What’s Hot:
Stupid Tuesday – I have to give credit where it’s due and it goes to MSNBC’s Alex Wagner who was the first person I ever heard refer to Super Tuesday as “Stupid Tuesday” a week ago. Well, Stupid Tuesday was this week and the networks took up a lot of time not relaying a lot of meaningful newsy information that non-political wonks would want to know. It was political nerd theater for political nerds, but not necessarily in a good way. Flagrant hyperbole flowed almost unchecked. At one point Wolf Blitzer got so excited about Ohio about to close and followed that up by stating CNN couldn’t make any projections at this point. Well, duh. John King drilled down so far into his Magic Wall (TM pending) he should have broken through it out the other side. CNN’s latest attempt at self-embarrassment was its “VR GOP convention” which set new lows for the network in absurdity with Tom Foreman and Blitzer repeatedly moving into choreographed positions (Blitzer turning his back to the camera and Foreman stepping up the stairs to the CNN Election Center video wall) so that they would match their respective starting points for the tape of Foreman in the fake VR world which subsequently rolled. I’m neither understating the ridiculousness of this stunt nor am I alone in getting very annoyed with CNN’s repeated idiotic graphic stunts. The normally even tempered Newscast Studio ridiculed CNN before it even broadcast the first attempt. When you have Newscast Studio needling you, you really have gone off the deep end.
Sarah Palin on CNN for Stupid Super Tuesday – On the other hand, CNN sending a reporter up to Alaska to stake out a specific polling place in the hopes of corralling Sarah Palin was a stroke of genius. Palin is a contractual FNC contributor but has shown occasional tendencies in the past to “go rogue” off FNC’s reservation when a non FNC camera and microphone are shoved in her face. Any normal high profile FNC contributor would have kept their comments to a terse minimum, but not Palin. One could literally feel the frustration emanating from the Avenue of the Americas as executives at FNC watched helplessly as their contributor actually answered questions relayed by the Alaska reporter from John King on CNN’s air. The only thing more surprising than CNN’s extended exclusive with Palin was that she wasn’t banished for the evening by FOX. If I had been in charge she would have been punished for giving CNN all that buzz. She turned up later on with Neil Cavuto where the big scoop for FBN was Palin revealing who she voted for. Too little, too late. CNN had already stolen the show.
What’s Not:
Let’s try again – FNC is once again turning to Mancow Miller to do a couple of specials for the network. Mancow on FNC was a bad idea before so why should things be any different this time out?
Fuku-what? – Today marks the one year anniversary of Japan’s mega earthquake and Fukushima nuclear reactor disaster. The catastrophe has significantly altered Japan’s focus on nuclear energy with all but a tiny handful of the country’s reactors being shut down for the moment. One would have expected that the US networks would have devoted significant coverage to the occasion. Well, excluding PBS’s Frontline which in the past few months has set the bar incredibly high with a pair of Peabody worthy in depth reports on the disaster, coverage in the US has been woefully inadequate. Not even CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who in the past has shown strong inclination to revisit disaster areas over and over again, has made a journey there. One wonders if Cooper’s syndicated show is interfering with his ability to do the kind of globe trotting journalism he’s been known for. A revisit to Fukushima would seem to be right up Cooper’s alley. Apparently not.
Inside Cable News 