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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM JANUARY 22, 2013
The day-after coverage of President Barack Obama's second inauguration was the Story of the Day, even though much of it was trivial and celebrity-oriented, and none of it was deemed important enough to take the lead on any of the three newscasts. Yet there was nothing especially significant that did qualify for the top spot. Both CBS and ABC led with the hardly astonishing development that Minneapolis is bitterly cold in mid-January. NBC kicked off with Janet Shamlian in Houston, for what was nothing but a local item: three people were injured in a dispute involving firearms at a community college. What was NBC thinking?
TYNDALL PICKS FOR JANUARY 22, 2013: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
SPEECH WAS LIBERAL; ANTHEM WAS FAKE The day-after coverage of President Barack Obama's second inauguration was the Story of the Day, even though much of it was trivial and celebrity-oriented, and none of it was deemed important enough to take the lead on any of the three newscasts. Yet there was nothing especially significant that did qualify for the top spot. Both CBS and ABC led with the hardly astonishing development that Minneapolis is bitterly cold in mid-January. NBC kicked off with Janet Shamlian in Houston, for what was nothing but a local item: three people were injured in a dispute involving firearms at a community college. What was NBC thinking?
As for the aftermath of Inauguration Day, both NBC's Kristen Welker and ABC's Jonathan Karl reflected on Obama's big speech from the White House. "A broad liberal agenda," said she; "a boldly liberal vision," said he. Karl focused on Obama's newfound focus on climate change; Welker chose the federal budget and Debt Ceiling; on CBS, Major Garrett, in a brief stand-up, explained that the White House will not be central in dealing with either climate change or with immigration legislation. CBS (1 min v ABC 7, NBC 6) paid the ceremonies less attention than its rivals, as it did on Monday (11 min v ABC 14, NBC 15).
As for inaugural celebrity watching, ABC gave us self-serving cross-promotion for its primetime sitcom by giving the title A Modern Family to Cecilia Vega's commentary on the candid camera glimpses of the Obamas en famille on the parade viewing stand. NBC's Chris Jansing offered a photo-essay on the day's highlights. And as for the musical performances…
…yesterday, ABC gushed over Beyonce Knowles' rendition of The Star Spangled Banner without bothering to dignify James Taylor with a mention. Now it seems that she was not singing live after all, so ABC's David Wright was assigned to sort out the embarrassment: he reached out to Mr Taylor with a clip and a soundbite; he quoted the Marine Corps Band as confessing that it faked its accompaniment to Beyonce's vocals, while its pre-recorded instrumental played. Yet the band refused comment as to whether the vocals, too, were pre-recorded. This barest of fig leafs allowed anchor Diane Sawyer to entertain the possibility still that she had not been duped into her enthusiasm of Monday: "And it is a mystery tonight," she concluded.
TUESDAY’S TIDBITS All three newscasts rounded out inaugural coverage with women's political stories. ABC's Martha Raddatz followed Hillary Rodham Clinton on Inauguration Day as she prepares for her final testimony on Capitol Hill as Secretary of State. CBS' Nancy Cordes filed her version of Diane Sawyer's women-of-the-Senate Exclusive earlier this month: the Granite State breaks the Glass Ceiling. On NBC, Andrea Mitchell marked the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe-vs-Wade decision with an interview with the pro-choice lawyer who argued the case. Guess which cable TV show Sarah Weddington appeared on to provide Mitchell with her abortion rights soundbite (hint: that would be the sixth such cross-promotional clip in the past seven weeks).
Amid light-hearted winter weather stunts -- CBS' Dean Reynolds mugging as a bank robber, ABC's Sam Champion showing us video of a frozen-stiff T-shirt; NBC's Kevin Tibbles offering Lake Wobegon-quality north-country accents -- CBS did manage to find a serious angle in the frigid cold. Reynolds searched Minneapolis' Skid Row under the I-394 overpass for frozen street people.
NBC's lead by Janet Shamlian from the Lone Star Community College may have been about almost nothing -- mostly about an atmosphere of fear, panic, anxiety rather than the underlying crime. On CBS, Bob Orr showed us a massacre at George Mason University that was entirely fictional. His colleague Wyatt Andrews had already told us about the Active Shooter Response training given to police, when he covered last month's Sandy Hook elementary school shooting. Orr now repeats Andrews, but uses a role-playing exercise rather than an actual emergency.
CBS kept up its commitment to the civil war in Syria, sending Clarissa Ward back once more, this time to the Atma refugee camp near the border with Turkey, where 90 toilets service 12,000 homeless. Elizabeth Palmer, also from CBS, became the second nightly news correspondent, after NBC's Rohit Kachroo, to reach wartorn Mali. NBC aired footage from Afghanistan, even though Keir Simmons was based in London to perform the voiceover -- and it was not even NBC's own footage, but that of a British television crew embedded with Prince Harry, the helicopter warrior.
And there was a food story, so, as usual, ABC covered it, and, as usual, Jim Avila got the assignment: watch out for extra virgin olive oil and pomegranate juice and saffron and teabags in the grocery aisle. They may be fake -- just like Beyonce's bombs bursting in air.
As for the aftermath of Inauguration Day, both NBC's Kristen Welker and ABC's Jonathan Karl reflected on Obama's big speech from the White House. "A broad liberal agenda," said she; "a boldly liberal vision," said he. Karl focused on Obama's newfound focus on climate change; Welker chose the federal budget and Debt Ceiling; on CBS, Major Garrett, in a brief stand-up, explained that the White House will not be central in dealing with either climate change or with immigration legislation. CBS (1 min v ABC 7, NBC 6) paid the ceremonies less attention than its rivals, as it did on Monday (11 min v ABC 14, NBC 15).
As for inaugural celebrity watching, ABC gave us self-serving cross-promotion for its primetime sitcom by giving the title A Modern Family to Cecilia Vega's commentary on the candid camera glimpses of the Obamas en famille on the parade viewing stand. NBC's Chris Jansing offered a photo-essay on the day's highlights. And as for the musical performances…
…yesterday, ABC gushed over Beyonce Knowles' rendition of The Star Spangled Banner without bothering to dignify James Taylor with a mention. Now it seems that she was not singing live after all, so ABC's David Wright was assigned to sort out the embarrassment: he reached out to Mr Taylor with a clip and a soundbite; he quoted the Marine Corps Band as confessing that it faked its accompaniment to Beyonce's vocals, while its pre-recorded instrumental played. Yet the band refused comment as to whether the vocals, too, were pre-recorded. This barest of fig leafs allowed anchor Diane Sawyer to entertain the possibility still that she had not been duped into her enthusiasm of Monday: "And it is a mystery tonight," she concluded.
TUESDAY’S TIDBITS All three newscasts rounded out inaugural coverage with women's political stories. ABC's Martha Raddatz followed Hillary Rodham Clinton on Inauguration Day as she prepares for her final testimony on Capitol Hill as Secretary of State. CBS' Nancy Cordes filed her version of Diane Sawyer's women-of-the-Senate Exclusive earlier this month: the Granite State breaks the Glass Ceiling. On NBC, Andrea Mitchell marked the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe-vs-Wade decision with an interview with the pro-choice lawyer who argued the case. Guess which cable TV show Sarah Weddington appeared on to provide Mitchell with her abortion rights soundbite (hint: that would be the sixth such cross-promotional clip in the past seven weeks).
Amid light-hearted winter weather stunts -- CBS' Dean Reynolds mugging as a bank robber, ABC's Sam Champion showing us video of a frozen-stiff T-shirt; NBC's Kevin Tibbles offering Lake Wobegon-quality north-country accents -- CBS did manage to find a serious angle in the frigid cold. Reynolds searched Minneapolis' Skid Row under the I-394 overpass for frozen street people.
NBC's lead by Janet Shamlian from the Lone Star Community College may have been about almost nothing -- mostly about an atmosphere of fear, panic, anxiety rather than the underlying crime. On CBS, Bob Orr showed us a massacre at George Mason University that was entirely fictional. His colleague Wyatt Andrews had already told us about the Active Shooter Response training given to police, when he covered last month's Sandy Hook elementary school shooting. Orr now repeats Andrews, but uses a role-playing exercise rather than an actual emergency.
CBS kept up its commitment to the civil war in Syria, sending Clarissa Ward back once more, this time to the Atma refugee camp near the border with Turkey, where 90 toilets service 12,000 homeless. Elizabeth Palmer, also from CBS, became the second nightly news correspondent, after NBC's Rohit Kachroo, to reach wartorn Mali. NBC aired footage from Afghanistan, even though Keir Simmons was based in London to perform the voiceover -- and it was not even NBC's own footage, but that of a British television crew embedded with Prince Harry, the helicopter warrior.
And there was a food story, so, as usual, ABC covered it, and, as usual, Jim Avila got the assignment: watch out for extra virgin olive oil and pomegranate juice and saffron and teabags in the grocery aisle. They may be fake -- just like Beyonce's bombs bursting in air.
