National Journal’s Amanda Munoz-Temple, in a case of great timing, interviews David Shuster…
Q: First, MSNBC has publicly said your contract ends in December. What are your future plans?
I’m confident MSNBC and I will have an amicable conversation at some point about my future and theirs. Beyond that, I am not going to talk right now about what’s ahead.
Q: Are you upset with how MSNBC handled your situation?
Not in the least. I harbor no resentment or ill will towards MSNBC.
Wow, if this doesn’t send a message, I don’t know what will. Keith Olbermann has been suspended by MSNBC indefinitely for the Democratic contributions scandal.
The New York Times’ Brian Stelter and Bill Carter’s writing seems to suggest that Olbermann’s MSNBC days are probably not done…
No one at NBC News, MSNBC’s parent, would speculate about what this might mean for Mr. Olbermann’s future, though two NBC executives privately suggested this was not a step toward firing him.
One executive said the network decided it was imperative to take this kind of strong action as a way of underscoring that MSNBC, while featuring prime-time shows that overly support Democratic policy, remains a channel that adheres to fundamental journalistic values.
Like on, um, election night? Can’t reconcile what happened on election night with that last sentence.
If this doesn’t finally force MSNBC to permanently ban its ideological talking heads from fronting political news scenarios whether it’s an election, a primary, inauguration, funeral, address to the nation…whatever you can think of…if it doesn’t finally put back that firewall it always talked about but rarely enforced then Olbermann’s suspension has no real meaning. Olbermann has now permanently made himself radioactive from anchoring any straight political news story ever again. And if MSNBC goes forward with Maddow, Schultz, or O’Donnell but leaves out Olbermann…or worse brings Olbermann back to the political anchor chair again, then it hasn’t learned anything.
Update: TVNewser’s Chris Ariens writes that insiders are saying Olbermann won’t be back. If that is the case I think it will be more because Olbermann doesn’t want to come back after being suspended than because MSNBC wouldn’t take him back. I think Phil Griffin would have a spine of steel if he ended Olbermann’s MSNBC career. It’s not impossible. I didn’t think Griffin would dump Shuster over what he dumped him over.
But It’s going to kill MSNBC to lose that 8pm lead in. I think we won’t be guessing on Olbermann’s status like we were with Shuster’s. They’ll have to move fast to preserve 8pm momentum. A bunch of fill ins will not do that job. If Olbermann is indeed done, I would expect to see Maddow slide forward an hour very quickly. I would also look to see whether Ed Schultz maybe moves to 9pm and/or Cenk Uygur gets hired full time.
MSNBC can ill afford to leave its lineup in disarray long term and than means one of two things: 1) bringing Olbermann back soon or 2) re-arranging the primetime lineup to avoid too much disruption.
In a story that’s going to cause all kinds of discomfort inside NBC, and uncontrollable chortling at FNC and News Corp., Politico’s Simmi Aujla writes about three campaign donations Keith Olbermann made to Democrat candidates…
Olbermann, who acknowledged the contributions in a statement to POLITICO, made the maximum legal donations of $2,400 apiece to Conway and to Arizona Reps. Raul Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords. He donated to the Arizona pair on Oct. 28 — the same day that Grijalva appeared as a guest on Olbermann’s “Countdown” show.
Grijalva, a prominent liberal who was just declared a winner in his race Thursday night, was in a tight contest against tea party-backed candidate Ruth McClung when he appeared on “Countdown” — one of several appearances he made on the show.
NBC has a rule against employees contributing to political campaigns, and a wide range of news organizations prohibit political contributions — considering it a breach of journalistic independence to contribute to the candidates they cover.
Here are the operative questions everyone should be asking going forward:
1) Did Olbermann follow NBC guidelines and seek permission from Steve Capus “or his designee” and was it granted?
2) Was Phil Griffin aware of the contribution prior to election night?
3) Was MSNBC at all concerned with having someone who donated to political candidates front their election night coverage?
Two days ago I wrote the following concerning MSNBC not using journalists for its election night coverage…
Until there’s an embarrassment of colossal proportions that the News Division cannot wipe away easily, and last night’s Michelle Bachman interview doesn’t come close enough, nothing is going to change that.
I was talking about “on air” embarrassments but this off air embarrassment does come “close enough”.
Politico’s Josh Gerstein writes about details in court filings concerning the EEOC/FNC lawsuit about Catherine Herridge…
Fox News’s response to a federal government lawsuit charging the network with retaliating against a reporter who complained of age and gender discrimination is putting Fox’s DC salary scale and basic contract terms for on-air talent on the public record.
According to legal papers Fox filed Thursday evening, the top end of Fox’s pay scale for DC-based reporters was $460,000 in 2008. The network also stitched some interesting language into its contracts, including a provision that flatly banned its talent from going on CNN, MSNBC, or CNBC to promote any books the Fox news reporters might write.
The details come from Fox’s response to a lawsuit the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed against the network in September alleging that Fox retaliated against national security correspondent Catherine Herridge after she complained internally of being shunted out of a weekend anchor slot because of her age and because she’s a woman.
Unsurprisingly, Fox denies any retaliation took place.
The Upshot’s Michael Calderone writes about criticism being aimed at MSNBC’s Election Night lineup…
The question of having MSNBC’s partisan hosts anchor news coverage became an issue during the 2008 political conventions after some of its top on-air personalities clashed with one another. A couple weeks later, NBC’s David Gregory was tapped to anchor MSNBC’s coverage of major political news events. But as the 2008 election rolled around, the network came up with a new solution: Gregory would “anchor” while Matthews and Olbermann would “host” the coverage.
Two years later, there wasn’t any outcry when MSNBC chose to go with Olbermann, Matthews and the rest. Although MSNBC has Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman, on air for three hours each morning, the network has solidified its reputation as the cable network for liberal commentary since the 2008 election. Rachel Maddow, who was then a new host, has become more established, and MSNBC gave shows to Schultz and O’Donnell.
Now the network doesn’t see a need to sideline its biggest stars for the year’s most-watched political event.
“We made the decision to give the viewers what they come to MSNBC night in and night out for — Keith, Chris, Rachel, Ed, Lawrence and Gene, who’s joined us for election nights for the past several years,” an MSNBC spokesman told The Upshot.
Fox News, rather than having top-rated hosts like Bill O’Reilly or Glenn Beck anchor election coverage, went instead with Bret Baier and Megyn Kelly. But the network still gave ample airtime to its stable of conservative commentators, including Karl Rove, Sean Hannity and Sarah Palin.
I’ve been engaged this afternoon in a running Twitter battle with Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher over his article suggesting that MSNBC hire Christine O’Donnell and pair her in a left/right show at 7pm with someone like Cenk Uygur. J$ suggested I turn this into a blog post but I just don’t have the time to re-lay out my reasons why Christopher’s proposition is a complete non-starter. So you’ll just have to read my Twitter feed…
Fast Company’s Austin Carr writes about and has pictures of the Technology used in CNN’s Election Coverage last night…
Walking into CNN’s newsroom is like walking into Best Buy during the holidays: gigantic flat panel displays are plastered all over the hangar-like space; people are running around frantically with laptops and Blackberrys and iPads; touchscreens galore dot the scene; and as I watch Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper try to tame opinionated pundits, there are layers of digital projections not visible to the naked eye. It’s a newsroom for the 21st century, and during last night’s hectic mid-term elections, CNN gave Fast Company a behind-the-scenes look at how technology has impacted its news coverage.
I’ve gotten emails asking why I haven’t tee’d off on MSNBC for using its bomb throwing talking heads to cover a news event last night instead of people trained to do the job.
My response is this. I complained long and loud about using talking heads during the 08 primaries. It had not impact. I complained about the meltdowns at the conventions. It had no impact. NBC’s Washington Bureau had a mini-revolt at a town hall bureau meeting which only temporarily forced the network to rein things in. But it was only temporary. Come the inauguration, they talking heads were back at it again and it’s been that way ever since. MSNBC doesn’t care. Phil Griffin doesn’t care. He’s doing what your basic broadcast entertainment programmer would do, ride the hot glove. Until there’s an embarrassment of colossal proportions that the News Division cannot wipe away easily, and last night’s Michelle Bachman interview doesn’t come close enough, nothing is going to change that. I tried to watch the network last night but frequently found myself switching over to CNN and its annoying Election Matrix and sardine can squished together panel discussion groups or FNC which suffered for not having Shepard Smith front the newscast – I started watching Fox Broadcast instead of FNC at one point because of the Shep “gap”. I switched because I just couldn’t take the incessant progressive partisan talking when I wanted to hear something a lot more grounded in reality than ideology. MSNBC only became watchable for extended periods at 2am when the bomb throwers left and a journalist took over with another panel…a panel that included a conservative. The horror!
Look, I know it’s wrong and you know it’s wrong. But MSNBC isn’t concerned with whether if it’s wrong or not and as long as they don’t end up hugely embarrassing the news division they’ll continue to ride the whirlwind with the bomb throwers. Given that, I have little interest in repeating myself. There’s only so many ways you can say “you’re wrong” before you get bored. And I’m bored.
Incidentally, I would generally agree with Mediaite that FNC’s coverage was probably on average the most consistent.
Related: Phil Griffin explains the cable news election night audience…
I note this because it more or less re-enforces what I wrote on Mediaite about cable news’ politics obsession being aimed at a particular demographic, the politics junkie.
Newscast Studio writes about MSNBC and NBC’s VR setup last night. CNN, take copious notes. This is how VR is supposed to work.
CNN is noting its number for its digital platform…
CNN DIGITAL:
CNN.com Domestic Election Day 2010 Performance Summary (Source: Omniture)
* With nearly 80 million page views on Election Day, CNN.com experienced the highest traffic day of the year, and was up 61% over the prior 4-week average.
* CNN.com attracted 11.2 million unique visitors to the site, up 26% over the prior 4-week average and up 10% over the 2006 Midterm Elections day with more than
* Live video plays on the site were also up dramatically over the prior 4-week average with nearly a quarter million views, a 400% plus gain.
* CNN’s Politics Section was up nearly 100% over the prior 4-week average with more than 25 million page views.
* CNN’s politics blog (The Political Ticker) was up 62% over the prior 4-week average with more than 2 million viewsCNN Mobile Domestic Election Day 2010 Performance Summary (Source: Bango)
* CNN Mobile proved valuable to millions of consumers seeking politics information on Election Day 2010, with more than 2.2 million unique visitors, a 30% increase over the prior 4-week average.
* Mobile web page views on Tuesday were also up 42% over the 4-week average with 7.3 million
Bloomberg (1)
BLOOMBERG TELEVISION PRESENTS ‘BLOOMBERG THE MENTOR’
This Thursday, November 4th, 2010 at 9:00 PM/ET, Bloomberg Television will debut “Bloomberg The Mentor,” an original new series that features top CEOs mentoring small business owners across America.
Every entrepreneur hopes to strike it big, but the reality is that 80% of small businesses fail within the first 18 months. What if entrepreneurs from around the U.S. had the chance to get real-life advice from some of America’s best-known CEOs? This season, “Bloomberg The Mentor” tests that concept when four small business owners receive a crash course in management and strategy from top business executives.
In the series premiere, Jim Koch, founder and chairman of The Boston Beer Company, the largest independently owned American craft brewery and brewer of award-winning Samuel Adams beers, brings his national business expertise to the co-owners of Oceanside Ale Works in California.
Read more »
I’m not going to wait any longer to give CNN’s Election Matrix a colossal thumbs down. I’m not giving it a thumbs down because it isn’t an interesting idea or because the information is not being presented in an interesting way. No, I’m giving it a thumbs down because the system used to generate it has more bugs than a bait store and it clearly is not ready for use.
Last week when it first appeared I shouted an alarm at the buggy twitchy-ness it had as the Matrix bounced all over the place and wouldn’t sit still, which is a deal breaker for any VR object. I had hoped that CNN would be able to fix the problem by tonight but it’s now obvious that CNN couldn’t fix it, and probably realized it was the way it was and decided it had to roll the dice and use it anyways since they already made a big deal out of it.
Had the twitch been the only issue, you probably wouldn’t be reading this post at this time. However a new wrinkle manifested itself this morning on American Morning when I thought I saw the entire screen, minus the lower third graphics, start twitching. That twitch was small but I still saw it. However, tonight it really showed up bad when one particular camera that’s used to display the Matrix panned across the room from Wolf Blitzer to John King and the picture looked like a bad broadband video podcast. I’ll bet that the rest of the night CNN starts using jump cuts when going to King in order to minimize the manifestation of this problem as much as possible.
Sometimes cutting edge technology is too cutting edge and I think we’re seeing it tonight on CNN. The technology behind Election Matrix obviously wasn’t ready for broadcast. And like past technological gambits the network has tried on election night, CNN comes off looking bad.
Ok, here we go. Keep it all in one place…
HLN (1)
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL HOSTS TWO-PART SPECIAL EVERY PARENT’S NIGHTMARE ON HLN
Victims’ rights advocate, author and anchor Jane Velez-Mitchell will host a powerful two-part special Every Parent’s Nightmare- An Issues Investigation on Thursday, November 4 and Friday, November 5 at 7p (ET). Jane speaks with anguished parents of abducted and murdered children whose stories she has covered on her HLN show Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell.
For the first time, Jane brings together parents Ed Smart, Erin Runnion, Mark Lunsford, Ahmad Rivazfar and Diena Thompson, members of the Surviving Parents Coalition. These surviving parents strongly believe that by telling their stories, they can save children’s’ lives and live out theirs without anger and revenge. As these parents shared their emotional stories, Jane helps identify solutions to keep kids in every community safe.
In September, The Surviving Parents Coalition completed a cross-country bike journey called “The Ride for Their Lives” to raise money for the Adam Walsh Act to create a national sex offender registry and to raise awareness on how we can protect children from predators.
The discussion with these parents touched and deeply moved Jane and her producers as each one remembered the moment they were told their children were missing or never coming home. Watch as they describe turning their grief into action:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/crime/2010/10/29/jvm.every.parents.nightmare.hln
After FNC did it last week, CNN has come out with its own ads semi-mocking MSNBC’s Lean Forward campaign…in this case “Moving Truth Forward”…
From an emailer…
Just got an e-mail alert from Cenk Uygur’s “Young Turks” website that he will be hosting MSNBC Live at 3pm ET every day from November 3rd – November 30th. I don’t think there’s any doubt that he’s on track for his own MSNBC show, perhaps at 5 or 7pm Eastern, replacing 1 of the Hardball airings.
I have an inquiry in to MSNBC to confirm…
I’ve been too busy basking in the glow of San Francisco’s first and long overdue World Series win so I’m going to direct your attention to Mediaite’s Colby Hall who writes about Keith Olbermann deciding to suspend and possibly retire the WPiTW segment. Hall tries to draw a connection between John Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s rally last weekend and this move. I hope Hall’s wrong. Sacrificing the WPiTW segment is probably the the least effective way to respond to Stewart, particularly when you consider that WPiTW is not always political (mostly, but not always). If you buy Stewart’s argument that Countdown and shows like it are part of the problem with our society, our nation, and our politics, retiring WPiTW as an answer would be akin to trimming your nose hair when what you really need is a facelift.
Last Thursday MSNBC held its Lean Forward party down at 7 World Trade Center. Considering who showed up for the event I would have expected more write ups coming out of this party. After all this was the biggest party in MSNBC’s 14 year history in terms of sheer significance, bigger than the 30 Rock unveiling which was held inside 30 Rock. That made this more than just your run of the mill news network shindig (Note: I’m excluding the WHCD parties MSNBC has done two years in a row, which arguably probably were more famous but they aren’t exactly the same thing nor done for the same reason). But the write ups have been few and those that were, with the exception of The New York Observer’s, tended to stay on the superficial and/or brief end of the spectrum.
Obviously I wasn’t there so I can’t write about what happened. But what I can do is show you some pictures from the event, which I know most of you TV news viewers who might have been interested in this event would have wanted to see (and haven’t). All photos are enlargeable…
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Mediaite’s Steve Krakauer interviews newly minted Piers Morgan EP Jonathan Wald…
Mediaite: How familiar are you with Piers? People mostly know him in America as a judge on America’s Got Talent and winner of Celebrity Apprentice.
Wald: I know his history. I know he ran newspapers in England. I’ve seen Life Stories shows in England. And I’ve known him about a year. I think he’s a great talent, he’s going to be aggressive, spirited, opinionated without being partisan. He really wants to be a part of the conversation, and to win.
Mediaite: Your lead-in will be another new show, Parker Spitzer. Have you watched it? What do you think?
Wald: I have nothing to say about that at this time.
I don’t know which is more incredible; that Wald actually put his answer in those terms, which are bound to be mis-construed, or that Krakauer had the balls to put that answer up knowing how it might get mis-construed.
Update: Forbes’ Jeff Bercovici also interviews Wald…
Read more »
CNN (1)
CNN Digital No. 1 in Online and Mobile News
CNNPolitics.com and The Political Ticker Increase Traffic as CNN Gears Up for Midterm Elections
In September, CNN Digital held its No. 1 position in total minutes, mobile and other key metrics, beating sites such as MSNBC Digital, Yahoo! News and Fox News Digital. (See below for detailed data and charts)
In particular and in anticipation of the Midterm Elections, CNN.com redesigned CNNPolitics.com and The Political Ticker to provide online users the latest information from the Best Political Team. On the first full day of the redesign, Sept. 28, CNNPolitics received 2.7 million page views, 70% above last year’s daily average. The Political Ticker received 1.6 million page views, an increase of 200% since last year. (Source: Omniture SiteCatalyst, October 2009 – September 2010; release date: September 28, 2010).
Read more »
What’s on your mind besides the fact that if you look above and subtract the second number from the first number you get the third number?
TVNewser’s Chris Ariens scoops that Jonathan Wald has been tapped to helm CNN’s program to replace Larry King Live…
TVNewser has learned Jonathan Wald, former SVP at CNBC, has been named executive producer of Piers Morgan‘s new CNN show. The announcement was made by CNN EVP Ken Jautz in his morning editorial meeting, insiders tell us.
Update: The release…
Jonathan Wald Named Executive Producer of CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight
Jonathan Wald, former executive producer of NBC’s Today and Nightly News, and former senior vice president of CNBC, has been named executive producer of CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight debuting in January 2011, it was announced today by CNN executive vice president Ken Jautz. Wald’s appointment is effective immediately.
“Jonathan has spent more than 20 years as a top producer in broadcast and cable television news and has the unique ability to produce television that is smart and provocative,” said Jautz. “We are thrilled that he’ll be joining the CNN family.”
Read more »
Now Page Six is getting into the act…
CNN anchor Kyra Phillips’ pregnancy with John Roberts could bring big changes at “American Morning,” insiders say. Roberts, who broadcasts from New York, is likely to move to Atlanta to be with his fiancée, who’s expecting twins. Since CNN ex-president Jon Klein recently rebuilt the prime-time lineup, insiders say his replacement, Ken Jautz, will focus on daytime, and his first step will be to dismantle “American Morning,” the lowest-rated cable morning show. We hear the staff is frustrated with co-anchors Roberts and Kiran Chetry. “John is a tyrant, freaking out over stories and guests, and Kiran is dumb as a rock,” a staffer said. “He has a chip on his shoulder because he was considered the heir apparent to Dan Rather at CBS.” During an interview with David Axelrod last month, Roberts snapped at Chetry on-air for typing too loud. Chetry could be the first go. A CNN rep said, “There are no plans in place to change ‘American Morning’ at this time.”
Ok, how many people out there raised an eyebrow at the “at this time” part the CNN statement? CNN just left the door wide open for a change to the show.
