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Friday, March 1, 2013

Your Views on the News 3/1/13


DCFishbowl is reporting that CNN's new pres Jeff Zucker took a meeting this week with the leadership of the National Association of Black Journalists to discuss the state of black journalists at the network. In part Betsy Rothstein writes:

Speculation continues…to swirl about the network’s future with journalist and NABJ member Roland Martin. He recently answered a question from a fan on Twitter who would like to see him go to MSNBC. Martin’s contract with CNN expires April 8.
Some at the network believe times have been iffy for black journalists at CNN. TJ Holmes left his anchor slot in late 2011 over concerns of future advancement. Morning anchor Tony Harris did not have his contract renewed by CNN in early 2011 and surfaced at Al-Jazeera.
With O’Brien’s departure, Suzanne Malveaux will be the only black weekday anchor. On the weekends there are Fredericka Whitfield, Don Lemon, and Victor Blackwell.

Here's your chance to weigh in on who should be in primetime and who CNN shouldn't consider hiring/bringing back or anything else that strikes your fancy.

All content, unless otherwise cited, is © All Things CNN and may not be used without consent of the blog administrator.

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think CNN does have a serious diversity issue and it was made worse by the optics of Soledad leaving. From Tapper's new show all the way through midnight - it is all white and only one woman. Even at that, the one woman is NOT a good representative - she's an embarrassment. So, no black, latino, asian or even biracial the whole evening. Think of the big names they are touting... Tapper, Blitzer, Burnett, Cooper, Cuomo, etc... these guys don't even represent white people very well let alone speaking to any minority. Every one of them is from the Northeast and come from priviledged backgrounds. Cooper a wealthy heir, Cuomo from a political family, Burnett with her rich lawyer dad and even richer banker hubby, etc... These people have no basis to question the elite establishment because they ARE THE ESTABLISHMENT! Even the new sports lady, Rachel Nichols, is the daughter-in-law of Mike Nichols AND DIANE SAWYER. None of these people are remotely normal and it shows. There is no racial diversity and there is no class, gender, or geographic diversity. They were all plucked from the Upper West Side of Manhattan! Its like they all attended the same uppity cocktail party then decided, hey, why don't we do a news channel. Craziness.

Anonymous said...

To be fair Anderson Cooper, Chris Cuomo and Rachel Nichols are all rock solid journalists who work their butts off. None of us can pick the families we are born into. We have no say in the matter. Just because you are a part of prominent family does not mean you can't hang out with ordinary people or understand them.

Agree 100 % about diversity at CNN. Bringing back TJ Holmes and Betty Nguyen would be a good move. CNN could without a doubt do the ladies news show.
it's wrong that no minority journalists have big roles
when it comes to the big stories. Roland Martin is a part of the pundits so as far as I am concerned he does not count. Having an ethnically diverse group of credible female journalists would be great.
Give them the 9 PM hour to take on TRMS. Alison Stewart, Nicole Lapin, Hala Goranni. Isha Sesay, Alina Cho, Maria Hinojosa, Betty Nguyen, Ashleigh Banfield would be good choices.

Anonymous said...

Seems like most of the African-American reporters are relegated to weekends on CNN--Fredericka has been stuck there for AGES. CNN really needs to do more to make its lineup more diverse.

Anonymous said...

Some good suggestions, especially Nguyen, Isha, Alina, Hala, Maria. Frederick is very talented and professional. Roland Martin's shelf life has expired....he was not very effective even during elections.
And please......please.......no more TJ. Entirely too much schmaltz with a delivery that better fits a program like Entertainment Tonight.

Anonymous said...

CNN should ditch the 2 hour News Room format and
go with more 1 hour programs. Not sure about how
the management style at CNN works but do all of the
individual shows get to do their own thing or do they
get memos each morning saying just do x,y and z ?
CNN looks repetitive and they don't have a lot of video.
Television is a visual medium. Nothing bugs me more
about CNN than how often they obstruct video. The
talking head segments need to be decreased.

Anonymous said...

CNN does need more diversity, but the three African-American anchors on the weekend are not the answer to improving ratings. CNN should look at local news and see what is out there.

Anonymous said...

CNN needs to stop going backwards and move forward.

Jeff Zucker has to recruit news developers. People who will design apps for CNN on TV to give viewers the ultimate news experiment. CNN is getting it all wrong, You can't turn new media into old media. You have to mesh the 2 together. It all has to sync up. Obama got more folks to pay attention to the sequester than CNN ever will. They owned it. Connecting everything to a WH website. CNN was as boring as usual. Blah, blah,blah.

CNN knew Sequester Day was coming for months so you would think they would be brainstorming to make things interesting. Start thinking out of the
box and burn that bridge that takes you back to the 20th century news room. Quartz News shows how much CNN is leaving out of the story.

Also, quit making dumb mistakes. CNN is doing a
segment called Crime in 60 seconds. For some crazy reason CNN put the story of the transgender kid in the crime category. What crime ? This is a legal matter. A mistake like that should never happen.
That kid's story is not related to crime in any, way shape or form. Who is in charge of content ?

Anonymous said...

Also. it shows CNN needs to hire folks who understand pop culture. They did stories on the Harlem Shake and ignored the hottest video from the Miami Heat. It almost broke the internet. CNN needs to develop search teams to find news as close to real time as possible. Real news is always on the web. In many ways it is far better then what you get from CNN.

Anonymous said...

Bring in Laura Ling and get her to assemble a Vanguard journo team for CNN. Vanguard is some of the best docs on the planet. Have her bring in Kaj Larsen, Adam Yanaguchi, Christof Putze, Marianna Van Zeller, Make
Amber Lyon a team member as well. Current has a marathon until 5 PM today. It's real reporting. Check it out and you will see.. this could be CNN's version of NIghtline.

Phebe said...

@anonymous 11:50AM, After the scandal Amber Lyon caused CNN I doubt she'll be included in any future CNN programs. If you're not familiar with what she did do a web search.

Anonymous said...

Get in the game for female viewers CNN. All weeklong CBS Morning Show is doing shows dedicated to women. FNC has announced a Carol Alt weekend show.
CNN do the ladies news show now. CNN already has a group of diverse females. For starters go with Robin Meade, Isha Sesay, Alina Cho and someone from CNN Espanol. The battle for millions of potential viewers is on and CNN is asleep at the switch. Wake up.

Anonymous said...

It would be wonderful to see both Tj Holmes and
Betty Nguyen back at CNN. They're not so uptight
or angry like so much cable news talent. Can you
say overacting ? Fake rage is just that fake. Both
are likable and that is a big issue with CNN talent.
You don't like them. The weekend mornings at CNN
have been horrible since they left.

Anonymous said...

If TJ Holmes were to come back to CNN he would definitely need a co-anchor. I watched his show on BET and it was not very good. He cannot carry a show alone.

Anonymous said...

David Gregory summed up how the press really feels about President Obama. Dude is too media savvy for the news media. Obama knows how to deliver the news to the masses and they are stuck in the ideological mud and have yet to figure that it is the Information Age. Until CNN drops the circus atmosphere nothing will change and viewers will continue to flee. How about focusing on the news and finding better styles of reporting that inform the masses. The nonsense needs to end and CNN needs to act like they have some sense. Who cares about the idiot of the day or what some cable news or radio fool has to say. It's not news and should never be elevated as journalism. How about bringing on people who are bona fide bad, you know what ,who know their stuff. By the way in this day and time it is a positive term.It means you have your act together.

Start writing like the viewers are right there on the set with you and use regular speak like you normally would in talking with someone. Stop getting your news ideas from talk radio and partisan so-called news websites. Studies have shown that people skip the negative tone on social media . In a nation of 300 million, you don't know what we are really taking about. You don't know what viewers will like or respond to. That is why you experiment and try to find out what works.

Anonymous said...

Hire George Mark Paul Stroumboulopoulos

Hire Conor Knighton, He once hosted a show that
matched up web searches with news events and
can also double as a pop culture correspondent.

Any way CNN can lure some of those people from
Obama ? You have to admit they are good and are
thinking on their feet. Maybe even Pete Cashmore
as a consultant or contributor. Good grief is CNN
ever in need of fresh ideas.

Adam Yamaguchi is the executive producer for
Vanguard these days. Marianna Van Zeller and
Christoff Putzel are the others. I think Kaj Larsen
is freelancing. CNN could buy the rights to air
Vanguard exclusively. Isn't CNN into the doc
buying business. Vimeo has tons of aspiring
filmmakers and some of the best content.

Bring the internet reporters back to TSR. The
show has gotten slow and boring.

In the not to distant future cable news will feel
the pressure to offer more content. They won't
be around much longer if they don't move away
from being 24/7 political channels.

Tj & Betty were my favorite anchor team at CNN.
Right now Michael Holmes & Suzzane Malveaux
along with Anderson Cooper and Isha Sesay are
the only duos that work on CNN. 360 and Around
The World are the only 2 shows CNN has that are
worth watching.

Anonymous said...

Jeff Zucker has to clean up a huge mess left by previous management. He has to completely rebuild CNN. At some point he will get his own management team in place and hopefully the content and story selection at CNN will be better. Things can't stay the same. It makes more sense to do the women's news show in the morning . Women are the majority of morning show viewers so CNN could have a game changer.

Anonymous said...

Interesting. TV By The Numbers has an article on how
bad PMT is doing in the ratings.CNN definitely has to find a much better show for the hour. Could a news show aimed at women perform any worse ? I doubt it.

Just caught Alina Cho anchoring and she mentioned CNN doing something Wed-Fri on women. Make it a daily prime time thing.

Anonymous said...

Since this is afterall a post or blog about journalists, and how they tried to sway Jeff Zucker in his hiring methods, TVN is reporting that Ann Romney also took a swipe at the media, by blaming her hubby's loss on well, the media.
She said that "the media, meaning those journalists that covered Mitts campaign, did their best not to show the real Mitt.
The problem is, we did see the real Mitt, and we, meaning the public, decided we didn't like what we saw.
Why is it, that no body today wants to be accountable for their actions, including public servants?
While Chris Wallace seemed to half believe the Romney's, that their campaign managers were at fault as well, the candidate never came across as a person with actual human qualities that we could identify with.
So no, it was THE CANDIDATES'fault that he lost. He couldn't convey his message to ordinary folk, and that message, lies with him, not his campaign, and not the journalists that covered him or CNN or any other network.
As fellow GOP member, Chris Christie admitted, "Mitt was a nice guy, but a poor candidate."
Period.
Anything else we want to heap on the media and the networks they cover?

Anonymous said...

CNN needs to make the news more interactive. Take for example, the Pope selection. CNN should put together a video vignette that tells the story, using creative writing , video, words and music. Here's what you do.

The script : Also known as set ups for any segments.
These vignettes can be created for any story

When Pope Benedict resigned that left the Catholic Church leaderless ( cover with video or Benedict)
So there is a papal vacancy ( only the words papal vacancy appear on the screen} and or course that means there is a cardinal conclave(cardinals video).
Their selection the next pope ( the tally of what #
this pope would be. Next you go to a bracket-like graphic (the pics/names of possible pope successors
With the pics , you get name, country ,age. The last
thing you would see would be a bracket with a ?
Voice says who will the next Pope be as Pope selection 2013 is underway. Joining us now is ______
Question : what's the latest happenings. The reporter would greet the anchor and viewers by
saying everyone after saying the anchors name
CNN looks to much like a 2 way conversation that
is leaving the viewers outAct like the viewers are there and you are talking to a room full of people.

These vignettes can be stand alone and don't really
require an anchor toss. Now once the Pope is chosen you would get the biography. You would need the anchor toss to the reporters package. When these are used don't say an anchor name but say the word you. By now you all have heard the name_________
Well, here's the bio.

CNN definitely needs to update it's graphic and drop the ancient double box look. Also, randomly put questions on the screen along with news headlines going in and out of breaks. For example. to 5 CNN
Trends. Newspaper headlines, video. Be unpredictable and stop used tired old formulas that have been around for 25 years. The world has changed so what is taking the news so long.
Of course make these vignettes and trailers available for free downloads at CNN's website.

Anonymous said...

CNN needs to ask themselves this simple question :
what are we going to do for CNN viewers today ?
Stop thinking like media industry and political insiders.
That is not the American public. We want the story, not your opinion. Can viewers get some real news and
reporting. Present it all to us. We don't need the
pundits.

Anonymous said...

I'm huge fan of Conor Knigtton. He is very good at TV. His CBS bio says he is a contributor for news, pop culture and trends. Conor is also on the List. This is someone CNN should give a show for 7 PM hour for a different type of news show. How about throwing Richelle Carey and Christi Paul from HLN into the mix.
Infomania was awesome as well.

Anonymous said...

Jeff Zucker is apparently eyeing Tamaron Hall to pair with Chris Cuomo but she has another year left on her contract with NBC. Besides she is sometimes on Today.
Does anyone know if the show will be 2 or 3 hrs.NY Post is also saying consideration is being given to Brooke Baldwin, Suzanne Malveaux and Ashleigh Banfield. CNN has to get this right this time around.

Anonymous said...

How about Chris Cuomo and Betty Nguyen. She left CBS. I don't think Brooke Baldwin has the right morning show personality. That would be a disaster for CNN.

Anonymous said...

Has anyone mentioned Candy Crowley for the woman's talk show? She would add political credibility and a mature woman's viewpoint. Plus she's hysterically funny when the topic allows and so very smart. I'd love to see that happen and for CNN to move John King back to anchoring SOTU. He is not being used to his full potential currently.

Anonymous said...

Willie Geist and Tamaron Hall are being groomed to
eventually take over the hosting duties on Today. No
way in the world NBC lets her go. For 3 years now CNN
has not been able to put together a decent morning
show. The hosts are only a part of the problem. The
bigger issue is the format. CNN is lousy at that. All
CNN shows know only 1 format. Bring on the pundits.

Anonymous said...

A women's news show does not need to be political. Keep in mind that men and women are different. It's different if there is an election but now way should politics be heavily covered or even mentioned. This is a whole different demo . This would not be a typical cable news show.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe Burnett is demanding more cash to go to mornings. As if she is too good for that. That must really irritate Cuomo, Soledad, and Berman. Sounds like she is not a good team player at all. Oh well, Robin Meade or Brooke Baldwin or Tamron Hall would do just as well if not better. If Burnett is going to act like this, CNN should just dump her. Who needs that drama? Her ratings have been terrible so what makes her think she is all that? When her contract is over, I would send her packing.

Anonymous said...

What's ironic is that everything evolves to fit the times in which we live. Cars, clothing, furniture,televisions, phones, music, computers, etc. The world does not stand still. CNN is way behind the times. People share news and information. CNN has trapped itself into the ideological world and not the real world. You can't be disconnected for the public at large. CNN will not survive if this continues. :Look at the rating . You are a product that is fading fast and it is your own fault.In this day and time content is king. So why is there so little on CNN. Ted Turner created CNN to be a window to the world, a channel that was widely respected worldwide. Now CNN is an international joke. CNN needs to get it's journalistic credibility back. Too many bad hires and so of the worst shows ever in cable news have done
damage to CNN.

Anonymous said...

All journalism standards have officially died at CNN.
CNN is going on and on about the Menedez story
from the Daily Caller. So now right wing blogs are
news sources for CNN. AJE can't come soon enough.

Anonymous said...

For those that are interested, Piers Morgan has a new gig.
He is a judge on the Apprentice, with his long time pal and mentor,
Donald Trump.
He is right in his comfort zone, judgemental as ever, telling those who he deems unworthy, just where they stand with him and "The Donald."
Something tells me, however, that this is only temporary, but it is entertaining to see him alongside another pompous a.. like himself.