Black in America: Almighty Debt

ALMIGHTY DEBT: A BLACK IN AMERICA SPECIAL with Soledad O'Brien premiers on Thursday, October 21 at 9 PM ET.

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Gracie Allen Award Winners

Congratulations to Jessica Yellin for her Gracie Award win. According to TV Newser Yellin won for Outstanding Hard News Feature. Other CNN winners include CNN Presents "Black In America" for Outstanding Documentary and Larry King Live for Outstanding Talk Show - News for their interview with Katherine Callaway Hall. A gala for the awards will be held in LA on May 25.

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'In America's' New Executive Producer

Award-winning producer Geraldine Moriba has been named executive producer of CNN's "In America" unit, the network's newly created division, which will extend the “In America” franchise anchored by Soledad O’Brien. The announcement was made today by Bart Feder, senior vice president for current programming, CNN/U.S.
With more than 20 years of journalism experience, Moriba will be responsible for leading the editorial direction of the "In America" unit, working with CNN anchor and special correspondent Soledad O'Brien and a team of producers, generating “In America” series which will run within CNN's weekday programming, as well as long form primetime documentaries.
"Geraldine is a fantastic choice to lead the ‘In America’ unit in its reporting on communities across America,” said Feder. "Her years of award-winning production work and management experience give her the background to expand CNN’s commitment to long form journalism that reflects all aspects of the American experience.”
Moriba comes to CNN after 16 years at NBC News, where for 12 years, she served as a producer for Dateline NBC. Most recently she has served as senior producer for Broadcast Standards, monitoring news reports on all NBC News platforms. During this time, Moriba also served as an executive and senior producer on various multiplatform projects including: Obama’s America 2010 with Chris Matthews and Tom Joyner, an MSNBC special town hall on race; About Our Children with Bill Cosby, a two-hour MSNBC special on education; Making Your Vote Count, an election unit covering election fraud and irregularities in the 2008 elections; and the critically acclaimed Father’s Promise with Al Roker and Tiki Barber about the crisis of absent African American fathers. While at Dateline NBC, she produced numerous breaking news reports, as well as an investigative report on a NYC Child Services, various 9-11 stories, and an in-depth report tracing the lives of students in a 1982 fourth grade class photo to determine the impact of crime, poverty and broken homes.
Said Moriba, "It is an honor to join CNN and the “In America” team. I’m excited as I realize the magnitude of CNN's field of vision, and my mission is to continue CNN’s tradition of telling underreported news stories first. I hope to raise the bar by delivering even more untold stories from underrepresented communities in new and innovative ways.”
While at NBC News, Moriba was appointed a prestigious Visiting Ferris Professorship of Journalism position at Princeton University. During her tenure she developed and taught a seminar on how to use digital journalism skills to get more untold stories on the air. She was also the co-chair for NBC News’ Diversity Committee developing diversity programs to support leadership development and diverse content across NBC News programming.
Before joining NBC, Moriba was a researcher at ABC’s PrimeTime Live. She was also a producer for As It Happens, the news and current affairs broadcast of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Canada, covering stories ranging from the LA Riots to the Gulf War.
Moriba has won five Emmy Awards, including most recently in September 2009 for Outstanding Coverage for a Breaking News Story Long Form, NBC News Decision 2008 Election Night. She’s won a Peabody Award for a Tom Brokaw special report she produced on the Supreme Court case against the University of Michigan’s affirmative action admissions policy. She has also received an Alfred I. DuPont, the National Association of Black Journalists First Place Award, two New York Association of Black Journalists Documentary Awards, the Radio-Television News Directors Association First Place Unity Diversity Award, the Newswomen’s New York Front Page News Feature Award, the US Films Video Festival Silver Screen Award, two National Headliner Awards, the “Chris” Award of the Columbus International Film and Video Festival, a New York Film Festival Finalist Award and a Nancy Susan Reynolds Informational Documentary Finalist Award.
Moriba received her honors bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Women’s Studies from the University of Western Ontario. She is married with two children. The second of four children, Moriba grew up in Toronto, Canada. *

*text quoted directly from Turner Press Release

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Rob, BIA, iReports and some Bday news

Back in June Book Asylum posted a snippet of the interview that Rob Marciano did with VMan Magazine. It's really not a magazine that most of us were familiar with, but the article was great and the pictures of Rob very GQ.

The ladies of American Morning could not resist a bit of good natured teasing while Rob was filing in for John Roberts last week. Enjoy!

If you want to read Rob's q & a with VMan just follow the link.



Amazon is taking preorders for CNN's Black in America DVD, due for release on August 26.

And from the CNN Pressroom:
CNN Celebrates Second Anniversary of iReport, More than 175,000 Contributions

Two years after inviting CNN’s global audience to contribute pictures and video of the news of the day, the network’s hugely successful iReport initiative has brought in more than 175,000 videos and photos in its history, nearly 125,000 coming within the second year alone.
“With iReport, CNN wanted to engage viewers who have a desire to follow and participate in the news, and our iReporters have exceeded our expectations in both the quality and quantity of their submissions over the last two years,” said Susan Grant, executive vice president of CNN News Services. “Sometimes the iReports we receive are first images of breaking news and often exhibit powerful points of view on issues or news events. But every day our iReporters show an enthusiasm for and pride in the community they have created.”

Congratulations to the CNN.com team on the success of iReport!

And I leave you for this week with belated birthday wishes to two members of the CNN family.

Happy Belated Birthday (Tuesday) to one of ATC's hottest CNN anchors, TJ Homes.

Happy Belated Birthday (Wednesday) to CNNi's Robin Oakley.

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Black in America

Over the last few months CNN has been promoting the 4 hour documentary "Black in America" which was the follow up to "Eyewitness to Murder: The Assassination of MLK" This promotional ad has been airing for a while to get the momentum going for the upcoming special.

Well after the long wait "Black in America" premiered Wednesday night with the conclusion airing on Thursday. After the long build up I can personally say, it was certainly worth the wait and I really enjoyed it.

Soledad O'Brien spent the past 2 years preparing this documentary. With the help of poet Jon Goode, I will give a run down of the program. I will do my best to get the main points from the four hours.

The focus of Wednesday night's program was the Black Woman and the Family. The show opened with the Rand Family reunion. The Rand family has over 300 members on their way to their family Reunion. We met Rubystein McGhee who is the Rand family historian. In her investigation of her family history, Rubystein comes to learn that her great great grandfather, William Harrison Rand was a white man. The Rand family includes both black and white members including Martha Hicks. The two women found each other but not had the opportunity to meet. With the help of Soledad, Rubystein and Martha finally meet. If was a very emotional moment.

There is a crisis in education among the black community with the drop out rate climbing rapidly. Victor Keys and other volunteers in Houston try to convince drop outs to return to school. Brandon Gully is one student who dropped out, re-registered only to drop out again which seems to be a trend.

Next up Soledad investigated a new initiative of paying students to learn. Harvard economist Roland Fryer works with some fourth grade students in a Brooklyn elementary school. The students can earn up to $25 dollars per test with a grand total of $250 for perfect scores. There are about 5000 students in the program throughout New York which is privately funded.

One of the students in the program, Eric Kennedy Jr along with his sister and single father Eric Kennedy Sr. are about to lose their home. Eric Sr. went to court to try and prevent his landlord from converting his apartment building into a single family home. The Kennedy would eventually have to move out of their apartment. The Kennedy's are living in poverty which is high in the African American community.

Soledad takes a look at health care for many blacks, which has become the emergency room at hospitals. Soledad speaks with patients and doctors. Are black people biologically different then white people??? It may be a salt sensitivity thing but there is no proof so right now it is just a theory. Trying to find healthy food in many black communities has become more difficult as well. Soledad goes to Brooklyn to meet up with Sabra Abdullah, the patient she met in the hospital. Sabra has to go 20 plus blocks to go to a supermarket that has fresh produce.

The second hour of Black in America really focused in on women and the family. Soledad takes a look at the Smith family. The Smiths are a two parent household with 5 children who are attending or have attended college. We also meet Ira Johnson and her five children. Ira is single and having a hard time in supporting the entire family. Ira ends up moving to a smaller home due to finances.

Maryanne Reed is the creator of "Marry Your Baby Daddy Day", a program which helps couples work towards getting married creating more stable families in the black community.

We next visit the single black woman. We see Chris Turner, a successful screenwriter in Hollywood who is unsure if right now she wants to give up the life she has to get married. Chris is also open to dating men out of the black community....

Which leads to interracial relationships. We meet married couple Kimberly and Tom. Kimberly and Tom have two children. After the children were born, members of the family made racial comments. Kimberly and Tom did not have a conversation before they married on how they would raise their children as either black or white. Seems like some communication needs to be hashed out soon.

The face of AIDS today has changed from the face of AIDS 20 plus years ago. The faces are young black females. Soledad spoke with Marvelyn Brown who contracted HIV when she was 19 years old. Soledad goes with 18 year old Nya Buckley to take an HIV test. Nya test comes back negative.

49% of the murder victims in America are from the black community. Dr. Carnell Cooper works with people who come into the hospital and try to help them get back on "the straight and narrow" from their hospital bed until they leave the hospital and for the rest of their lives. Dr. Cooper's hope is that these people never come to the hospital again due to violence.

On Thursday night, the program's focus switched to the Black man.

The second night starts out with Butch Warren and other students who went to school in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1968. The men recall the day that MLK died and how the white students reacted.

Following the men as they recall their lives after MLK death, we have some who fell into a life of crime and others who have been successful. There are nearly a million black men in prison right now. Drugs are a big reason for this and crack is the number one drug.

We see some black men who go out on some job interviews and are given the run around. Those who had criminal past had difficultly finding work.

In as much as there is struggle, there are also success stories. With the success comes the accusations of becoming "white"

Jonathan Warren is a District Attorney in Arkansas. There are only two black district attorneys in his district. Jonathan can see how the law sometimes seems to work against those in the African American community

Comedian D.L. Hughley a former gang member was able to leave a gang and gain success in Hollywood. With all the success D.L. still has a strong distaste for the police.. He has taught his son how to deal with police if the need arises.

Black men and education has some good and bad news. The number of black men who have graduated since 1968 has quadrupled but still many black men do not finish school and many of those drop outs end up behind bars.

Where have all the fathers gone? A cycle of fathers leaving their children's lives and then those children having their own children and doing the same thing. Nearly 60% of black children are growing up without a father in their life. There are also men out there who are tremendously involved in their children's lives.

Black men in the corporate world. Malcolm Gilliam is an ad executive. Malcolm has to deal with the worries that come with being a black man in a predominately white business and he also has to deal with friends who think he is "too white".

Spike Lee, a major Hollywood director has to deal with a business that has a certain idea of what "the black stories" are for movies. It is aggravating to Spike when he can not portray all kinds of stories from the African American community

Today's rap music is being criticized. It has drastically changed from the original roots of hip hop. Rapper Lupe Fiasco went from being a "gangsta rapper" to hip hop star.

Two brothers Micheal Eric Dyson and his brother Everett have ended up completely different. Michael is a successful minister and Everett is in prison for murder. It all boils down to choices that we make but the issue of dark skin vs. lighter skin was brought up.

Black in America will be re-airing on Saturday and Sunday night at 8PM in case you missed it. If you did I strongly suggest watching it over the weekend. The stories brought to us by Soledad makes us all whether black, white, Latino, Asian or any other group of people stop and think and discuss. That I believe is what Soledad and CNN wanted this documentary to do and I believe the conversations are beginning.

You can also purchase Black in America on iTunes and on video on demand (VOD) 24 hours following the premiere. Check your local cable providers for VOD availability.

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Catching Up

First let me thank everyone who participated in the nominating process for our Hottest CNN Personality contest. We are putting together the polls and voting will begin soon.

Yes the lovely Kyra Phillips was one of our readers nominee's in the Hottest CNN Anchor (female) group. What's more important than winning ATC's 'Hottest' title? Maybe for Kyra it would be The Atlanta Press Club's National Television Journalist of the Year award she won recently.

Phillips has been anchoring her midday news program from New York since she finished subbing for Kiran Chetry (while Kiran was on maternity leave from American Morning). A CNN spokesperson told TVNewser Phillips plans to continue broadcasting from NYC through mid-August, when she expects to return to anchoring from Atlanta.

In related news American Morning's exec producer, Janelle Rodriguez said. “Last month (June), American Morning saw its best ratings in nearly two years among total viewers". Would those 'best ratings' have been when Kyra Phillips was at the anchor desk with John Roberts.? Hmm, need to do some further research on that one.



Part 1 of CNN's documentary Black in America aired on Wednesday evening. Its host, Soledad O'Brien, appeared on AC360 with Anderson Cooper to talk with guests from the documentary and further explore the issues of being black in America.
Part 2 will air at 9PM ET tonight and again there will be follow up discussion and exploration of the issues on AC360, immediately following BIA.
Earlier today (noon on Thursday) Soledad hosted a live, one-hour online special entitled Black in America: Your Reaction on CNN.comLive.
Black in America was filmed in high definition and will air on CNN/U.S., CNN HD and CNN International. The series will be available on iTunes and on video on demand (VOD) 24 hours following the premiere. Viewers should check with their local cable providers for VOD availability

Speaking of blockbuster documentaries CNN is in the process of filming Planet in Peril 2 with Anderson Cooper, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Lisa Ling. Here is the trailer that aired on Wednesday's AC360.

And I'll leave you today with a few caps of CNN's reporters blowing in the wind as Hurricane Dolly made landfall on Wednesday.
Gary Tuchman

Reynolds Wolf

Susan Roesgen (screengrab courtesy of TVNewser)

Ed Lavandera
Have a great week and I hope to see you back her soon. ~Phebe


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Black in America

Don't forget the premiere of CNN's Black in America Wednesday & Thursday at 9 PM(Eastern).
BIA's host, Soledad O'Brien, sat in for nationally-syndicated Steve Harvey on his Morning Show Tuesday. The radio program airs from 6am to 10am ET. If you missed it check out Steve's website for the audio clips.

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Odds and Ends

Nicole Lapin is the on the cover of this months issue of Powergirls, a magazine slanted towards more wholesome, substantive issues for young girls. There are some great role models for young women at CNN, nice to see some get involved in mentoring. Thanks to an ATC reader for sending this along.

photo courtesy of Jeremy Freeman/CNN

And the CNN Black in America College Campus Tour made it's last stop on Tuesday, in Atlanta, with TJ Holmes at the helm. All three Campus iReporter Contest winners were also at the tour stop, Clark Atlanta winner, Stephano Kaiser; Morehouse winner, Travers Johnson; and Spelman winner, Nashawn Anderson. To check out their iReports just click on their names. Congratulations to the winners and to CNN for a very interesting series featuring these young, talented students.

I'm beginning to think that Jon Stewart has a man crush on our man Wolf Blitzer. Or maybe it's just job envy?

And I'll leave you today with some CNN images from Tuesday night's Pennsylvania primaries. The ratings for CNN rocked, as did the coverage. Enjoy!










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Beauty, Brains and Chris Lawrence!

As I was considering who or what deserved my undivided attention for this week's stellar blog entry I could not resist a little Youtube fun with CNN hottie Nicole Lapin.

I do not use the term 'hottie' often when it comes to women, but Nicole has been officially given the moniker by Maxim magazine.
(right click on picture to enlarge)
Which got me to thinking....didn't Maxim miss a few great looking CNN women? I'm thinking Kyra Phillips, Betty Nguyen, Abbie Boudreau, Brianna Keilar, Susan Roesgen, Zain Verjee and Erica Hill should have made the list...just to name a few. Fox News has nothing on CNN when it comes to beauty and brains.



Speaking of good looks and brains did you catch Chris Lawrence's first installment in CNN's tour of six historically Black Colleges and Universities? It aired on Tuesday from Florida A&M University. The next stop on the HBCU tour is North Carolina Central on Thursday, April 10.
CNN has also launched a Campus iReporter contest in association with the Black in America tour at each of the six HBCU schools. CNN, together with the National Association of Black Journalists, will choose one Campus iReporter from FAMU, whose prize will be a digital video camera. The winner from each school will also be able to submit additional footage from their Black in America campus stop to win the grand prize: a trip for two to the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans over the Fourth of July weekend.
The HBCU tour will include a trailer outfitted with a jumbo television screen, along with video kiosks, where participants can submit their video response to a programming-related question via iReport. There will be live DJs, text-message polling, a graffiti wall and electronic polling stations using questions from a CNN/Essence Magazine/Opinion Research Corporation poll. Exclusive video previews from upcoming Black in America programming will also be featured. CNN, Essence Communications and Comcast will all have representatives and giveaways on site.
For more information, please visit CNN.com’s interactive special section.

We're a bit off schedule this week, sometimes it just happens. Please check back tomorrow for 'Ratings at a Glance'.
I'm off next week and I'm pleased to say ATA's master researcher Quitty will be posting in my absense.

Enjoy your day and I'll see you back here on the 23rd.~Phebe


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Odds And Ends

Congratulations to CNN on winning a Peabody Award for CNN Presents: God's Warriors. From the Peabody press release: In six hours over three nights, CNN explored how rising fundamentalist disenchantment with the modern, secular world has affected Judaism, Islam and Christianity in sometimes similar but also different ways.

Don't forget Thursday April 3rd's two hour premiere of the new CNN series
'Black in America'. The first installment of this 2 part series begins with 'Eyewitness to Murder: The King Assassination', a first-person account of what happened on April 4, 1968 reported by anchor and special correspondent Soledad O’Brien.

Every once in a while we come across some unscripted moments at CNN that give us a little insight into our favorite on air personalities. Here's one with Betty Nguyen and TJ Holmes. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday to Jon Klein.

Mr. K hit the big 50 on Tuesday!


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