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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM FEBRUARY 15, 2013
Only one day earlier, it was the threat of an asteroid, hurtling past Planet Earth, that had attracted the worried attention of ABC's Neal Karlinsky and NBC's Kristen Dahlgren. Well, that rock missed Indonesia by some 17,000 miles. Instead, a smaller meteor entered the atmosphere over the Ural Mountains in central Russia. Smaller it may have been -- but was still big enough to leave a 300-mile contrail across the sky, before it split apart into a fireball, while breaking the sound barrier to cause a sonic boom, which left windows shattered throughout the city of Chelyabinsk. The Russian habit of mounting cameras on the dashboards of automobiles turned the meteor into a video news event and, therefore, the Story of the Day. All three newscasts kicked off with assembled pieces of footage and then followed up with an interview with an astronomer. Each newscast happened to be anchored by a substitute (the regular anchors having worked an extra shift this week for Tuesday's State of the Union): Lester Holt on NBC, David Muir on ABC, and Anthony Mason on CBS.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR FEBRUARY 15, 2013: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
DASHBOARD PIX OF METEOR INCOMING Only one day earlier, it was the threat of an asteroid, hurtling past Planet Earth, that had attracted the worried attention of ABC's Neal Karlinsky and NBC's Kristen Dahlgren. Well, that rock missed Indonesia by some 17,000 miles. Instead, a smaller meteor entered the atmosphere over the Ural Mountains in central Russia. Smaller it may have been -- but was still big enough to leave a 300-mile contrail across the sky, before it split apart into a fireball, while breaking the sound barrier to cause a sonic boom, which left windows shattered throughout the city of Chelyabinsk. The Russian habit of mounting cameras on the dashboards of automobiles turned the meteor into a video news event and, therefore, the Story of the Day. All three newscasts kicked off with assembled pieces of footage and then followed up with an interview with an astronomer. Each newscast happened to be anchored by a substitute (the regular anchors having worked an extra shift this week for Tuesday's State of the Union): Lester Holt on NBC, David Muir on ABC, and Anthony Mason on CBS.
The meteor was covered from Moscow by ABC's Kirit Radia, yet his inside-Russia insight did not allow him even to mention Chelyabinsk's name. From London, CBS' Mark Phillips told us that the city's existence had once been a secret, a site for the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons program: Phillips report has not been posted online. NBC had Tom Costello cover the meteor from Washington DC.
NBC's Holt, introducing Costello, told us that the meteor weighed ten tons. CBS' Mason, introducing Phillips, told us 15m pounds. Radia said it weighed the same as the Eiffel Tower, namely 7,700 tons. Let's get some fact-checking here, shall we?
As for expertise, ABC's Muir consulted Amy Mainzer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena (at the tail of the Radia videostream), but was as interested in manmade space debris as he was in extra-terrestrial space rocks; CBS' Mason tapped Derrick Pitts of Philadelphia's Franklin Institute, who focused on the meteor itself; NBC's Holt sat down with Neal deGrasse Tyson of New York City's Hayden Planetarium. He was more interested in asteroids, which could be regionally catastrophic, than in the meteor, which he dismissed as a large boulder, a once every five-to-ten year event.
FRIDAY’S FINDINGS All three networks kept their correspondent in Alabama -- ABC's Matt Gutman, CBS' Anna Werner, NBC's Janet Shamlian -- to cover the follow-up to Thursday's Story of the Day as the crippled cruise liner Triumph finally docked in Mobile Harbor. NBC offered a backgrounder from Gabe Guttierez in Atlanta on the immunity the cruise line industry enjoys from both lawsuits and regulations, the former by virtue of fine print on its contracts, the latter through flag-of-convenience registry in nations such as The Bahamas.
Also following up…
NBC's Michelle Kosinski and ABC's Bazi Kanani both filed from Pretoria as the South African star sprinter Oscar Pistorius was charged with premeditated murder of Reeva Steenkamp. Both consulted Michael Sokolove of The New York Times' Sunday magazine, who had profiled Pistorius' adrenaline-fueled love of firearms.
Carter Evans of CBS did not let go of his evidence against the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department in the death of Christopher Dorner, the fugitive former LAPD cop, who died in a burned-out ski cabin after a gunfight to which Evans was a videotaping eyewitness and cellphone-taping eavesdropper. Quoting police scanner audio from RadioReference.com, Evans documented an arson plan, using tear gas nicknamed "burner," even as the sheriff insisted that the fire was not set on purpose.
There was plenty of other crime coverage…
All three newscasts followed up on last December's shooting spree at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. CBS' Steve Hartman filed an affecting On The Road profile of Bill Sherlach, the widower of Mary, the school's heroic child psychologist. NBC's Chuck Todd and ABC's Jonathan Karl filed on the posthumous White House medal ceremonies to honor the school's six dead adults. ABC's Karl made the preposterous comment that Barack Obama offered a "rare reflection" on his own upbringing when discussing the importance of fathers in raising boys to avoid gun violence. A rare reflection? Obama wrote an entire best-selling memoir on the topic.
I like how CBS is spending time examining the practical difficulties surrounding the rhetoric about firearms legislation and gun control. Already Chip Reid has brought us the antiquated BATF system for tracing guns used in crimes. Then John Blackstone showed us how expensive, dangerous and time-consuming it is to confiscate firearms from felons and the mentally ill. Now Dean Reynolds demonstrates the impracticality of mandatory-minimum sentences for those convicted of gun crimes: the jails are too full.
More than three years ago, Armen Keteyian on CBS earned himself much kudos for his exposes of the failure of the DNA test kit system for investigating rapes. Now NBC's primetime news magazine Rock Center catches up to that story: Kate Snow previews her profile of Kym Worthy, the prosecutor in Michigan's Wayne County, that will publicize the thousands of kits, collected but untested, gathering dust in a Detroit police warehouse.
As for political corruption…
The former Mayor Maureen O'Connor of San Diego admitted filching $2m from the foundation set up by her late husband Robert Peterson, the founder of the Jack in the Box fast food chain. ABC's Nick Watt told us she needed the money after a nine-year gambling spree, in which she made wagers totaling $1bn, losing $13m: after paying $11m from her own fortune, she stole the rest.
Where did former Rep Jesse Jackson get the $750,000 he lavished on Rolex watches and Michael Jackson memorabilia and other luxuries? CBS' Nancy Cordes told us that he admits to illegally diverting funds from his campaign coffers.
As for human interest…
On Tuesday on CBS, Seth Doane picked out 18-year-old pianist Milad Yousufi to represent the visiting Afghanistan National Institute of Music on concert tour as it headed for Carnegie Hall. Now ABC's David Muir chooses the youth orchestra for his network's Person of the Week, featuring girl sitarist Gululai Nuristani.
The meteor was covered from Moscow by ABC's Kirit Radia, yet his inside-Russia insight did not allow him even to mention Chelyabinsk's name. From London, CBS' Mark Phillips told us that the city's existence had once been a secret, a site for the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons program: Phillips report has not been posted online. NBC had Tom Costello cover the meteor from Washington DC.
NBC's Holt, introducing Costello, told us that the meteor weighed ten tons. CBS' Mason, introducing Phillips, told us 15m pounds. Radia said it weighed the same as the Eiffel Tower, namely 7,700 tons. Let's get some fact-checking here, shall we?
As for expertise, ABC's Muir consulted Amy Mainzer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena (at the tail of the Radia videostream), but was as interested in manmade space debris as he was in extra-terrestrial space rocks; CBS' Mason tapped Derrick Pitts of Philadelphia's Franklin Institute, who focused on the meteor itself; NBC's Holt sat down with Neal deGrasse Tyson of New York City's Hayden Planetarium. He was more interested in asteroids, which could be regionally catastrophic, than in the meteor, which he dismissed as a large boulder, a once every five-to-ten year event.
FRIDAY’S FINDINGS All three networks kept their correspondent in Alabama -- ABC's Matt Gutman, CBS' Anna Werner, NBC's Janet Shamlian -- to cover the follow-up to Thursday's Story of the Day as the crippled cruise liner Triumph finally docked in Mobile Harbor. NBC offered a backgrounder from Gabe Guttierez in Atlanta on the immunity the cruise line industry enjoys from both lawsuits and regulations, the former by virtue of fine print on its contracts, the latter through flag-of-convenience registry in nations such as The Bahamas.
Also following up…
NBC's Michelle Kosinski and ABC's Bazi Kanani both filed from Pretoria as the South African star sprinter Oscar Pistorius was charged with premeditated murder of Reeva Steenkamp. Both consulted Michael Sokolove of The New York Times' Sunday magazine, who had profiled Pistorius' adrenaline-fueled love of firearms.
Carter Evans of CBS did not let go of his evidence against the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department in the death of Christopher Dorner, the fugitive former LAPD cop, who died in a burned-out ski cabin after a gunfight to which Evans was a videotaping eyewitness and cellphone-taping eavesdropper. Quoting police scanner audio from RadioReference.com, Evans documented an arson plan, using tear gas nicknamed "burner," even as the sheriff insisted that the fire was not set on purpose.
There was plenty of other crime coverage…
All three newscasts followed up on last December's shooting spree at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. CBS' Steve Hartman filed an affecting On The Road profile of Bill Sherlach, the widower of Mary, the school's heroic child psychologist. NBC's Chuck Todd and ABC's Jonathan Karl filed on the posthumous White House medal ceremonies to honor the school's six dead adults. ABC's Karl made the preposterous comment that Barack Obama offered a "rare reflection" on his own upbringing when discussing the importance of fathers in raising boys to avoid gun violence. A rare reflection? Obama wrote an entire best-selling memoir on the topic.
I like how CBS is spending time examining the practical difficulties surrounding the rhetoric about firearms legislation and gun control. Already Chip Reid has brought us the antiquated BATF system for tracing guns used in crimes. Then John Blackstone showed us how expensive, dangerous and time-consuming it is to confiscate firearms from felons and the mentally ill. Now Dean Reynolds demonstrates the impracticality of mandatory-minimum sentences for those convicted of gun crimes: the jails are too full.
More than three years ago, Armen Keteyian on CBS earned himself much kudos for his exposes of the failure of the DNA test kit system for investigating rapes. Now NBC's primetime news magazine Rock Center catches up to that story: Kate Snow previews her profile of Kym Worthy, the prosecutor in Michigan's Wayne County, that will publicize the thousands of kits, collected but untested, gathering dust in a Detroit police warehouse.
As for political corruption…
The former Mayor Maureen O'Connor of San Diego admitted filching $2m from the foundation set up by her late husband Robert Peterson, the founder of the Jack in the Box fast food chain. ABC's Nick Watt told us she needed the money after a nine-year gambling spree, in which she made wagers totaling $1bn, losing $13m: after paying $11m from her own fortune, she stole the rest.
Where did former Rep Jesse Jackson get the $750,000 he lavished on Rolex watches and Michael Jackson memorabilia and other luxuries? CBS' Nancy Cordes told us that he admits to illegally diverting funds from his campaign coffers.
As for human interest…
On Tuesday on CBS, Seth Doane picked out 18-year-old pianist Milad Yousufi to represent the visiting Afghanistan National Institute of Music on concert tour as it headed for Carnegie Hall. Now ABC's David Muir chooses the youth orchestra for his network's Person of the Week, featuring girl sitarist Gululai Nuristani.
