Paul Detrick's blog

If you can buy sperm or eggs, why are kidneys so radical to ABC? And what happens to the people who are dying if we don't change the system?

ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson" called a doctor's market driven approach to organ donation, in which individuals could sell kidneys to insurers, "radical" November 19.

"Now an outspoken doctor is proposing a radical solution, allow donors to sell one of their kidneys," anchor Gibson began.

University of Minnesota Children's Hospital's Dr. Arthur Matas supported a regulated market only for kidneys and has said that ruling out kidney sales completely is like sentencing some patients to death.

Bad economy! Bad, bad, bad economy!

Business & Media Institute director Dan Gainor appeared on ‘Fox Business Live' November 15 to discuss the media's focus on the negative parts of the economy. Two of the networks, NBC and CBS led with positive news of the year's second best day of the year, but then focused on high gas prices this week.

"It goes beyond ‘it bleeds, it leads.' This is a consistent theme we've been watching for several years...Any time you have any sort of negative news they hype that and any sort of positive news, they undercut it," said Gainor.

As oil flirts with $100 a barrel, guess who is getting gold stars for reporting ... NPR.

National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" stories on $100 a barrel oil this week have featured some underreported views on the industry: The economy is surviving the higher costs, and the oil companies are using the profits for future exploration.

Reporter Jim Zarroli told NPR listeners what was supposed to happen, saying, "Time and again, economists from Alan Greenspan on down have warned that oil prices are inflationary ... Interest rates go up, borrowing becomes more difficult, and growth slows."

But, Zarroli also pointed out the unique trend that gets little coverage: Despite the rise in oil prices since March 2007, the economy has continued to grow at a strong pace.

There's more than one way to survive the rising cost of oil.

Is it time for more businesses to ‘go green'? Not so fast, says Director of the Business & Media Institute Dan Gainor.

Gainor appeared on CNBC's "Power Lunch" November 9 to discuss business investment in green products, a popular story on many news programs.

"The problem is companies are spending tons of green, going green...for some things, Wal-Mart has found some solutions that make a lot of sense, but then you look at Fed-Ex, they found that just going to hybrid trucks...were 75% more expensive," said Gainor.

You can watch the YouTube video after the break.

Huh, turns out all that effort the media put into bashing the airlines was [insert pun about airlines here]. Turns out they're doing pretty good. Oops.

"Airlines might not be doing as badly as it feels they're doing," said CNN's "American Morning" anchor Kiran Chetry after introducing a report November 6 on improved flight delays.

Remember Chetry reports from the New York bureau of CNN, that's important.

The CNN report revealed that the nation's 31 largest airports are actually down 8 percent over last year...except for one gridlocked city.

"Steer clear of New York where flight delays are up 23 percent," reporter Alina Cho said. "Even Chicago's O'Hare and Atlanta's Hartsfield airports, two of the world's busiest, posted improvements."

Author Peter Richmond insisted in his November 4 Parade magazine article, "A Better Way to Travel?" that with Americans stuck in traffic jams and airport security lines and made to suffer through flight delays, another government program could save the day: Amtrak.

"One solution is staring us in the face," Richmond asserted. "Many transportation experts insist that the best answer to transportation gridlock is efficient intercity rail travel."

Richmond boasted that Amtrak commuter numbers were "up for the fifth year in a row, reaching record levels," and in the Northeast, where Amtrak introduced faster trains, the number of commuters between Washington, D.C., and New York City has increased by 9 percent.

What's that 1970s horror movie where the butcher runs after all the teenagers with a cleaver in one hand and a piece of red meat in the other? I can't remember, but the reports on CBS's "Evening News" October 31 and CNN's "American Morning" November 1 came pretty close to that, sans the cleaver.

The two networks decided to enjoy some of the Halloween spirit by scaring viewers with a "landmark" study finding consumption of processed meat could increase the risk of colon cancer.

CBS anchor Katie Couric made up her mind after the "frightening" news saying, "No more bacon for me," and CNN's Kiran Chetry found the news of the findings "very shocking" and noted that "I'm in real trouble here" because of her own eating habits.

Video: Clip (34 secs): Windows Media (1.96 Mb) or MP3 Audio (268 Kb)

Business & Media Institute Director Dan Gainor appeared on the Fox Business Network October 25 to talk about business contributions to victims of the Southern California wildfires:

Every time there's a disaster, when we had Katrina and now with this disaster - [Businesses] immediately take out all the stops. Already I've seen at least $4 million contributed from charity from Wal-Mart, from Bank of America, from Disney, from Target, the business community steps up right away. When we had Katrina, there was like $70 million contributed within days ... and almost no coverage at all.

A few might be starting to catch on - CNN did mention contributions of Home Depot, MasterCard, Verizon, Sprint and Wells Fargo on the October 26 "American Morning."

Video (1:41): Real (2.12 MB) or Windows (6.11 MB) or MP3 (607 KB)

The hills of Los Angeles are burning and the media keep finding reasons to blame global warming.

CNN found a way to work global warming into its reporting on a national tragedy on October 23.

During “Anderson Cooper 360: In the Line of Fire,” CNN’s Tom Foreman even looked into his crystal ball to predict the future by warning of a possible “century of fires, just like what we're seeing now” as a result of global warming.

Foreman cautioned viewers that, “greater periods of rain” that fuel “increased vegetation growth” over the next century may provide a “potential link between these fires and global warming.”

Video: Windows (2.57 MB), or MP3 audio (335 kB).

Earlier in the broadcast Cooper also plugged CNN’s documentary:

What determines an economic crisis? Sweater sales.

ABC's "Good Morning America" began its broadcast October 17 with a report that might be confused with one of the signs of the Apocalypse. But have no fear, Bianna Golodryga clued in viewers to some red flags to see if the economy is in "crisis".

Video (0:57): Real (1.55 MB) and Windows (3.34 MB), or MP3 audio (442 kB).

"When you give or get practical gifts, stuff that you need instead of the stuff you want for your birthday or holiday. When sweater sales go up, watch out."

CNN Meteorologist Rob Marciano clapped his hands and exclaimed, "Finally," in response to a report that a British judge might ban the movie "An Inconvenient Truth" from UK schools because, according to "American Morning," "it is politically biased and contains scientific inaccuracies."

"There are definitely some inaccuracies," Marciano added. "The biggest thing I have a problem with is this implication that Katrina was caused by global warming."

Video (0:48): Windows (514 kB), plus MP3 audio (365 kB)

Economist and columnist for The New York Times Paul Krugman is interviewed in the September issue of GQ magazine where he says that he "has a very strong, economist's sense about the advantages of open markets," but claims a total shutdown in free trade would barely affect U.S. GDP. He also called for a shift to a high-tax Franklin Delano Roosevelt economy and universal health care.

On the income gap between rich and poor:

PAUL KRUGMAN: I have spent a lot of time looking back at what happened under FDR, when we narrowed the income gaps between rich and poor through stronger unions, wartime wage controls, and a change in tax policy. We can do some of that.

GQ: "Well, what happens if we let the income gap remain?"

For a change, the media gave the government a hard time about air travel, instead of bashing the airlines. The media reported on new Federal Aviation Administration guidelines for better runway safety and on ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson" and CNN's "American Morning."

Lisa Stark said, "The FAA commission admits that runway collisions are an increasing threat," and cautioned that new rules could "lead to some more delays," but the report did not indicate that the airlines were a part of the problem.

This is in contrast to CBS's Randall Pinkston, who said August 12 that it would cost airlines more money to provide more services to passengers but charged: "airline analysts say [the airlines] can afford it," pointing to Northwest Airlines' $2 billion profit and neglecting to point out their bankruptcy status only a few months prior.

Mirror, mirror on the wall. Who's got the lowest carbon footprint of them all? The "eco-conscious" one, says Marie Claire magazine.

An "urban hipster," a "mountain maven" and a "globe-trotter" competed to see who "[was] earth-friendly and whose carbon footprint [was] to blame for drowning polar bears and worse" in the September 2007 issue of Marie Claire.

The article, entitled, "Whose Carbon Footprint is the Smallest," found that globe-trotter "Josie," who "considers herself more eco-conscious than most people," had the largest carbon footprint.

 When Marie Claire magazine isn't busy making women feel like they are too old or too fat, they are telling women who drive SUVs they'll be heading to "carbon emissions hell."

The September 2007 issue of Marie Claire features a sidebar in their "McBulletin" section entitled "Highway to Heaven."

"Consult our quick guide to fuel-efficient cars, then cruise through the tollbooth at the pearly green gates," the tag line explained, nestled between a scale of "good" and "evil" signs.

According to the piece, if you drive a Toyota Prius Hybrid or a Honda Civic Hybrid, you are pious and your reward is "Dinner in heaven with Leonardo DiCaprio."

If you went to see a double feature of "An Inconvenient Truth" and "Red Dawn" you might come close to one of NBC's "Nightly News" stories last night.

An August 12 broadcast of the NBC show found a unique way to promote the war on global warming: Russian imperialism. Then they promoted a treaty that President Ronald Reagan refused to sign in 1982 on the grounds that it would tie America's hands too tightly to United Nations regulations.

Russia recently made claim to an underwater tract of the Arctic and likened it to the planting of the U.S. flag on the moon in 1969.

"Why the polar rush? Global warming," said correspondent Kerry Sanders. "Call it the new Cold War."

Don’t the airlines have plenty of money for extra food and passenger perks? Oh wait, they’ve been in bankruptcy.

Reporter Randall Pinkston’s “CBS Evening News” story August 12 charged that airlines should be providing better service to passengers, citing “torturous delays” and “forcing passengers to board when they know the plane will be sitting on the tarmac,” both problems rooted in an out-of-date air traffic control system.

Aviation reporter and analyst Jim Tilmon suggested that airlines should provide passengers with a “designated parking area” with water and food served until the airline knows that the plane will be ready to take off.

Joe Brancatelli's column at Conde-Nast's new Portfolio business magazine August 9 hit at the airline industry pretty hard, so hard, they forgot to remove their airline advertisement from the 'printer-friendly' page.

Brancatelli targeted the "perks and payoffs of airline C.E.O.'s", calling them "self-styled sky gods". This is a rather strange cause for a magazine that in its first issue targeted the "'C-suite' executive (i.e., CFO, CEO, or COO)".

Business & Media Institute director Dan Gainor appeared on "Fox and Friends" this morning to talk about a blog posting by Freakanomics blogger Steven D. Levitt that asked, "If You Were a Terrorist, How Would You Attack?"

"This from the media right after they were criticizing how Rupert Murdoch might run The Wall Street Journal. Why doesn't anyone in the mainstream media criticize how The New York Times is run by Arthur Sulzberger," Gainor told Fox News Channel viewers.

Gainor also pointed out that Levitt was trying, "to get as much possible press...and The New York Times is loving it."

Video (2:13): Real (1.62 MB) or Windows (1.36 MB) or MP3 (1.00 MB)

Blogger Steven D. Levitt asked his readers to imagine themselves as terrorists today and come up with their own ways of "maximizing terror" at the new home of the Freakonomics blog, The New York Times website. Levitt speaks:

Hearing about these [airline restriction] rules got me thinking about what I would do to maximize terror if I were a terrorist with limited resources. I’d start by thinking about what really inspires fear...Also, I’d want to create the feeling that an army of terrorists exists, which I’d accomplish by pulling off multiple attacks at once, and then following them up with more shortly thereafter.

How do you increase readership at a business magazine? Assume your readers are criminals.

Written by Caroline Waxler, Conde-Nast’s Portfolio magazine has been running a regular ‘How To’ sort of article called the “C.E.O. Survival Guide”, which assumes from the get-go that businessmen and women will ultimately get themselves into trouble—namely criminal activity:

“Just as you got a better house, car, and private plane than the next guy, you’re likely to get a better jail cell too. It’s one of the perks of stealing from shareholders rather than from a 7-Eleven clerk, so make the best of it.”

The blogoshpere is full of opinions, but this one you're paying for. Your tax dollars are going to National Public Radio Blogger and Morning Edition commentator John Ridley to editorialize "I'm sorry, but chick fights are sexy" in his new blog on the NPR website called “Visible Man”, which will appear twice a week. Ridley chimes in on why he likes Elizabeth Edwards for his first post:

Ladies throwing down is just plain hot, and that's true whether they're drunk and tussling on the Vegas Strip or if they're doing some verbal mud wrestling in the media. And the woman least afraid to get her li'l dukes up, and therefore currently the sexiest in politics, is Elizabeth Edwards.

CBS "Evening News" anchor Katie Couric is profiled in More magazine this month by Amy Wilentz in a piece called, “Katie’s Leap Year” highlighting the “challenge” of Couric’s gender in a male-dominated profession.

The challenge is so great, according to the author, that it leaves Couric, “walking a transgendered tightrope” and “It’s surprising that [Couric] doesn’t have a baritone voice or whiskers by now.”

The story begins with “significant role model” Couric speaking before a group of “hopeful young women” for National Women’s History Month, trumpets “black-and-white photographs of women who achieved milestones: Amelia Earhart, Sally Ride and Margaret Sanger”, and reveals Couric’s intention to be viewed, “as a relatively intelligent person who deserves to be at the helm” of the "Evening News." Yet by the end of the story, Wilentz reveals little more than three references to Couric’s legs including, "famously shapely legs", "legs crossed Indian-style" and Couric’s own, "I’m still getting my sea legs."

Your tax dollars at work, paying public radio hosts to ask if "black folks" are into iPods.

NPR's taxpayer-funded "News & Notes" program for April 17 tried to introduce a story on demographic advertising by awkwardly asking in a caption on their website, "Do national technology trends play the same way in the Black community?"

Or as host Farai Chideya asked, "Do black folks really use stuff like iPods as much?"

Host of American Public Media's (APM) Marketplace broadcast, Scott Jagow, asked “why would the U.S. or any other country go along” with the European Union's carbon reduction plan if there is “so much skepticism about whether they can actually do it.”

European correspondent Stephen Beard expressed his concern, in the March 8 report, entitled “Climate pressure building in Europe”, saying, “We’ve had already so many examples of performance falling well short of promise” from the European Union’s emission’s trading system and ultimately, "Cutting greenhouse gases is going to involve some economic pain.”

NBC Nightly News anchor, Brian Williams graces the cover of Men's Vogue this month and is profiled by Deputy Editor Ned Martel as being an anchor who, because of "today's debunking culture" (Wink Wink Newsbusters.org), is both "in the know and in on the joke."

Martel panders to Williams as an anchor who is "affable", "witty", and even "an unapologetic throwback to the era of Cronkite".

Martel says that viewers can relate to Williams because he, "has a vast interest in so many of their passions." He further says that Williams "embraces his regular-guy status" and "trumpets his middlebrow tastes".

Williams apparently considers his "instinctive understanding of Middle America" to be a payoff for Nightly News. That understanding must be a tall order for someone who wears a "black-faced Rolex and Supreme Court cufflinks" and splits his time between a "pied-a-terre in a new Upper East Side tower" and a "restored farmhouse in Connecticut".