Outside Cable News

Via Ballot Access News

FOX Business Network Hosts Libertarian Presidential Debate

FOX Business Network will host a televised debate between two contenders for the Libertarian presidential nomination, Mike Gravel and Wayne Allyn Root, on May 16 (Friday), at 8:10 am (eastern time). There will be a 10-minute session which ends at 8:20; then there will be a second session, also 10-minutes, that starts at 8:40.

Also, Reason Magazine hosts a 3-person debate on May 20 in Washington, DC, at 4 pm eastern time. That debate will not be televised, but will include Gravel, Root, and Bob Barr.

Via E&P
AP, Networks Sue Over South Dakota Exit-Polling Restrictions
By Chet Brokaw

PIERRE, S.D. The three major networks, CNN, Fox News, and The Associated Press filed a lawsuit Monday asking a federal judge to strike down a South Dakota law that prevents exit polling within 100 feet of a voting place.

The law violates the First Amendment because it restricts the news organizations’ speech and commentary about the political process and limits their opportunities to gather information about that process, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Sioux Falls, asks that the case be handled quickly because South Dakota’s primary election is June 3, just three weeks away. It seeks a preliminary ruling before the primary to prevent South Dakota officials from barring exit polling within 100 feet of polling places.

The lawsuit was filed by ABC, CBS, NBC, Cable News Network, Fox News Network and the AP.

Poll representatives working for the news organizations have conducted exit polling within 100 feet of South Dakota voting locations in past elections, according to the lawsuit.
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Via HoumaToday
Cable TV crew films advertisement at local shipyard
By KATHRINE SCHMIDT

HOUMA — Local shipbuilding will soon get a moment in the cable TV spotlight.

Cameras were rolling Monday at Houma’s Quality Shipyards as business network CNBC filmed an advertisement that will profile parent company Tidewater and its CEO.

For producer Ellen Lewis, the New Orleans-based shipbuilding company was a natural addition to the network’s series of “I Am American Business” ads, 30-second spots that promote the cable channel and highlight notable entrepreneurs. Past segments have featured Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone, rapper Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, and a fertilizer salesman.

The network wanted to look at business in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, particularly the public companies that stayed after the storm.

Tidewater fit the bill.

“They seemed to really care about their employees and the community and the job that they do,” Lewis said.

In a workday starting at 6:30 a.m., a 14-member CNBC crew dropped in to the company’s Houma shipyard to take footage of the site and interview Dean Taylor, Tidewater’s CEO and president.
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Via THR
Q&A: Chris Wallace

WASHINGTON — Fox News Channel’s Chris Wallace may have a famous father in “60 Minutes” correspondent emeritus Mike Wallace, but he’s noted in his own right. The Emmy and Peabody winner has had a long career covering political leaders at ABC, NBC and now Fox News Channel, where he’s been host since 2003 of “Fox News Sunday.”

While there, he’s famously sparred with former President Bill Clinton — who accused Wallace of doing a “Republican hit job” after Wallace asked about the Clinton administration’s role in trying to get Osama bin Laden before 9/11 — and even his colleagues on “Fox & Friends” for taking them to task for “bashing” Barack Obama. Paul J. Gough interviewed Wallace in his office at Fox News Channel’s Washington bureau.

THR: With all the talk that Katie Couric might leave the CBS Evening News, your name is rumored on a short list of people CBS might be interested in. Is that something you’d like to do?

Chris Wallace: No. First of all, I don’t think they’re going to ask and second of all, I’m very happy at Fox News Channel.

As much as I grew up in CBS and as much as I associate that anchor chair with Walter Cronkite and the history of broadcasting, I have never been so happy as I have working the last four-plus years at Fox. I suspect I’ve had a much better last couple of years than Katie Couric.

THR: It sounds like it.

Wallace: You can’t buy that kind of happiness and fulfillment and sense of collegiality. As I say, I don’t think they would offer it to me, but if they did, I would let you and everybody else know I had been offered it because it would be good bragging rights. But I’d say no.
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Via Courier-Journal/Newslab
Media should pump more coverage into energy crisis
By Tom Dorsey

Forget Britney, Miley and whomever else the gossip of the day is about.

When it comes to the news, it’s the economy, stupid!

For once, all those dozens of polls the cable news and broadcast networks take agree: The economy is the No. 1 topic on people’s minds, and the media is beginning to respond.

Now everybody is doing a would-you-believe-the-price-of-a-gallon-of-gas story just about every day. It seems to be the equivalent of taking the blood pressure of the national economy, which appears to be rising dangerously.

One daily CNN newscast keeps a little pump down in the corner of the picture to show the current nationwide average price of gas — always seemingly a lot lower than it is in this area.

That price difference just adds to the anger around this region. People are asking why and not getting enough answers from newscasts. It’s not enough to show the price-at-the-pump signs anymore.
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