Outside Cable News

Via Minneapolis Star Tribune
Meier felt KSTP-TV’s ax; now, he gets its hook
By C.J

Now, Randy Meier has been literally, as well as figuratively, kicked off KSTP-TV’s air.

The former KSTP-TV anchor was invited to guest-host on FM107’s afternoon drive-time show for two days last week. On weekdays, “5 Eyewitness News” sends a camera to the radio station for frothy cut-ins that air live on TV.

On Wednesday, after clearance seemed to have been given for Meier to be back on KSTP-TV’s air for the first time since 2003, he got rudely pushed off camera at the last minute by show sidekick Julia Cobbs, who did not return calls.

“It was just weird,” Meier told me Thursday. “My biggest astonishment was, ‘Where’d this come from?’ Clearly there were some people who were fine with it and at the last minute somebody wasn’t fine with it. For all parties involved it would have been nice if everybody had been on the same page.

“It was very difficult for the radio people to have to deal with that. It was disRESPECTful to get stiff-armed off camera. That’s never happened to me in 25 years. I don’t blame FM107 one bit. They did exactly what they had to do. … I felt bad for the people around me because it put them in a very difficult situation. They couldn’t apologize enough and wanted to make sure I was going to come back the next day.”

Yeah, it seems somebody wanted him to return Thursday for just a tad more insult to go with Wednesday’s injury.

>Read the rest at Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Via Engadget HD
Cox Northern Virginia gets 5 new HD nets: SciFi HD included
By Darren Murph

No double-takes necessary, Cox has just delivered five new HD channels in the Northern Virginia (Fairfax) area. According to a local familiar with the situation (read: watching the tube), subscribers up that way can now tune into USA HD, Bravo HD, SciFi HD, CNBC HD and Lifetime HD. Per usual, it’s anybody’s guess as to when (or if) these stations will find their way onto other systems, but don’t ever give up hope, alright?

Via NewsOK
Watts says network will cover more issues
By Jim Stafford

Americans segregate themselves in white churches and black churches and listen to music that targets black listeners and music that targets white listeners, former Oklahoma Rep. J.C. Watts said.

So why, then, would a cable news network that targets black viewers be seen as anything but the norm, Watts said Friday in a telephone interview from Washington.

The Oklahoma native plans to launch the Black Television News Channel by mid-summer 2009.

He already has deals with both Comcast and Dish Network that will put the new channel in 20 million homes at launch.

Plan calls for change

“As far back as 2003, Nielsen and Arbitron indicated that the black community more than any other culture depends on subscription television,” Watts said. “In spite of that you see very little programming on television that appeals to the African American community. You have 70 Hispanic cable channels and three Hispanic news services.
(more…)

Via Multichannel News
Politics In High Definition
Election Helps Drive Cable’s High-Def News Coverage
By George Winslow

With voters pondering the prospect of the first African-American or woman gaining the presidential nomination of a major party, cable news networks are preparing to make television history with their coverage of the election in high-definition.

“For those of us who cover politics and elections, this is the election you want to do,” said David Bohrman, senior vice president and Washington, D.C., bureau chief for CNN. “We knew from the beginning it was going to be interesting with two open races but it has turned into this amazing story that has almost transitioned into a spectator sport. That has really caught on with people.”

It has also caught on with networks ramping up their high-def offerings. HDNet provided gavel-to-gavel high-definition coverage of the conventions in 2004, but this year will mark the first time that the major broadcasters and 24-hour cable news networks will be using an HD pool feed.

“We expect HD to be a big part of our convention coverage and going forward a big part of everything we do,” said Warren Vandaveer, senior vice president of operations and engineering for Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, which will provide the pool feed for the Democratic Convention in Denver in high-definition. “All the pool members wanted an HD feed, and we’ll be providing that.”
(more…)

Via Poynter/National Press Club
Acclaimed CNN Correspondent Christiane Amanpour To Receive NPC’s Fourth Estate Award
By Ryan

Washington, DC – CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour, who transformed broadcast news coverage of major world events including wars, famines and natural disasters, will receive the National Press Club’s highest honor for excellence in journalism. The Fourth Estate Award is given annually to an individual who has achieved distinction for a lifetime of contributions to American journalism.

“I have always believed this to be a noble profession, and I am passionate about reporting the incredible stories of our time, without fear or favor,” said Amanpour. “I respect our viewers’ right to know, and I am thrilled to receive this honor from the National Press Club.”

Amanpour is the thirty-sixth recipient of the Fourth Estate Award. She is the fourth female honoree and one of the youngest ever to receive the award. Previous Fourth Estate winners include Walter Cronkite, Eric Sevareid, David Brinkley, Brian Lamb, Helen Thomas and most recently Paul Steiger of the Wall Street Journal. The award will be presented to Amanpour at a black-tie dinner at the National Press Club on November 21.
(more…)

Via Newsday
Hastert’s Prairie Parkway push: Fox Eyes
by Mark Silva

The former speaker of the House, Republican Dennis Hastert, is among the subjects of a FOX News Channel examination of questionable “earmarks'’ in federal spending.

His earmark: the Prairie Parkway that runs near land he owned west of Chicago.

The FOX special investigative report, “Porked: Earmarks for Profit,” airs Saturday at 8 pm EDT. It is hosted by Chris Wallace with reporting by Gregg Jarrett.

The one-hour piece “exposes'’ congressmen “who have earmarked millions of taxpayer dollars on projects that they or their families have had financial interests in.,'’ Fox says in a promotional release. Hastert is “among those exposed in this documentary for his involvement with the Prairie Highway Project.'’

Expose may be a strong verb for a story that the Tribune reported two years ago.
(more…)

Via MarketWatch
TV biz journalists owe Mike Kandel a big debt
Commentary: Plus, the appropriate blame in the NYT-Emily Gould affair
By Jon Friedman

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Myron Kandel vividly remembers when he was about to begin a career in television nearly three decades ago.
At a meeting of the Society of Business Writers and Editors, Kandel, a lifelong print journalist, told some friends about his plans to join something called the Cable News Network.
Elizabeth Yamashita, a rather blunt professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, looked at the unprepossessing Kandel and shot back, “YOU are going to be on television?”

Chagrined, Kandel replied, “Yes, Elizabeth, I’M going to be on television.”

Kandel, who started at CNN in 1980, didn’t bother to mention what he told me a few weeks ago: that his entire body of TV work until that point had consisted of three appearances on panel shows.
(more…)

Via SFGate
By Amelia Glynn
Me, my ex, The Doone — and Fox News this Saturday

I’ll admit that this is a little bizarre-o, but nothing is stranger than real life, right?

Many of you read my April 29 post about pet sharing and joint pet custody. Your comments even sparked the idea behind a related story in this Wednesday’s USA Today.

Now Fox News is jumping on the bandwagon with a segment about pet custody on its morning show, Fox & Friends — starring none other than yours truly, The Doone and my ex. (I hope this doesn’t somehow brand us as closeted Republicans…) I’ve been told we will be joined by an attorney who will dispense advice to couples who are separating and navigating the ins-and-outs of sharing their pets.

Okay. I know what you’re thinking, but my ex and I have already agreed to refrain from any Jerry Springer-style shenanigans. (Although we did briefly contemplate staging a screaming match, swearing as much as possible to trigger the “bleeper” and planting my current beau in the “audience” for an on-camera brawl. NONE of these things will be happening — we hope.)

The show will air LIVE on the national Fox News Channel (on cable) at the ungodly hour of 5:40(ish) a.m. (yes. A.M.!) PST/8:40 EST this Saturday, May 31. If any of you are inspired to record it, or if you were planning to be up for the sunrise anyway, I invite you to tune in. (The segment will be about three to five minutes long.) We’ll all do our best to look awake and sound coherent.

via CNN.com May Newsletter
Calling all iReporters!

Create your own promo commercial to help us promote the new iReport.com. If the community votes your promo #1, it may get shown on CNN. You can also win cool prizes – video editing equipment or a video camera to help you create more iReports.

Enter Now

Visit iReport.com to watch and download the stories that have inspired you. Check out our Creative brief and Tool kit for some helpful hints on what makes a good promo. Promos must be 15 OR 30 seconds in length. Entries will be judged on creativity and how effectively they motivate people to check out iReport.com.

Prize Information
Grand Prize (1): One (1) Mac Notebook; 13-inch: black, 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB memory, 250 GB hard drive, double layer SuperDrive and Adobe Creative 3 Production Premium. Approximate Retail Value (“ARV”) is $3,108.00.

First Prizes (9): One (1) Panasonic PV-GS320 video camera. ARV is $450.00 each.

Via JSOnline
Zakaria’s CNN show will give American viewers a global perspective
By Tim Cuprisin

FareedZakaria’s new CNN show, which debuts at noon Sunday, won’t be revolutionary in its format.

But he says the focus of the new “Fareed Zakaria - GPS” - that’s “Global Public Square” - will be different from most Sunday talking head shows.

“The big difference is it’s going to deal with the other 95 percent of the human race,” he says. “It’s going to be mostly focused on things going on around the world.”

You can expect Zakaria, a telegenic veteran of TV appearances that include visits to Jon Stewart’s “Daily Show,” to make it more than a dry foreign policy discussion. As editor of Newsweek International and author of books such as his latest, “The Post-American World,” Zakaria has been able to comment freely on his worldview. That won’t change with his new hosting duties.

“Look, I’ve never been a reporter. I can’t start now,” he says. “I’ve always tried to be very fair, and I’ve always tried to be honest and honorable and approach things with integrity. But I’ve always been a commentator or an analyst. This will be a show that reflects my understanding of the world.”
(more…)

Via Paid Content
NBCU And Partners Bid $3.5 Billion For Weather Channel: Report
By David Kaplan

A week after the deadline for companies to submit offers to buy Weather Channel and its Weather.com site, Reuters cites unidentified sources that the consortium led by NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) is offering $3.5 billion for the cable net. Roughly half of the offer coming from NBCU, along with PE firms Blackstone Group and Bain Capital, is made up of $1.8 billion in equity. Blackstone-owned hedge fund GSO Capital is putting up about $600 million in debt. The consortium’s main challenger is Time Warner (NYSE: TWX). No word on what they’re bidding. But it is safe to say that Time Warner’s offer will surely come in less than the $5 billion Weather Channel parent Landmark Communications had initially sought. The company is expected to choose which side will get the cable network next week.

>Earlier: Top Contenders for Weather Channel Emerge

>Update: NBCU reportedly wins bid for Weather Channel

Via NYMag
By Benjamin Proffer
Suze Orman: ‘Women Hurt Themselves’

Suze Orman was on The View earlier today, worrying about Sherri Shepherd’s ill-fated efforts to sell her Los Angeles home. Her matronly concern reminded us of something she’d said the night before at the Gracie Allen Awards. She’s worried about women these days, you see. Her gender, according to the finance guru, is hurting its own cause. “I think women hurt themselves, because I think as women refuse to take their own power, and refuse to ask for what they’re worth, and hide behind being polite, there you go,” she said. This morning, after she left the ladies of The View, Sherri jumped on top of Elisabeth Hasselbeck and tackled her to the floor, breaking a chair. We’re not sure what it symbolized exactly, but it was poignant. Trust us. —Benjamin Proffer

>What? The lovely Elisabeth Hasselbeck was tackled? Whats that all about? Or is this supposed to be a joke?!

Via Silicon Alley Insider
CNBC: Cramer Up In Turbulent Markets, Donny Down
By Michael Learmonth

Advice for Donny Deutsch: scream a little more.

CNBC is positioning the super-tan ad man as the Oprah for entrepreneurs, but his show, “The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch,” cratered in May, averaging 114,000 viewers at 10 p.m., down 25% from last year, according to Nielsen.

Jim Cramer’s hyperactive “Mad Money,” however, had a good month despite turbulence in the financial markets. Cramer was up 21% to average 214,000 viewers at 6 p.m.

Cramer (SA 100 #19) has the advantage of catching the market faithful at 6 p.m. when they’re still in that frame of mind. At 10 p.m., Deutsch has stiffer competition across the dial — like CBS’s CSI — and his show is dragging down CNBC’s primetime, which was down 19% year-over-year. (Overall CNBC ratings, including daytime, are up 17% y/y.)
(more…)

Via Yahoo News
CNN sole network to get Puerto Rico polling
By Paul J. Gough

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - When Puerto Rico Democrats go to the polls Sunday for their island’s potentially historic primary, CNN will be the only network to have access to exit polling.

The network decided to foot the entire bill, which will run to about $100,000, after its National Election Pool partners initially decided against splitting the costs. CNN declined to discuss the cost.

CNN, along with Fox, NBC, ABC, CBS and the Associated Press, comprise the NEP, which coordinates exit polling for distribution on each network and the AP. The companies usually split the costs six ways.

But in April, a meeting of NEP representatives decided not to field an exit-poll team in the June 1 primary in Puerto Rico. (Although there is a primary, Puerto Rico residents don’t have the right to vote in the November election).
(more…)

Via Politico
Donahue agrees with Couric and Yellin
By Avi Zenilman

Phil Donahue – whose MSNBC show was canceled in February 2003, a time when opposition to the war was a rare perspective on television – says he’s not surprised by comments that surfaced in the past day from CNN’s Jessica Yellin or CBS’s Katie Couric (or Scott McClellan) about the media’s coverage of the lead-up to the war in Iraq.

“Both Katie and Jessica [who were also both working under the NBC umbrella in 2002] are absolutely correct. Is it a shame that we don’t have this kind of commentary from more of the male anchors who were at the center of the coverage in October 2002”, Donahue said by phone from Kansas City, where he’s visiting Tomas Young, the paralyzed soldier and subject of his recent documentary “Body of War.”

“The board members of the large megamedia companies, while America is waving the flag and supporting the President, do not want their cable or television channels to be occupied by dissent, protest, all the rights that have been fought for and died for in past wars,” he continued.
(more…)

Via CNN
Commentary: Slavery alive and well in U.S.
By Glenn Beck

Editor’s note: “Glenn Beck” is on CNN Headline News nightly at 7 and 9 ET and hosts a conservative national radio talk show.

NEW YORK (CNN) — “Jobs Americans just won’t do.”

I can’t stand that line, but more importantly, I don’t even understand it.

Americans spend months at a time at sea fishing for crab or drilling for oil; two of the most dangerous jobs in the world. Americans clean bathrooms, subway stations and crime scenes. Americans man toll booths, pave roads, embalm bodies and inspect sewers. Yet people really expect us to believe that they won’t pick strawberries or oranges?

It just doesn’t add up.

Earlier this week The Wall Street Journal published a story about a shortage of H-2B visas, which are issued twice a year to nonagricultural seasonal employees. Because our government can’t get out of its own way, they recently let an important “returning workers” provision expire resulting in thousands of foreign workers being shut out of the country this summer.

That’s inexcusable. I know this will come as a huge shock to those who only like to hurl insults, but I think we should be issuing more work visas, more student visas, and more green cards. And I think we should cut the red tape and bureaucracy that’s constantly blocking the front door.

>Read the rest at CNN.

Via phillyBurbs
By Eric Gargiulo
MSNBC V.P. field of 64 bracket

MSNBC.com has gotten cute with the GOP V.P. sweepstakes. Chuck Todd or “Chuckie T” as he is known in the rap community, helped develop a contest similar to the NCAA 64. Users can go on MSNBC.com and pick from a bracket of 64 potential John McCain running mates.

The contest breaks down the candidates by seeds and matches them up like the NCAA 64. The four first seeds are Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney, John Thune, and Mark Sanford. Long shots include; Collin Powell (7), Lindsey Graham (4), Condi Rice (2), Tom Ridge (3), J.C. Watts (6), Mike Huckabee (2), David Petraeus (4), Rudy Giuliani (5), Joe Lieberman (2), and Jeb Bush at (4).

I played it out and my final came down to Mitt Romney and Charlie Crist. Check it out, and keep in mind it is for fun only. Unfortunately the only prize available would be a Jeb Bush win for the DNC.

Click here to play.

Via CJR
Yellin: News Execs Pushed For Positive Bush Stories
By Liz Cox Barrett

Everyone’s in tell-all (confessional?) mode, it seems.

An on-air exchange last night between CNN’s Anderson Cooper and Jessica Yellin (now at CNN, formerly of ABC News), prompted by discussion of Scott McClellan’s memoir and his assertion that White House reporters didn’t do their jobs in the lead-up to the war in Iraq:

YELLIN: When the lead-up to the war began, the press corps was under enormous pressure from corporate executives, frankly, to make sure that this was a war presented in way that was consistent with the patriotic fever in the nation and the president’s high approval ratings….

And my own experience at the White House was that the higher the president’s approval ratings, the more pressure I had from news executives–and I was not at this network at the time–but the more pressure I had from news executives to put on positive stories about the president, I think over time….

COOPER: You had pressure from news executives to put on positive stories about the president?

YELLIN: Not in that exact…. They wouldn’t say it in that way, but they would edit my pieces. They would push me in different directions. They would turn down stories that were more critical, and try to put on pieces that were more positive. Yes, that was my experience.

(Hat tip, Michael Calderone).

Via THR
Lisa Ling to join CNN
Will report on follow-up to ‘Planet in Peril’
By Paul J. Gough

“Oprah” special correspondent and National Geographic host Lisa Ling will join CNN for a documentary this year that follows up on the network’s “Planet in Peril.”

Ling will report from countries where battles are being waged over oil, land, water and food. Also reporting for “Planet in Peril: Battle Lines” will be anchor Anderson Cooper and chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. It will be televised in high definition at year’s end.

The docu will focus on the conflict over the ownership of the North Pole; food shortages and disease in Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and Indonesian shark fishing. The first “Planet in Peril” aired in October and visited 13 countries to see the environmental impact of overpopulation, deforestation, species loss and climate change.

“We continually get lots of feedback from the ‘Planet in Peril’ audience: ‘What are you doing next? Where are Anderson and Sanjay going this year?’ ” senior executive producer David Doss said. “At the end of the day, the response was overwhelming, so it was a no-brainer.”

via PR-inside

The American Business Awards are the only national, all-encompassing awards program honoring great performances in business.

Stevie Award winners will be announced during the annual gala on Thursday, June 12 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City. More than 600 executives from across the U.S.A. are expected to attend. The ceremonies will be broadcast on radio nationwide by the Business TalkRadio Network and hosted by Liz Claman of FOX Business Network.

>Read the rest at PR-inside.

Via NYT
CNN Reporter’s Interview Raises Ethical Questions
By JACQUES STEINBERG

When Howard Kurtz invited Kimberly Dozier, the CBS journalist wounded in Iraq, onto his program, “Reliable Sources,” on CNN on Sunday, he was not a disinterested interviewer. Mr. Kurtz’s wife, Sheri Annis, had been paid to serve as a publicist for Ms. Dozier’s memoir, “Breathing the Fire,” which Ms. Dozier had come on the program to discuss.

After the interview, in which he also read aloud from the book, Mr. Kurtz told his viewers that he considered Ms. Dozier “a remarkable woman.” He then added, “I should mention that my wife has done some promotion work for Kim Dozier’s book.”

The interview represented another complicated tangle in the complex world of Mr. Kurtz. He is paid by two of the nation’s largest media entities — The Washington Post Company, which employs him as a media reporter, and Time Warner, which owns CNN — to cover the doings at their news organizations, and those at their competitors’. But several media ethicists interviewed in recent days said that, given the financial arrangement between Ms. Dozier’s publisher, Meredith Books, and Ms. Annis, Mr. Kurtz should not have done this particular interview at all. (Ms. Annis said she was actually paid by a subcontractor hired by Meredith.)
(more…)

>I can’t help but notice how many people arrive here specifically looking for these photos. So, here ya go.

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

Via B&C
Ratings Good News for Fox News, NBC
Fox News Channel Wins Cable-News May Battle; NBC Takes Broadcast
By Marisa Guthrie

The ongoing and increasingly pitched battle between Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the presumptive Democratic nominee, according to media pundits, and Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) continued to drive viewers to cable news for the just-concluded May ratings period.

CNN posted a gain of 58% compared with May 2007, while MSNBC, the third-place cable-news network, was up 46% and Fox News Channel, still the top-rated cable-news network, was up 19% year-to-year.

Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor remains the top-rated cable-news program, averaging 2.49 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research live-plus-same-day data.

At 7 p.m., MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews posted a 138% gain, edging out CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight in news’ 25-54 sales demographic (278,000 versus 248,000). Fox Report with Shepard Smith, as usual, led in the 7 p.m. hour, averaging 318,000 viewers.

At 8 p.m., CNN’s Campbell Brown-hosted Election Center drew 274,000 in the demo and 857,000 total viewers while growing CNN’s 8 p.m. hour 100% versus May 2007, but nevertheless ranked third behind Countdown with Keith Olbermann (417,000 in the demo, 1.1 million total viewers) and perennial time-slot leader O’Reilly (539,000 in the demo, 2.5 million total viewers).
(more…)

Via MSNBC
Rachael Ray ad pulled as pundit sees terror link
Malkin claimed scarf similar to those worn by murderous Islamic extremists

Dunkin’ Donuts pulled a television spot featuring talk show host and Food Network personality Rachael Ray this weekend after a Fox news commentator associated it with terrorists.

In the ad, Ray is wearing a scarf that Michelle Malkin said in her nationally syndicated column resembled a kiffiyeh, Middle Eastern garb that is “popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos.”

Dunkin’s Senior Vice President for Communications Margie Myers issued a statement saying the scarf “was selected by a stylist for the advertising shoot. Absolutely no symbolism was intended.
(more…)

Via RadarOnline
Is That Keith Olbermann on Water Skis? Are Those Sharks?

Maybe it’s time we remind you who first declared Keith Olbermann overrated, because now, on the back of his latest series of popped capillaries, more people are calling him predictable and “edging ever-closer to self-parody.” Could it be that the oh-sweet-baby-Jesus-make-it-stop, sans-anesthesia root-canal process that is the Democratic primary has driven him over the edge? Time’s Swampland makes the point that “Every time he turns up the volume to 11 like this lately, he sounds like just another of the cable gasbags he used to be a corrective to.” Yes, his position on Hillary Clinton’s assassination invocation is well researched and thought out, but does it add anything other than volume to the discourse? Is Chris Matthews getting to Olbermann? Was last night’s Special Commentary, above, the moment Keith jumped the shark?

>Video available at RadarOnline.

Via SportingNews
5 questions with … ‘Mad Money’s’ Jim Cramer
By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

Knowledgeable, opinionated Jim Cramer, host of CNBC’s “Mad Money” and one of the nation’s most influential financial advisers, visited Lowe’s Motor Speedway during Coca-Cola 600 week to see, as he put it, if the American Dream was still alive in the NASCAR infield. Last Friday’s edition of “Mad Money” originated from the speedway.

As an undergraduate, Cramer was editor of the Harvard Crimson. After college, he took a job as a sportswriter for the Tallahassee (Fla.) Democrat, and, to this day, a passion for sports remains with him. Last Thursday, Cramer, 53, got a chance to ride around LMS at 150 mph in one of the pace cars. Sporting News’ Reid Spencer talked with him after the ride.

Q. So how does a Harvard-educated lawyer and former hedge-fund manager become a NASCAR fan?
A. I follow the sport. Frankly, I follow every sport, so I follow this sport, too. I’m just aware of who’s winning and who’s losing. When I was single, I candidly did more than when I got a family.
(more…)

Via AP
Former Bush press secretary Snow, sick, cancels Ohio speech

ASHLAND, Ohio (AP) — Former White House press secretary Tony Snow, diagnosed with cancer three years ago, canceled a speaking appearance at Ohio’s Ashland University because of an unspecified illness, the university announced Wednesday.

The university said Snow’s doctors have told him he cannot travel, and that Snow will be replaced by the president’s brother, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, at Thursday’s fundraising dinner for the Ashbrook Scholar program.

Snow joined CNN as a conservative commentator in April. He became White House press secretary in April 2006 and served until last August.

In 2005, Snow had his colon removed and was diagnosed with cancer. In March 2007, he underwent surgery to remove a growth in his abdominal area. Doctors determined it was a recurrence of his cancer.

Ashland had no details on Snow’s illness and CNN’s public relations department had no immediate comment Wednesday.