This afternoon on CNN, Brooke Baldwin shared the frustration that many people are feeling about the U.S. military’s role in Afghanistan, as young soldiers and Marines are killed by Afghans they are training. Baldwin interviewed Greg Buckley, a New York man whose 21-year-old son, Lance Cpl. Greg Buckley, Jr., was shot dead last month by an Afghan police officer while he was working out in a gym.

Buckley recounted how his son told him, “‘I’m telling you, dad, they’re going to kill us. We all talk to our superiors and they push us to the side and say, don’t worry about it, we’ll take care of it.’ But they didn’t take care of it.”

Baldwin, choked up, added: “Greg Buckley, it is tough to put into words. And I’m angry with you, and I’m sad with you. Thank you.”

Video after the jump…

Read more

The CNN Grill, located across the street from the Tampa Bay Times Forum, officially opened its doors last night on the eve of the delayed opening of the RNC.

The Grill is home to some of CNN’s morning and daytime programming, including “Early Start” and Brooke Baldwin‘s 2-4pmET block of “CNN Newsroom.” CNN’s primetime coverage is broadcast from the Tampa Bay Times Forum, as the Grill turns into a restaurant and bar — serving local Florida fare — in the evenings.

The workspace has a large digital component, with iPads available to visitors at the bar and an eight-foot touchscreen tablet with updated election tools for convention attendees.

With no speeches from the convention floor Monday night, the main event was Piers Morgan‘s live interview with Mitt Romney‘s five sons, which took place during the 7pmET hour.

Absent from CNN’s convention space was Anderson Cooper who is in New Orleans as Isaac nears the Gulf Coast. Soledad O’Brien also anchored “Starting Point” from NOLA this morning.

More pictures of the CNN Grill are after the jump.

Read more

• Stephanie Ruhle joined Bloomberg TV from a Wall Street job less than a year ago. How did that come to be? “I met with [Bloomberg Media Group CEO] Andy Lack. He said, “If you’re in, I’m in. This is a leap for me, too. Close your eyes and let’s do it,’” she tells I Want Her Job.

• CNN en Español has announced coverage plans for the Republican and Democratic national conventions. Juan Carlos Lopez, Fernando del Rincon and Carlos Montero will anchor from both events, with correspondent Gustavo Valdes and reporter Kay Guerrero contributing.

• CNN is sending six iReporters, the winners of the “Your Political Ticket” iReport contest, to the political conventions.. Three winners each will be sent to the DNC and the RNC, where they will report live from the CNN Grill on Brooke Baldwin‘s afternoon program.

The first sentence of CNN’s just-released press release for convention coverage reads like this:

CNN will offer viewers nonstop, unbiased programming across on-air and digital platforms at the Republican and Democratic National Conventions beginning later this month.

It’s as if CNN is saying, if you watch Fox News or MSNBC during the conventions, those networks will lean right, or left, or forward (never backward), so watch us if you want it down the middle. Our TVNewsers Alex Weprin and Merrill Knox will be at the conventions — ahem — keeping them honest.

Anyway, CNN has big plans. Read about them after the jump…

Read more

Ever wonder what happens when CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin has a little free time? Well, now you know. Watch:

>Update: The YouTube video has been removed, but you can still watch it here.

• Ever wonder how Bloomberg TV’s Adam Johnson got his start in the business? By approaching Dylan Ratigan, who was an anchor on CNBC at the time, while he was jogging in Central Park. “I said, ‘You should have me on your show.’ I told him, ‘I’ll make you look good and make your viewers money,’” Johnson told WAG Magazine.

• Anthony Bourdain talks to AdWeek about his move to CNN, where he will host a weekend show. “There are a lot of places where me and my team have been wanting to make television for a long time and haven’t been able to,” he said. “And CNN has the infrastructure and inclination to make those places doable.”

• CNN is publishing a five-part series on virtual gaming’s impact on society this week. “Gaming Reality” will be featured on Brooke Baldwin‘s 2pmET show on CNN, as well as on CNN International.

Guy Adams, a reporter in the Los Angeles bureau of the British paper The Independent just finished up an interview on CNN.

To get you up to speed, Twitter suspended Adams’ account after he Tweeted the corporate email address of NBC Olympics president Gary Zenkel. Adams is among the vocal critics of NBC’s tape delayed broadcast of the Opening Ceremony as well as major events, airing them in primetime instead.

As the interview was underway, CNN had a “just in” banner, announcing that Adams had gotten his Twitter account back.

Adams told CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin he has “quite good reason” to suspect that Twitter suspended his account, “because they have a commercial relationship with NBC.”

“They wanted to give NBC special treatment,” he added, saying he still hasn’t been given a full explanation of why he was suspended. “I didn’t share someone’s private e-mail address. I didn’t share the address of their house. I didn’t share their phone number,” he says. “Online bullying is a serious thing and I wouldn’t want to share any information that could lead to anything that might represent a physical threat to anyone, at least of all an executive for NBC.”

As Adams was doing his LIVE interview on CNN, MSNBC was airing LIVE field hockey action: Team U.S.A. vs. Argentina.

CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin is taking a few days off after co-anchoring coverage of Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee alongside Piers Morgan.

Anchoring Sunday’s coverage of the four-day celebrations in a driving rain proved to be too much for Baldwin who was taken to the hospital.

Morgan, appearing on “Good Morning America” Tuesday, discussing how the cold weather factored in to the celebrations told Robin Roberts, “My poor co-anchor Brooke, she was taken to the hospital for hypothermia.”

CNN tells us Baldwin was taken to a London hospital Sunday, was treated and released a few hours later. She recovered Monday and was back on air yesterday for coverage of the Jubilee parade. She’ll be back anchoring from Atlanta next week, we’re told.

Four days of Diamond Jubilee celebrations culminate this morning with a parade through London. CNN is the only U.S. network carrying the procession in its entirety, with Piers Morgan and Brooke Baldwin anchoring a special running until 11amET. ABC News will produce a special report around 10:25 when Queen Elizabeth is expected to appear at the Buckingham Palace balcony to wave to her subjects. Yesterday’s Jubilee concert broadcast live on the BBC peaked at 17 million viewers. The concert is being edited for an American broadcast airing ABC tonight in a special hosted by Katie Couric airing at 9ET/8CT.

As he has been this morning, multitasker Morgan Tweeted during the concert. One Tweet in particular drew the attention of proud Irish-American NBC’s Luke Russert:

WOW! Buckingham Palace ablaze with fireworks. Amazing. What a great night to be British. And what a terrible night to be a republican.

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) June 4, 2012

Did @piersmorgan just take a shot at Sinn Fein while tweeting his excitement about the jubilee? — Luke Russert (@LukeRussert) June 4, 2012
 

As we noted last week, Piers Morgan and Brooke Baldwin will be anchoring CNN’s “Diamond Jubilee” coverage Tuesday. Baldwin is very excited, and decided to share what she is looking forward to during the ceremony.

WATCH: