Gawker: Cable News

Arianna Huffington Banned From Third-Place Cable News Network

Pareene — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:48:14 EDT

Arianna Huffington has reportedly been BANISHED by NBC news—including MSNBC!—because her new book savagely criticizes NBC political honcho Tim Russert. Keith Kelly reports: "Sources said that Huffington was at a dinner in the home of Barbara Walters on Tuesday night when she heard that word had come down from on high that she no longer appear on NBC or MSNBC, where talk show hosts Keith Olbermann, Joe Scarborough and Dan Abrams were all interested in booking her." NBC's Phil Griffin claims to not know anything about it. We'd argue Arianna was just playing up a rumor she heard to publicize her book, but Griffin adds: "I know some people have issues with her as a guest, but it has nothing to do with the book." Say what you will about Arianna, but she's generally a great guest. So we'll take that as a confirmation. Arianna used to appear on Olbermann's and Dan Abrhams' shows fairly regularly, but her media schedule shows no forthcoming appearances. [NYP]

Meth-head CNN Presenter Goes Into Rehab

Nick Denton — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:31:23 EDT

Richard Quest, the flamboyant CNN presenter found by New York police in Central Park with crystal meth in his pocket, is to go into rehab for treatment of his drug habit, says the cable news network. This is by now the default escape route for disgraced TV personalities: they disappear from view, while appealing to the public's sympathy, a technique recently demonstrated by drunk-dialing host of The Insider, Pat O'Brien—twice. Quest also had rope around his genitals and a dildo in his boot, when stopped, making him not just a meth-head but a walking gay cliché.(Previously: watch Quest show off his rope tricks in a clip that foreshadowed his late-night embarrassment.)

Pundit Lapels Shockingly Bare

Pareene — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:18:18 EDT

Doesn't anyone wear flag pins anymore? HuffPo's Rachel Sklar, who carries an actual maple leaf pinned to a beaver pelt with her at all times, pitted the cable news network talking heads against each other in a brutal MS Paint collage battle, and discovered that while people get all up-in-arms about Barack Obama not wearing his little American flag pin, no one else does anymore either. Except Brit Hume, Neil Cavuto, Karl Rove, and Lou Dobbs. The last defenders of patriotism! Everyone else in America is too bitter.

Why the Never-Ending Primaries Are TV's Fault

Pareene — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:51:29 EDT

So Hillary's "leaked" internal polling numbers gave her an 11 point lead in Pennsylvania, and Obama publicly predicted he'd lose by 8-10 percentage points. TV talking heads decided she needed to win by "more than 10 points" to justify staying in the race. And Clinton ended up clobbering Obama with 9.2 percent victory! Then, oddly, everyone suddenly admitted that the entire Pennsylvania primary was an elaborate farce with no actual point.

"'Pennsylvania has settled nothing,' the Fox News Channel anchor Chris Wallace concluded, 'and it's all back two weeks from tonight, same place, same station.'" Oh, hah. Because in two weeks is Indiana and North Carolina. SUCKERS. And now we're in a weird spot where everyone admits that nothing changed and that Clinton's chances of winning the nomination remain highly unlikely but they are still encouraging her to go on with it by crowing about her nominal victory.

Via Andrew Sullivan, a slightly unfair look at how Hillary can still pull this off:

Now: Obama is expected to win North Carolina. That means it won't count. Because he's expected to win it, see, so when he does, it won't be a surprising enough result to change the way people on TV talk about the race. Which means it all comes down to Indiana. Which is totally up in the air!

Indiana has a lot a white people, but is it more like Obama-friendly Illinois or Clinton-friendly Ohio? Here's the fun part: we get to spend the next two weeks finding out! Except Indiana is not as close to the eastern seaboard as Pennsylvania so there will be many fewer famous TV people there.

All These Dirty Bands Look The Same To CNN

Hamilton Nolan — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 16:48:36 EST

In this clip, CNN picks up on Maxim's fake review of the Black Crowes album. But they fail to pick up any anchors who know anything about the Black Crowes. Instead, the anchors just spitball about the band's connection to the "grunge" movement, then, grasping at straws, congratulate them on lasting longer than Nirvana. Which does tend to happen when your lead singer hasn't committed suicide. Click to watch the fun! [Disclosure: We don't know anything about the Black Crowes either].

Fox News Not Hesitant To Fire Fox News Critics

Hamilton Nolan — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 09:45:03 EST

On Friday, Fox News boss Roger Ailes reminded employees in a memo that "there are no locks on the doors." Now the network has proven the point, by helping two find their way out. Eric Burns, the moderator of "Fox News Watch," the media critic roundtable show mandatory to all cable news networks, along with liberal panelist Neal Gabler, who was known for criticizing his employer, have both been let go. Gabler moaned about Fox's lack of promotion for the show, but the network called sour grapes. They did not, however, "wish him well." [NYT]. After the jump, classic footage of Burns&Co. discussing the Larry Craig scandal; sadly, you won't ever get to see this happen live.

Fox Business Network Sole Beneficiary Of Crash

Hamilton Nolan — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 10:41:25 EST

The New York Times Co., News Corp, and Time Warner all saw their stocks fall to 52-week lows. The one winner amongst the pall? Lightly viewed upstart Fox Business Network, the only business channel politically incorrect enough to make staffers work on Martin Luther King Day, as Europe's stockmarkets careened. While, Bloomberg TV only had a brief live period Monday morning, and CNBC was on taped programming all day, Fox Biz was covering the crash live from the overseas markets. Dr. King did always believe in the redemptive power of work.

It's Hard Work Staying This Pretty

Nick Denton — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 14:37:48 EST

[MSNBC's Contessa Brewer, not realizing she's live, applies lipgloss — via Soup Cans.]

Too many hours

Nick Denton — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 00:31:17 EST

"We all have too many hours to fill and too little imagination to fill them creatively." [MSNBC's Tom Brokaw, the retired network anchor, one of the few TV presenters who didn't call the New Hampshire race for Barack Obama.]

Glaring Emissions

Nick Denton — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:09:02 EST

This is either the strangest regional accent I've heard on cable news, or one of the best TV bloopers of the campaign. A CNN commentator, interviewed by Anderson Cooper, intended to predict that the nomination would be "hard-fought". It came out "a hard-fart nomination." The clip, after the jump. Wait till 00:31 into the video.

Topics for discussion

Pareene — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 11:40:52 EST

Today's puzzler: 24-hour cable news nets are more interested in missing white lady hiker and successful black guy candidate than crazy hospitalized pop starlet. ALSO it could snow at any second in California!

'NYO': America Loves Anderson, But Also Doesn't

Jesse — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 13:19:42 EDT

As you know, we've recently discovered some mixed emotions about our beloved Anderson. Now the Observer's TV queen, Rebecca Dana, reports that it seems the rest of the world has conflicted feelings on him, too. How so? Well, he's indisputably a star — VF coverboy, bestselling author, new 60 Minutes correspondent, Details columnist, Yale commencement speaker. But there's a catch: Turns out barely anyone is actually watching his TV show. Some numbers, as accumulated by Dana, after the jump.

On average, only some 630,000 viewers a night tune in to Anderson Cooper 360, to watch Anderson Cooper do his professional duties....

Many nights, Mr. Cooper doesn't even do as well as his predecessor Aaron Brown, the ice to his fire, the old-fashioned, bespectacled anchor who was booted in 2005 to make room for Mr. Cooper....

[I]n June, Mr. Cooper has occasionally been outperformed by his own substitute host, John Roberts, the salt-and-pepper CNN national correspondent who was dumped by CBS News this year. He loses 20 to 40 percent of his lead-in from Larry King Live.

And he is routinely trounced by his head-to-head Fox competitors, Greta van Susteren and a rebroadcast of Bill O'Reilly.

And yet somehow Greta hasn't ended up on the cover of Vanity Fair. Can't imagine why.

NYTV: The Cooper Enigman [NYO]

Media Bubble: People Like News, Especially When It's Pretty

Jesse — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 16:18:10 EDT

• The news is still big; it's the newspapers that got small. [Slate]
• David Carr asks: Is CNN news or entertainment? What, it can't be both? [NYT]
• Pissing off Dick Cheney was not, in fact, the Times' reason for running its financial-records-spying story, says Bill Keller. [NYT]
• As we already told you, WWD media man Jeff Bercovici is going to Radar. WWD media woman Sara James, however, is not. She's leaving Women's Wear — we're sure of that — but it's just unclear where she's going. [Jossip]
• Roger Ailes thinks with Fox Newsies aren't working hard enough. [B&C]
• Wednesday will be Charlie Gibson's last day at GMA, and his feeling will be hurt if he doesn't get as many video tributes as Katie did. [USAT]
• Spiers steals David Lat from slutty sister Wonkette for her nascent juggernaut. Next time, she'll just twist Denton's nipple directly, without the intermediary. [WWD (second item)]
• Bigshot VCs give people like Rafat Ali — proprietor of the distressingly capitalized paidContent.org and, years ago, an intern where we used to work — money. [WSJ]

Connie Chung, Bad Singer and Worse Comedian

Jesse — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 10:49:14 EDT

Remain mystified by Connie Chung's off-key, ill-choreographed, nonsensically lyric'ed song-and-dance routine bidding farewell to her avec-Maury MSNBC show? (Haven't seen it yet? Oh, go watch. You'll thank us.) In this morning's Times, media reporter Jacques Steinberg graciously explains. It was, as Connie insists, all just a joke. Oh really? Hmm. In this case, then, we fear Connie never learned what our father used to tell us were the first and second cardinal rules of humor: First, your joke must be funny. Second, other people must think it's funny. How we wish we'd been able to explain this to her last week.

Connie Chung, Torch Singer for a Night
Earlier: Every Time Connie Chung Says Goodbye We Die a Little, Especially This Time

Rick Kaplan Quits MSNBC, In Setback for Tranny News Anchors

Jesse — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 10:50:28 EDT

As you may have heard, MSNBC president Rick Kaplan — the famously antagonistic former ABC and CNN executive, and a shockingly tall Jew — announced late yesterday that he's leaving the network after two and a half years, in which time he barely budged the news network's anemic ratings. His departure was widely expected, given MSNBC's performance on his watch, and it once and for all proves that, surprisingly, the way to rescue a cable network is not in fact to pick as one of your lead anchors a male-to-female tranny. Who knew?

Kaplan Out at MSNBC [B&C]
President of MSNBC Steps Down Abruptly [NYT]
Rick Kaplan Out at No. 3 MSNBC [WP]
NBC News President Steve Capus' Memo [Romenesko]
Earlier: Rita Cosby: MSNBC Snags Well-Fed Blonde

Tucker Carlson In Trouble! (Says Random Dude.)

Jesse — Thu, 11 May 2006 13:10:04 EDT

A reliable pal passes along this bit of cable-news programming gossip:

I went to an advance screening of Poseidon the other night. It was the kind of screening that they give passes out to select industry contacts and people responding to "Get two free passes to Movie X" ads in various papers.

The guy behind us was talking loudly enough about work (in this case, a position at MSNBC) that he could be easily overheard. The gist of his conversation may have had something to do with recent schedule changes, but I could be wrong about that. The upshot that I was clear about was that Keith Olbermann was doing fine in his time slot, and that Tucker Carlson was not going to survive his move to 11:00.

I didn't recognize the guy, but he was mid-50s, lavender shirt and blue blazer, crappy tan. He was clearly not so important that he was able to go to a more private or star-studded premiere.

So when Tucker fails at 11 — and it's MSNBC, so of course he will — remember you heard it here first, courtesy of some crappily tanned guy.

Earlier: Team Party Crash: Tucker Carlson Launch Party

After Gay-Bashing Crime, St. Maarten Awaits Greta Van Susteren's Wrath

Jesse — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 15:21:38 EDT

Last week, a group of six New Yorkers were on a Caribbean vacation in St. Maarten. Two of them were brutally beaten — one, Dick Jefferson, a 51-year-old top producer at the CBS Evening News, is out of the hospital but now has a titanium plate in his head; the other, a 25-year-old researcher there, remains in intensive care with brain injuries. Why were they beaten? Because they're gay, and the attackers had earlier that night been thrown out of a bar for heckling Smith and his boyfriend, Justin Swenson. ABCNews.com did a thorough story earlier this week, which made an interesting point:

The part of the island of St. Maarten where the assault took place is Dutch territory in the Caribbean, just like the island of Aruba. It was almost a year ago that Natalee Holloway disappeared in Aruba. Since then, her parents have had an exasperating odyssey through the island's Dutch legal system. Smith's family and friends are bracing for a similar journey.

St. Maarten police, Jefferson said, initially did not want to investigate the incident.

So. A promising 25-year-old American was beaten nearly to death while on vacation, and an impassive Dutch-colonial government is unwilling or uninterested to adequately investigate or prosecute the crime. We're sure the cable networks will be as excited as when Natalee Holloway, a promising 19-year-old American, disappeared while on vacation and an impassive Dutch-colonial government is unwilling or uninterested to adequately investigate or prosecute the crime.

After all, it's not like they would care more about a Southern blonde girl than a New York gay of indeterminate hair color? Of course not.

Alleged Hate Crime in Paradise [ABCNews.com]

Loony Liza Laughs With Larry, Live

Jesse — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 11:50:06 EST

We were too busy basking in the afterglow of the Liza With a Z premiere last Monday to notice Ms. Minnelli's appearance on Larry King Live Wednesday night. Blogger fourfour, fortunately, caught it. And then edited down the hour to a highlight reel: a minute and a half of Liza's disjointed, inappropriate, and deeply throaty guffaws and giggles. The clip kind of makes you hope Liza has fallen back off the wagon — drunk is the only good excuse for this behavior — but it couldn't be more entertaining unless it also included footage of her beating David Gest about the head. Enjoy.

Crazy With a Z [fourfour]
Earlier: It's a Gay Gay Gay Gay World: Liza With a Z at the Ziegfeld

A Double Terror Was Waiting for You

Jesse — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 08:50:48 EST

It is not pleasant to be idly flipping channels late at night and happen across Headline News, on which appears two seemingly identical Nancy Graces, both blondely staring back at you. Such wrath, you imagine; such anger, such concern for missing white women. Then you realize it could be worse: It could be MSNBC and two Rita Cosbys.

Shiver.

Nancy Grace [CNN.com]

Media Bubble: 'State of War,' What Is It Good For?

Jesse — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 15:46:58 EST

• James Risen's State of War — the impending publication of which forced the Times to finally publish the domestic-spying story — also makes Judy Miller's WMD excuses fall apart. [NYO]
• Still, the domestic-spying articles were better than the book is, says Jack Shafer. [Slate]
• Lunatic talking head Bill O'Reilly promises to "get into the lives" of Bill Keller and Frank Rich if (perhaps imagined) Times attacks on him continue. We really hope he does, because Keller would be so much sexier if he were a little less earnest. [Media Matters]
• Yesterday was CBS's first day as its own company. Well, except for all those all days as its own company. [WP]
• New Oxygen show features middle-aged women partying with college guys. We're pretty sure we saw that same show on Cinemax once. [NYT]
• Not-quite-victorious — but still really good — GMA staffers get cheesy commemorative trinkets. [NYO]
• Jon Friedman is clearly smoking crack, as proved by (among other things) his prediction that MSNBC will beat CNN and Fox News in 2006. [MW]
• Latest Q-ratings study shows Katie Couric isn't as popular as she used to be. Clearly not in the polling sample: Les Moonves. [WWD]

Media Bubble: Scocca Hits Because He Loves

Jesse — Wed, 16 Nov 2005 14:10:54 EST

• Come on, Pinch, you're breaking poor Tom Scocca's heart. [NYO]
• Was Bob Woodward the first reporter to learn of Valerie Plame's identity? And why didn't he mention that to anyone till now? [WP]
• Ah, but at least Ben Bradlee says it's OK Woodward didn't tell his nominal bosses. [E&P]
• Turns out Bush-crony public-broadcasting chief Kenneth Tomlinson — you know, the guy determined to get more conservatives on PBS — broke all sorts of laws and regulations. [NYT]
• Who's to blame for Arrested Development's (latest) demise. America, obviously. [NYO]
• Rupert: This internet thing is gonna be huge! [Hollywood Reporter]
• What reference in a headline will conclusively show that boomer media dominance is over? [Slate]
• MSNBC's Chris Matthews name-drops, and Jon Friedman loves him anyway. [MW]

If It Was Shep Smith's Show, That's Another Story

Jesse — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 10:17:02 EST

Clearly we tuned into Fox News at the wrong time last night. We should have been watching Hannity & Colmes:

To quote VividBlurry: "Not as often as I do while watching CNN, that's for sure."

Mr. O'Reilly, I Shouldn't Have to Answer That [VividBlurry.com]

57 Channels and Nothing On

Jesse — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 09:26:04 EST

Let's say you're both politically interested and also a moderate alcoholic. And so, while of course you're interested in yesterday's election returns, you're also not interested enough to give up happy hour with some friends at the neighborhood bar. (It's an off year, you know who'll win NYC mayor, and certainly New Jersey and Virginia governors, while important races, aren't going to keep you home and sober.) So you go out for a while, and you get home at, say, around 10:15. At which point you turn on NY1 to confirm that Bloomberg has, of course, won. He has. And then you want to learn about the other two big contests, the two gubernatorial races, which, because they're on the other side of the Hudson, you don't expect Roma Torre to tell you about.

So you switch to CNN. On which Anderson Cooper seems to be visiting Africa — impassionedly visiting Africa — with Jack Hanna of the Columbus Zoo, formerly best known as Carson's go-to animal guy on nights Joan Embry was otherwise occupied. [UPDATE: Um, that was Jim Fowler. Hanna was Letterman's monkey boy. Sorry.] No U.S. political news there.

So you switch to MSNBC. On which Joe Scarborough is yelling at someone unrecognizable about something inscrutable. Nothing you can comprehend there.

So you switch, grudgingly to Fox News. On which Greta van Susteren is, naturally, talking to someone about Natalee Halloway.

And you remember: This is why cable news sucks.

National News [NYT]

Good Night, 'NewsNight,' and Good Luck

Jesse — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 15:29:50 EST

One of the 47 press releases that CNN sends us each day just arrived in our inbox, and either we're very confused or they're not just burying but entirely ignoring the lead. Here's the new CNN daily schedule. Do you see a show for Aaron Brown — last we heard, the network's lead anchor — anywhere on it?

CNN/U.S. Programming Schedule

6 10 a.m.: American Morning (effective Monday, Nov. 28)
10 a.m. - noon: CNN Live Today
Noon 1 p.m.: Your World Today
1 4 p.m.: Live From
4 6 p.m.: The Situation Room
6 7 p.m.: Lou Dobbs Tonight
7 8 p.m.: The Situation Room
8 9 p.m.: Paula Zahn Now
9 10 p.m.: Larry King Live
10 midnight: Anderson Cooper 360

There will, however, now be The Situation Room in the evening, too. Swell.

The CNN press release is after the jump.

UPDATE: Blogger savant TVNewser of course has the memo: Brown, natch, is leaving to spend "some well-deserved time off with his family."

News Release

For Release: Nov. 2, 2005

Anderson Cooper to Host Two-hour CNN Program at 10 p.m. (ET)

The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer Expands into Evenings

Anderson Cooper will take the helm of a live news program from 10 p.m. to midnight (ET) on CNN beginning next week. Cooper, who has reported from the scene of such major news events as Hurricane Katrina, the famine in Niger, the Terry Schiavo case, the war in Iraq, the tsunami in South Asia and the 2004 elections, will be topping off CNN s prime-time schedule with two hours dedicated to exploring in-depth the most important and relevant news of the day. Anderson Cooper 360 , which debuted on Sept. 8, 2003, will air from its new timeslot beginning Monday, Nov. 7.

The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer will now air from 7 to 8 p.m., in addition to a two-hour afternoon block from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. The Situation Room has proven to be a breakout show with its expert contributors and correspondents and its innovative style of producing live news coverage. With the addition of the 7 p.m hour replacing Anderson Cooper 360 at 7 p.m., The Situation Room will now receive greater prominence in the CNN lineup. In addition, Live From, anchored by Kyra Phillips, will extend one hour and will now air from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Anderson Cooper 360 features Cooper s passionate reporting, aggressive questioning and engaging interview style, while showcasing the best of CNN s reporting each day. From national security, politics, domestic and international affairs, to pop culture, Anderson Cooper 360 will cover a broad range of topics with contributions from a regular roster of correspondents and contributors.

Anderson is one of the most distinctive voices anywhere on television, said Jon Klein, president of CNN/U.S. He has broken through the clutter with his candor, his humanity and his emotional connection to the most pressing stories of our time. As a result, he has gained a strong following among viewers that we hope to build on.

Anderson has an eclectic range of interests, and this program will reflect that, said David Doss, senior executive producer of Anderson Cooper360. We will delve in depth into the issues that viewers care about but don t have time to decipher each day.
Doss, an award-winning veteran producer, has held senior positions at both ABC and NBC. Doss is also credited with boosting NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw from the No. 3 evening newscast to No. 1.

During Cooper s five weeks in Mississippi and New Orleans covering Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, Cooper extended his reporting beyond Anderson Cooper 360 at 7 p.m. and began co-anchoring a special edition of NewsNight from 10 p.m. to midnight. In the month of October, the live 11 p.m. broadcast grew 27 percent in total viewers and 41 percent in adults ages 25-54 compared to last year.

Cooper joined CNN in December 2001, moving to the 7 p.m. hour in March 2003 following his stellar coverage of the war in Iraq. Since joining CNN, Cooper has anchored major breaking news stories. He traveled to Sri Lanka to cover the tsunami, to Baghdad for the Iraqi elections, to Vatican City for coverage of the funeral of Pope John Paul II, to Niger for coverage of the famine and to all the regions affected by the major recent disasters, most notably Hurricane Katrina. For America Votes 2004, he moderated a Democratic presidential candidates forum the network sponsored with Rock the Vote.

Before joining CNN, Cooper was an ABC News correspondent and host of the network's reality program, The Mole. Cooper joined ABC from Channel One News, where he served as chief international correspondent, reporting stories from Bosnia, Iran, Israel, Russia, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa and Vietnam. Cooper has won several journalism awards throughout his career.

CNN, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is one of the world s most respected and trusted sources for news and information. Its reach extends to 14 cable and satellite television networks; two private place-based networks; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; six Web sites, including CNN.com, the first major news and information Web site; and CNN Newsource, the world s most extensively syndicated news service.

-30-

In Two Hours, Prepare To Be Obfuscated

Pareene — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 17:47:58 EDT

Judith Miller will be on "Lou Dobbs Tonight" at 6:40 p.m. EST to promote her new book, titled Redacted and made up of 150 blank pages.

Dobbs will ask her just how many illegal immigrants she saw in prison, and what Miller's sources tell her about their plot to destroy the country and take our jobs.

Lou Dobbs Tonight [CNN]