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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM FEBRUARY 18, 2013
The public holiday for President's Day saw a light day for the news agenda after last week's heavy load: the Pope leaving office, the State of the Union speech, the LAPD manhunt, Triumph the crippled cruise liner, the Russian meteor. Now there is zero unanimity about the day's headlines. NBC kicked off with Tom Costello on inflation at the gasoline pump. CBS chose the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, a story it has followed more closely than its rivals since the New Year: Bob Orr told us that Adam Lanza was a Anders Breivlik wannabe (he came up 50 corpses short). ABC chose an Inside Syria feature, as the regime of Bashar al-Assad invited Terry Moran's crew to Damascus to obtain a hearing for its side of the civil war. None of these three stories attracted enough coverage to qualify as Story of the Day. That honor went to Oscar Pistorius as he prepares for a hearing on murder charges. All three networks had a reporter file from South Africa, the only story to warrant coverage by a correspondent on every newscast.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR FEBRUARY 18, 2013: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
PRESIDENT’S DAY IS LIGHT ON NEWS The public holiday for President's Day saw a light day for the news agenda after last week's heavy load: the Pope leaving office, the State of the Union speech, the LAPD manhunt, Triumph the crippled cruise liner, the Russian meteor. Now there is zero unanimity about the day's headlines. NBC kicked off with Tom Costello on inflation at the gasoline pump. CBS chose the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, a story it has followed more closely than its rivals since the New Year: Bob Orr told us that Adam Lanza was a Anders Breivlik wannabe (he came up 50 corpses short). ABC chose an Inside Syria feature, as the regime of Bashar al-Assad invited Terry Moran's crew to Damascus to obtain a hearing for its side of the civil war. None of these three stories attracted enough coverage to qualify as Story of the Day. That honor went to Oscar Pistorius as he prepares for a hearing on murder charges. All three networks had a reporter file from South Africa, the only story to warrant coverage by a correspondent on every newscast.
The extra taste of video candy that pushed Pistorius into the top spot was the appearance of Reeva Steenkamp on Tropika Island on South African television: that is the reality show on which the leggy model had appeared before she was allegedly killed by the legless sprinter. Both ABC's Bazi Kanani and NBC's Michelle Kosinski aired posthumous clips of the blonde beauty. On CBS, Emma Hurd confined herself to Pistorius' prospects of being released on bail.
There were a couple of other celebrity sports stories rounding out the day. NBC's Andrea Mitchell gave props to Tim Rosaforte of the Golf Channel, a sibling network of NBC, for landing the scoop that Barack Obama had played a round of golf with Tiger Woods. Mitchell quoted Ed Henry, representing political rather than sporting White House correspondents, as complaining that his beat had been excluded. On ABC, NASCAR's Danica Patrick was thrust into the spotlight. Paula Faris told us that now Patrick has pole position her odds of winning the Daytona 500 are 18-1.
MONDAY’S MUSINGS Nightline's Terry Moran told us that, increasingly, the opposition in Syria is perceived to include "warlords, gangsters and religious fanatics." Moran is not the first ABC anchor to be contacted by Bashar al-Assad for favorable coverage. Here is Diane Sawyer reminding us of her experience with outreach. Here is Barbara Walters' visit to Damascus. Such efforts aside, ABC has covered the Syrian story significantly less (93 min in 2011-2012 v CBS 342, NBC 168) than either of the other two networks.
CBS anchor Scott Pelley took himself off on a rare network newscast trip to Togo to cover the Africa Mercy charity hospital ship. Incredibly, the disfiguring tumors he showed us are caused by runaway teeth.
Both Tom Costello on NBC and Linzie Janis, a newly arrived reporter on ABC, tried -- unsuccessfully -- to turn the average price of gasoline into a riveting story. Both were mostly a yawn, although I did like Costello's phrase for coast-to-coast: "from Portland to Portland." On the other hand, his graphics spelled out "roll" when they meant "role." ABC stayed on the energy beat with David Kerley's explanation for a Jon Stewart joke on The Daily Show: why are heavier blizzards a symptom of global warming? On CBS, Mark Strassmann introduced us to Julia Crawford, the tall Texas rancher with grit who is stymieing the Keystone XL pipeline.
Stephanie Gosk's deadpan delivery of the Venezuelan cow punchline was spot-on in her NBC follow-up on the Russian meteor. On ABC, Kirit Radia felt compelled to inform us that a Bruce Willis movie had not actually rendered a realistic method to prevent space rocks from hitting. Really? You mean Armageddon was a fantasy?
Diana Alvear's dynamic marine video in NBC's closer came courtesy of DolphinSafari.com.
The extra taste of video candy that pushed Pistorius into the top spot was the appearance of Reeva Steenkamp on Tropika Island on South African television: that is the reality show on which the leggy model had appeared before she was allegedly killed by the legless sprinter. Both ABC's Bazi Kanani and NBC's Michelle Kosinski aired posthumous clips of the blonde beauty. On CBS, Emma Hurd confined herself to Pistorius' prospects of being released on bail.
There were a couple of other celebrity sports stories rounding out the day. NBC's Andrea Mitchell gave props to Tim Rosaforte of the Golf Channel, a sibling network of NBC, for landing the scoop that Barack Obama had played a round of golf with Tiger Woods. Mitchell quoted Ed Henry, representing political rather than sporting White House correspondents, as complaining that his beat had been excluded. On ABC, NASCAR's Danica Patrick was thrust into the spotlight. Paula Faris told us that now Patrick has pole position her odds of winning the Daytona 500 are 18-1.
MONDAY’S MUSINGS Nightline's Terry Moran told us that, increasingly, the opposition in Syria is perceived to include "warlords, gangsters and religious fanatics." Moran is not the first ABC anchor to be contacted by Bashar al-Assad for favorable coverage. Here is Diane Sawyer reminding us of her experience with outreach. Here is Barbara Walters' visit to Damascus. Such efforts aside, ABC has covered the Syrian story significantly less (93 min in 2011-2012 v CBS 342, NBC 168) than either of the other two networks.
CBS anchor Scott Pelley took himself off on a rare network newscast trip to Togo to cover the Africa Mercy charity hospital ship. Incredibly, the disfiguring tumors he showed us are caused by runaway teeth.
Both Tom Costello on NBC and Linzie Janis, a newly arrived reporter on ABC, tried -- unsuccessfully -- to turn the average price of gasoline into a riveting story. Both were mostly a yawn, although I did like Costello's phrase for coast-to-coast: "from Portland to Portland." On the other hand, his graphics spelled out "roll" when they meant "role." ABC stayed on the energy beat with David Kerley's explanation for a Jon Stewart joke on The Daily Show: why are heavier blizzards a symptom of global warming? On CBS, Mark Strassmann introduced us to Julia Crawford, the tall Texas rancher with grit who is stymieing the Keystone XL pipeline.
Stephanie Gosk's deadpan delivery of the Venezuelan cow punchline was spot-on in her NBC follow-up on the Russian meteor. On ABC, Kirit Radia felt compelled to inform us that a Bruce Willis movie had not actually rendered a realistic method to prevent space rocks from hitting. Really? You mean Armageddon was a fantasy?
Diana Alvear's dynamic marine video in NBC's closer came courtesy of DolphinSafari.com.
