Archives: March 2006

Good Morning America Weekend executive producer John Green has been suspended for one month after his personal e-mails were leaked to the Drudge Report and Page Six, TVNewser has learned.
Phyllis McGrady made the announcement at GMA’s morning meeting today.

A number of ABC News staffers are outraged that Green’s personal messages have become a public embarrassment. Some have speculated that the messages were leaked by a disgruntled former employee…

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This morning, TVNewser asked readers to vote on who won “I want to be the next Katie Couric week.” The results (so far) are in, and it’s a close race: Campbell Brown has 50.9 percent of the vote and Natalie Morales has 49.1 percent.

A former Today Show staffer writes: “Although I would hate to see Katie go… it seems inevitable. And after watching the ‘I Want To Be’ week (I labeled it the same thing in my mind) I would say Campbell had the stronger showing. The hard news ability is the tipping point. Campbell is just more comfortable with news makers. Her goofy stiffness with the social stuff is kind of endearing. Natalie… whom I totally love just doesn’t seem very comfortable with hard news. This morning, in what was obviously an attempt to give her some weighty interviews, she seemed stiff and almost as if she were reading questions off a prompter. Another two or three years and she will be prefect. For right now… it seems to be all Campbell!”

A cable insider has a different view: “Natalie is the best choice. While Campbell has good news experience she is stiff on the lighter parts of the show. At the same time Natalie is good at news, but a natural for the entertainment and lifestyle story she also has a good chemistry with Matt (on air it feels forced with Campbell). It is possible to learn hard news but impossible to learn the human touch, you really have to just have it.”

More comments are after the jump…

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Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but a few hours after I posted this screen capture last night, Greta Van Susteren‘s FOXNews.com home page diversified. Someone added some minorities and men:

Slate’s Michael Kinsley writes: The head of CNN/US, Jonathan Klein, told the [New York] Times that Lou Dobbs‘ license to emote is ‘sui generis’ among CNN anchors, but that is obviously not true. Consider Anderson Cooper, CNN’s rising star.”

It’s worth noting that Dobbs is not the only CNN host deemed “sui generis” by Klein. Last August, Klein told the New York Times that Larry King “is sui generis,” adding: “Larry does what Larry does.” As an e-mailer says: “Jon Klein needs to get some new material, or at least a new Latin phrase book.”

Back to Kinsley. “Klein is a man who goes with the flow,” he concludes. “Only five months before anointing Cooper CNN’s new messiah (nothing human is alien to Anderson Cooper; nothing alien is human to Lou Dobbs), he killed CNN’s long-running debate show Crossfire, on the grounds that viewers wanted information and not opinions.” Kinsley goes on to talk about “the twilight of objectivity…”

Page Six says: “Ted Turner was pilloried with the ‘Aaron Brown Memorial Award for Stupidest Analysis’ at the Media Research Center’s 2006 Dishonors Gala last night at the Grand Hyatt in Washington. The loud-mouthed CNN founder was to be cited for saying he was ‘absolutely convinced’ that North Korean despot Kim Jong Il was ‘absolutely sincere’ in his assertions that he’s not trying to develop nuclear weapons. MRC boss Brent Bozell recruited fellow right-wingers like Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham to serve as judges.”

NewsBusters has more…

“‘Today’ should have billed this ‘I want to be the next Katie Couric‘ week,” an e-mailer says. While the contract queen was taking a break, Campbell Brown and Natalie Morales each took turns filling in. It’s been a busy week:

On Monday, Campbell sat in Katie’s seat and Natalie filled in for Ann. On Tuesday, Matt Lauer had the day off, so Lester Holt joined Campbell and Natalie stayed at the news desk. On Wednesday, Campbell played Katie and Natalie played Ann again. On Thursday and Friday, Natalie was in for Katie. Holt read the news updates.

So let’s take a vote: After five Katie-less days, who would you choose to replace her: Campbell or Natalie? E-mail tvnewser@mediabistro.com or vote using the tip box. All entries are anonymous…

There’s an interesting thread at the TVSpy Watercooler this week about Lou Dobbs‘ role on CNN.

“He’s confusing the public about the role of the media,” one of the first replies says. “Dobbs and plenty of others mix what appears to be news with comment and opinion. It pollutes the water for people doing the work of impartial journalism.” But a second person responds: “I like his show. He makes no bones about what he is about. That is different than Fox, which blurs the line between reporting and opining. Dobbs lets you know it is his opinion.”

A third commenter compares Dobbs to Helen Thomas and calls him a “television columnist.” This leads to the most important comment in the thread: “Helen walks and talks like a columnist; Lou sits in his anchorman chair on his anchorman set and tosses to news packages and debriefs reporters…all the stuff that anchors do.” More…

“Supreme Court hearings could be shown on TV under a bill approved by a Senate committee Thursday but opposed by some high court justices,” the AP says.

The bill “would require the Supreme Court to permit television coverage of all open sessions unless a majority of the justices decide that coverage in a particular case would violate the due process rights of a party before the court.”

The second bill, called the Sunshine in the Courtroom Act, “would allow federal trial and appellate judges to permit cameras in the courtroom.”

“The bills now go to the Senate floor, with scheduling up to Majority Leader Bill Frist,” B&C says.

Statements from Court TV and C-SPAN are after the jump…

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An e-mailer forwards along this screen capture of FOXNews.com. He writes: “Not that every other show doesn’t do it also, but I just thought the juxtaposition of all these photos was funny.” From the home page for On The Record with Greta Van Susteren:



It’s actually worse than it looks: Scroll up, and check out four links about the “Natalee Holloway mystery…”

25-54 demographic:

Total day: FNC: 229 | CNN: 160 | MSNBC: 80 | HLN: 78 | CNBC: 54

Prime: FNC: 445 | CNN: 278 | MSNBC: 154 | HLN: 169 | CNBC: 60

	5p:	6p:	7p:	8p:	9p:	10p:	11p:
FNC	Gibson:	Hume:	Shep:	O’Reilly:	H&C:	Greta:	O’Reilly:
	167	237	302	568	357	411	363
CNN	Blitzer:	Dobbs:	Blitzer:	Zahn:	King:	Cooper:	Cooper:
	139	196	237	186	346	303	326
MSNBC	Hardball:	Abrams:	Hardball:	Countdown:	Cosby:	Scarborough:	Situation:
	78	96	174	229	102	131	62
HLN	Roberts/Choi:		Showbiz:	Grace:	Prime:	Grace:	Showbiz:
	75	41	71	150	98	258	76

Total viewers:

Total day: FNC: 855 | CNN: 500 | MSNBC: 232 | HLN: 223 | CNBC: 186

Prime: FNC: 1,767 | CNN: 927 | MSNBC: 380 | HLN: 571 | CNBC: 117

	5p:	6p:	7p:	8p:	9p:	10p:	11p:
FNC	Gibson:	Hume:	Shep:	O’Reilly:	H&C:	Greta:	O’Reilly:
	925	1,175	1,235	2,327	1,398	1,575	1,279
CNN	Blitzer:	Dobbs:	Blitzer:	Zahn:	King:	Cooper:	Cooper:
	522	849	813	730	1,210	841	656
MSNBC	Hardball:	Abrams:	Hardball:	Countdown:	Cosby:	Scarborough:	Situation:
	335	254	409	488	335	318	184
HLN	Roberts/Choi:		Showbiz:	Grace:	Prime:	Grace:	Showbiz:
	186	108	163	760	363	589	146