Free Falling

Well it has finally arrived. The final four days of the 2008 Presidential Primary season are now upon us and CNN and the best political team on television are pulling out all the stops. In what has been a primary season like no other, the kind that makes you feel like your free falling CNN released the following press release in regards to CNN’s upcoming coverage.

CNN’s political team will report live from the CNN Election Center and across Puerto Rico, Montana and South Dakota for the network’s extensive coverage of the final Democratic primaries on Sunday, June 1, and Tuesday, June 3. As voters in the final three contests make their voices heard, CNN will offer live and in-depth coverage stretching across four days of programming.

On Saturday, May 31, as the rules committee for the Democratic National Committee meets to decide the Florida and Michigan delegate issue, CNN will broadcast Decision Day from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The special will be anchored by lead political anchor Wolf Blitzer, who will be joined by the Best Political Team on Television. The CNN Election Express will be on-site in Washington, D.C. where the rules committee will meet throughout the day Saturday. CNN correspondents will track how decisions made at the meeting may affect the race for the Democratic nomination. CNN.com Live, the network’s multi-stream video news service, also will have a camera inside and will begin live streaming the entire meeting at 9:30 a.m. Following Decision Day, a special live edition of This Week in Politics will air from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Then at 7 p.m., the in-depth political coverage continues with a one-hour special Election Center.

On Sunday, June 1, voters in Puerto Rico will head to the polls, and CNN will be the only news organization with exit poll results to report. A special edition of Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer will broadcast live from the CNN Election Center in New York from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. with top analysts and guests offering insights. At 1 p.m., CNN will premiere Fareed Zakaria: GPS, a new weekly international news and discussion program.

For a special primary edition of Election Center on Sunday from 2 p.m. to 7p.m., CNN’s political team will offer the most up-to-the-minute information and analyze incoming exit poll data. The special will also use the latest CNN technology such as the results board and the CNN “multi-touch” board, which throughout the election season has made complex demographic and all-important delegate data understandable and accessible. A special CNN Newsroom with Rick Sanchez will then follow at 7 p.m.

On Monday, June 2, CNN programs, including The Situation Room which will be live from the Election Center from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., will explore the results from Puerto Rico and look ahead to Tuesday’s primaries and the general election.

For the final primaries in Montana and South Dakota on Tuesday, June 3, CNN’s special prime-time Election Center programming will begin at 8 p.m., following wall-to-wall politics on The Situation Room from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. and a special edition of Lou Dobbs Tonight at 7 p.m. Tuesday’s coverage will run late into the night and lead into a special edition of Larry King Live at midnight hosted by Larry King. American Morning with John Roberts and Kyra Phillips will be live the following morning at a special time from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m.

Leading the special coverage during the final Democratic primaries will be Wolf Blitzer along with Campbell Brown, Anderson Cooper and Lou Dobbs. Anchor and special correspondent Soledad O'Brien and senior political analyst Bill Schneider will again report the exit poll data.

Gloria Borger, senior political analyst; David Gergen, senior political analyst; Suzanne Malveaux, White House correspondent; Roland Martin, political analyst; and Jeff Toobin, senior analyst, will be on-hand with their insights. CNN contributors Paul Begala, Bill Bennett and Donna Brazile and political strategists Alex Castellanos, Leslie Sanchez and Jamal Simmons will also provide commentary.

CNN’s correspondents are traveling across Puerto Rico , Montana and South Dakota to cover the race. CNN correspondent Jessica Yellin and CNN en Español correspondent Juan Carlo Lopez will be on the ground in Puerto Rico to report on developments while senior political correspondent Candy Crowley and correspondent Mary Snow will also be traveling with the campaigns.

CNN will offer up-to-the minute reporting and analysis at CNNPolitics.com and on the CNN Political Ticker at www.CNN.com/ticker. CNN.com Live will have special coverage of the Montana and South Dakota primaries on June 3 with Melissa Long anchoring from the CNN election center in New York and Reggie Aqui anchoring from Atlanta starting at 7 p.m.
CNN Radio will offer special reports for affiliates for the June 3 Montana and South Dakota primaries. CNN Newsource will provide its affiliates access to on-site reports from RunningMate correspondent Samantha Hayes.

CNN is adding to the group investigating a “Planet in Peril.” Lisa Ling is joining the group. Here is the CNN press release.

CNN’s award-winning Planet in Peril documentary series returns later this year with an examination of the conflict between growing populations and natural resources.
For Planet in Peril: Battle Lines, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta and The Oprah Winfrey Show correspondent and National Geographic host Lisa Ling travel to the front lines of these environmental conflicts where countries, communities and individuals are fighting over oil, land, water and food. The documentary, to be taped in high definition, will air in late 2008.

“We want to bring viewers to the front lines of these growing conflicts,” Cooper said. “The battle over natural resources is leading to environmental devastation, destruction of wildlife and the spread of dangerous viruses, not to mention the loss of human life. We want to take viewers on this journey with us and show them the reality of what’s occurring.”

The first Planet in Peril, a four-hour investigation that aired in October 2007, traveled to 13 countries to explore four factors that impact the environment – overpopulation, deforestation, species loss and climate change. For the second Planet in Peril, CNN will be traveling across the globe to some of the most remote regions of the planet.

Ling, an award-winning journalist, joins Planet in Peril for its second installment. As a special correspondent for The Oprah Winfrey Show, Ling reported about gang rape in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, bride burning in India, polygamy, the Virginia Tech massacre and Hurricane Katrina, among others stories. Previously, she served as co-host for The View and as a correspondent for Channel One. For National Geographic, she explored the phenomenon of female suicide bombers and investigated Colombia ’s drug war.

For Planet in Peril: Battle Lines, CNN crews will visit the North Pole, where melting ice has touched off an international conflict over ownership of the arctic waters and energy resources that lie below; Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where dwindling food supplies push people into the jungle, exposing them to mysterious and deadly diseases that scientists think could result in the next pandemic; and Indonesia, a center of shark-finning operations that have helped deplete the oceans of more than 90 percent of shark species.

Anyone who has ever worked or watched live TV knows it can be a little bit like free falling. On Monday's American Morning, John Roberts shared with the viewers a little mishap that can happen with live television.

Tonight I end with a clip of Rob Marciano’s sky diving experience. Looks so amazing but I don’t think I could ever do it. Good for Rob trying something extreme.

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