Networks

We’re always weary of news organizations who cover their own stories and reporters. For obvious reasons they are not going to be the most hard hitting stories in the crop. CNN spent “a few minutes” with Christiane Amanpour to re-introduce her to the CNN audience. She begins a new stint at her old network today hosting a global affairs program on CNN International.

In the “interview” they ask her six questions. As we said, this is why networks ought not interview their own talent.

• “CNN is family.  CNN is where I’ve been for decades and it is from here that I’ve seen the world change.  CNN has played a role in all the changes that we’ve witnessed over the last three decades, so for me it was a really wonderful opportunity to come back…” (yawn, yawn and a big stretch)

• Words of wisdom from Amanpour: She says her interview subjects will not be the usual suspects (hmmm, like the politicians and pundits found on ABC’s “This Week”?). You probably don’t need to attend J-School for this bit of wisdom but we’ll go ahead and share it: “Getting a good interview requires a journalist make certain he or she is well informed. You must do your homework and research – and you cannot be afraid to be disliked or challenged in the pursuit of the truth.  Persistence is at the heart of the best journalism because obviously many people just don’t want to answer tough questions.”

Visit here to read the rest or if you just want to see how long it takes for your eyes to glaze over or your nose to bleed. Actually, your nose bleeding might be more entertaining than anything in this in-house interview.

Students at Washington University in St. Louis will soon have the opportunity to listen to NBC Political Director Chuck Todd discuss the 2012 elections.

On April 16 he will visit the campus and speak to the students in the chapel. The university will pay Todd for his appearance. Washington University is not Todd’s alma mater. He attended George Washington University. He has taught at Johns Hopkins University.

Correction: Todd did not graduate from GWU as we reported earlier. He dropped out. We’ve changed the above to reflect the correction. He attended GWU from 1990 to 1994.

Update: Todd will donate any money he receives to charity.

The fire alarms sounded at FNC last night and Greta Van Susteren was there to cover it.

She reported on her Gretawire blog just after midnight that the building alarm went off during her 10 p.m. program, “On the Record.” She had behind-the-scenes footage for viewers. “Never dull!” she wrote.

“Can we open the door and see if there’s a fire?” Van Susteren is heard asking her staff during a commercial break amid the blaring alarm. The mood was largely light.

See here.

On Sunday, CBS will air its first ever one hour broadcast of “Face the Nation” with host Bob Schieffer. And who better to kick off their first full hour than potential gaffe machine Veep Joe Biden? Schieffer, CBS News’s Chief Washington Correspondent, conducted the interview on Thursday in Milwaukee.

Excerpts of the interview will be broadcast tonight on the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley 6:30-7:00 PM) and tomorrow, March 30, on CBS This Morning (7:00-9:00 AM) on CBS.

“It’s about time,” said Schieffer in a release of the program moving to a one-hour format.

Other changes…

Read more

Current TV founder and CEO Joel Hyatt showed up to the Bill Press radio program this morning and made a splash. Hyatt flew in from Current’s home base in San Francisco to give Press moral support on day one of the network broadcasting his radio show on TV. FishbowlDC was there and spent a few minutes chatting with Hyatt.

Dressed in a blue-jean hued suit, Hyatt arrived on the tail end of Press’s program, claiming jet lag.

Press and fellow lefty radio personality Stephanie Miller are Current TV’s first foray into the daytime live talk game. And Hyatt is promising more surprise announcements on the horizon. “Quite candidly, we were dead in the morning,” Hyatt tells us. “Now we’re very much alive. ”

Then the CEO went full bore on the other networks. “There are only three competitors, and they are all vulnerable,” he declared.

He called MSNBC “inauthentic,” CNN “victimized” by its own legacy as a “news” network and Fox News at best an “infotainment” network. “They are liberal by accident,” Hyatt said of MSNBC, adding that the network is a “confused, inauthentic brand” that is supported for their ratings and not their views. “It’s just not a real brand.” He also said CNN has “lost its way” in terms of its identity.

Current TV, on the other hand, is the real deal, he said, insisting, “We’re liberal because of who we are.”

While reluctant to discuss any network controversy surrounding the network’s “brilliant” star broadcaster Keith Olbermann, Hyatt said the recent debacle involving Olbermann being yanked off campaign coverage was nothing more than “just a big distraction.” He acknowledged that more was made of the recent flap than was necessary.

Apart from Olbermann, another sore spot for Current: the cracks on how it is the network no one can find. Hyatt insists this bad rap is changing. On the Dish network Current TV is right next to the Weather Channel. But he admits it hasn’t been easy. On XFinity, the system run by Comcast, a majority owner of NBCU, it is still hard to find. “Increasingly more and more people are finding it,” Hyatt says, adding, “It’s very hard to start a new media network.”

Further reading: So What Do You Do Joel Hyatt? See mediabistro’s recent interview with the CEO.

Don’t believe me, just ask him. Bret Baier of Fox News is known to mix it up with his followers. He answers personal questions all the time. He takes criticisms and responds to them out in the open. When one of his Twitter followers, @shelbyygraham, tweeted to him about the size of his ears, Baier just embraced the flaw on his otherwise flawless face and retweeted the insult and his reply to his followers:

Yes i do thanks RT @shelbyygraham @bretbaier you have big ears bro

— Bret Baier (@BretBaier) March 22, 2012

This is why we love following Bret Baier . His goofiness knows no bounds. Can you even imagine another anchor or pundit type tweeting about his imperfections? Has ABC’s George Stephanopoulos ever tweeted about how short he is? Has WaPo‘s Ezra Klein ever mentioned his lips and the gloss he’s accused of wearing? You get the idea.

We’re not fashion consultants, but we might as well be because we have no idea what in the world Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) was thinking when she woke up this morning, got dressed and pulled this crazy ass ensemble out of her closet. Is it Halloween? Was she going for a peachy cowgirl look? And what is that giant peach octopus doing on the left side of her blazer?

Of course, the topic during her morning MSNBC appearance was deadly serious as Trayvon Martin lived in her district. Her fashion failure only serves to strip her message. “It was a not a shock to me,” she said of Trayvon’s death. “I have seen it happen over and over again and it’s a conversation that must never end. We must talk about it. We must educate our young boys. We must talk to police officers. We must educate them, because there is this natural tension between black boys and the police. It is not a perceived tension. That tension exists and we need to find ways to calm that tension because it always leads to trouble.”

Good message Frederica. Very questionable attire.

From hiring Keith Olbermann and Internet pioneer Cenk Uygur to expanding into daytime with original programming with Stephanie Miller and Bill Press, Current TV has undergone a great deal of changes since its launch in 2005. But its mission stays the same, says co-founder Joel Hyatt.

“Our goal for Current is to influence the conversation of democracy,” says Hyatt in our So What Do You Do? interview. ”We want to have an impact on the public policy discussion.”

Hyatt, who stepped back into the CEO role in July 2012, also gave his two cents on how the Big Three (MSNBC, CNN and Fox News) are doing in covering the Republican primaries and Presidential race.

“There are times in which the cable networks do a really outstanding job; there are times in which I think the job they do is embarrassingly bad,” Hyatt said. “What journalism needs to do is seek truth. Convey it; explore it; create context for it; connect the dots.”

Is that the general rule on those rival networks? “No,” he said.

Read the full interview here.

Follower insults Chuck Todd’s hair?

TV journos have to endure the worst kind of scrutiny about their looks. What they wear, how much they weigh and how they style their hair is often heavily critiqued. One small change in any direction and viewer mail pours in. And it’s not just from their mothers as they might have you believe.

Yesterday, one of NBC Chuck Todd‘s followers, HazyDavy909, remarked on former Ill. Gov. Rod Blagojavich’s hair, saying, “Blago’s hair? Hey Todd, at least his is ALL real! Your scalp used to be balder – how much is plugs? Paint? Glued? Fess up!!!”

We were surprised Todd even responded to HazyDavy. He wrote, “Actually, the shorter the cut the less thin it looks!”

CNN staff was alerted today on the 10 am conference call that Roland Martin‘s suspension has been lifted.

Martin, who hosts “Washington Watch” and is a CNN Contributor, was suspended shortly after Super Bowl Sunday when he wrote tweets that were construed by some to be homophobic. He apologized, but CNN held fast to the suspension until today.