A friend with too much time on her hands emailed me this chart that is making the rounds in her newsroom. Although hilarious, it is real. And maybe you might come up with some other ideas about it.
Last night AC 360 was quite depressing, it is not easy to accept how misunderstood this war is and how there is almost no hope to end it with dignity. Michael Ware surely knows his bid. His knowledge of the region is just outstanding and it is scary to understand that after all that has been done, Al Qaeda and Halliburton's stock owners are the big winners.
This is a briefing of Christiane Amampour's lecture at the Edward R. Murrow Ceremony, if you are interested in the entire text, please email me and I will gladly send it to you.Although six years old, her views are visionary and spot on over the controversy of the news media industry in the USA. It also brings light to life on the road as a war correspondent. At least for me, it is a must read for those interested in journalism. I hope you will enjoy it.
All my reporting life I have thrown small pebbles into a very large pond, and have no way of knowing whether any pebble caused the slightest ripple.I don't need to worry about that. My responsibility was the effort. I belong to a global fellowship, men and women, concerned with the welfare of the planet, and its least protected inhabitants. I plan to spend the rest of my years applauding that fellowship and cheering from the sidelines….good for you never give up."
Hi everyone!
First of all I want to thank you all for visiting this blog, and no, it is not going anywhere... it might get a little slower, but it will be up!
I really want to thank my fellow moderators for all the time they dedicated to this project. It is hard to create a balanced, fun blog dedicated to AC without recurring to lame topics, and vicious attacks from other people. It takes a lot of time, and to be honest, just like Jade, I have to admit that I´m losing interest over AC360. Why?
So back to the blog. We implemented a three column design in order to have a better flow and organization. The main post area will only display two entries at a time - I really hate to scroll down and down and down - and the archive is now located at the left column. On the right column you will find constant updates of the AC360 blog ( for those of you obsessed with the Anns), CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera breaking news. I hope you will enjoy this real 360 view of world events and the different cultural perspectives and editorial lines these companies have.
We also included a cool gadget for our international visitors that might want to read the blog in their language ( left column ). More changes are on their way, so keep checking us out.
And then again thank you all for your support and your time.
I'm a horrible moderator. I haven't posted anything new in a very long time. Honestly, I couldn't tell you anything that is happening outside of my little corner of the globe right now or how any of it has been covered by CNN. Uh...I haven't seen "Anderson Cooper 360" in over two weeks.
A couple of months ago, I came back to the blog after a short break and at that time I didn't know how long I'd be around. Well, now I know. I have resigned my role as a moderator on this blog. Actually, I'm leaving the Andersphere all together. It's not for me anymore.
I have enjoyed getting to know so many of you here and I hope that you continue to support FreakSpeaker's in whatever form it takes from here. Thanks to Christiane for her patience and understanding the last couple of months. I wish her, the blog and all of you every success in the future.
Jade
Now all speculation my be set away. He is staying with CNN
Anderson Cooper has inked a new multiyear pact with CNN, according to sources inside the all news network. Under the terms of the new deal, the host of the CNN primetime show Anderson Cooper 360 can continue as an occasional contributor to 60 Minutes.
Although the network would not comment directly on the matter, CNN President Jon Klein said, "Anderson Cooper is an exceptional journalist, and his dedication in going after important stories wherever they occur makes him a natural fit for CNN. We look forward to more of his groundbreaking work in the years to come."
Cooper’s previous contract with CNN was worth around $2 million a year, according to sources, and his new pay is more than double that amount. CNN has also made Cooper the center of an unprecedented multimillion-dollar promotional campaign.
Last December his newscast was up more than 30% in the key 25-54 news demo.
Cooper’s new CNN deal comes in the wake of months of speculation that he might make a full-time leap to CBS. The 39-year-old Cooper had been courted by CBS to take over the reins of the network’s ratings-challenged morning newscast The Early Show.
CBS News brass has wanted to make over The Early Show for some time, but with Cooper now not available, the news division is struggling to come up with what talent to turn to next. For the time being, the show is staying with the co-host trio of Harry Smith, Hannah Storm and Julie Chen, along with news anchor Russ Mitchell. Co-host Rene Syler left last December.
The Armenian - American, Hrant Dink, who had received death threats from nationalists for questioning Turkey's denial of an Armenian genocide, was shot in the head and killed today in front of his office in Turkey.
Last October, Russian Anna Politkovskaya, a leading investigative journalist and critic of President Vladimir Putin, was shot, contract-style, in her Moscow apartment building.
“When an internationally renowned reporter can be gunned down in her own apartment building and the perpetrators walk away free, it has a devastating effect on the press. Fewer tough questions are asked, fewer risky stories are covered, Her case shows why impunity is such a serious threat to press freedom, not only in Russia but in nations such as the Philippines, Colombia, Mexico, and Pakistan.”
Large corporations and powerful groups would do anything to just keep their dirt under their rugs. Could you imagine any media outlet daring to expose the real contracts and conditions of a powerhouse like Halliburton while Cheney is still the VP?
Paul Klebnikov, Forbes Russia
July 9, 2004
Moscow
Klebnikov, 41, editor of Forbes Magazine who exposed the workings of the country's shadowy billionaire tycoons, was killed outside his Moscow office. An American of Russian descent, he was struck several times by shots fired from a passing car.
Over the years, experience has demonstrated, that the attacks are done where the journalists are more vulnerable: their homes or office. Their families are often victims of hostilities, harassment and even abduction. Journalists are not celebrities. The more exposed they are in that matter, the more vulnerable and less capable they are to do their job without the added burden.
Many might be thinking, that doesn't´t happen in the USA. WRONG. More journalist are jailed here, companies threatened with losing their licenses or simply denying access to information. Something Rumsfield, Cheney and González have never doubt of doing and force.
After Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and the Gulf states on August 29, the Federal Emergency Management Agency urged news organizations not to photograph dead bodies. Numerous bodies were left in public areas for days after the hurricane amid a government recovery effort that was widely criticized for being slow and ineffective. The Washington Post reported that in at least one instance state authorities echoed the demand not to photograph the dead.
New Orleans police adopted an aggressive stance in several reported cases. On September 1, city police ripped a camera from the neck of Lucas Oleniuk of the Toronto Star and removed the camera's memory cards, robbing the photographer of more than 350 images. The seized images included "officers delivering a fierce beating to two suspects," the Toronto Star reported. The same day, Gordon Russell of the New Orleans–based Times-Picayune wrote that he and another photographer were slammed against a wall and had their gear thrown to the ground by police. On September 7, NBC News anchor Brian Williams reported that he and his crew were ordered to stop filming a National Guard unit securing a downtown store. "I have searched my mind for some justification for why I can't be reporting in a calm and heavily defended American city and cannot find one," Williams told The Washington Post.
On October 18, a New Orleans police officer was caught on film harassing an Associated Press Television News producer whose crew was filming two other officers beating a man suspected of public intoxication. Two of the officers were fired and one was suspended.
Maybe the pressure of the US government towards the media outlets is the main reason the international press call US Media "soft wimps", that have left the hard questioning to Jon Stewart of the Daily Show. And with the added disadvantage of the celebrity cult that persists in the USA, where TV journalists draw attention to the verge of invasion of privacy or simple good old stalking.
So please keep in mind, that the next time you come across of an image of Anderson Cooper´s apartment, his home address, his family´s whereabouts, his personal life, you are not only enjoying a piece of entertainment gossip, you are supporting his vulnerability and mining his capability to access information, and by that silencing one of the few voices that ¨keeps them honest¨.
She also sent me this image of her collection - she is a GV freak- of a very young Anderson with his mom:
From the people from the Committee to Protect Journalists:
New York, December 20, 2006—Violence in Iraq claimed the lives of 32 journalists in 2006, the deadliest year for the press in a single country that the Committee to Protect Journalists has ever recorded. In most cases, such as the killing of Atwar Bahjat, one of the best-known television reporters in the Arab world, insurgents specifically targeted journalists to be murdered, CPJ found in a new analysis.
Worldwide, CPJ found 55 journalists were killed in direct connection to their work in 2006, and it is investigating another 27 deaths to determine whether they were work-related. Detailed accounts of each case are posted on CPJ’s Web site. The figures reflect increases from 2005, when 47 journalists were killed in direct relation to their work, while 17 others died in circumstances in which the link to their profession was not clear. CPJ, founded in 1981, compiles and analyzes journalist deaths each year.
But for the fourth consecutive year, Iraq was in a category all its own as the deadliest place for journalists. This year’s killings bring to 92 the number of journalists who have died in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003. In addition, 37 media support workers—interpreters, drivers, fixers, and office workers—have been killed since the war began.
Only four journalists died in Iraq in 2006 as a result of crossfire or acts of war, CPJ’s analysis found. The other 28 were murdered, half of them threatened beforehand. Three were kidnapped and then slain, CPJ found.
“The deaths in Iraq this year reflect the utter deterioration in reporters’ traditional status as neutral observers in wartime,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “When this conflict began more than three and half years ago, most journalists died in combat-related incidents. Now, insurgents routinely target journalists for perceived affiliations—political, sectarian, or Western. This is an extraordinarily alarming trend because along with the terrible loss of life, it is limiting news reporting in Iraq—and, in turn, our own understanding of a vital story.”
The viciousness of the onslaught in Iraq was shown on October 12 when masked gunmen attacked the Baghdad offices of the fledgling satellite TV channel Al-Shaabiya and executed 11 people, five of them journalists. It was the deadliest single assault on the press since the 2003 invasion.
Here are other trends about Iraq that emerged in CPJ’s analysis:
• Thirty of 32 journalists killed were Iraqis, continuing a two-year trend in which local journalists have made up an overwhelming proportion of the casualties. CBS cameraman Paul Douglas and soundman James Brolan, both London-based, were the only foreign journalists killed in Iraq in 2006. Among the Iraqi victims was Bahjat, correspondent for the satellite channel Al-Arabiya and former reporter for Al-Jazeera. CPJ honored Bahjat posthumously in November with its International Press Freedom Award.
• Murder now accounts for 61 percent of deaths in Iraq since the war began. The incidence of murder began to increase 20 months ago and accelerated in the past year. Crossfire and combat-related incidents had been a more frequent cause of media deaths in the first two years of the war.
• The 2006 toll jumped 45 percent from the 22 deaths recorded in 2005.
• The war in Iraq is the deadliest conflict CPJ has documented. Iraq has far surpassed the Algerian civil conflict of the 1990s, which took the lives of 58 journalists.
• The 2006 tally in Iraq is the highest in a single country since CPJ was founded in 1981. The second deadliest years were 2004 in Iraq and 1995 in Algeria, both of which saw 24 journalists killed.
Among those slain was Russian Anna Politkovskaya, a leading investigative journalist and critic of President Vladimir Putin. She was shot, contract-style, in her Moscow apartment building on October 7.
“When an internationally renowned reporter can be gunned down in her own apartment building and the perpetrators walk away free, it has a devastating effect on the press. Fewer tough questions are asked, fewer risky stories are covered,” Simon added. “Her case shows why impunity is such a serious threat to press freedom, not only in Russia but in nations such as the Philippines, Colombia, Mexico, and Pakistan.”
Politkovskaya was among eight female journalists killed in 2006. In the Central Asian nation of Turkmenistan, reporter Ogulsapar Muradova of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty was killed in prison under unexplained circumstances in September. Muradova was a critic of President Saparmurat Niyazov. And in southern Lebanon, an Israeli missile killed freelance photographer Layal Najib in July as she was traveling by taxi to cover civilians fleeing north.
The deadliest nations include such disparate places as the Philippines and Afghanistan. Two of the victims in the Philippines were radio commentators, continuing a trend CPJ has documented over several years. In strife-ridden Afghanistan, two German radio journalists were among the three casualties.
In Latin America, two nations with long histories of violence against the press appeared on the 2006 list of dangerous places. In Colombia, two provincial journalists known for tough reporting on paramilitary activities were slain. In Mexico, a local crime reporter was murdered in the eastern city of Veracruz, and a U.S. freelance journalist was shot to death during civil unrest in the southern state of Oaxaca. CPJ is investigating the disappearance of a northern Mexican journalist and the slayings of five others in circumstances that are not yet clear.
In sub-Saharan Africa, one journalist was killed in direct connection to his work in 2006. Martin Adler, an award-winning Swedish photojournalist, was shot while filming a June demonstration in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu.
CPJ applies strict standards for each entry on its annual list of journalists killed; researchers independently investigate and verify the circumstances behind each death. CPJ considers a case as work-related only when its staff is reasonably certain that a journalist was killed in direct reprisal for his or her work; in crossfire; or while carrying out a dangerous assignment.
If the motives in a killing are unclear, but it is possible that a journalist died in direct relation to his or her work, CPJ classifies the case as “unconfirmed” and continues to investigate. CPJ’s list does not include journalists who are killed in accidents—such as car or plane crashes—unless the crash was caused by hostile action (for example, if a plane were shot down or a car crashed trying to avoid gunfire). Other press organizations using different criteria cite higher numbers of deaths than CPJ.
Good morning Freaks! Just a few things before you read Larry's remarks...Today is Martin Luther King Day. Actually it's his birthday and MLK has the distinction of being one of three individuals to have a day commemorated in his honor. Let's just say it's not an honor that Bush will ever receive. Did anyone happen to catch Scott Pelley's interview with Bush on 60 Minutes last night? Bush actually believes his own line of bullshit. Interesting, but scary.
Also, the Betty Ann/Lorie Ann/Gotta Be an Ann saga continues. In the beginning, the "360" blog was groundbreaking. Now, it's becoming a joke. I publicly ask the blog producers at CNN to clean up this mess now! They have the power to decide who gets posted and who doesn't. They are seriously lacking a measurable accountability. We are not the only blog who has noticed the pattern and it is discussed on other forums and sites. In a recent post, I counted 15 responses from "fangirls" that I know by name, real or fake. Perhaps this is the reason Cooper doesn't post more often.
And for those of you fascinated by the glamour (or the lack) of the movie business, the Awards season kicks off tonight in Hollywood with the Golden Globes. Yes, sadly, I will be watching. And on a personal note, if you have a chance to see "A Painted Veil", I would highly recommend this movie. Edward Norton and Naomi Watts in a beautiful love story set in horrible conditions in 1920's China. Enjoy your Monday.
Count Larry King among Katie Couric's fans. The venerable CNN host watches the new anchor of the CBS Evening News and thinks her ratings struggles have more to do with gender than with journalism.
"It might still be hard for a woman to anchor the evening news," King says. "And that's sad."
Couric, whom King calls "smart and certainly attractive," will commandeer the host's chair on Larry King Live in April to interview King as part of a special week of shows honoring his 50th year in broadcasting.
King also believes Couric suffers from the stigma of representing a network news division that is trailing in the ratings.
"Maybe you just can't change the way you are branded," he says. "CBS can't do well in the morning, either. [ The Early Show] is a good show. If they moved Katie to the morning, would it help? Maybe not. They may just be branded [as unsuccessful in the mornings]."
As others have suggested, it may take a major news event to help the former Today host shed her "perky" image, says King: "Hurricane Katrina made Anderson Cooper. It could happen to Katie that way."
Speaking of Cooper, King says he has no problem with the way CNN has been marketing the anchor and other rising stars at the network.
"I would be promoting Anderson, too," he says. "He has a bright future. I hope they don't lose him."
Copyright The Associated Press 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Duke University senior Emily Rotberg of Charlotte, N.C., has been awarded one of 12 scholarships from the Overseas Press Club (OPC) Foundation.
Rotberg is the first student from Duke to win the award, which recognizes aspiring foreign correspondents at American colleges and universities. Seven graduate students and five undergraduates make up this year’s winners.
“My ultimate goal is to be a foreign correspondent in the Middle East,” said Rotberg, a political science major who has studied Hebrew and Arabic.
The scholarship includes a $2,000 cash award and a weekend in New York. CNN anchor Anderson Cooper will deliver the keynote address at an awards dinner Feb. 17.
As it happens, Rotberg is already acquainted with Cooper -- she worked for him last summer as a CNN intern.
“The Arabic and Hebrew came in handy. I was asked to translate for [the show] Anderson Cooper 360˚,” she said.
Her first taste of foreign correspondence, however, came in London in the summer of 2005. As an intern for the Associated Press, she covered the July terrorist bombings on the city’s transit system. She also wrote an essay about the death of Fleet Street, London’s journalism district, which she submitted for the OPC prize.
“It was such an exciting summer to be in the city,” Rotberg said. “There was Live Aid, the G8 summit, Wimbledon. I loved my time in London.” She plans to relocate there after graduation.
At Duke, Rotberg has been active on the staff of the student newspaper, the Chronicle, since her freshman year, and won a Melcher Family Excellence in Journalism Award honorable mention for her three-part series on the Pillowtex textile mill closing. She currently serves as managing editor of Towerview magazine and co-president of the Nasher Museum of Art Student Advisory Board.
Rotberg said Ellen McLarney, assistant professor of the practice in the Department of Asian & African Languages & Literature, has been a mentor during her time at Duke. “She taught me Arabic 1 and 2, so I saw her at 8:30 in the morning for 5 days a week for a year,” Rotberg said. “We’ve kept in touch since then. She has been a definite role model for me.”
Political science professor David Paletz and Melissa Malouf, associate professor of the practice in English, also have been helpful and inspiring, Rotberg said. Rotberg studied American politics with Paletz and short-story writing with Malouf.
“What all these professors have in common is a commitment to getting to know their students on an individual level,” Rotberg said.
The Overseas Press Club of America is an association of international foreign correspondents based in New York. The OPC Foundation’s scholarship program was created in 1992 to recognize and support young journalists entering the field.
Anderson Interviewing the mother of the 11 month old baby that was killed in a carjack / Photo by Trebekah
I certainley hope that Anderson Cooper can find his way back to NOLA. It has been months since the show has visited. No one should kid themselves, the place is still as jacked-up as ever. It's easy to send 20,000 troops over to clean up Baghdad, but one of our own cities still lies in ruins. Eat that Mr. President.
"Walk With Us" Update before Tomorrow's March
by Kelly Leahy
The city, state and even federal governments have responded to the recent murders in their own ways. If this much lip service has been given to the threat of a march down Poydras, imagine what the national reaction will be tomorrow evening. From what I've heard, the march is going to be huge. An email from one of the organizers said that even Anderson Cooper will be coming down (America may be fatigued with us but not Mr. Cooper).
The slogan of the march is now "Silence is Violence" and there is a new URL sporting this theme. The Hot 8 Brass Brand will be leading the March from the World Trade Center at the foot of Canal Street up to City Hall. The times have remained the same, meet up at 11 AM, march at 11:30 and rally at City Hall at noon.
Marchers are encouraged to make signs representing their neighborhood or with names and pictures of victims of violent crime.
Parking is tight on a normal day in the CBD so get there early to find a spot.
The man has no end... he is disrespectful and a misogynist. A friend sent me an email with the numbers of Trump's office number ( he sent the Barb letter on an official letterhead and it is all over the internet - brilliant!), she is known for organizing Breast Feeding Sit Ins agaisnt companies or stores that don't support breast feeding. She invited me to call "The Donald" or send in a fax. If he thinks people are not tired of him, it is time for a reality check!
For all of us wondering just how long a life Cooper has at CNN it looks like we'll be watching him for another two years according to Gail Shister...
Two months after Ed Bradley's unexpected death, his 60 Minutes colleagues are finding solace in his untouched office.
"It's very comforting," says correspondent Steve Kroft. "It feels like he's still here. In some ways, it almost feels like he's off shooting a story."
Bradley, known as Butch in his old West Philadelphia neighborhood, died Nov. 9 of complications from leukemia. He was 65. A very private man, Bradley had kept his illness a secret to virtually everyone at CBS.
"It's good to walk into Ed's office and just remember him," says 60 executive producer Jeff Fager. "There is something of him still in there. It helps some people to see the office as it was."
Bradley's space was always seen as a refuge, with its muted lighting and abundant greenery. You knew he was in town when you heard his beloved jazz playing softly in the background.
With 60 real estate at a premium, the office won't stay unoccupied indefinitely, of course. Bradley won't be replaced as a correspondent, however, until next season, according to Fager.
"It's like trying to replace Lou Gehrig. It's impossible. Ed was a superstar who died too young. He left us before anybody expected it. It was a shock to the broadcast. He was a huge figure here."
Kroft, 61, in his 18th season with 60, is now dean of the correspondents' corps. That means his face replaces Bradley's as the first up in the show's introduction. ("I'm Steve Kroft.")
It's a seniority thing. Closest full-timer to Kroft is Lesley Stahl, 65, who began in 1991. Fun fact: Stahl was the last full-time correspondent to join the newsmagazine.
Being lead-off hitter "is an honor," Kroft says. "It's not something I would have wanted to happen under these circumstances, though. Nobody expected Ed to die. It was not on anybody's radar, including people who knew he was sick. We wish he were still here."
Kroft, nicknamed "Kid" when he broke into the lineup in '89, "is as good as it gets," in Fager's unbiased view. "He's one of the best reporters and best writers who ever worked in broadcast journalism. If you look at the body of his work, he doesn't do clunkers. He only does good stories."
CNN golden boy Anderson Cooper, 39, in his first season as a 60 contributor, is high on Fager's wish list as a possible Bradley replacement. (Cooper will do four to five pieces for 60 this season.)
Odds are slim. Cooper's locked in at CNN for almost two more years.
Fager labels the silver-haired Cooper "a terrific talent. I can't say now he's the guy who will get the next full-time job, but he sure could. He's got so much to offer... . I would seriously consider him."
Consider, sure. But smart money says Fager will name a person of color to succeed Bradley, the first - and only - African American correspondent in the august broadcast's 39-year history.
"We definitely have our eye out for a minority correspondent," Fager says. "It's important that our correspondents represent a cross section of America. That's important in journalism, as in all walks of life."
CNN Launches New Weekly Investigative Series Christiane Amanpour Reports on Home-Grown Muslim Extremism
Kicks Off Series on Saturday, Jan. 20
Expanding the network's commitment to investigative reporting, CNN this month launches a new long-form investigative series titled CNN: Special Investigations Unit. The new program, airing Saturdays and Sundays at 8 p.m. (ET), will feature CNN’s top correspondents delivering in-depth hours on pressing issues currently in the news. The programs’ topical subject matter will complement CNN Presents, the acclaimed documentary series that will hone its focus on longer-lead-time, multi-hour “event” programming such as last summer’s blockbuster “In the Footsteps of bin Laden.”
CNN: Special Investigations Unit taps into the network’s worldwide resources and deep bench of top-notch journalists including chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour, anchors Anderson Cooper and Soledad O’Brien, chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, correspondents John Roberts, John King, Candy Crowley, Drew Griffin and others to offer a strong new brand of enterprise investigative reports.
“Special Investigations Unit pulls together our unparalleled stable of reporters and our unmatched journalistic reach,” said Jon Klein, president of CNN/U.S. “There is no better team in television news to step up and fill the gaping void in in-depth reporting on the truly important stories of the moment.”
The first CNN: Special Investigations Unit documentary will be a one-hour examination of the troubling home-grown Muslim extremism in the
The new investigative series is produced by CNN Productions, the same unit that will continue to produce CNN Presents – the most honored documentary series in cable news. Four major CNN Presents documentaries are in the works for the coming year. Mark Nelson is the head of CNN Productions. A veteran producer, Nelson joined the unit six months ago as its vice president and senior executive producer.
CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is one of the world’s most respected and trusted sources for news and information. Its reach extends to nine cable and satellite television networks; one private place-based network; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; four Web sites, including CNN.com, the first major news and information Web site; CNN Pipeline, an on-demand broadband video service; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service; and partnerships for four television networks and one Web site.
This is poor Sam, tortured by Marie and forced to look like the Donald... if only The Donald could be compared to a dog...
The title reminds me of the CSI and Law and Order franchises, but I have to admit I really like this new project. I think the other Christiane is just terrific - my hero - and I'm glad that her "Steps " special was the highest rating CNN show in 2006. I wonder how this will interfere with Anderson's work at 60 minutes. It is obvious that Klein is watching his ROI on him.
NewsBusters
By Rich Noyes, January 4th. 2007
Someone at CNN needs to buy a dictionary, or at least visit dictionary.com once in a while. Just a couple of days ago, as MRC’s Scott Whitlock noted, 'American Morning' had a major graphic gaffe, showing a headline asking “Where’s Obama” as the anchors talked about the hunt for the most-wanted terrorist Osama bin Laden, not the Senator from Illinois.
Last night on 'Anderson Cooper 360,' as the anchor introduced a tabloid item on the ongoing spat between Donald Trump and Rosie O’Donnell, a giant graphic over Cooper’s shoulder carried the headline “SAME FUED, DIFFERENT YEAR.” If that misspelling of “FEUD” was meant as some kind of an inside joke, Cooper didn’t say a word about it. More likely than not, it was just another embarrassing example of the need for all of the 24-hour cable news networks to slow down just enough to double-check their work.
Incidentally, Cooper’s angle seemed to be that the Rosie vs. the Donald F-E-U-D was a play for ratings: “Rosie O'Donnell goes back to 'The View' on Monday. And call it cynical, but a new season of Donald Trump’s 'The Apprentice' starts this coming Sunday. Coincidence? You decide.”
Which begs the question: Why is Cooper’s '360' mimicking 'Entertainment Tonight' by following the F-E-U-D so closely? Could that also be a cynical ratings-based decision? You decide.
This is a sad story that failed to make any major news in prime time, yes Anderson, I'm talking about you. And before all the fangirls (and you know who you are) start commenting about how it's time for Anderson Cooper to get out from behind the desk, check out this sobering story from The Associated Press.
BAGHDAD, Iraq: The body of an Associated Press employee was found shot in the back of the head Friday, six days after he was last seen by his family leaving for work.
Ahmed Hadi Naji, 28, was the fourth AP staffer to die violently in the Iraq war and the second AP employee killed in less than a month. He had been a messenger and occasional cameraman for the AP for 2 1/2 years.
"All of us at AP share the pain and grief being felt by Ahmed's family and friends," said AP President and CEO Tom Curley. "The situation for our journalists in Iraq is unprecedented in AP's 161-year history of covering wars and conflicts. The courage of our Iraqi colleagues and their dedication to the story stand as an example to the world of journalism's enduring value."
Naji's death brings to 30 the number of those who have lost their lives on assignments for the AP since the news cooperative was founded in 1846.
Before Naji's killing, Reporters Without Borders had recorded at least 94 journalists killed in Iraq since the war started nearly four years ago. Forty-five media assistants also have been killed, according to the Paris-based advocacy group.
The Committee to Protect Journalists had put the figure at 92 journalists and 37 media support workers killed in Iraq.
another Anderson Cooper Sighting... with proof! He surely loves his Whole Foods Pizza...
With more health specials on CNN to come, including one with Lance Armstrong in a few weeks about what else, cancer, and a new book as well as his new CBS duties, I've already seen too much. Good thing I like him and find him informative. Maybe Sanjay is taking his cues from last year's CNN "It" boy...
Check your bookstores in April friends.
Anderson Cooper on Times Square: "So it's actually — you know, I grew up in a much different New York where Times Square was kind of dirty and seedy. And we kind of liked it that way."
Uh huh....right. Times Square used to be porn and peepshow capital of the world. Anderson, you may need time in the naughty chair my friend.
Also seen in NYC...
Perhaps I need the naughty chair as well...lol.
