toll of anguish that the oil disaster is exacting on coastal communities.
MCCHRYSTAL MADE MULLEN SICK The national security correspondents at both ABC and CBS updated us on the Pentagon's handling of the transfer of command over the Afghanistan War from Stanley McChrystal to David Petraeus. "I was nearly sick--it made me literally, physically. I could not believe it. I was stunned," was the soundbite from Chairman Mullen that both Martha Raddatz and David Martin ran, describing the admiral's reaction to reading the Rolling Stone profile of the Runaway General McChrystal, which led to his resignation. Both NBC's Richard Engel (at the tail of the Jim Miklaszewski videostream) and ABC's Miguel Marquez had filed brief updates from Afghanistan on Wednesday on the reaction of US troops to the appointment of their new commander. Now CBS' Lara Logan files the same, positive, assessment long distance, from the Washington bureau.
BURY FOLLOWS BLAGO, BESSER PREVIEWS BOSTONMED ABC looks like it has decided that Rod Blagojevich will play as a national story. Chris Bury was the only nightly newscast correspondent to file on his arraignment on racketeering charges last year. Now Bury alone is covering the introduction of the FBI's wiretaps of the onetime governor by his prosecutors. Blago's defense--"blowing hot air, not breaking the law."
ABC also used its World News timeslot for cross-promotion of its primetime documentary series BostonMed. In-house physician Richard Besser narrated clips from the operating room as surgeons beat a six-hour deadline to sew a new set of lungs into a fibrosis patient.
LISA--MEET NATALIE Earlier this year, in NBC's Personal Best series, Lisa Myers poured cold water on the rage for organic produce, reporting that there is no evidence of superior nutrition. Now NBC's Be Well, Be Healthy series assigned Natalie Morales to investigate the same fad. She consulted foodie author Michael Pollan, publicizing his In Defense of Food and gave organics the thumbs up, at least for fruit with thin skins, like grapes, strawberries, peaches and apples. Natalie--meet Lisa.
FAIR USE OF FIFTH SET Most of the time when sports make news, stories that appear on the networks' nightly broadcasts do not get posted subsequently as online videostreams. Usually online video news sites are squeamish about claiming fair use for copyrighted sports footage. So all three newscasts assigned a correspondent to cover the Longest Match Ever Played. John Isner defeated Nicolas Mahut after 11:05 hours of tennis at Wimbledon, 70-68 in the fifth set. There is no link to CBS' Mark Phillips or ABC's Jim Sciutto--but NBC's Jim Maceda is here.
The weather on the Gulf Coast was the angle that attracted NBC's Mark Potter and ABC's Matt Gutman. Gutman worried that Tropical Storm Alex may form off Jamaica and disrupt the containment efforts over the seabed gusher. Potter was on the oil-slimed beach in the sweltering heat of Pensacola, where clean-up crews will have to start working at night for safety's sake. On CBS, Armen Keteyian challenged Gulf Coast governors for their failure to call out the National Guard to protect their coastlines. Gov Bobby Jindal (R-LA) claimed that the Coast Guard was blocking the deployment. "Flat wrong," Keteyian reported, after contacting Adm Thad Allen of the USCG.
NBC made a big deal of landing face time with BP executives. Anne Thompson traveled with Doug Suttles, the firm's Chief Operating Officer, by helicopter over the site of the rig explosion. Anchor Brian Williams interviewed Bob Dudley, the firm's Managing Director. Dudley's talking point was that BP's investigation would produce lessons that would make deepwater drilling safer for the entire industry, not only in the Gulf of Mexico, but in Alaska and "for good, around the world."
The sad story of Allen Kruse was covered by both Sharyn Alfonsi of ABC and Kelly Cobiella of CBS. CBS had interviewed the charter fishing captain weeks ago, when his business dried up: "The day the oil entered the Gulf, my phone quit ringing," was his soundbite. Kruse committed suicide in the wheelhouse of his boat and both reporters used his death to illustrate the toll of anguish that the oil disaster is exacting on coastal communities.
MCCHRYSTAL MADE MULLEN SICK The national security correspondents at both ABC and CBS updated us on the Pentagon's handling of the transfer of command over the Afghanistan War from Stanley McChrystal to David Petraeus. "I was nearly sick--it made me literally, physically. I could not believe it. I was stunned," was the soundbite from Chairman Mullen that both Martha Raddatz and David Martin ran, describing the admiral's reaction to reading the Rolling Stone profile of the Runaway General McChrystal, which led to his resignation. Both NBC's Richard Engel (at the tail of the Jim Miklaszewski videostream) and ABC's Miguel Marquez had filed brief updates from Afghanistan on Wednesday on the reaction of US troops to the appointment of their new commander. Now CBS' Lara Logan files the same, positive, assessment long distance, from the Washington bureau.
BURY FOLLOWS BLAGO, BESSER PREVIEWS BOSTONMED ABC looks like it has decided that Rod Blagojevich will play as a national story. Chris Bury was the only nightly newscast correspondent to file on his arraignment on racketeering charges last year. Now Bury alone is covering the introduction of the FBI's wiretaps of the onetime governor by his prosecutors. Blago's defense--"blowing hot air, not breaking the law."
ABC also used its World News timeslot for cross-promotion of its primetime documentary series BostonMed. In-house physician Richard Besser narrated clips from the operating room as surgeons beat a six-hour deadline to sew a new set of lungs into a fibrosis patient.
LISA--MEET NATALIE Earlier this year, in NBC's Personal Best series, Lisa Myers poured cold water on the rage for organic produce, reporting that there is no evidence of superior nutrition. Now NBC's Be Well, Be Healthy series assigned Natalie Morales to investigate the same fad. She consulted foodie author Michael Pollan, publicizing his In Defense of Food and gave organics the thumbs up, at least for fruit with thin skins, like grapes, strawberries, peaches and apples. Natalie--meet Lisa.
FAIR USE OF FIFTH SET Most of the time when sports make news, stories that appear on the networks' nightly broadcasts do not get posted subsequently as online videostreams. Usually online video news sites are squeamish about claiming fair use for copyrighted sports footage. So all three newscasts assigned a correspondent to cover the Longest Match Ever Played. John Isner defeated Nicolas Mahut after 11:05 hours of tennis at Wimbledon, 70-68 in the fifth set. There is no link to CBS' Mark Phillips or ABC's Jim Sciutto--but NBC's Jim Maceda is here.
