 |           |
TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM JANUARY 21, 2013
All three network anchors traveled to the nation's capital to cover Inauguration Day. NBC extended its newscast to an hour (the first half-hour is monitored here) in a special edition The Second Inauguration of Barack Obama. ABC, too, called its newscast a special edition: Inauguration 2013. CBS spent least time on the inauguration proper (10 min v ABC 14, NBC 15) and most time on the key issues of the President's second term agenda: Nancy Cordes on the federal budget; Bill Whitaker on immigration control; and Elaine Quijano on gun control.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR JANUARY 21, 2013: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
ALL EYES ON THE SECOND INAUGURAL All three network anchors traveled to the nation's capital to cover Inauguration Day. NBC extended its newscast to an hour (the first half-hour is monitored here) in a special edition The Second Inauguration of Barack Obama. ABC, too, called its newscast a special edition: Inauguration 2013. CBS spent least time on the inauguration proper (10 min v ABC 14, NBC 15) and most time on the key issues of the President's second term agenda: Nancy Cordes on the federal budget; Bill Whitaker on immigration control; and Elaine Quijano on gun control.
What is the main difference between the way NBC and CBS chose to sum up the highlights of Inauguration Day and the decisions made by ABC?
Both NBC and CBS assigned the task to their lead anchor, Brian Williams and Scott Pelley respectively. Williams filed the longer package, since he included extended highlights from the Second Inaugural Speech, a task CBS assigned to White House correspondent Major Garrett. ABC did not use Diane Sawyer to voiceover the highlights of the day, instead using her for a closing human interest feature with third-graders from Georgia at the Lincoln Memorial. The day's heavy lifting was assigned to David Muir, Sawyer's main substitute at ABC.
And what is the difference between Muir, and Williams or Pelley? Williams and Pelley talk in full sentences. Muir, disliking grammatical verbs, resorting to their present participles instead. (See what I did there?)
And what is it that ABC has against James Taylor? All three newscasts included musical clips from Beyonce and from Kelly Clarkson; NBC and CBS also offered an America the Beautiful clip with acoustic guitar. ABC not so much.
As for the speech itself. ABC's Muir focused on Barack Obama's collective theme, with his repetition of Together. CBS' Garrett ticked off its programatic, rather than thematic, aspects: preservation of Great Society entitlements, gay rights, climate change, immigration, and the All Our Children line about gun control. NBC's extended soundbites, via anchor Williams, preserved the rhetorical link that tied the policy goals together -- namely that fulfilling those goals is required to make the nation's Journey complete.
All three networks, too, brought in the anchors of their Sunday morning shows to provide analysis of the Second Inaugural Speech. David Gregory of Meet the Press called it a "robust defense of progressivism." George Stephanopoulos of This Week (at the tail of the Cecilia Vega videostream) offered a "meditation on freedom and equality." Ironically, Bob Schieffer of Face the Nation offered a complaint that could have been directed at his own network's coverage of the day's festivities, which was heavy on agenda items, light on ritual and rhetoric. Schieffer heard "no real memorable lines," more a "list of priorities."
It turned out that none of this analysis repeated what I thought was the most telling line of the speech, the one that combined both a progressive tradition of populist activism, and a equal rights tradition of individual liberties: "…while these truths may be self-evident, they have never been self-executing."
MONDAY’S MUSINGS Each newscast offered an excellent background feature. Check out…
Byron Pitts on CBS with Sgt Mitchelene BigMan from the Crow Reservation in Montana;
Cecilia Vega on ABC, introducing Bill Weir's meeting with a pair of veteran Freedom Riders, complete with their 50-years-old mugshots;
Kate Snow on NBC with the parade master of ceremonies Charlie Brotman, an I Like Ike throwback.
It is one of the most transparent tricks in the book. A newscast feels self-conscious about pandering to trivial or prurient interests, so it purports to file a report investigating why audiences are so inappropriately fixated. Thus Diane Sawyer introduces Deborah Roberts as answering the question "why does everyone pay so much attention" to Michelle Obama. In fact, ABC's Roberts, too, directly pays just such attention to the First Lady, replicating rather than investigating. NBC's Kristen Welker indulged in no such hypocrisy as she alternately gushed and gawked at Sasha and Malia.
Oh, by the way, the hostage siege is over in Algeria. NBC did not bother to have it interrupt the inaugural festivities. CBS filed from London with Mark Phillips, ABC from New York with Brian Ross, who splashed an Exclusive on his report, although it was not clear what he was telling us that was so unique.
What is the main difference between the way NBC and CBS chose to sum up the highlights of Inauguration Day and the decisions made by ABC?
Both NBC and CBS assigned the task to their lead anchor, Brian Williams and Scott Pelley respectively. Williams filed the longer package, since he included extended highlights from the Second Inaugural Speech, a task CBS assigned to White House correspondent Major Garrett. ABC did not use Diane Sawyer to voiceover the highlights of the day, instead using her for a closing human interest feature with third-graders from Georgia at the Lincoln Memorial. The day's heavy lifting was assigned to David Muir, Sawyer's main substitute at ABC.
And what is the difference between Muir, and Williams or Pelley? Williams and Pelley talk in full sentences. Muir, disliking grammatical verbs, resorting to their present participles instead. (See what I did there?)
And what is it that ABC has against James Taylor? All three newscasts included musical clips from Beyonce and from Kelly Clarkson; NBC and CBS also offered an America the Beautiful clip with acoustic guitar. ABC not so much.
As for the speech itself. ABC's Muir focused on Barack Obama's collective theme, with his repetition of Together. CBS' Garrett ticked off its programatic, rather than thematic, aspects: preservation of Great Society entitlements, gay rights, climate change, immigration, and the All Our Children line about gun control. NBC's extended soundbites, via anchor Williams, preserved the rhetorical link that tied the policy goals together -- namely that fulfilling those goals is required to make the nation's Journey complete.
All three networks, too, brought in the anchors of their Sunday morning shows to provide analysis of the Second Inaugural Speech. David Gregory of Meet the Press called it a "robust defense of progressivism." George Stephanopoulos of This Week (at the tail of the Cecilia Vega videostream) offered a "meditation on freedom and equality." Ironically, Bob Schieffer of Face the Nation offered a complaint that could have been directed at his own network's coverage of the day's festivities, which was heavy on agenda items, light on ritual and rhetoric. Schieffer heard "no real memorable lines," more a "list of priorities."
It turned out that none of this analysis repeated what I thought was the most telling line of the speech, the one that combined both a progressive tradition of populist activism, and a equal rights tradition of individual liberties: "…while these truths may be self-evident, they have never been self-executing."
MONDAY’S MUSINGS Each newscast offered an excellent background feature. Check out…
Byron Pitts on CBS with Sgt Mitchelene BigMan from the Crow Reservation in Montana;
Cecilia Vega on ABC, introducing Bill Weir's meeting with a pair of veteran Freedom Riders, complete with their 50-years-old mugshots;
Kate Snow on NBC with the parade master of ceremonies Charlie Brotman, an I Like Ike throwback.
It is one of the most transparent tricks in the book. A newscast feels self-conscious about pandering to trivial or prurient interests, so it purports to file a report investigating why audiences are so inappropriately fixated. Thus Diane Sawyer introduces Deborah Roberts as answering the question "why does everyone pay so much attention" to Michelle Obama. In fact, ABC's Roberts, too, directly pays just such attention to the First Lady, replicating rather than investigating. NBC's Kristen Welker indulged in no such hypocrisy as she alternately gushed and gawked at Sasha and Malia.
Oh, by the way, the hostage siege is over in Algeria. NBC did not bother to have it interrupt the inaugural festivities. CBS filed from London with Mark Phillips, ABC from New York with Brian Ross, who splashed an Exclusive on his report, although it was not clear what he was telling us that was so unique.
