This Crap We Call the News

They must be reading FreakSpeakers over at JibJab.com:

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Did you see Anderson? Me too.

AP employee found shot to death...

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.

Why Can't They Throw Bill O'Reilly in Jail?

In all seriousness, okay not so serious, jailed journalists. It happens, and quite frequently these days. Although in some of the countries Cooper visits, I think it might be better to be jailed versus kidnapped by terrorists, but either way it's no stroll on the Santa Barbara beach.

I vote to imprison Bill O'Reilly and Ann Coulter. I guess they fit the term of journalist, albeit very loosely.

Could you imagine Anderson Cooper behind bars? All those horrible prison movies come to mind...you know the kind I'm talking about. I wonder who Lifetime would cast to play the part of Cooper? And of course, you know the other question I'm dying to ask, but will refrain from asking here...my dirty little mind at work again. Ugh.

Jailed journalists worldwide hits record
By Michelle Nichols, Reuters

NEW YORK - The number of journalists jailed worldwide for their work rose for the second year with internet bloggers and online reporters now one third of those incarcerated, a US-based media watchdog said today.

A Committee to Protect Journalists census found that a record 134 journalists were in jail on Dec. 1 -- an increase of nine from the 2005 tally -- in 24 countries with China, Cuba, Eritrea and Ethiopia the top four nations to imprison media. While print reporters, editors and photographers again made up the largest number of jailed journalists -- with 67 cases -- there were 49 imprisoned internet journalists, making them the second biggest category, the New York-based committee said.

"We're at a crucial juncture in the fight for press freedom because authoritarian states have made the internet a major front in their effort to control information," Committee Executive Director Joel Simon said in a statement. "China is challenging the notion that the internet is impossible to control or censor, and if it succeeds there will be far-ranging implications, not only for the medium but for press freedom all over the world."

Among those jailed in China were Zheng Yichun, a Chinese freelance contributor to overseas online news sites who wrote a series of editorials criticizing the Communist Party. The census also found there were eight television journalists, eight radio reporters and two film/documentary makers in jail. Other countries where journalists were imprisoned were Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Iran, Maldives, Mexico, Russia, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Turkey, United States, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said 84 journalists were jailed for "anti-state" allegations like subversion and divulging state secrets, with many of those imprisoned in China, Cuba and Ethiopia. The census also showed 20 imprisoned journalists were held without any charge or trial and that Eritrea accounted for more than half those cases.

The committee said the United States imprisoned two journalists without charge or trial -- Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein, now held for eight months in Iraq, and Al Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj, jailed for five years and now held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Joshua Wolf, a freelance blogger who refused to turn over video of a 2005 protest to a US federal grand jury, was also in jail. For the eighth year in a row, China led the way in jailing journalists with a total of 31 imprisoned on Dec. 1, the census found, followed by Cuba with 24 reporters behind bars, Eritrea with 23 in jail and Ethiopia with 18 journalists jailed.

"Anderson Cooper 360" Wins Another Emmy

CBS, CNN, NBC and PBS divided up the spoils at the Emmys for business and financial reporting handed out by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Thursday.

CBS, CNN and NBC each received two awards and PBS received one. CBS recipients were 60 Minutes for "Oil Sands" and CBS News Sunday Morning for "Relics of Rock."

Anderson Cooper 360 won for "Black Market Infertility," and CNN Presents for "How to Rob a Bank."

NBC winners were Dateline's "Bitter Pills" and NBC Nightly News' "Congress's Private Air Force" and "Congress a la Carte."

PBS' Frontline won for its piece, "Can You Afford to Retire?"

Anderson Cooper Takes the Field as a 'Minutes' Man

New York Daily News
By Marisa Gutherie, Staff Writer

Anderson Cooper, the face of CNN, makes his debut on CBS' "60 Minutes" Sunday, the first of multiple reports Anderson is scheduled to do for the famed newsmagazine.

Cooper fronted stories for the now-defunct "60 Minutes II," but the original show is still viewed as the pinnacle of TV journalism and could serve as a tryout of sorts.

"He brings a lot to the table," said "60 Minutes" executive producer Jeff Fager. "We're always looking for the next full-time correspondent who will eventually join us down that road. He's going to show what he can do in the next couple of years. We'll see how it goes. I'm optimistic."

Cooper will interview Abu Ghraib whistleblower Sgt. Joe Darby, who turned over the infamous photos of U.S. soldiers abusing prisoners there. Darby and his wife have not been able to return to their home and are still in hiding.

"He doesn't want anyone to know where he lives," said Cooper. "He and his wife are still kind of looking over their shoulders. The piece is about how that decision (to turn in the pictures) has completely changed his life, and changed it in many ways for the worse."

Cooper worked on the story with associate producer Casey Morgan and longtime "60 Minutes" producer Bob Anderson, who generated the story, said Fager.

"Anderson was seriously involved in the story," he said. "It's a collaboration between the producer and correspondent. We really believe in that process. Anderson is a serious reporter who really knows how to collaborate well. It's part of why he fits in so well here."

Cooper's "60 Minutes" stories will air on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" after they appear on CBS. CNN executives granted Cooper permission to appear on "60 Minutes" only if it didn't interfere with his day job, which means Cooper works on the pieces during weekends and vacations, he said.

"I don't really take vacation anyway, so it hasn't been too bad," he said.

But he views his work at "60 Minutes" as an "incredible opportunity to learn," he said. "The bar is pretty high over at '60 Minutes.'"

I Want Media Person of the Year....

The votes are in: Stephen Colbert, the host of the eponymously-pronounced "The Colbert Report," is the 2006 I Want Media Person of the Year as voted in the media site's annual online poll.

Colbert has been a can't miss commentator since day one — literally, because it was on Day One that he introduced his guiding concept of "truthiness," now an ingrained part of the vernacular. In April he struck a giant nerve at the White House Correspondent's dinner, skewering President Bush in a bitingly spot-on set before all of D.C.' s heavy hitters, and then, tellingly, everyone else via YouTube (but also giving the CSPAN site more hits than it could remember).

Colbert is also a pioneer for his skillful use of the web via the havoc he played with Wikipedia, his takeover of a bridge in Hungary, and of course his "Stephen Colbert Greenscreen Challenge". At this point I think it's interesting — and fair — to note the symbiotic role Colbert and Jon Stewart, and Comedy Central, played in each other's exploding reach this year. YouTube extended Colbert and Stewart's audience by millions every day as new clips were religiously posted, giving millions of viewers a reason to go to YouTube that they might otherwise not have had (this is one of the reasons it was such big news that Comedy Central started pulling clips earlier this year).

Contenders this year included — in order of votes — Rachael Ray, Chad Hurley, Dean Baquet, and Arianna Huffington. Also in the running were Katie Couric, Tom Freston, Rupert Murdoch, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and NBC hitmaker and NBC 2.0 architect Jeff Zucker. I repeat, Racheal Ray came in SECOND. The comments from prominent media voters are definitely worth a read (and it's interesting to note that none of the feeatured commenters voted for Eric Schmidt). Bonnie Fuller picked Chad Hurley; Keith Kelly picked Dean Baquet — " the poster boy for all the stupid moronic things some major media companies are doing"; Tina Brown chose "queen of the blogosphere" (and ETP bosslady) Arianna Huffington; AdAge's Scott Donaton pisses off Toyota. Both Kurt Andersen and Ken Auletta mentioned Lou Dobbs as representing the trend in opinionated on-air punditry (Andersen called Dobbs and Colbert "the twin avatars of Cable News 3.0...both lacking all doubt concerning their versions of the truth...both glowing with self-regard, one a parody and one not"). Write-ins included Keith Olbermann, the higher-rated not-Courics Charlie Gibson and Brian Williams, YouTube star Judson Laipply (per Bob Garfield: "He's a motivational speaker from Ohio, and you have seen him dance"), and Page Six's Richard Johnson, modestly nominated by Page Six's Richard Johnson.

Last year's winner was CNN's Anderson Cooper and prior to that Jon Stewart was the winner in 2004. — Rachel Sklar

Arabic News Empire Broadcasts in English

Voice of Arab world goes global

Al Jazeera network launches English offshoot, British veteran David Frost to host the flagship talk show

Nov. 14, 2006
MITCH POTTER, MIDDLE EAST BUREAU

AMMAN - After months of false starts, fine-tuning and a protracted in-house battle for the very soul of the channel, Al Jazeera unveils itself in English for all the world to see.

All the world, that is, except North America, where only those with high-speed Internet access can log on to a live video stream of what the often controversial Arabic news empire has put together in its quest to take a global run at the likes of CNN, Fox and the BBC.

With no major carrier yet in the United States and having not even knocked on the door for broadcast approval in Canada, the world's richest English-speaking market would seem a steep uphill battle for Al Jazeera International. At least one group, the conservative watchdog Accuracy in Media, has launched a campaign to ensure it never makes it to air.

But AJI has the patience to match its pocketbook, and the pockets of this iconic television brand are nothing if not deep — as deep as the natural gas reserves of Qatar, whose royal family has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Al Jazeera since its launch 10 years ago.

Though the burgeoning Al Jazeera empire has yet to turn a profit, money seems inconsequential to its royal backers, who have elevated the clout of their tiny emirate on the back of what is now without question the pre-eminent news voice of the Arab world.

Now that money is spilling over to the English side, which launches its operation in high-definition television, replete with a staff of more than 500, including journalists from more than 30 countries feeding to four state-of-the-art broadcast hubs in London; Washington; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and its headquarters in Doha, Qatar.

British broadcaster Sir David Frost is among the marquee talent enlisted for a flagship talk show. Others in the stable include former ABC Nightline journalist Dave Marash and ex-CNN International anchor Riz Khan. Canadians in the mix include former Global anchor Kimberly Halkett, ex-CBC sportscaster Brendan Connor and veteran ABC News correspondent Richard Gizbert.

But Al Jazeera's ambitions to expand globally in English come with in-house growing pains that appear far from resolved. As the new hires rolled in, many of them refugees from U.S. and British networks, the veterans of Al Jazeera's Arabic flagship began to cry foul, fearing the sister station would become nothing more than a CNN retread at the expense of the staunchly Arab perspective on the world.

"It is silly to pretend there were never any disagreements or controversy. It has taken a year of discussions and soul-searching with the staff of the existing Arabic news channel and the new employees to figure out what we want to be," said Lindsey Oliver, the broadcaster's commercial director."What we came to is (a) global channel that will take the spirit of Al Jazeera to the entire world, with the main mission to be the voice of the unheard. That means a focus on reporting not just Middle East issues, but Africa, South America and many parts of Asia."

"The editorial values will be to look under stones for the stories not told, the people not heard, particularly in areas not covered by Western news media in sufficient detail." Oliver pointed to the establishment of 12 news bureaus in Africa alone as proof of AJI's editorial commitment.

India, Pakistan and parts of Europe are expected to be AJI's points of deepest penetration at the outset, although Oliver was reluctant to give details on specific arrangements with broadcast carriers. The biggest challenge will be the United States, where Al Jazeera is battling its most negative stereotypes.

"Some Americans have an almost demonic image of Al Jazeera in their heads, complete with misconceptions and myths that are absolutely not true. The Arabic channel has been accused of showing beheadings, for example, although it never has and it never would," she said. "All we are asking for is to be given a fair hearing. Give us a chance and you will be surprised."

Lawrence Pintak, a former CBS News Middle East correspondent and now director of the Adham Center for Electronic Journalism at the American University in Cairo, has watched Al Jazeera far closer than most. He too thinks the new English channel deserves a chance."Al Jazeera journalists do not wake up every morning and ask themselves, `How can we screw the North Americans today.'

They report from an emphatically Arabic perspective, they are sensational, they use loaded language at times and they do show the kind of graphic images you don't see on North American TV," Pintak told the Star."The analogy is to Fox (News) , in that they present as clear and overt an Arabic perspective as Fox is American."But it should also be noted that they have reduced the sensationalism and rhetoric in recent years. Al Jazeera today has a much greater awareness of the need to do things in a more responsible and balanced way."

Pintak points to coverage of last summer's Israeli-Hezbollah conflict, during which Al Jazeera dropped the word "martyr" in describing civilians killed in the fighting. The decision triggered a backlash from many viewers. Pintak said Al Jazeera's shift toward more responsible journalism was all the more striking given what he called the "bizarre, frustrating and over-hyped" efforts of U.S. cable news outlets to cover the same conflict.

He singled out high-wattage celebrity correspondents Anderson Cooper and John Roberts as emblematic of a fly-in press corps staring across the border into Lebanon, woefully ill-equipped to convey a sense of the nuance on the other side."Lost in the fog of hype and self-aggrandizement on the cable segments was much of the subtle complexity of the conflict," said Pintak. "Instead, it was too often reduced to the black-hat, white-hat characterization that has guided U.S. policy toward the region."Whether AJI will attain better journalistic altitude, Pintak said, remains to be seen."They have a lot of relatively senior Western journalists and I suppose the real test will come when the shit hits the fan. When they step on somebody's toes in a big way, we can watch how they react and that will give us a sense of their perspective on things."

Whether Canadians will eventually be able to tune in remains to be seen as well. AJI's Oliver said the new channel's strategy is to wait until after tomorrow's launch to present an application to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. But Al Jazeera headquarters is mindful of the controversial CRTC 2004 ruling that has effectively kept the Arabic flagship off Canadian airwaves.

Though technically the licence was approved, the permission came with a caveat that required carriers to monitor Al Jazeera on a time delay to prevent the dissemination of "abusive" rhetoric.The ruling balanced off objections from the Canadian Jewish Congress. "As a Canadian I am embarrassed by this ruling," said Gizbert, the London-based former ABC News correspondent who will host Listening Post, an independently produced media show. "Basically they gave Al Jazeera the Don Cherry treatment, but they did so knowing full well that no cable carrier in the country would take on a channel knowing it would have to staff there 24 hours a day monitoring in Arabic."