Tag: CNN

Maybe I Should Have Stayed In Bed?

When station managers are forced to make cuts, hefty anchor salaries are a tempting target.

I came back to work today. Maybe I should have stayed in bed?

Yesterday, Miles O’Brien (a nice guy I know… but barely) was let go at CNN after nearly 20 years. Today NBC-Universal announced 500 layoffs–about 3% of the company. A note from a union rep says Boston TV stations are offering contract renewals with 20-25% salary cuts!

The union that represents our photographers and technicians began contract negotiations today and has already called an emergency meeting for tonight. That can’t be good news. Anything’s possible when your company’s stock, once in the twenties, closed today at $1.31.

All this comes on top of Brian Stelter’s sobering story in Sunday’s Times.

“Across the country, longtime local TV anchors are a dying breed. Facing an economic slump and a severe advertising downturn, many stations have cut costs drastically in the last year, and veteran anchors, with their expensive contracts, seem to be shouldering a disproportionate share of the cutbacks. When station managers are forced to make cuts, hefty anchor salaries are a tempting target.”

We’re not alone. Our lead story today was layoffs at AT&T. Pratt & Whitney laid off a slew of employees earlier this week.

Certainly the financial meltdown our country… no… the world is suffering is a major cause. But TV in particular and all media in general are being killed by the Internet! Though few Internet media endeavors are making money they are still undercutting old media.

Craigslist and Yelp are a print publisher’s worst nightmare. Journal-Register, which publishes the New Haven Register and a few other Connecticut dailies saw its stock close at 3/5&#162. I could buy the entire company with what’s in my 401-K if I were also willing to also take on about $650 million in debt.

Hundreds–maybe thousands of jobs in old media will be lost to companies that employ handfuls.

Any time you watch YouTube or get the forecast somewhere online you’re not watching TV. I get it. It’s tough not to be a Luddite under these circumstances. As the Times article says,

“On the Web, users can assemble their own newscast from an around-the-clock buffet of options, making anchors seem somewhat superfluous, especially to younger viewers.”

Like I said–maybe I should have stayed in bed.

You Get What You Pay For–News Version

Helluva scoop if it were only true.

The big buzz in media (all media, not just TV) is user created content. It’s free–what’s not to like?

From CNN’s iReport–“Steve Jobs was rushed to the ER just a few hours ago after suffering a major heart attack. I have an insider who tells me that paramedics were called after Steve claimed to be suffering from severe chest pains and shortness of breath. My source has opted to remain anonymous, but he is quite reliable.”

Helluva scoop if it were only true. I’ll let a professional writer pick it up. This is from the Washington Post.

A false Internet report that Apple’s Steve Jobs had suffered a heart attack briefly slammed his company’s stock and raised fresh questions about the delicate relationship between traditional and new media.

The posting on iReport.com — a citizen journalist site owned by Time Warner’s CNN — is the most recent incident in which a faulty online report created brief, but wrenching, confusion among investors.

Apple quickly denied the report about its chief executive, but not before its stock dropped more than 2 percent, hitting a 17-month low of $94.65. It later recovered, climbing as much as 4 percent, before closing at $97.07, down 3 percent for the day.

CNN has tried to distance itself from the iReport site and its ‘reporters’. That’s going to be tough. It’s CNN’s cred that keeps the site active. In the last month CNN used nearly 1,300 iReport submissions which encourages even more participation.

Having journalism performed by actual journalists doesn’t guarantee accuracy, but it seems to be a step in the right direction when you supervise the reporter and he/she is answerable. Citizen journalists are not. Actually, that’s not totally true as the Steve Jobs heart attack citizen journalist might be answerable to the SEC.

Last September I wrote about my upset with Fox News ‘assigning’ a story to viewers. I didn’t say it was FNC but why hide it.

[T]oday I also watched an instance of what I don’t want to see with cellphone video. I’m not going to say which cable network it was, because I can’t find anything about it on their website, and it just might be ‘freelancing’ by a producer or anchor.

The anchor showed a still from an air show, mentioned where one was taking place today, and asked for viewer video. Uh… isn’t that why they have reporters and camera crews?

I understand getting video of spot news, unanticipated events, from viewers. This is totally different. This is an assignment. I’m not even sure a business can legally ask people to work for free, can they?

Regardless, it bothers me.

It still bothers me.

Gustav And The New Orleans Quandary

The damage in New Orleans was hurricane related, but it wasn’t the damage you expect in a hurricane. On the Mississippi coast structures were blown apart. In New Orleans most buildings were intact until they were flooded.

As I type this, Gustav is somewhere near the Cayman Islands, picking up strength and heading toward the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf is warm. Gustav will strengthen some more.

For the past few days the official Hurricane Center Track has pushed Gustav toward the Louisiana coast sometime late Monday/early Tuesday. The latest center of the track would bring landfall west of the Mississippi over a swampy, sparsely populated area near Vermillion Bay. That would put New Orleans on the stronger side of the storm, but possibly far enough away to escape the worst. Katrina struck on the opposite side of New Orleans–actually on the Mississippi coast. For Katrina, New Orleans was on the weak side!

Monday’s a long way off. The track will certainly shift somewhat by then.

There is a misconception most people have about Katrina. I’m writing tonight to put that part of the Katrina saga in perspective. The damage in New Orleans was hurricane related, but it wasn’t the damage you expect in a hurricane. On the Mississippi coast structures were blown apart. In New Orleans most buildings were intact until they were flooded.

I’m not saying there wasn’t damage before the water–there most certainly was. But New Orleans wasn’t flattened by a hurricane. It didn’t receive strong and sustained hurricane force winds. It was not the ‘worst case scenario’ storm New Orleans had feared.

I wrote this as Katrina began to pull away Monday evening.

Katrina Comes Ashore 08/29/05 9:21 PM

New Orleans wasn’t totally laid to waste. There has been plenty of damage, and once we get out of the ‘fog of war’ we’ll find plenty more. The coasts of Alabama and Mississippi really took the brunt of Hurricane Katrina. That was more than expected.

After the fact, I still agree with the decision to empty out New Orleans. Yes, some people will crawl out of the woodwork to say they rode it out and it wasn’t that bad. That’s not the point.

At this point the New Orleans hurricane damage from Katrina wasn’t that bad. The damage we all saw didn’t start until later Monday night long after the storm was over. It was as if the Katrina unfolded in slow motion.

Bad News For New Orleans, Out of Left Field 08/30/05 3:02 AM

Rick Sanchez was on the air, speaking by phone with someone from Tulane Hospital in New Orleans. The hospital’s spokesperson was talking about water – rising water.

The hospital had seen no real flooding while Hurricane Katrina passed by, but tonight, water had begun rushing in and it was rising at an alarming rate.

I could hear the fear in her voice as she described the water level rising an inch every five minutes. That’s a foot an hour. Already there was six feet of water outside the hospital. Soon, water would reach the level of their emergency generators on the second floor.

Sanchez was taken aback. I’m not sure he originally understood what she was saying. It was so unexpected – so out of context.

She said a levee keeping Lake Ponchartrain out of New Orleans had been breached. The cut in the levee was two blocks long and water was rushing in unimpeded. Even if there were pumps working, and she wasn’t sure there were, they wouldn’t be able to keep up with this deluge.

On CNN, Rick Sanchez kept asking questions, but it was obvious this woman wanted to get off the phone. Speaking to him wasn’t going to help her.

I heard terror in her voice.

The hospital had to get its patients out. Its patients were by and large critical. The only way to move them would be by helicopter and FEMA would be needed for that.

The other all news stations are in their usual reruns. I have no way of knowing if this is true. If it is, this is New Orleans’ worst fears are realized. Lake Ponchartrain could inundate the city.

Here’s my point. If Gustav gets strong (likely) and hits just west of New Orleans (possible) there will be a different type of damage in the Crescent City. New Orleans could just get blown over. Nothing FEMA or the Corps of Engineers has done would prevent this kind of destruction.

I’m not sure which scenario is worse–what happened in ’05 or what’s possible in a few days. They are not, unfortunately, mutually exclusive scenarios.

What Is Journalism?

It’s probably a good time to delve into this because there are two interesting journalism stories.

Who is a journalist? What is journalism? It’s probably a good time to delve into this because there are two interesting journalism stories unfolding today.

Who broke the John Edwards affair? The National Enquirer. Ouch, mainstream media. How’d you let that one slip away? And the Enquirer has been all over this story for a while. They also broke the Monica Lewinsky story. This is not your father’s, “Elvis Spotted At K-Mart” Enquirer.

I heard Steve Plamann, senior executive editor of the National Enquirer interviewed on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” today. He gladly admitted the paper’s sensationalist bent. They are after all, by his admission, a supermarket tabloid. But, does that disqualify them from being taken seriously or breaking stories?

Should the NY Times follow the Enquirer as they certainly do the Wall Street Journal or Washington Post? Do you disregard them at your own risk? I’ll answer my own question. They disregarded the Edwards story and it doesn’t reflect well on them.

Is the National Enquirer journalism? I think they are, but who makes this judgement?

The second journalistic fork in the road has to do with CNN’s decision to rely on more “one-man-bands” populating single person bureaus. Here’s how TVNewser reported it:

“Yesterday CNN announced it was expanding its domestic presence by opening bureaus in 10 U.S. cities. The press release called it a doubling of U.S. newsgathering. But when a 28-year-old company expands you can bet there will be changes to existing personnel too. And that is the case with CNN.

TVNewser has learned that after the announcement of the new bureaus and soon to be added “all-platform journalists,” nine CNN staffers were told their jobs were going to be redefined. We’re told the staffers are not being laid off, but being offered positions in the new structure.

The staffers work in cities including Chicago, San Francisco and Miami. As NPR’s David Folkenflik reported this morning, “let’s be clear [CNN/U.S. president Jon Klein] is only really talking about adding a handful of new staffers. Others will be redeployed in less-covered places like Columbus, Ohio, Orlando and Seattle.””

Is it less journalistcally pure when a single person covers a story instead of a crew? Is there something lost when a reporter also has to concentrate of his/her equipment during the time they used to be concentrating on the person speaking?

Video gear has become smaller, cheaper and easier to operate. I certainly could report and produce a news story on my own, but would that story suffer? I have colleagues who will argue the story will suffer and other friends, like Mike Sechrist, who truly believes we’re foolish to not take advantage of this technology.

There are a lot of constituencies involved here beyond the public who consumes this journalistic product. I am curious to see how this will shake out. This is a time when journalistic traditions might change rapidly.

CNN’s Fishy Graphics

Meanwhile, the photos looked like they were 3D, though I knew they were not.

I don’t usually watch CNN’s AC360&#176. It’s not because I dislike Anderson Cooper or CNN, it just airs at an inconvenient time for me. With bad weather in-state and me stuck at my desk, I caught a little tonight.

I was upset by one thing I saw. You may find this a small thing, but to me it’s very important.

Tonight’s show included a series of reports tied together under the banner “Up Close: The Next President.” I suspect Anderson Cooper had the night off and this was a good way to have him appear through pre-taped “ins and outs.” In other words, the show goes on.

In one segment they aired a package on John McCain where some old still images were used to illustrate points. Something didn’t seem right. As is often the case, digital zoom and pan was added to the photos. Producers are scared viewers will be bored if the video doesn’t move. This adds a little extra flash. However, it leaves the context of the photo untouched.

Meanwhile, the photos looked like they were 3D, though I knew they were not. Something was wrong.

I now know what I saw. If a photo included five people, as an example, they were each isolated, basically cut-out and placed on an individual layer. Then those layers were independently animated. This means the physical relationship between two or more people, or a person and his surroundings, could change and become something it was not! That’s dishonest.

My guess is, all this was done with naivety as opposed to evil intent. It adds a little more flash to something that’s lifeless and mundane. It’s still wrong. It’s still dishonest. It shouldn’t be done.

News should present a factual image of what is being reported–period. Not everything is, or has to be, flashy.

New Year’s Eve On TV

Helaine and I did some intensive TV watching, waiting for the ball to drop. Here are a few observations from the evening.

Does everyone now have a New Year’s Eve show from Times Square… and why? It looked like Fox News, CNN and CNBC were there for longform live shows. Is there that much demand for their … especially when ABC and MTV are also there?

With all the networks and their non-interlocking musical acts, are the bands actually amplified enough to hear or are their outdoor performances a sham for TV? Times Square isn’t big enough to have multiple musical acts performing at the same time without acoustic mayhem.

As it is, it looked like the acts were facing away from their audience. That shot works for TV, allowing a wide expanse of humanity to be on the screen. It’s not very appealing for the people watching in the cold.

Tila Tequila – what’s the deal? I have this fascination with Asian women, but I’m going to draw the line somewhere on this side of her.

At one point a musician picked her up. Dude – wash your hands.

Kid Rock looked like he was dressing to be a sideman in Funkadelic.

How did Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve get a pass from the Writer’s Guild? Dick Clark Productions is a member of the producers organization. This show was scripted. Other DCP shows, like the People’s Choice Awards, have been affected.

Poor Dick himself still sounds terrible and it is painful to watch. I know – that’s my problem. I’m probably wrong for being judgmental in this way.

It should be noted, Dick was able to keep up with the countdown numbers. A few years ago, he was not.

Every year Helaine asks why anyone would go to Times Square. I watch, half expecting to see some act of terrorism. How can it not be a ‘soft’ target?

Why does anyone go? Is anyone there over the age of 25?

As I got set to turn the TV off, I saw Anderson Cooper on CNN with Kathy Grifffin. That’s TVs new odd couple, right? I am sorry I missed them.

NFL Network Sacked For A Loss

So, it looks like the Patriot – Giants game will be on ‘free’ over-the-air TV (seen mainly on ‘paid’ cable or satellite). Originally it was scheduled to be on the NFL Network alone.

This is a complex story, but it seems the NFL is the real short term loser here.

Basically, the NFL created its own sports network and seeded it with a handful of games. In years gone by, these would have been shown on free TV and, in fact, they were still going to be shown on free TV in the teams’ home markets.

The idea was to force cable companies to carry the network year round. That would be the only way to have access to these individual games. The NFL wanted it to be included on cable as a basic service, like CNN or ESPN and not a pay add-on, like HBO or Showtime.

It was a lot to swallow for a few out-of-market games and lots (and lots) of filler.

Unfortunately for the NFL, the cable companies balked and few fans cared. Did you really miss the Broncos – Texans game on December 13 (or the other random match-ups&#185)?

This would have all passed quietly, except for this weekend and the Patriots going for an undefeated season. Now the NFL had leverage. Fortunately, it blew up in their faces.

Under enormous pressure from Congress on down, the NFL relented. Now, this marquee game will be seen on the NFL Network, NBC and CBS! In Boston and New York City it will be on a fourth station as well! ABC might as well run the “All-Star Salute to Cheese.”

In trying to force the cable companies to carry their network, the NFL didn’t have a leg to stand on because of one other move they’d made: NFL Sunday Ticket.

NFL Sunday Ticket is the NFL’s package, offering every game live. As much as the cable companies and Dish Network want that (and I’d probably buy it), it is only offered on DirectTV.

This is a guess on my part, but I’ll bet Sunday Ticket is the most powerful selling point DirectTV has.

The cable ops (and I) wondered, how the could NFL cry about their fans inability to watch these NFL Network games when it wouldn’t provide all the other games to those same poor fans? This is the definition of chutzpah!

There’s an old story about a guy who kills his parents and then throws himself on the mercy of the court because he’s an orphan. That’s the NFL!

I don’t know how this will all come out. At some point the NFL will have to accept defeat and decide if this in-house network is really a viable concept.

Is it just me, or is there a cosmic thread which runs through America where we root for the evil, greedy corporation to get its comeuppance. At the moment, I couldn’t be happier.

In the Fox house, we will continue to root against the Giants. The Pats achievement is less important.

&#185 – NFL Network 2007 Game Schedule

Week 12: Thursday, November 22 at 8:00 PM ET (Live)

Indianapolis Colts at Atlanta Falcons (Thanksgiving)

Week 13: Thursday, November 29 at 8:00 PM ET (Live)

Green Bay Packers at Dallas Cowboys

Week 14: Thursday, December 6 at 8:00 PM ET (Live)

Chicago Bears at Washington Redskins

Week 15: Thursday, December 13 at 8:00 PM ET (Live)

Denver Broncos at Houston Texans

Week 15: Saturday, December 15 at 8:00 PM ET (Live)

Cincinnati Bengals at San Francisco 49ers

Week 16: Thursday, December 20 at 8:00 PM ET (Live)

Pittsburgh Steelers at St. Louis Rams

Week 16: Saturday, December 22 at 8:00 PM ET (Live)

Dallas Cowboys at Carolina Panthers

Week 17: Saturday, December 29 at 8:00 PM ET (Live)

New England Patriots at New York Giants

World’s Greatest Live Shot

I’ve been on a lot of TV live shots. I’ve seen a lot of TV live shots. I’ve watched them come from pretty much everywhere (think South Pole) and under nearly every situation (think reporters on a hotel roof at the start of the first Gulf War).

Yesterday, I saw the best live shot ever.

Now that I’ve hyped it, let me add, it was by no means the most important live shot. What it portrayed was pedestrian. However, I’ve never seen a live report that had so much added just by being live.

Ed Lavandera&#185 works for CNN. He travels all over the country as a general assignment reporter. Yesterday, he flew cross country, joined along the way by his family.

What made my ears perk up was when I saw Ed reporting live, sitting on a commercial airliner at the gate! His infant daughter was in his lap. As Ed spoke, passengers walked by on the way to their seats.

On-the-air, Ed’s video was put inside a graphic, allowing it to be a lot smaller than full screen. That’s one way of lessening the impact of bad quality video. It didn’t make any difference. Content trumps technical quality.

I would guess the video was sent via a high speed cellphone data link. That’s similar to my tethering my phone to this laptop. Exactly what equipment he used and how he accomplished this feat is nowhere to be found. I’d appreciate any insight.

It couldn’t be too incredibly complex, because he was live from the plane, meaning really limited space. His daughter on his lap limited him even more.

What made this live shot so great was his ability to let me experience travel on the day before Thanksgiving. It’s something we’ve all heard about. Few of us have experienced it. There aren’t more planes flying, just more people who seldom fly!

The pre-Thanksgiving rush is something reporters talk about, but never deliver – certainly never like this.

Hats off to Ed and whoever came up with this idea and then executed it.

Blogger’s addendum – The CNN website has a ‘package’ that was assembled from the elements of the trip. Here’s the link, but I don’t recommend it. It absolutely pales in comparison to that one live shot while on the tarmac.

&#185 – Amazingly, on CNN’s own site, Ed’s name is spelled two different ways! I think my choice is right.

News Porn

This afternoon, as I got out of bed, MSNBC, CNN Headline News and Fox were all carrying live helicopter coverage of a car chase on I-5 north of Los Angeles. I like to call this kind of stuff ‘news porn.’

The driver of the 1997 Saturn was wanted for suspicion of DUI (or so said the on-screen graphics). The car was doing the speed limit and staying within the lines on the Interstate.

I have no idea how this story ended. Time took its toll and I had to leave.

The story itself is so unimportant that there’s no real need to update America on what transpired. Which, of course begs the question – why cover it at all?

It all comes down to the definition of news. News used to mainly be about concepts and ideas. It is now much more event and celebrity oriented.

Events make for more compelling than nearly anything else… at least while the event’s in progress. Concepts are much more difficult a story to put on TV.

Events and celebrities are ‘low hanging fruit’ when you’re running a newsroom… even one that’s covering the entire nation.

I am sure this unimportant story was a much bigger draw than anything else these three networks could have chosen to run. It will be interesting to see how CNN’s main channel (running CNN International at this time) did in the ratings versus the other three.

I’ll admit, I couldn’t turn away.

How can I chastise these networks for what they ran when it was my own viewing choice? It’s easy to be critical. It’s much more difficult to be angry while they’re being practical.

Continue reading “News Porn”

What’s On TV At 3:15 AM

I was sitting in my office, playing on my computer, when Steffie walked in. It was 3:15. She, unfortunately, has inherited my nocturnal nature.

“Do you see what’s on TV,” she asked?

I followed her back into her playroom. E! was on and the programming was live. Paris had been released.

I asked her to look at “my channels,” and she tuned through Fox, CNN, Headline news and MSNBC. Two of the four were also in breathless, helicopter heavy, live coverage.

Reporters were speculating where Paris might end up should she take one freeway over another.

You don’t take a network that’s normally re-playing shows overnight and flip a switch to go live. They had to pre-position staff inside and out. That’s a hell of an undertaking at 3:15 AM.

If you’re looking for perspective in how important this story is considered, look at this from MediaBistro TVNewser.

Both Saturday and Sunday, HLN aired obsolete and outdated editions of Nancy Grace.

The shows covered “the search for Jessie Davis even though it was reported at 6pm EDT [Saturday] that her body had been found,” ICN says.

By Sunday, suspects were in custody. Still, HLN replayed the repeats, using a lower third to update viewers:

Unfortunately, CNN didn’t do that for Glenn Beck, whose show precedes and follows Grace’s.

This weekend it was too expensive, or difficult, to allow old news to be replaced by new news. Overnight last night it was not.

So, Paris is free at last. Personally, I think her career is over – though I was more sure of that opinion before this coverage.

Oh Paris

I’ve got MSNBC on the TV now. It’s a live shot, split screen. That means two live cameras, one from a copter, to two satellite transponders, as we await Paris Hilton’s return to the ‘system’.

I’ve tried desperately to avoid this story – not just here on the blog, but in person. It’s impossible. It’s too juicy.

“I want to see the house,” said Helaine, speaking directly to our TV screen.

The all-female MSNBC anchor team is starting to get a little catty. Did Paris have a party planned for tonight? Did she need hair and makeup before returning.

Is there anyone rooting for Paris anymore? She is the poster child for spoiled rich kid. Incarceration in your mansion is not the same as serving jail time.

Uh oh… MSNBC, CNN and Fox News have pulled away to cover Defense Secretary Gates’ press conference. Where are their priorities&#185?

OK – don’t answer that.

Neither E! nor CourtTV is covering the re-incarceration. Now we’ve got problems.

Luckily KCBS-TV in Los Angeles is streaming the video live! And you thought my vast knowledge of call letters was worthless!

This is unreal. Live, on TV, as Paris was being spirited away, a gaggle of press photographers swarmed the car. I was amazed no one was hurt!

This story has drawn me in. It’s jumped from ‘celebrenews’ to real news. Even those organizations who’ve attemped to keep about the fray will have to add this story to their news budget. I’m talking about you NY Times&#178 and PBS News Hour.

She will always be notorious. The question is, will this be the end of Hilton’s commercially exploitable celebrity?

&#185 – Uh oh – I’m starting to think like TMZ.com! Take a look at this entry they posted at 1:06 PM. I’m not proud of that.

&#178 – Late this afternoon the Times bit the bullet and ran the story.

Bad List To Make

I had not heard of “Bing’s Blog” before this evening. It’s on the CNN site but seems to be more affiliated with Fortune Magazine.

Good old Bing has come up with his list of 50 Bulls**t Jobs. It’s actually a promotion for a book about 100 bulls**t jobs. Personally, I would type out bullshit, but he must feel it’s edgier to write something that everyone knows spells bullshit, though it doesn’t&#185.

Here’s number 37:

Meteorologist on TV

Look good, play with map.

$$: Local weathermen make in the low six figures; those on national morning television can earn millions and reap commercial benefits as well.

How to get it: Be the guy with the best hair and no interest in actual news per se.

The upside: Opportunity to scare people when an inch of snow is coming.

The downside: People actually blame you for bad weather.

The dark side: When a true natural disaster pops up, they send Anderson Cooper!

Forget the money for a sec. The guy with the best hair! Is he kidding?

I suppose when you need to fill 50, or 100 of these, the really well written ones aren’t buried at 37. It’s a cheap shot. I can take cheap shots. What irks me is it’s not a particularly well written cheap shot. I had higher expectations since it comes from Fortune.

Oh – they do blame me for bad weather. At least he got that right.

&#185 – This reminds me. In the next few days I’ll have to write something about my upset with the cleansing of English, as if that sanitizes the meaning of what’s being said.

The Downside Of Coffee

I found this on Shoptalk, a daily broadcast news newsletter, this morning:

NN-LEKA-7:45-DELAY-WHY?

URGENT

STATIONS:

Our Claire Leka 7:45pm et pkg/insert/looklive will be DELAYED. It will not be available for the 7:59:30pm et Live Generic because …. we plugged in our coffee and blew out our circuits. No kidding. We’ll try to get the piece out just after 8pm et. ….and we will try to better manage our caffeine consumption so this doesn’t happen again. We apologize for the inconvenience.

We’ll be using the 3:30pm et insert for the 7:59:30pm et live generic.

Lisa Farrell

CBS Newspath NYNY Newspath

Newspath is a branch of CBS news which serves local affiliates. ABC, NBC and CNN have services like this as well. You’ll seldom find the Newspath reporter on a network newscast and seldom find the network reporters on the affiliates local newscasts.

Pi Day

I’ve seen stories on CNN and ABC&#185 and heard a radio piece on NPR’s “All Things Considered” about “Pi Day.” It’s “Pi Day” because today is 3-14 and Pi is 3.14.

OK – it’s really an infinite string of digits, but 3.14 usually covers it.

What surprised me was the multitude of Pi stories on-the-air today. Is there a Pi PR firm? Does Pi have media savvy? Why this year and not others? Has America developed a thirst for math?

I doubt it. It wasn’t that many years ago Steffie referred to the Pi symbol as a ‘foot stool.’

My knowledge of Pi doesn’t go very deep – 3.1415926. Others can recite the non-repeating sequence of digits by the thousands. In this case there’s no jealousy.

&#185 – Bill Blakemore, the ABC reporter on this story, claimed he could recite Pi to 50 digits. It’s no world record, but has to be one for TV reporters.

Enough With The Horse Race

The talk on NPR’s Talk of the Nation today was all about politics and the next presidential election. Their political junkie, Ken Rudin, was front and center.

I had MSNBC on while getting dressed for work. It was also a discussion of the ’08 presidential race.

That’s November ’08 they’re discussing. I haven’t thought about what I want for dinner tonight. Maybe November ’08 is just a little too far ahead for me.

I have no idea what any of the candidates stand for, outside a very few hot button issues. I do know Hillary Clinton is not Tammy Wynette, Barack Obama did not attend a Maddrassa while growing up in Indonesia, Bill Richardson has a lead foot and Connecticut’s Senator Chris Dodd has the softest hands I’ve ever shaken.

I attended a dinner in 1972 where I sat next to current Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich for a few hours. I don’t even remember if he was a neat or sloppy diner. I have no idea where he stands on anything. Ditto for most of the other declared candidates.

Let’s get back to the MSNBC conversation for a moment. What it didn’t contain was meat. It was totally about the horse race. Who cares!

The headline on Drudge as I write this is, “TIME POLL: HILLARY 19-POINTS AHEAD OF OBAMA.” But in that same poll a significant portion of the electorate said they’d never heard of Obama.

I hate to quote Ann Coulter (but I will):

In January, two years before the 2000 presidential election, the leading Republican candidate in New Hampshire was … Liddy Dole (WMUR-TV/CNN poll, Jan. 12, 1999). In the end, Liddy Dole’s most successful run turned out to be a mad dash from her husband Bob after he accidentally popped two Viagras.

At this stage before the 1992 presidential election, the three leading Democratic candidates were, in order: Mario Cuomo,

Jesse Jackson and Lloyd Bentsen (Public Opinion Online, Feb. 21, 1991).

Only three months before the 1988 election, William Schneider cheerfully reported in The National Journal that Michael Dukakis beat George Herbert Walker Bush in 22 of 25 polls taken since April of that year. Bush did considerably better in the poll taken on Election Day.

Lord help me – she’s right. I can’t believe I even wrote that.

This early jockeying is reported because no news organization wants to run ‘bars and tone.’ It’s cheap and easy to discuss who is ahead. But, it’s meaningless.

At this point it’s more important to know where people stand, what they believe in. Or, maybe, we should let the recently elected congress wrangle with the currently serving president. Isn’t that the important story now?

November ’08 will come soon enough. Why rush it?