If we were giving out awards for the dumbest friggin’ question of 2010, CNN’s Alina Cho would have earned her nomination in the last week of the year.
If we were giving out awards for the dumbest friggin’ question of 2010, CNN’s Alina Cho would have earned her nomination in the last week of the year.
She interviewed Lorena Bobbitt, who wisely decided that the only way she’d ever get another date was to change her name to Lorena Gallo, in a Where Are They Now segment.
In the middle of the interview, Cho asked what may be the dumbest question ever:
“After all these years, are you finally able to laugh about it?”
Remarkably, the former Mrs Bobbitt says she is able to laugh about cutting off her husband’s penis. No word on whether John Wayne Bobbit is laughing yet.
Today’s headlines on CNN: Bombs found in house … students protest tuition hikes … Jeff Daniels has diarrhea … and CNN wonders why its ratings are in the dumper.
Today’s headlines on CNN: Bombs found in house … students protest tuition hikes … Jeff Daniels has diarrhea … and CNN wonders why its ratings are in the dumper.
Somebody screwed up at CNN. We assume some video editor was watching Dumb & Dumber instead of paying attention to what he was supposed to be doing. The result? A disgusting scene from the raunchy comedy showed up in the middle of a CNN story about, well, we’re not really sure what it was about because, after all, it was CNN and we weren’t paying attention, either.
It can happen. We have a friend who had a brief brush with notoriety back in the late 60s when he was a videotape editor at a TV station in Southern California. Late one night he made the mistake of hitting the wrong button while watching porn at work, sending a graphic scene out over the air.
The bad news? He got fired. The good news? He became famous when Johnny Carson mentioned it in his opening monologue a few nights later.
They call themselves The Most Trusted Name in News, but they may have to change that to The Most Lust-filled Name In News. It’s not a newscast, it’s a soap opera.
They call themselves The Most Trusted Name in News, but they may have to change that to The Most Lust-filled Name In News. It’s not a newscast, it’s a soap opera.
John Roberts and Kyra Phillips give the phrase "Action News" a whole new meaning
The New York Post has the lurid details:
CNN anchor Kyra Phillips’ pregnancy with John Roberts could bring big changes at “American Morning,” insiders say. Roberts, who broadcasts from New York, is likely to move to Atlanta to be with his fiancée, who’s expecting twins. Since CNN ex-president Jon Klein recently rebuilt the prime-time lineup, insiders say his replacement, Ken Jautz, will focus on daytime, and his first step will be to dismantle “American Morning,” the lowest-rated cable morning show. We hear the staff is frustrated with co-anchors Roberts and Kiran Chetry.
“John is a tyrant, freaking out over stories and guests, and Kiran is dumb as a rock,” a staffer said. “He has a chip on his shoulder because he was considered the heir apparent to Dan Rather at CBS.” During an interview with David Axelrod last month, Roberts snapped at Chetry on-air for typing too loud. Chetry could be the first go.
The only thing that could make this story better would be a DNA test proving that Larry King is real father of Kyra Phillips’ twins.
Adios, amigo. You were usually good for at least one “stupid anchorman” story each week. So let’s bid Rick a fond farewell by taking a look back at three of Rick’s most embarrassing comments.
If you hear of any television stations or cable news networks that are looking for an ignoramus anchor, please let Rick Sanchez know.
CNN just released this statement:
“Rick Sanchez is no longer with the company. We thank Rick for his years of service and we wish him well.“
This, of course, comes just hours after the public became aware of Sanchez’ satellite radio interview with CNN contributor Pete Dominick in which the now-former anchor said:
“I’m telling you that everybody who runs CNN is a lot like (Jon) Stewart, and a lot of people who run all the other networks are a lot like Stewart, and to imply that somehow they, the people in this country who are Jewish, are an oppressed minority? Yeah.”
We ended our previous Rick Sanchez story by asking the question, “How long until Sanchez is fired?” The answer, it turns out, was about four hours.
Adios, amigo. You were usually good for at least one “stupid anchorman” story each week. So let’s bid Rick a fond farewell by taking a look back at three of Rick’s most embarrassing comments.
The CNN moron went off on Jon Stewart and his Jewish bosses on Pete Dominick’s satellite radio show yesterday. He got things rolling by calling Stewart “a bigot” and it went downhill from there.
The stupidest man in news has gone beyond mere stupidity to career suicide. He’s now become the Mel Gibson of cable news.
The CNN moron went off on Jon Stewart and his Jewish bosses on Pete Dominick’s satellite radio show yesterday. He got things rolling by calling Stewart “a bigot” and it went downhill from there.
Dominick: How is he a bigot? Sanchez: I think he looks at the world through, his mom, who was a school teacher, and his dad, who was a physicist or something like that. Great, I’m so happy that he grew up in a suburban middle class New Jersey home with everything you could ever imagine. Dominick: What group is he bigoted towards? Sanchez: Everybody else who’s not like him. Look at his show, I mean, what does he surround himself with? … I’m telling you that everybody who runs CNN is a lot like Stewart, and a lot of people who run all the other networks are a lot like Stewart, and to imply that somehow they, the people in this country who are Jewish, are an oppressed minority? Yeah.
Two questions:
How long until Sanchez is fired?
How long until some liberal media maven calls Sanchez a “conservative bigot?”
Small town radio stations, too poor to field their own reporters and writers, are famous for reading the news straight off the pages of their local newspaper. Now the Associated Press is accusing CNN of doing the same sort of thing on a much larger scale.
Small town radio stations, too poor to field their own reporters and writers, are famous for reading the news straight off the pages of their local newspaper.
Now the Associated Press is accusing CNN of doing the same sort of thing on a much larger scale.
Breaking news has been replaced by stolen news at CNN
AP has the devious details:
CNN Worldwide President Jim Walton told staff in June that the network was dropping its contract with the Associated Press and would provide its audience with content that is “distinctive, compelling and, I am proud to say, our own.”
But the AP has been closely monitoring CNN’s coverage and claims that the network routinely uses the wire service’s reporting, according to internal memos obtained by The Upshot. CNN, the memo states, “continues to rely heavily, and apparently systematically, on AP breaking news, exclusive enterprise and in-depth reporting.”
… AP spokesman Paul Colford, while not commenting on the memos, summed up the news organization’s problem with the network’s coverage. “CNN continues to make extensive use of AP’s original reporting, even though they no longer pay us for it,” Colford said. “We are monitoring it very closely, and are considering our options.”
CNN. The most trusted name in news. Even if it’s someone else’s news.
If CNN management wants to know why its audience is diminishing so rapidly, they need look no further than the fact that the last guy to wear an ascot on TV was Thurston B. Howell III.
There may have been a more embarrassing photo of a TV personality at some point in history, but we doubt it.
If CNN management wants to know why its audience is diminishing so rapidly, they need look no further than the fact that the last guy to wear an ascot on TV was Thurston B. Howell III.
Well, the last guy until effete CNN contributor Roland Martin, that is.
MediaBistro has the details:
CNN contributor Roland Martin is renowned for his sense of style. Specifically, his mastery of the ascot, the tie-alternative that has seemingly been lost to time.
Fear no more, ascot fans. Martin is now selling his own line of ascots … and he is selling them with swagger.
Let’s let Verse 9, which designed the line, explain:
Whether telling it like it is on CNN, hosting “Washington Watch” on TV One, speaking in front of thousands at a conference or taking part in the nightlife of a mega metropolis near you, Roland S. Martin exemplifies the definition of swagger.
Oooh, that was unfortunate. But in CNN’s defense, perhaps they were referring to the shit storm that’s erupted over President Obama’s contradictory comments about the mosque.
Oooh, that was unfortunate. But in CNN’s defense, perhaps they were referring to the shit storm that’s erupted over President Obama’s contradictory comments about the mosque. Or perhaps they’re referring to the shits who want to build the mosque. Or maybe the people at CNN are just a bunch of dumb shits.
Of course, everyone knows that the Obama administration doesn’t want to raise taxes. It’s just so alien (see the Battlestar Galactica connection?) to everything they believe in.
Kara Thrace (callsign "Starbuck"), our favorite economist
The what? The who? We thought the Elders of the Economy were a group of aliens from the original Battlestar Galatica, but no.
Turns out that this newly-revered group includes “Alan Greenspan, David Stockman, former budget director in the Reagan White House, and former Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin and Paul O’Neil” and any other economist or banker who’s ever come out in favor of higher taxes.
According to CNN Money, “Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan was first and has taken the most extreme position, arguing that all of the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 should be allowed to expire.”
Of course, everyone knows that the Obama administration doesn’t want to raise taxes. It’s just so alien (see the Battlestar Galactica connection?) to everything they believe in. “The White House and most Democrats have argued for keeping the taxes cuts in place for most households, but letting them expire for those earnings more than $250,000, about 2% of the country.”
Yes, the Democrats HATE to raise taxes, but if Alan Greenspan says they must, well, then they simply must. Because everyone knows that they worship the former head of the Fed and are obligated to obey his every pronouncement.
Of course, the guys that Democrats now call “Elders of the Economy” are the same guys they were calling “sons of bitches” not too long ago. But all they had to do was mention raising taxes and they were instantaneously transformed into heroes of the Democratic party.
As Starbuck might say, “It sure seems like the Obama administration is all fraked up”
Rick Sanchez, the poster boy for CNN’s ratings problems, once said Iceland was too cold for volcanoes. He once read the words “ad lib a tease” straight off the teleprompter. And he once asked a guest how long nine meters is in English. But he may have topped himself last week.
Rick Sanchez, the poster boy for CNN’s ratings problems, once said Iceland was too cold for volcanoes. He once read the words “ad lib a tease” straight off the teleprompter. And he once asked a guest how long nine meters is in English. But he may have topped himself last week.
That’s when he looked an Arizona state representative Rick Murphy in the eye and said, “What is your beef with illegal immigration?”
Feel free to watch the clip several times to savor the stupendous Sanchez stupidity.
We honestly do not understand the love affair between CNN and unfunny comedian Kathy Griffin. Here she gives CNN’s Dana Bash a good laugh by calling Scott Brown’s daughters prostitutes.
We honestly do not understand the love affair between CNN and unfunny comedian Kathy Griffin.
Any other so-called news network would have severed all ties to Griffin after her embarrassing New Year’s Eve outburst with Anderson Cooper.
But not America’s Most Trusted News Network. CNN continues to air the woman’s desperately unfunny comments.
Turns out you can’t tweet about your respect for a Hezbollah honocho even at left wing cable networks. Well, not at CNN at least. The same tweet would probably get you a promotion at MSNBC.
Very sad news from CNN. Octavia Nasr, the network’s Senior Editor for Middle East Affairs, is now the network’s former Senior Editor for Middle East Affairs.
Turns out you can’t tweet about your respect for a Hezbollah honocho even at left wing cable networks. Well, not at CNN at least. The same tweet would probably get you a promotion at MSNBC.
CNN President Jon Klein just hired disgraced former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer to do a prime-time show and now has to go out and publicly defend that boneheaded decision.
Be grateful that you’re not CNN President Jon Klein. His network has horrible ratings, his biggest star is a thousand years old, and his product is boooooring.
On top of that, he just hired disgraced former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer to do a prime-time show and now has to go out and publicly defend that boneheaded decision.
According to Klein, Spitzer has reformed himself. But as Howard Kurtz points out, CNN, which prides itself on its journalistic integrity…
(We’ll pause now while you chortle)
…has once again hired a host with zip, zero, nada journalistic experience.
Klein once disparaged bloggers as people who do their work in their pajamas in their living rooms, but seems to forget that Spitzer did his most notable work in the bedroom in his socks.
In another sign of the impending apocalypse, hooker-hiring former New York Governor Eliot “John” Spitzer is rumored to be this close to landing a regular gig on CNN.
Eliot Spitzer is about to go from sleazy news maker to sleazy news reporter
In another sign of the impending apocalypse, hooker-hiring former New York Governor Eliot “John” Spitzer is rumored to be this close to landing a regular gig on CNN.
The New York Post reports the tawdry details:
Hooker-loving Spitzer is this close to a deal to co-host an 8 p.m. talk show, sources said.
….A source said, “CNN is so desperate, they’re totally abandoning Turner’s original vision of impartial reporting. With talent like Spitzer on board, the people hosting the news will be more controversial than any guests they could book.”
The Post’s Michael Shain reports Spitzer has “all but a done deal” to get a co-host spot at 8 p.m., previously occupied by Campbell Brown, whose ratings had plunged. Spitzer will become half of a talking-head duo on a show fashioned after “Crossfire,” which CNN canceled in 2005. CNN is searching for a conservative partner for Spitzer, who’ll go head-to-head with Fox’s Bill O’Reilly in the time slot, before announcing the new show.
Going head to head with O’Reilly? In that case, we expect Ashley Alexandra Dupre to be brought in as a special consultant in charge of head.
Just when we thought all of the Obama apologists had gone the way of the pet rock, here comes CNN.com and Gloria Berger telling us “We got the president we elected.”
We got what we voted for when we elected a man with no leadership experience.
Just when we thought all of the Obama apologists had gone the way of the pet rock, here comes CNN.com and Gloria Berger telling us “We got the president we elected.”
In her undying support of The Most Misunderstood President In History, she tells us “He was elected because he is cool, calm and analytical. That’s what we wanted to see after George W. Bush, so we made him president. But now the disaster in the Gulf has made many of us want to see someone else — with plenty of anger, emotion and bravado. We want him to yell at BP. We want him to loudly tell us he’s whipping the cleanup effort into shape.”
Here we were thinking that Obama got elected because of all the phony promises he made and lies he told – transparency, no lobbyists in his administration, fiscal responsibility and a pony for everyone.
Then Borger writes what is possibly the biggest understatement in the history of journalism: “Maybe we want him to be George Bush with the bullhorn after 9/11. Only he isn’t.”
One can only imagine that the first version of Borger’s story said something like “Maybe we want someone who acts like he has a pair. Only he doesn’t.”
In a parting shot at us fickle voters, the article concludes, “True to form, we want it all. We want a leader who can feel our pain while rising above it. We say we don’t trust government, but we look to it for answers and cleanups. And we elected Barack Obama. Now we want to change him.”
We think Borger has misread the electorate. We don’t want to change President Obama, but we do want to change presidents.
Larry King’s ratings are falling even faster than his pants would without those suspenders. Sad to say, but the gravel-voiced old duffer scored his lowest monthly viewer numbers in twenty years in May.
Is Larry King's head growing or is his body shrinking along wiih his ratings?
Larry King’s ratings are falling even faster than his pants would without those suspenders. Sad to say, but the gravel-voiced old duffer scored his lowest monthly viewer numbers in twenty years in May.
The New York Times reports the details of the descent:
According to Nielsen data, the struggling CNN talk show had an average of 653,000 viewers each night in May, its lowest average since the data started being electronically stored in the early 1990s.
He had been averaging about 700,000 viewers each night this year, down markedly from last year.
Last week The New York Times detailed the low ratings of “Larry King Live,” a symbol of CNN’s struggle to compete in a partisan cable news environment.
CNN had no comment about Mr. King’s low ratings mark. In a news release it emphasized the eroding ratings of its higher-rated competitors, noting that both the reigning champ, the Fox News Channel, and the No. 2 cable news channel in prime time, MSNBC, had lost audience share compared with the same month in 2009. But CNN’s numbers have dropped more dramatically.
CNN also emphasized that its sister network, HLN, continued to post ratings gains. Mr. King’s competitor on HLN, Joy Behar, is beating him in the ratings with more regularity than ever.
One suggestion for the New York Times: Never again use the words “Larry King” and “regularity” in the same sentence.
Oh, my. Just try to imagine the frenetic liberal wailing and gnashing of teeth if Fox News had made a mistake like this.
Oh, my. Just try to imagine the frenetic liberal wailing and gnashing of teeth if Fox News had made a mistake like this.
TalkingPointsMemo.com provides the details:
CNN, during a segment this morning about a 103-year-old African-American woman, mistakenly aired a portion of a song that includes the word “nigga.” Realizing the mistake, the anchor apologized soon after.
The segment was about Gladys Flamer, a woman from Pennsylvania who is still driving at 103 years of age. After telling the story, anchor Kyra Phillips said, “Miss Flamer, this shoutout’s for you.”
The audio cut to “Fantastic Voyage” by Coolio — specifically, a part of the song with the words “punk ass nigga” — over footage of the woman climbing into her car.
The chorus of that song begins, “Come along and ride on a fantastic voyage”
About 25 minutes later, Phillips acknowledged the mistake and apologized.
“We aired some music just a few minutes ago and, obviously for those of you who heard it, it was the wrong music that aired. It was a terrible mistake and we’re working very hard to make up for it,” she said.
Obviously, CNN was correct in apologizing for putting this on the air. But what the hell, Larry King’s been on the network for years and they’ve never apologized for him.
It’s no secret that CNN is rapidly losing viewers. They often finish in fourth and even fifth place in the cable news ratings and, appropriately enough, rank right down there with the Cartoon Network. But now…
It’s no secret that CNN is rapidly losing viewers. They often finish in fourth and even fifth place in the cable news ratings and, appropriately enough, rank right down there with the Cartoon Network.
But now Compete.com and CNN Political Bias report that CNN’s loss of viewers is minimal compared to the loss of visitors to CNN.com. The website has shed more than 7,000,000 unique visitors in just the last eight months.
Fewer eyeballs on the television. Fewer eyeballs on the website.
During a discussion of Arizona’s controversial new law, a screen crawl on CNN actually said, “Arizona law makes it illegal to be an illegal alien.” Duh.
The image above is completely unretouched and completely unbelievable.
During a discussion of Arizona’s controversial new law, a screen crawl on CNN actually said, “Arizona law makes it illegal to be an illegal alien.”
These are the recent nights on which CNN has finished 4th or worse in the cable news ratings. According to TVbyTheNumbers.com, the latest Nielsen TV Ratings are worse than ever for CNN.
The answer can be found at the bottom of the list.
These are the recent nights on which CNN has finished 4th or worse in the cable news ratings. According to TVbyTheNumbers.com, the latest Nielsen TV Ratings are worse than ever for CNN.
Flying the American flag upside down is a distress signal. Does the same thing work for logos?
CNN has finished 4th or worse during 50 nights in weekday primetime among cable news networks in the advertiser target adults 25-54 demo. That’s 61% of the weekday nights so far (the ratings “year” began 12/28/09). On nine of the weekday nights, CNN finished fifth (behind Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC and Headline News).
Nielsen doesn’t like us posting long lists with their ratings, but I don’t see how they can quarrel with a long list of dates. These are the dates on which CNN has finished fourth or fifth in the weekday primetime A25-54 demo.
Damn list is almost as long as the list of Larry King’s wives.
We got a little weak in the knees when we heard CNN’s Jack Cafferty not only supports the Arizona SB1070 illegal alien law, but condemns the federal government for not enforcing current immigration laws.
We got a little weak in the knees when we heard CNN’s Jack Cafferty not only supports the Arizona SB1070 illegal alien law, but condemns the federal government for not enforcing current immigration laws.
Cafferty: So Arizona passes a tough law against illegal immigration and suddenly they’ve got Washington’s attention. One poll finds 70 percent of Arizona voters support this new law, so hey, maybe we better do something, too. And like the lemmings they are when they smell a chance to score some political points, and some of them need a lot of help with the midterms coming up, there is now talk of rushing immigration reform through Congress. President Obama called the Arizona law misguided. What’s misguided, Mr. President, is the federal government’s ongoing refusal to enforce the laws that are already on the books. Read the Arizona law. Parts of it are word-for-word the same as the federal statutes which continue to be all but ignored. Now we’re hear all sorts of blathering from our Washington gerbils about the need for a new federal law. There’ll be news conferences and interviews and committee hearings and draft legislation and polling, all the usual carnival acts that accompany any hot button Washington issue. Instead of simply closing the borders and enforcing the existing law so they could turn their attention to something like the national debt and the fact that the country is bankrupt, instead we’re going to get this freak show. Washington’s position on illegal immigration is patently dishonest from the top down. No enforcement, no border security. Just pandering to the Hispanic voters and the corporations that hire the illegals. And then, when one of our states that’s being ravaged by the presence of 460,000 illegal aliens inside its borders does something about it, the President says that’s misguided. What a shame. Here’s the question: Will the federal government ever enforce our immigration laws?
Thanks, Jack. That pretty much wraps it up in a neat little package with a pretty little bow on top.
How bad are things at CNN when they turn to MSNBC’s David Shuster for ratings salvation? The New York Times Media Decoder blog has the details of Shuster’s disturbing disloyalty.
CNN wants to recreate the ratings magic that got David Shuster demoted at MSNBC
How bad are things at CNN when they turn to MSNBC’s David Shuster for ratings salvation?
The New York Times Media Decoder blog has the details of Shuster’s disturbing disloyalty:
David Shuster, an anchor on MSNBC, recently participated in a test of a new show. But not for his own network.
MSNBC executives were highly displeased when they learned about his test for the competing news channel CNN through a New York Observer article Friday morning, and they are now contemplating their response.
“If true, this is unacceptable and David will be punished appropriately,” an MSNBC spokesman, Jeremy Gaines, said Friday afternoon.
Reached for comment, Mr. Shuster referred the call to his agent and said he could not confirm or deny the Observer report.
The Observer said CNN’s “in-house team shot a pilot for a news show featuring David Shuster of MSNBC and Michel Martin of NPR as co-anchors.”
Mr. Shuster is under contract to MSNBC, raising questions about the appropriateness of the CNN pilot. Two people with knowledge of Mr. Shuster’s contract said it is set to expire at the end of this year. They requested anonymity because Mr. Shuster and MSNBC would not comment on the contract’s length.
Now we’re no David Shuster fans, but we actually think CNN could do a lot worse that hiring the bellicose Shuster. In fact, MSNBC is already doing a lot worse.
Rick Sanchez had the day off and T.J. Holmes was filling in for him when correspondent Jeanne Meserve did a live report. Problem is, Meserve couldn’t tell the difference between Holmes and Don Lemon, CNN’s other black anchor.
Just imagine if this had happened on Fox News. The libs would once again be howling the word “raaaaaaaacist.”
Rick Sanchez had the day off and T.J. Holmes was filling in for him when correspondent Jeanne Meserve did a live report. Problem is, Meserve couldn’t tell the difference between Holmes and Don Lemon, CNN’s other black anchor.
Holmes attempted to laugh about it after the incident by saying, “Yes, I’m T.J. It’s alright. She knows who I am. It’s okay.”
It’s an easy mistake to make. Kind of like we watch CNN and sometimes think we’re watching MSNBC. You know how it is when they all look alike.
CNN’s idea of balance? In a discussion on Afghanistan, one guest says everything that’s gone wrong in Afghanistan is Bush’s fault, but the opposing guest insists that Obama be given credit for everything that’s gone right in Afghanistan.
CNN’s idea of balance? In a discussion on Afghanistan, one guest says everything that’s gone wrong in Afghanistan is Bush’s fault, but the opposing guest insists that Obama be given credit for everything that’s gone right in Afghanistan.
And that, my friends, is what passes as a balanced discussion on CNN.
