CNN is proud of being nonpartisan, and makes a point that it doesn’t take sides like Fox or MSNBC. Problem is, you can’t define a strong network just by what it isn’t. And too often that’s been CNN’s approach: it still has great reach and strong reporting when it matters. But day to day it seems too driven by being the network that doesn’t bother anyone. There’s too much smileyness in its daytime programming, too much reflexive blandness on shows like Wolf Blitzer’s The Situation Room. CNN’s nonverbal message, too often, is “please don’t get mad at us.CNN Picks a New Boss: Will It Be Saved, or Has it Been Zuckered? | TIME.com (via markcoatney)
Throughout a four-month search process for the person to succeed Jim Walton, the departing president, attention has centered on Jeffrey Zucker, the former chief executive of NBCUniversal, who was replaced when Comcast took over the company last year. Mr. Zucker currently produces Katie Couric’s daytime talk show.
Several news executives close to Mr. Zucker said this week that they believed he had been chosen to run CNN and expected the appointment to be announced soon. People close to the Time Warner chief executive, Jeffrey L. Bewkes, also identified Mr. Zucker. A Time Warner spokesman declined to comment.
Did they run out of names in the phone book? Or is this a comedy hiring? The only network that did worse than NBC in the period that Jeff Zucker was in charge was … uh, CNN. So maybe they deserve one another.
Here’s Wolf Blitzer and his camera crew running for their lives after an air raid siren went off in the Israeli city of Ashkelon — which has been a target of rocket fire — earlier today. “The sirens went off minutes after we arrived. The camera was hanging around my neck,” wrote CNN staffer Linda Roth, who says that a more professional version of this clip will air on “The Situation Room” later today. Anderson Cooper had a similar situation over the weekend. (ht HyperVocal)
Convince Paul Hewlett to vote! Send him a message on YouTube or Twitter with the hashtag #CTL1. “I’ve never voted in my life,” Hewlett told me when I met him on a beach in Hawaii. “I don’t think my one vote is going to make any difference.” You could convince him otherwise. This project is part of CNN’s Change the List. Our goal is to boost Hawaii off the bottom of the voter turnout ranking. #changethelist
Did you know that Hawaii has the lowest voter turnout in the United States? We’re trying to change that, one voter at a time. You can convince Paul Hewlett to vote by sending him a message at #CTL1 on various social networks, or uploading a video to iReport.
… wait a second: So, the only way this guy’s gonna vote is if CNN starts up a hashtag campaign for him? I just did a check of the entries, and there are (as of this writing) a total of two tweets in favor of this guy voting. (EDIT: Now there are more. Must’ve just put it on TV or something.)
Can we twist this man’s arm? Can we make him walk away from the beach for 20 minutes so he has to use a computer and learn something about politics?
CNN, this is sad. Rather than doing your job as a news outlet and convincing people to vote based on the issues important to them, you’re trying to make this a reality TV competition. And it’s not working. Because it’s a transparently awful idea.
Are you saying that we’re only as good as our weakest link? That we’re only as good as CNN?Bill O’Reilly • Criticizing Stewart and CNN in one fell swoop, to which Stewart says, “we have to help them!”
![mar-see-ah:
Arrests made in the killing of U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans, Libya’s state-run news agency reports.
Breaking news from CNN, so take it with a grain of salt.
At least one of the arrests was cited from a direct quote by Libya’s Prime Minister, so it’s a little stronger than that:
[Updated at 3:28 p.m. ET] At least one person has been arrested in the killings of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, Libya’s prime minister said Thursday.
One person was arrested early Thursday in Benghazi, Mustafa Abushagur said on CNNI’s “Amanpour.” “Three or four are currently being pursued,” he said.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_maazqh1LMo1qzvrm1o1_500.png)
Breaking news from CNN, so take it with a grain of salt.
At least one of the arrests was cited from a direct quote by Libya’s Prime Minister, so it’s a little stronger than that:
[Updated at 3:28 p.m. ET] At least one person has been arrested in the killings of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, Libya’s prime minister said Thursday.
One person was arrested early Thursday in Benghazi, Mustafa Abushagur said on CNNI’s “Amanpour.” “Three or four are currently being pursued,” he said.
![theatlantic:
Foxy Ladies: Why One Network Applies So Much Makeup
Of course, TV news shows have always put a premium on appearance, more so for women than for men. And it’s hardly a revelation that some networks place more pressure on women than do others: C-SPAN has no makeup room at all, just a collection of powder compacts that guests can use if they are so inclined. At MSNBC, Rachel Maddow is known to prefer minimal makeup, while other anchors want more, and the artists oblige with a range of choices, from neutral tones to berry hues. Bloomberg TV tends toward the corporate aesthetic; CNN favors a professional style that makes women and men look crisp, as if they have been ironed. As for Fox, suffice it to say that there is a YouTube montage devoted to leg shots of Fox anchors, who are often outfitted in body-hugging dresses of vibrant red and turquoise, their eyes enhanced by not only liner and shadow but also false lashes. A Fox regular once commented to me that she gets more calls from network management about her hair, clothes, and makeup than about what she says. “I just think of it as a uniform,” she said of her getup.
Read more. [Image: Charles Ommanney/Getty]
A truly surface-level issue with some beneath-the-surface implications.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m99y7vzjkn1qcokc4o1_500.jpg)
Foxy Ladies: Why One Network Applies So Much Makeup
Of course, TV news shows have always put a premium on appearance, more so for women than for men. And it’s hardly a revelation that some networks place more pressure on women than do others: C-SPAN has no makeup room at all, just a collection of powder compacts that guests can use if they are so inclined. At MSNBC, Rachel Maddow is known to prefer minimal makeup, while other anchors want more, and the artists oblige with a range of choices, from neutral tones to berry hues. Bloomberg TV tends toward the corporate aesthetic; CNN favors a professional style that makes women and men look crisp, as if they have been ironed. As for Fox, suffice it to say that there is a YouTube montage devoted to leg shots of Fox anchors, who are often outfitted in body-hugging dresses of vibrant red and turquoise, their eyes enhanced by not only liner and shadow but also false lashes. A Fox regular once commented to me that she gets more calls from network management about her hair, clothes, and makeup than about what she says. “I just think of it as a uniform,” she said of her getup.
Read more. [Image: Charles Ommanney/Getty]
A truly surface-level issue with some beneath-the-surface implications.
I have decided that I will not be able to serve a second term as a Successor Fellow of the Yale Corporation. I am reexamining my professional life and I have recognized that, in order to focus on the core of my work, I will have to shed some of my other responsibilities.Time and CNN journalist Fareed Zakaria • Revealing to Yale President Richard C. Levin his plans to resign from the school’s governing board, weeks after he received a major professional scare — getting suspended from his two main gigs after getting caught plagiarizing. (Both CNN and Time eventually accepted him back.) Zakaria likely had too much on his plate: “My service at Yale is the single largest commitment of time, energy, and attention outside of my writing and television work,” he also wrote in his note. Levin graciously accepted the note and thanked the journalist for his work.
If this is something young women look at and say, ‘I can do this,’ I think, ‘Absolutely, you can do this,’ I am all for that. But I think, first, I am a journalist, and this is just an amazing opportunity as a journalist…. And I am a girl.CNN host Candy Crowley • Regarding her chance to host the second of three presidential debates later this fall — a big deal because she’s the first woman to do so since the 1992 elections. ABC’s Martha Raddatz will also moderate the lone vice-presidential debate.
In her last days, my mother occasionally became confused....
”The reporter...
I can’t add much to what’s already been (and will be) ...
One of the perks of being an early employee...
Over the last 90 days, the Digg...
#FMMDI (at 30 Rockefeller Plaza)
Zakaria’s apology:
“Media reporters have pointed out that paragraphs in my Time column this week bear close similarities to paragraphs in Jill Lepore’s essay in the April 23rd issue of The New Yorker. They are right. I made a terrible mistake. It is a serious lapse and one that is entirely my fault. I apologize unreservedly to her, to my editors at Time, and to my readers.”
Time Magazine’s statement:
TIME accepts Fareed’s apology, but what he did violates our own standards for our columnists, which is that their work must not only be factual but original; their views must not only be their own but their words as well. As a result, we are suspending Fareed’s column for a month, pending further review.
The otherwise well-regarded journalist was caught copying parts of a New Yorker article on gun control without offering proper credit.
EDIT: CNN is also suspending the host, saying he used a portion of the TIME column in a blog post, complete with plagiarism.
“We have reviewed Fareed Zakaria’s TIME column, for which he has apologized. He wrote a shorter blog post on CNN.com on the same issue which included similar unattributed excerpts. That blog post has been removed and CNN has suspended Fareed Zakaria while this matter is under review.”
Into his conference call, the CNN producer says (correctly) that the Court has held that the individual mandate cannot be sustained under the Commerce Clause, and (incorrectly) that it therefore ‘looks like’ the mandate has been struck down. The control room asks whether they can ‘go with’ it, and after a pause, he says yes.SCOTUSblog’s Tom Goldstein • Looking back at what caused the mistaken reporting of the Supreme Court’s Affordable Care Act decision, in a minute-by-minute breakdown. In case you need something very epic to read, here you go — Goldstein’s post, which he claims is his first effort at “real journalism,” is 7,000 freaking words long. Or, you know, longer than the usual article we link. (ht Dave Weigel)
Anderson Cooper: “The Fact Is, I’m Gay.” via Andrew Sullivan.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The fact is, I’m gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud.
Copyright 2009-2013 Ernie Smith • Ask us stuff! • E-mail us • Follow us on Twitter • Follow us on Facebook
