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Archives: July 2012

NBC News White House Producer Back at Work Following Shooting

An NBC News White House producer was among two women shot in an incident in Northwest Washington D.C. early Saturday morning. NBC News says Shawna Thomas was grazed by a bullet in what appears to be a random shooting.

“There is an ongoing case, and she is working with the police,” an NBC spokesperson says. “We are grateful Shawna was treated and released soon after being admitted to the hospital, and we ask for respect for her privacy.”

WUSA reports the second woman was shot in the chin. Neither was able to provide police with a description of the shooter. Thomas has been on the White House beat since 2011. Before that she was a producer on Capitol Hill, an associate producer and a politics assignment editor. She joined NBC News in 2006 as a news associate.

Details On Univision/ABC News Channel Leak As Deal Becomes Official

Today ABC News and Univision formally “sealed the deal” so to speak, having completed the agreement to form a joint venture cable news channel. The companies have been hammering out the details since May, when the tentative agreement was announced.

Not coincidentally, a number of details about the upcoming cable news channel have leaked as part of an application granting it $10.5 million in incentives from Miami-Dade County and the State of Florida. The incentives are meant to ensure that the channel will be based out of Miami. The application in question indicates that if the incentives were not approved, the company would consider basing its operations out of New York, Los Angeles or Houston.

The new company (identified as “Confidential Project ‘Vision’” in official documents obtained by TVNewser) says it will add 346 jobs in the county, with an average salary of over $81,000 a year. That is in addition to the 137 people currently employed by one of the parent companies there. The expected capital investment cost for the company is expected to be $275 million. As we have previously reported, the channel will launch online this year, and on TV next year.

The application does not mention Univision or ABC by name, but the description of the companies leaves little to the imagination. South Florida Business Journal‘s Brian Bandell has details:
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Are Post-Olympic Changes Ahead For ‘Today’?

The NY Times Brian Stelter writes about NBC’s “Today” at the Olympics… and beyond. “Today” typically benefits ratings-wise when the Olympics are happening, an advantage that is even more important given the see-saw ratings between the program and competitor “Good Morning America” on ABC in recent months.

Stelter explains how “Today” handles the games (and notes that Ann Curry will be contributing, though she hasn’t as of yet), but there was also a tease about potential changes down the line:

What happens after the Games is anyone’s guess. “Coming out of the Olympics, it’s a good time to look at the show. Maybe do some things a little bit differently,” Mr. Nash said. But he gave no hints of what they could be, besides a few new segments.

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Glenn Beck’s Call for Service in Restoring Love Event

On Saturday night, Glenn Beck held another of his “Restoring” events. This one, Restoring Love, was held at Cowboys Stadium outside Dallas, and was carried on Beck’s GBTV. CBN reports more than 60,000 attended the event, part of the three-day Restoring Love Conference. Two TV events were top trends on Twitter Saturday night: #olympics on NBC and #RestoringLove on GBTV.

What was Glenn Beck’s First Big Break in the business? See it after the jump…

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‘Press is a Modified Petting Zoo’ on Romney Foreign Trip, Says Greta

The foreign interviews with U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney continue. Romney’s sitdown with Fox News Channel’s Greta Van Susteren airs tonight and tomorrow night on her 10pmET show. And while Romney has done interviews with CBS’s Jan Crawford, ABC’s David Muir and CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in Israel and NBC’s Brian Williams late last week in London, the press has been kept at bay somewhat during the foreign travels. The campaign originally planned to keep the press out of a fundraiser in Jerusalem this morning, but acquiesced. And on GretaWire a short time ago, Van Susteren writes:

There has been no press access to Governor Romney since we landed in Poland. We (press) are in a holding pattern (I can’t help but feel a bit like the press is a modified petting zoo since we are trapped in a bus while Polish citizens take pictures of us.) Under the headline “Governor Romney won’t like this” we saw a big sign in the crowd for Rep Ron Paul.

> More: While in Poland, Romney will also sit down with FNC’s Carl Cameron. First clips will air Tuesday morning.

CBS: ‘Face The Nation’ To Go One-Hour Permanently, Mason Joins Jarvis on ‘CBS This Morning’

During its panel at the Television Critics Association Summer press tour, CBS News announced that its Sunday public affairs show “Face the Nation” would become an hour-long program, permanently. The show has been an hour-long since April of this year, and was announced at the time as something of a test.

There is an asterisk to the announcement however, as “Face” will still be rated as two separate half-hours, as the second half-hour is not available in the entire country, and even then is sometimes aired at a much later time than the first half-hour. The first half-hour of most programs rate much higher than the second half-hour, and that is the case with “Face” too.

During the session, CBS News president David Rhodes said that once NFL obligations are complete (in other words, next year), CBS will move to get “Face” rated as a full-hour.

As B&C’s Andrea Morabito notes, CBS also announced that Anthony Mason will become the full-time co-anchor of “CBS This Morning” on Saturdays, joining Rebecca Jarvis.

THR also has quotes from CBS News chairman Jeff Fager (seen above accepting a TCA Award on behalf of “60 Minutes”) and “CTM” EP Chris Licht:

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There Are Spoiler Alerts, and Then There are Spoiler Alerts

“Today” show EP Jim Bell has turned his full attention to the Olympics. While racking up ratings gold as the executive producer of NBC’s primetime coverage, (28.7 million watched Saturday night, the most ever for the first day of competition) Bell is also seeing the criticism about why NBC isn’t showing more events live — a critique that comes up every four years. (With the next Summer games in Rio de Janiero, more events will be live in the U.S. as Rio is only one hour ahead of the East Coast, compared to London’s 5-hour time difference)

Bell has gone so far as to respond to some viewers directly.

Bell, in some of his back-and-forth with online critics Sunday, answered one tweeter who described herself as a St. Louis mom and complained about NBC’s “Nightly News” on Saturday airing results of events that hadn’t been shown on the network yet. Bell tweeted that he’d look into it, and shortly after told her that “Nightly News” would announce a “spoiler alert” to tell people to avert their eyes if they didn’t want to see results.

The thing is, Brian Williams did give a spoiler alert, albeit  in a round about way, right at the top of the broadcast:

Good evening from London. While we try to be sensitive about spoiler alerts for our viewers who like to watch the Olympic games in prime time here on NBC and let the story play out, the news we begin with here tonight has already rocketed all the way around the world.

That was Ryan Lochte beating Michael Phelps in the 400-meter individual medley hours earlier.

Sunday night’s spoiler alert was more upfront, though it came 7 minutes into the newscast as “Nightly” began with political and international news before getting to the Olympics:

If you don’t want to see the results, close your eyes or look away for a moment. We won’t say anything on the air to give it away, but it will be on the screen, and then we will tell you when it’s safe to look back.

CNN Apologizes For Playing Song Titled ‘Stupid Girls’ Ahead of Sarah Palin Segment

CNN has apologized for what it says “was a poor choice” of music to accompany a news story.

The story was about Fox News contributor and former GOP VP candidate Sarah Palin, who was visiting a local Chik-Fil-A fast food restaurant. The song was “Stupid Girls,” by Pink. Some viewers noticed the correlation, and complained vocally.

The Hollywood Reporter received a statement from CNN apologizing for the incident, which it says was not intentional.

“The music selection was a poor choice and was not intended to be linked to any news story,” a CNN spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter. “We regret any perception that they were planned together.”

Here’s the segment:

Antonin Scalia Talks Piers Morgan Interview, Dealing With The Media

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has been making the media rounds to promote his new book, and one of the stops was C-SPAN.

C-SPAN’s Brian Lamb asked Scalia about his recent interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan, and why Justices are usually so reluctant to do public appearances.

“I am sensitive about it because judges ought to express their views on the law in their opinions,” Scalia said. “Everything I had to say about the real legal issues in Bush vs. Gore was set forth in the opinion that I joined. Beyond that, I am just either repeating myself or adding things that re really not the basis for my decision. I also dont like drawing the courts into the political maelstrom, by having their opinions repeatedly pawed over, especially the controversial ones.”

WATCH:

’60 Minutes’ Takes Home TCA Award

The Television Critics Association held the “TCA Awards” during theSummer press tour last night in Beverly Hills.

CBS newsmagazine “60 Minutes” took home the prize for “Outstanding Achievement in News & Information.”

Other winners included HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” Showtime’s “Homeland,” AMC’s “Breaking Bad and Louis C.K.

Late night icon David Letterman was presented with a carer achievement award, with “Cheers” receiving a Heritage award.

All of the winners can be found here.

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