Another loss

Another loss to CNN: Jamie McIntyre is leaving the network. On Friday he appeared on The Situation Room with his final report, about a health risk for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan -- the use of "burn pits" -- and at the end of the clip Wolf thanks him for his work with the network:

Politico.com posted a copy of Jamie's farewell email to the CNN staff:

After 16 years of covering the U.S. military for CNN, the time has come for me to leave the beat. 

Although I was never bored, CNN and I both agreed it was time for a change.

We were unable to reach an agreement on another assignment, so after a friendly discussion, I decided to pursue other opportunities. 

I leave with no regrets, and nothing but pride for the things we accomplished, and admiration for the people I worked with over the years.

I began at CNN in 1988, as a weekend freelance reporter, so my association with the network spans 20 years.

Before replacing Wolf Blitzer at the Pentagon in 1992, I had hardly traveled outside the Washington area. Since then I have circumnavigated the globe more than once and visited more than 60 countries.

It has been a special honor to cover the men and women of the U.S. military, and see, close up, the dedication and sacrifice they make to defend the nation. 

If I start mentioning names I will leave too many people out, but I have to express special gratitude to three CNNers in particular:

Tom Johnson, who was a rock of journalistic integrity in every confrontation with the Pentagon, the late Bill Headline, who hired me and stuck by me when many questioned why the weekend feature reporter was being assigned to the Pentagon, and my editor Sheila Kanzler, who was with me from day one and never missed air, even when I gave her a script with less than 10 minutes to turn it into television.

I’ll be around for a little while longer to tie up loose ends, and wrap up some projects.

Life is all about timing, and this just seems like the right time to see what else is out there. 

I hear there’s a ton of money to be made in stand-up comedy.

Well, Jamie always did strike me as a stand-up guy... But his work and his classiness will be sorely missed by many viewers. ATC wishes him the very best in his future endeavors. 

(If this keeps up, we may have to change the name of the blog to "All Things CNN...and Beyond"!)

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Colin Powell is a guest on tomorrow's Fareed Zakaria GPS. Previews of the interview have been posted on CNN.com. In this one he talks about the future of the Republican party, conflicts within the Bush cabinet, and the "don't ask, don't tell" policy:

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Where in the World...?

SATURDAY: Candy Crowley was in Chicago covering the transition.

SUNDAY: Nic Robertson was on a NATO ship chasing pirates in the Gulf of Aden.

MONDAY: Nic was in Salalah, Oman, still covering the pirates; Phil Black was in Athens to cover the riots; Jessica Yellin was in Chicago to cover the transition; Gary Tuchman was in Chicago to cover a sit-in by laid-off union workers. (And Chicago was about to become an even hotter assignment...)

TUESDAY: Drew Griffin was in Chicago to cover the arrest of the Illinois governor.

THURSDAY: Don Lemon was in for Heidi Collins.

FRIDAY: Don was in a very cold Chicago (above) to interview Jesse Jackson Jr.; Carol Costello was in for John Roberts. 

A fairly quiet week in WITW...hopefully a lot of the reporters and crews are getting their holiday shopping done. You never know what may happen next week! Stay warm, everyone!

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Transitions

Friday, we got a preview of the interview Fareed Zakaria did with Al Gore for this week's GPS, and you know it's going to be a good one:

Wednesday, Christiane Amanpour did a "Memo to the President" about how to handle Iran:

Also on Wednesday, Peter Bergen appeared on AC360 to discuss the latest tape recording from al-Qaeda:

And on Friday, Miles O'Brien gave us a preview of the upcoming week of specials on UFOs that he's been putting together:

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On Thursday, John Roberts decided to go tie-less on American Morning. At first I thought he'd spilled coffee on it or something, and kept waiting for someone to bring him a replacement! But eventually it became obvious that this was no accident... I can only guess that upper management left early for the holidays because, come on: Ali Velshi had to shave his goatee but the host can decide to go casual all of a sudden?

Well, on Friday they discussed the new look and how people were reacting to it, and Lola Ogunnaike even quizzed some fashion-HE-stas about it:

Later in the day, Kyra Phillips spoke with John by phone for some fashion tips for TJ Holmes:

I'm sure you noticed how enthusiastic TJ's EP was about it... but he did indeed appear sans tie. But I'm just not seeing Wolf embracing the new trend! So we'll see what Monday brings. But I did want to clear up one thing: when it comes to not wearing a tie on CNN, we all know who the real trendsetter is. I'm just sayin'...

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Where in the World...?

SATURDAY: Suzanne Malveaux and Ed Henry were still in Chicago covering the Obama transition team.

SUNDAY: Dana Bash and Ed Henry were in Washington.

MONDAY: Michael Ware was in Washington; Ali Velshi was in Detroit; Kitty Pilgrim hosted Lou Dobbs Tonight, as she would all week.

TUESDAY: Jessica Yellin was in Chicago; John King was in Washington; Ali Velshi was back in New York; Sanjay Gupta was in New York for the Fit Nation Summit.

WEDNESDAY: Sean Callebs was in Lincoln, Nebraska, to cover the debate over the state's Safe Haven Law; Peter Bergen was in Washington (via phone for American Morning, in the bureau for AC360).

THURSDAY: Jamie McIntyre was at the Port of Baltimore for a report on the Navy's efforts to battle pirates; Gary Tuchman was in Moraine, Ohio, where a GM plant is shutting down.

FRIDAY: Miles O'Brien was in New York, previewing his reports next week on UFOs; TJ Holmes (above) was in for Rick Sanchez' hour of NewsRoom; John King hosted Larry King Live.

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Where's Wolf?

Tom Foreman's latest Metro article is The real meaning of loose change.

Change is tricky.

Each new president brings his moving boxes to the White House, saying he really wants change; and almost all of them leave saying they wish they could have had more of it. In this election, where change was the cornerstone of winning, Barack Obama’s ability to produce change will be a large measure of his success.

He wants change. You, the voters, want change. Even John McCain ran on a message of change. But Washington does not want it.

“Hold on!” you say. “Isn’t this a government of the people, by the people and for the people?”

Sure. In the same sense that professional sports are really all about the fans. All the politicians will tell you they believe; in theory the government should serve the public’s interest. But it’s like that old saying: When people agree with you in theory, it means they have no intention of agreeing with you in practice.

Washington is all about power, and people with power keep it, only if things remain largely the same. When things start changing, power ebbs and flows from one person to the next, and all those power brokers in D.C. get nervous. Right now, they have power, and if things change they might not. And they will use that power in whatever way is necessary to keep power in their hands.

There are plenty of other impediments to change.

Global economic turmoil is roaring ahead, with scant care about Obama’s grand visions. The markets may get a lasting election bounce, but base level problems boil beneath the surface, and they can undermine his most sincere, smartest efforts to produce change.

We have already had warnings about the potential for increased international terrorism, as enemies of America test our new president. It happened to Bill Clinton, with the first attack on the World Trade Center. It happened to George W. Bush, with Sept. 11. Ask yourself, “What vision for change did President Bush have before that terrible day, and how much did it shape so many of the events that followed?”

Barack Obama is telling you to beware of the cynics, the skeptics, all who say change can’t come, because ideas and hope are too easily killed. But remember that changing even a single life, let alone a nation, is difficult. It requires patience, cooperation, and not a little luck.

I could not help but think of all that, as I walked away from the cheering crowd in Times Square on election night, and no kidding, I passed a man in rags, hunkered on a corner with a paper cup.

“Hey, man,” he said, “Do you have some change?”

Last week was Election Day and without our veterans, would we even have an election? So its fitting that Tuesday of this week, we celebrate Veterans Day. CNN.com has a featured section called “Veterans in Focus: Service, Struggle and Success” – which highlights 11 veterans and their stories. CNN's Jamie McIntyre hosts the special from the National World War II Memorial.

John King hosted Late Edition on Sunday. He interviewed California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and asked him for his thoughts on the election results.

John King also interviewed Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid. Here is a clip from the interview:

You may have noticed that Wolf Blitzer was missing from CNN on Friday and Sunday. Where was he? Well, at the end of Late Edition this morning, John King explained that Wolf was at his daughter, Ilana's wedding.

The New York Times article explains how the couple met.

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Black in Iraq

Phil Black has been covering Iraq for the past several weeks, and had several reports this week.

In this clip (which aired on Domestic on Tuesday) he visits Al Rashad Hospital in Baghdad, the ONLY mental-health facility in the country:

On BackStory, Phil discussed the security concerns surrounding the visit to Al Rashid:

In this clip, he visits a cemetery that has been completely filled since the war began. To see the rows upon crowded rows of gravestones is an incredible visual; it makes the numbers far more human:

Yesterday, Phil spoke with Tony Harris about the decrease in US fatalities in Iraq:

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Also yesterday, Jamie McIntyre reported on the proposal to negotiate with the Taliban:

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Where in the World...?

I was going to save this clip until Monday, but it just fits too well with the final WITW list for the campaign season... John King has been showing off a new feature of the Magic Wall: all that travel by the correspondents can now be tracked on the map! (He doesn't say it in this clip, but on TSR he specified that they are carrying iPhones with a GPS tracker.)

SATURDAY: Dana Bash was in Albuquerque, New Mexico and Jessica Yellin was in Las Vegas, they co-hosted Ballot Bowl coverage.

SUNDAY: Ed Henry was in Zanesville, Ohio, and Candy was in Denver, they co-hosted Ballot Bowl coverage; John King was in Santa Fe, New Mexico; Jessica was in Ft. Collins, Colorado with Obama; Cal Perry was back in Beirut.

MONDAY: Suzanne Malveaux was in Canton, Ohio with Obama; Ed was in Dayton, Ohio with McCain; Dana was in Pottsville, Pennsylvania with the Palin campaign; Candy was in Pittsburgh; John was in San Francisco; Wolf Blitzer was in New York (as he would be through Thursday); Campbell Brown visited The Situation Room.

TUESDAY: Dana was in Quakertown, Pennsylvania with McCain; Suzanne was in Chester, Pennsylvania with Obama; Jessica was in Harrisonburg, Virginia with Obama; Ed was in Fayetteville, North Carolina and Coral Gables, Florida with McCain; Candy was in Norfolk and Harrisonburg, Virginia with Obama; John and Gary Tuchman were both in Las Vegas.

WEDNESDAY: Suzanne was in Philadelphia; Jessica and Candy were in Sunrise, Florida with Obama (and Bill Clinton); Dana was in Maumee, Ohio with McCain; Ed was in Palm Beach, Florida; John was back in New York.

THURSDAY: Suzanne was in Sarasota, Florida with Obama; Dana was in Defiance, Ohio with McCain; Ed was in Mentor, Ohio with McCain; Jessica was in Virginia Beach, Virginia with Obama; Candy was in Columbia, Missouri with Obama.

FRIDAY: Dana was in Youngstown, and New Philadelphia, Ohio with McCain; Suzanne was in Des Moines, Iowa with Obama; Jessica was in Chicago; Candy was in Highland, Indiana with Obama; Ed was in Columbus, Ohio with McCain; Wolf was in Des Moines to interview Obama; John hosted Larry King Live.

*phew!* I hope they ALL get to take next week off and use some of those frequent flyer miles to go somewhere and lay on the beach!

And after all that, if you're in the States be sure to get out and vote on Tuesday if you haven't already!

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Curveball

Last Friday (10/10) Rick Sanchez devoted quite a bit of his program to discussing "Curveball," the former Iraqi chemical engineer who gave us the "mobile biological weapons labs" and much of the pseudo case to go to war in Iraq. This first piece is a look at how the information was used:

In this segment, the first public interview with Curveball, whose real name is Rafed Ahmed Alwan, conducted by Frederik Pleitgen in Berlin.

In the third and fourth segments, Rick discusses the interview with two authors of books about Curveball, one of whom was also a CIA agent:

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This past Friday, Phil Black reported on the state of the Iraqi stock market:

Saturday, Phil reported on a protest march called by Muqtada al Sadr to condemn the latest version of the Status of Forces Agreement:

This morning, Jamie McIntyre reported on the latest wrinkles in the proposed SoFA:

All Things CNN is now on Twitter.

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Racing the clock...and vice versa

Over the weekend, Don Lemon did a report on the National Debt "Clock" -- it has actually run out of digits to compute how high the debt is! Talk about scary...

Nic Robertson is back in London and yesterday spoke with Don about a meeting held last month in Mecca hosted by Saudi King Abdullah to bring together Taliban and Afghani leadership:

Nic's piece was followed by one from Jamie McIntyre about whether the "surge" concept used in Iraq could work in Afghanistan. Doesn't look like it...:

Arwa Damon traveled to Kurdistan to meet with the PKK, a Kurdist rebel group, or terrorist operation, depending on your point of view. Astonishingly, one of the things the PKK is fighting for is equality of women:

Arwa also has an article about the group on the CNN.com website.

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CNN International launched a new program today, hosted by Michael Holmes. It is called Backstory, and it gives viewers a look at what goes into getting a story on the air. Here is some of what Michael posted about the program:

Hello everyone and welcome to BackStory -- a new and exciting type of program for CNN International, and a new path for me personally.

Backstory is dynamic, fresh, personal look at how we get great stories.

We hope you will be involved heavily in our program, in terms of content and in terms of feedback. We'll blog, we'll Twitter but we want your input too.

The idea, as you'll see elsewhere on this site, is to bring you a perspective of the news, and the news business, that you don't see elsewhere. Added value if you like.

We'll be giving more airtime to those who witness news events, showing you how we do things, give you context to news of the day and take you behind the headlines.

(The full post is here. Also included is a link to a video about the program.) 

Délie has converted and posted two of the pieces on today's premiere edition of Backstory: Arwa Damon traveling outside of Baghdad without military escort for the first time in years (uploaded in two parts):

Backstory - Arwa Damon part 1 - 10/06/2008
Uploaded by Delie31

Backstory - Arwa Damon Part 2 - 10/06/2008
Uploaded by Delie31

Also from Backstory, Nic Robertson talks to a US soldier about winning hearts and minds in Afghanistan by empowering the local citizens to build their country back up again:

Nic Robertson - Backstory 10/06/2008
Uploaded by Delie31

Looks like another exceptional program from CNN/I ... I'm definitely going to have to move to a neighborhood where International is offered! (Just don't tell my boss -- I work for a cable company that doesn't offer it!)

In the meantime... thank you, Délie!!

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The current issue of Rolling Stone has an article titled "How to Survive Cable News," and despite the title, they have high praise for some CNN'ers. 

• Jeffrey Toobin is named "Most Improved" for the transition from covering Scott Peterson's trial to being part of TBPTOT. 
• John King is named a Great Geek who, "with the help of his Minority Report-style Magic Map can be brilliant wonky." 
• After analyzing how many minutes per hour are spent on Commercials, News, and Blah Blah, Campbell Brown has almost double the amount of News (23 minutes) than either MSNBC's Keith Olbermann or Fox's Bill O'Reilly (who only managed 12 minutes each.) By the way, the outside back cover of this week's issue of Time is a full-page ad for Campbell's program.
  

RS also names five Best and Worst of Cable News. CNN has three of the Best:

• Anderson Cooper -- He's not a pundit, he's not a gas bag -- he's not even yelling. That's why Cooper makes this list: his ability to referee while rising above the verbal fistfights (and for talking some sense into Larry King every night). We wish he'd stop calling Donna Brazile "Boo," but you can't have it all.
  
• Roland Martin -- Hey, who invited this guy? Aren't all cable pundits supposed to be white, creaky, ex-Nixon aides? A former editor at The Chicago Defender, Martin has brought a new, sharp voice to CNN's election coverage -- that is, when he's allowed to get a word in on those crowded panels.
• David Gergen -- Sure, many nights he plays it safer than Nickelback, but the silky former adviser to four presidents is still a trusted voice of Washington insider politics. And let's not pretend we don't care about Washington insider politics -- we're watching CNN, for crap's sake. Has nicely straddled the old and new CNN.

...and two of the Worst:

• Lou Dobbs -- Dubiously reborn as a populist warrior, CNN's ivory-toothed business blowhard sits before a waving American-flag graphic, lecturing his imprisoned guests every night on subjects like immigration reform, international trade and his own genius. Bonus egomaniac points: Reportedly mulled a 2008 presidential bid.
• Glenn Beck -- Again, why is this guy on cable TV? Oh, yeah, because Headline News, after exhausting every possible opportunity to be a credible new network, turned to the dark Fox-chasing side and recruited their own lil' O'Reilly to make hay about global warming, etc. Minor upside: not Nancy Grace.

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That's it for me this week. I'm taking a short break from ATC to have a medical procedure done, but will be back on the 18th with a double dose of WITW and who knows how many clips to share! 

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and may not be used without consent of the blog administrator.

Pakistan's New President

Nic Robertson was back in Pakistan this weekend to cover the election to choose a new president. As he explained in a blog post, he has been unable to get a visa to enter the country for the past year after criticizing former president Pervez Musharraf:

Stakes high in Pakistan’s battle against Taliban

But before the voting began, the Taliban attempted to assassinate the leading contender, Asif Ali Zardari, widower of Benizir Bhutto:

Nic also did a behind-the-scenes piece for CNN.com about the scramble to chase the story:

Another blog post the morning of the election told how local citizens were understandably not very wrapped up in the outcome -- in a country where corruption and coups are more likely than not to decide who is in power, local economics and security concerns are much more on the minds of the residents:

Storm clouds gather over Pakistan vote

Following the announcement of the election, Nic walked the streets of Islamabad as people celebrated the news:

In his final blog post of the week, Nic described the actual voting itself, the changes in press freedom over the past decade, and perhaps a bit of the cynicism of those who recognize when the cameras are rolling:

The job facing Pakistan’s new president

On Sunday, Nic appeared on Fareed Zakaria GPS to discuss various aspects of the Pakistan issue:

Also, Nic was in Atlanta a few weeks ago and appeared on Newsroom to talk about the situation in Darfur. I had promised to post this before Gustav changed our plans and wanted to catch it up:

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Elsewhere this week, Cal Perry was back in Damascus and scored an exclusive interview with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad:

Barbara Starr did a very interesting piece last week on the way the Pentagon is studying vets who are living with pieces of shrapnel in their bodies when doctors decide that removing them would be too dangerous. This piece also was included in Dr. Sanjay Gupta's House Calls this past weekend:

And yesterday, the Pentagon sponsored Freedom Walk to commemorate the upcoming 9/11 anniversary. Jamie McIntyre profiled an Air Force Colonel who was returning for the first time to the room where he was sitting when the plane struck seven years ago:

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A couple of programming notes... First, Newsroom debuted a new line-up of anchors today (all times Eastern):

9a-11a — Heidi Collins
11a-1p — Tony Harris

1p-3p — Kyra Phillips  (Betty Nguyen was on today, Kyra is in Anchorage)

3p-4p — Rick Sanchez

According to the original report: Rick joins our weekday lineup following his great work on the weekend edition of CNN Newsroom. Don Lemon will become our prime-time weekend anchor for Newsroom, which allows his award-winning reporter talents to be used as a correspondent on the weekdays.

Also, some apparently unfortunate news for non-US viewers of CNN International -- it seems that Anderson Cooper 360 has been removed from the new schedule!

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War is Hell

Even as the Olympics opened and once again celebrated peaceful competition, wars continue around the globe, and as always, CNN has teams reporting on several fronts.

Last Wednesday, Arwa Damon filed a report about a refugee camp north of Baghdad. The conditions here are shocking and surely not the worst, here or in other countries affected by war:

On Friday, Arwa gave us an update on the current talks about the Status of Forces Agreement:

...followed by Barbara Starr's assessment from the Pentagon:

At the other end of the spectrum, Jamie McIntyre summed up his reporting and what he saw at Guantanamo Bay:

On Sunday morning, Wolf Blitzer spoke with Matthew Chance in Tbilisi as the erupting war there escalated:

A few hours later, Frederik Pleitgen phoned in from another area outside Tbilisi and told how his crew was nearly struck by a Russian air strike:

Sunday night, Frederik sent in a piece about the residents fleeing South Ossetia. Some very disturbing images in this one:

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Last week, we also had some reporting from Dan Rivers in Bangkok, first time we've seen him since his trip inside Myanmar:

CNN's main strength -- the aspect that sets it above all the competition -- is the number of excellent assets it has in the field at any given time. The ability to cover multiple hot spots within the United States and around the world is so vital in this day and age of instant information. Both Domestic and International have (to use a sports metaphor) very deep benches, and their immediate response serves their audience well, bringing us the sights and sounds of war and the innocent civilian victims. How else can we be informed enough to pressure our political leaders to work to bring these conflicts to an end?

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and may not be used without consent of the blog administrator.