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TV News
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speculation
evil corporations in action
Last week, Fox News aired nasty Photoshopped pictures of two Times journalists responsible for a story about Fox losing ground among younger viewers. But it sounds like the cable network may have done much worse to another Times reporter, Tim Arango, who wrote a similar article in March. In his column for tomorrow's paper, Times media columnist David Carr recounts tales of Fox's dirty-politics-style PR tactics against journalists from his paper, the Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press and others. One story, in particular, stands out:
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Did Fox News Smear Timesman Tim Arango?
Last week, Fox News aired nasty Photoshopped pictures of two Times journalists responsible for a story about Fox losing ground among younger viewers. But it sounds like the cable network may have done much worse to another Times reporter, Tim Arango, who wrote a similar article in March. In his column for tomorrow's paper, Times media columnist David Carr recounts tales of Fox's dirty-politics-style PR tactics against journalists from his paper, the Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press and others. One story, in particular, stands out:
More »
war is hell
CBS War Correspondent Gets Promotion, Sex Scandal
Apparently some CBS execs saw their foreign correspondent Lara Logan on The Daily Show last week, and, like thousands of young men across the nation, they said, "who is that cutie?" It turned out she already worked for them! But because she insisted on reporting depressing news from depressing places like Afghanistan and Iraq, she never made it on-air. That will change! A CBS press release says Ms. Logan will now be "CBS News’ Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent and will be based in Washington, D.C." Effective immediately! Now Ms. Logan can shoot herself in the head when she's forced to watch the news they show us here in the states. Oh, and also, did you know she is a HOMEWRECKER? Oh ho ho yes she is. More »
tv news
English South African purr. So then she gave up on jokes and said the wars were miserable and CBS News executives should be the first against the wall. Basically we're all terrible people, you see, and then she shamed Jon into basically saying The American People Themselves have abandoned their responsibilities. We can't imagine what Logan has against the American TV news! Her own network ran a totally compelling story just today on the state of the war between boys and girls. One of the most awkward Daily Show interviews ever, attached.
TV News Makes CBS Correspondent Feel Suicidal
CBS News Foreign Correspondent Lara Logan showed up on The Daily Show last night to bum us all out. Seriously, she "cracked" some "jokes" but they were too dark to laugh at, and she always sounds so deadly serious in her little
tv news
Ugly People No Longer Welcome to Read Us the News
The late Tim Russert initially refused to host Meet the Press because, in his words, he was "ugly." Sad! He just looked like a regular fat dude to us, no grosser in appearance than plenty of other fat guys you might see on television any night of the week, as SNL cast members or wacky sitcom neighbors. But Doree Shafrir points out that you don't generally see ladies who look like Tim Russert on television, and certainly not hosting important news programs. "We expect our female pundits and news anchors to be intelligent and beautiful," Doree says, "but men can get away with being overweight and unattractive." We kind of disagree with that. More »
citizen journalism
David Gregory: Jerk?
MSNBC took away Tucker Carlson's show because it was terrible and no one watched it. They gave to former White House correspondent David Gregory (the tall guy). We're not sure if his show is terrible or not, because no one still watches it. But regardless, rumors continue to fly that Gregory is being "groomed" to take the place of Hardballer Chris Matthews. Matthews is a network star, but he comes with a lot of baggage, like accusations of sexism, embarrassing magazine profiles, and his inability to deal politely with his staff. Gregory—famous for, in addition to his height, his testy and sarcastic exchanges with Bush press secretaries—doesn't have the ratings to justify any of this yet, obv, but supposedly CBS wants him so therefore NBC needs him even more because that's how TV works with its "talent." But would replacing Matthews with Gregory be even more of a disaster? More »
tv news
Anderson Cooper And Richard Quest Salute The Queen!
When park-cruising meth-head CNN correspondent Richard Quest wasn't busy with rope tricks, he was pouring forth more innuendo-laden quotes on his globetrotting assignments. Here, Quest makes Anderson Cooper, the third most powerful gay man in America, break out into an embarrassed fit of giggles with his salutation: "As Dame Helen Mirren famously said when she picked up her Oscar: I give you...the Queen!" Cheerio, indeed!
tv news
Anderson Cooper's Dolphin Trainer
Not that the CNN anchor is gay or anything that might gross out midwestern TV viewers. But, if he were, this is what his hypothetical latino boyfriend might look like. The gossipmongers at L.A. Rag Mag claim they were introduced to the silver-haired TV presenter's ex, J.D. Ordonez, at a gay mafia party in Hollywood. The 22-year-old is not merely the shallow party boy his shirtless Myspace photos would suggest. Ordonez is a marine mammal trainer: he communes with dolphins, as well as closeted news anchors. (Click thumb for close-up.)
equality of sex and money
Fox Biz Women Deserve Rich Guys, Too!
Word on "The Street" is that CNBC Reporter Michelle Caruso-Cabrera may be dating Gary Parr, deputy chairman of Lazard and a guy who is involved in finance stories Caruso-Cabrera could be covering [Radar]. It's reminiscent of CNBC Money Honey Maria Bartiromo's purported canoodling with Citigroup exec Todd Thompson. This raises an important issue: why do all the rich business guys go for the CNBC women? Haven't they heard of a little place called FOX BUSINESS NETWORK, which put in a lot of effort to hire its own stable of attractive female on-air personalities to lure male viewers? Can they get some love over there? We've decided to help them out; after the jump, five of Fox's foxy professional women, and a real item of interest about each one. Act now, Wall Street jerks! More »
men and women
Sports Vs. Business: What Men Want
Deadpan actor and much-derided financial commentator Ben Stein has a long article in Best Life Magazine this week in which he speculates about why there are so many attractive women on TV business news channels these days. You can practically see Stein's drool spattered about the pages of the article, and he's drawn some (justified) mockery for the leering tone of the story. But he does raise an interesting question about the profusion of "Money Honeys" on TV. Compare that to the situation in sports broadcasting; it's full of ex-jocks and men's men, not Fox-branded eye candy. Why the discrepancy between the two traditionally male provinces of business and sports TV? You have come to the correct place to hear a theory. More »
let's talk about race
Obama's Race Speech!
Democratic Presidential candidate and man who Americans recently realized might be black Barack Obama had to deliver a speech today about his blackness, because the media discovered that his favorite preacher occasionally says controversial things. Obama, who is probably the best writer to run for president of the last century at least, gave a very good speech that was also far too long for cable news people to actually digest, but they are all trying, and it really impressed Candy Crowley and Joe Scarborough. Pat Buchanan, not so much. More »
bloodsuckers
Which Fox News Employee Has Bedbugs?
How is Fox News supposed to bring the REAL news to the American mainstream when they are busy fighting off a bug infestation of the newsroom? If only we were making a metaphorical joke about the network's tendency to employ cockroaches. We're not! A liberal media outlet, the New York Times, reports that Fox News discovered an infestation of the dreaded, disgusting BEDBUGS a few weeks ago "when an employee 'caught a bug and showed it to us.'" YUCK. But Fox News employees get even nastier than that: One of them brought the bugs in! More »
media
Network News Needs Hip Young Viewers Such As You
The 18-34 year old demographic is most frequently described as "coveted," so those of us lucky enough to be in it know that the things we do are important. Not just to ourselves, but to the media, advertisers, and the nation at large. We set the trends, not the olds! So it's a big deal when they discover that out of all the things our sweet demographic does—eat cereal, purchase pogo sticks ironically, have sexual relations in the new style—one thing we're definitely not doing is watching the evening news. In fact, the latest numbers show network news ratings among important people like me and you are falling straight off a cliff, into what may prove to be the final resting place of the 6:30 news broadcast. More »
tv news
TV Reporter Attacked By Racist Crowd In South Carolina
Oh, this is just bad. A black female reporter in South Carolina was standing on a street covering a crime story when she was attacked by an entire white family, yelling racial slurs [CNN]. The reporter, Charmayne Brown, was thrown down on the ground, punched, and, it appears, strangled a bit. The entire attack was caught on tape by another (white) TV crew on the scene. Which raises the point: WAY TO JUMP IN AND STOP THE ATTACK, RIVAL TV CAMERA CREW. Jesus. News is a rough business. The entire ugly video is below—Brown's own (black) cameraman helped pull her to safety, and she is fine. More »
tv news
Giving The People What They Want
Semi-network CNN Headline News actually won the Tuesday night 6 p.m. cable ratings war with its "Nothing At All But Heath Ledger" programming strategy. Number two Fox News, which included only a woefully insufficient dash of Ledger, trailed by more than 25%. Headline News staffers also found it 75% harder than usual to wash the filth off upon returning home from work and showering for two hours. (Except, notably, the crew at Nancy Grace.) [TVNewser]
raising the bar
TMZ TV: Slatternly Drunk Girls Say The Darndest Things
Our final look at "TMZ's" new television component explains exactly why the show works so well: It's all about the story mix. Every entertainment program does stories about celebrity escapades, but TMZ can also step away from the velvet rope to bring you this hard-hitting expose of drunk girls slurring their words, flashing their bodies, and puking on sidewalks. This thing is gonna be on forever.
you're going a long way, baby
Katie Couric Leaves Today For Iraq To Get Gravitas The Hard Way
Now that Hamptons season is nearly over, Katie Couric is ready to leave for Iraq on a trip that's all about the journalism. You will take her so seriously. You will tune in every night! She is not fluffy, she is totally surrounded by serious things like people getting arms blown off every hour! Variety notes that "CBS News has an able correspondent in Iraq, Lara Logan, whom it has worked to elevate in stature over the past few years, raising the question of why take the risk of sending a high-value target such as Couric, a single mother of two." That is true. Though also we think that when Brian Williams went to Iraq they probably didn't mention that he and his lovely wife Jane have two kids, so maybe there is something to this whole sexism thing. Anyway, come back in at least two pieces, Katie! The benefit circuit and your massive staff and your publicists depend on you!
CBS sending Couric to Iraq, Syria [Variety]
Brian Williams' "Nightly News" has lost 533,000 viewers since he took the anchor's chair. Over at CBS, Katie Couric has only shed 287,000, many to natural causes. To be fair to Williams, he had a lot more viewers to lose. Also, it's summer and nothing is happening. [AP]
