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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM MARCH 30, 2011
Of the two major international stories hogging the headlines this month, Libya has returned to the forefront. Japan had a run of six straight weekdays as top story immediately following the earthquake that hit on March 11th. The future of Moammar Khadafy's regime in Libya returned to the top spot on March 21st and has been Story of the Day on six out of the eight weekdays since. Wednesday, both NBC and CBS led from the frontlines of desert fighting. CBS had Erica Hill in the substitute anchor chair. ABC led with a sidebar angle on the Japanese earthquake as Steve Osunsami worried about the stability of masonry buildings along the New Madrid Fault around Memphis Tenn.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR MARCH 30, 2011: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
LIBYAN RABBLE IS BACK IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT Of the two major international stories hogging the headlines this month, Libya has returned to the forefront. Japan had a run of six straight weekdays as top story immediately following the earthquake that hit on March 11th. The future of Moammar Khadafy's regime in Libya returned to the top spot on March 21st and has been Story of the Day on six out of the eight weekdays since. Wednesday, both NBC and CBS led from the frontlines of desert fighting. CBS had Erica Hill in the substitute anchor chair. ABC led with a sidebar angle on the Japanese earthquake as Steve Osunsami worried about the stability of masonry buildings along the New Madrid Fault around Memphis Tenn.
"Outgunned and regularly outflanked in the field, they lack any sort of military strategy or leadership," was Mandy Clark's observation on CBS as the pick-up driving opposition to Khadafy's forces were retreating along the coastal highway from Sirte to Brega. NBC's Richard Engel explained that the troops loyal to the regime have switched from tanks--vulnerable to NATO's airstrikes--to jeeps armed with mortars. While opposition vehicles stay on the tarmac roads, the regime's jeeps are sweeping through the desert to the south to attack their flank.
NBC's Engel called the performance of the opposition troops "terrifying." Check out his description of their mortar and rocketry skills. CBS and ABC rounded out the Libya coverage from inside-the-Beltway. CBS' David Martin offered an assessment of the opposition forces from the Pentagon: "a rabble." From the White House, ABC's Jake Tapper filed an unbelievably self-serving report on the secret order to send CIA operatives into action.
ABC often makes the journalistically shoddy decision to use a clip of fictional footage from a Hollywood movie or a TV entertainment to stand in for actual video newsgathering. A couple of recent ludicrous, in-house examples are Nick Watt's use of a musical clip from Disney's animated Cinderella and John Berman's laugh-tracked yucks from ABC-TV's primetime sitcom Modern Family.
Tapper's report takes the cake. The expert soundbite on the advisability--or lack thereof--of sending CIA spies to Libya that concluded his package consisted of a piece of dialogue from a fictional spymaster about Zen Buddhism from the movie Charlie Wilson's War, which happened to be directed by the husband of Tapper's anchorwoman.
WEDNESDAY WISDOM &brand&vidBesides Libya, here is Yemen, here is Bahrain, here are the regional roundups--and here is Syria: CBS' Allen Pizzey yesterday, NBC's Ron Allen today. Neither was allowed inside the country, both filing from Jordan
Barack Obama is yet another President who wants the nation to reduce its reliance on oil imports (see Gerald Ford et al). His speech was dutifully covered by White House correspondents at CBS and NBC; deservedly mentioned only in passing by ABC
Follow-up energy angles: ABC's Brian Ross and the Center for Public Integrity on dubious green-tech subsidies…NBC's George Lewis on EPA's monitoring for N-plant leaks…CBS' Dean Reynolds on the fall of the gas guzzler
Hormone shots for pregnant women price gouging by KV Pharma. CBS' Wyatt Andrews got the jump Tuesday; now NBC's Lisa Myers follows up
To quote Stephen Colbert: "If you're not scared, I'm not doing my job." Now that we are all anxiety-ridden about food coloring (first ABC, then NBC, now CBS)…
…ABC's Sharyn Alfonsi moves on to Bisphenol-A, courtesy of the Silent Spring Institute
Name recognition quiz: ABC's Matt Gutman acts as if Tilikum is a household word (hint: SeaWorld)
How old was Ronald Reagan when he was shot 30 years ago? 70. What description did ABC's Terry Moran use? "Young. Untested." (he was referring to his Presidency, not the President)
Bill Plante on CBS had filed the same Secret Service angle on the Reagan shooting three weeks ago that ABC's Terry Moran and NBC's Andrea Mitchell use now. Plante moved on to press-secretary-turned-gun-control-activist, James Brady, wheelchairbound and now blind
Collecting man-on-the-street soundbites has always been a journalistic drag but resorting to interviewing one's own newsroom colleagues is a sketchy shortcut. For the second time in two days, ABC reporters have gone in-house for vox pop. Yesterday Linsey Davis, now Dan Harris
A BRIEF DIGRESSION INTO THE WORLD OF SPORTS Sports has often seemed to be the exception to the rule. Everywhere else in the world of media, we have seen mass audiences fragmenting; former monopolies losing clout; bundled content atomized; copyright holders pirated; rarity becoming commodity; audiences producing their own content; and users dictating the terms, conditions and prices of the media they consume.
The last two decades have seen musical recording…broadcast television…magazine publishing…mainstream journalism…books made of paper…Madison Avenue…all forced to change radically, or to downsize catastrophically, or to go out of business altogether. Profit margins have been slashed, stable careers decimated, salaries eliminated. Chaos! Bob Garfield calls it.
Through it all, sports has stood alone, unscathed. Leagues, tournaments and professional tours have protected their paywalls against all assailants. The athletes have continued to earn stellar paychecks. Broadcasters have continued to air exclusive non-time-shiftable content to mass audiences. Ancillary social media--the office pools, the rotisserie leagues, the mobile phone score updates, the interactive videostreams--have all stayed within the business plan, producing new revenues, not cannibalizing old ones.
ESPN, not CNN, is the king of cable. The NFL, not the network news divisions, makes broadcast television invaluable. Premier League Football, not FOX News Channel, is the jewel in Rupert Murdoch's crown.
So, it is interesting to keep an eye out for signs of chinks in the armor of sports' seemingly impregnable business plan. Or, to put it another way, to check whether sports runs the risk of becoming outdated, in our socially networked world, by keeping such a ironclad grip against any reproduction or retransmission of its content, as the express-written-permission boilerplate always insists.
In that spirit let me recommend that you tune into this Website on Saturday morning and stream its audio. Yes, I know you are not a cricket fan. Yes, I know you are not one of the one billion TV viewers worldwide who will be on the edge to their seats to see whether Tendulkar can hit his hundredth century--or whether Muralitharan can doosra his way into a last hurrah of glory. Yes, I know that for you American sports fans, Butler and Virginia Commonwealth are so much more riveting.
No, matter. You should check out the crew at Test Match Sofa not to discover whether Sri Lanka or India will win the World Cup, but to hear what the future of sports media may sound like when even that last bastion loses its exclusivity and is forced to open up to the people formerly known as their audience. And, by the way, it is jolly funny too.
The Sofa--English for couch, as in couch potato--is the sitting position for a troupe of stand-up-comedy cricket fans in south London, and their assorted chums, who have devised a way to co-exist with the copyright holders of mass market sporting events, rather than resorting to piracy. They watch major international cricket competitions (the pinnacle of which is called the Test Match) on the sanctioned television feed carried by Murdoch's Sky Sports or the BBC, and then supply their own radio play-by-play, which they supply free as an online audiostream.
The Sofa can be listened to as radio or, by delaying the TV feed with a DVR so as to synch it up, as the alternate voiceover for the video. Sometimes the Sofa's flights of comic fancy become so anarchic that the underlying game conditions are hard to discern, so I tend to use its feed as an audio accompaniment to the written play-by-play commentary, posted as a live blog, on ESPN's Cricinfo site. Yet, as you will hear, the Sofa's anarchic style is a feature, not a bug, as the saying goes.
It is an inexpensive operation, since it does not have to pay for broadcast rights, but not a parasitical one, since it offers added value to the video. It offers a refreshing, opinionated alternative to the anodyne play-by-play of the television announcers. Instead, of freeloading on the establishment feed, it makes that television content more watchable, enhancing its value.
Yet inexpensive does not mean gratis. Sofa seeks sponsors and asks, public radio style, for contributions from its listeners. Instead of offering a tote bag, it promises to read its paying contributors' witticisms live, on air, as they are submitted in its twitterfeed.
So come on Yankee fans! There must be a group of slacker stand-up comedians somewhere in Williamsburg who can produce an Americanized version of Test Match Sofa. Call it World Series Couch. What about play-by-play golf humor for the Masters, replacing the pompous, plummy resonance of CBS Sports' hushed tones from Augusta? Call it the Amen Corner Caddyshack. By the time of next year's Final Four, we could have a Bracketology Bar Stool.
Me, I'm rooting for Sri Lanka.
"Outgunned and regularly outflanked in the field, they lack any sort of military strategy or leadership," was Mandy Clark's observation on CBS as the pick-up driving opposition to Khadafy's forces were retreating along the coastal highway from Sirte to Brega. NBC's Richard Engel explained that the troops loyal to the regime have switched from tanks--vulnerable to NATO's airstrikes--to jeeps armed with mortars. While opposition vehicles stay on the tarmac roads, the regime's jeeps are sweeping through the desert to the south to attack their flank.
NBC's Engel called the performance of the opposition troops "terrifying." Check out his description of their mortar and rocketry skills. CBS and ABC rounded out the Libya coverage from inside-the-Beltway. CBS' David Martin offered an assessment of the opposition forces from the Pentagon: "a rabble." From the White House, ABC's Jake Tapper filed an unbelievably self-serving report on the secret order to send CIA operatives into action.
ABC often makes the journalistically shoddy decision to use a clip of fictional footage from a Hollywood movie or a TV entertainment to stand in for actual video newsgathering. A couple of recent ludicrous, in-house examples are Nick Watt's use of a musical clip from Disney's animated Cinderella and John Berman's laugh-tracked yucks from ABC-TV's primetime sitcom Modern Family.
Tapper's report takes the cake. The expert soundbite on the advisability--or lack thereof--of sending CIA spies to Libya that concluded his package consisted of a piece of dialogue from a fictional spymaster about Zen Buddhism from the movie Charlie Wilson's War, which happened to be directed by the husband of Tapper's anchorwoman.
WEDNESDAY WISDOM &brand&vidBesides Libya, here is Yemen, here is Bahrain, here are the regional roundups--and here is Syria: CBS' Allen Pizzey yesterday, NBC's Ron Allen today. Neither was allowed inside the country, both filing from Jordan
Barack Obama is yet another President who wants the nation to reduce its reliance on oil imports (see Gerald Ford et al). His speech was dutifully covered by White House correspondents at CBS and NBC; deservedly mentioned only in passing by ABC
Follow-up energy angles: ABC's Brian Ross and the Center for Public Integrity on dubious green-tech subsidies…NBC's George Lewis on EPA's monitoring for N-plant leaks…CBS' Dean Reynolds on the fall of the gas guzzler
Hormone shots for pregnant women price gouging by KV Pharma. CBS' Wyatt Andrews got the jump Tuesday; now NBC's Lisa Myers follows up
To quote Stephen Colbert: "If you're not scared, I'm not doing my job." Now that we are all anxiety-ridden about food coloring (first ABC, then NBC, now CBS)…
…ABC's Sharyn Alfonsi moves on to Bisphenol-A, courtesy of the Silent Spring Institute
Name recognition quiz: ABC's Matt Gutman acts as if Tilikum is a household word (hint: SeaWorld)
How old was Ronald Reagan when he was shot 30 years ago? 70. What description did ABC's Terry Moran use? "Young. Untested." (he was referring to his Presidency, not the President)
Bill Plante on CBS had filed the same Secret Service angle on the Reagan shooting three weeks ago that ABC's Terry Moran and NBC's Andrea Mitchell use now. Plante moved on to press-secretary-turned-gun-control-activist, James Brady, wheelchairbound and now blind
Collecting man-on-the-street soundbites has always been a journalistic drag but resorting to interviewing one's own newsroom colleagues is a sketchy shortcut. For the second time in two days, ABC reporters have gone in-house for vox pop. Yesterday Linsey Davis, now Dan Harris
A BRIEF DIGRESSION INTO THE WORLD OF SPORTS Sports has often seemed to be the exception to the rule. Everywhere else in the world of media, we have seen mass audiences fragmenting; former monopolies losing clout; bundled content atomized; copyright holders pirated; rarity becoming commodity; audiences producing their own content; and users dictating the terms, conditions and prices of the media they consume.
The last two decades have seen musical recording…broadcast television…magazine publishing…mainstream journalism…books made of paper…Madison Avenue…all forced to change radically, or to downsize catastrophically, or to go out of business altogether. Profit margins have been slashed, stable careers decimated, salaries eliminated. Chaos! Bob Garfield calls it.
Through it all, sports has stood alone, unscathed. Leagues, tournaments and professional tours have protected their paywalls against all assailants. The athletes have continued to earn stellar paychecks. Broadcasters have continued to air exclusive non-time-shiftable content to mass audiences. Ancillary social media--the office pools, the rotisserie leagues, the mobile phone score updates, the interactive videostreams--have all stayed within the business plan, producing new revenues, not cannibalizing old ones.
ESPN, not CNN, is the king of cable. The NFL, not the network news divisions, makes broadcast television invaluable. Premier League Football, not FOX News Channel, is the jewel in Rupert Murdoch's crown.
So, it is interesting to keep an eye out for signs of chinks in the armor of sports' seemingly impregnable business plan. Or, to put it another way, to check whether sports runs the risk of becoming outdated, in our socially networked world, by keeping such a ironclad grip against any reproduction or retransmission of its content, as the express-written-permission boilerplate always insists.
In that spirit let me recommend that you tune into this Website on Saturday morning and stream its audio. Yes, I know you are not a cricket fan. Yes, I know you are not one of the one billion TV viewers worldwide who will be on the edge to their seats to see whether Tendulkar can hit his hundredth century--or whether Muralitharan can doosra his way into a last hurrah of glory. Yes, I know that for you American sports fans, Butler and Virginia Commonwealth are so much more riveting.
No, matter. You should check out the crew at Test Match Sofa not to discover whether Sri Lanka or India will win the World Cup, but to hear what the future of sports media may sound like when even that last bastion loses its exclusivity and is forced to open up to the people formerly known as their audience. And, by the way, it is jolly funny too.
The Sofa--English for couch, as in couch potato--is the sitting position for a troupe of stand-up-comedy cricket fans in south London, and their assorted chums, who have devised a way to co-exist with the copyright holders of mass market sporting events, rather than resorting to piracy. They watch major international cricket competitions (the pinnacle of which is called the Test Match) on the sanctioned television feed carried by Murdoch's Sky Sports or the BBC, and then supply their own radio play-by-play, which they supply free as an online audiostream.
The Sofa can be listened to as radio or, by delaying the TV feed with a DVR so as to synch it up, as the alternate voiceover for the video. Sometimes the Sofa's flights of comic fancy become so anarchic that the underlying game conditions are hard to discern, so I tend to use its feed as an audio accompaniment to the written play-by-play commentary, posted as a live blog, on ESPN's Cricinfo site. Yet, as you will hear, the Sofa's anarchic style is a feature, not a bug, as the saying goes.
It is an inexpensive operation, since it does not have to pay for broadcast rights, but not a parasitical one, since it offers added value to the video. It offers a refreshing, opinionated alternative to the anodyne play-by-play of the television announcers. Instead, of freeloading on the establishment feed, it makes that television content more watchable, enhancing its value.
Yet inexpensive does not mean gratis. Sofa seeks sponsors and asks, public radio style, for contributions from its listeners. Instead of offering a tote bag, it promises to read its paying contributors' witticisms live, on air, as they are submitted in its twitterfeed.
So come on Yankee fans! There must be a group of slacker stand-up comedians somewhere in Williamsburg who can produce an Americanized version of Test Match Sofa. Call it World Series Couch. What about play-by-play golf humor for the Masters, replacing the pompous, plummy resonance of CBS Sports' hushed tones from Augusta? Call it the Amen Corner Caddyshack. By the time of next year's Final Four, we could have a Bracketology Bar Stool.
Me, I'm rooting for Sri Lanka.
