Tag: Wolf Blitzer

Malaysian Airlines News And Speculation At CNN

Malaysia_Airlines_Boeing_777-2H6ER;_9M-MRG@ZRH;07.08.1998_(4794758296)I have to hand it to CNN. There’s no story I’m interested in as much as the Malaysian Airlines disappearance. They’re pouring everything they’ve got on it. That’s the good news.

The bad news is, with little new info or new info fragments, CNN has turned to speculating. I’ve heard Wolf Blitzer try and pin the rumors on others, but when it’s your megaphone that’s giving voice to these rumors you inherit responsibility. You can’t just attribute it away.

If I was in charge of CNN what would I do? I don’t know. The audience gains from all this wall-to-wall theory porn are appealing. CNN needs to stay profitable. So much temptation.

This is very similar to the steps that moved local TV news away from difficult-to-report issue stories to the crime/anecdote stories which now dominate.

CNN is seeing short term gain, but what is the long term price?

What’s The Deal With The Wheel?

As the director called for an awkwardly frame wide shot I noticed something weird on the side of the set. It looks like a chrome steering wheel with a knob we used to call a “spinner.”

The clock struck six tonight and I wasn’t sick of cable news yet! Wow. I put on CNN. 6:00 PM means “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.”

In this week after the Democratic Convention the ‘room’ got a makeover. Wolf got new frames too. That’s a mini makeover. It’s sad I noticed both on Monday. I officially have no life!

Tonight toward the end of the show there was a panel discussion. As the director called for an awkwardly framed wide shot I noticed something weird on the side of the set. It looks like a chrome steering wheel with a knob we used to call a “spinner” back in the pre-power steering days.

Is someone driving the desk in the Situation Room? Maybe the desk is height adjustable?

I have no clue, but if you do let me know. It’s just weird.

By the way, I’m not so sure about Wolf’s frames yet.

Dodd’s Goose Is Cooked

Dodd’s goose is cooked. He’s in a pretty deep hole.

We had Senator Christopher Dodd on Channel 8 this afternoon talking about the AIG bonuses. This isn’t a Channel 8 website. I am writing for myself alone, but I thought Mark did a really good job.

Dodd danced around Mark’s tough questions but it was obvious he had little wiggle room. At one point during the interview, while Dodd was obviously obfuscating, Davis raised his voice to put the Senator back on track.

A fuller admission by Dodd came out in his next interview seconds later with Wolf Blitzer. I suspect it was because Dodd realized he had no believable defense as Mark grilled him.

Dodd’s goose is cooked. He’s in a pretty deep hole. He was already facing a serious challenge from Rob Simmons and others. Two years out, his chances look bad.

This is also a deep wound to the Obama administration. Trust is graded pass/fail. Today they failed.

Weekends And Engines

I am just getting up from a nap… though it’s sort of my ‘real’ sleep today.

Helaine and Stef went to Mohegan Sun for this evening’s Rick Springfield concert. There were a few things for me to do for them before they left, so I was up early (well, for me early).

My thought was to go directly to bed as the garage door closed, do not pass go. Someone would be coming around 12:30, but there was plenty of time to catch up on sleep before then.

Ha!

Maybe it’s the bad weather we’ve had which pushed everything back? Maybe it’s just the weekend and people are home? Whatever the reason, as I attempted to sleep there were internal combustion engines of every type all across the neighborhood. Each seemed to have enough noise to power a DC-3.

These people have chores to do. Far be it from me to ask them to change and accommodate my wacky sleep schedule. Even I’m not that selfish. That won’t stop me from grousing about the noise.

Most of what I heard came from riding mowers… but not all. The loudest noises, difficult to ignore, came from engines that idle most of the time, ramping up to a shrill cacophony when it’s time for the real work. There’s just no disregarding those.

The windows were closed (though they started open) and these babies were still loud!

When I finally did get back to sleep, it was downstairs in the family room, with intervening walls between me and the outside world… and Wolf Blitzer lightly droning on in the background.

You would think weekdays would be the most difficult to maintain my ‘Hawaiian time in Connecticut,’ lifestyle. Nope. Weekend noise is the most consistent. Only the rain that’s now falling (again), stops it.