Dave Weigel vs. Megyn Kelly…

Dave Weigel guest writes on Andrew Sullivan’s blog about Megyn Kelly…

I don’t really get a chance to watch TV in Unalaska, and the one thing I miss is Megyn Kelly of Fox News. The last week or so of her work — her one woman crusade against the New Black Panther Party — has been truly riveting television. Kelly widens her eyes in a way that bespeaks both horror and anger at the subject she’s reporting on. “Shocking new video,” she’ll say, introducing a clip of the Panthers acting like idiots and yelling about “crackers” at a Philadelphia street festival. “We have a DOJ whistleblower alleging there is a discriminatory policy at the DOJ voting rights section,” she’ll say, “and no one seems to give a darn.” It’s the “darn” that ties this together — she’s not just a journalist, she’s a concerned citizen who has to bring you this story before it’s. Too. Late.

The people who grab these videos for the web use the same cliches to title them. “Megyn Kelly DESTROYS Kirsten Powers on New Black Panther Case” says one of them; “Megyn Kelly schools lib pundit over New Black Panthers Party.” But why is she doing so many stories on the Panthers? It’s because Fox News uses the Panthers the way that Phil Donohue used to use the KKK or G.G. Allin. They’re good on TV. The difference between the Panthers and other freakish groups that look good on the air, of course, is that that they threaten white people.

How often does Fox bring on the Panthers, or talk about them? A Lexis-Nexis search finds 68 mentions of “Malik Zulu Shabazz,” a leader of the NBPP. The majority are appearances on Fox News, where Shabazz is repeatedly brought on to act as a foolish, anti-Semitic punching bag. Among the segment titles: “Professor’s Comments on Whites Stir Controversy” and “Black Panthers Take a Stand on Duke Rape Case.” Here’s one example of a Shabazz appearance during the Jeremiah Wright controversy. Fox was the only network to book him; Sean Hannity conducted the interview.

Morgan: More Analysis…

I really like what TVNewser’s Alex Weprin writes here about CNN’s Piers Morgan shenanigans…

So CNN has not negotiated with Morgan, but they did have informal “discussions.” Of course, the idea that Morgan and his representation would sit politely and only listen to what CNN had to say is ridiculous, but legally necessary for the network to say publicly. In light of the very specific reports coming out of the UK in June, which nailed the November time-frame for him starting on CNN and threw around specific dollar figures, it is safe to say that Morgan’s people, who may have included Cowell, had substantive talks with Turner Broadcasting about Morgan, even if technically they were not supposed to.

Indeed.

Free for All: 07/14/10

What’s on your mind?

CNBC and Cisco Team Up…

Ad Age’s Brian Steinberg writes about a deal between CNBC and Cisco…(via Talking Biz News)

Cisco Systems is enjoying prominent screen time within news programming on the business-news cable channel CNBC, which is using Cisco’s TelePresence videoconferencing technology to snare a wider array of talking heads to discuss on the big stories of the day.

Cisco is not paying CNBC to use TelePresence screens on air, according to CNBC and NBC Universal executives; CNBC is actually leasing the equipment for its editorial and technology operations teams. The involvement doesn’t affect CNBC’s business coverage, news executives added. If Cisco becomes part of a story, CNBC will report on the company and suspend on-air use of its products.

Piers Morgan: Update…

The New York Times’ Brian Stelter and Bill Carter have an updated version of their story from yesterday. Pertinent section…

CNN executives were clearly impressed by Mr. Morgan’s ITV interviews — and by his reputation for preparing scrupulously for them. For his part, Mr. Morgan has long told friends that Mr. King’s show was his dream job.

But NBC had full control over Mr. Morgan’s immediate future in television because his contract grants the network exclusive rights to all his work on American television. CNN had made its interest in Mr. Morgan clear, both to him and to NBC. In the usual course of contractual niceties in the entertainment industry, Mr. Morgan and his representative could listen to what CNN had to say, but had to steer clear of anything that might constitute a formal negotiation.

The main action has not directly involved CNN. It is taking place quietly between executives from NBC Universal and Turner Broadcasting, a unit of Time Warner. These talks centered on whether Turner had something to offer NBC Universal.

Did the MSM media writers fail to do due diligence in the previous reporting of the Piers Morgan CNN stories? To wit: Did anyone bother talking to NBC about its deal with Morgan and what control of Morgan’s appearances it had in the US? And a corollary question: If someone did contact NBC and they got “warned off” of pursuing this story further, did they sit on their hands rather than go public?

Hindsight is 20-20 of course but it now seems obvious that talking with NBC about whether it had full control of Morgan or not might have been a good idea…

Too Much BP Coverage?

Andrew Tyndall bravely treads out on dangerous ground and writes that coverage of the BP disaster has gone too far…

There comes a point where the local effects of the oil disaster become just that, a local news story, no longer of pressing concern to the national nightly newscasts. Why should the unemployment of a Louisiana oysterpacker be any more newsworthy, from a national perspective, than a laid-off California teacher or a long-term unemployed Michigan autoworker? Why should the empty beachfront bars of Pensacola attract more national attention than the casino recession on the Las Vegas Strip?

Granted, the damage to the marine ecosystem is a continuing and serious story of national importance–and sometimes when a New York based anchor travels down to the Gulf Coast an environmental lesson, for example by NBC’s Brian Williams, is what we get. Mostly, latterly, the coverage has been about the human toll of this disaster: NBC’s Williams on a shrimping family, CBS’ Katie Couric on forlorn youth, ABC’s Diane Sawyer on hymnsinging villagers. Frankly, in the national scheme of things, the dislocation in these sparsely populated coastal counties and parishes does not deserve such incessant attention–especially since BP has set aside $20bn to make them whole; especially since the disaster that befell next-door New Orleans was so much more calamitous.

The networks’ assignment desks seemed trapped by their own past enthusiasm. Having committed maximum resources to covering the story when it was at crisis stage, regaining a sense of proportion now might seem like callous indifference. It is as if a fear of seeming fickle has clouded their news judgment. NBC has been the worst offender at overstaying its welcome: in the last three weeks since the crisis broke its fever pitch, NBC has sent almost as much time (101 min v ABC 51, CBS 77) on the oil story as its two rivals put together.

It reminds me of the spring of 2000, when a minor foreign policy story, with an interesting human interest angle, became a cause celebre because the national news media, having committed to its importance, could not let go until they had found resolution. The child custody case of Elian Gonzalez ended up logging an astonishing 503 minutes of coverage, the single biggest non-campaign story of that election year. I suppose we can expect to sit through a similar daily drumbeat of oil leak coverage all through the summer until that hole is finally plugged.

HUGE SHOCK! Piers Morgan Stories Return…(okay, not really)

Now that Larry King is on his way out officially I guess it’s time for the Piers Morgan machine to start churning again. The New York Times’ Brian Stelter and Bill Carter write about NBC and Turner coming to terms on Piers Morgan, a stumbling block to Morgan getting anywhere on CNN. Note that this need to come to terms prohibited CNN from negotiating with Morgan. Which means my writing about CNN being very Clintonian in its public statements regarding King and Morgan seems pretty on target. Because CNN was indeed accurate and truthful when it said it wasn’t and hadn’t negotiated with Morgan. It was true because it couldn’t negotiate with Morgan. But at the same time it was total misdirection and BS because CNN clearly wanted to negotiate with Morgan and King hadn’t yet been told to call it a day allowed to exit gracefully which was something that had to happen for appearances sake before Morgan could be negotiated with.

Now it appears CNN is going to get Piers Morgan. But that’s not all they’ll get. They’ll also get a lot of questions aimed at them by a MSM Media Writer contingent who, rightly or wrongly, probably thinks it either got played or lied to. They aren’t interested in nuance and what the definition of the word “is” is. And that’s not good for CNN which will want to put Morgan out front of a press which is probably more skeptical of the network’s statements than it was three months ago.

Piers Morgan, the mean judge on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent,” is poised to take over Larry King’s coveted time slot on CNN, thanks to an imminent deal between the two media giants that own the channels.

NBC, which attracts 20 million viewers to “Got Talent” each summer, has signaled that it is willing to share Mr. Morgan with CNN. That decision frees Mr. Morgan to directly negotiate with CNN and, according to three people involved in the delicate maneuvering between the companies, a contract could be signed within a few days.

If completed, the deal would vault Mr. Morgan, a native of Britain, onto the Mount Rushmore of TV’s top interviewers, alongside Oprah, Barbara and Katie. It will also demonstrate that CNN thinks there is still room in primetime for long-form interviews with public servants and starlets, a stark contrast to the partisan pundits on its higher-rated competitors.

Update: Yahoo News’ Michael Calderone gives a history of the Morgan/King saga and has this at the end…

A CNN spokesman wouldn’t confirm the Times report or respond to questions about when the “negotiations” began. “There is nothing I can say,” the spokesman told Yahoo! News.

This time, however, CNN didn’t deny any negotiations.

The Hazards of Live TV: #25,066 – Talking Head Primetime Invades Daytime: Chapter 10

Two words…train wreck…

Conflict of Interest or Not?

NewsBusters’ Scott Whitlock writes about MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer speaking at a “Gay Rights” fundraiser…

MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer, who on Monday argued that overturning Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is a “civil rights issue,” will appear at a July 24 fundraiser in Kentucky to support gay rights in the state.

According to a press release: “As the evening’s featured guest, MSNBC’s Brewer, who has several family ties to Kentucky, will speak on the need for a statewide anti-discrimination Fairness law in the Commonwealth from a national news perspective.”

On Monday’s News Live, Brewer implored, “My big question today: Why aren’t more American leaders itching for a fight on gay rights?” She also said of ending Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, “Is it time for our American leaders to stand up for what’s right and no matter what public opinion polls say to have the leadership and the courage to take a stand on it?”

At no time did Brewer mention her speaking engagement or her conflict of interest. According to the Courier-Journal, last year’s “Fairness Over Louisville” raised $10,000 for gay rights.

I’m not sure it’s a conflict of interest. Where’s the incentive for Brewer to slant the story a particular way? She doesn’t inherently benefit from speaking at this fund raiser so it doesn’t really fit into the same pattern of other more talked about conflict of interest scenarios like Glenn Beck and Goldline or Howard Kurtz covering CNN while having a CNN show. That said, given that the interview yesterday was about Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the subject of whether Gay Rights is a civil rights issue or not, this speaking engagement is probably something that should have been disclosed. If Brewer wants to take a stand off the air on a controversial subject like Gay Rights, which there’s nothing inherently wrong with, as a journalist and straight anchor she owes it to her viewers to disclose her off air activities when she has to cover the subject on MSNBC in a manner that goes beyond just reporting it (e.g. interviews).

John King Profile…

NewsMax’s Ronald Kessler profiles CNN’s John King. Interesting that this interview was given to NewsMax by CNN. That’s not a typical outlet one would expect to see an interview like this…

With King, there is no smirking at liberal views, no raising of the eyebrows when conservatives speak. When contributor Eric Erickson of RedState.com leaves out a point that might buttress his conservative arguments, King gladly supplies it.

With his salt-and-pepper hair growing ever whiter, King is a silver fox in training, a Richard Gere look-alike. As he does the “Play by Play” segment on his political show, King looks and sounds like a sportscaster.

Gesturing with his pen, he makes playbook circles in the air. The informality of his clothes — an open-collar shirt and a blue blazer — adds to the jock image.

King’s personality is anything but aggressive. He’s as pleasant as background music, calm and unobtrusive in a heated discussion. When his halcyon world is breached, he reveals his tension with a lip curl or eyebrows that tent into a V. But his appealing sense of humor, low-key and wry, always saves the day.

Free for All: 07/13/10

What’s on your mind?

Scientology vs. Anderson Cooper…

TVNewser’s Kevin Allocca writes about the Church of Scientology fighting back against CNN’s coverage of it…

The Church of Scientology has gotten aggressive with its campaign in the wake of Cooper’s week-long “Scientology: A History of Violence,” which aired at the end of March. While that was some time ago, a few months is apparently the amount of time it takes to create the very unusual 95-page glossy publication Freedom magazine handed out on the street Monday morning in front of the CNN offices in Manhattan. The majority of it’s content has been posted online here for a little while now.

Schadenfreude?

Page Six makes hay of John King, USA’s ratings issues…

The next head to roll at CNN will be John King’s, insiders say. “Since King replaced Lou Dobbs, he’s lost more than half his audience,” one source told us. “If it were a fight, it would be stopped on a TKO because of the bleeding.” In April, Washington Post TV critic Tom Shales quoted a producer as saying King’s show was attracting “only friends and relatives.” An insider said CNN brass are fretting because King’s anemic lead-in doomed the 8 p.m. show of Campbell Brown, who’s leaving at the end of the month and will be replaced after Labor Day by Eliot Spitzer and Kathleen Parker. King is said to have a high opinion of himself, and “the high-fives are rattling the windows on Capitol Hill,” laughed a source. A CNN rep said of King’s possible ouster, “Not true.” Wolf Blitzer will add King’s 7 p.m. hour, a source predicted. No replacement for Larry King at 9 p.m. has been named, but we’ve reported it will be Piers Morgan.

King’s not going anywhere. CNN will give him time for his show to get a groove and turn the ratings around. It basically has to. It can ill afford to be seen as quickly canceling a show when the two hours that follow it are already in the media writers’ sights…

sanChez News Network…

TVNewser’s Alex Weprin notes that CNN is adding Rick Sanchez’s Rick’s List to 8pm for the time being until the new Spitzer/Parker program debuts. So now Sanchez will be on the air for more hours a day than Wolf Blitzer or Anderson Cooper.

Free for All: 07/12/10

What’s on your mind?

What’s Hot/What’s Not: 07/11/10

What’s Hot:

Octavia Nasr – Not much more needs to be said here. This will be a mistake that she will regret and will stick with her the rest of her life.

FBN’s Magic Wall – I saw it yesterday. It’s as slick as it was purported to be. It’s not just a mere touch screen like CNN’s which up till now has been used mostly to open, move, and enlarge/shrink things on the screen (as far as I can tell). It’s a whole system and a lot of time and planning went into programming that system and setting up the databases needed to pull it off.

MSNBC blacklists Kos – And Kos isn’t going away quietly.

Jenna Lee – Jenna Lee jumps from FBN to FNC in order to anchor “Happening Now”

What’s Not:

Coverage of Lebron James – You’d think this was a national security issue of importance to all Americans the way the media pandered to this story. It’s just an overpriced athelete strutting his ego in front of the cameras. Proportionality people….

In Depth: Howard Kurtz Punts on Octavia Nasr…

I made sure I had Reliable Sources DVR’d today so that I could see how Howard Kurtz, and by extension CNN, treated the Octavia Nasr controversy.

One of the biggest knocks on Kurtz by some of his most vocal critics, Mickey Kaus and Eric Alterman being two, is that he has an inherent conflict of interest problem because he’s supposed to be covering the media for the Washington Post but he has a show on CNN. Well, based on what happened today on Reliable Sources with the Nasr story, those critics will be feeling entirely justified in their conflict of interest claims.

The Nasr story was reported on Reliable Sources but that’s as far as it went. It got maybe two minutes of air time at the end of the show and was lumped in with a bunch of other media stories that occurred this week. There was no analysis or commentary.

This would not appear to be so galling if Kurtz hadn’t devoted an entire segment to Levi Johnston apologizing to Sarah Palin and another to Rush Limbaugh talking about how Barack Obama would have been a tour guide in Hawaii instead of President if he weren’t black. The Nasr story was tailor made for Reliable Sources to cover. It could have been approached from any number of angles; journalists in the age of Twitter, is a single tweet enough to compromise an entire career?, was CNN over-reacting in summary dismissal rather than suspension followed by re-assignment?, the delicacy of Middle East coverage…you could go on and on. It’s not like there was universal consensus on Nasr other than the fact that her original tweet was chronically brain dead. There’s been commentary on both sides of CNN’s decision to oust her and the story on that is far from settled. Instead of Reliable Sources doing what it’s supposedly there to do we got nothing beyond straight reporting on Nasr but got plenty on Johnston and Limbaugh.

Questions are going to linger around CNN and Kurtz as to why the Nasr story was treated that way. Did Kurtz decide it wasn’t a big enough story? Did CNN “suggest” that just reporting the story was all that was needed? Would the story have been treated differently if the subject wasn’t a former CNN employee?

Who knows. The one thing I do know is that Kurtz did his show a major disservice by not taking the Nasr story head on with a full panel to debate the many serious issues that go to the heart of what journalism is today. It was an opportunity wasted.

Bill Hemmer Profile…

The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz profiles FNC’s Bill Hemmer…

To Hemmer, who recently signed a multi-year, multimillion-dollar contract that has not yet been announced, the secret of the morning show’s success is the pacing. “At 9 we put the gas in the tank, floor that accelerator and drive toward the news of the day,” he says. “A viewer needs to understand a story in a short period of time, otherwise they will zone out or they will change the station. Complexities are difficult to sell.”

With his infectious grin and golly-gee demeanor, Hemmer exudes boyish enthusiasm both on and off the air. He is quick to sing the praises of his network, his colleagues, Chairman Roger Ailes (a fellow Ohioan), even the Sixth Avenue lobby for its mix of visitors. Has he ever said anything on the air that he regrets? “Knock wood, I think I’ve been lucky to, as my mother would say, be careful before you speak,” says Hemmer, his eyes occasionally wandering to his four television monitors in what he admits is a Pavlovian response.

As for his other assets, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Patricia Sheridan once asked him: “Do you think being a good-looking guy helped move your career along?” (Hemmer didn’t deny it.)

“He’s a wholesome reporter, he’s from Ohio, he grew up in a large family, he has an innate curiosity and he’s likable,” says Fox News Senior Vice President Michael Clemente. “He’s almost an Everyman, a decent guy.”

Julie Banderas Returns Next Weekend…

Juliet Huddy announced during the Fox Report tonight that Julie Banderas will be returning from maternity leave next weekend…

What’s Hot/What’s Not: Submissions…

Post your nominations for this week’s What’s Hot/What’s Not. I’ll post the finalists on Sunday night…

Nasr – Had to go?

Mediate’s Steve Krakauer writes on NPR about Octavia Nasr’s “separation” from CNN…

Those who have defended Fadlallah argue CNN has overreacted; that just one tweet closed the book on a 20-year career. They’ve impressed the point that true objectivity in journalism is a fallacy. Maybe they’re right. But in the end, it wasn’t that Nasr had an opinion that sealed her fate — it was what the opinion was. Nasr’s public respect for someone who many viewed as extreme and, if not dangerous and hateful himself, supportive of the dangerous, hateful side of a volatile conflict, was more than CNN would let slide.

This doesn’t mean Nasr is a bad journalist, or that she shares the views of Fadlallah. But as news organizations are increasingly faced with battling the perception of bias in news reporting, Nasr is the latest example of someone who spoke her mind and paid the price. We saw it with Helen Thomas recently, and we’ll see it again in the future. CNN was right to separate itself and its valuable credibility from an irreparable situation.

Press Releases: 07/09/10

CNBC (2)

“BP: IN DEEP WATER” WILL PREMIERE ON CNBC ON JULY 21ST

(ALL TIMES ARE IN ET)

“BP: IN DEEP WATER” will premiere on CNBC Wednesday, July 21st at 9pm. The 30 minute program will repeat that evening at 9:30pm, 1am and 1:30am.

“BIOGRAPHY ON CNBC #19: SEARS” will be pre-empted at 9pm and 1am.

“BP: IN DEEP WATER” will repeat on Sunday, July 25th at 11pm and 11:30pm, pre-empting “BUSINESS MODEL: INSIDE THE SPORTS ILLUSTRATED SWIMSUIT ISSUE.”

“BP: In Deep Water” tells the story of America’s ‘greatest environmental disaster.’ Dubbed an environmental ‘9/11’ by President Obama, the leak caused by the explosion of British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig is still releasing thousands of barrels of crude oil a day into the waters of the Gulf. “BP: In Deep Water” examines the full consequences of the disaster amid a mounting war of words between the Obama administration and an embattled BP, asking what went wrong and who is really to blame.

______________________________________

CNBC’S “CRIME INC.: COUNTERFEIT GOODS” will premiere Wednesday, July 14th at 9PM ET. The show repeats that evening at 10PM, 12AM and 1AM ET.

Free for All: 07/09/10

What’s on your mind?

Nasr – Backlash…

Politico’s Keach Hagey writes about an Arab American backlash to Octavia Nasr’s dismissal from CNN…

But the firing provoked perhaps the strongest reaction from Arab-Americans.

“This is unbelievable what is happening in the United States of America,” said Osama Siblani, publisher of the Arab American News. “You can say anything you want — except when it comes to Israel.”

He accused CNN of a double standard, citing what he said was CNN host Wolf Blitzer’s history of working for the Jerusalem Post and for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). “But for Octavia Nasr to make a statement that’s in agreement with millions of people around the world, has become a firing offense at CNN. It’s incredible the level we have sunk to.”

Siblani, who emigrated to the U.S. from southern Lebanon three decades ago, said Fadlallah was regarded as a “progressive Muslim around the world,” adding, “I respect him. Let them come put me in jail. I plead guilty to this crime.”

Rachel Maddow Interview…

Marketwatch’s Jon Friedman thinks MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow is a “voice of reason”…

Update: Sorry, forgot the link. It was 5 in the morning and I’d been up since 2 and was something of a zombie at the time…

Maddow, 37, is the voice of reason at MSNBC. Notable for their verbal brawn, the hosts of cable news shows often behave on air as if they’re competing for a gold medal in preening.

Maddow gets her point across in a restrained but emphatic way. She doesn’t feel a need to outshout her guests.

The tone is unique. Maddow says she presents “essays, which have a thesis, facts, analysis and conclusions. That way, I think, I don’t invite pounding on the table or yelling at people.”

It takes a certain amount of self-confidence to stand apart.

“I’m in my wheelhouse,” she said. “I’m not reading a script written by someone else. If I do an interview with an author, I have read the book. If I interview an actor, I have seen the movie. I enjoy what I do. I don’t think about the audience — it’s not, ‘Oh, my God, a million people are watching.”

Mr. Hoffman we must now allowwww a touch screen gap!

Oh boy…CNBC just got one upped by FBN. Talking Biz News has the scoop on FBN’s new touch screen which debuted yesterday.

It’s a one-touch data display designed to give on-air talent and producers the ability to access a complete set of real-time financial data on demand.

It’s an infrared touch screen wall that will give so much more depth to the markets and gives anchors the power to go into 20 different sectors with the top 10 names in each sector, and the ability to show stock charts of nearly a dozen different time durations — intraday, one week, 1 month, 6 months, 1, 2, 3, 5 years, etc.

They will also have the ability to do comparisons of stock prices during any time duration.

That sounds really impressive on paper. I haven’t seen it yet in action though. CNBC has been “getting by” for a while now in the technology department. It went HD before FBN launched but it’s not true HD, it’s SD video with HD graphics on the right side of the HD screen. Now FBN beats CNBC to air with the latest in interactive display technology. Start your timers. How long before CNBC gets a touchscreen up?

The Hazards of Live TV: #25,065

F-Bombs Away!

Blogus Interruptus…

Blogging resumes tomorrow afternoon…

Nasr – CNN’s Social Media Policy…

Business Insider’s Joe Pompeo writes about CNN’s Social Media policy in the wake of the Octavia Nasr firing…

The network’s current social media policy was an outgrowth of a previous internal document, issued in August 2008 (a few months after CNN fired senior producer Chez Pazienza for keeping a personal blog) that explained the rules for “personal writings online.” Here’s what that policy, which was drafted before Twitter had become as influential as it is today, said about social media (emphasis our own):

Again, on these sites only write about something CNN would not report on. Don’t list preferences regarding political parties or newsmakers that are the subject of CNN reporting. Local issues that CNN wouldn’t report on would be OK. And of course private communication with friends or family about issues that aren’t in the news is fine. If you are not sure, ask your supervisor or S&P for parameters on posting. (S&P contact info is listed below).

Also keep in mind that you should not be commenting or writing about what goes on in the workplace at CNN without specific approval by CNN senior managers. For example, in some cases there have and will be exceptions made to have some staff get information out to an outside audience on platforms like Twitter about our upcoming coverage plans.

But without those approved exceptions, your workplace activity is proprietary and so you should not be writing on these sites about what goes on behind the scenes here at CNN.

We’d love to know what the more recent policy says. (Drop us a line if you have it!)

So would I. But based on the highlighted portion that Business Insider cites, it seems clear that Nasr violated the letter of that policy, which isn’t the current version of the policy. But the obvious question, which I pose solely to stir discussion, is does that rise to the level of a firing offense?

CNBC taps Fortt for Tech…

CNBC announced that Jon Fortt is joining the network as a tech correspondent…

Update: This explains why Fortt was hired. TVNewser reported that Jim Goldman is leaving. Steve Jobs must be crying over this news…

JON FORTT TO JOIN CNBC AS TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J., July 8, 2010—CNBC, First in Business Worldwide, today announced that Jon Fortt will join the network as technology correspondent covering the companies, startups and trends that are driving innovation in the industry, effective July 19th, based in CNBC’s Silicon Valley Bureau. He will appear on CNBC’s Business Day programming and on CNBC.com.

“Technology is the critical engine of the global economy, and Jon knows its various parts better than just about any journalist,” said Nikhil Deogun, Managing Editor, CNBC Business Day programming. “His insight and analysis will immediately add value to CNBC’s viewers and users.”