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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM MARCH 31, 2011
Caught in a bind: how to report on a negative? Minuscule levels of radioactive iodine turn up in routine testing of cow's milk. The traces are less harmful than the radiation from potassium in a banana or from the sun's rays in a jetliner cabin. It is a journalist's job to convey that reassuring message; yet devoting so much attention into making that reassurance a headline story sends precisely the opposite message, elevating anxiety instead. CBS, with substitute anchor Erica Hill, tried to downplay the iodine story by leading with Libya instead, which turned out to be Story of the Day. NBC and ABC fell into the trap, turning their reporting on the absence of any need to worry into a lead story that implied that the worry was warranted.
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WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT WORRY ABOUT THIS VERY IMPORTANT INSIGNIFICANCE Caught in a bind: how to report on a negative? Minuscule levels of radioactive iodine turn up in routine testing of cow's milk. The traces are less harmful than the radiation from potassium in a banana or from the sun's rays in a jetliner cabin. It is a journalist's job to convey that reassuring message; yet devoting so much attention into making that reassurance a headline story sends precisely the opposite message, elevating anxiety instead. CBS, with substitute anchor Erica Hill, tried to downplay the iodine story by leading with Libya instead, which turned out to be Story of the Day. NBC and ABC fell into the trap, turning their reporting on the absence of any need to worry into a lead story that implied that the worry was warranted.
How worrying is that iodine? ABC's Abbie Boudreau was told to be more concerned about milk that is curdled than milk that is radioactive. CBS' John Blackstone was told that anxiety from worrying about radioactive milk is more harmful to one's health than the actual iodine isotope. NBC's Tom Costello was told that the iodine amounted to "a speck of dust."
As for Libya, ABC has made a decision this week (14 min v NBC 28, CBS 25) to remove the struggle to oust Moammar Khadafy from the top of its news agenda, filing only one package, by Alex Marquardt on Monday, from Libya itself. By contrast, both NBC and CBS have filed five stories from Libya so far this week, with Richard Engel and Mandy Clark respectively reporting daily from the frontlines.
Check out Clark's latest bloodcurdling effort. Very Mad Max.
THURSDAY’S THOUGHTS Moussa Koussa may be a big name anti-Khadafy defection yet CBS' Bob Orr could not let go of Pan Am 103
Defense Secretary Robert Gates makes his ban on ground troops to Libya a resigning matter, per Savannah Guthrie's soundbite on NBC
Other nuclear stuff besides milk: CBS' Armen Keteyian on election promises kept (and $14bn thrown down the rat hole) at Yucca Mountain…
…and NBC's Lee Cowan, still filing from Tokyo, with his heartbreaking image of bodies unburied in the tsunami damage in the Fukushima exclusion zone
ABC's Jake Tapper skewered General Electric a second time (here last Friday) for its negative taxes; Lisa Myers at NBC acknowledges the rap against her network's 49% owner
Cross-country skiing to the North Pole on first-name terms with a prince is a good enough story without bringing the wedding into it: Bob Woodruff at ABC
Two MegaMillion angles from the IT Department in Albany: CBS' Jim Axelrod and ABC's Jeremy Hubbard both used the lucky Snickers line; Hubbard also landed office politics--the co-worker who wasn't in it to win it
How worrying is that iodine? ABC's Abbie Boudreau was told to be more concerned about milk that is curdled than milk that is radioactive. CBS' John Blackstone was told that anxiety from worrying about radioactive milk is more harmful to one's health than the actual iodine isotope. NBC's Tom Costello was told that the iodine amounted to "a speck of dust."
As for Libya, ABC has made a decision this week (14 min v NBC 28, CBS 25) to remove the struggle to oust Moammar Khadafy from the top of its news agenda, filing only one package, by Alex Marquardt on Monday, from Libya itself. By contrast, both NBC and CBS have filed five stories from Libya so far this week, with Richard Engel and Mandy Clark respectively reporting daily from the frontlines.
Check out Clark's latest bloodcurdling effort. Very Mad Max.
THURSDAY’S THOUGHTS Moussa Koussa may be a big name anti-Khadafy defection yet CBS' Bob Orr could not let go of Pan Am 103
Defense Secretary Robert Gates makes his ban on ground troops to Libya a resigning matter, per Savannah Guthrie's soundbite on NBC
Other nuclear stuff besides milk: CBS' Armen Keteyian on election promises kept (and $14bn thrown down the rat hole) at Yucca Mountain…
…and NBC's Lee Cowan, still filing from Tokyo, with his heartbreaking image of bodies unburied in the tsunami damage in the Fukushima exclusion zone
ABC's Jake Tapper skewered General Electric a second time (here last Friday) for its negative taxes; Lisa Myers at NBC acknowledges the rap against her network's 49% owner
Cross-country skiing to the North Pole on first-name terms with a prince is a good enough story without bringing the wedding into it: Bob Woodruff at ABC
Two MegaMillion angles from the IT Department in Albany: CBS' Jim Axelrod and ABC's Jeremy Hubbard both used the lucky Snickers line; Hubbard also landed office politics--the co-worker who wasn't in it to win it
