Outside Cable News

>Guess which anchor blogged that line and win! But, what do ya win? Nothing, eh.

Via CNN
Glenn Beck: U.S. is a suicidal superpower
By Glenn Beck

Editor’s note: “Glenn Beck” is on CNN Headline News nightly at 7 and 9 ET.

NEW YORK (CNN) — If you’re a poor sap who needs to eat or drive in the near future, then you might want to consider taking out a second mortgage (assuming you could even get one) pretty soon.

Food and gas prices have been all over the news lately, and even a big dumb rodeo clown like me can see that it’s all connected. Our policies, which try to cater to everyone from oil company executives to environmentalists, end up benefiting no one — and now we’re all paying the price.

I know that real economists probably will say that the causes of these skyrocketing prices are extremely complicated to understand, but the truth is that it’s actually pretty simple: We’ve done this to ourselves.

I don’t know if it’s because of our arrogance, our stupidity or maybe both, but I believe that history may one day judge America as the most suicidal superpower of all time. After all, what country that cares about its future would do what America has done to its supply of food and fuel, two of the most critical things that any civilization needs to survive?

For example, look at the way we treat our food supply. We’ve spent decades giving billions of dollars in government subsidies with incentives for the wrong things, we’ve mandated that huge areas of farmland stay open for “conservation” and we’re using grains that could feed tens of millions of people to make a crappy biofuel that you can’t even buy anywhere.

That’s not arrogance?

>Read the rest at CNN.

Via Newslab/TVWeek
CNN Seeks to Level Peaks and Valleys
News Network Sets Post-Election Sales Plan
By Jon Lafayette

The cable news networks, which are getting a ratings boost from presidential politics, still will have to sell ads after the election’s been decided.

At CNN, that means packaging shows and multimedia features to minimize the boom-bust dynamic.

“In any post-election year, you’ve always seen a dropoff in news,” said Greg D’Alba, chief operating officer for ad sales at CNN. After this election cycle, he hopes it will be different.
The key to Mr. D’Alba’s strategy is 40 “programming platforms” that he will be selling to advertisers during the upfront, which for cable news networks kicks off next month and tends to run through September. The platforms consist of content on specific subjects that consumers can watch on cable or access on the Internet, via broadband or on mobile devices.

CNN has pulled in new viewers during the election, closing the prime-time audience gap it has with Fox News, the No. 1 cable news network. During last week’s Pennsylvania primary, CNN’s campaign coverage drew more viewers than Fox’s.

Translating those ratings gains into revenue is the challenge for CNN, with analysts predicting Fox News will bolster sales more than its competitor does this year.
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Via Telegraph
The 50 most influential US political pundits
By Toby Harnden

With just over six months before United States citizens choose their 44th president, the 2008 election is already proving to be the most fascinating and potentially one of the closest contests in living memory.

>The list is only 50-41.. The Telegraph is going to “stagger” the release throughout the week. Also you’ll find a write up at the link.

Via PRWeek
By Elizabeth Toledo
Citizen journalism affects nonprofits

Profound changes in the way that advocacy groups interact with mainstream media outlets is on the horizon, yet most organizations have not restructured to take advantage of this new frontier.

As a long-time media strategist on the nation’s most controversial social issues - such as abortion, sex education, and affirmative action - I have often helped organizations wade through the muddy waters of dealing with inflammatory claims.

Recent investments by CNN and other mainstream outlets call for a radical reassessment of the way that many nonprofits approach the media. Any organization with a vocal base - either in opposition or in favor - ought to rethink its media strategies.

In the old model, advocacy organizations influenced the media by sending press releases, holding press events, submitting letters to the editor, and publishing newsworthy information. That model worked because an editor or columnist determined what was “newsworthy.”
(more…)

Via AP
Ex-CNN anchor Aaron Brown returns to TV on PBS’ `Wide Angle’
By LYNN ELBER

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Aaron Brown, the former CNN anchor who found cable TV an awkward fit, is joining PBS’ “Wide Angle” series and ending his on-air absence of more than two years.

“If I was going to do broadcast journalism again, be a public person again … then it had to be something different from what I’d done,” Brown told The Associated Press. “You can count on one hand how many gigs there are like this.”

Anchoring “Wide Angle,” a weekly public affairs series with a global focus, offers the chance “to work in an environment where people just think about making good TV and good journalism,” Brown said.

“By the end (of an episode), you understand the world you live in and how it’s connected to you,” he said Saturday.

Brown, 59, who left CNN in November 2005 during a shake-up that gave his time slot to rising star Anderson Cooper, said he was contractually barred from working in TV until last June. He’s been teaching at Arizona State University as its first Walter Cronkite Professor of Journalism.

“Wide Angle” begins its seventh season July 1. PBS planned to announce Brown’s hiring on Monday.
(more…)

Via Sun-Sentinel
Fox’s Chris Wallace happier on cable
By Tom Jicha

Some people wondered what Chris Wallace was thinking — or if he was thinking — when he left a high-profile role at ABC News in 2003 for Fox News Channel.

Wallace had no doubts he was making a smart move: “It was all about air time.” On a broadcast network, it’s extremely limited. On a cable news network, there’s more than enough time available, almost all anyone could want.

If Wallace ever had second thoughts, they were dispelled at one of the 2004 political conventions. “I was the podium anchor for Fox,” he said. “Each of us had a little monitor to follow what our networks were doing. We were covering the convention from beginning to end. When I looked over at Brian Williams’ monitor, NBC had someone eating bugs on Fear Factor.”

If Wallace was happy then, he’s ecstatic now in the midst of the most intensely followed political campaign in TV history. The night of the Pennsylvania primary, he said, “I was on for two hours. Did the networks do anything at all?”

A competitor, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, observed that the big winner in Pennsylvania was cable news. Hillary Clinton’s victory meant the campaign likely will continue for at least another couple of months. This means more all-time-high ratings for cable political shows, such as Wallace’s Fox News Sunday.
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