We're a day late on this, but then again, it's never too late to give props, which is why we're doffing the cap to ABC for the single cutest segment on any national nightly news perhaps ever, or at least next to Oscar the Cat and that really, really smart parrot: The Military Baby Boom! On Monday, Charlie Gibson and team explored the "bump" (ha) in births in army hospitals nine months after troops returned home for visits between deployments in Iraq. "Joyous reuinons are facts of life," said Charlie, tongue in cheek, wearing a baby-soft pink and blue striped tie in honor of the occasion (if it's a coincidence, that's freaky, and also not the best choice in terms of tie-gravitas). The segment was adorable and poignant — one woman was just grateful that her husband was home for the birth and the first few month's of the baby's life — but the kicker was the best: The last family to be interviewed was done in a hospital room, with mom in bed holding tiny bundle of joy (cue ovary-wrenching close up) and Dad next to the bed kvelling. Aw! Cut to Charlie, closing out — and informing us that in that last bit, the baby had been alive for an hour. AN HOUR. I am sure that hormone-flooded new mom was thrilled about THAT.
Two notes here: (1) Great minds think alike! On Monday Gibson also said this: "You could be forgiven if you think for a moment that you are in a time warp, because we're reporting on Hillary Clinton's health care plan and criminal charges against O.J. Simpson. Sound familiar?" True dat — so true that Newt Gingrich said the same thing on Hannity & Colmes that night ("I feel like it's 1994!"). And, no doubt, will try to recapture some of that year's glory in the coming months. Be very afraid.
(2) I see that ABC has joined the Cab-TV craze, formerly (at least in my cab-riding experience) dominated by NBC. Though the cab-ad for NBC Nightly News is but a blip, the ABC cab-ad is like a real commercial — smiley picture of Charlie with glowy quotes from newspapers. One odd thing I noticed though: There didn't seem to be any quotes from New York papers — but there were TWO quotes from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Is it just me, or is the way to impress New Yorkers in cabs not by citing the Atlanta Journal-Constitution?
That's all for now. Tom Shales, make note of Gibson's tie, in three years it could be a trend.