Posts filed under ‘CNN / TimeWarner’
Mitt (Dog on Roof) Romney Wins Maine Caucuses
A whopping 39% of Mainers — that would be a total of 2,190 people — voted for Mitt
Illustration by Colleeen Clap for the "Chris Matthews Show"
Romney in today’s Republican caucuses there.
Ron Paul came in second at 36% with 1,996 votes.
Rick Santorum was third at 18% with 989 votes, and
Newt and Callista Gingrich came in fourth at 6% with a pitiful 349 votes.
Relevant factoid: Maine’s population? 1,328,188.
So, 5,524 Republicans voted in Maine today and the cables have been hanging on it all week? Really?
#ItsAllAboutRatingsTheMoney
CNN Says CNN Has Breaking News About CNN’s News About CNN
CNN has breaking news tonight about CNN breaking news about CNN:
The “breaking news”on CNN is that CNN has news about CNN: It has aired the “last debate before the Florida primary.”
Stay tuned for more from CNN on CNN breaking news that CNN covers when CNN breaks CNN news.
Countdown Clock Insanity
If you’re like me, you think one of the silliest things the cable news outlets do is put up those dorky countdown clocks when they’re promoting an event such as “Super Tuesday” or, in this case, a debate. Well, CNN took that beyond silly and into the realm of the absurd this morning.
I was clicking around at roughly 8:10 a.m. ET and there, again, on CNN, was a countdown clock which read: Presidential Debate: 35:49:08. In other words, CNN was counting down to the Republican presidential debate they are hosting tomorrow night in Jacksonville, Florida. Tomorrow night!
Ridiculous. What’s next? A countdown clock starting sometime in August for the November election?
Calling Buddy Roemer
Do you know who Buddy Roemer is?
He’s a former Republican governor of Louisiana and he’s running for the GOP nomination for president. Here is his campaign website.
Anyway, I’ve heard him interviewed several times and one of his (very valid) chief complaints is that he doesn’t have much of a chance in the primaries because media outlets have all kinds of rules as to who they allow to participate in their debates (giving the media waaaaaay too much control over the election process, imho) and he can’t meet them.
But hey, it looks like CNN at least has decided to set those rules aside and to let Rick Perry participate in its next debate on January 19, even though he doesn’t meet their previously-stated criteria either:
CNN now says that Rick Perry is being invited to their debate in South Carolina on January 19, two days before the big primary in which he hopes to make his last stand. This despite the fact that he has not met any of the requirements for participation that CNN made public last week.
“Yes, Gov. Perry will be invited to next week’s CNN debate,” said Edie Emery, director of public relations for Turner Broadcasting Systems, in an e-mail to TPM. “He has met the criteria.”
A follow-up e-mail to Emery, asking which criteria Perry has met, was not immediately returned.
According to CNN’s criteria for inclusion, a candidate must get at least 4th place in either Iowa or New Hampshire, or get 7% support in at least three national Republican or three South Carolina primary polls released in January. The requirements were posted online last Tuesday afternoon, several hours before before the Iowa caucuses began later that night.
Perry came in fifth place in Iowa, and sixth in New Hampshire.
So, if the rules don’t apply to Perry, why do they apply to Roemer? (CNN is letting Perry in because, in the end, they see this as being about entertainment and ratings (not about informing voters) and Perry will help in those areas. You know, if he makes another “Oops” gaffe, it’ll be good for a laugh, but who has ever heard of Buddy Roemer?)
I hope Roemer makes an issue out of this.
Remember When Ashleigh Banfield Was a Pariah?
TVNewser is reporting today that two new morning shows will debut on CNN on Monday, one starring Ashley Banfield:
Photo: Evan Agostini/Getty Images Entertainment
CNN will be launching its new 4-hour morning show Monday, the day before the Iowa Caucuses. Soledad O’Brien will anchor the 7-9am hours from Des Moines Monday and Tuesday with Ashleigh Banfield and Zoraida Sambolin anchoring the 5-7am hours from New York.
Remember when Ashleigh Banfield was a pariah in medialand because she criticized its abysmal coverage of the Iraq war?
Banfield, in a speech at Kansas State University [in 2003], had lashed out at “cable news operators who wrap themselves in the American flag and go after a certain target demographic.”
Banfield also claimed in her speech TV should have shown the gruesome results of coalition force in Iraq.
“We didn’t see what happen when Marines fired M-16s,” Banfield said. “We didn’t see what happened after mortars landed, only the puff of smoke. There were horrors that were completely left out of this war. So was this journalism? Or was this coverage?”
Reporters embedded with troops said there was little or no opportunity to film the “blood and guts” of the war due to logistical reasons. Many did not see much combat action.
Banfield’s address also suggested some cable TV networks skewed their coverage to please advertisers.
“It was a grand and glorious picture that had a lot of people watching,” Banfield said, “and a lot of advertisers excited about cable TV news. But it wasn’t journalism, because I’m not sure Americans are hesitant to do this again – to fight another war, because it looked to them like a courageous and terrific endeavor.”
I thought she was a terrific reporter and I liked her even more for the guts it took to speak out. Glad to see her back (though I don’t know if even she can make me watch CNN again). Hopefully she’ll show the same spunk she had in 2003. I hope that hasn’t been intimidated out of her.
CNN Exploits Claim-to-Famers
If you’re like me, you’ve seen CNN urge viewers to send photos of “breaking news” in to their iReporter site as long as people didn’t “endanger” their lives in order to do so. And, if you’re like me, you thought CNN was exploiting people who wanted to see their photos on CNN, because CNN didn’t have to send a reporter or a photojournalist to the location to get those pictures themselves.
Well, here’s the result of all that:
In the middle of last month, Jack Womack, CNN’s senior vice president of domestic news operations, sent around a memo to staffers. It was not the kind of memo people like to get right before the holidays. “We… spent a great deal of time analyzing how we utilize and deploy photojournalists across all of our locations in the U.S.,” wrote Womack. “We looked at production demands, down time, and international deployments. We looked at the impact of user-generated content and social media, CNN iReporters and of course our affiliate contributions in breaking news. Consumer and pro-sumer technologies are simpler and more accessible. Small cameras are now high broadcast quality. More of this technology is in the hands of more people. After completing this analysis, CNN determined that some photojournalists will be departing the company.”
In short, because it was receiving so many photo submissions via its user-generated iReport platform, CNN decided that it could afford to do away with 12 of its full-time photographers.
So, to all the people who want their name and photo shown on CNN, know they’re using your hunger for a few seconds of fame to save a ton — a ton — of money, as in the salaries of 12 full-time employees.
Oh, Puhleez
This would be our Tweet of the Day:
I can’t stand John King and sadly, I can’t stand CNN anymore. Liberal media my yas. They’re Fox News wannabees.
Regarding CNN’s Obsession With Conrad Murray
This would be our Tweet of the Day:
I remember when CNN was an actual news channel.
TIME: Dumbing Down America
TIME magazine (1) either thinks Americans are idiots who don’t need or what to know what’s going on in other parts of the world, or (2) given the Occupy Wall Street movement, they don’t want to give us any ideas.
Here is the cartoonish cover of the December 5, 2011 issue of TIME that will be released in the U.S.:
And here is the cover of the same issue that will be released in Europe, Asia and the South Pacific:
What a radical difference.
Newtmentum? What Mentum?
CNN’s Anderson Cooper’s big graphic tonight is:
Newtmentum
Newt “surged” to 28% in a (what a coincidence) CNN/ABCNews poll today so now we have Newtmentum?
Who wins a presidential election with 28% of the votes?
Oh, and we’re supposed to believe Anderson Cooper comes up with this stuff on his own? He doesn’t. He stole the Newtmentum thing from Z. Bryon Wolf. (Or maybe it was vice versa.)
It takes a village.
About All Those Republican Debates
I just saw an ad on CNN promoting the next Republican debate — one that will purportedly center on national security — which will be held on Tuesday, November 22.
I think I’m finally catching on to this whole GOP debate thing. The plan seems to be to hold a debate and then talk about it non-stop for days and days until the next debate and then talk about that debate non-stop for days and days until the next debate and on and on. I mean, these uninformative, silly, sound-bite debates are sucking the air out of everything else that’s happening on the planet, as in THE NEWS.
But, then again, when you’ve cut your reporting staff down to near zero, limiting your “news” coverage to chatting about one or two events is cheap and easy. Ah yes, the “liberal media.”
“Liberal Media” Dismisses Keystone XL Protest at the White House
UPDATED @ 1:07 p.m. ET
You may have heard that approximately 10,000 people gathered in Washington, D.C. yesterday and formed a human chain around the White House in an effort to convince President Obama to block the Keystone XL pipeline project. Then again, you may not have heard about that because despite the fact that this was a major demonstration, the “liberal media” is blowing it off.
This morning beginning at 7:00 a.m. ET I monitored both CNN and MSNBC — those bastions of the “liberal media” — for 30 minutes to see if they covered this event. Shamefully, neither of them did.
This is what CNN covered during those 30 minutes: The Penn State coaching “crisis;” the transfer of power in Greece; the stability of Italy’s economy; the Conrad Murray trial; back to Penn State; earthquakes in Oklahoma; US stock futures; Bank Transfer Day; Barnes & Noble introducing a new e-reader; Robert De Niro playing Bernie Madoff in a new movie and the introduction of casino gambling in NYC. For a minute there I thought I was watching TMZ.
MSNBC spent the first nine minutes, yes, nine minutes, on Herman Cain, then they moved to the “most qualified” GOP presidential candidate (Newt) and then to the Super Committee.
I know it’s been said many times before, but imagine if 10,000 Tea Partiers formed a human chain and surrounded the White House. It would have been covered live for one, and for two, news of the action would have been the headline every hour (and possibly every half-hour) for at least the following 24 hours.
So shame on the media for not giving this event the importance it deserves and hey, the next time someone whines that the media is “liberal,” particularly CNN and MSNBC, respond with a good ol’ knee-slappin’ belly laugh.
UPDATE: Here’s more. Listen to the wingers and they’ll tell you the Washington Post is part of the “liberal media” too. (I hope you catch the sarcasm about the Tea Party.)
Can’t Wait for the CNN / OccupyWallStreet Debate
I can’t wait for the CNN / OccupyWallStreet debate!
Understated Headline of the Year Regarding CNN’s Erin Burnett
Have you been reading the terrible reviews of Erin Burnett’s new, 3-day-old show on CNN called, Out Front? (Here, here, here and here to name but a few.) Some of the phrases being used are “media failure,” “vapid,” “banking apologista,” “smug” and “superficial.” So this headline from the AtlanticWire has got to be the kindest, most understated to date:
CNN’s New Star Is a Little Too Sympathetic to Wall Street
Ah, yeah! To put it mildly.
CNN’s Alison Kosik Says the Purpose of OccupyWallStreet is to “Smoke Weed!”
This would be CNN “journalist” Alison Kosick explaining the OccupyWallStreet movement on her Twitter feed (she has since deleted this tweet):
(Via.)
Per OccupyWallStreet’s website, this is their mission:
Occupy Wall Street is leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants.
I wonder if Kosick knows now to use The Google, or if she just doesn’t care to, you now, do what a journalist is supposed to do.
Ah yes. The “liberal media” strikes again.
You Can Be Sure I Won’t Be Watching CNN’s “Outfront” w/Erin Burnett
If this is how Erin Burnett debuted her new show — Outfront — on CNN last night, you can be sure I won’t be watching:
The show kicked off with Burnett explaining that she
went to Wall Street today to see those protests for myself. I saw dancing, bongo drums, even a clown…. I asked several protesters what it was that they wanted. Now, they did not know…. They did know what they don’t want.Burnett added that “it seems like people want a messiah leader, just like they did when they anointed Barack Obama.”
CNN Plays Music Using the N Word
UPDATED 9-27-11 (below).
How. In. The. World. Did. This. Happen?
Oh. My. God.
(Via.)
UPDATE: Per my friend Chrish (see comment below) the above is an over-dub, and this is the real version (though not much better, as she said).
CNN — The Most Trusted Name in News
I’ve seen more tweets and comments like this than I can count from people who know way more about what’s going on overseas that I do:
The Department of the Obnoxious
Geezus. Check out the countdown clock on CNN this morning:
Is Wolf Blitzer The Dullest Guy in the World?
Is Wolf Blitzer the dullest guy in the world?
Yes?
Bravo. It’s unanimous!
CNN boasts that Wolf has lived in Washington D.C. for 39 years
Does anyone think — like me — that that might be part of the problem?
Hello.
Anybody home?
Piers Morgan and Christine O’Donnell? WTF?
Piers Morgan, CNN’s lifeless replacement for the lifeless Larry King attempted to interview the failed wannabe politician Christine O’Donnell today. You remember Christine.
In 2010 she ran for the Senate in Delaware but was defeated by Chris Coons, a Democrat, 57% to 40%.
Oh, and she has a thing for witches:
(Via.)
Anyway, Christine O’Donnell walked out of an interview with Piers Morgan today and you can tell Piers is really, really, REALLY happy about that because his ratings might go up tonight. Check out his tweets. He’s drunk with excitement. (Start reading at the bottom.)
This would be the state of “news” in the United States of America folks.
CNN Lets the Head of the GOP Lie About the Reasons for the Wisconsin Recall Election
If the leader of the national Republican party has to lie about why Wisconsin is holding a recall election today for six GOP state senators, you know they’re up to no good. I mean, he knows if he tells the truth, people will be kinda pissed at what they did so, rather than standing up and being proud of it, he’s gotta lie:
Whatever happens tonight in Wisconsin, it has been a constant of this fight that Republicans have consistently falsefied the reason labor and Dems have waged this battle so bitterly. They have steadily downplayed the most extreme union-busting aspect of Scott Walker’s proposals, and have falsely asserted throughout that Dems and labor only made this stand because Walker asked public employees to cough up health and pension benefits.
So it’s fitting that as the recall elections hit their climax, the leader of the national GOP repeated this lie in the most hilariously blatant way yet. Here’s RNC chair Reince Priebus on CNN this afternoon:
ANCHOR: Is there buyers’ remorse in your home state of Wisconsin with Republican/Tea Party policy making?
PRIEBUS: No. I don’t think there’s any buyers’ remorse at all. You have a leader in Scott Walker who asked state employees to pay just a little bit more in pension and healthcare benefits, which was about half of what the rest of the state pays in those benefits. And that’s all he did. Now, in reaction to that, the public employee unions took $25 million, they put together a petition drive, and now they’re dumping millions of dollars on television trying to recall the senators for trying to balance a state budget.It’s the same type of tough choice that is were made in Wisconsin that the Republicans are trying to present to Americans in Washington.This is a completely false rendering of what actually happened. In reality, the protests from Democrats were prompted by Scott Walker’s proposal to strip public employees of their bargaining rights, protests that were later sustained by the deep cuts in his budget, leading to the recall drive.
Too bad CNN’s anchors don’t inform themselves about what’s going on so they can call someone like Priebus out and actually inform viewers as to what the facts are. That the head of the national Republican party feels free to bald-faced lie on national television is a pretty good indication of the abhorrent state of our “news” media.
Huge Explosion in Norway
10:06 p.m. ET:
Norway: Blast near prime minister’s office in Oslo
A large explosion has hit near government headquarters in the Norwegian capital Oslo.
The blast is thought to have caused damage to the offices of Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and a number of other official buildings.
Witnesses have said several people were injured in the incident in the centre of the city.
Pictures from the scene showed shattered windows and smoke drifting in the streets.
A journalist with Norwegian public radio station NRK said the headquarters of tabloid newspaper VG were also damaged.
As I post this, the U.S. cable “news” networks are covering: Fox - the deficit negotiations; CNN – the deficit negotiations; MSNBC – the heat wave.
UPDATE: 10:31 p.m. ET: U.S. cables still aren’t covering it. Follow Doug Sanders of the Globe & Mail here for updates.
(Image via.)
Slow-News-Day Fear Mongering
Gosh, golly, gee. It seems the 24/7-what-are-we-gonna-do-to-fill-all-that-time cable “news” shows covered a “terror alert” this evening (absent a “high-speed” LA car chase), as in a “suspicious package” at the White House:
Thank God I missed it.
Think: Manufactured fear because the cables are lazy ass, cheap “news” organizations and turning a “suspicious package” into an hour’s worth of “news” is easy.
Factoid of the Day
Check out this headline from TVNewser: HLN Planning 19+ Hours of Casey Anthony Coverage This Weekend.
Wow. 19+ hours of “news” you can’t use. How long will it take before HLN devotes 19+ hours to covering how hedge funds, investment firms and banksters destroyed the world’s economy.
Says it All
Watch this amazing video compilation from TalkingPointsMemo showing how all three cable “news” networks cut away from a presser being given by Nancy Pelosi immediately after she announced she was there to talk about jobs, and would not comment on Anthony Weiner:
I just heard MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell say that Weiner had to resign because coverage of other news “just stopped” and Democrats couldn’t get any other messages out (about the deficit, Medicare, etc.).
Well Andrea, given that ya’ll cut away from Pelosi when she wanted to talk about jobs, you tell me who has control over that.
This is such clear proof that if it bleeds it leads and our 24/7 cable “news” organizations don’t deserve the privilege of being called that.
Yes, “Weinergate” Was the “News” Last Week
If you watched cable “news” last week, you probably wondered: Is there anything else happening other than the Anthony Weiner scandal?
The answer is essentially no. Check out this graph showing how much time the cable “news” channels devoted to the Weiner story last week:
33%. 33%!
So, considering all the things that happen every day all around the world, the cables spent 33% of their “news” time talking about Anthony Weiner.
I think it’s insulting.
Read more here at the Project for Excellence in Journalism.
CNN’s GOP Presidential Debate: Introduce Yourselves in Five, Six, Seven Seconds
John King opened CNN’s GOP presidential “debate” tonight by telling the audience that each candidate had “five, six, seven seconds” to introduce themselves.
Yep. That’s a sure sign that the “journalists” at CNN are going to do all they can to educate us about the people who are running.
