Dear Jon Klein: If Aaron Brown can write as well as he rebounds, you're screwed

Ungraciously-dispatched former CNN anchor Aaron Brown had lunch with the NY Post's Liz Smith, and was apparently way tan, rested, and ready--and optomistic and sociable as all get out. Basically, the man's back on the professional market. And good for him: the whole time he was at CNN, it was hideously obvious that he was miserable there. It made him painful to watch; unhappiness will turn the nicest, most talented person into a bitter, sleepwalking nerd. Now, reading the Smith item, one gets the sense that he's experiencing the opposite of a midlife crisis: freed from his miserable little nest on NewsNight, he might possibly enjoy being a journalist again.

Aaron arrived looking younger and more handsome than he ever does on-air. With an Arizona suntan and flashing white teeth, the 50-odd-year-old looks about 39 or 40. He was very "upbeat" and vital in a blue V-neck sweater over an open-collared shirt. We got right down to it. What does he think of CNN's negative move on him?

"Of course, I think they made a mistake," laughed Aaron. "But . . . they're entitled."

He assured me that his long contract will be paid off while he and his wife finish building a house near Scottsdale, Ariz., and his daughter enters college. Also, he thinks he has many options in his future.

"I don't know exactly what I will do," he mused as a succession of media visitors came to interrupt us and ask where they might register their outrage at his "NewsNight" cancellation — among them ABC veteran visionary Av Westin and Fox TV's Roger Ailes. Aaron expressed admiration for the manner in which Fox beats the pants off its competitors. "They are the most on-target, disciplined bunch I've ever seen!" he told Roger.

Over beef stroganoff, our talk ranged from Dan Rather's problems at CBS to how much he admires Walter Cronkite and Barbara Walters to working with the late Peter Jennings. We both expressed admiration for the lure of live TV news.

"Well, yes, there's nothing like it," said Aaron "and I would like to go on covering news every single day. I like to work. But I might write a book. I know it takes a lot of discipline."

What, oh what, might he reveal about Jon Klein's management style, or lack thereof? Aaron, it's a brave new world for you, clearly. Start writing!

A French CNN? The better to see their government surrender on live TV by the light of a burning car, I guess

Reuters Business Channel reports on President Chirac's plan for a French version of CNN, to be known as CFII:

France's government gave the green light on Wednesday for an international TV news channel to start broadcasting in French by the end of next year, with the aim of spreading the country's vision to the world.

The brainchild of President Jacques Chirac, the 24-hour news channel is expected to beam into homes, hotels and newsrooms in much the same way as U.S.-owned CNN, Britain's BBC World and more recently Qatar's Arabic-language al-Jazeera.

"France must ... be on the front line in the global battle of TV pictures," a spokesman quoted Chirac as telling the cabinet, which approved the establishment of a company to run the French International News Channel (CFII).

"The aim is to bring France's values and its vision of the world to everywhere in the world," he said.

The last time I checked, "France's values and its vision of the world" had four major components: 1) Food & wine 2) Sex 3) High Fashion 4) Hating America and blaming America for everything that's wrong in the world. So basically, it sounds like CFII will be an very well-dressed, slightly drunk, and horny version of Al-Jazeera. Can't wait.

Craig Crawford: The truth as the liberal media sees it should be good enough for you

Helen Thomas (warning, warning) writes on InsideBayArea.com on MSNBC contributor Craig Crawford's new book,"Attack the Messenger--How Politicians Turn You Against the Media":

His thesis is that "the role of the news media as an honest broker is shattered."

He claims a lot has gone wrong with the profession and blames the "spinning lies" from the government, what he calls "media wimps" and what he sees as "fear in the newsroom."

Back up. When was the last time that the media were an "honest broker"? Oh, yes, I remember now--back in the days when Dan Rather was riding high. Riiiight.

What Crawford is doing here, in an incredibly unsubtle way, is pandering to the MSM--trying to pretend that when the old guard, old school, liberal media were on top, those were the glory days. Aaaaah, those were the good old days, right? When the public knew their place as those who should shut up and accept the wisdom of "old media's real journalists," as Crawford calls the MSM.

But what's most breathtakingly dishonest about Crawford's book (and in this book, the eye-rollers compete for mention) is Crawford's supposed rationale for writing it--that the public's being taken for a ride by politicians allowed to run amok by a scared media. On page 139 Crawford writes that if only old media could make a comeback, "they could get back to where they belong, holding politicians accountable." Oh, and by the way, regain all the power, prestige and pay they squandered! Yeah, that too.

And Crawford's not being shy, even as he's being disingenuous, about the failings of his crowd. But his staggering sense of entitlement, and by proxy the MSM's staggering sense of lost entitlement, still blows me away. Check out page 17-18, where he writes:

"Despite their faults, those who once set the national news agenda were committed to telling the truth. Maybe it was the truth as they saw it, and sometimes they delivered it with a left-leaning bias. But they did not deliberately spread lies...the old gatekeepers of real news are gone...but what's replaced them presents a challenge, if not a threat, to democracy."

BOO! Get the biased lefties back in power or the republic crumbles! Panic! Panic! I'm sorry, but....what a jerk.

Oh, and don't forget the rank self-promotion in the form of scholarly reportage, namely this timeless gem on page 134. MSNBC contributor Crawford praises the flaming Ford Pinto of the cable news nets:

"MSNBC often can get the most information and more quickly...MSNBC began anew in 2004 under the management of network veteran Rick Kaplan." (Now sit! Speak! Play dead! Good boy.)

So we can infer that Crawford's a honest broker himself, hmmm? That's like saying that the butcher's an honest broker between the cow and the knife. Crawford calculatedly chooses not to acknowledge the now-permanent reality of the new media, and one of the main reasons it came into existence: the public was sick of being fed the same old MSM liberal party line. Crawford can write all the books he wants, but history, ultimately, writes itself, and the final chapter will surely say that Crawford's beloved "old media" is dead. For good, and to somewhat-ironically borrow liberal language, for the greater good, as well.

Football prodigy Tiki Barber joins FNC

FNC has signed New York Giants running back Tiki Barber as a general contributor, announced Bill Shine, Senior Vice President of Programming. Starting next week, Barber will appear Tuesdays on Fox & Friends First (weekdays, 6-7AM EST), where he has frequently guest co-hosted.

In making the announcement, Shine said, “Tiki’s wide-ranging television experience makes him a natural addition to the Fox & Friends franchise. He’s a remarkable talent whose knowledge far exceeds the goal line.”

Barber added, “I'm ecstatic to officially join Fox News and look forward to contributing to their successful line-up as I segue into the next part of my professional life.”

Named to his first Pro Bowl after the 2004 season, Barber was drafted by the Giants in 1997. He holds numerous Giants' records including All-Time Leading Rusher and Leader in Receptions and was also voted the team’s Most Valuable Player in 2004, 2002 and 2000.

MSNBC's Flavia Colgan's sour grapes

There's more to MSNBC contributor Flavia Colgan's seemingly out-of-nowhere comment about FNC in a recent Philadelphia Daily News opinion piece than meets the eye. After making a kind of weird guess as to what President Harry S. Truman would think about the current state of news ("One can only assume that if Give 'Em Hell Harry was around today he would blow a gasket when he realized that not only do American's [sic] rely on a single news source, but whatever particular source of the news they depend on is most likely slowly coagulating into one mega-news corporation,") Colgan wanders off:

Investigative reporting is expensive, but talk is cheap. Very little investigative journalism is done by television news anymore. When is the last time you heard of Fox News Channel breaking a story, for example?

But it turns out there's a more interesting story behind her non-sequitur: Colgan's contract wasn't renewed after her year-long stint at FNC. According to a Fox News insider, "There was always a collective groan in the control room when she was on the air--she had no command of the screen, no presence whatsoever. She belongs behind a desk, not a camera."

Flavorless Flavia, anyone?

Mediaweek: CNN execs not fumbling for the Valium "just yet"

Mediaweek's Anthony Crupi writes that CNN's Anderson Cooper gamble has only been slightly disastrous:

The network argues those who suggest that 360° has yet to catch fire in its new slot are missing the point.

First, the hard data: Through Nov. 21, or 11 days into its new time slot, 360° averaged 568,000 total viewers, with the balance tuning in for the program’s first hour (685,000). Cooper’s average audience is down 19 percent relative to Brown’s final week behind the NewsNight desk, and while it isn’t retaining its Larry King Live lead-in, losing 32 percent of the suspendered one’s audience, that’s still 4 percent better than Brown’s retention over the same period a year ago.

And a new masterpiece of spokesperson nothingspeak emerges:

If the buzz generated by Cooper’s Katrina reportage hasn’t translated into big ratings, CNN execs aren’t exactly fumbling for the Valium just yet. For one thing, 11 telecasts is far too brief a track record, said CNN spokesperson Christa Robinson. “It’s premature to discuss ratings,” she said. “We can’t really extrapolate much from the data thus far, but having said that we’re extremely pleased with the quality and performance of the show.”

Fox News' Shep Smith on Elvis' death, Katrina, and Ole Miss football

Back home for an Ole Miss game, FNC anchor Shep Smith talks to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about growing up in Mississippi, finding his calling in TV news, covering Katrina, and of course, football:


It's been quite some frenzied stretch for Smith, 41, the Fox News Channel anchor who was born and raised in nearby Holly Springs. During nine semesters at Ole Miss, he missed only three football games --- home and away. But this sunny mid-November afternoon marks the first time he's been here all fall. And even then, it's only on his third try.

Hurricane Wilma. The Iraq constitution vote. (Insert major national or international story here.) Breaking news had been upending his schedule for weeks, weeks in which he --- like so many folks down South and around the country --- was still dealing with the shock waves sent out by Hurricane Katrina.

The ferocious storm that leveled large swaths of Mississippi and New Orleans may have affected him deeply --- "If it were up to me, I'd still be there," Smith says --- but it's also heightened his profile, earned him his best reviews and led some to suggest he'd be the logical choice to anchor a fourth network newscast should Fox Broadcasting ever decide to launch one.

Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity long have been the big names at cable news' No. 1 network, but increasingly, Smith is the big-gun anchor viewers expect to see when a big story breaks.

"If you're talking about a major story, major news --- certainly Shep is the face of Fox News," says Bill Shine, the network's senior vice president of programming. "He has that rare combination of being very smart and also very talented. You can put him out there, and if the prompter goes down, you're not going to be in trouble. If news breaks unexpectedly, you're not going to be in trouble."

The anchor of two highly rated weekday newscasts (at 3 and 7 p.m.), Smith had been known primarily for his blisteringly paced, nonpartisan lineup of stories delivered in a deep bass as smooth as tupelo honey. Yet there he was on the Wednesday afternoon after Katrina hit, shirttail hanging out as he stood among throngs of stranded New Orleanians and politely, yet persistently, giving voice to a nation's growing sense of confusion and horror.

He realized the impact [his] coverage had only when he returned to New York and strangers began asking how he was doing.

"They were like, 'Are you OK?'" Smith relates. "It was just not a question I'd ever gotten from anyone. Viewers. On the street. In Manhattan. 'Are you OK?'"

Smith vividly recalls the day he first swooned for TV news. Elvis had died some 45 miles away in Memphis, and everywhere the young teenager looked, everyone was going live with the story.

"I just remember the technology of it --- a local Memphis station was live in Memphis," says Smith, shaking his head in wonder. "'I might be able to come up with this industry' --- that's what it felt like. It just was like all you had to do was go somewhere, find out what was happening, and then tell people about it. And that's all it is now."

Cable news, the antidote to totalitarianism

So North Korea is furious at CNN for showing the country for what it is: a murderous Stalinist regime. So for as imperfect as cable news is and can be--MSNBC, FNC and CNN can't and don't make everybody happy all the time--it's that very imperfection that makes it great. The facts as they stand won't make those with an agenda happy--especially if you're, say, the DPRK, a country with a definite agenda against a free press or freedom of any kind.

But it all makes me think of Edward R. Murrow and his seminal television show, "See it Now." I've said it before and I'll say it again: news is the original reality television, but with one major difference: the news has consequences. Murrow, recently immortalized in the modern mainstream in the George Clooney movie "Good Night and Good Luck," was one of the first to recognize the hard reality--and the appeal--of hard news that you can bear witness to with your own eyes, not somebody else's. So CNN has done a good thing, in the tradition of Murrow, in airing its North Korea documentary, complete with footage of the execution. And if North Korea doesn't like it, well, they've just proved CNN's point.

Couric & Lauer, reporting only news that's as perky as they are

The Today Show's Katie Couric and Matt Lauer are really getting slammed for their inexplicable inability to report news as it's breaking right in front of them, and rightly so. Writing on how Couric and Lauer totally ignored/were unaware of the news that a balloon had crashed into a light pole during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade during their live coverage, injuring two sisters, NorthJersey.com's Alfred P. Doblin makes the best point--why are Couric and Lauer in the TV news business if they can't or won't report the news?

The Friday edition of The New York Times explained the situation. The three Today Show anchors, Katie Couric, Matt Lauer and Al Roker were - at least to viewers - unaware that an accident occurred. When the M&M balloon was AWOL at the finish line of the parade, they cut to videotape of last year's parade.

According to The Times, Couric told the audience this was an old clip, citing the wind as the culprit for the balloon's no-show. Lauer and Roker appeared to follow the printed script of what should have been happening. They made a few M&M jokes and then cut back to the live parade. Santa was not on videotape.

If Couric, Lauer and Roker didn't know about the accident, what were their producers doing in the control booth? If other networks had reported there was an accident involving a balloon and there were injuries, how can any station go ahead and show footage from last year? Even as "reality TV" goes, this was lame.

If the argument was that families were watching the parade and the "news" would have been a downer, well that's what happens with news. The careening balloon and the resulting injuries upset families watching the parade in Times Square, where the accident occurred.

How credible can Couric, Lauer and Roker be as interviewers on The Today Show if they aren't trusted to go live with an accident during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade? It is just another blot on the media.

It also shows the problems of mixing personalities and journalists into one stew. If The Today Show were just an entertainment show, the reputations of its anchors would matter little. Nobody expects Regis Philbin's perky sidekick to cover breaking news. But The Today Show aspires to be much more. On Thanksgiving, aspiration gave way to expiration.

If the three anchors were kept in the dark about why the M&M balloon didn't make it to Herald Square - and that is entirely possible - some heads should roll. Making fools out of the talent doesn't add credibility to a network. Newsgathering is fraught with potential disasters. Print journalism is a race against the clock. From the moment a story is filed, the reporter and editor hopes that nothing happens between filing, printing and delivery to change the report's substanceSometimes that works. Sometimes it does not. Television has more flexibility - it can adapt immediately.

Maybe it's fitting that it was an M&M balloon; M&Ms are candy-coated. That's apparently how NBC chose to report breaking news at the parade.

It's actually a plus when chocolate melts in your mouth. When it's your credibility, it's goes down with a bitter taste.

CNN switchboard operator not surprised by X-ing of Cheney, is surprised anyone else is

Drudge reports on the firing of the CNN switchboard operator who told a caller protesting the X-ing of Cheney, "we did it just to make a point."

What I find most interesting--telling, really--about the operator's response is that he naturally assumed the X was a deliberate political statement that accurately reflected an institutional media bias against the Bush administration at CNN. This is CNN, indeed.

A CNN switchboard operator was fired over the holiday -- after the operator claimed the 'X' placed over Vice President's Dick Cheney's face was "free speech!"

"We did it just to make a point. Tell them to stop lying, Bush and Cheney," the CNN operator said to a caller. "Bring our soldiers home."

The caller initially phoned the network to complain about the all-news channel flashing an "X' over Cheney as he gave an address live from Washington.

"Was it not freedom of speech? Yes or No?" the CNN operator explained.

"If you don't like it, don't watch."

Laurie Goldberg, Senior Vice President for Public Relations with CNN, said in a release:

"A Turner switchboard operator was fired today after we were alerted to a conversation the operator had with a caller in which the operator lost his temper and expressed his personal views -- behavior that was totally inappropriate. His comments did not reflect the views of CNN. We are reaching out to the caller and expressing our deep regret to her and apologizing that she did not get the courtesy entitled to her. "

MSNBC: The captain's not going down with the ship; he's not even on the ship

Is this any way for the head of a, shall we say, struggling cable news network to spend his time?

President of MSNBC Rick Kaplan is to visit the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to work with journalism students from Monday until Wednesday.

He will specifically work with the Television Journalism II class with their newsbreak projects that will air on UI7. He also will speak at Dean of the College of Communications Ron Yates' Reporting I lecture, focusing on what's next for cable and network news and how MSNBC is covering news in Iraq. Kaplan will also hold one-on-one discussions with graduate students and seniors in broadcasting.

"He manages to contact lots of students by guest lecturing or talking with other classes," Yates said. "He's one of the most creative people in the broadcast news, and we feel very fortunate to have this kind of relationship with him, and more than anything else, a great opportunity for our students."


Since the mid-'90s, Kaplan comes to the University once or twice a year to work with students, providing them with knowledge, opportunities and internships.

"It was his idea to do this, and we're glad that he does," said Lynn Holley, academic programs coordinator of the College of Communications. "It benefits (the students) immensely. They get to hear from a man who is successful in every aspect of his career, and it's best to hear from someone successful because they have the key to be successful and the motivation he can pass to students."

And, um, ahem. Is this really the man journalism students want to be taking advice from? MSNBC is failing at the cable news business, to put it mildly. This is like asking Jack Kevorkian to teach a CPR class.

Look, it's certainly nice that Kaplan is teaching and sharing knowledge. In a perfect world, it's good to reach out and share knowledge to those just starting out. But if your house is on fire, as Kaplan's is, you should probably be paying attention to getting some water in the buckets.

The only reason TCG can possibly see that Kaplan's doing this is that he figures he's not long for MSNBC, and is Ivy-ing up, as it were, to get his credentials in order for a job at an institute of higher learning somewhere. Where will President Kaplan end up as Dean Kaplan? TCG can't say. But it's a pretty safe bet that MSNBC is no longer high on his list of priorities.

CNN's American Morning hosts, taking a stand against breast implants for women they don't like

Discussing last night's American Music Awards ceremony on CNN's American Morning today, host Soledad O'Brien, whom I ordinarily like a lot, commented on some footage of very revealingly-clad singer Mariah Carey with a contemptuous "Oh, she says she hasn't had any work done!" Much derisive laughter ensues on-set.

Let me clue them in to a little something. Most women of child-bearing age in the entertainment business have breast implants. Just trust me on this one. The game that media elites play is only pointing them out in women they don't like. Angelina Jolie has them, but even when she gets close to naked in her movies she never gets criticized for them, because she adopts orphans and gives a ton of money to charity. No matter how you feel about the Brad stuff, I personally love her for all the good things she does for people who have nothing. But I digress. Now, on the other hand, we have Mariah Carey, who lives to be a singer, entertainer, and diva. What's wrong with that? Nothing, baby. It takes all kinds in this world. Maybe Mariah's not deep and a tad nuts. All the best bombshells are, by the way. Maybe she doesn't campaign against land mines or for Democratic political candidates. So what? We have Angelina to take up the slack. Again, it all works out. But media elites think Mariah's a dumb slut because she doesn't address the UN on a regular basis and sings about puppies, shopping and cute boys and not, say, suicide bombers or Alan Greenspan. So what? Her vocal cords are enough to make anybody believe in God. A voice that ethereal is not an accident.

My problem is when Soledad O'Brien, a card-carrying member of the most mainstream faction of the MSM, joins the totalitarian faction of modern feminism and starts holding (certain) women up to ridicule for--oh, the irony!--doing what they think is best for their own personal bodies. And Mariah's personal body is a big part of how she makes her living (say, I think I just nailed another reason why the MSM hates her. But some of us have to look good for a living; we can't all have big brains that we put to use drawing video graffiti on the Vice-President's face on national television.) So, Soledad, unless you're going to start randomly commenting on female public figures with an equally-irrelevant and unfair observation like "Hey, she looks like she's had a few abortions in her time," leave women you consider socially and intellectually beneath you alone, or at least lay off the mean comments about their bodies. That's why Howard Stern exists. Much as many modern feminists hate to admit it, we're all in this together.

Ted Koppel's last "Nightline," in perspective

Ted Koppel hosted his last "Nightline" last night, and I'd just like to note that American presidents have been buried with less fanfare. Koppel reported the news. He's a nice guy, sharp, dry wit etc. Viewers got used to having him in their living rooms every night. Fine. I'm sure he'll still visit from time to time. Can we all move on now?

NewsHounds.us, alone at the lunch table again

NewsHounds.us, that collection of, how shall I say this, self-sentenced-to-house-arrest social convicts, has jumped the shark with their "we live to hate FNC" schtick. Actually, NewsHounds hasn't so much jumped the shark as they're now just wiggling to attract the shark's attention. In criticizing Fox and Friends host Steve, E.D. and Brian this morning, the best the NewsHounds can come up with is that the trio are good-looking, upbeat, and have it together. This is exactly like being in high school, wearing a lot of black, skull-festooned clothing and making everybody nervous because you never speak, you just caress your "Guns & Ammo" magazine a lot, and then wondering why the smart, kind, well-groomed kids are so happy and popular:

This morning the oh-so-cutesy, oh-so-sleek and bubbly hosts of FOX and Friends - Steve Doocy, Brian Kilmeade and E. D. Hill - announced that the London Daily Mirror has reported that it has obtained a copy of a top secret memo which reveals that President George Bush wanted to bomb al Jazeera in its home country of Qatar.

That's it. Transcript follows. What seems to be NewsHounds point here? Something along the lines of, I guess, The nerve of those three, being so happy, successful, and good-looking! Hasn't anybody ever told them that misery loves company? Wait, I think I just gave NewsHounds their new slogan....

CNN's CYA manuever

So CNN emailed Drudge with their latest Jon Lovitz-y "yeah, yeah, that's the ticket" explanation for marking the VPOTUS for death or at least contempt on national television:

CNN spokeswoman Laurie Goldberg emails: "We concluded this was a technological malfunction not an issue of operator error. A portion of the switcher experienced a momentary glitch. We obviously regret that it happened and are working on the equipment to ensure it is not repeated."

Allow me to parse CNN's shifty-eyed um, um, um of a statement... A theoretical technological malfunction is what allowed a deliberate operator error to be explained away as a glitch.

Also in the Drudge flash:

A rival network news director asks: "When has an 'X' ever aired on CNN before? Who had the graphic sitting in the key signal? Who generated the 'X'?"

Uh oh, CNN! Other people in the news biz who know from technological aren't buying it! As Drudge would say...developing...

CNN, marking the Vice President with an X for...something

Drudge has it--CNN finally stops pretending and lets the viewing public know how it really feels about the administration. Now, this is such a bonehead, juvenile jerkface move that I'm hoping whoever's responsible at CNN gets a little visit from the Secret Service, inquiring exactly why the Vice President was marked with such a big, ominious X during statements that run exactly counter to the political beliefs of most people at CNN.

Look, the people at CNN aren't protesters on the street exercising their First Amendment rights. They are, along with the other major news nets, the face of the US to the world. And when some basket case in the control room at CNN pulls something like this for their own private amusement, (yes, I know CNN's calling it a "technical glitch." I wasn't born yesterday) it looks to the rest of the world, frankly, like CNN's been taken by guerillas that plan to assassinate the VP and take the White House in a military coup. Am I being a tad overheated? Sure. I'm angry. But I'd still love to know what Tom Clancy's imagination is doing right now. And like I said, the Secret Service would be well within the parameters of their duty to make Jon Klein sweat a little bit.

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX MON NOV 21, 2005 21:25:35 ET XXXXX

CNN MARKS CHENEY: NETWORK FLASHES 'X' OVER VP'S FACE DURING LIVE SPEECH

**Exclusive**

At 11:04:45 AM ET Monday CNN was airing Vice President Dick Cheney's speech live from the American Enterprise Institute in Washington -- when a large black 'X' repeatedly flashed over the vice president's face!

The 'X' over Cheney's face appeared each time less than a second, creating an odd subliminal effect.

As this DRUDGE REPORT screen capture reveals, while one 'X' flashed over Cheney's face CNN ran a headline at the bottom of its screen: "CHENEY: I DO NOT BELIEVE IT IS WRONG TO CRITICIZE."

One top White House source expressed concern about what was aired over CNN.

"Is someone in Atlanta trying to tell us something?"

A CNN spokesman did not return repeated calls late Monday night.

Kevin Sites on TV cameras in Iraq as judge, jury, & executioner

The sharp, provocative Yahoo! News foreign correspondent Kevin Sites (who, as I've blogged before, I believe will be a big part of the future of news--Editor & Publisher is all over this too) has posted his latest dispatch from Iraq. Reflecting on the battle for Fallujah one year later, Sites recalls the moment when, as he put it, he "forgot his humanity":


Coming down the street with the Marines I saw an old Iraqi man lying on his back near the curb. He was wearing a white T-shirt that highlighted the stream of crimson blood that was flowing behind him.

At first, I couldn't see his wound, but as I came closer, peering over him I could see that the right half of his skull had been blown away. It was a sniper shot, clean through his eye. I've seen plenty of death and destruction, but this image shocked me for a moment.

I think it was because the man's chest was still rising and falling. He was alive, still breathing. There was no weapon nearby, but it may have been cleared by advancing Marines.

A Marine in a Humvee saw the man and yelled at the two Marines I was walking with, "somebody put a bullet in that guy."

I assume he was talking about a mercy killing. The man was definitely going to die. The trauma of the injury was too great. He was already bleeding to death.

One of the Marines looked at my camera and asked me if I was going to videotape it if he shot the old man. I nodded yes, that I had to. He said that he wasn't going to do it then, and walked off to join the other Marines, leaving me there with the old man.

I looked at him for a long moment, wondering what I should do. Should I try to bandage him up, even though he was dying, and quickly? Should I hold his hand for a second, a small comfort from one human being to another during his last moments?

Ultimately I couldn't bring myself to do either. Bandaging him, I thought, was futile, and holding his hand, I believed, might make me seem weak or sympathetic in front of the Marines.

Instead, I left him there and caught up with my unit, looking back once, but soon forgetting about the old man for the next six hours as the Elizabeth Street battle raged.

I made a choice to do nothing for the old man -- not even a reassuring touch.... Helping the old man in my mind was fraught with peril. I was alone. What would I accomplish? There would be a cost to my action.

And now, I know, there is also a cost for my inaction.

These are the realities -- the choices we make -- black and white plumes of smoke, mists of gray that haunt you like furious phantoms, until you accept their truths.

Here, back on Elizabeth Street a year later with a different group of Marines, I can still feel the phantoms, but like the street itself they have quieted -- barking dogs the only reminder of their presence.

Sites, besides clearly having more physical courage in one eyelash than most people have in their entire bodies, has another kind of courage that's just as rare: the ability to describe and account for his actions or inactions, no matter how terrifying to himself that may be. I have no opinion on whether Sites did the right or wrong thing. I've never been shot at, never been in a war zone. I limit my opinions on the ethics of battle to the belief that only those who've fought them or lived/borne witness through them can really have an opinion on right and wrong in wartime. And I always remember what a Marine I know likes to say: "No plan survives first contact with the enemy."

It's just worth noting that the news, and the way the news is reported, is changing. To the Marine who walked away without shooting the old man after weighing the decision on the scales of worldwide media exposure, Sites' videocamera was as dangerous and as loaded as a gun. War is like the poor: it will be with us always. Suffering is nothing new. But Sites' story hammers one thing home: that the unstoppable change that war reporting is experiencing has repercussions beyond ratings. Because of the power of the news, that Marines' life wasn't ruined by being brought up on murder charges. Because of the power of the news, the old man and Sites both suffered, in different ways. There's no real answer here, but as long as Sites and those like him keep reporting, and honest, at least we'll be able to figure out which questions to ask.

Christiane Amanpour: My hero, according to Glamour magazine

In its continuing quest to consign women to irrelevancy in the guise of empowerment, the women's magazine Glamour has chalked up another victory. Its December issue's cover story is "Women of the year--the heroes who inspired you most!" Sandwiched between Venus Williams (great athlete, no question, but I would have chosen Ironman triathlete Heidi Musser, who happens to be completely blind) and wrap-dress criminal Diane von Furstenberg (she's smiling in the picture because she can't believe she's managed to stay in business selling her hideous dresses from the 70's yet another year,) Amanpour is held up yet again as the only intelligent, brave female journalist of note in the entire world. Christiane, let someone else have a turn! CNN prez Jon Klein comments in his usual saying a lot while saying nothing way: "She's unbeatable at getting the story, but she's also unmatched in how she tells it." Well, duh. Journalism is a cult of personality, at least at the celebrity-journalist level that we're discussing here, so yeah, you'd better have some panache, or at least the same British accent that makes many easily-impressionable Americans swoon. (You'd think we'd never fought a War of Independence, the way we emotionally curtsy to imperious Brits with a microphone.)

Anyway, since Glamour won't go out of the Amanpour comfort zone, and only likes objectivity when it's not objective (the magazine gushes that "known in Italy as La Passionata, Amanpour imbues every broadcast with an unusually bold moral perspective..'Objectivity,' she once said, 'can almost border on immorality,'") I'm going to nominate an alternative. FNC's Jennifer Griffin is fearless, indefatigable, an utter badass without the attitude. If she's ever scared, and she does nothing but report from the most frightening, dangerous, dark nights of the soul on earth, she doesn't show it on camera. Every time I see her, whether she's interviewing armed terrorists at close range or standing over dead bodies in tsunami-devastated areas, I think the same thing: I really admire and respect her. She's incredible. I do not think, "wow, what a cool and glamorous job she has" (which is how Amanpour is celebrated in the MSM.) Yes, Griffin's job is cool and glamorous, but she's so clearly committed to bearing unflinching witness to terrible things other people wouldn't get close to in a bulletproof hazmat suit, that she transcends the fluffy accolades constantly tossed at Amanpour. Jennifer Griffin is real, she operates in actual trenches, not just the figurative ones, and if there's any justice in the world, she's the next Amanpour.

Tom Brokaw in the Bergdorf Goodman catalog: "We elitists....worry about the democratization of news"

In an effort to make its readers feel less guilty about spending $10,000 on a cotton Chanel skirt (page 122), the Bergdorf Goodman Holiday '05 catalog has enlisted Tom Brokaw to boost the collective self-esteem of the very rich news consumer.

In an interview printed at the front of the glossy 200-page book, Brokaw sits down with Bergdorf Goodman's paw, American Museum of Natural History president Ellen Futter, at the NYC restaurant the Four Seasons. Brokaw discloses that the new and democratic sordidness of TV news is deeply worrisome, and fondly recalls the days when the viewing public knew its place:

BG: Somehow, people have come to accept that showmanship and seriousness of purpose can coexist. Yet, when you're watching television these days, it still sometimes seems to be an uneasy coexistence.

TB: There is obviously, depending on your point of view, either a richer menu to choose from or a more sordid menu...When I began, there were two networks, CBS and NBC. We had rules that we established--and the public liked it. But now, with the democratization [caused by] new technology, we have a lot more choices.

BG: This has been an amazing moment when, for a variety of reasons, the occupants of the three networks' anchor chairs have all departed. Big picture. Long view. What do you think?

TB: [Brokaw olds hands close together.] It used to be this. Now it's this. [He moves his hands wide apart.] People have so many more choices than they've had in the past.
We elitists worry about it and say it's a terrible thing, but it's a democratization that's profound...I worry because I think it's important to have a single place every night on over-the-air networks that people can turn to...it's not "eat your spinach" news any more.


Am I the only person who sees the funereal aspect in the MSM's discussion of the departure of the big three anchors? "Oh, they've gone to a better place now...they were too good for this world of bloggers, citizen journalists, Fox News, and six screens of information as the star of CNN's Situation Room, not the host...."

FNC beating ITV on its home turf in UK

Digital Spy reports that FNC is getting higher ratings in the UK than UK channel ITV. A spokesman calls it a statistical fluke, which is your basic oh-please eye-roller.

Between October 24 and November 9, FOX averaged a 0.14% share of viewing in satellite homes, versus 0.12% for ITV News.

Amongst all multichannel homes, FOX was ahead on October 24, November 3 and November 8, despite only being available on satellite. ITV News also has carriage on Freeview and cable but had its DTT hours slashed in half on November 1 to make way for new male-skewed channel ITV4.

Ben Rayner, editor of the ITV News channel, dismissed the figures as "statistical quirks" brought about by a quieter-than-normal period of domestic news.

Rita Cosby, Lobotomized & Direct

Rita Cosby tells the National Ledger that she was way too smart to not take a job at the lowest-rated cable news network in the country. Come again?


"It was never a question of my being unhappy at Fox, it was that I'd have needed a lobotomy not to take this offer. A major prime time show in a prime spot -- it was just a tremendous opportunity." So says Rita Cosby, whose nightly "Live & Direct" show has become MSNBC's top-rated program since its launch this past summer.

Let me get this straight. Cosby left the ratings-force-of-nature that is FNC--would have needed a lobotomy to stay, even!--to join an outfit that's a total, shall we say, NONO--News Outlet in Name Only. Suddenly her lobotomy statement makes sense--she had one anyway and she's just getting out in front of that news. And as far as having the "top-rated program at MSNBC"? Isn't that a lot like having the cell with the best view in prison?

Variety to CNN prez Jon Klein: Don't answer the phone for awhile

Variety's Brian Lowry writes on Anderson Cooper's introduction to the career speed bump and has some advice for CNN management:

Cooper enjoyed perhaps the shortest honeymoon in recent memory. No sooner did he supplant Aaron Brown as the face of CNN then critics began to accuse the cable net of another seat-of-the-pants lineup shift, testifying to the channel's instability and seemingly knee-jerk programming philosophy.

Of course, CNN management bosses stoked the hysteria, foolishly proclaiming Cooper the tangiest flavor since New Coke. Then, after a slew of newspaper profiles, his first week averaged less than 600,000 viewers, failing to generate appreciable curiosity despite the media swarm.

As for Cooper, try focusing on the work, don't sweat the numbers and, along with your bosses, don't answer the phone for awhile.

Monica Crowley, Disconnected

So MSNBC just pulled the plug on"Connected Coast to Coast" with Monica Crowley and Ron Reagan.

Broadcasting & Cable reports:


No word yet on what will fill Connected’s noon timeslot, but an internal staff memo from MSNBC President Rick Kaplan promised “exciting new programming at noon” would be announced soon.

"Exciting new programming"? I have an idea! How about an exciting new reality show called "Survivor: MSNBC" in which marginally talented, nominally intelligent contestants compete to see who can keep their painfully boring show on the air longest. Losers get screamed-at at close range by the infamously non-Zen Rick Kaplan, but keep smiling in hopes of holding on until Keith Olbermann does something really stupid again and takes the heat off them for a while.

Meanwhile, back at the studio, Anderson Cooper's getting his bell rung bigtime by O'Reilly and Greta

In the flurry of trademark Aaron Brown inanities in Gail Shister's column--did you know that he's the "king of lunch" now that he's unemployed? Please, leave these softly depressing, Death-of-a-Salesman-ish turns of phrase to Arthur Miller--it's important to note that Shister, as always, gets right to the point:

Coop clobbered. Speaking of CNN's Anderson Cooper, his first week at 10 p.m. was lukewarm, ratings-wise.

Cooper's two-hour 360º averaged 593,000 viewers from 10 to midnight last week, compared with 1.47 million on Fox News Channel for Greta Van Susteren's On the Record and reruns of Bill O'Reilly's The O'Reilly Factor.

In the first hour, Cooper clocked 730,000 viewers to Van Susteren's 1.75 million. From 11 to midnight, Cooper had 455,000 viewers; O'Reilly, 1.20 million.

FNC reporters: It's what's for dinner

FNC's Adam Housley audio-blogs on the Fox Fan site about his recent experience cage-diving with Great White sharks.




Housley made his loved ones very, very nervous 150 miles off the coast of Baja, California, near an island called Isla Guadalupe, which is apparently the Ritz-Carlton for gigantic sharks--very popular among the giant-set-of-multiple-rows-of-teeth crowd.

It's a fun listen, and guilt-free too, since Housley still has all his parts intact. And all kidding aside, Housley makes the important (and unfortunately, made too rarely) point that sharks are misunderstood creatures and we're just now starting to understand the impacts humans have on sharks, not the other way around.

Having said all that, Housley's voice carries the unmistakably thrilled tone of someone who's been shot at, so to speak, uneventfully. Give a listen!

An Aaron Brown tell-all? Ponder, muse, rinse, repeat

Profoundly irrelevant former CNN anchor Aaron Brown tells the NYP's Cindy Adams that he was the least of CNN's problems:



SO, no longer on CNN, what's Aaron Brown going to do? "Be home for a while," he answered. Then: "CNN in the old days had a clear vision. It knew what it was. It's lost its way today." Watch for a book from Aaron Brown . . .

A reader points out that it's pretty interesting that Brown disses CNN to Cindy Adams, considering that he refused to talk about his experience at CNN to the real television writer, Gail Shister:

There are several subjects Brown won't discuss: his feelings about CNN and its president, Jonathan Klein; whether the move caught him by surprise; if he and Cooper have spoken.

"I'm not unaware that in the TV universe, something big happened," Brown says. "I get that. In terms of my life, I'm just enjoying this phase - being Dad and the family cook, and dreamer of the next great dream."

Considering that what Brown called anchoring is what most people would call sleepwalking, the dream imagery is fitting. The question is, exactly who will let him count sheep live on the air next?

Rupert Murdoch: CNN trying to become "fair and balanced"

In a dialogue with The Hollywood Reporter, News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch sums up the struggle at CNN:


THR: You have revolutionized news: The newspaper scene in London has gone on to influence newspapers the world over, Fox News changed television news, and you have made a big impact on sports.


Murdoch: News -- communicating news and ideas, I guess -- is my passion. And giving people alternatives so that they have two papers to read (and) alternative television channels. In this country, Fox News has gotten a big, big audience that appreciates its independence. There's passion there, and it's pushed. ... It has taken a long time, but it has now changed CNN because it has challenged them -- they've become more centrist in their choice of stories. They're trying to become, using our phrase, more fair and balanced.

FNC'S Global Warming special: The group sulk continues

Movement conservatives continue to scream bloody betrayal over FNC's global warming documentary. Even the just-the-facts Media Research Center is getting into the emotion-over-facts game, resorting to criticism of FNC's production values and vague smears of the data in an attempt to evade discussion of the scientific facts set forth in the special:

It began with all the hype of a Hollywood movie trailer. Flickering scenes of smokestacks, trucks and cars whizzing down the highway and dead fish in a stream were overlain with this ominous message: "The earth is sending out a desperate alarm."

That's how Fox News began its self-described "special on climate change and global warming." "The Heat Is On" went downhill from there, piling on a steady stream of left-wing activists, Hollywood celebrities, inaccuracies and exaggerations to paint a picture of a global climate apocalypse.

The "left-wing activists" and "Hollywood celebrities" the MRC's talking about? Why, these dangerous folks: RFK Jr. and Laurie (wife of Larry) David, aka conservative public enemies #1 (whatever happened to the good old days when Republicans rallied against Shining Path communists who lived to kill and torment people, not against a livable planet?) Let's be honest here. The words "Hollywood" and "Kennedy" always have, and always will, provoke a visceral response in certain individuals on the right side of the spectrum, in much the same way the words "President Bush" will always give the hard left a rash. It's not rational and it's not right, but it sure is predictable.

The whole global warming debate is fast becoming the new Third Rail of conservative politics--touch it with anything but derision and dismissal and prepare to be zapped. Free-market organization The Competitive Enterprise Institute is among the first to clutch its pearls in an open letter to Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes:

The host for the special, Rick Folbaum, writes in a Foxnews.com article that “the vast majority of the scientific community says we’re witnessing a unique and troubling kind of climate change” and that “no one can argue with this.” Many scientists have gone on record disputing this, many of whom are readily available to tell you that science does not support global warming alarmism, and that no one can credibly predict climate change over the next century.

Well, here's my problem with the CEI's heavy breathing: they're resorting to the last refuge of scoundrels. Contrary to popular belief, the last refuge of scoundrel's isn't patriotism--it's good old-fashioned lying. There is, to put it mildly, a ton of hard science to support the existence of global warming. Ideologues have always hated scientists, though, for one simple reason: scientists have a very narrow range of interest. Scientists like science, not political dogma. It's why they're scientists and not, oh, I don't know, CEI lawyers.

For the record, here's what Folbaum wrote in his Reporter's Notebook:


Many scientists say the biggest threat could be sea-level rise, the result of melting glaciers. We saw the melting first hand, spotting waterfalls deep in the heart of Alaska's once-solid glaciers. Robert Kennedy Jr., our special correspondent, took a trip to Montana's Glacier National Park that was also scarily enlightening. Did you know that Glacier National Park is almost entirely out of glaciers? They've almost all melted. Gordon Hamilton of the University of Maine's Climate Change Institute says when ice sheets melt, the water produced adds to sea levels across the planet. This summer, the arctic ice cap shrunk to its smallest size ever. If that or any other major body of ice were to disappear altogether, Dr. Oppenheimer says about a third of Florida would be completely submerged.

None of this is really debatable. What has been debated, though, is the cause. Is this our fault? There are scientists out there who argue that none of this is human related. But those experts appear to be in the minority. Dr. Bruce Molnia of the U.S. Geological Survey says, "Part of what we're looking at is a natural cycle. It's the human component, it's the human changes that we need to be able to find a way of minimizing." Are we trying? Some are, some aren't. Certain industry leaders are changing the way they do business to help the environment, and some continue to deny there's even a problem.

What Folbaum wrote is the soul of reason and grounded logic. So, why is this investigative journalism such anethema to certain groups on the right? I've said it before and I'll say it again: it's the emotion, not the science, that's upsetting the right. The environment has long been the undisputed territory of the left, and the left did a great job of totally appropriating absolutely everything to do with it--including unwarranted panic, alarm and sheer looniness. But global warming is different, because it's not liberal hysteria--it's fact. Like they say, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you. And global warming is after this planet. So now, every time global warming gets some long-deserved thoughtful attention, it's second nature for the right and the left to try to extract as much political benefit as possible from the subject. It's time this stopped, and it's time the right stops attacking the only truly fair and balanced news outlet in America today for being fair and balanced--and brave. It took guts and confidence for FNC and Roger Ailes to run a special that was going to make people mad. It's fine to make people mad, if it's good for them in the long run. When the sulking anti-environment minority--and they are a minority; most people on both sides of the spectrum want a healthy environment and believe global warming is for real----grows up, it'll understand.

FNC's smart & beautiful Martha MacCallum: all this and a sense of humor, too

New Jersey's Bergen Record profiles working mother and Fox News Live anchor Martha MacCallum:

MacCallum is not ruffled by a reporter's question about the criticism often leveled at Fox News Channel: that it's hardly fair and balanced but has an obvious conservative bias.

"One of the things that people confuse a lot and some of the critics confuse a lot is that our evening prime-time programming is similar to the editorial page of the newspaper," MacCallum says. "You do get lots of opinions and those shows do really well, and if you want to hear another opinion you can go to any other station and listen to that. That's an open forum for opinions, but during the day, we're held to a very strict standard of being fair.

"I don't have any agenda out there, and it's interesting that people will read an agenda into wherever they're coming from. You'll get it from both sides," she continues. "My job is to ... be fair and to listen to both sides of the story ... and that's what I do."

Her childhood prepared her well for this job, she says.

"My father came from a very Republican family, and my mother's from a very Democratic family, so I feel like I am fair and balanced by birth," says MacCallum.

And she's funny, too:

"I definitely can be accused of being addicted to my BlackBerry. I'm always connected, in one way or another," MacCallum says. "Wherever I am, I have to flip on the TV for five seconds, because a) I know that if there's a commercial running it means that the world is not ending, and b) I constantly check in just because if something's happening, I could get called in and I need to know what's going on."

I know what's causing global warming! Overheated anti-FNC bloggers!

FNC's much-anticipated/much-feared (depending on where you stand politically, not scientifically) Rick Folbaum-hosted documentary, "The Heat is On: The Case of Global Warming" aired last night and boy oh boy, the earth isn't the only thing that's getting hotter. The blogs are en fuego this morning, people.

For example, the usually sensible RedState.org:

I could not take it. I watched part of the FNC show on global warming hoping to get a fair and balanced report from Fox but no it was the usual PC pseudo science.

My complaint about the Fox show was NO SCIENCE -- at least the part I could stand to watch.

Beg pardon? You didn't watch it but hey, no biggie, you've got your opinion? Sorry, neither science nor debate work that way. For the record, the special was an excellent scientific primer on why and how the earth is getting warmer. But you actually had to have watched to know that.

There's a larger fight going on here. Global warming is an emotional issue for many on the the right, not a scientific one. Perhaps the best way to think of it is like this: global warming is to the right what abortion is to the left. Conservatives know that the earth is heating up, but they can't bring themselves to admit it, because then they'd be breathing the same ideological air as Al Gore. Liberals know that fetuses turn into babies if unaborted, but similarly refuse to allow the science of gestation to enter into their arguments, lest they feel that they're now in bed with zealots who want to, for example, outlaw garden-variety birth control.

Both sides are just hoping that if they scream loud enough, science will cover its ears and slink away. But science won't; it never will; and it never has. A thermometer's a thermometer; conception is conception. But nature's always been inconvenient to what inhabitants of the earth want. Ask the dinosaurs.

CNBC's Maria Bartiromo to Roger Ailes: Help, get me out of here!

CNBC's gorgeous Money Honey uses an interview with the NYDN to scream for help:

An announcement regarding CNBC morning shows, including changes at flagship pre-market program "Squawk Box," could come as early as this week, insiders said. Future changes at the business network are expected to involve a new role for Bartiromo.

CNBC and Bartiromo declined to comment on programing changes.

In a recent sitdown with the Daily News, the 38-year-old anchor chatted about "Closing Bell," which draws a larger audience than CNBC superstar Jim Cramer's "Mad Money," though it gets blown away by Fox News' 4 p.m. business show "Your World with Neil Cavuto." She also talked about her much-scrutinized hair, Fox News chief Roger Ailes, and the state of business news on television.

NYDN: Fox News Channel is gearing up to launch a business news channel. Would you go to work for Roger Ailes?

BARTIROMO: I think Roger Ailes is a terrific programer. Roger put me on the air at CNBC in 1993. (She had been working as a producer for CNN's Lou Dobbs.)

I would take a call from Roger any day of the week. That's not saying I would go work there. (Bartiromo has two and a half years left on her CNBC contract.)

Oh, no, of course not. She'd have to make CNBC mad enough to fire her first.

Love ideology? Hate humanity? Then you'll love to hate FNC's global warming special

See the pic above? It's a shot from the FNC website of blue ice melting in Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, Alaska. And Laurie David, who takes second in the environmentalist-most-hated-by-conservatives contest (Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. takes first, because if he's a Kennedy, he must be a bad person, right?) isn't holding a giant hairdryer on the glacier to make it melt; it's melting because the earth is getting warmer.

I just watched the Fox News global warming special The Heat Is On: The Case of Global Warming that's got a bunch of conservative organizations up in a lather. But global warming is an inconvenient and uncooperative beast to try to ride to victory on, because the facts of it are based in science, that most empirically unforgivable master.

Rick Folbaum clearly worked hard for this special, riding helicopters into the frozen unknown as well as traveling to, for some, that darker heart of darkness, Laurie David's office in Los Angeles. (One of her unforgivable crimes of loony radical environmentalism? Prevailing upon her daughters' school to post "No Idling" signs outside, to reduce emissions near the school and in the world as a whole. This woman is dangerous, people! Please.)

But here's the deal: it was a great special. It took a topic that had, until now, been appropriated and thus greatly diminished by the opportunistic left (hello, Al Gore) for political purposes and turned into a very real and relatable story. The special contained all of FNC's trademark sis-boom-bah, including great white sharks converging upon Alaska, drawn by warmer waters (sorry, it was cool) but so what? If everything worth knowing were framed in the drab, stultifying black and white of a 70's PBS program, we'd all die stupid and ignorant.

And that, in the final analysis, is the real problem some on the right have with this special: it takes away the power of fear of the unknown, a fear that both sides of the ideological spectrum seek to use to their advantage. Knowledge is power, after all, and if the viewing public sees that most people concerned about global warming don't want to burn flags and legalize drugs on their way to the hydrogen fueling station, well, then some conservatives aren't going to be able to make political hay with it anymore. I applaud Fox News for this special, but I'm not surprised they chose to do it. Global warming exists, and that which exists must be reported upon. How bad global warming currently is, or will get, remains to be seen, but again, I refer you to FNC's mission statement--"We report, you decide." They reported on global warming, and now we can decide. And besides, as David said, our children aren't Democratic or Republican--they're children who live on this earth. FNC did a good thing with this special, and I think that time will bear that out, and hopefully as a warning, and not as an omen.

CNN and MSNBC: Yeah, yeah, Veterans Day, whatever

CNN and MSNBC couldn't cut away from the Veterans Day ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Ceremony fast enough this morning. The precise second the playing of "Taps" ended: Boom! Back to the studio! Thank goodness THAT'S over!

FNC, on the other hand, stayed at Arlington Cemetery, putting White House Correspondent (and veteran) Greg Kelly on a split screen to comment on the ceremony and on the day itself.

FNC has been treating Veterans Day with the extraordinary respect it deserves, and has also been playing sound and footage of the playing of "Taps" at every break. CNN and MSNBC had more important things to flash on the screen, like the same logos they can put up every other day of the year. Hey, there's a reason we're not saying "Happy Veterans Day" in German. There's a reason we can say it at all. It's because veterans died for all the freedoms--the embarassment of riches, really--that we have. When American media outlets like CNN and MSNBC neglect to point this out, or throw away the sacred day set aside just to honor veterans, well, it's more than a shame--it's shameful.

Tim Goodman: MSNBC, cable news for masochists and other Rita Cosby fans

In a very funny column today, the San Francisco Chronicle's Tim Goodman wants to know why Rick Kaplan is punishing us with Rita Cosby, or, as Jon Stewart has nicknamed her, Throaty McHusky:


To the hundreds of people who have e-mailed asking where Aaron Brown is going to end up, now that Jonathan Klein has run him off of CNN (that's Jon.Klein@turner.com in case you missed it the last time), we have no idea. You'd think Aaron might send us an e-mail or something. But no. In any case, we're pretty sure he'll land on his feet. If MSNBC had a brain (still being investigated), it might look to hire him. This from a network that just announced it will be adding a talk show from Maury "Spawn of Satan" Povich and his wife Connie "Mrs. Spawn of Satan" Chung.

Which begs the question, is MSNBC president Rick Kaplan trying to punish people who watch his channel? Exhibit A: Rita Cosby. (Yes, bashing her has become tiring even to us, but the other day she was wearing all pink and our TiVo didn't cut off "Countdown" fast enough and, well, game back on.)


And, as TCG pointed out first on Tuesday, Goodman calls the MSNBC spin machine on bragging that the Connie/Maury show will be produced by a "Daily Show" co-creator, which is a total so-freaking-what if I ever heard one.

Now, MSNBC and/or Kaplan may counter our nausea over the Maury and Connie show by saying, hey, it's being executive produced by Lizz Winstead, who helped create "The Daily Show" before it was truly great and who went on to host a talk show on Air America (thus, apparently, offsetting Maury's Republicanism, if not the stench of the carny barker he's attained in daytime television). To which we say back to Kaplan and/or MSNBC: Don't lie to us like we're Montel Williams! People sell out all the time. It doesn't mean the show will be any good.

"Going Places" author E.D. Hill, class act

"Fox and Friends" host E.D. Hill was just on Your World with Neil Cavuto talking about her new book, Going Places : How America's Best and Brightest Got Started Down the Road of Life, and Cavuto asked a very incisive question that really got to the heart of what E.D. Hill is like as a person. Cavuto noted that one of the people E.D. profiles in the book is Sandy Weill, Citigroup chairman and her former father-in-law. Wasn't that awkward? Cavuto wondered. And E.D. had an incredibly classy and nice response: it wasn't awkward at all, she said, because he is, like everyone else in this book, a very good person, an outstanding human being, and we'd spent so much time together and I knew him so well, that it just made sense.

E.D. noted that Sandy Weill, in addition to being an amazing businessman with so many outstanding personal qualities, has a really cute and unusual approach to tennis--and, I would extrapolate further, to learning overall. Other people might take tennis lessons from a pro, but Weill learned Latin instead, theorizing that the process of learning and logic specific to understanding that language would translate into a better tennis game.

The book is full of cool stuff like this. But back to what this says about E.D.: that she would be such a big-hearted person, not to mention so kind and all-around cool, when most people just wash their hands of their former in-laws, is just amazing. E.D. recently told an interviewer that she's planning on writing more books. "Going Places" is such a great concept--I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.

CNN's time-delay approach to breaking news

TVNewser notes that FNC "dominated terror in Jordan coverage":








FNC's coverage of the Jordan hotel bombings was enhanced by a producer on the scene. I kept flipping back and forth between cable news channels, and CNN seemed to wait a while before reporting on the bombings.

> "How lucky was Fox News to have a well-connected producer at one of the hotels in Jordan right after the attacks?," an e-mailer says. "It made all the difference in their coverage and it was interesting to watch the others struggle to keep up."

Geraldo Rivera on his Latino heritage and on giving a voice to the voiceless

The Spanish/English San Francisco newspaper El Reportero talks to Geraldo Rivera about his Latino roots and his pride in his heritage:

The first words award-winner Geraldo Rivera spelled out, while sitting by the window of Ch-5 Fox News studios talking to El Reportero, had nothing to do with his new prime-time TV show, "Geraldo at Large." He wanted the world to continue knowing that he is Latino.

“Hablemos español”[Let us speak Spanish], said Rivera, when asked in English, “what language should we speak?” during an exclusive interview with El Reportero, three hours before departing to Los Angeles, where he would meet his friend Cheech Marín and continue promoting his new show. He would later fly back to his hometown New York, where he would appear on The Jimmy Kimmel Live Show.

Wearing his customary smile under his Latin-style-trimmed mustache during most of the interview, he said he wanted to practice his Spanish, while acknowledging his imperfect speaking.

The son of Bayamón, Puerto Rico’s Cruz Rivera, who died in 1987, and Lily, Rivera, explained how his father tried to keep the family from becoming too Latinized, but rather “Americanized,” and highlights how times have changed versus his father’s epoch.

“This is the reason why I didn’t learn Spanish well… but I have a huge pride being who I am – and that since the last 35 years everybody knows I am a Latino.” He takes pride that, “my five children (Gabriel Miguel, Cruz, Isabela, Simone, Sol) speak Spanish better than me.”

“It’s important that my voice be present in order to be a different point of view in the media,” he said. “And part of my work is to give voice to those who don’t have it. I will tell the truth to millions."

Global warming featured on FNC, and the Right's hot under the collar

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. If the Right AND the Left are both steamed at a news organization, the news organization is doing something very right. Such is the case with the Fox News special on global warming, "The Heat Is On: The Case of Global Warming," set to air this Sunday night at 8pm. Hosted by Rick Folbaum, the special is causing some frothing on the right side of the political spectrum, as Cybercast News Service reports:



...Chris Horner, senior fellow with the free market environmental group, Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), is among those arguing about the theory of "global warming." He is also criticizing Fox News Channel, not only for its decision to air the documentary, but for featuring "Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a prominent agenda-driven environmentalist and registered lobbyist for green causes ... as a 'special correspondent' for the show."

Despite the disclaimer at the beginning of the program, Horner told Cybercast News Service that "many and possibly most viewers would not even see this disclaimer ...

"While it is unfathomable that a reputable news network would air so blatantly a one-sided program regardless of any disclaimer, that the 'fair and balanced' network would put itself in the position of suspending its motto is stupefying," Horner said.

So let me get this straight. Certain groups on the right are now throwing the same illogical invective at FNC that the left originally trademarked: the Orwellian j'accuse! that showing both sides of the story is actually one-sided.

But Fox and Folbaum are sticking to their guns:

Folbaum, in a statement on the news organization's website, explained that "after months of research and interviews with many experts, I've learned this simple fact: The earth is heating up. And it's happening much faster than ever before. No one can argue with this."

Clay Rawson, the Fox News Channel producer of the hour-long special, told Cybercast News Service Tuesday that the project "was a little bit different for us.

"Often on Fox News Channel, we present both sides, according to our 'fair and balanced' motto, but this is the global warming story," Rawson said. "We do make it clear that this is one side of the issue through inclusion of a disclaimer," he added. The documentary is said to ignore scientific skeptics who believe that human activity is not responsible for catastrophic climate change.

Good for Fox. Everybody I know on both sides of the political spectrum has been making dark jokes about waking up to find they own beachfront property for years. We all hope it won't come to that, but dispassionate investigation, free of the left's ban-cars hysteria and the right's green allergies, into global warming is really the only hope we have that we can stop global warming from sneaking up on us.

Tim Goodman: Keith Olbermann, not just for PCP junkies anymore

The San Francisco Chronicle's Tim Goodman writes today that Keith Olbermann is the desperately-needed Rainman of news:


...the future of broadcast network news has been hiding out, as it were, for two and half years on -- of all places -- cable. If you want to know what the face of the future looks like -- at least the successful version, not some warmed over Bob Schieffer action or a trio of Triple A prospects on "Nightline," then look no further than this man: Keith Olbermann.

What's needed in the sacrosanct, pre-primetime news arena is a whole lot more hipness and innovation and clanging brass in the midsection. You want a younger audience for network news? Drop the idea that it's gospel. Give everyone a wink and a tweak and a pinch. Take the best of Stewart, the best of Jim Lehrer's "NewsHour," add some celebrity news and some bizarre news and feel free not only to raise an eyebrow or smirk, but to outright scoff.

Oh, and by the way, Olbermann has been doing that on "Countdown" for two and a half years. Nobody knows how to make a tonal shift quite like Olbermann. One moment he's dissecting the Scooter Libby leak story with multiple sources and the next he's playing "Oddball," a quick departure from the serious to the silly. He's updating the Iraq situation or dissecting some unflattering poll numbers on President Bush, then naming that night's "Worst Person in the World" or peeking into the "Countdown" hall of fame for examples of what rapper Chuck D once called "the dumbassification of America."

In-depth seriousness. Random stupidity. The five top stories of the day (and change) as Olbermann sees them, with his uniquely split personality. Beautiful in its modernity and its entertainment and news value.

There's a term for what watching "Countdown" is like: angel dust overdose. (Hey, I watched those vivid anti-drug after-school specials in the 80's too.) "Countdown"'s not beautiful; it's freaking me out.

And as far as Olbermann being the future of news? Sure, it could happen! It could absoutely happen under one condition: that the percentage of adults in this country with adult ADD rises from 4% to, say, 100%.

Washington Post: Welcome to prime-time in loserville, Anderson Cooper

The Washington Post's Lisa de Moraes names the week's winners and losers in her TV column today, and the fawnariffic Anderson Cooper is named---WHAT? This CAN'T BE RIGHT! I just heard that Jesus would watch 360 if He were alive today! Ok, brace yourself. Anderson Cooper was the biggest loser on TV this week:



LOSERS:

Anderson Cooper . Cooper took over "NewsNight's" 10-to-midnight slot this past Monday after CNN showed "NewsNight" anchor Aaron Brown the door. Cooper clocked 631,000 viewers. In October, Brown (with his replacement "co-anchoring") logged 665,000 viewers. Now let's look at the same night one year ago: CNN averaged virtually the same audience -- 632,000 viewers -- only with Brown's show running one hour at 10 and a Lou Dobbs rerun at 11. Breaking them out, Brown averaged 781,000 viewers that night, the Dobbs rerun 482,000. For the sake of perfect clarity, this past Monday, the first hour of Cooper's show averaged 758,000 viewers, the second hour 503,000 viewers. Welcome to prime time, Cooper.

The Columbia Journalism Review, morally opposed to reviewing journalism

The Columbia Journalism Review reveals that it won't actually review any journalism that it doesn't like. In a priceless, must be read to be believed piece on morning shows, the CJR pretends not to know the names of the hosts of the top-rated morning show on cable. For the record, their names are Steve, E.D. and Brian, but let's not pretend the CJR didn't know that--the CJR just wouldn't be able to sleep at night if it gave FNC any publicity...


On "Fox and Friends," the very small study fueled a faux-feisty discussion among the three co-hosts, two male and one female, during which one of the few details provided was botched. Male host one: "So Stanford came up with this thing, they did some MRIs on five different men and five different women [it was 10 men and 10 women] ... the results are that women seem to appreciate a good joke better." Male host two: " This is such an anti-man study." Female host: "Men think they're so funny ... " Male host two: "Bottom line, men stink. Why don't we just start every show like that?"

"Male host one"? "Male host two"? "Female host"? "Faux-feisty?" (ooooh, subtle.) The CJR didn't have any problem remembering the names of Soledad O'Brien, Ann Curry, and Charles Gibson further down in the piece, and even fondly, casually referred to Matt Lauer and Katie Couric as "Matt and Katie," no last names necessary for all the members of the hate-FNC club, no doubt. The CJR should reserve its selective ammnesia for cocktail parties, or else start calling itself the Columbia Some-Journalism Kind-of Review.

MSNBC prez Rick Kaplan, careening into cultural sacrilege

Does this look like a snapshot from the Connie Chung/Maury Povich family album to you?



Yeah, me neither. But that's not what the president of America's least-watched cable network wants you to think about MSNBC's latest attempt to let America know it exists. The Philadelphia Inquirer's Gail Shister writes:

Syndicated talker Maury Povich and his wife, CNN exile Connie Chung, will cohost a new weekend news show to be produced by a creator of Comedy Central's Daily Show.

The 30-minute program, set for 10 a.m. Saturdays, launches Jan. 7. Lizz Winstead is executive producer. No title yet, but MSNBC boss Rick Kaplan says he's pushing for Connie and Mr. Chung. (He's kidding. We like it.)

Kaplan compares Povich and Chung to Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, who starred together in such classics as 1949's Adam's Rib, 1952's Pat and Mike, and 1967's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.

Oh, okay. It's got a Daily Show producer! Wow--one whole producer! No sweat, then! It's sure to be brilliant! Just sprinkle some of that I breathed the same air as Jon Stewart magic pixie dust on the fun couple and whammo! Instant charisma! Ratings! Whatever! Please.

But back to the Tracy and Hepburn comparison. Maybe that line works on Chung and Povich at dinner parties, but to think that such patent b.s. would charm actual Tracy and Hepburn fans everywhere else is indicative of a level of socio-cultural tone-deafness that staggers the mind. It also hints at the kind of circular firing squad disguised as batting practice that must go on at MSNBC. "Hey, I think you're great. What's that? You think I'm great too? Wow, what are the odds? I think we've got a/could have a great show on our hands! Let's all keep up the good work!"

Kaplan says there's an ace up MSNBC's sleeve, though:

Chung's humor helps, Kaplan says. (With MSNBC mired in third place behind CNN and leader Fox News Channel, it could use help.) "She's an incredibly funny person, no matter what we're discussing."

Kaplan and Chung have been pals since they both worked at CBS in the early '70s. The new show - a lighthearted review of the previous week's headlines - is the result of Kaplan's many dinners at the couple's home.

"When I'm there, I'm happy to be silent and listen to them for two hours, and everybody knows how much I like to talk. You watch them for 10 minutes and you understand."

Chung, a 30-year TV news vet, "has this way of getting under his skin, and he knows she's doing it. She needles him. She pushes his buttons. She sets him up and, before you know it, she's won."

That's what makes Chung and Povich Tracy and Hepburn? Bickering? Has Kaplan actually SEEN any of their movies?

It's one thing to believe your own press. It's another thing when nobody else can read your press with a straight face. I'll say one thing for the Chung & Povich show--it's funny already.

Movers & Shakers: FNC names Mandelker VP of Eastern Sales

Fox News announced today that Mike Mandelker has been named Vice President of Eastern Sales for the network, replacing Kevin Brown. Mandelker will start November 14. In making the announcement, Senior VP of Advertising Sales Paul Rittenberg called Mandelker, who prior to joining FNC served as Executive Vice President, Network Sales for UPN since 1998, "one of the best sales executives in the industry." Mandelker began his career in advertising sales at ABC in 1977.

According to a Fox News press release, in his new role at FNC Mandelker will, in addition to overseeing all eastern regional sales for the network, supervise the New York sales staff and their outside territories, direct response sales, and new business development.

Ashleigh Banfield, waving the flag for the man who's extending her 15 minutes of fame to 16 minutes

Recovering MSNBC-er and new mom Ashleigh Banfield tells the NYDN's Lloyd Grove that there's more to Anderson Cooper than just his hair:

Now that Anderson Cooper - who launched his two-hour show last night - is CNN's brightest star, a couple of television critics warn that he'll meet the same fate as Ashleigh Banfield.

"Cable's a very fickle business," Banfield told me yesterday. "But I think Anderson's got incredible talent and a long career in front of him." Banfield, who's over the moon about her 2-week-old son, Jay Fischer Gould, declined to comment on rumors that she'll be anchoring a new show in January for Court TV.

So cable's a "fickle business," huh? That would be a great excuse for flaming out but for one small detail: every business or thing worth doing is "fickle," if you think about it. Medical school won't want you anymore if you faint at the sight of blood or lose the ability to do chemistry in your head. The military will get totally fickle on you if you decide you'd rather not get shot at, like you signed up for. You could be absolutely the best executive assistant in the world, and your boss is going to entertain more than a few whims about firing you if you start answering his or her phone with "What do YOU want?"

So Ashleigh, if it makes you feel better, cable's fickle. And the kicker is that if it weren't, nobody would want to be a part of it, because it wouldn't self-regulate its way to excellence....or (CNN) not.

CNN: Anderson Cooper's not just a fad, dammit! He's someone who gets trounced by "The Fox Report" every night!

Oh, it's so cute. Over at CNN, they're just stomping their little feet and holding their collective breath over all the Ashleigh Banfield/Anderson Cooper comparisons. So I'll be fair and point out that Cooper indeed plays in the majors, and loses there too, as the Boston Globe notes:


All year, ''Anderson Cooper 360" has consistently drawn only about half the viewers of Fox News Channel's ''The Fox Report With Shepard Smith" in the same 7 p.m. time slot. And while ''NewsNight" ratings spiked when Cooper joined Brown on the show during the hurricane, by late October, with Cooper still on the program, viewership had dropped back to about previous levels, according to Nielsen data.

Still, Klein said, CNN's market research shows that viewers have responded to Cooper. ''The awareness of him and the proportion of people, of viewers, who say that they like him," Klein says, ''has gone through the roof."

It's unsurprising that Cooper's personality has become part of the story, says Matthew Felling, media director of the Center for Media and Public Affairs, based in Washington D.C. Major news events have a way of promoting personalities, Felling notes. But the TV news business -- as Aaron Brown might attest -- has a way of moving on.

''Just as 9/11 begat [MSNBC anchor] Ashleigh Banfield, so did Katrina create Anderson Cooper," Felling said. ''Which begs the question: Anyone seen Ashleigh lately?"

FNC's Greg Palkot to French media: Denial is apparently a river in France

FNC's Greg Palkot files a Reporter's Notebook from the current war zone of France that's smarter, more relevant, and more authentically experienced than anything turned out by the New York Times today. Not to mention funnier:

Last Wednesday night as we drove around the outskirts of Paris, a half hour from “home,” it looked like nothing short of Baghdad — burning cars and trucks littering the sides of the road. Lines of riot police ready to do battle with insurgents ... I mean angry French mobs.

The next few nights we got our noses filled with noxious fumes as the rioters shifted targets and started torching warehouses.

Then in broad daylight, as I was doing a live shot in the town of Bobigny, five miles from Paris, a courthouse 200 yards away went up in smoke. I haven’t had that kind of “real time” illustration of badness since a car bomb blew up during a live shot in Baghdad, forcing me to do an on-air gulp seen ‘round the world.

No fewer than three French newspapers have quoted my analogy of the problems now plaguing France with ANOTHER American problem from a few months back. In one live shot I dubbed the Paris riots the “Katrina of social disasters.” And I don’t think I was that far off.

I got knocked on the air one day by a reporter from the French newspaper Le Monde for comparing the situtation to Baghdad, but then police discovered a molotov cocktail-making factory south of Paris. They also started to admit that there is at least some coordination and organization among the rioters. Maybe now just from older punks or criminals, but the Islamists could at least be waiting in the wings. All of a sudden it doesn’t quite seem like this is all the work of a bunch of dead-enders.

Of course, the piece de resistance (as we say here in France) was when the trouble outside Paris hit Paris itself. This weekend some 30 cars were torched and some nearby buildings were damaged in the French capital. This is the beginning of the nightmare scenario French officials were fearing. It's one thing to burn a run-down Renault in the parking lot of a housing project. It's
another thing to start tarnishing the crown jewel. Then all of those banner headlines about Paris burning might actually turn out to be true.

The relatively thin coverage by the French media of the riots — one of France’s equivalents to Time Magazine devoted only four pages to the troubles Monday. Time itself devoted six! Compare that to the wall-to-wall (concealed glee) coverage of Katrina, and it makes you wonder. Does France really want to come to terms with all of this?

Former CBS News prez wins dumbest post-game Aaron Brown commentary contest

Radar magazine lets a former little-league benchwarmer play Monday morning quarterback:

“I tried to hire Aaron Brown a couple of years ago when I was at Fox,” former CBS News president Van Gordon Sauter told us from California. “I think he’s articulate, insightful, and incredibly gracious. But in the absence of a well-produced show, his potential was never achieved. CNN failed to take his basic assets and enlarge them, make the show more energetic, more relevant, more spontaneous, more engaging. That’s what the show needed.”

Oh, I see. All Brown needed was better producers. That's like saying that all the Sahara needs is a really good humidifier from the Sharper Image, and bingo: it's a water park!

And what is this "I tried to hire Brown" stuff? Isn't that code for "I was the only person who thought that would have been a good idea, so it didn't happen?" There's a reason the phrase "I tried to" never appears on resumes--even though repeated use of it might necessitate the need for an updated resume.

Sauter approves of CNN's handling of the new Anderson Cooper Experience, though. One word--vicarious:

“This, for them, is a smart move—an isolated smart move,” Sauter says, adding, “I wish CNN well, but they’re just in dire shape.”


Twenty years ago Sauter injected Ron Burgundy-style action and a shot of warm and fuzzy—what he called “the big emo”—into the stolid evening news format, leading many critics to blame him for the Tiffany Network’s precipitous decline in the post-Cronkite era.

Liz Smith, all fawned out over Anderson Cooper

Talk about a danger sign for Anderson Cooper. If even media-establishment queen Liz Smith is sick of kissing your perky butt, having said butt held up as CNN's saving grace might not be such a great idea!


As much as I like, enjoy and admire Anderson Cooper (especially in the field) — isn't three hours of him a little much for someone relatively untried? I fear CNN will now debase the excellent coin this young newscaster built up by overexposing him.

Isn't this what ABC did when they had the good luck to find "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" They quickly ran it into the ground, and the public overdosed.

MSNBC, hiring Chung and Povich to speak at its own funeral

MSNBC's latest genius (in an alternate universe) move to bring on the ratings: Saturday mornings with Connie and Maury.


Connie Chung and Maury Povich will team up to host a Saturday morning MSNBC show, the cable network confirmed Monday.

The duo, who have been married since 1984, will review the week's headlines and feature a range of guests on the as-yet unnamed show.

“Maury’s been on my case to get out of the house and get back to work, but I didn’t want to until he came up with this idea,” Chung said in a statement. “The question is not whether the program will last. … the question is, ‘Can our marriage survive?'” (Oh, and she's not joking. She'd say she is, but if I were Maury I'd mix my own drinks, if you catch my meaning.)

Chung's statement--and MSNBC's thinking--can only be described as offensively lame. Offensive because saying "I'm only doing this stupid show to get my stupid husband off my case" is such a waste of real, undiscovered or unpromoted talent out there who would trade a kidney for such an opportunity. Lame because Connie "Just whisper it to me" Chung is the best MSNBC can do? (Actually, it's worse than that. MSNBC can do better, they just won't. All that opportunity and resources, squandered. Why bother running a cable news operation at all at this point? It seems there's zero willingness at NBC to pull MSNBC out of the ditch it's in. Bob Wright now holds the dubious distinction of overseeing a cable news channel that is now, quite literally, un-American.)

But back to "Satudays with the Squabblers." If I wanted to have Saturday brunch with Connie and Maury, I'd date them. Next!

SF Chronicle: Anderson Cooper, Ashleigh Banfield with better hair

The San Francisco Chronicle's Tim Goodman has an absolutely must-read take on the chaos theory crashing and burning at CNN and inside prez Jon Klein's head:

In his zeal to make Anderson Cooper the poster boy of cable news -- apparently at all costs and with nary a concern about overexposure -- Klein is taking a gamble that history is likely to reveal as a miscalculation. One man -- even one as talented and likable as Cooper -- does not turn around a news network.

Cooper's tears were real and his pain at the plight of those ruined by Katrina was palpable. He hit a nerve -- at the time. He was anointed in the press. But natural disasters come and go, and nobody can sustain that kind of reportorial demeanor in the long term -- nor would people want to watch it. Already Cooper seems perhaps too ready for his moment and too ever-present around tragedy. Got hurricane? Got Cooper?

Back in the safe confines of the studio, he has some less honed and more annoying tendencies -- self-aggrandizement, a willingness to play someone's version of a tech-savvy anchor -- that a good news executive might manage a little more closely. But Klein appears to be smitten with Cooper and his buzz-worthiness, even telling the New York Times that "clearly, America is embracing Anderson Cooper" and noting that he's being satirized on "Saturday Night Live," as if that were a good thing.

A reminder: Ashleigh Banfield.

Banfield got a ton of ink. She got buzz. She got satirized. Then she got lost.

That's not to say Cooper is in the same league of fleeting media celebrity. MSNBC has always been desperate for real talent and seriously blind to it when it comes to women (hello, Rita Cosby).

Klein's rejiggering of CNN's schedule is a real mystery. It seems predicated on a relatively slight uptick in viewers that has yet to be sustained, some positive press for Cooper that has also yet to be sustained and a meritless belief in Wolf Blitzer's "Situation Room," a show that desperately wants to be ground zero for breaking news but often seems like pointless plate spinning or unsophisticated sausage making.


These moves seem tethered less to a leader's vision than to some water cooler assumption that Cooper is the next big thing. If Klein thinks "America is embracing Cooper," then what is America doing to Fox News' Shepherd Smith, who drubs Cooper in the ratings? Bear-hugging the breath out of him?

This is one of the forgotten elements of the Cooper-CNN hype machine. Fox News is handing CNN its head virtually every night. Klein was brought on board after a long, laughable line of CNN management successions -- each new person failing more spectacularly than the last -- to stop this drubbing. He hasn't. So maybe that's the history Klein is focusing on -- the failure of his predecessors. To avoid their fate, he's building CNN around Cooper and hoping viewers will come.

Don Imus: MSNBC to write bad country song about Aaron Brown?

Page Six reports that Don Imus predicted yesterday that Aaron Brown's on his way to MSNBC:

Not even Don Imus, whose morning radio show has been simulcast on MSNBC for years, says nice things about the little-watched cable channel. Yesterday, reacting to news that Aaron Brown had left CNN and been replaced by Anderson Cooper, the I-Man said, "Which means there will be, very soon, 'The Aaron Brown Report' here on MSNBC, because the MO for MSNBC is [that] anybody at either Fox or CNN who can't get it done, they hire 'em here, thinking I don't know what . . ."

I'll tell you what MSNBC's thinking. They're thinking the same thing that's given every country music singer who's ever lived they lyrics to their obligatory "S/He tore out my heart and stomped that sucker flat" love-gone-wrong song: This time it will be different. I can change him. He won't take advantage of/flake out on/behave badly with me. This time will be totally different. He won't break my heart.

Go for it, MSNBC! There's no way the Baron of Boring will rip out your heart and drive your ratings even lower, if that's actually possible, and use them to fix a flat. Because it will be different this time--right?

LAT: RIP Aaron Brown, an "initiate of elitism"

The Los Angeles Times' Paul Brownfield writes that Aaron Brown Darwined himself out of the anchor chair, in a wide-ranging piece that also grudgingly admits that Geraldo's name still says it all, like Prince:


Maybe the real difference between Cooper and Brown is that you can't imagine I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby leaking anything to Cooper as you can with Brown, who seems more an initiate of elitism. He's a wry observer of the way things work, rather than a restless traveler hungering to experience the world, which is what Cooper exudes. Brown often wore a smug smile, and he took his time when the camera rolled. He arrived at CNN on 9/11 and left it known in part for a segment at the end of his broadcasts in which he held up the front pages of the next day's newspapers. In today's "This Just In" climate, that almost seemed illegal....

Guess what. It SHOULD be illegal, in a journalistic sense, to put viewers in a coma before actually imparting any information! Here's a word I've inexplicably never heard used to describe Brown's style of reporting: subliminal.

.....Rivera, don't forget, was in New Orleans too, representing his extreme tele-journalism, sheer persistence coupled with shameless showbiz.

It has served him through multiple decades as a personality moving up and down in the news business but never quite out, finally. And so he is back, again, and inside of five minutes on the Monday debut of Geraldo at Large" (in Los Angeles it airs weeknights on Fox at 11 p.m.), Rivera burst forth with a barrage of words such as "terrifying," "awful," "battered," "chaos" and "confusion," to say nothing of the phrases "convicted sex offenders" and "predator hunt."

He was getting right to it, because his name still says it all, like Prince. "We are tracking a terrible threat," he said, standing in a New Orleans neighborhood, a crumbled house behind him. The terrible threat: About 2,000 convicted sex offenders who'd gone unaccounted for in the aftermath of Katrina. "Where did they go?" Rivera intoned. "What are they doing?"

It felt Geraldo-legitimate, which is to say sensationalized and working its way back to the actual. During the "Katrina Predators" story ("At Large" was there when one was tracked down in Texas), Geraldo kicked it back to a Fox News studio in New York for tidbits on drunken Halloween mayhem in Madison, Wis., a jammed roller coaster and a transvestite/transgender beauty pageant in Thailand.

Is it still Geraldo's world and do we still just live in it? There are other honorary mayors now, like Nancy Grace. Still, you have to admire the longevity of his dogged career. "Geraldo at Large" will apparently open with Rivera doing a stand-up at the site of some grim and/or lurid story, a macabre version of "Where in the World Is Matt Lauer?" which the "Today" show resurrects beginning Monday.

FNC's Chris Wallace interviews dad Mike: And you thought your adolescence was tough

The AP reports on a story that's just flat nice. Although I'm pretty sure that when Chris Wallace was growing up he got away with precisely zilch:


Before arriving at a TV studio Thursday for an interview to promote his memoir, Mike Wallace had a feeling that hundreds of people who had sat across from him with the cameras rolling would find familiar.

“I was intimidated ahead of time, I have to say,” he said. “Who knows what he really had in mind?”

His interrogator was his son, Chris. Their talk, taped for “Fox News Sunday,” represented the first time father and son had crossed paths professionally in careers that together stretches three-quarters of a century.


.....Every fall before he started another year in college, Chris said his dad would put him on the spot asking how much money he needed.

“It was like being interviewed by Mike Wallace,” he said.

When Mike, 87, walked in on a waiting Chris in the Fox News Channel green room, they warmly gripped each other’s right hands. They talk frequently, but hadn’t seen each other in months. Even Fox News Channel chief Roger Ailes stopped by to see this summit.

A film clip was flashed of a future interview subject: Mike Wallace’s great-grandson, now 3 weeks old.

Father looked son straight in the eye.

“I love you,” he said. “And I’m proud of you.”

Replied Chris: “All right, we don’t want to cry. We’re done.”

CNN's mafia funeral for Aaron Brown

Wolf Blitzer just interspered the last hour of "The Situation Room" with awkward-sounding announcements on the new 7pm SR time slot created by Anderson Cooper's move to Aaron Brown's old time slot--without once mentioning Brown's name! It's like Brown was in the mob and just got whacked after making a pass at Tony Soprano's wife. You never speak his name, ever, you got me? His memory is dead! Dead!

Then at 8pm when Wolf tossed it to Paula Zahn, she went on the breezy offensive with a chipper, "Hey, congratulations on your new time slot, neighbor!" Also without mentioning the dearly departed or the name of his show.

Brown probably won't stay dead for long, though. I'm looking forward to the inevitable post-firing CNN tell-all Brown's sure to write. Working title: "Symphony in monotone, or how I learned to stop reporting and meditate out loud on the air."

Aaron Brown, hitting the 19th hole of his CNN career

A little over two months ago, on August 23, TCG had the exclusive that Aaron Brown was going to have a lot more time for his real life's work (nine iron, sir?) really soon. And boy, did I get hate mail. And now--gasp!--what's this? Aaron Brown's golf trophies being thrown into a cardboard box by CNN security even as I type? Say it isn't so!

So, I've just got one thing to say: stay tuned.

FTVLive: CNN's Jon Klein, following Brown out the door?

FTVLive has a great commentary on the Anderson Cooper/Aaron Brown angst:

Critics love Cooper, Viewers don't

While the TV critics wet themselves over Anderson Cooper, the viewers do not seem to be as impressed.

Cooper has only averaged 713,000 viewers Year to Date for 2005 in one of thebiggest news years on record.

If he can't even hit one million viewers in this kind of a news climate, what's he going to do at 10pm on an average news day? CNN may think "he's the next big thing." but he doesn't have the numbers to back it up.

Shepard Smith at Fox News just about doubles Copper on a nightly basis.

And what about the big pairing of Fire and Ice (Brown and Cooper) that CNN made such a big deal about?

Since the dynamic duo's debut, Anderson & Aaron have lost 72% of their viewership from 10-12 and are down 81% in 25-54). Remember before Cooper joined it was just Brown on the show. Maybe CNN is letting the wrong guy walk?

CNN acted like Fire and Ice was going to be a hit and now they're re-arranging the deck chairs yet again and saying they just couldn't keep the two of them together.

It reminds us of when MSNBC hired Tucker Carlson and acted like he was going to be the ratings savior. FTVLive said at the time we thought it was a bad hire by MSNBC and so far, Tucker has tanked in the ratings.

If CNN is putting all their eggs in the Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper basket, the next person leaving CNN will be Jon Klein.

The move makes no sense...no matter what the so called TV critics say.

CNN's Aaron Brown leaving the 10pm slot? Now what am I going to do when I run out of Ambien?

The Philadelphia Inquirer's Gail Shister writes that CNN's Sultan of Snores, Aaron Brown, might be putting viewers to sleep a whole lot earlier in the evening. Looks like anyone using Brown as a cheap sleeping pill might have to get an refill on some actual Ambien and not the cable-news equivalent:

If CNN's Aaron Brown is forced to swap time slots with Anderson Cooper, expect Brown to see red.

CNN is pushing for hot-as-a-rocket 7 p.m. anchor Cooper to trade up to the 10 p.m. slot occupied by Brown's NewsNight since 2001, according to several highly placed CNN executives, speaking on condition of anonymity.

It would be a major demotion for Brown. Far fewer people watch TV at 7 than at 10, and, more important, it would cement Cooper's image as the new face of CNN.

Brown, 56, is the anti-anchor - slow, deliberate and old school. Cooper, 38, is New Age - cute, hip, glib, and able to multitask on the air.

Forget fire and ice. It's been gasoline and butane since CNN/U.S. chief Jonathan Klein added Cooper to NewsNight and expanded it to two hours in early September.

The most glaring example is visual: When Cooper surfs the Net on his laptop for the latest "downloads," Brown looks like his slightly annoyed grandfather. Not a pretty sight. And not one that will attract younger viewers.

Coincidentally, Brown and Cooper are on vacation this week, and both are expected to return Monday. Klein's not talking.

Says a CNN rep: "We aren't commenting on speculation. No decisions have been made." (Translation: Look for an announcement in the next few weeks.)

The prickly Brown, whose contract is up in July '07, isn't even sure if he'll be back on the air, according to a CNN source close to him. His guaranteed contract pays him an estimated $1 million a year.

Ratings-wise, all the numbers are on Cooper's side. Clearly, he's got the Big Mo.

In October, the hours that Cooper anchored - 7, 10 and 11 p.m. - showed major increases from a year earlier, particularly among the 25- to 54-year-olds advertisers covet.

At 7 p.m., Cooper's 360 averaged 811,000 total viewers, up 36 percent over October '04, says Nielsen Media Research. (Still, he was far behind Fox News Channel's Shepard Smith.)

Fox and Friends' Theory of Positivity

The New York Observer's Rebecca Dana writes that unlike the personalities at certain other morning shows, "Fox and Friends" hosts Steve Doocy, E.D. Hill, and Brian Kilmeade actually like each other, their viewers and their guests. And surprise, karma is alive and well: "Fox and Friends" is the top-rated morning show on cable (beating CBS's Early Show on occasion as well.) It really is true what Jerry Garcia said about relationships: "It's hard not to like people who like you." Call it the theory of positivity, but whatever it is, it's working:

“I tell people you have to watch our show three times,” said Ms. Hill. “The first time, you won’t get it and you’ll go, ‘What in the world is that?’ You know, ‘Can’t they get some professionals? Where are the real people?’ And then the second time, you start chuckling a little bit. And then after the third time, you can’t go back to anything else because you’ll be bored senseless."

Fox has just launched a new marketing campaign to this effect, featuring the whole Fox and Friends family posing under the headline, “The Biggest, Best, Most Important Morning Show on Television.” The text is enormous and black, except a few words, which are highlighted in red: “the,” “best” and “show on television.”

And then there’s the not-so-subtle dig at the competition, taking advantage of gossip items about rivalries and backstabbing on the sets of the network morning programs: Underneath, in yellow, the ad reads: “And our people actually like each other.”

Take that, Matt and Katie! Charlie and Diane!

“I tell people that Steve and E.D. and Brian actually are people you’d like to have breakfast with,” said Bill Shine, head of programming for the Fox News Channel. “If you’re standing outside of Today or GMA, I think people are enamored, they say, ‘Oh, look, there are the stars.’ But our anchors are real people. I think, if you came downstairs in your pajamas, and Steve was in the kitchen, you probably wouldn’t call the cops. You’d put on another cup of coffee.”

In the control room at the start of Thursday’s program, while Mr. Kilmeade was teasing a sumo segment at the top of the 7 o’clock hour (“Some really heavy guys are gonna go at it, and you’re gonna be able to see their cheeks”), network executive producer for programming Suzanne Scott explained how they differ from the traditional morning fare.

“Steve, E.D. and Brian wake up with the American heartland,” she said. “They bring them their news, and they have some fun as well.”

The heartland—these are the “friends” of whom Fox speaks. Unlike other morning shows, which are programmed according to coastal (and feminine) sensibilities, Fox and Friends aims straight for Kansas and its surrounding territories. They revel in the innocuously wacky and the morally uplifting. News about New York, such as an item on Thursday about the Soup Nazi reopening shop on 55th Street, is deemed relevant to any viewer “who might be visiting New York, as a tourist.”

Unlike GMA and Today, which corral their sign-wielding acolytes into fenced-in cheering sections, Fox and Friends has a big back window, directly behind the hosts, that is open to whoever might like to wander by and chip a minute or two off his 15. Jerry and Judy Willis stood outside this window for an hour on Sumo Thursday!, in matching Nautica windbreakers, waving and talking on cell phones to their grandkids.

“With other shows that are at big networks where there’s a ton of people, it’s not intimate,” Ms. Hill said later. “You don’t feel like you really know those people. With us, you get the sense that it’s a very small group of people that you know very well, like friends.”

“Because we are a news channel, we do, by our mission, have to interview a lot of the same people the other shows interview,” Mr. Doocy said. “For my money, it’s always a challenge, and ultimately more rewarding, if you can make the person who has just been on five other TV channels seem a little more human or make them laugh a little bit or have them reveal some side that you don’t see on Meet the Press.”

He remembered one time when they gave Henry Kissinger a Fox and Friends embossed soap-on-a-rope. The former Secretary of State laughed and laughed, they said. Then he asked how to hang it.

Fox and Friends has been on the air since 1998, with the same anchor trifecta since 1999. The show airs live in the nearly 90 countries that receive the Fox News Channel, but the program is not on a tape delay, unlike Today or GMA, which air at 7 a.m. on the East and West Coasts. So if Jerry and Judy Willis want to watch in Missouri, they have to get up at 6 a.m., which they sometimes do. Because anything else would be a betrayal of friends—and of Fox.

“That Brian is a nice guy,” Mr. Willis said, at the conclusion of “No Gut, No Glory.” “You tell him he’s a nice guy.”

FNC in PR Week: "Even though we're number one, we're still the feisty underdog."

PR Week goes inside the Fox News Channel's PR department, and reinforces a theory that I've held a long time: that there's nothing more likable and more American than the upbeat and indefatigable underdog:

Rated the top cable news network since January 2002, Fox News has come a long way since its debut in 1996.

"No one expected us to launch, let alone succeed," recalls SVP of corporate communications Brian Lewis, who has been with Fox News since before its launch. "We wanted people to believe that, because setting the bar low is much better than setting it too high." To add to the challenge, New York City's Time Warner cable system did not carry the network for its first year, meaning that many in the media could not watch the programming.

To this day, Lewis says one of the most important stories written about Fox News was by the Associated Press, stating that the network had in fact been launched. "We were the underdogs, and that's something I think we've kept," Lewis says. "Even though we're number one, we're still the feisty underdog."

One of the department's core messages in those early days was credibility; it was important to publicize that the network was covering the same news as both CNN and the recently launched MSNBC in just as fast a manner or faster. To help with this, the PR team created a screen in the office to show when Fox beat the other channels on breaking news. Equipped with a time code of all the other channels, it allowed the PR staff to call the media and tell them when Fox broke news.

"After a few of those [situations], people began to see we weren't this fly-by-night operation," Lewis says. "We were in it for the long haul, and we were a reputable news operation."

Sam Roberts, professor of broadcast journalism at the University of Miami and a 30-year veteran of CBS News, says Fox News has come a long way since starting almost a decade ago. "I didn't think much of them [at first]. They've improved greatly," he says. "Clearly, among 24-hour [news] channels, they are the most popular."

That media relations and PR would play such an important part in the business strategy and subsequent success of the network was something that Lewis expected from the beginning. He recalls that chairman and CEO Roger Ailes - a former communications consultant who worked with presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush - told him that because Fox News would have a marketing budget one-tenth the size of CNN and MSNBC, its PR department would need to be 20 times better. To this day, Lewis says the department is involved in every business decision for the network, something he attributes to Ailes' experience in PR.

"It's so important to have someone who has been in our shoes, knowing how difficult our job is, and how important it is to the overall corporate strategy," he says. "He is a PR person's dream because of the value he places on media relations functions."

Much of the department's media relations work is highly strategic in nature. Irena Briganti, VP of media relations, says part of that strategy is where the network positions itself when reporting ratings. The department will now rank Fox News among other cable stations such as Lifetime, TNT, USA Network, and ESPN.

"If I must showcase Shepard Smith in his hour, I don't bother showcasing him against CNN and MSNBC," she says, adding that it's more important to point out when his ratings are higher than TNT, ESPN, or USA. "How does this news program at 7pm in a really tough time slot...do it? That's part of the story," she says.

...For Lewis and Briganti, both of whom have been at Fox News since the start, the communications goal is still the same: win every day. Though the network has been top-rated for more than three years, it only brings up new challenges.

"You never rest on your laurels," Lewis says. "You look at the newspaper every day and think, 'How can I get my client in here?'"

Anderson Cooper:"The truth of political discussions is that no one really knows what they're talking about"

CNN's Anderson Cooper wrote a piece for the November issue of the infamous Allure magazine, which readers may remember I have a love/hate relationship with.

At any rate, I was on a plane and reading it to make sure I still hate it, and came across the monthly feature "The Insiders' Guide," in which famous stylists tell you what to wear to not look like Paris Hilton's dog, famous p.r. gurus tell you how to spin your boyfriend, famous socialites tell you how to not eat with the right fork...and Anderson's contribution, "How to talk about politics."

The highlights:

"The truth about political discussion is that no one really knows what they're talking about."

Read the op-ed pages of papers with opposing views like the WSJ and the NYT regularly, so you'll be able to talk to liberals or conservatives.

"It always looks good to drop the reference, 'As Charlie Rose pointed out last week...'"

Read political blogs, which "go one step further than newspapers, deconstructing the headlines and offering thoughtful, unexpected opinions." Anderson suggests Andrewsullivan.com.

"...most people take politics very personally, and you can offend them easily...change the subject, or excuse yourself to get another drink--and don't come back for a while. Personally, I tend to avoid political talk at parties because people get so self-righteous."

Couple thoughts here. One, On the Andrewsullivan.com blog pick, cool. Good for Anderson. Two, anyone out there who has smugly thought at a party that perhaps Anderson Cooper sure is hitting the bar frequently tonight, maybe he was just fleeing you. Three, I think the personalities of smart, interesting cable tv personalities are vastly underutilized in the rest of the media. I'd love it if more of my favorite anchors and reporters had regular columns or contributions to glossy mags. (I love, for example, Greta Van Susteren's column in Men's Health--so funny and sharp!) People who wouldn't ordinarily watch cable news--say, Shape mag readers--might tune in because after hypothetically reading about, say, Kiran Chetry's workout routine, readers would want to see how she's doing. It's not hard to build relationships, and Anderson Cooper has, I bet, drawn some viewers away from The Style Network to CNN's 360.