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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM APRIL 08, 2013
I know that one is not supposed to speak ill of the dead. I should note, however, that in my dear departed mother's company, you would not hear the actual name of Margaret Thatcher mentioned. She was simply That Dreadful Woman. Obituaries for the grocer's-daughter-turned-Iron-Lady, dead of a stroke at age 87, made her the Story of the Day and the lead on NBC. By contrast, CBS chose the violent death, by carbomb, of Anne Smedinghoff, a 25-year-old foreign service officer on a mission to distribute school supplies in Afghanistan. ABC, with substitute anchor George Stephanopoulos, kicked off with President Barack Obama's mobilization for gun control legislation.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR APRIL 08, 2013: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
AN UNMENTIONABLE NAME IN THE TYNDALL HOUSEHOLD I know that one is not supposed to speak ill of the dead. I should note, however, that in my dear departed mother's company, you would not hear the actual name of Margaret Thatcher mentioned. She was simply That Dreadful Woman. Obituaries for the grocer's-daughter-turned-Iron-Lady, dead of a stroke at age 87, made her the Story of the Day and the lead on NBC. By contrast, CBS chose the violent death, by carbomb, of Anne Smedinghoff, a 25-year-old foreign service officer on a mission to distribute school supplies in Afghanistan. ABC, with substitute anchor George Stephanopoulos, kicked off with President Barack Obama's mobilization for gun control legislation.
The obits for the first female Prime Minister of Britain included the passing pleasure of seeing clips from then-glass-ceiling-breaking interviews by female White House correspondents: CBS' Lesley Stahl in Mark Phillips' report filed from London; and NBC's Andrea Mitchell quoting her younger self. Mitchell also did what she does, using her lunchtime MSNBC Reports show as a soundbitegathering device for her later nightly package: this time Nancy Reagan and James Baker were included. There was no reason for Mitchell also to shoehorn a fictionalized clip of Meryl Streep's interpretation from The Iron Lady: surely it was the real-life woman who made the movie worthy of mention, not the movie that adds heft to the obituary. ABC's obit was filed by Nightline anchor Terry Moran.
La Handbag had to share the obituary slot with Annette Funicello, the Mousketeteer-turned-movie-beachpartygoer. NBC's Anne Thompson and Cecilia Vega, of Disney-owned ABC, filed full packages, while CBS anchor Scott Pelley mentioned Funicello's death of multiple sclerosis, at age 70, in passing. ABC's Vega ran a false-naïve clip from 1992 of Funicello asking herself rhetorically Why Me? Why had she become such a star in Walt Disney's afternoon television blockbuster? There must have been babyboomers all over the country shouting out loud at their TV sets with the obvious answer.
The breasts.
MONDAY’S MUSINGS The President's trip to Connecticut to lobby the Senate for an unfilibustered vote on gun control explicitly capitalized on that state's still-raw grief after December's grade school massacre. As such, CBS' 60 Minutes functioned as an component of the legislative effort when Scott Pelley aired his focus-group-style interview with the bereaved families of Newtown, now energized as gun control activists. NBC's White House correspondent Chuck Todd acknowledged as much, by running a clip from 60 Minutes in his report. As for Pelley, he reran highlights from Sunday's report, often repeating the same soundbites that had appeared in his previews last Wednesday and last Thursday.
So often so far this year, ABC has downplayed the gun control debate. Not this time. Jonathan Karl filed on the President's lobbying effort from the White House. CBS rounded out its coverage with a pair of brief stand-ups: Major Garrett on the road with the President, and Nancy Cordes from Capitol Hill.
Remember February's coverage by CBS' Seth Doane and ABC's David Muir of the youth orchestra from Afghanistan, the one that performed at Carnegie Hall? Organizing that trip was part of the cultural outreach by Anne Smedinghoff. NBC's Stephanie Gosk recapped us on her truncated career; CBS' Wyatt Andrews brought us her proud parents, regretting nothing despite a life cut short.
As he was on Friday, ABC's in-house physician Richard Besser is still nervous about a spread of the H7N9 virus, the strain of avian influenza detected in Shanghai's poultry markets. As they were on Friday, the other two newscasts were silent on the potential pandemic.
As for NBC's in-house physician Dr Nancy, she comes very close to advocating for veganism. And it is not just red meat that worries her, but the carnitine ingredient in energy drinks and boby-building supplements, too.
It is usually ABC's Martha Raddatz who likes to hang out with general officers (lately, Gen Joseph Dunford, Gen James Thurman, Gen Jan-Marc Jouas). CBS' David Martin, it appears, is not immune to some scrambled eggs. Here is Adm Matthew Klunder on the Pentagon's money-saving weapon of the future.
All three newscasts do remain on the alert for the prospects of all-out war on the Korean peninsula. ABC's Bob Woodruff, CBS' Margaret Brennan, and NBC's Richard Engel each filed from Seoul. Engel's report was the most detailed, and the most ghoulish, but, for some reason, was not posted online.
Let me repeat a comment that I made in January:
"The idea of Seth Meyers' Weekend Update satire on Saturday Night Live is to make fun of the foibles of the news agenda of the mainstream media. So it is journalistically nonsensical to quote a Meyers joke as evidence that the story being ridiculed was indeed actually newsworthy."
This time, David Kerley of ABC falls into that trap.
The obits for the first female Prime Minister of Britain included the passing pleasure of seeing clips from then-glass-ceiling-breaking interviews by female White House correspondents: CBS' Lesley Stahl in Mark Phillips' report filed from London; and NBC's Andrea Mitchell quoting her younger self. Mitchell also did what she does, using her lunchtime MSNBC Reports show as a soundbitegathering device for her later nightly package: this time Nancy Reagan and James Baker were included. There was no reason for Mitchell also to shoehorn a fictionalized clip of Meryl Streep's interpretation from The Iron Lady: surely it was the real-life woman who made the movie worthy of mention, not the movie that adds heft to the obituary. ABC's obit was filed by Nightline anchor Terry Moran.
La Handbag had to share the obituary slot with Annette Funicello, the Mousketeteer-turned-movie-beachpartygoer. NBC's Anne Thompson and Cecilia Vega, of Disney-owned ABC, filed full packages, while CBS anchor Scott Pelley mentioned Funicello's death of multiple sclerosis, at age 70, in passing. ABC's Vega ran a false-naïve clip from 1992 of Funicello asking herself rhetorically Why Me? Why had she become such a star in Walt Disney's afternoon television blockbuster? There must have been babyboomers all over the country shouting out loud at their TV sets with the obvious answer.
The breasts.
MONDAY’S MUSINGS The President's trip to Connecticut to lobby the Senate for an unfilibustered vote on gun control explicitly capitalized on that state's still-raw grief after December's grade school massacre. As such, CBS' 60 Minutes functioned as an component of the legislative effort when Scott Pelley aired his focus-group-style interview with the bereaved families of Newtown, now energized as gun control activists. NBC's White House correspondent Chuck Todd acknowledged as much, by running a clip from 60 Minutes in his report. As for Pelley, he reran highlights from Sunday's report, often repeating the same soundbites that had appeared in his previews last Wednesday and last Thursday.
So often so far this year, ABC has downplayed the gun control debate. Not this time. Jonathan Karl filed on the President's lobbying effort from the White House. CBS rounded out its coverage with a pair of brief stand-ups: Major Garrett on the road with the President, and Nancy Cordes from Capitol Hill.
Remember February's coverage by CBS' Seth Doane and ABC's David Muir of the youth orchestra from Afghanistan, the one that performed at Carnegie Hall? Organizing that trip was part of the cultural outreach by Anne Smedinghoff. NBC's Stephanie Gosk recapped us on her truncated career; CBS' Wyatt Andrews brought us her proud parents, regretting nothing despite a life cut short.
As he was on Friday, ABC's in-house physician Richard Besser is still nervous about a spread of the H7N9 virus, the strain of avian influenza detected in Shanghai's poultry markets. As they were on Friday, the other two newscasts were silent on the potential pandemic.
As for NBC's in-house physician Dr Nancy, she comes very close to advocating for veganism. And it is not just red meat that worries her, but the carnitine ingredient in energy drinks and boby-building supplements, too.
It is usually ABC's Martha Raddatz who likes to hang out with general officers (lately, Gen Joseph Dunford, Gen James Thurman, Gen Jan-Marc Jouas). CBS' David Martin, it appears, is not immune to some scrambled eggs. Here is Adm Matthew Klunder on the Pentagon's money-saving weapon of the future.
All three newscasts do remain on the alert for the prospects of all-out war on the Korean peninsula. ABC's Bob Woodruff, CBS' Margaret Brennan, and NBC's Richard Engel each filed from Seoul. Engel's report was the most detailed, and the most ghoulish, but, for some reason, was not posted online.
Let me repeat a comment that I made in January:
"The idea of Seth Meyers' Weekend Update satire on Saturday Night Live is to make fun of the foibles of the news agenda of the mainstream media. So it is journalistically nonsensical to quote a Meyers joke as evidence that the story being ridiculed was indeed actually newsworthy."
This time, David Kerley of ABC falls into that trap.
