Outside Cable News

As most of you probably know this blog was set up as a spur of the moment type thing due to ICN shutting down. Well, Spud’s back and I’m exhausted! I don’t watch a whole lot of news anymore and have really lost interest for now. It feels great to be free!

Via Deseret News
Glenn Beck will speak at festival’s patriotic service

PROVO — Radio and cable news personality Glenn Beck will speak at the patriotic service held in conjunction with America’s Freedom Festival at Provo.

Beck, who hosts his own cable news talk show on CNN Headline News, as well as his own radio show, is known for his candid opinions and strong sense of patriotism.

In addition to Beck, the June 29 service at Brigham Young University’s Marriott Center will feature singer Michael Ballam.

The service will also include performances by the Freedom Festival Concert Band.

The 7 p.m. event is free to the public.

“We’re honored that Glenn would accept our invitation to speak at this year’s patriotic service,” event chairman Boyd Craig said in a statement. “He joins a long, distinguished string of national, state and local leaders who, over the decades, have set aside political and other differences, and addressed the community as fellow Americans, unified in an Independence Day celebration of our common American heritage of family, freedom God and country.”

Beck will also host the 2008 Stadium of Fire event on the Fourth of July at BYU’s LaVell Edwards Stadium.

Via Campus Progress
By Kay Steiger
Five Minutes With Rachel Maddow
On gay marriage, Chris Matthews, and the youth vote.

CP: You started out doing activism and in academia for a long time and then you made a transition to radio and television. What prompted that transition?

RM: I started doing radio almost on a dare when I was supposed to be finishing my doctoral dissertation. I was living in western Massachusetts. I was crashing with friends. I was doing odd jobs. My scholarship money had run out, and I was not done with my doctorate. Some friends I was living with were connected to this local morning show, and I just showed up to an open audition. I did an on-air open audition, got hired on the spot, and started the next day. At that point I thought it was just going to be one more odd job in a series of very odd jobs, but I really fell in love with it. And after having done that first radio job for a year, I quit so that I could submit my dissertation and do my oral exams and everything, and actually get the doctorate. And I thought that’s it, that would have been my one year in radio, but I missed it a lot. I was like an addict. And I ended up getting the morning show there, and I realized that radio was probably going to be a permanent part of my life.

>Read the rest at Campus Progress.

Via AOL Sports
Keith Olbermann Has No Idea Who Chauncey Billups Is
By Brett Edwards

Keith Olbermann is now the poster boy for left wing political news commentary, via his Countdown show which airs nightly on MSNBC. But it didn’t used to be that way. Olbermann spent over 20 years as a sports broadcaster, including five as an anchor on ESPN’s SportsCenter. So it was a little surprising when, as they showed Chauncey Billups at the Gore-Obama rally in Michigan last night, Olbermann went flipping through his notes to try to figure out what team Billups plays for.

Here’s a hint, Keith: the rally’s in Detroit. It’s not like Billups has toiled away in obscurity either, the guy has played in the Eastern Conference Finals for the last six years. I guess Keith is much like the rest of us, in that at times, our real job is all-consuming and leaves us little time to pay attention to sports.

>Check out the video at AOL Sports.

Via TheStreet
Kass: Things I Am Hearing
By Doug Kass

8. Fox Business Network is about to announce a broad overhaul after recording poor audience ratings.

>Ummm, would that be the “overhaul” they just did to the schedule? Or is something else in the works?

>Read the rest at TheStreet.

Via Mother Against Drunk Driving

MADD Announces Winners of the 6th Annual MADD Media Awards

National Television: Drunk Driving Issues – Nancy Grace, CNN Headline News

MADD will host a luncheon to honor the 2008 Media Award Winners during the National Conference in Dallas, Texas on September 5, 2008. For more information, visit www.madd.org/media-awards.

>Read the rest at MADD.

Via Business Wire
RCN Wins Stevie® Award In 6th Annual American Business Awards

Company Receives Award for Best Communication Team

HERNDON, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–RCN Corporation (NASDAQ: RCNI), a leading provider of digital television, data, and voice services to residential and business customers, announced today that it won a Stevie Award in the Best Communication Team category at The 2008 American Business Awards last week.

Hailed as “the business world’s own Oscars” (New York Post, April 27, 2005), The American Business Awards are the only national, all-encompassing awards program honoring great performances in business.

“Nicknamed the Stevies for the Greek word “crowned,” the awards were presented during ceremonies at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City. The ceremonies were hosted by Cheryl Casone, an anchor of the FOX Business Network.

>Read the rest at Business Wire.

Via Washington Post/Inside Cable News
A Clintonite’s Choice
By Howard Kurtz

Fox News’s newest contributor, to be announced today, may surprise the liberal crowd: former Clinton White House lawyer Lanny Davis.

>Update: Press Release

>Earlier: CNN’s Kiran Chetry Has A Baby Boy

Via University of Texas at Dallas
Library to Host Air Combat Expert and CNN Analyst
Author Flew Hundreds of Missions in Southeast Asia Before Serving at Pentagon

Maj. Gen. Donald W. Shepperd, a decorated combat pilot and CNN military analyst, will discuss the challenge that the Mideast poses for aviation at a public lecture Saturday at McDermott Library.

Shepperd’s presentation is titled “Double, Double, Toil and Trouble - Implications of the Modern World (Especially the Mideast) for Aviation.” The endowed lecture is presented by McDermott Library Special Collections and will be held June 21, 2008, at 4 p.m. in McDermott Library Auditorium (MC 2.410) at UT Dallas. It is free and open to the public.

A reception and book signing will follow in the Special Collections Department on the library’s third level, where patrons can meet Maj. Gen. Shepperd. He is the co-author of Bury Us Upside Down, a book about the “Misty Pilots,” who flew low-level reconnaissance in Southeast Asia. The UT Dallas Bookstore will have copies of the book available at the lecture.

Maj. Gen. Shepperd is this year’s George W. Jalonick III and Dorothy Cockrell Jalonick Memorial Distinguished Lecture Series speaker.
(more…)

Via Kansas City Star
MSNBC’s Chuck Todd and Rachel Maddow are young, geeky and hot
By Aaron Barnhart

Because primary season lasted five months instead of five weeks, I spent many nights in front of the TV watching voting results trickle in.

That’s how I got to know Chuck Todd and Rachel Maddow, the number-cruncher and the pundit who were hired not long ago to beef up MSNBC’s election coverage.

Have they ever.

>Read the rest at Kansas City Star. (3 Pages)

>Update: Just noticed this added part which wasn’t there in the 7am hour.

Editor’s Note: This story was published before the death of NBC News Washington bureau chief Tim Russert.

>Details to follow, just saw it on CNN.

Via WSJ
McCain’s Night on the Town (Hall)
By Elizabeth Holmes

John McCain held a televised town hall meeting at Federal Hall here Thursday evening, the first opportunity the Republican presidential candidate has had in the general election to showcase his stump speech to a national audience.

The event was originally intended to be a joint appearance with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Although his opponent declined the invitation, McCain forged ahead making only a nod to Obama’s absence.

The event was billed as bipartisan. But afterward, a Fox News anchor Shepard Smith clarified the makeup of the audience. “I reported at the top of this hour that the campaign had told us at Fox News that the audience would be made up of Republicans, Democrats, and independents. We have now received a clarification from the campaign and I feel I should pass it along to you,” he said. “The McCain campaign distributed tickets to supporters, [New York] Mayor [Michael] Bloomberg … and other independent groups.”

>Read the rest at WSJ.

Via Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
As her television debut looms, Ingraham blogs about radio show issues
By Tim Cuprisin

Just as Laura Ingraham is about to start something new on Fox News Channel, the conservative talker is having some troubles in her current radio gig.

Ingraham’s syndicated radio show usually airs in the 2 to 4 a.m. weekday slot on WTMJ-AM (620), although Milwaukee radio listeners can hear her from noon to 2 p.m. on Chicago’s WIND-AM (560).

But the show has featured replacement hosts of late, and she posted this on her Web site:

“Due to contractual obligations, for the present I am unable to reveal why I am not currently hosting (the show). Rest assured, this absence is not of my choosing, nor is it health or family related.”

Ingraham battled cancer a few years back.

Her post, since removed from www.laura ingraham.com, closed with a call for listeners to contact Talk Radio Network, which syndicates the show.

The word floating around is that she’s expected back on the air by the end of the month, if not sooner. But the break may give her time to ease into her new 4 p.m. weekday slot on Fox News.
(more…)

Via Multichannel News
Mojo HD, Dos Equis Look For Series ‘Assistant’
Show Plays Off Beer Marketer’s ‘Most Interesting Man’ Campaign
By Mike Reynolds

Mojo HD and Dos Equis have poured the precepts for an original series scheduled to bow on the network this fall.

Inspired by Dos Equis’ “Most Interesting Man in the World” campaign, Mojo HD has begun production on five episodes of MIA: The Most Interesting Assistant to premiere in September.

Hosted by media personality Shanon Cook (CNN), the show will engage the wanna-be assistants in a number of entertaining challenges, testing their intelligence, physical endurance, patience, social graces and good humor. Only then will viewers find whether the “late” Steve can ever truly be replaced.

>Read the rest at Multichannel News.

Via TVDecoder
Coldplay Lyrics Take a Swipe at Bill O’Reilly
By Brian Stelter

Coldplay’s new album comes out today, and one of the songs on it was inspired by an unusual source: Bill O’Reilly, the Fox News Channel host. Not surprisingly — given the source — the tune isn’t exactly an endorsement of the conservative commentator.

It is, however, the first single on the new album, “Viva La Vida,” and thus will soon be in heavy radio rotation. Some of the lyrics go like this: “When the future’s architectured by a carnival of idiots on show, you’d better lie low.” (The gist of the song, however, is love, not punditry; singer urges his beloved, “If you love me, won’t you let me know?”)

>Read the rest at TVDecoder.

Via TVDecoder
CNN And The Weather Channel: Complementary Channels?
By Brian Stelter

Casual cable viewers could occasionally be forgiven for confusing CNN with The Weather Channel.

CNN, the cable news network owned by Time Warner, promotes itself as a “Severe Weather Headquarters,” complete with a spiffy new weather center set and a row of respected meteorologists. More than its cable news competitors, it has tried to brand itself as an esteemed weather source.

So what would happen if Time Warner acquired The Weather Channel? It is known to be a bidder. Landmark Communications, the current owner, had hoped to fetch $5 billion for the channel and its popular Web site Weather.com, but recent media reports say that $3.5 billion is a more likely sales price.

Last week John Martin, the chief financial officer of Time Warner, said that a combination of CNN and The Weather Channel “would give us a very, very interesting cross-platform play,” though he emphasized the need for “price discipline” in the bidding. He said of a potential deal: “At a certain level it might make sense,” according to Reuters.

A group led by NBC Universal is also bidding; TV Decoder wrote last week about what an NBC/Weather combination could look like.

But what about this potential marriage?

>Read the rest at TVDecoder.

>Earlier: NBCU And Partners Bid $3.5 Billion For Weather Channel: Report

Via Baltimore Sun
Fox News: ‘Obama’s baby mama’
By Katie Fretland

A Fox News anchor faced backlash recently for characterizing Barack and Michelle Obama’s fist bump as possibly a “terrorist fist jab.” Now during a segment the network has displayed a screen referring to the wife of the presumptive democratic nominee as his “baby mama.”

The screen was displayed beneath a segment in which anchor Megyn Kelly interviewed Michelle Malkin, a conservative blogger. The segment discussed a conservative group’s planned anti-Obama documentary.

“Outraged liberals: Stop picking on Obama’s baby mama!” the screen read.

For more about Michelle Obama, see this article in The Swamp.

For more about Michelle Obama and Fox News, see this article by Salon’s Alex Koppelman.

>Check out the video at Baltimore Sun.

>Related: Was It a Slur?

>Update: Fox addresses baby mama drama: Producer used ‘poor judgment’

Via Observer
Michelle Malkin: Slate? Salon? Whatever.
by Matt Haber

Yesterday on Fox News—America’s Election HQ!—Megyn Kelly interviewed Fox News contributor and New Yorker profile rejecter Michelle Malkin about potential First Lady Michelle Obama. During the course of her echo chamber-like criticism of Ms. Obama (that’s not a metaphor: someone should’ve checked Ms. Malkin’s mic before putting her on air), Ms. Malkin said, “it’s not just Republicans who are criticizing some of her comments, but also statements have been made in the left-leaning blog Salon about her comments.”

That darn Salon!

Not so fast, Ms. Malkin. Alex Koppelman, Salon’s War Room blogger, searched his site and couldn’t turn up “anything like what Malkin is talking about.” After posting a clip of her appearance and emailing Ms. Malkin, he solved the mystery:

Malkin responded to my e-mail; she says she misspoke and that she meant to refer to Slate, not Salon.

Let’s call it the narcissism of minor differences.

Via Newsday
CNN’s Lou Dobbs won’t comment on run for NJ governor

NEWARK, N.J. - CNN’s Lou Dobbs isn’t talking about rumors that he’s thinking about running for governor of New Jersey.

Dobbs lives on a 300-acre farm in Sussex County.

Dobbs told The Star-Ledger of Newark he’s “not going to comment.”

State Republican chairman Tom Wilson tells the newspaper the Dobbs’ buzz is circulating among GOP officials and fundraisers in New York City and Washington.

>Read the rest at Newsday.

>Update: Dobbs not running for NJ governor

Via NYT
Networks Firm Up Convention Lineups
By JACQUES STEINBERG

The cable news channels expect to offer many more hours than that, perhaps none more so than MSNBC, which is seeking to swamp the efforts of its principal competitors, CNN and Fox News, by showing 20 hours of live convention programming each of the four days that the conventions are in session. To put that figure in perspective, consider that much of the official party business is conducted over the course of about four hours a night.

For MSNBC, which has scheduled its marathon coverage from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. Eastern time, the challenge of having enough for Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews and Joe Scarborough, among others, to discuss during all those hours would seem to be especially formidable. As television programs, conventions long ago made the transition from smoke-filled gatherings with more suspense than a “C.S.I.” episode to gleaming, ready-made infomercials where the audience knows the ending from the beginning.

(Among those to be featured on MSNBC is John Harwood, a CNBC correspondent who also reports for The New York Times, which pools some political newsgathering efforts with NBC.)
(more…)

Via Boston Herald
Reporters seek R&R after long campaign
By Jessica Heslam

The 2008 campaign bus has finally careened to a rest stop in the wild ride for reporters covering the Obama-Clinton fight to the finish, and the press - like never before - is pooped.

Taking a breather after one of the longest primary seasons in modern history, CNN senior political correspondent Candy Crowley says her Washington, D.C., area home looks like an abandoned post office.

She’s been flying around the country, traveling to nearly every state over the past 17 months.

“It was tremendously grueling,” said Crowley, who would look at Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-New York) and Barack Obama (D-Illinois) at times and think, “How can you do this?”

But the adrenaline kept her moving. “It was just exciting,” Crowley said. “It wasn’t just that it was a close race. It was that no matter what happened it was a historic race.”

While on the road, the sleep-deprived Crowley would appear on Anderson Cooper at 10 p.m., and rise and shine for early-morning live shots.
(more…)

Via Loudoun Times
Confessions of a CNN junkie
By Betsy Allen

I’m watching my back. My time may be coming. You see, I have an addiction of my own. I haven’t seen it on the show. I don’t know if there are any treatment centers in California or Arizona that help with this kind of thing.

But the ugly truth is, I gotta have my CNN.

I admit I wasn’t that bad before the presidential primary season. There was the occasional check-in when a big news story broke, but that was about it.

But somewhere in the snows of Iowa and New Hampshire, I got hooked. The dizzying highs of the state-by-state projections! The staggering lows of the exit polls! The exhaustive dismantling and analysis of every word spoken by Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Barack Obama (and all those other guys – Huckabee, Edwards and the rest of the peanut gallery) over the last six months.

I’ve loved the Tuesday night coverage of the primaries – the blow-by-blow from Wolf Blitzer, the touch-screen run-down of each state’s voting peculiarities by John King, the sensitive post-mortem by Anderson Cooper.
(more…)