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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM NOVEMBER 7, 2013
NBC White House correspondent Chuck Todd had the major Exclusive of the day: a sitdown with Barack Obama in which the President formally apologized to individuals who would be unable to renew their current health insurance plan because of changes required next year by the Affordable Care Act. He acknowledged that he had made a promise that all those who happened to like their plan would be able to keep it. "I am sorry," the President told NBC's Todd. Obviously, since it was an exclusive, neither CBS nor ABC carried the same story, although CBS did mention the apology in passing, with a hat-tip to NBC. The Story of the Day, and CBS' lead, was the proposal by the Food & Drug Administration to ban heart-unhealthy hydrogenated vegetable oils -- so-called transfats -- from processed foods. Typhoon Haiyan, the massive storm bearing down on The Philippines was the lead at ABC; NBC led with Todd's q-&-a.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR NOVEMBER 7, 2013: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
PRESIDENT IS SORRY FOR BREAKING HIS PROMISE NBC White House correspondent Chuck Todd had the major Exclusive of the day: a sitdown with Barack Obama in which the President formally apologized to individuals who would be unable to renew their current health insurance plan because of changes required next year by the Affordable Care Act. He acknowledged that he had made a promise that all those who happened to like their plan would be able to keep it. "I am sorry," the President told NBC's Todd. Obviously, since it was an exclusive, neither CBS nor ABC carried the same story, although CBS did mention the apology in passing, with a hat-tip to NBC. The Story of the Day, and CBS' lead, was the proposal by the Food & Drug Administration to ban heart-unhealthy hydrogenated vegetable oils -- so-called transfats -- from processed foods. Typhoon Haiyan, the massive storm bearing down on The Philippines was the lead at ABC; NBC led with Todd's q-&-a.
The Centers for Disease Control estimate that margarine and other transfats kill 7,000 people nationwide each year. The proposed ban was covered by the in-house physician at both NBC and ABC: ABC's Richard Besser does not have his report posted online as a videostream; NBC's Nancy Snyderman offered free publicity for a handful of national chains that have already "reduced or eliminated" transfats from their foods. See Dr Nancy plug Starbucks, Burger King, McDonalds, KFC, Jack in the Box, Dairy Queen, Wendy's, and Long John Silver's. Instead of putting it on the personal health beat, CBS treated the proposal as an inside-the-Beltway regulatory story: Chip Reid sat down with FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, and ran a soundbite from his network's This Morning, with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who instituted a similar ban in New York City restaurants in 2007.
ABC did not actually have a correspondent in The Philippines to file a warning story as Typhoon Haiyan approached. Neal Karlinsky's dateline was Seattle, and his forecast came from Jim Dickey at AccuWeather.com. Neither of the other newscasts deemed the typhoon terrifying enough to assign a reporter to its track, although both did mention it in passing.
THURSDAY’S THOUGHTS Besides The Philippines, there were three other foreign hotspots. CBS' Jeff Glor filed from Haiti, where United Nations peacekeepers are responsible for introducing the cholera that has killed 8,000 since the 2010 earthquake. NBC's in-house physician Nancy Snyderman showed us the same catastrophe last month, after a hiatus of coverage of almost three years.
From London, CBS' Mark Phillips documented the spread of the Snowden Effect, as PressThink's Jay Rosen calls it: the changes in governments worldwide as a result of Edward Snowden's spilling of National Security Agency secrets. Phillips introduced us to Sir John Sawers of MI6 and Sir Iain Lobban of GCHQ, previously shrouded in secrecy, a pair of spymasters forced to testify in public about how much more difficult their lives are now. Phillips repeated, without substantiation or detail, their claim that Britain's eavesdropping has resulted in the foiling of 34 plots since 2005, a little more than four each year. Phillips showed us a cartoon diagram on a "jihadi group's Website" that offers tips on how to dodge buggers -- so the Snowden Effect spreads even to amateurs.
Check out the last three years of ABC's coverage of the struggles faced by military families during the long months of deployment at war. You will see that there are two recurrent themes: childbirth at home while the warrior father is in the field; and joyous, tearful reunions when the warrior parent returns home. So now, ABC's Josh Elliott offers us a twofer in his profile of Captain Lotz: in part one, Elliott embedded with troops in Afghanistan, shows Lotz cellphone video of his newborn daughter; then he promos tomorrow's part two, the homecoming, complete with triumphal soundtrack music.
Meanwhile, on CBS, Congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes brings us a military story that is not so heartwarming: the 3,500 complaints of rape in the ranks filed during the first nine months of this year, complete with the outraged testimony of Arianna Clay. If you look at how the military sexual abuse story has evolved this year, it has always been an inside-the-Beltway scandal, yet its focus has shifted from the Pentagon to Capitol Hill. The central figure in Cordes' report was Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, the Democrat from New York State, not Clay, the raped marine.
TWITTER FEED If you check out David Muir's feature on the Initial Public Offering of shares to Twitter on the New York Stock Exchange you will see several hallmarks of ABC's style under anchor Diane Sawyer. Hear Muir drop the names of a couple of celebrities. See him intercut fictional Hollywood movie footage with news video. Notice how he folds in references to ABC's previous reporting on unrelated stories. And catch how Muir switches from the role of reporter covering the story, to that of the central character in his own reality TV show. Did you know that his Twitter handle was @DavidMuir? You do now.
By contrast, Elaine Quijano's report on the Twitter IPO on CBS was old school -- and dull as dishwater. Walking a middle line was CNBC anchor Carl Quintanilla, filing for NBC. Quintanilla focused on the firm's loss-making finances rather than the celebrities. But at least he offered a hint about why tweeting stirs such buzz.
FALLING FROM THE SKY A light shooting across the night sky of southern California allowed both CBS' John Blackstone and ABC's David Wright to dig out archival video of February's astonishing dashboardcam footage from Russia's Ural Mountains. CBS' Blackstone visited the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and narrated his network's in-house computer animation of space rocks. ABC's Wright did what ABC loves to do: just like his colleague David Muir, he mixed a Hollywood movie clip with actuality news footage.
Just in the last two weeks, ABC has found ways to present fictional content from Delivery Man, Amityville Horror, Zero Dark Thirty, Cast Away, and Armageddon, as if they contained journalistic information.
DAN, THE MAN OF GOD Over the years, Dan Harris has been ABC's go-to man on the religion beat. Here is a varied playlist, including excursions into the Church of Scientology and the Latter Day Saints. This time, Harris offered straightforward free publicity to a video from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, which styles its content as the 95-year-old preacher's final sermon.
Harris could not resist folding in 21-year-old archival footage of his anchor Diane Sawyer. To my eyes, Anchor Diane was sporting a Princess Diana hairstyle back in 1992.
CHIPS TO THE RESCUE A hat tip to John Storey, photojournalist for San Francisco Chronicle, for his image of a would-be bridge jumper on the Golden Gate: NBC's Kate Snow brought us Kevin Berthia, the potential suicide, and Sergeant Kevin Briggs, the motorcycle cop, as they embrace eight years later.
FOOTBALL’S DARK DAYS All three newscasts continued the streak of bad publicity dogging the National Football League. CBS had James Brown, from its sports division, point the finger at the Miami Dolphins' coaching staff for tolerating "despicable" behavior in the offensive linemen's feud between Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin.
ABC's Jim Avila gave free publicity to his corporate colleagues at ESPN's Outside the Lines for its exclusive on the brain damage to onetime star running back Tony Dorsett. NBC's Stephanie Gosk, too, gave credit to ESPN for its Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy story. To Dorsett, Gosk added the diagnosis of Joe DeLamielleure.
ABC's Avila was extreme. He re-ran the sickening archival footage of Cowboy Dorsett's brain being damaged by a devastating tackle by a Philadelphia Eagle a total of five times in his two-minute package.
The Centers for Disease Control estimate that margarine and other transfats kill 7,000 people nationwide each year. The proposed ban was covered by the in-house physician at both NBC and ABC: ABC's Richard Besser does not have his report posted online as a videostream; NBC's Nancy Snyderman offered free publicity for a handful of national chains that have already "reduced or eliminated" transfats from their foods. See Dr Nancy plug Starbucks, Burger King, McDonalds, KFC, Jack in the Box, Dairy Queen, Wendy's, and Long John Silver's. Instead of putting it on the personal health beat, CBS treated the proposal as an inside-the-Beltway regulatory story: Chip Reid sat down with FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, and ran a soundbite from his network's This Morning, with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who instituted a similar ban in New York City restaurants in 2007.
ABC did not actually have a correspondent in The Philippines to file a warning story as Typhoon Haiyan approached. Neal Karlinsky's dateline was Seattle, and his forecast came from Jim Dickey at AccuWeather.com. Neither of the other newscasts deemed the typhoon terrifying enough to assign a reporter to its track, although both did mention it in passing.
THURSDAY’S THOUGHTS Besides The Philippines, there were three other foreign hotspots. CBS' Jeff Glor filed from Haiti, where United Nations peacekeepers are responsible for introducing the cholera that has killed 8,000 since the 2010 earthquake. NBC's in-house physician Nancy Snyderman showed us the same catastrophe last month, after a hiatus of coverage of almost three years.
From London, CBS' Mark Phillips documented the spread of the Snowden Effect, as PressThink's Jay Rosen calls it: the changes in governments worldwide as a result of Edward Snowden's spilling of National Security Agency secrets. Phillips introduced us to Sir John Sawers of MI6 and Sir Iain Lobban of GCHQ, previously shrouded in secrecy, a pair of spymasters forced to testify in public about how much more difficult their lives are now. Phillips repeated, without substantiation or detail, their claim that Britain's eavesdropping has resulted in the foiling of 34 plots since 2005, a little more than four each year. Phillips showed us a cartoon diagram on a "jihadi group's Website" that offers tips on how to dodge buggers -- so the Snowden Effect spreads even to amateurs.
Check out the last three years of ABC's coverage of the struggles faced by military families during the long months of deployment at war. You will see that there are two recurrent themes: childbirth at home while the warrior father is in the field; and joyous, tearful reunions when the warrior parent returns home. So now, ABC's Josh Elliott offers us a twofer in his profile of Captain Lotz: in part one, Elliott embedded with troops in Afghanistan, shows Lotz cellphone video of his newborn daughter; then he promos tomorrow's part two, the homecoming, complete with triumphal soundtrack music.
Meanwhile, on CBS, Congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes brings us a military story that is not so heartwarming: the 3,500 complaints of rape in the ranks filed during the first nine months of this year, complete with the outraged testimony of Arianna Clay. If you look at how the military sexual abuse story has evolved this year, it has always been an inside-the-Beltway scandal, yet its focus has shifted from the Pentagon to Capitol Hill. The central figure in Cordes' report was Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, the Democrat from New York State, not Clay, the raped marine.
TWITTER FEED If you check out David Muir's feature on the Initial Public Offering of shares to Twitter on the New York Stock Exchange you will see several hallmarks of ABC's style under anchor Diane Sawyer. Hear Muir drop the names of a couple of celebrities. See him intercut fictional Hollywood movie footage with news video. Notice how he folds in references to ABC's previous reporting on unrelated stories. And catch how Muir switches from the role of reporter covering the story, to that of the central character in his own reality TV show. Did you know that his Twitter handle was @DavidMuir? You do now.
By contrast, Elaine Quijano's report on the Twitter IPO on CBS was old school -- and dull as dishwater. Walking a middle line was CNBC anchor Carl Quintanilla, filing for NBC. Quintanilla focused on the firm's loss-making finances rather than the celebrities. But at least he offered a hint about why tweeting stirs such buzz.
FALLING FROM THE SKY A light shooting across the night sky of southern California allowed both CBS' John Blackstone and ABC's David Wright to dig out archival video of February's astonishing dashboardcam footage from Russia's Ural Mountains. CBS' Blackstone visited the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and narrated his network's in-house computer animation of space rocks. ABC's Wright did what ABC loves to do: just like his colleague David Muir, he mixed a Hollywood movie clip with actuality news footage.
Just in the last two weeks, ABC has found ways to present fictional content from Delivery Man, Amityville Horror, Zero Dark Thirty, Cast Away, and Armageddon, as if they contained journalistic information.
DAN, THE MAN OF GOD Over the years, Dan Harris has been ABC's go-to man on the religion beat. Here is a varied playlist, including excursions into the Church of Scientology and the Latter Day Saints. This time, Harris offered straightforward free publicity to a video from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, which styles its content as the 95-year-old preacher's final sermon.
Harris could not resist folding in 21-year-old archival footage of his anchor Diane Sawyer. To my eyes, Anchor Diane was sporting a Princess Diana hairstyle back in 1992.
CHIPS TO THE RESCUE A hat tip to John Storey, photojournalist for San Francisco Chronicle, for his image of a would-be bridge jumper on the Golden Gate: NBC's Kate Snow brought us Kevin Berthia, the potential suicide, and Sergeant Kevin Briggs, the motorcycle cop, as they embrace eight years later.
FOOTBALL’S DARK DAYS All three newscasts continued the streak of bad publicity dogging the National Football League. CBS had James Brown, from its sports division, point the finger at the Miami Dolphins' coaching staff for tolerating "despicable" behavior in the offensive linemen's feud between Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin.
ABC's Jim Avila gave free publicity to his corporate colleagues at ESPN's Outside the Lines for its exclusive on the brain damage to onetime star running back Tony Dorsett. NBC's Stephanie Gosk, too, gave credit to ESPN for its Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy story. To Dorsett, Gosk added the diagnosis of Joe DeLamielleure.
ABC's Avila was extreme. He re-ran the sickening archival footage of Cowboy Dorsett's brain being damaged by a devastating tackle by a Philadelphia Eagle a total of five times in his two-minute package.
