Press Releases: 06/19/12

CNN (2)

CNN en Español broadcasts special coverage for the NALEO Annual Conference session

Starting Thursday, June 21st through Saturday, June 23rd, CNN en Español will broadcast special coverage of the National Association of Latino Elected Leaders (NALEO) Annual Conference session. This exclusive coverage will be broadcast from Orlando, Florida, the place where the conference will take place and hosted by CNN en Español’s news team, Juan Carlos Lopez, Alejandra Oraa and all-platform reporter Gustavo Valdés.

This special coverage will include reports that will cover all of the events, as well as transmit live coverage of the speeches of President Barack Obama, former Governor Jeb Bush of Florida and Senator Marco Rubio, among others. At the same time, CNN en Español’s team of journalists will also interview some of the nation’s top executive and legislative leaders.

Throughout the three-day conference, the topics that will be offered include education, health financial empowerment, broadband adoption and the growth of the political power that Hispanic voters have within the United States politics.

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75 Georgia High School Scholars selected for Leadership Unplugged

Leadership Unplugged: A CNN Experience will take place June 25-29 at CNN and Georgia Institute of Technology

WaWa-Gate: Update…

In the intervening hours since I noted the controversy swirling around the Romney clip on Mitchell Reports, some things have transpired…

Andrea Mitchell did her best non-acknowledgement FNC style acknowledgement of the issue. If she had gritted her teeth any harder while doing it they would have shattered. Mediaite’s Noah Rothman summed it up best…

While Mitchell digging in her heals may satisfy liberal partisan instincts to find fights around every corner, this is a losing battle in the end. The trivial episode will haunt the credibility of Mitchell and her network, where a quick apology – even a disingenuous one – would have killed the story.

Even liberal commentators can see the forest for the trees on this one. Liberal broadcaster David Shuster tweeted at Mitchell on Tuesday, wondering why she did not address the issue on everyone’s mind, “Andrea, what the hell?”

I usually disagree w/ @DLoesch @michellemalkin @BrentBozell. But their anger @mitchellreports on this is justified. Andrea, what the hell?

The correct response to this controversy could not be more obvious. Why Mitchell avoided quick and painless apology eludes even her former MSNBC colleague.

When news networks, eager to drive the narrative, overreach and stretch the truth, an apology is always the correct course. Even if the individual doing the apology chafes at the reasoning behind it. MSNBC, and Mitchell herself, should have followed suit — the story would have died on the vine.

Now, the anger in the blogosphere will only grow and it has yet to be determined when the anger surrounding this offense will subside. I would be willing to bet that won’t be nearly as soon as if Mitchell had just swallowed her pride and said that one simple, little word.

TVNewser’s Alex Weprin noted MSNBC’s official non-response to the story…

Upate 2: MSNBC released a statement regarding the clip: “MSNBC did not edit anything out of order or out of sequence and at no time did we intend to deceive our viewers.”

Note what MSNBC didn’t address in this statement: Whether the clip was set up to make Romney look goofy and how Mitchell and Cilliza laughed at the clip. That’s the real story here, not whether MSNBC edited anything out of order.

I fear Mitchell is well on her way to destroying her previously impregnable “straight shooter” reputation. NBC News can stick its head in the sand and hope it all blows over but people are taking notes and keeping score. These people don’t forget. They will bring incidents like this up again and again. If Mitchell accrues enough of them, she will cease to be an asset to NBC and become a liability; she will go from being a straight news person to a POV person. If that’s what NBC wants…well..then great. But if it isn’t, NBC needs to take corrective action in order to keep Mitchell an asset.

Free for All: 06/19/12

What’s on your mind?

Has CNNI Lost its News Ways?

News on News’ Kevin Coy takes a whack at CNNI’s “obsession” with saving the world at the expense of reporting news…

CNN International, with it’s many projects, and the segments in the new ‘Amanpour’ show, coupled with it’s current scheduling, seems to be more interested in saving the world.

To be honest, and as I’ve written several times over the past few years, CNN International has seriously lost it’s news edge.

In the late 90′s, CNN was the place to go for news on the Bosnia, Kosovo and even the Afghanistan conflicts, but not any more.

The whole fact that over the last weekend, CNN broadcast more recorded programming than any other news channel just cemented it’s place as a failed place to go for news.

Creative Editing…

Politico’s Dylan Byers writes about some…ahem…creative editing at Andrea Mitchell Reports which surely must be an embarrassment to NBC News…

Then, to illustrate the advantages of competition in the private sector, Romney shared an anecdote from his visit to the local WaWa chain store. “I was at WaWas, I went in to order a sandwich. You press a little touchtone keypad — you touch this, touch this, go pay the cashier — there’s your sandwich. It’s amazing. People in the private sector have learned how to compete. It’s time to bring some competition to the federal government.”

But in the MSNBC clip, which first aired on Andrea Mitchell Reports, Romney’s remarks begin with the WaWa anecdote and end at “It’s amazing,” an edit — first noted by conservative blogger Sooper Mexican — that makes it seem as though Romney was expressing amazement at the advent of touchtone screens.

The MSNBC clip feeds into the narrative, beloved by some on the left, that Romney is a 1950′s throwback. After the clip cut, Mitchell and MSNBC contributor Chris Cillizza broke out into laughter — which is understandable, given that they both had been led to believe that Romney was wowed by a simple machine.

Someone should lose their job over this. It’s no better than the Zimmerman edit. No, I take that back…it’s worse than the Zimmerman edit because this clip had to have been vetted to some degree by the Mitchell Reports staff, which is more than could be said for the Zimmerman edit, since Mitchell set the clip up the way she did before it ran. Didn’t anybody bother to stop and ask the question, “Is this in context?”