Outside Cable News

Via B&C
Womens Group: Network News Coverage Is Sexist
Petition Calls on National Media Outlets to Stop Using Sexist Language and Fostering a Sexist Culture.
By John Eggerton

The Women’s Media Center (WMC) has launched a petition targeting what they say is sexist media coverage on the major cable news networks.

The group, whose board includes Jane Fonda, Gloria Steinem and former PBS President and current Museum of Television & Radio President Pat Mitchell, combined the online petition with a YouTube video of news clips they posted, “Sexism Might Sell, But I’m Not Buying It!,” which they combined with the following online petition that sent the following message:

“Media companies may think that sexism sells, but I’m not buying it! Together with the Women’s Media Center, I call on the national broadcast news outlets (CNN, FNC, MSNBC and NBC) to stop treating women as a joke; to stop using inherently gendered language as an insult or criticism; and to ensure that women’s voices are present and accounted for in the national political dialogue. Sexism isn’t a partisan issue. We’re not going to let anyone hit the snooze button on this important issue!”
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Via AOL News
Tucker Carlson For President? Not in ‘08
By Tommy Christopher

Whether frightened or excited by those words, they have to come as something of a shock. But the word on the internets is that the bow-tied, recently-canceled host of MSNBC’s Tucker, and Ron Paul supporter, plans to seek the nomination of the Libertarian Party. From the New York Times, via reason.com:

>Read the rest at AOL News.

>Related: “Tucker Carlson for President? Regrettably, No” at ABC News.

Via Wired
Media Duped by Fake Story About Boy Who Hired Hookers
By Betsy Schiffman

A good fake news story calls for fake hookers, and nobody knows that better than Lyndon Antcliff. The internet marketer whipped up a phony story about a 13 year-old boy in Texas who used his father’s credit card to go on a $30,000 spending spree, culminating with a game of Halo at a motel with a couple hookers. (The kid convinced the hookers he was a midget traveling with the circus.)

The story was nothing short of genius, and it got picked up far and wide — it made it to the front page of Digg and into a segment on Fox News (in which Jeanine Pirro made a passionate argument for the prostitutes’ arrest).

It didn’t seem to matter that the story was made up.

“The thing is, I tried to make it as ridiculous as possible so it would be obvious that it would be fake,” says Antcliff, a writer by trade. (Indeed, the story now has a disclaimer that it’s a parody and “not to be taken seriously.”)
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Via Multichannel News
Headline News To Salute Troops On Memorial Day
Viewers Asked To Submit Photos, Videos To Honor Military Personnel
By Linda Moss

In preparation for Memorial Day weekend coverage, Headline News has been soliciting iReports–videos, photos and audio content submitted by the public–to honor military personnel that it will air on Morning Express with Robin Meade on Memorial Day from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., officials said Friday.

Morning Express viewers and CNN.com users are asked to send their thoughts and wishes for U.S. military personnel to iReport.com, CNN Worldwide’s first uncensored, unfiltered, unedited, user-generated community Web site.

Current “Salute to Troops” iReports include submissions from mothers wishing safety for their sons and daughters in active duty; tributes to those who lost their lives during service and even one from a South African couple thanking the U.S. troops and wishing all Americans a happy Memorial Day.
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Via NHRA
Forces on CNN, Westways, and even in Wal-mart

Thanks to the amazing stories of Ashley Force’s first career win, the inspiring comeback of her legendary father, John, and the growing popularity of both, images of the John Force Racing team have been showing up far and wide.

A CNN special produced by Ray D’Alessio that focuses specifically on John Force’s comeback from career-threatening injuries incurred in the crash of his Castrol GTX Ford Mustang Funny Car last September at the Texas Motorplex in Dallas, Texas, will air this weekend on CNN Headline News.

The piece, developed from an interview last month in Atlanta before the Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals in which Force was runner-up to his daughter, Ashley, will air twice an hour between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m., Eastern time, on Sunday, May 25.

>Read the rest at NHRA.

>Update: Video after the jump.
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Via TPM
Clinton And Obama Camps: CNN Report Of “Talks” Between Campaigns Is 100% False
By Greg Sargent

CNN reported this morning that there are some kind of “talks” taking place between the Obama and Clinton campaigns about the possibility that she might leave the race and become veep.

The network claimed that the Clinton camp was pushing three “scenarios” it was envisioning for the future.

Well, I’ve just spoken to both campaigns about this. And their denials couldn’t be more adamant.

Here’s what Hillary spokesperson Howard Wolfson sent me:

>Check that out at TPM.

CNN All Access: ‘The Row’

Fair, balanced and accurate? If it’s been through “The Row” it will be. CNN’s Richard Griffiths takes us behind the scenes. (Description from CNN’s All Access RSS feed.)

>You can download this by left or right clicking here. Or you can go to CNN’s podcasting page. But, as of right now, its still advertising one from last week..

Via WSJ
Top Contenders for Weather Channel Emerge
By MERISSA MARR and SAM SCHECHNER
>EXCERPT

Time Warner Inc. and a partnership between General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal and Blackstone Group LP have emerged as leading contenders to win an auction for the Weather Channel, ahead of Friday’s deadline for a second round of bids, people familiar with the auction say.

NBC Universal may have the strongest case for buying the cable channel. It owns competitor NBC Weather Plus. Owning Landmark’s related WSI Corp., which provides weather data and services to local TV stations, could help it cut costs. But NBC’s bidding flexibility is constrained by Blackstone’s backing of its offer.

Time Warner has emerged as a more aggressive contender than initially expected. While its cable network division has been enthusiastic about the assets, Time Warner’s corporate head office has been distracted with other transactions. Now the head office is also on board, according to people familiar with the situation.

Part of Time Warner’s thinking is that it could twin the Weather Channel with its cable news channel CNN. Like the Weather Channel, CNN is based in Atlanta, offering an opportunity to merge staffs.

>Read it all at WSJ.

via phillyBurbs
Advice from Chris Matthews
By AUBREY WHELAN
The Intelligencer

Chris Matthews wants the Class of 2008 at Montgomery County Community College to walk away from graduation with one thing.

“My name’s Chris Matthews. Just remember I existed here,” he said to laughter. Matthews, the host of MSNBC’s political talk shows “Hardball with Chris Matthews” and “The Chris Matthews Show,” gave the commencement speech to 1,052 graduates at the community college’s graduation ceremony Thursday night.

All jokes aside, Matthews — a Philadelphia native whose brother, Jim, is the chairman of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners — said he wanted to give students practical advice that they could use after graduation.

“I am aiming this directly at the graduates,” he said before the ceremony. “It’s always a tough job market, and I’m trying to help people. I want them to learn something even on their last day of school.”

Matthews stressed three key ideas for success: asking for what you want, “getting in the game” and listening to others.

“There’s a false assumption that some people have that talent will be recognized,” he said. “When a job opens up, whether it’s on the chorus line or the assembly line, they’ll go to the person who’s there.”
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Via Pravda
Most Americans do not even think about getting information from alternative news sources
Translated by Julia Bulygina

The US most popular TV channel Fox News has been beaten by CNN for the first time during the last seven years. Preferences of US citizens were affected by the media reporting of the election campaign and the country’s foreign policy. Twelve million TV viewers preferred the ‘objective’ CNN to Fox News that justifies George Bush’s policy.

In April 2008 the CNN audience counted 62 million people, while Fox News had only 50 million TV viewers, Handelsblatt reports. According to US media experts, the reason for this change is the information policy run by the competing TV channels. “CNN has beaten all the TV channels by the quality of its programs concerning the elections,” said Joe Cuthbert, a professor of the Department of Journalism of the Columbia University in the City of New York.

Fox News, a part of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, engaged in one-sided advocacy of the stance of the current US administration, instead of providing all-round objective reports of election campaigns. Economists proved that George Bush would have never won the 2000 election but for the support from Fox News. The TV channel definitely backs up right-wing Republicans, Cuthbert considers. “Fox is rather the advocate of Bush’s government than a news TV channel. Now the political ship is sinking, and so is Fox.”
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Via ReportOnBusiness
Is a Time Warner, NBC tie-up in the cards? It’s up to ‘the Jeffs’
By RICHARD SIKLOS
>EXCERPT

This is, after all, the age of recombinant media - as witnessed by the split of CBS and Viacom, the planned dismantling of IAC, the halving of Scripps and Belo, and so on. What makes NBCU and Time Warner uniquely intriguing, though, is that melding their operations fit together almost too perfectly from a strategic and cost-savings perspective. (Plus, imagine the punning possibilities if all top executives stayed involved at first - Messrs. Bewkes, Immelt, and NBCU’s CEO Jeff Zucker, aka “The Jeffs”).

What NBCU and the new Time Warner share in common is that they have made the development of cable networks and the original programming that runs on them their core competency. (And until splitting off cable, Time Warner by law is prohibited from owning a broadcast network.)

Time Warner has talked about finding a broadcast news partner and NBC News would fit that bill - though the overlap between CNN and MSNBC and CNBC would be overkill and I’d expect MSNBC to be expendable. So - if it lives to see the day - might be the CW network joint venture between Time Warner and CBS. Similarly, Mr. Bewkes might not want to keep the Universal film studio and theme parks since he already has Warner Brothers, into which he just collapsed smaller studios New Line and Picturehouse.

>Read the rest at ReportOnBusiness.