CONTAINING LINKS TO 58103 STORIES FROM THE NETWORKS' NIGHTLY NEWSCASTS
     TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM NOVEMBER 04, 2013
Friday's top story -- the shooting of federal TSA screeners in one of the terminals at Los Angeles Airport -- was Story of the Day once more and the lead story on both NBC and CBS. ABC decided to lead with a sports story instead, the feud between two National Football League linemen inside the Miami Dolphins lockerroom. Jonathan Martin, 6'5" 310lbs, has left the team protesting his teammate's abusive behavior; Richie Incognito, 6'3" 320lbs, has been suspended because of said abuse.    
     TYNDALL PICKS FOR NOVEMBER 04, 2013: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
click to playstoryanglereporterdateline
video thumbnailNBC2013 New Jersey Governor raceIncumbent expected to win then run for PresidentChuck ToddNew Jersey
video thumbnailCBS2013 Virginia Governor raceDemocrat McAuliffe vs GOP Tea Partier CuccinelliChip ReidVirginia
video thumbnailNBCHealthcare reform: universal and managed carePortal problems slow even paper applicationsPeter AlexanderWhite House
video thumbnailCBSHealthcare reform: universal and managed careFederal Website privacy, security is unverifiedSharyl AttkissonWashington DC
video thumbnailCBSLos Angeles Airport terminal shooting spreeKiller suspect is unconscious, motives probedBen TracyLos Angeles
video thumbnailCBSLos Angeles Airport terminal shooting spreeHid gun in luggage, tracked down TSA screenersJohn MillerNew York
video thumbnailCBSEgypt politics: President Mohamed Morsi oustedMoslem Brotherhood supporters meet clandestinelyClarissa WardCairo
video thumbnailABCBlack lung disease afflicts coal minersJohns Hopkins hospital screening failure allegedBrian RossWashington DC
video thumbnailABCNFL lockerroom bullying: Miami Dolphins caseOffensive linemen feud: one quits, one suspendedMatt GutmanFlorida
video thumbnailNBCSkydiving planes collide in midair over WisconsinHelmetcam video of fiery wreck, jumps to safetyAnne ThompsonNew York
 
TYNDALL BLOG: DAILY NOTES ON NETWORK TELEVISION NIGHTLY NEWS
CIANCIA’S GRUDGE AGAINST TSA SCREENERS Friday's top story -- the shooting of federal TSA screeners in one of the terminals at Los Angeles Airport -- was Story of the Day once more and the lead story on both NBC and CBS. ABC decided to lead with a sports story instead, the feud between two National Football League linemen inside the Miami Dolphins lockerroom. Jonathan Martin, 6'5" 310lbs, has left the team protesting his teammate's abusive behavior; Richie Incognito, 6'3" 320lbs, has been suspended because of said abuse.

At LAX, accused gunman Paul Ciancia was shot in the head by police before he was arrested. So there was no news about his interrogation, since none could take place. All three networks filed updates on the investigation from Los Angeles anyway. CBS' Ben Tracy supplied most information on Ciancia's possible political motives, including his mockery of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, his denunciation of the Transportation Security Agency for treachery, and clues about his ties to the New World Order.

Yet CBS' Tracy offered no explanation as to whatever NOW's politics might be. See if you understand what ABC's David Wright was driving at when he offered talkshow host Alex Jones' soundbite about the TSA from infowars.com. Was Jones justifying resentment against TSA screeners? Or was he expressing sympathy for their unpopularity? As for NBC's Miguel Almaguer, if you watched his report, you would be unaware that Ciancia's assault had any political motive whatsoever.

Rounding out the LAX coverage, CBS did what ABC usually does with its Virtual View: John Miller resorted to his network's in-house computer animators for an imaginary recreation of the assault. ABC's Wright had already played his network's in-house Virtual View on Friday. Also supplying visuals was the paparazzi siteTMZ.com. All three networks reran the same video of panicked passengers, with due credit.

All three newscasts also covered the NFL story. As so often happens with broadcast packages that include professional sports video, they were not posted automatically online as a videostream: one of them, filed by NBC's Kerry Sanders, is not to be found. Both CBS' Mark Strassmann and ABC's Matt Gutman relied on in-house sports journalists for a soundbite -- CBS Sports' Jason La Canfora and ESPN's Bob Holtzman respectively. ABC's Gutman also used a clip from the HBO documentary Hard Knocks in which Incognito was overheard insulting Martin.

Besides the NFL, both NBC and ABC closed their newscasts with sports features. NBC's Kate Snow followed up on Friday's up-close-and-personal profile of Tatyana McFadden. McFadden competed in Sunday's New York City Marathon and, as predicted, was victorious once more. Next stop Sochi, for cross-country skiing. What a coincidence! The rights to cover the Sochi Olympics are owned by NBC Sports.

ABC went to Chris Connelly at ESPN's E:60 for its America Strong closing feature. Connelly paid tribute to nonagenarian John Shear, an attendant at the Santa Anita racetrack. What Connelly did not address was what a toddler was doing wandering around the paddock under the hooves of thoroughbred horses in the first place.


MONDAY’S MENTIONS ABC's White House correspondent Jonathan Karl claimed an Exclusive for his coverage of the federal government's healthcare rollout. Karl reported that President Barack Obama's suggestion that a 1-800-number was a viable alternative to its stalled healthcare.gov Website was misleading, since applications using either method would eventually be processed by the same software portal before being submitted to insurance companies. Unfortunately for Karl's claim, Peter Alexander, NBC's man at the White House, filed the same story. Watch Karl's package and you will see that the unique thing about it is the sarcastic tone with which White House spokesman Jay Carney insultingly apes Karl's questioning style.

Thumbs up to NBC's Alexander for the clarity with which he laid out the various obstacles that healthcare.gov has to negotiate before it functions properly. Thumbs down for offering a soundbite from onetime congressman Harold Ford, without mentioning the fact that he is on the NBC News payroll as an MSNBC analyst.

CBS, which has filed more packages on the healthcare rollout since the beginning of October than both NBC and ABC combined, chose a different angle: Sharyl Attkisson provided more details on the site's problems with personal privacy and data security, problems that NBC's Michael Isikoff first mentioned last Wednesday.

It was election eve. ABC did not mention it, even in passing. NBC's Chuck Todd filed from the gubernatorial race in New Jersey; CBS' Chip Reid from the one in Virginia. NBC's Todd did fold in an indirect plug for the coverage of Chris Christie in Double Down, the newly-published behind-the-scenes Campaign 2012 tell-all that his colleague Andrea Mitchell covered on Friday. Thumbs down again: neither Todd nor Mitchell mentioned that Double Down's co-author Mark Halperin is on the NBC News payroll as an MSNBC analyst.

ABC's Brian Ross pursued his Investigates probe into black lung disease with the Center for Public Integrity. This latest package consisted almost entirely of a recap of last Wednesday's expose of Dr Paul Wheeler at the Johns Hopkins University hospital and his apparent suppression of workers' compensation claims, to the benefit of coalmine operators. Ross nudged the story forward marginally by reporting that the hospital has suspended Wheeler's program, pending an investigation.

Cairo was the day's sole international dateline. President Mohamed Morsi, the leader of the Moslem Brotherhood who was ousted by a military coup, went on trial. Richard Engel's brief stand-up report for NBC was not posted online. CBS, which has covered Egyptian politics so far this year as heavily as ABC and NBC combined, had Clarissa Ward mention the trial briefly, and then file surreptitiously from the clandestine protest-planning meetings of the remnants of the Brotherhood underground.

Once in a while, for no apparent reason, ABC will decide that it is time to check in on the price of oil on the energy markets. Of the twelve such packages on oil and gasoline filed so far this year on all three newscasts, eight have appeared on ABC. Once again Linzie Janis gets the assignment. This time she previews the home heating season.

Cynthia McFadden, anchor of ABC's Nightline, found no evidence that shooting oneself up with reproductive hormones to stimulate the ovaries into overproducing eggs is harmful to one's health. She worried about it anyway, kicking off ABC's Making Babies series, since no longterm studies have been conducted to demonstrate its safety. Meet twentysomething Anna Cain, who has sold her eggs to an in-vitro fertilization clinic six times, at $10K each. Sharyn Alfonsi covered blonde, tall, smart egg-selling beauties for ABC three years ago. ABC's Gigi Stone brought us the same worries five years ago.

Did you know that neutral Switzerland incarcerated prisoners-of-war during World War II? Did you know that the United States did not consider airmen downed in Switzerland to be PoWs, since they might be faking crashes in order to wait out the war? Elaine Quijano tells us about it on CBS.

Lastly, NBC's pay-per-Exclusive from the helmetcams of parachutists in the skies over Wisconsin: Today has the sitdown with the eleven skydivers who jumped to safety after a midair plane collision. For a preview, Anne Thompson narrates the video, which is "licensed by NBC News," a euphemism for checkbook journalism.