Posts Tagged ‘CNN’
Nancy Grace settles suit over suicide
So sue me!
CNN host Nancy Grace settled a wrongful-death suit over the suicide of a Virginia woman following a Grace interview about her missing daughter, officials said.
Melinda Duckett, 21, questioned by Grace after reporting her 2-year-old son, Trenton, missing from his bedroom Aug. 27, 2006, later killed herself with a shotgun at her grandparents’ home on Sept. 8, 2006, the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel reported.
Duckett’s estate sued Grace, alleging she drove the young Leesburg, Va., mother to suicide.
In settling the suit, Grace and CNN agreed to establish a $200,000 trust fund dedicated to finding Duckett’s son, who is still missing.
Meanwhile, lawyers representing Duckett’s estate issued an apology to Grace for comments accusing her of “ambushing” Duckett in the interview.
She’s a great champion for crime victims everywhere. Just ask her.
Nancy Grace is a worthy symbol of what happened to CNN after Ted Turner. That’s not a compliment.
CNN rotates beancounters
Remember when CNN was one of the best news sources in the world?
CNN President Jim Walton announced a major shakeup of CNN management today, replacing the head of CNN/US with a long-time CNN executive known for his business turn-around skills.
HLN head Ken Jautz takes over as executive vice president of CNN/US, replacing Jonathan Klein, who headed the network for six years. CNN’s chief marketing officer Scot Safon will run HLN, replacing Jautz.
Walton also said he would hire a managing editor to “help leverage our newsgathering resources across multiple platforms.”
Most recently, Jautz has presided over the revamp and rebranding of the HLN channel, introducing [crap] signature programs such as Nancy Grace, Joy Behar, ShowBiz Tonight, Issues with Jane Velez Mitchell and Morning Express with Robin Meade…
Safon takes over HLN after heading CNN’s marketing for the last eight years, winning wide industry accolades for his marketing campaign for CNN and CNN=Politics. Before joining CNN, Safon oversaw marketing for one of CNN’s sister channels, TNT…
We continue to witness the devolution of a seminal news organization into the sort of grubby, entertainment-centered crap machine that doesn’t grow past mediocrity at that role.
The only person associated with CNN who deserves concern is Ted Turner – who admits that selling his networks to Time-Warner was the dumbest thing he ever did.
What your cubicle says about you?
I’m a news junkie. Years living on the road accentuated the habit. Back when CNN was a news channel.
One of my morning habits is reviewing news being covered on TV; then, switching over to my favorite sources on the Web to look deeper into the stories, finding the stories sharp enough to be ignored by the clueless breed that owns the Fifth Estate in the United States.
“My cubicle tells others three things that are of utmost importance to me — faith, family and my small business,” says Carmin Wharton, an educator from Tampa, Florida.
Among the items: family pictures, a floral centerpiece from her daughter’s wedding reception, small spiritual books, file folders for her business and stone-like plaques with single words such as “harmony” and “rejoice…”
“When decorating a cubicle, consider corporate/office culture,” notes Deborah Brown-Volkman of East Moriches, New York, a career coach and author of “How to Feel Great at Work Every Day.”
“You want to be an individual, but you also want to fit in. The goal is to find a blend between the two…”
A tidy space can make workers appear more productive and competent — and oftentimes they do indeed perform better…
Even if you aren’t the kind of worker who has a specific place for every document, giving the appearance that you do could improve your reputation…
The article goes on and on, including examples, anecdotes.
There is no shortage of Americans who only live and work like prairie dogs. Since they’re not in danger of extinction – other than at the hands of the politicians they elect to office – they don’t need or deserve special protection.
I guess that’s who this article is aimed at. But, self-help instruction passed off as “news” is sophistry I resent as much as corporate publicity releases, political handouts and authors with a new book showing up on news shows as experts the day before release of their tome.
The article is crap. CNN distributing it is crap. They get themselves off the hook – they presume – by identifying the source as a business partner of theirs. Doesn’t make it smell better.
Attack by Tea Party nutball costs USDA official her job – UPDATED
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack – has apologized
The NAACP has retracted its original statement condemning comments made by a former Agriculture Department official who resigned after a video clip surfaced of her discussing a white farmer…
“Having reviewed the full tape by Shirley Sherrod, who is the woman who was fired by the Department of Agriculture, and most importantly heard the testimony of the white farmers mentioned in this story, we now believe that the organization that edited the documents did so with the intention of deceiving millions of Americans,” the statement from NAACP President Benjamin Jealous said.
Here’s the full unedited video of her speech before the NAACP – months ago btw.
Jealous later posted on his Twitter account that he “Spoke to Ms. Sherrod earlier today and personally apologized. Plan to meet with her face-to-face the next time I’m in Georgia.”
The organization also urged Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to reconsider Sherrod’s resignation from her post as the department’s director of rural development for Georgia.
Breitbart originally posted the video, which was quickly picked up by Fox News.
In the video, Sherrod can be heard telling an audience at a March 27, 2010, appearance before a local chapter of the NAACP that she had not given a white farmer “the full force of what I could do” to help him save the family farm…
Sherrod defended herself in a number of interviews Tuesday, saying her controversial comments were taken out of context. She had, she said, used a personal experience from nearly a quarter century ago in which she confronted her own racism and learned to move beyond it.
She insisted she “went all out” to help the man keep his farm and said she resigned only under pressure from the Obama administration…
I’m editing this all together Tuesday night, 20th July. So far, this article on CNN has the most complete narration of what occurred. They deserve the world of credit for following the story. Digging up the truth of Ms. Sherrod’s speech. Digging up the cowardice of the administration hack in charge of the USDA, Tom Vilsack.
I don’t doubt that by Wednesday morning there may be sufficient pressure from the press – and ultimately the White House – to reverse the injustice committed by a bureaucrat on a loyal civil servant.
Cowardice in the face of loudmouthed blather from right-wing nutballs is not justification for terminating someone fighting on behalf of poor people. Ever!
It’s already silly enough, criminal enough, the amount of free publicity American media dedicates to what isn’t much more than an organizing campaign from creeps hovering at the edge of the Republican Party – from Dick Armey to the John Birch Society – to capture that Party.
Worse than treating these fools as media darlings is the response from the White House, the Obama Administration and our favorite political amoebas, the Democratic Party. Spineless as ever, they dash about trying to put out fires that aren’t much more than a sparkler in the dark of a July night – afraid their political careers will go up in flames.
UPDATE: Tom Vilsack has apologized and offered Mrs. Sherrod a job back in the USDA.
Image of oil spewing enthralling – for the first 2 minutes
It’s beginning to feel like this has been with us forever.
And harder for us to believe that one of these days, or months, or years, it will be gone.
It’s the live video feed from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. When BP engineers lowered those cameras in the first place, you can bet they never imagined that the resulting pictures would be watched by hundreds of millions of infuriated people around the world.
They were for in-house use — to monitor the well, a well that was intended to be an uncontroversial source of enormous profit for the oil company. The cameras were like the security cameras that most corporations install around their office buildings. Just a little something so the bosses can keep their eye on things…
The ceaseless image of the oil spewing has become like an international night light — except without the comfort. It’s always there. We can count on it, even though we’d prefer not to.
It has become the logo of the disaster. It is a ghastly portrait in perpetual motion. Every time there is a dash of hope that the oil will stop gushing, something newly bad happens. In recent days, it was the temporary removal of the containment cap deep in the Gulf. The oil surged harder. And we, in our spare moments, watched.
The television feed is like a heartbreaking mutation of those lava lamps from the 1960s and 1970s — those oddly shaped doodads with the colorful churn of liquid trapped inside, an undulating mixture hypnotic in its incessant and random kinetic swirl. The terrible difference, of course, is that the frantic churn from the oil pipe is not trapped. It is freely headed toward unwelcoming shores.
In my neck of the prairie, folks who maintain a fascination with that live feed are as demented as rubberneckers who hit their brakes and slow down to peer at carnage on the opposite side of the freeway after an accident.
But, the lazy dullards of the entertainment-as-news brigade really drive me to distraction when they stick a frame in the corner of “news” programs, hour after hour after hour showing that fracking bubbling pot at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. What are we supposed to learn from it? There’s nothing in that video as entertaining as a lava lamp is to a stoner.
About as useless as prayer groups gathering to implore some sky-dude to stop the leak.
Reality TV for truly stupid TV producers.
Drillers feel the eyes of the world, the loss of friends
The news? They can’t watch it anymore. Outsiders criticizing their progress, saying they’re not working fast enough or smart enough — it’s too much to bear.
They understand how awful the situation is. They are, after all, working on the waters where friends and relatives died. Those losses, and the stories they hear from workers who survived the Deepwater Horizon explosion, are with them every day. It’s a weight they carry as the world watches.
These men and women are working to drill a relief well — 16,000 to 18,000 feet below the seafloor, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen says. It is the only surefire way to stop the oil that’s spewing into the Gulf of Mexico…
There are fewer than 200 workers on board at any one time. They are marine biologists, scientists, construction and tool experts. They must understand the physics of what they’re doing. Simple hired hands? Not even close…
A woman working at a desk thanks the CNN crew for finally telling the workers’ story. Nearby, on a table, are copies of a special magazine memorializing the Deepwater Horizon workers who died…
On deck, it’s a loud and constant operation. Voices call back and forth, giving directions amid massive equipment that towers above. People operating the drill and two cranes maneuver across the rig in a carefully orchestrated ballet. The incessant drilling brings an endless vibration. There is no idle chit-chat for these Transocean employees, who are working 12-hour shifts, around the clock. It’s intense, serious, focused.
My favorite kind of journalism. “…as seen and told by our correspondant.”
Kyra Phillips offers some of the best reporting from CNN in a long while. Much of the original talent has disappeared to other venues over the decade of “entertainment news” managed by Time-Warner.
She has life on a drilling rig wired. Sounds and looks cleaner and safer than back in my days on the Gulf.
RTFA. Learn something about the reality of those folks busting a gut to stop the spill, save the environment and – oh yeah, save their way of life and working. This is the real memorial to their fallen comrades.
Phony investigative journalism: CNN vs Toyota
Here’s today’s “investigative journalism” from CNN:
I won’t waste your time linking to this crap…
Auto manufacturer Toyota warned dealerships in 2002 that Camry owners were complaining about throttles surging and recommended adjustments in an electronic control unit to fix the problem, according to a document obtained by CNN.
The technical service bulletin went to every U.S. Toyota dealership in late August 2002 after some customers reported their vehicles were speeding up unexpectedly.
“Some 2002 model year Camry vehicles may exhibit a surging during light throttle input at speeds between 38-42 mph,” the bulletin states. “The Engine Control Module (ECM) calibration has been revised to correct this condition…”
The internal Toyota document was given to CNN by a group of attorneys now seeking a nationwide class-action lawsuit against the company. Clarence Ditlow said the document — not previously made public — indicates Toyota knew much earlier about an electronic connection to sudden acceleration problems. He also said the bulletin was apparently ignored or hidden from the public not only by Toyota, but also by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. – emphasis added.
“The government is really hiding this information from the consumer,” Ditlow told CNN. “They’re in a conspiracy with the auto industry to keep these out of the public’s sight…”
CNN Congressional Poll: Anti-incumbent fever at record high
Here are 2 retiring senators. Names and parties don’t matter. Both are useless.
Only a third of U.S. voters think that most members of Congress deserve to be re-elected this year, according to a new national poll. That’s the lowest number ever recorded for that question in a CNN survey.
The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll, released Tuesday, indicates that only 34 percent feel that current federal lawmakers deserve re-election, with 63 percent saying no.
According to the survey, 51 percent feel their own member of Congress should be re-elected — also an all-time low in CNN polling — while 44 percent say their representative doesn’t deserve to be returned to office in November…
“This is not a good year to be an incumbent, regardless of which party you belong to,” said CNN polling director Keating Holland. “Voters seem equally angry at both Republicans and Democrats this year.”
Fifty-six percent of people questioned in the survey say that most Democrats in Congress do not deserve to be re-elected. An equal percentage say that most congressional Republicans don’t deserve re-election.
Here’s the details of the poll (.pdf). In my neck of the prairie, we elected 2 Dems as senators. The one returning was the stodgy centrist. The new one has backbone – and a history of environmental and social activism. They’ll both be re-elected.
We got a replacement 2nd generation hack replacing the activist mentioned above in his old House seat. He seems to be bright enough to stay on the side of peoples’ needs. And since the Republicans around here are lining up behind the usual range of hawks and beancounters – including the former commandant of Gitmo – Hack, Jr. will probably catch re-election first time around.
TSA probes bigotry – after CNN and a whistleblower point it out
The Transportation Security Administration has launched an internal investigation into an air marshal field office in Florida where supervisors are alleged to have used a crew assignment board to ridicule and keep score on women, gays and minorities, sources told CNN.
The board, resembling the TV game show “Jeopardy,” includes categories such as “pickle smokers,” “our gang” and “creatures,” which sources said were names used by managers for gay men, African-Americans and lesbians.
A photograph of the board was sent to CNN. The Transportation Security Administration confirmed the investigation in a written statement but did not elaborate on when the board was in use, where it was displayed or how it was used…
“Accordingly, TSA takes all allegations of misconduct seriously. The Federal Air Marshal Service will continue to provide its full cooperation and support to the investigation.”
They certainly are on top of things – now that a whistleblower and CNN told them about it.
[American?, nope] Republican belief in global warming diminishes
Republican Earth
A rise in skepticism among Americans over global warming is mostly due to changes among Republicans, according to a new national poll.
The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey, released Monday, indicates that two-thirds of all Americans believe global warming is a proven fact. That’s down 8 percentage points since June 2008, with views among Democrats holding steady and Republicans’ belief in global warming dropping 11 points.
“The growing skepticism among Republicans, with no matching shift among Democrats, suggests that the changes measured in this poll may be a reaction to having a Democrat in the White House rather than a shift in underlying attitudes toward global warming,” said Keating Holland, CNN polling director…
Why does a majority support lowering emissions when most Americans no longer think emissions cause global warming?
“Americans may have other reasons to support a reduction in carbon dioxide and other gases,” Holland said. “Pollution is pollution, and the country has been worried about clean air long before global warming became a topic of discussion.”
Yup, we used to call it the ecology movement. This may surprise some of you; but, a fair number of folks believe that breathing unpolluted air, drinking clean water, keeping pesticides, antibiotics and other crap out of the food we eat makes absolute sense.
Of course, no one ever accused a Republican teabagger of having an abundance of common sense.
