Via InStyle
Guests of Honor
“I didn’t even know you got a shower for your second baby!” said American Morning anchor Kiran Chetry, surveying the scene at a baby bash thrown in honor of her impending arrival. Chetry’s CNN coworkers joined her for party at New York City’s Sparty, where they enjoyed an eco-friendly afternoon of manicures, massages and plenty of baby talk.
—Bronwyn Barnes
>Click here for a few photos.
Via Poynter
“Most print reporters think TV reporters are idiots, but…”
Talking Biz News
“That’s usually before they go on TV for the first time and totally freeze up (as I have done more than once),” writes Charles Gasparino, who does print and TV reporting. “I would say both TV and print reporting is challenging in different ways. Print reporters also must be good writers, but the format allows you to provide more detail and nuance. …Good TV reporters try to nail down facts so they can be more sweeping in the way they describe things and more definitive in what they report, and that requires much more reporting.”
Via Kaleidoscope
Runaways or homeless? Drug addicts or losers?
Daniel Sims, Columnist
A late-night report I saw on MSNBC recently told the story of teenage runaways, some as young as 13, who were living in Portland, Oregon. These were children who had conflicts with parents and whose situations at home were so troubling that homelessness was a viable alternative.
It was with this show in mind that I began to watch another MSNBC special-report on runaways. In the introduction, it seemed to be very similar to the other show I had seen. I was glad to get the chance to watch it and learn more about this tragedy. Then the program began and I realized this was a very different show. The first “homeless runaway” on this episode was a 22-year-old veteran of the armed forces. I was a little confused as the show told of how this “runaway” spent his days trying to work at whatever job he could scrape by with and spent his nights at random places where he could sleep safely and buy some drugs. His sidekick in this endeavor was another “runaway,” age 34, and had a methamphetamine addiction. The next pair of “runaways” the viewer is introduced to included the obligatory pregnant runaway, age 20, and her mother. Her mother?! This is the point in time where I expected someone to jump out and go “surprise, just kidding!”
>Read the rest at Kaleidoscope.
Via Portfolio
Mixed Media
Whoops! Fox Biz Metaphor Ruined by Reality
By Jeff Bercovici
At 35, Alexis Glick is a little young to be having senior moments. So how to explain a curious utterance she made on Fox Business this morning?
Discussing recent reports that Yankees co-owner Hank Steinbrenner could partner with Red Sox owner John Henry outside the realm of baseball, Glick quipped, “That would be like watching The New York Times and the Boston Globe get together.”
Or maybe it would be just a tad less far-fetched, since The New York Times Co. owns the Globe, and has since 1993 — as Glick surely knows.
Maybe she was joking? Watch the video and decide for yourself. Or maybe that’s just what happens when you wake up at 4 a.m. and spend the first hour of your day breathing hairspray.
Via CJR
By Liz Cox Barrett
MSNBC’s BitterGate Update
Keeping cable viewers current on the latest exchange in the Campaign Gaffe of the Week is hard work. From the campaign trail by phone just now, NBC’s Ron Allen moved the BitterGate ball forward for the MSNBC audience:
I wasn’t here when he made his response to her response from that response of last night, but I don’t know what the reaction was then. ..
UPDATE: Still watching MSNBC just after 1:00pm. Andrea Mitchell wants to know, in BitterGate, “Who wins or don’t we know yet?” The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza answers Ron Allen-esque-ly: “You know, Andrea, I don’t think we know yet. Gosh, it’s devolved into I feel like every five minutes one campaign responding to the other campaign responding to something that happened five minutes ago.” With each ensuing response getting its own cable TV response…
Via Whio
Ex-Bush Advisor Rove Hits Area Tomorrow
KETTERING, Ohio — He used to be the President’s main man. Now he’s coming to Kettering to rally the Republican troops.
Karl Rove appears tomorrow night at Trent Arena in Kettering.
The one-time Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to the President is now a political commentator for Fox News.
He will be joined a number of local GOP officeholders, including House Speaker Jon Husted and State Auditor Mary Taylor, as well as ex-Congressman John Kasich, himself a Fox News contributor.
Doors open at 5 p.m. with the event beginning at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $50 VIP, $20 general admission and $10 for students.
Via Jossip
David Gregory Mouthed Off to a Waitress, Got Scolded by Tim Russert
Behind the MSNBCenes
Did David Gregory almost lose his shot at getting his show on MSNBC?
About a month ago, he joined NBC colleague Tim Russert at a Washington D.C. restaurant for dinner, where he showed his lack of appreciation for the help. David Gregory: Not a consummate dining companion?
The twosome’s waitress somehow messed up their dinner order, and Gregory – who CBS is supposedly “enamored” with in their hunt for a Katie Couric replacement – let’s say, caustically reminded her how bad she erred.
But the server wasn’t the only one who got a scolding: Russert chewed Gregory out for his tactless behavior. “Russert warned Gregory never to behave that way in front of him again,” says a spy.
And once MSNBC got wind of the story, they made Gregory “promise up and down to change his behavior” before they handed him the 6pm slot, we’re told. Not to mention that this incident is not, we’re assured, the first time Gregory has chewed out a less-than-competent service employee.
>Read the rest at Jossip.
Via Chronicle Online
CNN=Black America
maybe it’s me
By: Ade A. Sawyer
>EXCERPT
CNN is known to put its brand on issues (”CNN=Politics” when the show is about the election; “CNN=Money” when it’s about the economy). I’m beginning to think maybe one day they’ll have “CNN=Black America.” When I see that, I’m turning my television off forever.
Today, I can find “Black in America” among CNN’s special reports, but the very fact that it’s “special” tells me that it’s going to be short-lived. Once again, I’m amused. Not because it’s a funny condition, but because people seem to have convinced themselves of their own sincerity. The first installment of CNN’s report could double as a montage of sincere gazes and tight, intimate shots. Of course that’s the nature of a fad. It’s deep and poignant, but that type of intensity is seldom sustained.
(more…)
Via Washington Post
By Howard Kurtz
Megyn Kelly, Fox News’s Fast-Rising Anchor
NEW YORK — It’s just after 10:30 Monday morning on “America’s Newsroom,” and Megyn Kelly has bounced from riots in Paris to storms in the Midwest, from a truck-and-train collision to a strange interview about the 1969 Manson family murders with the sister of slain actress Sharon Tate.
But the Fox News anchor doesn’t seem truly animated until senior producer Tom Lowell says in her ear: “Megyn, remember the bee story? Think you can ad-lib us a tease here?”
Kelly looks into the camera and exclaims: “Imagine what happened when you’re driving by that truck and out come bees! Tens of thousands of bees!”
She is causing quite the buzz herself. Four years ago, Kelly was a Washington lawyer pleading with WJLA-TV for part-time work. Now she’s the co-anchor of two Fox shows, including a new 5 p.m. hour on the presidential campaign.
“When I was practicing law and had to do these 13-, 14-, 16-hour days, I was miserable,” she says. Now, “you get off the set, you have that post-show high.”
(more…)
Via The Breeze/Newslab
By Megan Williams
From WXJM to CNN, Jim Acosta Returns to JMU
Jim Acosta, JMU alum (’93) and CNN correspondent, was covering Hurricane Katrina when the building he was reporting from began to flood. As the floodwaters rose, so did he and his crew.
“‘How many floors are there?’ I asked,” Acosta said during the SMAD Spring Banquet Thursday.
“I remember seeing fish swim around in the stairwell…I’m not a genius but I thought that can’t be good.”
This is just one of the situations Acosta has found himself in while working as a journalist. He worked as a CBS News correspondent since 2003 where he covered the war in Iraq before joining CNN in March 2007.
Acosta was the keynote speaker at Thursday’s SMAD Spring Banquet. The banquet was part of SMAD Day, which included information sessions with SMAD alumni and tours of the department facilities in Harrison Hall. Acosta spoke about the stories that had the biggest impact on him: covering the Iraq war in Baghdad, Hurricane Katrina and the Virginia Tech shootings. He also spoke on how the advancement of technology is changing the scope of the media.
“Print [journalism] is in a full sprint to develop multimedia packaging,” Acosta said. “Multitask or get out of the way.”
(more…)
