did any one see Andy last night on 60 minutes?  Again, an old curmudgeon.  He was having his say about gambling and how it was an investment in nothing and created nothing made in the USA.  Well, here are my comments:

Andy - have you thought about all of the jobs that gambling brings to the USA.  For example:

Waiters
Waitresses,
Food preparers
Food Managers
All of the casino managers and employees
all of the alcohol that the casinos purchase to give or sell to visitors
The people who make the slot machines
The people who repair the slot machings
Construction workers
Architects
Carpet manufacturers
Furniture manufacturers
Airlines
Airline employees
Hotel service people
Car rentals
Cars
Taxi cabs and drivers


And on and on.  But to say it is useless, is to say that we should not have any place to go for sheer entertianment.  He may as well have said going to the moves doesn't do anything for the USA, or restaurants or entertainment parks, etc.

Obviously the casinos in America bring a lot of jobs to Americans and I for one am happy that I have a choice to gamble or not.

Okay, this was a night ABC won if, indeed, there can be a winner in TV reportage. The subject was General Motors whose auditors reported that bankruptcy might be a real option. Brian wanted us to imagine General Motors "out of the picture." NBC talked about the "threat of death," how the company is on "life support," and how the costs of bankruptcy would be tens of billions of dollars.  CBS was also front and center tolling a death knell: "a corporate giant teeters." GM is "running on empty" and "fighting for its life."

Then ABC's Eric Horng put a GM bankruptcy in perspective. (see the last half of this report.) A structured bankruptcy would allow renegotiating all the current union contracts. GM could make deals on 98-billion dollars it owes for  pensions. A hodgepodge of state rules about dealerships would be wept away. And the government would get some of its loan back faster. The only effect for a GM car owner might be driving a little farther to an authorized service center.

President Obama's healthcare meeting received good reviews since it was open and had a range of stake holders present. ABC's Dr. Tim Johnson attended and said he was "blown away" by Obama's knowledge of the issues.

Also Apparently Worthy of Note:

• Obama is getting gray hairs (Katie called the report the First Hundred Grays). (CBS)
• Craig's List is the largest promoter of prostitution. (ABC)
• Beijing is overbuilt now that the Olympics are over and the economy is down. The National Bird of China is no longer the construction crane. (NBC)
• National Geographic Channel has some pretty pictures of blue whales.
  

 

Everybody led with the the Obama Administration’s Housing plan.  It's intended to help 9 million people with their home ownership problems. For details it’s best to go to the government website, because the news show mostly garbled it.

 

The pigs owned the airwaves Wednesday night. The bill that keeps the government going also contained money for 9,000 private projects that Senators and Congressmen inserted. Sen. Tom Harkin was forced to stand before the Senate and contend pig odor control was a legitimate expenditure. Everybody had lovely pictures of pigs oinking and chewing on their wire fences. They were suspiciously clean, however. NBC showed only Democrats in its report on the bill even though 40% of the earmarks, as they’re called, were the work of Republicans. That major opponent of taxation and the burgeoning national debt, Mitch McConnell, put in $51,000,000 in projects for his state of Kentucky.  In contrast, pig odor control only added 1.7 million to the budget.

 

John McCain is all upset because President Obama had promised to do something about earmarks.  This bill was put together under the watchful eyes of the previous administration. ”Last year’s business” says Obama’s budget director.

 

NBC Nightly had some advice for policymakers meeting Thursday at the White House. Look to Kaiser Permanente as a model in the health reform debate.  Preventive medicine, salaried doctors and electronic data keeping have reduced costs. There wasn’t mention of the HMO dumping patients to cut costs (documented on AP here and on Dateline). Or charges that Kaiser call center employees who spent the least time talking to patients got prizes.

 

Some drug companies have tried to argue that because their products had FDA approval, they couldn’t be sued for package warnings that violate of state laws. The nets interviewed the music teacher who lost part of her arm after an injection of a migraine drug. The Supreme Court found for the victim. She had been awarded $6,744,000 by a jury but that’s a different problem.

 

Apparently worthy of note:

• A board of education gave bus drivers free health club memberships because they were getting fat. (ABC)
• A survivor of the depression named Clara is a hit on YouTube with her low budget meals. Day-old bread with olive oil anyone? (CBS)
• And Hispanics are sending less money home as jobs dry up. (NBC)  Surprise.

 

I know I should be filing every day like the Slate's Yesterday's Papers. Unfortunately, anomie sets in after watching three virtually identical network news shows each night, each telling me that I will shortly be homeless and broke.

 

Friday 2/27/09

McCain approved of something Obama said!  The President announced he planned substantial troop reductions over the next 19 months. Some Democrats objected to the new timetable (he’d campaigned on an exit 16 months after the elections), but they kept their complaints to a low mutter. Martha Raddiz on ABC had a look at the marching orders. She said the bulk of the troop pullout will come next year.

 

ABC and NBC led with Iraq, and the windup of a war that has cost us dearly for 7 years. CBS teased Iraq but didn’t get to the pullout story until 5 minutes in. They chose the bailout over the pullout.

The economy story is tough for TV. There are more than three bullet points in President Obama’s plans and graphics guys seem to freak out when you have to put more type than that on the screen.  Best thing for you to do is buy a newspaper (while there still are newspapers)  or read the bill on the website at recovery.gov.

 

Everybody seemed intrigued with the idea that Ryanair was going to start charging for restroom use in flight. Nobody noticed this was a thinly disguised try for free publicity by Michael O’Leary who has done this sort of thing before. He once proposed  a very special amenity for business class passengers.

 

CBS stories about mismanagement at the FEMA office in New Orleans.  CBS reported there were 80 complaints filed by the staff, accusing management of delaying Katrina aid.  The Chief of Staff, Doug Witwer is being transferred to Texas thanks to Armen Keteyian’s investigation.

 

Incidentally, if you click on that story you’ll have to sit through a promo for CBS News emphasizing Emmies that they have won.  I like NBC’s on air promo better which says times are tough, but Americans are strong and we take our job seriously.  They even work in the word “hope.”

 

Steve Hartman reported on a kid with a cookie company on his Assignment America segment.  Disney’s Suite Life of Zack and Cody had the same story line.

MONDAY  

Everybody led with the stock market down another 3½ %, the lowest in umpteen years, yada yada. Wall Street is spooked by the prospect of nationalizing failing banks. It's so un-free-market. Betsy Stark pointed out to Charlie that the Wall Street people are not entirely rational. President Obama invited allies and some of his fiercest critics to the old Executive Office Building to engage in a 45-minute question and answer session.  He’s still trying to get Republicans on board, triggering much muttering here in the heartland: "They ain't gonna play, Mr. President."

 

An example: John McCain took Obama to task for spending millions on new helicopters to replace the 20-year-old Marine One fleet. McCain didn’t mention that the plan was initiated by the Bush administration. The President said it was under review. “The helicopter I have now seems perfectly adequate to me. Of course, I never had a helicopter before. You know? Maybe I’ve been deprived and I didn’t know it.” NBC cut the banter short.  

 

When his guests urged him to keep talking to both parties, he said he would try because “I’m a glutton for punishment. I’m going to keep talking to Eric Cantor. Someday, sooner or later, he’s going to say ‘Boy Obama had a good idea. It's going to happen. You watch. You watch.’”  Cantor is the Republican Whip and was credited with unifying Republicans against the stimulus plan.

 

Eric Cantor is also a Representative from the Virginia's 7^th District which includes the town of Bumpass. If he continues to come across as an obstructionist ideologue, we will have to do something about him in the next election.

 

There were two polls on the news Monday, on the occasion of Obama’s first month in office. I’ve included links to because they say something surprising . ABC’s poll says 68 per cent of Americans approve of the job the President is doing against 25% who disapprove. A report is here. Twice as many people trust him to cope with the economy vs. those who trust Republicans.

 

The CBS News poll finds that 63% approve of the job the President is doing and 77% are optimistic about the next four years. CBS didn’t post a report on the poll but it’s in the first five minutes of the show available here. 

 

Those numbers may come as a shock if you’ve watched the depressing reports the news shows lead with each night. Conflict is king and we're on a downhill slide. Nobody wants “feel good” news, but a little less doom and gloom wouldn’t hurt and might help the National Mood.

Flu news: an Achilles heel in the flu virus can be attacked by antibodies. (You probably didn't know viruses have feet)  We may be three years away from a lifetime flu shot. 

NBC is trying to overview the whole economic mess in reports slugged Making Sense of the Meltdown. First one was pretty good.

The kicker stories were the real Slumdogs of Mumbai (ABC), filthy airlines trying to clean up their planes (NBC), and Molly, a three-legged horse offering hope to amputee kids (CBS).  Molly won.

 

All three talked about the billions President Obama wants to use to shore up the crumbling cornerstone of the housing market or some mixed metaphor like that.  Nine thousand foreclosures a day. ABC World News reran clips from GMA -- an angry owner who is out of work but saved up so he can still make his payments.

J. Allen Standford is our bad financier of the week. He was a big supporter of sports teams around the world and had donated heavily to political candidates in the US. Brian Ross listed the Democrats to whom he had sent  he had sent money. He left out any Republicans including  John McCain and Pete Sessions of Texas and Trent Lott.

ABC had a curious piece on shark cage diving off South Africa. Somehow, it's supposed to be good for endangered sharks. You can read Nick Watt's account here, but it doesn't explain much.

Thursday 2/19/09

 

 

The economy is the top story on the evening newscasts. In spite of all of President Obama’s efforts, the market is going down again. David Muir on ABC says it’s because says Wall Street is worried about what government investigators are going to find when they start auditing banks.

 

NBC led off by reporting on sibling network CNBC and some guy named Rick Santelli pulling a Howard Beale on the trading floor saying we’ve got to stop aiding people in mortgage troubles. Street interviews on all three nets have featured people saying “throw them out on the street if they can’t pay.” They totally ignore that foreclosures are bad for banks, neighborhoods, and,of course, people lured into debt by bad bank practices.

 

One telling moment: Brian said he was startled to learn that 92% of the mortgages in this country are being paid on time. His surprise comes from the fact network reporters love to quote numbers with no context: “millions of foreclosures” is easier to say in a standup than “two tenths of one per cent.”   

 

Only CBS pointed out that the leading economic indicators were up for the second month in a row.

The number of houses in the country hasn’t changed. The number of cars, kumquats, and carousels hasn’t changed. What’s changed is the image we have of ourselves and our future. A bad image means market contractions and layoffs. A bad image means the dow goes down. And too often that bad image is being painted by media people who are regurgitating hysterical outbursts of vested interests because it makes “better” TV.  Like Howard Beale we should all be mad as hell. I just wish we didn’t have to take it any more.

 

So J. Allen Standford, the financier who allegedly made off with billions, was either served with papers while he was visiting a girlfriend in Fredericksburg VA (CBS) or showed up at The Department of Justice to surrender his passport (ABC) or both. Whatever. He’s not charged with anything and the 50,000 people who suddenly have no access to their money are currently out of luck. Fredericksburg is just up the road from Bumpass VA.

 

Katie on CBS tried to go behind the headlines to see what proposed bank nationalization in the US would mean. There was so much on-the-one-hand-on-the-other-hand that it was hard to understand. Good try though.  Unlike the dolphin story.  White beaked dolphins are trapped by pack ice in Seal Cove Newfoundland. Katie said their cries were disturbing the residents and that was the end of her story.

 

ABC tried to equate Sulley’s splash landing in the Hudson with a Pan AM ditching in 1956.  George anchored.  I missed Diane and Charlie.

 

2/17/09 

 

CBS and NBC started off with the car manufacturers who had to have their restructuring plans in by Tuesday. For GM, Saturn, Saab and Hummer diivisions would be going away and Pontiac would become some kind of niche vehicle. The death of an entire car division would have been big news back in the olden days when kids cut class to see the new 1960 Ford Fairlane. It got mentioned here as an afterthought.

 

GM needs a loan of 16.5 billion from the government to stay afloat.  Chrysler is looking for some sort of deal with Fiat. And five-billion dollars from us.  CBS tells us that Chrysler has taken down all the clocks in its offices and hallways and turned off half the light bulbs.

 

ABC led this cold rainy Tuesday with stocks down 297.81. Then finally told us the President had signed the stimulus bill.  Diane Sawyer went on to talk about “shovel ready” projects waiting for the go ahead, and some brilliant PR person in Missouri, had a bridge rebuilding project ready to go. The story is here after 15 seconds about string cheese.

 

Senator Burris is in deep do do again.  He gave at least three different stories about his contacts with Illinois governor Blagojevich's people prior to his appointment. Looks like perjury someplace.   Another Fraud in financial circles. This time R. Allen Stanford’s firms issued Certificates of Deposit that no one noticed had impossibly high returns. This is doomed to be a minor story because the money in the scam, if scam it was, is only five billion dollars.

 

A Rod was asked why he was so cagey about admitting that he took steroids for three years. He paused for a moment, then told CBS “We knew they weren’t Tic Taks.” His new nickname is "A-Roid."

 

NBC reported on the Wall Street Journal’s article about Boulder Colorado and its smart electrical grid. The experimental Xcel program allows the electric company to monitor a customer’s energy use in real time. Ann Thompson didn’t mention that the power company can also remotely turn down your thermostat and the hot water heater if it runs low on electricity.

 

I wish people would go to someone other than John McCain every time they need someone to say the stimulus package “Wasn’t bipartisan.” And why do people need to keep saying “It wasn’t bipartisan.” Time for new talking points.

 

Diane was back on the Appalachia beat again, this time with a dentist trying to fix cavities caused by overdosing on Mountain Dew. Diane promptly called Indra Nooyi, the head of Pepsico who promised to help educate and train more dentists and to provide the dental Samaritan with a second mobile office.  Diane ended by saying that CEO Nooyi told her “all children are our children.”   A couple of Bumpass residents have offered to send her their teenagers…

 

There are some missing days at the end of last week. Mostly because I was bored with the usual, unsurprising, predictable, ebb and flow of the TV news.  Maybe I’ll go back and fill in the gaps, but in the meantime here are Monday Night’s notes on the net newscasts.

 

ABC and NBC led with Flight 3407 and ABC took off with what Diane Sawyer called “the trillion dollar week.” In Buffalo there was a memorial service at a church and family of the victims were allowed to visit the site of the crash. All 3 pointed out the pilot was new to this particular aircraft but no one said he did the wrong thing. Still questions about why the autopilot was engaged until seconds before the crash. Horrible oscillations just before the disaster.

 

General Motors and Chrysler were to come up with restructuring plans by Tuesday but George Stephanopoulos said the fix was in and GM would get 4-billion. There’s not going to be a car czar, by the way. Instead the President has appointed a blue ribbon committee to over see the auto industry. That should help.

 

All watched Hillary arrive in Tokyo in a visit that’s more about money than diplomacy. No one (but Rachel Maddow, later) mentioned that her severe black overcoat hid a magnificent tapestry-like lining. Maybe a Chinese dragon print. Much classier than the previous Secretary’s S&M outfit.

 

The exclusives:

ABC:   Betsy Stark and a Closer Look segment tracked the ripple effect of job layoffs. Here. A family cut back on restaurant Sunday brunches which caused lower tips for the wait staff which meant they couldn’t afford dog sitters and fewer meat deliverymen were needed. A good reminder of how things are tied together.

 

CBS went to Mumbai and the setting for Slumdog Millionaire. Seth Doane says tourists are coming to look at the awful conditions  there. Here's the script. The following commercial for Tuscan Fancy Feast Cat Food dinners was a little disconcerting. Some shopping cart manufacturer is making a kind of minicamper homes for some of  LA’s 73,000 homeless. It unfolds into a tent they can sleep in. They all seemed cheerful.

 

NBC and Richard Engel proved again the importance of being there.  An excellent report from inside the province of Swat in Pakistan. You can see it here.  Less brilliant was a report on farmers who have seen the bottom drop out of the ethanol market. Couldn’t tell if the prices they were getting for corn how (half of what it was before) is back to where it was before.

 

And then there was that UFO seen over Texas. Diane was hoping it was a mysterious phenomenon. It wasn’t. It was a meteor the size of a pickup truck. Burned up.

2/10/09

 

Okay... last night’s logging was screwed up by computer failures and an iPod stopwatch that went berserk. So this will be more general than usual.  Everybody was about Obama selling his stimulus plan. He was in Elkhart Indiana where there’s 15% unemployment. Unlike Bush gatherings, the crowd at his town meeting was unscreened. There was at least one hostile question which the President handled nicely.

 

But consider ABC.  They put A Rod at the top of the broadcast rather than the stimulus plan. Then they reported the Pew Study that said 51% of Americans favored the stimulus plan and 34% were against it. Charlie put it this way:  “…only a slight majority supports the stimulus. One third says it’s a bad idea.”  It reminds me of that two man race where the loser was reported to have come in second while the winner was next to the last.  Then to cap it off they showed Obama hitting his head getting into the Marine One helicopter.

 

ABC did have an excellent Martha Raddatz piece on Afghanistan, part of the Where Things Stand occasional series.  They somehow did a poll over there and found 83% of Afghanis don’t like the US.  Everyone is worried about security and blames US and NATO for the increase in violence.

 

Pilot Sully was back on all three nets. Katie reprised some of her Sunday 60 Minutes clips. ABC reintroduced the crew to the first responders on the ferry boats. NBC let the co-pilot talk first. 

 

Horrible fires in Australia.. Car bomb in Mosul.  Bankers still meeting in Las Vegas. So it goes.