 |           |
TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM APRIL 18, 2013
The news management apparatus at the Federal Bureau of Investigation scored a home run. All three nightly newscasts led with the FBI's outreach. The feds published photographs of a pair of young men they designated suspects for causing Monday's explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. CBS and ABC both publicized their fbi.gov Website by name. ABC's Brian Ross covered the manhunt from Boston. NBC and CBS led with their Justice Department correspondents from their DC bureaus: Pete Williams and Bob Orr respectively. The aftermath of the Boston bombings was Story of the Day, accounting for more half (51%) of the three-network newshole.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR APRIL 18, 2013: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
FBI ATTRACTS AIRTIME FOR ITS WANTED POSTER The news management apparatus at the Federal Bureau of Investigation scored a home run. All three nightly newscasts led with the FBI's outreach. The feds published photographs of a pair of young men they designated suspects for causing Monday's explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. CBS and ABC both publicized their fbi.gov Website by name. ABC's Brian Ross covered the manhunt from Boston. NBC and CBS led with their Justice Department correspondents from their DC bureaus: Pete Williams and Bob Orr respectively. The aftermath of the Boston bombings was Story of the Day, accounting for more half (51%) of the three-network newshole.
Not only the feds, but also the White House received unanimous coverage. President Barack Obama traveled to Boston to speak at the memorial service for the three killed in Monday's attacks. CBS assigned its White House correspondent Major Garrett to the address. ABC and NBC used correspondents already on the scene: Linsey Davis and Lester Holt.
Both CBS' John Miller and ABC's Pierre Thomas (at the tail of the Ross videostream) added extra information on the FBI's manhunt outreach. Ross himself inserted a passing plug for The Anarchist Cookbook and hobbyists' remote-controled toy cars for any would-be bomb-makers in his audience.
All three newscasts closed with inspirational features on the mood in Beantown. NBC's Anne Thompson focused on the rallying cry Boston Strong, including morale-boosting T-shirts and the stirring Star Spangled Banner singalong celebrating "the Hub of America" before the Bruins' hockey game. CBS did what it does -- file an emotional anecdotal profile of a compelling individual in the middle of the action: Tracy Munro meets Elaine Quijano.
ABC's closing effort, by Dan Harris, was useless. In what way does evolutionary biology explain the human instinct towards self-sacrificing heroism? I could not understand. For what reason should we consult a professor at Harvard Business School to elucidate this theory? Beats me.
THURSDAY’S THOUGHTS The inferno caused by exploding fertilizer in a small town outside of Waco would normally have created the day's major headlines. All three networks sent a correspondent to West, Texas: NBC's Miguel Almaguer, ABC's Steve Osunsami, and CBS' Ben Tracy. ABC's Osunsami noted that the fire that triggered the explosion burned on the 20th anniversary of the conflagration at the nearby Branch Davidian compound. CBS followed up with Manuel Bojorquez' sitdown with Mayor Tommy Muska; ABC with Cecilia Vega on the destruction to the social fabric of the town of 2,800.
ABC sent Matt Gutman to Mississippi, where Paul Kevin Curtis was arrested for sending letters laced with the toxin ricin to Capitol Hill and the White House. Gutman did not cast Curtis in an entirely negative light. He gave him a plug for his book Missing Pieces, in which Curtis lays out the case against trafficking in human body parts, and played clips from YouTube video of Curtis' Elvis Presley impersonation act. In addition, Gutman told us that the ricin in the letters was "non-weaponized."
NBC's John Yang did that silly thing that reporters do when they cover flooding. He donned waders and stood thigh-deep in water in Lisle, Ill. In Chicago, there is a run on sump pumps.
CBS anchor Scott Pelley committed himself to publicizing the gun-control activism of the bereaved families of Newtown Ct before their cause was defeated in the Senate. So loyalty demanded that he should assign Chip Reid to follow up with parent Mark Barden, in the aftermath of Wednesday's defeat.
Not only the feds, but also the White House received unanimous coverage. President Barack Obama traveled to Boston to speak at the memorial service for the three killed in Monday's attacks. CBS assigned its White House correspondent Major Garrett to the address. ABC and NBC used correspondents already on the scene: Linsey Davis and Lester Holt.
Both CBS' John Miller and ABC's Pierre Thomas (at the tail of the Ross videostream) added extra information on the FBI's manhunt outreach. Ross himself inserted a passing plug for The Anarchist Cookbook and hobbyists' remote-controled toy cars for any would-be bomb-makers in his audience.
All three newscasts closed with inspirational features on the mood in Beantown. NBC's Anne Thompson focused on the rallying cry Boston Strong, including morale-boosting T-shirts and the stirring Star Spangled Banner singalong celebrating "the Hub of America" before the Bruins' hockey game. CBS did what it does -- file an emotional anecdotal profile of a compelling individual in the middle of the action: Tracy Munro meets Elaine Quijano.
ABC's closing effort, by Dan Harris, was useless. In what way does evolutionary biology explain the human instinct towards self-sacrificing heroism? I could not understand. For what reason should we consult a professor at Harvard Business School to elucidate this theory? Beats me.
THURSDAY’S THOUGHTS The inferno caused by exploding fertilizer in a small town outside of Waco would normally have created the day's major headlines. All three networks sent a correspondent to West, Texas: NBC's Miguel Almaguer, ABC's Steve Osunsami, and CBS' Ben Tracy. ABC's Osunsami noted that the fire that triggered the explosion burned on the 20th anniversary of the conflagration at the nearby Branch Davidian compound. CBS followed up with Manuel Bojorquez' sitdown with Mayor Tommy Muska; ABC with Cecilia Vega on the destruction to the social fabric of the town of 2,800.
ABC sent Matt Gutman to Mississippi, where Paul Kevin Curtis was arrested for sending letters laced with the toxin ricin to Capitol Hill and the White House. Gutman did not cast Curtis in an entirely negative light. He gave him a plug for his book Missing Pieces, in which Curtis lays out the case against trafficking in human body parts, and played clips from YouTube video of Curtis' Elvis Presley impersonation act. In addition, Gutman told us that the ricin in the letters was "non-weaponized."
NBC's John Yang did that silly thing that reporters do when they cover flooding. He donned waders and stood thigh-deep in water in Lisle, Ill. In Chicago, there is a run on sump pumps.
CBS anchor Scott Pelley committed himself to publicizing the gun-control activism of the bereaved families of Newtown Ct before their cause was defeated in the Senate. So loyalty demanded that he should assign Chip Reid to follow up with parent Mark Barden, in the aftermath of Wednesday's defeat.
