Jill Carroll & Stockholm Syndrome: Post-release, there's more to this story

My first thought when I saw that Jill Carroll had been released by her captors in Iraq this morning was "Thank God." Then, watching the freed Christian Science Monitor reporter talk about how well her captors treated her, I thought "This woman has full-blown Stockholm Syndrome" (the psychological state where a hostage sympathizes with their captor, as an unconscious coping mechanism.) But at the end of the news day, I have not heard one reporter or commentator on cable news make this point (and if I'm wrong, someone please correct me.) It's important that the media take this under consideration, so the public can understand why this brave, by-all-accounts-wonderful young woman is seemingly sympathetic to the monsters who killed her Iraqi driver, Allan Enwiya (above right with his son) and threatened to behead her, and brutalized her and her family so profoundly. There is, quite literally, more to this story.

Olbermann "close to defeating" O'Reilly? Where? In the alternate universe of opposites?

Over at the Huffington Post, they're forgetting that numbers talk and B.S. walks, and HuffPoster Bob Cesca sure is slinging the stuff in wild praise of Keith Olbermann:

With a tremendous and well-deserved upswing in his ratings, Keith Olbermann's "Countdown" has surpassed CNN and is inching closer and closer to defeating the self-satirical Bill O'Reilly. Clearly, this is a significant milestone towards television news making a comeback.

There are stupid statements, there's spin, there's wishful thinking...and then there are statements that are so delusional as to make you think that Olbermann's fans never watched those after-school specials on the dangers of LSD.

Ted Turner apologizes for losing control of CNN, bemoans "pervert of the day" coverage

Check out Ted Turner's latest public statements on CNN as reported in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, including calling CNN "tabloid" and CNN and HLN's coverage "superfluous":

"I had no idea I would lose control of CNN when I merged with Time Warner," Turner said, adding that he could have retained control of the media company he had founded had it not been for the subsequent merger with America Online.

"It was a big mistake to lose control of CNN. I lost control over it, and I lost it a long time ago," Turner said. "And I apologize to everybody. I had a sacred trust there, and I let it get away. I was overconfident. I thought I had done such a good job there was no way they could phase me out."

Turner expressed great disappointment with the way news is presented today, with more focus on the "pervert of the day" than on the issues of the environment, nuclear threats and international affairs, which impact the entire world.

"CNN International still does that to a large degree," Turner said. "CNN here in the United States has gotten a lot more tabloid.

...Turner saved most of his criticism for the news industry, calling much of today's news "superfluous."

"We don't need that on CNN or Headline News," Turner said. "That's one of the main reasons I'm not standing for re-election to the Time Warner board. I just can't take it anymore. I would have a broken heart. And I refuse to let that happen."

Lou Dobbs has ways of making you talk

Lou Dobbs' new promo scares me. "It's time for answers," he intones, in a way that suggests not so much that he'll be providing said answers, but that he has ways of making you talk.

But then again, Lou Dobbs himself scares me. His on-air persona, of late, channels not so much his usual inflamed ego but something much more pathologically interesting. Doesn't he remind you of the head of the secret police in an old black-and-white movie? Present your thumbs for the screws, please.

Karl Rove and CNN: Cuddling with the enemy

The Cable Game sure hopes that none of the big-biased libs at CNN read the New York Times this morning, because if they did they'd see that one of their number-one enemies, Karl Rove, is thick as thieves with Time Warner Chairman Dick Parsons:

Names circulating in Republican circles as possible candidates for the Treasury post included Henry M. Paulson Jr., the chief executive of Goldman Sachs; John J. Mack, the chief executive of Morgan Stanley; and Richard D. Parsons, the chairman of Time Warner.

It was unclear if any of the three would consider taking the job. Their names surfaced immediately after Mr. Bolten's appointment because Mr. Bolten, who once worked for Goldman Sachs, is friendly with Mr. Paulson and Mr. Mack. Karl Rove, the president's chief political adviser, is said to think highly of Mr. Parsons, who has worked with the White House on several issues, including its efforts to overhaul Social Security.

CNBC Scratch Fever: Eisner debuts, take swipe at egotistical Americans

Ok, first things first. Nobody watched washed-up Disney chief Michael Eisner's new CNBC talk show, "Conversations with Michael Eisner." Scratch, scratch, scratch. Move over, Tina Brown. Make room, John McEnroe. Dennis Miller, maybe you shouldn't feel so bad about tanking so hard the only tv job you can get is a pretend one, playing your talk-show-host incarnation in the new movie "Thank You for Smoking."

But "Conversations" isn't just a commercial failure, it's a critical one, too. Check out what Michael White had to say on Bloomberg.com:

When Michael Eisner learns not to wave his hands, interrupt his guests and ask inane questions, he might turn into a good talk-show host. Based on the debut of CNBC's ``Conversations With Michael Eisner,'' that will take some time.

Walt Disney Co.'s former chairman and chief executive officer provided moments of candor and insight in his first program yesterday, but there were plenty of rough edges that need to be smoothed out if his hour-long, bimonthly show is going to survive.

Eisner opened with a gooey Martha Stewart segment that featured hard-hitting questions like, ``In everything you do, do you go for perfection or do you go for close to perfection?'' How about asking Martha whether that electronic ankle bracelet she complained about during her home arrest left any unsightly scars or perhaps inspired her to branch into the prison accessories business.

Enticing, isn't it? Just makes you want to put down your knitting.

And what's not to love about a show with a host who coddles his guests by taking lofty, snotty, potshot generalizations at Americans and their supposed giant collective ego? Looks like Eisner's taking his cues from Tina Brown in more ways than one.


On yesterday's show, Eisner alluded to his brusque management style and personality, which contributed to his departure from Disney after leading the company for 21 years.

When Stringer, a native of Wales, said executives need to subordinate their egos to promote corporate harmony, Eisner replied, ``Americans have trouble doing that.''

Oh, I get it, Michael Eisner. You got fired for being a giant jerkface, but it's those damned egotistical Americans who have the attitude problem. Looks like your show's in for a nice long 21 day run.

The San Francisco Bay Guardian, failing history, failing civility

The San Francisco Bay Guardian's Paul Redinger hates Fox News, hates President Bush, is a veritable fragrant bouquet of pure hate. He's entitled to his opinion, but he's not entitled to be taken seriously, as this rant comparing President Bush and FNC to Hitler's henchman and propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels proves.

Invoking, and by extension unforgivably diminishing the pure evil that was Goebbels and Hitler to make a political point is common; it's also incredibly insensitive to their victims and super-bad karma in general. But on a less esoteric note, if the left wants civility, it must be civil in return. But calling fellow Americans Nazis is not the way to do it:

Dr. Göbbels, if he were to pay us a friendly visit today, would doubtless find much to his liking in our modern multimedia circus. We might not have a propaganda ministry (Göbbels's official title was "minister of propaganda and national enlightenment" — indeed!), but we do have the bellowing minions of Fox News to spread the reactionary gospel and impugn those who dare to propose another way. Nazi Germany had no media tool to match Fox News' dizzying dazzle, and perhaps Göbbels would be envious, or perhaps not; his pupil and leader Adolf Hitler was largely the creature of radio and of gigantic, orgiastic public rallies and might not have played well on TV — just as, in our own time, a certain self-styled "war president" manages to give offense to large swaths of a disillusioned population each time he smirks or mugs within view of a network camera.

CNN's (honorary) baby gangster

Edie "Carmela Soprano" Falco tells Fox News Channel's Roger Friedman that she's an Anderson Cooper fan to beat all Anderson Cooper fans:


Edie Falco, the award-winning actress who plays Carmela Soprano and a noteworthy Prince fan, told me an incredible secret last night, bigger than anything to do with her hit show, "The Sopranos": She named her baby son Anderson for Anderson Cooper, the gray-haired CNN anchor who’s a regular subject of local gossip columns.

"It was a family name to start with," Falco said at the premiere of "All Aboard! Rosie’s Family Cruise.”

“But Anderson Cooper being out there with it made it easier,” she conceded.

"Sui generis": Latin for "still getting beat by Brit Hume"

The Marie Antoinette of CNN, Lou Dobbs, gets his wig lovingly powdered by Bill Carter and Jacques Steinberg in the New York Times this morning, and man-of-the-people (if not exactly "man of the demo") CNN prez Jon Klein weighs in, with his usual high-end nothingspeak, on the most suavely insufferable man in cable news:

The management of CNN denied yesterday that Mr. Dobbs's soaring profile on the immigration issue — and the increased ratings he has garnered along with it — would steer the network toward adding more opinions on other news programs.

"Lou's show is not a harbinger of things to come at CNN," said Jonathan Klein, the president of CNN/U.S. "He is sui generis, one of a kind."

And then there's this:

[Dobbs] said he did not believe that traditional objective journalism brought people closer to the truth. Asked if he himself knew what the truth was, Mr. Dobbs said: "I have strong feelings that I do. I have strong evidence I do."

Well, that's all you need in television news, I guess. Strong feelings. Specifically, strong feelings that the unwashed masses need to come around to Lou Dobbs' way of thinking. Call it the Jim Jones school of information management. Lou Dobbs believes very strongly that you need to drink his Kool-Aid if you would be saved.

Dear FHM magazine: Nemcova-booster Brian Kilmeade needs an invite to your party

TCG is a huge Petra Nemcova fan, so it was great to read that "Fox and Friends" host Brian Kilmeade is calling attention to the inequity of the latest FHM magazine "sexiest women" survey:

Tiki and I did get some quality time with a FHM magazine big shot, who brought us inside the story of the sexiest women in the country. This was a survey of FHM readers that mysteriously had Angelina Jolie at No. 2 and Petra Nemcova just sneaking into the top 100. I suggest a recount!

More news on the FHM front: It seems they are throwing Tiki a birthday party and, having overheard the details, guess what? I am not invited. Sure, Tiki tried some damage control with a belated, "Oh, Brian, you didn't get the invite?" I am not buying it and neither would you. I guess I just don't make the cut. Maybe Mike Strahan or Eli Manning wanted to bring an extra friend or Mayor Bloomberg needed more bodyguards on the list. Whatever. I guess I will stay home next Friday night. I probably will have plans anyway... maybe a soccer practice or beach club meeting.

In other news, CNN's Paula Zahn sprains her sneer

Shep Smith, reporting live from Jerusalem, just introduced a super-interesting Anita Vogel piece on an American soldier, killed in action in Afghanistan, whose widow is campaigning to have the symbol of his Wiccan religion--the pentacle--placed on his government-issued plaque on his tomb.

TCG isn't a Wiccan, but she is interested in the way media personalties report on stories that are simultaneously so legitimate and loopy. Shep and Anita were portraits of professionalism while talking about this--TCG notices even the slightest hint of biased contempt in reporters' tones, facial features, raised eyebrows, sneers, smirks, etc, and there was none of that in a story that would have so easily allowed those reporting on it to go for the cheap shot. Difficult and thought-provoking stories like this one really demonstrate "fair and balanced." And it also makes you think about all those other celebrated reporters who couldn't keep a straight face if their life depended on it. Can you imagine Paula Zahn struggling to keep her composure while reporting on this?

Yeah, me neither. She wouldn't bother to struggle.

Alec Baldwin has still not left the country, but he has departed from reality

Alec Baldwin (who infamously said that "it would be a good time to leave the country" if President Bush won in 2000) has written an entire Huffington Post piece defending his name-calling on the radio with Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity, and the NewsHounds are doing their best to aid and abet Baldwin's revisionist history. But fortunately for sane news viewers everywhere, the one-and-only Johnny Dollar charges to the rescue (and then some!) Check it out, and read the actual transcript of the Baldwin/Hannity dustup and see for yourself why Baldwin is spinning so furiously: Hannity N-A-I-L-E-D him.

CNN's Lou Dobbs says "stupidity is un-American"; gets deported by ABC's John Stossel

So Lou Dobbs is going to Cancun to cover a three-nation summmit on immigration. CNN's calling the special "Broken Borders." I actually have another theory--check out this video, in which Dobbs gets his SPF 100 handed to him by ABC's John Stossel on immigration, brought to our attention by the excellent people behind the National Association of Manufacturers ShopFloor/Dobbs Watch blog. I think Stossel had Dobbs deported after this interview, after Dobbs said "being stupid is un-American" and then proceeded to come off like a "raving idiot:"

Sure enough, the blogosphere has worked its magic once again. One (or the other) of our sharp-eyed blog readers posted a comment on our piece below on John Stossel and outsourcing. In fact, they did find the video on the ABC News site and sent us this link.

What's great about it is you get to see Lou Dobbs on somebody else's turf, namely Stossel's. You realize why he doesn't do much of this, because he really does come off looking -- as one of our other readers commented last week -- "like a raving idiot." Our reader's words, not ours. But we'd agree. At one point Dobbs says that "outsourcing is stupid and being stupid is un-American." Hard to argue with that, we guess. Not really.

So thanks to both our faithful readers for coming through once again. The video really does bring to life the bland and sanitized transcript as the reader who sent us the transcript said it did.

This episode proves once again that we have the smartest damned blog readers on the plant. Enjoy the 5-minute video.

Pravda lives!

Speaking of revenge fantasies, here's one that's a little more subtle, but ends up laugh-out-loud ridiculous, and obvious, in its anti-Fox News aim. At the tail end of 4706 words of hand-wringing guilt over his partial admiration of FNC's Bill O'Reilly, the New Yorker's Nicholas Lemann whips out the pixie dust and sprinkles it on thick:

When O’Reilly’s day has passed, though, he certainly will have left a lasting stamp on cable news, which is increasingly a medium of outsize, super-opinionated franchise personalities. It is hard to remember, without taking a minute to think about it, who delivers the morning and evening news on the cable networks, or who the main reporters are. Cable is not a medium for providing information, and it is not going to become one anytime soon...

Pardon me for a second while I retrieve my eyeballs from the roof of my brain--they rolled up so high into my head they got stuck there. Ah, that's better. Do you see what Lemann is doing? It's pure Orwell: War is peace, freedom is slavery. Cable news--which, to the horror of old-school libs like The New Yorker, is now synonymous with Fox News--is such a juggernaut, such an anxiety-inducing departure from the good old days of the We Know Best network news/liberal MSM elite cabal, that the only way to address it is to flat deny its existence. Reading Lemann's conclusion is like reading an iron curtain-era back issue of Pravda. The difference, though, is that the New Yorker can only fantasize about having every Fox News viewer shot.

Peter Bart's revenge fantasy

Variety's Peter Bart prays for a nastier political environment where one of the MSM's fondest dreams--a reversal of Fox News Channel's success--can come to glorious fruition:


Remember when network news seemed like the quiet sanctuary of the TV business?
Actually, it was not that long ago that the ground started shifting: Ted Turner reinvented himself as a bilious billionaire, then Roger Ailes decided the dictionary didn't understand the words "fair and balanced"...

...Ailes has had several years to relish his delicious domination of CNN. When it comes to pizzazz and showmanship, the churlish Ailes clearly gets the trophy.

But then there are some numbers and political portents to consider. Variety's sister publication, Broadcasting and Cable, estimates that Fox News still runs second to CNN in terms of advertising revenue and license fees -- $794 million for CNN to $574 million for Fox News. To be sure, Ailes' company is growing faster than CNN and is angling for higher license fees (especially if new deals with cable operators include a new Fox Business channel).

But will the increasingly polarized political climate cast a cloud over Fox's expansion? Ailes' competitors insist the Fox News audience is older, whiter, less educated and more rural than its rivals. Fox has a smaller proportion of urban viewers than CNN or MSNBC, the data suggests.

Support for the Iraq adventure is waning sharply along with the President's popularity, and the upcoming Congressional elections will surely exacerbate the political divide. These trends may enhance the loyalty of Fox's hardcore audience, but middle-of-the-roaders could peel away. Nervous advertisers may thus start looking for more clout in big cities and on the two coasts.

All this is speculative, to be sure, but if the political climate gets even nastier, Ailes may be tempted to return to his dictionary and check out his definitions one more time.

Peter Bart, slinging mud at Fox News while fantasizing about mudslinging bringing Fox News down. Even in the pretty creative annals of the MSM's down-with-FNC wishful thinking, it's a pretty original theory, and it's always interesting to see the multifocal ways those who resent FNC's success express their bitterness. But let's call Bart's scenario for what it really is: a) a revenge fantasy and b) just a fantasy.

The NewsHounds notice CNN's attempt at cloning

The Bash-FNC Brigade--aka The News Hounds--are branching out, and calling attention to lackluster CNN's desperate attempts to emulate Fox News as much as possible... to be the Dolly the Sheep of cable news, perhaps?

Did you happen to catch tonight's (March 25, 2006) CNN "special," Welcome to the Future? It was a pitiful attempt by CNN to emulate Fox News. It was Fox & Friends in a New York penthouse (with a great view). It was Fox & Friends by candlelight. It was Fox and Friends eating sushi. It was Fox & Friends without the bubbleheaded bleached blonds, but it was Fox & Friends.

The NYT on CNBC's Eisner: so naked, so vulnerable, so willing...oh, shut up

The NYT's David Carr shills for failed Disney chief and soon-to-be-failed CNBC talk show host Michael Eisner's cable news debut in a piece of almost-unreadable butt-kissery:


There is something so naked, so vulnerable, about Mr. Eisner's willingness to become a talking head in a kingdom he once lorded over, that it is worth a look...

...his enthusiasm is apparent from the get-go. If it is a lark, it is a well-considered one; if it doesn't work out, no matter — Mr. Eisner will simply join the growing list of failed CNBC talk show hosts, a list that includes John McEnroe, Tina Brown and Dennis Miller....

....What we get in the first of six shows scheduled for this season are interviews with Martha Stewart, Sir Howard Stringer of Sony and Bran Ferren, an industrial designer and special-effects guru who used to be a Disney Imagineer. The premiere is not an embarrassment — which won't please Mr. Eisner's enemies — and it is not without its diversions.

Mr. Eisner has the basic blocking and tackling of television down, having come a long way from his widely panned outing as host of "The Wonderful World of Disney" during the 80's. There is a gestural elegance to his meaty paws that makes for good television, and his angular visage, a sort of animated version of those sculptures on Easter Island, is its own show...

Ms. Stewart and Mr. Eisner are particularly riveting. Here sit two of the most successful media executives of the age, having fallen in a way that speaks to their self-involvement absent self-awareness, chatting about how misunderstood they both are. It's like a money shot on a nature show: two lions, licking each other's wounds....

Uh, yeah. Ick. Anyway, the show starts tomorrow night at 8pm on CNBC. In the meantime, I've taken the liberty of jumping a week ahead and posting a picture, above, of Mister Easter Island himself gazing out at his audience.

The NYT on FNC's Baghdad bureau journalists: "Brave"

Jeffrey Gettleman writes about the dangerous and deserted Baghdad Palestine Hotel in the New York Times today, and makes a surprisingly fair and righteous observation, singling out those in FNC's Baghdad bureau for their bravery in staying:

The violence outside its gates finally crashed in, and now the Palestine joins the rest of Baghdad, struggling to survive and hoping for better days.

The lobby is a mess, with wires dangling from the ceiling and glass crunching underfoot, the leftovers of a suicide attack last fall.

Of the 420 rooms, fewer than 100 are occupied. Many of those will soon be vacant as more journalists retreat to rented medieval-style forts with huge walls and armed sentries.

...Now, just a few brave foreigners remain, mostly journalists.

"The place is definitely a little weird," said John Fiegener, bureau chief for Fox News, which rents an entire floor. "But you've got to give it to the staff. They put on a smile every day and try their best."

It's nice to see credit where credit is due. 86 journalists have been killed in Iraq since the war began: any reporter still operating anywhere in Iraq is, to put it mildly, gutsy.

Former CNN-er Aaron Brown's worst golf game ever

Fired CNN anchor Aaron Brown tells MarketWatch's Jon Friedman that you can lose more in a golf game than just a few bucks--you can lose your reputation forever:

Perhaps his darkest professional moment occurred a few years ago when a number of media writers blasted him. It appeared that Brown, who was playing in a golf tournament in California, didn't rush back to CNN to anchor a broadcast in the aftermath of the Columbia space shuttle disaster.

He nodded knowingly and said quietly, "They (CNN) screwed up -- I screwed up. I'd hope there would be a statute of limitations. (But) other people want it to be a defining moment for me."

There's a reason defining moments are just that--they define. In this case, the Columbia/golf tournament debacle highlighted that Brown didn't particularly, IMO, like his job. Friedman goes on to write, referring to the Robert Blake case, that "Brown detests pulp journalism." Which begs the question: what did he like covering?

Maybe Brown just needs the right staging ground for his particular style--he also told Friedman he'd listen to a job offer from Fox News, and that he "enjoyed competing with them." Hey, if the thrill of going mano a mano against a worthy opponent is what gets Brown's mojo going (it certainly works for Helen Thomas and David Gregory vis a vis President Bush) maybe Brown shouldn't go to work for FNC. Maybe he should take Keith Olbermann's 8pm slot at MSNBC. Now that would be entertainment.

Debra Lafave: the media's favorite dirty joke

With the notable exceptions of Bill O'Reilly and Nancy Grace, most in the media are treating child molester Debra Lafave as more of a dirty joke than as a child molester. Hello, Keith Olbermann's "Hot for Teacher" jokes are not journalism, they're just not funny.

But here's the thing. The media crowned Lafave as a kind of felonious Miss America when the story broke, a kind of girl-next-door gone really bad, so they could get a lot of mileage from the whole Miss-America-gone-bad angle. Which, I'm sorry, is as sick as she is.

Stephen Colbert lets John Kasich talk

Fox News "Heartland" host and "Factor" guest-host John Kasich was on The Colbert Report last night talking about dinner with Hillary Clinton, the moment he decided to drop out of the presidential race (it was when his el-cheapo turboprop nearly crashed from birdstrike while W cruised around in a Gulfstream 4; Kasich realized that the money just wasn't there for him, honey) and his new book, "Stand for Something: The Battle for America's Soul." It was a cool and touching interview--Kasich talked about his working-class roots and his feelings about America--and unusual for "Colbert" because Kasich got to do all the talking, and Colbert didn't really crack wise, but just listened. Anyway, The Cable Game has met Kasich and is a big fan, so if you're inclined, fire up the TiVo and
check out the interview on the rebound. And buy his book when it comes out in May!

Abrams, Olbermann, O'Brien embrace the first place of losers

Unsurprisingly, also-ran networks CNN and MSNBC are scoffing that VP Cheney wants his FNC when he's chilling after work. How many different ways can you channel the ole green-eyed monster? Well, Newsbusters breaks it down:

MSNBC's "The Abrams Report":

"And he wants brewed decaf coffee and all the televisions must be tuned to the home team, Fox News.

CNN reporter Carol Costello said on "American Morning":

"And, yes, all the TVs set to C -- no, to Fox News."

To which anchor Soledad O'Brien quipped, "Not really a shocker on that front."

Keith Olbermann alleged marching orders.

"And, of course, all televisions tuned to Fox News. Well, of course they'd all be tuned to Fox News because he has to make sure they're saying what he told them to say."

CNN reporter Erica Hill told Anderson Cooper:

"He wants his TV tuned to Fox News. How can he cover all the angles if he's not watching you or Prime News Tonight on 'Headline News'?"

Erica Hill, by the way, wins the 2006 Buttkiss Award for that Cooper smooch.

And ABC News' Jake Tapper mewled that the Veep is "getting in touch with his inner diva." Whatever. What all these non-FNC folks are doing is the same thing: embracing second place as the first place of losers.

FNC's Hemmer: Excuse me, your eardrum's on fire

Fox News Channel's Bill Hemmer, currently reporting from Iraq, tells the Cincinatti Post that he thinks about Bob Woodruff, and the safety of FNC's crew, every day, and that while it's difficult, he tries to introduce a little stress-busting levity when he can. Check out the interview, and the video of American Marines undergoing an unusual kind of Turkish barbering:


In a phone interview Wednesday from Iraq, Hemmer said: "The initial agenda was this - I had not seen an American news operation report live from these bases to any great extent other than Camp Victory, which is near the airport in Baghdad. I was curious how they are doing, how are they living."

Hemmer's reporting has been solid in its behind-the-scenes look at the military base. Hemmer said there has been virtually no censorship, with Fox cameras Wednesday even allowed into an operating room as a medical team tried worked to save the life of an insurgent shot twice by Marines.

Viewers have met a remarkable retired Texas policeman who volunteered to help train Iraqi police forces, living with them, not at a U.S. base. And Hemmer has given us what we don't usually see in reporting in this complicated war - a little whimsy. He toured a base barbershop run by Turks, who have introduced Marines to the unique Turkish practice of singeing off ear hair with a small flaming torch.

"I know it is hard to do humor reports in this setting," Hemmer said. "But we wanted to try."

...Hemmer said this is a very different Iraq from the last time he was there, in late 2003. As a reporter for CNN, he arrived in time to report on the capture of Saddam Hussein. Then, he just drove in.

"We drove from Amman, Jordan, into Baghdad over a highway that runs for eight hours. If you were to make that same drive today, you would be putting your life on the line. We flew into the airport and immediately had to arrange for an escort before we could leave the airport grounds. Everything in Iraq in the past 26 months has changed."

With the near death of ABC News anchor Bob Woodruff, Hemmer acknowledges he had doubts about making this trip. He is not so macho as to simply say "someone has to do the job."

"Anyone who does not admit to at least thinking about it with some level of apprehension is most likely lying," he said. "I felt, through the contacts we had, the Pentagon and the way we laid out the assignments, I was reassured as much as one can be that we were taking care of our own priorities.... We had two priorities: Number one, stay safe. Number two, do the best job we could."

I guess "Bushmakesmesicknewsguy@yahoo.com" was taken

Here's the thing about ABC "Good Morning America" executive producer John Green's email proclaiming how much President Bush nauseates him, now exclusively splashed all over the Drudge Report. The guy is entitled to his opinion. But he sent it from an abc.com email address, which implies, on a deep but very real level, that he really doesn't care if ABC News is seen as a biased cliche of a MSM news organization. And, well, if he's part of that organization, maybe the apparent anti-Bush bias is more true than not. And all of this could have been so easily moot, if only Mr. Green had taken a moment to register Screwallrepublicans@hotmail.com and integrated it into his Blackberry accounts. Then he would've been just a private citizen expressing his beliefs, instead of looking like the big bias-proving dip he is now.

A top producer at ABC NEWS declared "Bush makes me sick" in an email obtained by the DRUDGE REPORT.

John Green, currently executive producer of the weekend edition of GOOD MORNING AMERICA, unloaded on the president in an ABC company email obtained by the DRUDGE REPORT.

"If he uses the 'mixed messages' line one more time, I'm going to puke," Green complained.

The blunt comments by Green, along with other emails obtained by the DRUDGE REPORT, further reveal the inner workings of the nation's news outlets.

Fox News' Sean Hannity, conservative...but contrarian

Check out this new and very cool TV Guide interview with FNC "Hannity & Colmes" host Sean Hannity--it's full of stuff you may not know about him. Sean defends CNN's Larry King, says he barely considers himself a Republican (he's a Reagan conservative,) stands up against the FCC in defense of freedom of the airwaves, and says that he and Howard Stern have more in common than you might think. Some highlights:


TVGuide.com: What kind of e-mail did you get after you interviewed Howard Stern?

Hannity: It's interesting. We did a poll on my website, and 80 percent of the people were glad I had him on and thought I should have him on. Twenty percent said they were mad and that they didn't watch that day.

TVGuide.com: Was there was some radio-guy bonding going on there?

Hannity: When I saw his movie [Private Parts] I thought, "That's my life." I started out as a kid at a local radio station in California; I packed my bags and went to Huntsville, Ala., where I didn't know anybody, and worked there for two years. The only difference between his path and my path was he was talking about lesbians and strippers and I was praising Ronald Reagan. There is a common bond there — that experience is very similar.

TVGuide.com: You're popular with Christian conservatives, but you don't fall in line with their views on regulating TV and radio content. You're not comfortable with that or the pressure they're putting on the FCC.

Hannity: Not at all. One of the things that is so great about freedom and liberty is that with it comes responsibility. Especially when it comes to radio — these are words coming out of a speaker. If you don't like what's on the radio, turn the dial. There may be some restrictions in some capacity on broadcast TV. But look at all the options that are out there on cable. We're at the point now where we have the technology and ability to control everything that comes [into our homes]. So why don't you use freedom responsibly and make the decision yourself?


TVGuide.com: It's your role on Hannity & Colmes to be a conservative partisan. Has that become more of an intellectual challenge since the war in Iraq hasn't gone so well for President Bush? Do you ever ask yourself, "How am I going to defend this today?"

Hannity: My only role is to be intellectually honest and truthful to my audience. I barely consider myself a Republican. I am a Reagan conservative. If I agree with [the Republicans], I defend them. The reason we've created five million jobs and offset the negative economic impact of Sept. 11 was because the president cut taxes. I thought it was brilliant, I thought it was Reaganesque, and I think we've all benefited. When it comes to the War on Terror, I can't begin to describe how much I admire the president. The fact that he hasn't wavered or given in to poll numbers is one of the things I admire most. But when the president's wrong or any Republican's wrong, you have to be intellectually honest and truthful to your audience and say it.

The Veep needs his FNC. Van Halen's news requirements still unknown

The Smoking Gun has obtained a copy of Vice President Cheney's "tour rider" (a list of basic requirements for when he's traveling or making appearances, like decaf coffee, diet soda, please have the lights in the hotel room already turned on, etc...) It's nothing like Van Halen's "please have five strippers in 'Sound of Music' dirndls standing in a bathtub full of Patron" from back in the day, but hey, I think being the VP must be exciting enough. But the Van Halen thing does bring me to my point: the VP also wants all the TV's in his downtime suite tuned to Fox News. And no matter how you feel about the VP personally or politically, it's incontrovertible that if you have that job, you need good intel at all times, so to speak. MSNBC and CNN aren't providing high-quality info these days, but FNC's been doing that since it started.

The NewsHounds, drunk again. Or maybe just addicted to stupidity

Drinking in the daytime is really the only explanation for this level of lameness. In the past, Johnny Dollar has pointed out what a joke the "analysis" of Fox News-hater organization NewsHounds.us is, in particular the rantings of their "contributor" Marie Therese. But today, her non-item criticizing FNC's "Fox and Friends" for interviewing Donald Trump about his new baby with wife Melania Knauss Trump takes the cake, and not just for the obvious lack of any legitimate argument:

As you undoubtedly know, Donald Trump has just sired a healthy baby boy named Barron William Trump. His wife Malenia Knausee Trump is resting comfortably. According to The Donald she did very well during the birth. During a phone conversation this morning with the trio at FOX & Friends The Donald offered some pearls of wisdom on the subject of wives and mothers. And, oh yeah, just happened to plug The Apprentice as well!

Who is this "Malenia Knausee Trump" person and is she any relation to the Melania Knauss Trump whose name is apparently un-spellable and un-checkable by persons who characterize themselves as authorities on journalism?

CNN stands for "Circular-firing-squad News Network"

Check out the mean-spirited infighting/circular firing squad over at CNN these days, conveyed vividly in this Rebecca Dana piece on Larry King and Nancy Grace's futures in the New York Observer. It's just one big happy family at that cable news channel, aka one where everybody's blindfolded and trying to burn one another with their last cigarettes:

March 16 was a good day for tributes to CNN’s Larry King. But not on CNN.

Over on Fox News, personalities were lining up to praise Mr. King. Greta Van Susteren was applauding him on the air and on her blog, adding that Fox News Channel chairman Roger Ailes was also a fan. Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes broke off bickering to pay homage, while the chyron beneath them read “We Respect Larry.”

In other media, the take on Mr. King had been less charitable. L.A. Weekly’s Nikki Finke kicked things off March 10 by writing on her blog that Mr. King was said to be “increasingly frail physically.” The Wall Street Journal followed with a column accusing the CNN host of being doddering and soft—and saying that the distinctly un-soft Nancy Grace, of CNN Headline News, was viewed as his possible successor.

“We really need to get our arms around this and try to get out an accurate description of what’s going on down here,” CNN News Group president Jim Walton told NYTV on March 21. “In the United States, there seems to be some sport about Larry and Nancy that is unfounded.”


...That left the job of coming to praise Mr. King to that other cable news channel. “We do admire Larry,” Ms. Van Susteren—the Fox News anchor and former Larry King Live guest host—told NYTV by phone March 20. “Fox isn’t afraid to admit it. Fox has never been afraid. Fox doesn’t back off from the truth. We’re not a bunch of cowards here.”

[CNN] allowed seven days to elapse between the initial criticisms of Mr. King and CNN president Jon Klein’s first published defense of his prime-time star....

...As days passed with no defense from Mr. Klein, Mr. King’s staff began to grow anxious. The show’s executive producer, Wendy Whitworth, held a conference call to reassure the staff that everything would be fine, according to two network sources.

The silence from the executive suite brought back some of the feeling of last fall’s ouster of NewsNight anchor Aaron Brown, whom Mr. Klein publicly referred to as the “ice” to Anderson Cooper’s “fire” a few weeks before bumping him from his anchor chair.

Mr. Klein finally came forward, in the March 17 New York Post, about whether he was thinking of giving Mr. King the old Brown heave-ho: “We’d have to be even crazier than people think TV executives are to even think about moving a legend like Larry out of his time slot—especially when he reliably attracts a very nice audience each night. There’s absolutely no truth to this idle speculation.”

Declining a request for an interview with Mr. Klein, a CNN spokesperson said those comments stand as his statement.

...But at least at one time, if not still, Ms. Grace had her eyes on CNN, according to multiple sources close to the anchor.

“I know she was initially comparing her numbers to Larry’s ratings,” said one CNN producer. “She’s clearly a very ambitious person who didn’t get to where she was by sitting by idly.”

Another source said that when her show first launched, Ms. Grace closely compared her overnight ratings to those of the CNN prime-time anchors—and most closely to one in particular.

“Screw Greta. Screw Anderson. Screw any of the other competition on the other networks,” the source said. “When we looked at the ratings, it was all about Paula.”

As an anchor, Ms. Grace is a firebrand, less concerned with legal nuance than with her own feelings about a case. As a boss, according to sources inside and outside her show, she presides over a sometimes-difficult workplace. The program is on its third director in a year, which sources described as a high rate of turnover at any television news program. At least four members of her staff have met with the network’s human-resources department to discuss problems with the management of the program, according to three sources.

As a journalist, Ms. Grace has a reputation for being impulsive. In interviews with The Observer, sources recounted frantic phone calls from the show’s lawyers minutes before Ms. Grace went on the air. In one example, one staffer said, Ms. Grace heard in the makeup room that one of her favorite villains, Neil Entwistle, a man suspected of murdering his wife and daughter, had agreed to return to the United States to stand trial. Ms. Grace was narrowly talked out of reporting the tidbit, and Mr. Entwistle remained abroad another week before being extradited.

“It amazes me we get away with some of the stuff we get away with,” said one of Ms. Grace’s producers. “There are plenty of times where we have had to fix onscreen graphics because, when someone else saw the show, they pointed out, ‘Well, the guy really isn’t guilty; he hasn’t been charged yet.’ Or, ‘You can’t call him a “suspect”—he’s a “person of interest.”’”

Still, her numbers are astronomical. Ms. Grace’s audience has nearly tripled in the year she’s been on Headline News (she also hosts two hours of live television every day on Court TV). It now tops 600,000 each night, and appears to still be growing.

“I would be surprised if she went over to the network,” said Ms. Van Susteren, who was once considered a successor to Mr. King. “It’s so off the mission of Ted Turner. Ted Turner wanted news. He didn’t want theatrics.”

“I don’t know if Jon Klein is ready for a show like that in his prime-time line-up,” said one high-ranking CNN source. “Getting rid of Aaron Brown is one thing. Putting in the antithesis of Aaron Brown may be another.”

ThinkProgress? More like ThinkBrainFreeze

Embittered "progressive" media watchdogs (read: professional Fox News-haters) ThinkProgress say that Neil Cavuto isn't entitled to his opinion:

Fox News: ‘It’s Too Late…We’re Already Probably At War With Iran’

Fox News’s Neil Cavuto skips past the “should the United States go to war with Iran” debate and informs us we already have. Watch it:

Transcript:

CAVUTO: But what if I told you it is too late, that we’re already probably at war with Iran and most of us don’t even know it. Welcome everybody, I’m Neil Cavuto, and this is Your World.

That's it--that's the entire item. No argument, just incoherent, impotent unhappiness at the fact that a fair and balanced news organization exists, and that it's the home of the top-rated business show on cable.

Gallup on CNN: next step, restraining order

Drudge has the full Gallup "we don't want you anymore, CNN" memo, and it's clear that the split isn't so much a semi-amicable divorce as much as it is a "Sleeping With the Enemy," running for your life situation. Chairman & CEO of Gallup Jim Clifton breaks down the reasons why Gallup had to get while the getting was good:

WHY. 1) CNN has far fewer viewers than it did in the past and we feel that our brand was getting lost and diluted combined with the CNN brand. We have only about 200 thousand viewers during our CNN segments.

2) We are creating our own e-broadcasting programs and we don't want to be married to one broadcast network. We don't want to move to another network like CBS or Fox but rather become our own network. We cannot do this while married to CNN.

3) By dissolving our partnership with CNN we believe that Frank and other Gallup analysts will be seen as more independent so they will be more likely to be invited on a wide variety of television shows rather than primarily linked to CNN. We believe with this new found independence, we will get covered by more broadcast media because we are not the poll of their competitor.

4) We have enthusiastically renewed our print partner, USA Today.....In the big picture, USA Today supplies more than 10x the users per day than CNN. USA Today is our 800lb paper