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TYNDALL HEADLINE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM JUNE 11, 2013
For the fourth weekday in a row, the National Security Agency leaks were Story of the Day. ABC and CBS both led with the confessed leaker Edward Snowden, the now-fired IT troubleshooter at Booz|Allen|Hamilton: CBS' Bob Orr looked at the serious prospects for his future, either extradition or asylum; ABC's Brian Ross at personal trivia about his past -- Lindsay Mills, the girl he left behind in Hawaii, was a member of an acrobatic troupe, or as Ross put it, a "pole dancer." NBC, with substitute anchor Lester Holt, decided to lead from Istanbul, where riot police used tear gas and water cannon to clear protestors from Taksim Square.
TYNDALL PICKS FOR JUNE 11, 2013: CLICK ON GRID ELEMENTS TO SEARCH FOR MATCHING ITEMS
EDWARD SNOWDEN: LEAKER PAST AND FUTURE For the fourth weekday in a row, the National Security Agency leaks were Story of the Day. ABC and CBS both led with the confessed leaker Edward Snowden, the now-fired IT troubleshooter at Booz|Allen|Hamilton: CBS' Bob Orr looked at the serious prospects for his future, either extradition or asylum; ABC's Brian Ross at personal trivia about his past -- Lindsay Mills, the girl he left behind in Hawaii, was a member of an acrobatic troupe, or as Ross put it, a "pole dancer." NBC, with substitute anchor Lester Holt, decided to lead from Istanbul, where riot police used tear gas and water cannon to clear protestors from Taksim Square.
Both ABC's Brian Ross and NBC's Andrea Mitchell folded in other aspects of their network's coverage to flesh out coverage of the NSA. Ross reported that Snowden would be prosecuted under the Espionage Act -- but not for treason -- even though he used a soundbite from Speaker John Boehner on Good Morning America denouncing Snowden as a "traitor." As for Mitchell, she threw to her colleague Ian Williams, who stood outside the Mira Hotel in Hong Kong, where Snowden is no longer staying.
NBC's Mitchell gave a hat tip to Salon.com for its background on how Snowden executed his leak: he contacted moviemaker Laura Poitras after he saw The Program, her video profile of former NSA spy William Denny. Snowden's tip-off that he was Poitras' source when they met in a Hong Kong hotel lobby was that he was the one playing with a Rubik's Cube.
CBS assigned Wyatt Andrews to a follow-up on Big Data. He pointed out that Google collects more detailed information on individuals for its data mining and advertising sales than the National Security Agency. A key difference is that Google's collection is with our permission -- permission that we grant, whether we know it or not, whenever we communicate by Gmail, type in a search query in Google.com, or keep an Android smart phone active.
As for the police crackdown against protestors in Istanbul, NBC's Richard Engel proved he was there by talking through his gas mask; CBS' Holly Williams proved she was there by wiping tears from her uncovered eyes. On ABC, anchor Diane Sawyer used slippery language to introduce Alex Marquardt as being "on the crackdown" and Marquardt's report showed himself mingling with protestors. But that had been earlier in the twelve-day showdown. His actual report was filed, remotely and tearlessly, from Tel Aviv.
TUESDAY’S TIDBITS The Senate voted to go ahead with its debate on immigration legislation. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell filed a brief stand-up on parliamentary procedure. ABC's Jim Avila filed a background feature on support for increased visas from the Chamber of Commerce, illustrated by the case of Kunal Bahl, founder of Snapdeal.com, who was obliged to launch his online commerce site in his native India. ABC grabbed a twofer from George Stephanopoulos' sitdown with Speaker John Boehner on Good Morning America: quoted by Ross on NSA espionage, and by Avila on immigration legislation.
It is unclear whether a story emerging from the State Department is a big deal -- or any deal at all. John Miller at CBS claimed an exclusive for his original reporting, but it was not deemed important enough by the Evening News to give him airtime: he filed it on CBS' This Morning instead. ABC's Jonathan Karl followed up on the underlying investigation into diplomatic sexual peccadilloes: an ambassador and some security personnel may have consorted with prostitutes. CBS' Miller follows up on the meta story -- not about the prostitution but about whether Under Secretary Patrick Kennedy suppressed an investigation into it. Kennedy denies the suppression, and Ambassador Howard Gutman denies the insinuation that his walks through a Brussels park were for procuration. NBC did not mention pin-striped sex at all.
It is no surprise that NBC picked up on the news that the majority of the consumer revenue that banks take in from fees and penalties is derived from overdraft charges: 60% in all, amounting to more than $12bn annually. NBC's Lisa Myers has focused on banks' overdraft fee gouging since 2009. This time Myers' colleague Tom Costello landed the assignment.
NBC's in-house physician Nancy Snyderman offered free publicity to the latest miniaturized Bluetooth-compatible digital design for hearing aides -- only $4,600 each -- for all of us babyboomers who have blasted our ears by turning the stereo up to eleven. Dr Nancy noted that a $2 pair of earplugs represents an ounce of prevention.
Reporters who confuse doing journalism with being a character in their own reality show…
…see CBS' Michelle look-no-hands Miller behind the joystick with Wally Funk, the 75-year-old spurned wannabe astronautess…
…see NBC's Kevin Tibbles settle down with some popcorn in his black-&-white convertible to watch a double bill at The Cascade (no he did not sneak in under a blanket).
Hey, ABC, how about some original newsgathering? It is called "news" after all:
If you thought you had seen the falling-over Prime Minister of Australia in Amy Robach's report before, well you did, thanks to Sharyn Alfonsi last October.
If you thought you had seen Mike Olinski's stop-motion video of an haboob sandstorm in David Wright's report before, well you did, thanks to Neal Karlinsky last September.
And if something seemed familiar in the free publicity by anchor Diane Sawyer for the book Safe Kids, Smart Parents by psychologist Rebecca Bailey, well it could have been the video of the failed child abduction that Pierre Thomas told us about last July, or the Prime Time Live video from 2005 that Cecilia Vega recycled last month, or that fact that Dr Bailey's famous patient was Jaycee Dugard, whom anchor Sawyer herself profiled in a primetime special in July 2011.
Why not just change the name to ABC World Recycled?
Both ABC's Brian Ross and NBC's Andrea Mitchell folded in other aspects of their network's coverage to flesh out coverage of the NSA. Ross reported that Snowden would be prosecuted under the Espionage Act -- but not for treason -- even though he used a soundbite from Speaker John Boehner on Good Morning America denouncing Snowden as a "traitor." As for Mitchell, she threw to her colleague Ian Williams, who stood outside the Mira Hotel in Hong Kong, where Snowden is no longer staying.
NBC's Mitchell gave a hat tip to Salon.com for its background on how Snowden executed his leak: he contacted moviemaker Laura Poitras after he saw The Program, her video profile of former NSA spy William Denny. Snowden's tip-off that he was Poitras' source when they met in a Hong Kong hotel lobby was that he was the one playing with a Rubik's Cube.
CBS assigned Wyatt Andrews to a follow-up on Big Data. He pointed out that Google collects more detailed information on individuals for its data mining and advertising sales than the National Security Agency. A key difference is that Google's collection is with our permission -- permission that we grant, whether we know it or not, whenever we communicate by Gmail, type in a search query in Google.com, or keep an Android smart phone active.
As for the police crackdown against protestors in Istanbul, NBC's Richard Engel proved he was there by talking through his gas mask; CBS' Holly Williams proved she was there by wiping tears from her uncovered eyes. On ABC, anchor Diane Sawyer used slippery language to introduce Alex Marquardt as being "on the crackdown" and Marquardt's report showed himself mingling with protestors. But that had been earlier in the twelve-day showdown. His actual report was filed, remotely and tearlessly, from Tel Aviv.
TUESDAY’S TIDBITS The Senate voted to go ahead with its debate on immigration legislation. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell filed a brief stand-up on parliamentary procedure. ABC's Jim Avila filed a background feature on support for increased visas from the Chamber of Commerce, illustrated by the case of Kunal Bahl, founder of Snapdeal.com, who was obliged to launch his online commerce site in his native India. ABC grabbed a twofer from George Stephanopoulos' sitdown with Speaker John Boehner on Good Morning America: quoted by Ross on NSA espionage, and by Avila on immigration legislation.
It is unclear whether a story emerging from the State Department is a big deal -- or any deal at all. John Miller at CBS claimed an exclusive for his original reporting, but it was not deemed important enough by the Evening News to give him airtime: he filed it on CBS' This Morning instead. ABC's Jonathan Karl followed up on the underlying investigation into diplomatic sexual peccadilloes: an ambassador and some security personnel may have consorted with prostitutes. CBS' Miller follows up on the meta story -- not about the prostitution but about whether Under Secretary Patrick Kennedy suppressed an investigation into it. Kennedy denies the suppression, and Ambassador Howard Gutman denies the insinuation that his walks through a Brussels park were for procuration. NBC did not mention pin-striped sex at all.
It is no surprise that NBC picked up on the news that the majority of the consumer revenue that banks take in from fees and penalties is derived from overdraft charges: 60% in all, amounting to more than $12bn annually. NBC's Lisa Myers has focused on banks' overdraft fee gouging since 2009. This time Myers' colleague Tom Costello landed the assignment.
NBC's in-house physician Nancy Snyderman offered free publicity to the latest miniaturized Bluetooth-compatible digital design for hearing aides -- only $4,600 each -- for all of us babyboomers who have blasted our ears by turning the stereo up to eleven. Dr Nancy noted that a $2 pair of earplugs represents an ounce of prevention.
Reporters who confuse doing journalism with being a character in their own reality show…
…see CBS' Michelle look-no-hands Miller behind the joystick with Wally Funk, the 75-year-old spurned wannabe astronautess…
…see NBC's Kevin Tibbles settle down with some popcorn in his black-&-white convertible to watch a double bill at The Cascade (no he did not sneak in under a blanket).
Hey, ABC, how about some original newsgathering? It is called "news" after all:
If you thought you had seen the falling-over Prime Minister of Australia in Amy Robach's report before, well you did, thanks to Sharyn Alfonsi last October.
If you thought you had seen Mike Olinski's stop-motion video of an haboob sandstorm in David Wright's report before, well you did, thanks to Neal Karlinsky last September.
And if something seemed familiar in the free publicity by anchor Diane Sawyer for the book Safe Kids, Smart Parents by psychologist Rebecca Bailey, well it could have been the video of the failed child abduction that Pierre Thomas told us about last July, or the Prime Time Live video from 2005 that Cecilia Vega recycled last month, or that fact that Dr Bailey's famous patient was Jaycee Dugard, whom anchor Sawyer herself profiled in a primetime special in July 2011.
Why not just change the name to ABC World Recycled?
