The Hazards of Live TV: #24,971

Oh Ernie…

Steve Harrigan and crew take incoming fire…

FNC international cameraman Mal James blogs about a harrowing incident today where Steve Harrigan, James and the rest of the FNC crew take fire in Georgia. With video…

After the melee of the first half hour, we had let our guard down, doubting that any trouble could happen surrounded by the Army.

It was the crack of a single round that made me look up as Steve and I walked back up the road towards the tank and up ahead our car. Anya, our Producer was still getting beseiged by soldiers giving her numbers of families to call. I thought it was strange to hear a small arm sound. But the smell of cordite drifted down to us and I commented to Steve.

“Smells like cordite!”

Another ten steps and it was revealed, the entire media pack was running away back up the road, cars with tires squealing were bearing away, and between us and our car was “the law”. A middle aged man with a pistol was screaming as he wrestled with a cameraman trying to get his camera. The pistol was swinging wildly and he was between us and our car.

More shots sounded, a gun swinging around in the air.

Steve and i were running to the side as he continued to wrestle with the cameraman yelling in Russian

“Give me your camera, you jerk or I will shoot you”

You do not stop or try to establish eye contact, you simply run, as fast as you can in a flak jacket. Each step seems to get slower. The distance to safety seems to become an eternity.

Press Releases: 8/14/08

MSNBC (2), C-SPAN (1)

MSNBC:

MSNBC will telecast live coverage of the Saddleback Civil Forum with Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain, moderated by Pastor Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church, Saturday, 8-10 p.m. ET. This is the first time the presidential candidates have appeared at the same event since securing their parties’ nominations.

MSNBC’s coverage will begin at 5 p.m. ET Saturday with a special edition of “Hardball,” anchored by Andrea Mitchell from Washington D.C., followed by a special edition of “Race for the White House” at 6 p.m. ET, anchored by David Shuster. Mitchell will anchor “Hardball” at 7 p.m. ET, leading into coverage of the forum, 8-10 p.m. ET.

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MSNBC PREMIERES “BORN IN THE WRONG BODY: A CHANGE OF HEART” SUNDAY AUGUST 24TH AT 10 PM ET

Robert Davi vs. Keith Olbermann and Greta Van Susteren?

The Huffington Post’s Robert J. Elisberg writes about a Stephen F. Hayes Weekly Standard article on the Hollywood Right. The headline quote is what actor Robert Davi says about Keith Olbermann and Greta Van Susteren…

Robert Davi, who plays the lead terrorist in the Zucker film, joins us as the discussion turns from policy to the cable pundit shows. Davi is one of those actors with an instantly recognizable face–he was the villain in the Bond film Licence to Kill–but whose name is unknown to most of the country.

“I can’t stand Keith Olbermann,” says Davi. “Jesus Christ, I want to slap that guy.”

“I just sit there and watch these shows”–he picks up an imaginary remote from the table in front of him, points it at the imaginary television somewhere to the right of my head and begins clicking–”I watch them all. I cannot watch the murder shows anymore. Greta comes on and”–he changes the channel once more.

The Hazards of Live TV: #24,970

Leathercize?

Related: The McClatchy Newspapers’ Rick Kushman torches MSNBC’s Olympic Update show without having seen the above clip…

Worst bit of the Olympic coverage, I mean ever: MSNBC’s “Olympics Update.” It’s supposed to be a wrap-up show after 12 hours of MSNBC coverage, but it’s just juvenile and nasty.

It runs at 2 p.m. in the West and it’s anchored in New York by MSNBC’s Tamron Hall, who treats the sports and events surrounding the Games with a smarmy, gossipy tone like she’s on “Access Hollywood.”

In Beijing, Tiki Barber and Jenna Wolfe, both “Today” show correspondents, are supposed to add context and personality, but that mostly involves Wolfe’s Mean-Girl insults – about coaches, athletes, even a weightlifter who got hurt – and her saying, “This is what bothers me.”

You feel bad for Barber, who at least tries to be professional, because they all end up sounding like adults trying to be cool teens. But they aren’t funny enough or insightful enough to be anything but icky.

Update: CJR Daily’s Robert Weintraub doesn’t see it Kushman’s way and trashes Barber as well…

Free for All – 8/14/08

What’s on your mind?

Avoid the Conventions?

Slate’s Jack Shafer makes the case that the networks should stay away from the conventions. Shafer makes a lot of great points but it will never happen. Unfortunately.

With just one exception over the last three decades, the two major parties have known the identity of their likely presidential candidate weeks or even months before gaveling their national political conventions open. For that reason, one way to improve coverage of the four-day, quadrennial conventions of Republicans and Democrats would be for the TV networks to assign sportscasters like Bob Costas, Joe Morgan, and John Madden instead of political journalists to report on the gatherings. They know how to make a game with a foregone conclusion seem entertaining.

A still better way to improve convention coverage would be to withdraw all reporters and force the curious to rely on a C-SPAN feed: Unless a brokered convention threatens to break out, these political gatherings tend to produce very little real news. Yet the networks, the newspapers, the magazines, and the Web sites continue to insist on sending battalions of reporters to sift for itsy specks of information. According to Forbes, 15,000 pressies are expected to attend each of the conventions. Slate, I’m embarrassed to admit, is sending a team of eight to Denver and six to St. Paul. Attention! Don Graham! We’re spending your cash like it’s Zimbabwean bank notes!

FNC to air Presidential Candidate Docs…

The Hollywood Reporter’s Paul J. Gough writes about FNC airing a pair of docs on Barack Obama and John McCain next week in prime time…

Fox News Channel will devote key segments of its primetime schedule in the next week to documentaries on Barack Obama and John McCain.

“2008 Presidential Character and Conduct” will premiere at 8 p.m. Monday and Tuesday in a time slot usually held by cable news’ top-rated program, “The O’Reilly Factor.” Bill O’Reilly will be off on those nights, making way for Monday’s Obama docu, hosted by Bill Hemmer, and Tuesday’s McCain docu, hosted by Eric Shawn.

Months in the works, the specials will dig into the character, lives and actions of the presidential candidates through interviews with family members, friends and associates from their early days as well as colleagues in the Senate.

“This is an in-depth, detailed examination that’s beyond what has been broadcast in terms of these typical type of biographies,” said Shawn, who like Hemmer is an anchor at the channel.

What neither documentary will do is interview the candidates themselves. Hemmer interviewed Obama in London in July; Shawn interviewed McCain earlier this year. But Shawn said the shows’ focus is not what the candidates say but what they do when faced with challenges.

Olympic Boost?

The New York Times’ Bill Carter writes about the Olympics boosting the ratings for MSNBC and CNBC…

But does NBC worry about potential defections by viewers who tune in for political or business news, not men smacking each other in boxing?

Not in the least, NBC executives say. “They understand it,” Mr. Wurtzel said. And besides, there’s the benefit of that added circulation. “As my mother would say, ‘Doesn’t hurt,’ ” he added.

That is certainly how the top executives at both networks, Phil Griffin of MSNBC and Mark Hoffman of CNBC, say they feel. “America is focused on China right now, and it’s good for all of us,” Mr. Griffin said Wednesday in a telephone interview from Beijing. Mr. Hoffman, who returned Tuesday from Beijing, said: “The first thing we always think about is: Are we serving our viewers and customers? And we unequivocally are.”

Both networks have tried to maintain core aspects of their programming. MSNBC is not changing its prime-time lineup, from 7 p.m. to midnight. CNBC is doing all its usual coverage of the financial markets while they are open, and moving two of its regular early-evening programs, “Fast Money” and “Mad Money,” to 9 and 11 p.m.