Where in the World is Rick Sanchez?

TVNEWSER has posted an interview with Rick Sanchez about his future and a little look back at his time with CNN.

“You can’t win. I don’t care if you’re as masterful politically as Chris Matthews, as incredible in an argument as Bill O’Reilly, or as good-looking as Anderson Cooper. No matter what your skill set, someone’s going to be there every single day to blast your ass.”

When Sanchez was fired, he says what hurt him most is that “no one stood up for me. I was just as hated on the right as on the left.” If, by some quirk of fate, Sanchez returns to cable, “I’d have a publicist working with me every day and an agent watching my back, even if it costs half my salary.”

If he had to do it over again, “I would read every single word of every script, right off the ‘prompter,” Sanchez says. “I’d show up half an hour before, do my makeup, then do the show. Folks who do that are the ones who are beloved.”

The hard workers, like him, “are guaranteed to get a lot more crap,” he says.

To read the full interview and read more about his possible talk show based out of Miami follow the link.

Mediaite also reported recently that Sanchez will be calling the action for the Florida International's Golden Panther football team. Here's the link to that story.

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Your Views on the News, October 23, 2010

Jon Stewart on Larry King Live this week was just too delicious not to clip and post. We know you have something to say that is equally as brilliant as Jon so here's the place and now is the time.

Stewart's take on Parker-Spitzer:

What did JS think of Piers Morgan replacing Larry:



Stewart's take on media in general and CNN in particular:



More talk about CNN and the firing of Rick Sanchez:



How Jon feels about pundits and Anderson Cooper:



If you would like to read the full transcript of the program here's the link.

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Ex CNN'ers On GMA This Morning

Rick Sanchez spoke with George Stephanopoulos Friday morning on ABC's Good Morning America about Jon Stewart and what comes next for the fired CNN anchor.

Also on the program was Lou Dobbs defending himself against charges that he has hired illegal immigrants.






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Some Sanchez Follow-Up

We would be remiss if we didn't point out some of the follow-ups to the firing of Rick Sanchez.
First is David Letterman's Top Ten from Monday night:

Jon Stewart had a little to say on the subject:



And finally,former CNN senior producer Chez Pazienza worked with Sanchez at CNN and has know him for more than 20 years. Here's a bit of his take on the newsman:

As a local anchor, he was brilliant -- really, the best I've ever seen. That's because he understood that television on the whole was largely bullshit and that local news -- particularly the kind done so well at WSVN in Miami -- was just a lot of superficial dazzle. He figured if you could talk and talk well, what you were saying wouldn't really matter. He deserves credit for what one producer we used to work with together jokingly called his unique ability to "demystify television."

To read more of I, Sanchez check out Chez's blog Deus Ex Malcontent.

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Say Goodbye to Rick Sanchez

Another big CNN breaking story, that's 3 in the last 7 days! Rick Sanchez has been thanked for his years of service to the network and shown the door for his comments on Pete Dominick's satellite radio show on Thursday. After being the brunt of one too many Jon Stewart skits Sanchez called Stewart a bigot and then took on the media, Jewish influences and let's just say it went downhill from there. Mediaite has the clip, just follow the link.

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"Rick's List" adds 8pm slot as of July 22

From TVNewser:

CNN's Rick Sanchez is coming to primetime, at least temporarily. On "Rick's List" today, Sanchez casually dropped this line:

"Pretty soon we're going to have two things going on. A: We're going to be doing this newscast at 8:00 at night. We're excited about that, and my book is going to be coming out."

Presumably Sanchez's program will shift to 8 p.m. temporarily, until the panel show hosted by Eliot Spitzer and Kathleen Parker is ready to debut later this Fall.

Campbell Brown, who announced that she would be stepping down earlier this year, has continued to host her program since she revealed her decision. CNN has confirmed that Brown's last day at the network will be July 21.

A spokesperson for CNN tells TVNewser that Sanchez will start his 8 p.m. show Thursday July 22, and will continue hosting his afternoon program from 3-5.

Sanchez has been a regular fill-in for Brown, and had previously anchored "Out In the Open" at 8 p.m. in 2007.

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Your Views on the News, May 21, 2010

There have been some very interesting ideas for replacing Campbell Brown bouncing around the Internet. One has CNN hiring Eliot Spitzer and bringing back Crossfire. Another has Katie Couric taking over for Larry King when (and if) the CNN/CBS merger happens.

I also found a poll on polldaddy.com that listed these choices for what to do with Campbell's hour:

•Anderson Cooper Talk Show
•Late Edition with Katie Couric
•NewsNight with Eliot Spitzer
•Sanjay Gupta Live
•Jake Tapper Tonight
•Nancy Grace
•Crossfire with James Carville and Mary Matalin
•Another debate program with CNN contributors/analysts
•Ali Velshi Now
•David Shuster: No Bias, No Bull
•Rick's List
•None of the above

This morning Mediaite posted odds on some of the possible replacements:

• Crossfire-type show – 5:1 : A program like Crossfire would contradict some of what Klein has said in the past, but it’s a different time and as the election approaches, it could be a popular choice. While the masses of TV critics lent suggestions to the network recently, Crossfire kept coming up. This would also allow CNN to say it’s continuing its approach of representing both sides – in the way it show FNC and MSNBC do not. Some possibilities for the program could be Mary Matalin and James Carville, Roland Martin, Erick Erickson, Alex Castellanos, Gloria Borger, Donna Brazile and John Avlon. Side note – this choice is currently leading TVNewser’s poll.

• Current anchor, temporary – 10:1 : What if CNN puts in an anchor from another program with the promise it will just be through the November election. This allows a temporary solution – and the potential to completely revamp the line-up down the road. Possible anchors could be Rick Sanchez, John Roberts, Ali Velshi or Candy Crowley. But if this was for current anchor, permanent, the odds would leap up to 80:1. Don’t think that would happen at this point.

• Eliot Spitzer – 12:1 : This was floated by the Washington Examiner, and has been picked up elsewhere. It doesn’t sound likely – Spitzer is currently an MSNBC contributor – but it’s not getting shot down by CNN either. He’s a compelling selection, but is he really ready to anchor his own show? Maybe with another former GOP politician.

• Ed Henry – 15:1 : The White House correspondent was up for the Sunday show gig when John King left, so he could be slotted in for a D.C.-based show. This could be a temporary show as well, like above.

• Two major bomb-throwers – 16:1 : Similar to the Crossfire suggestion, but further. Like Crossfire on steroids. Think Ann Coulter paired with Michael Moore. Oh, you wouldn’t watch that?

• Alexis Glick – 24:1 : We’ve heard the name floated before, and the former FBN anchor and exec has shown up a few times on CNN since she’s left FOX. If she is picked, she could be paired with someone else as well, and you could theoretically make the hour business-focused. Does it draw the viewers though?

• Anderson Cooper – 35:1 : A suggestion of Glynnis MacNicol’s, this would put Cooper in the driver’s seat of CNN prime time. It could be interesting, but then re-opens another prime time hour. CNN could go the MSNBC route and replay Cooper at 10pmET, but that would most certainly look like a band-aid solution (or lack thereof).

• An HLN host – 36:1 : It would go against the grain – and against the mission statement recently of CNN. But couldn’t Nancy Grace or Joy Behar provide a spark the network needs in the prime time hour?

• Bill Maher – 60:1 : My pick – but certainly a longshot. He was great recently with Cooper, but it would cost CNN a lot to woo him from his cushy, and uncensored, home on HBO Friday nights.

• David Shuster – 75:1 : He’s already been in the building – and has felt the effects of the move at his current home, MSNBC. We haven’t heard this is a possibility, plus it would present more complications, like a buyout.


Personally I'd like to see CNN give Wolf Blitzer back his third hour of The Situation Room that earlier this year was whacked to give Rick Sanchez a regular slot. Or maybe bring back Aaron Brown.....of course I realize that that will never happen with Jon Klein at the helm of CNN, but that's a discussion for another day. Time will tell, but if you have a scenario for shaking up CNN's evening lineup we'd love to hear it.

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Downsizing The Situation Room

Its been a while since I felt compelled to bring out the soap box, but the announced changes in CNN's daytime schedule seem to warrant dusting if off and making use of it. What's all the fuss about? Let's start by taking a look at an article from today's Los Angeles Times:

CNN is shaking up its afternoon lineup in the new year. Beginning Jan. 18, “The Situation Room” will start an hour later to make room for a new show dubbed “Rick’s List,” anchored by Rick Sanchez, that will air from noon to 2 p.m. PST. It will be followed by a two-hour “The Situation Room,” whose anchor, Wolf Blitzer, had until now been handling three live hours a day.

CNN executives declined to speak publicly about the move, but a spokeswoman that the change was made to bring more uniformity to the afternoon lineup. The shake-up also lessens the focus on political news, which is expected to be one of the main topics covered in the 4 p.m. PST hour when John King begins anchoring that time slot early next year. [Updated at 12:06 p.m.: Blitzer will continue to cover political news in "The Situation Room."]

[Updated at 12:24 p.m: Sanchez will also cover the top political stories of the day during his program, while the shows anchored by Blitzer and King will be based in Washington and have a strong political focus.]

“Rick’s List” is expected to incorporate Twitter, a tool Sanchez frequently uses. This morning, he tweeted that the show “will be full of newsmakers and thinkers we- and u- think are relevant to CNN. My access = your access.”

Blitzer, in turn, tweeted that he was fine about the change. “Our excellent team can focus on 2 solid hrs,” he wrote. “Less becomes more.”

In the short term, Blitzer will continue to anchor for three hours a day, as he’ll be substituting in the 4 p.m. PST time slot until King begins his new show. King replaces Lou Dobbs, who abruptly resigned from the network last month. There is still no word yet about who will take over for King on his Sunday show “State of the Union.”

Source: Rick Sanchez gets expanded show on CNN; 'The Situation Room' loses an hour [Updated]

I have to give credit to CNN's management for being consistent: with any tweak or change to the line up that they make that one could deem as an improvement (for instance Lou Dobbs parting ways with CNN and then turning over the 7PM hour to John King next year) they tend to follow it with another decision that just leaves one scratching their head and wondering "what exactly were they thinking?"

For the past four and a half years, The Situation Room has been one of the most consistent programs in CNN's daytime line up. Three hours of news, politics, and sprinkling of analysis and pundits. For me, this has been the "must see" program on CNN during the week. Earlier this year, the program was even expanded to included an hour on Saturday evening for a recap of the program's highlights for the week. This is the program that is now getting cut by an hour each day?

There are many perfectly logical reasons why CNN may have decided to make this cut.

• Maybe Wolf Blitzer wanted to cut down on the number of hours he spends on air? Maybe losing two hours a week at the beginning of 2009 worked out so well, that cutting back an additional five hours a week in 2010 makes perfect sense?
• Maybe this is CNN's way of pushing Blitzer out the door? (Although, admittedly, CNN is typically not so nice about pushing people out the door nor do they typically take years to accomplish it. )
• Maybe Blitzer is giving up an hour of the Situation Room, so that he can go back to working 7 days a week and revive Late Edition on Sundays when John King vacates State of the Union?
• Then there's the cost aspect: maybe CNN wants to limit the production costs at the DC bureau to three hours of live TV a day during the week. (Two hours of The Situation Room and one hour of John King)?

Of course, what really adds insult to injury is the hour Blitzer is losing is being given to Rick Sanchez. Who would have ever imagined that CNN would replace Blitzer with Sanchez? Think about that for a moment... they are replacing one of their best journalists/ anchors with the least capable anchor on staff. In what way does this make sense? If CNN wants "uniformity" in the afternoon lineup, wouldn't giving the two hour block to Don Lemon, TJ Holmes, Betty Nguyen, or Ali Velshi (all very good journalists/ news anchors) make more sense? Or how about giving the viewers in the US an hour or two of International programming (for instance, Back Story or Quest Means Business)? I don't understand CNN's fascination with Sanchez and "the twitter hour". The experiment of having Sanchez on at 3PM is one that should be abandoned and quickly forgotten instead of expanded into a two hour program.

NOTE: The views and opinions reflected in this post are those of Book Asylum's and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the other contributors to All Things CNN.

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Ch-ch-ch-changes ... to the CNN schedule

Rick Sanchez tweeted this morning that starting in January he will now have two hours M-F, from 3-5pmET. Not to be outdone by that modern technology, Wolf Blitzer tweeted that TheSitRoom will air from 5-7pmET, giving them a tighter focus. "Less becomes more."

BTW, Ali Velshi is filling in for Rick's 3pm shift today, and will be interviewing Peter Bergen. (Gotta love the CNN TweetVerse!)

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Rick Sanchez on Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!

Rick Sanchez was the guest on Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, a news quiz show on NPR, this week. The show was taped at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center in Atlanta, Georgia and is hosted by Peter Sagal with Carl Kasell as judge and scorekeeper. This week's panel included Amy Dickinson, Charlie Pierce, and Roy Blount Jr. Here's a clip of Rick Sanchez's part of the show:

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Larry King, Rick Sanchez, and Ed Henry Appearances

Larry King will be the host of the 10th annual American Friends of Rabin Medical Center 'Broadway on the Hudson' Gala on 11/2.

This year'sAmerican Friends of Rabin Medical Center "Broadway on the Hudson" Gala is shaping up to be an unforgettable evening. With Larry Kinghosting for his 8th year, the annual fundraising gala is being held on the historic Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum on Monday, November 2, 2009. Over 600 people will be in attendance, including diplomats, civic, business, medical and philanthropic leaders of their respective industries. William S. Marth, President & CEO of Teva Pharmaceuticals North America, is joining the gala as the dinner honoree.

Rick Sanchez will be the keynote speaker at the NY T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference on 10/27.

"CNN news anchor Rick Sanchez has been chosen to deliver the keynote address at theT.R.A.F.F.I.C. New York conference October 27th (the show runs Oct. 26-29 at theBrooklyn Bridge Marriott). There is a connection between CNN and T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Co-Founder Rick Schwartz who sold the domain name iReport.com to the cable news network for $750,000. In reference to that transaction, Schwartz noted "It was a sale that could be pointed to for many years to come by every domainer and every time a domainer watched CNN and saw iReport.com it would give them the fuel to keep going." Sanchez has already decided to donate his fee for speaking to charity."

Ed Henry at the 10/8 opening of W Hotel.

"The uber-fab fete for last night's opening of the W Hotel ranks as one of the most exciting events this year. The old Hotel Washington wore subtle pinstripes and bold lace.

"Everyone thinks of Washington power as pinstripes, but the truth is -- the real power is in a lacy negligee," said Jayne Sandman while explaining the hotel's decor to Joe Curl and Ed Henry."

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Out of the Box - 10/07/09

Ali Velshi was recently back on Mediaite Office Hours talking about the olympics, the economy, heath care and his October 10th wedding.

Rick Sanchez is mentioned in Motor Trend Magazine. His current vehicles: a 2006 Mercedes -Benz E350 and a 2007 Dodge Ram.

Roland Martin will be the keynote speaker at the "Political Minds in Action" event in Savannah, GA held by the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority on Saturday October 10th at noon.

Roland Martin also has an article in Houston Style Magazine about the White House's stance on NY Governor Paterson running for another term.

Jeffrey Toobin will be speaking on 10/8 at an event for The Brown University Taubman Center for Public Policy's 25th anniversary.

Better Late Than Never:

Nicole Lapin attended Operation Smile's 8th Annual Smile Gala on 10/4. Click the picture for a larger image. Thanks to Phebe for passing this along.

Starpulse.com has posted some pictures of Soledad O'Brien arriving at the ALMA awards on 9/17. Click here for additional pictures.

Soledad also was the keynote speaker for "Something to Chair-ish" hosted by the Methodist Hospital Volunteers in Partnership on 10/2. Her new book, Latino in America, also came out on 10/6.

Reza Aslan was at the West Hollywood Book Fair on 10/4.

On Tuesday, 9/29, Campbell Brown attended a luncheon held for former Secretary of State Madeline Albright in honor of her new book Read My Pins: Stories From A Diplomat's Jewel Box

Wolf Blitzer emceed a gala held by the American Kidney Fund called The Hope Affair on 10/6 at the Newseum.

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"Forgotten" Wars: New and Old

Monday on The Situation Room, Wolf Blitzer ran a piece by ITN reporter Nick Paton-Walsh, who recently spent time with American troops at a remote outpost near the Afghanistan/Pakistan border. While returning from a patrol with Afghan and Latvian (NATO) forces, they were hit by an ambush but kept the cameras rolling:

(I love how honest the soldiers are about why they are there.)

Wednesday, Ivan Watson followed a truckload of ballot boxes into Bamiayn province, considered one of the safer regions in the country... but they still needed a heavily armed escort:

Rick Sanchez spoke with Atia Abawi about what it was like to attend a political rally in such dangerous conditions. Yes, he really does call her a "tough cookie":

Wednesday morning, Kiran Chetry spoke with Peter Bergen Tuesday about the tactics the Taliban were expected to utilize to keep Afghans from voting. Peter points out that violence in Iraq is still four times worse than that in Afghanistan -- Iraq has now become "the forgotten war" as the world media turns its attention back to the country we should have been dealing with all along:

And Wednesday evening, Campbell Brown spoke with Michael Ware about Afghanistan and Iraq and the problems in both countries:

So what's going on in Iraq? Arwa Damon shows us the aftermath of the deadliest day of the year:

And in case anyone's forgotten how bad it was, Arwa tours one of al Qaeda in Iraq's old bunkers, filled with evedince of torture and execution. Very grim stuff and very hard to watch:

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In Harm's Way

Nic Robertson did a piece about the Taliban recruiting and training children in Pakistan as killers and suicide bombers, then selling them to various other groups. The report aired on International Tuesday morning, during one of those lovely times recently that we were getting the International feed on Domestic during the overnight hours:

Wednesday, Rick Sanchez had a long piece about the troops in Afghanistan. He ran some DoD footage of the troops (and he did it without chattering over it, which was great -- too many anchors think we need wall-to-wall narration!) and then spoke with Atia Abawi, who is embedded with the Marines:

Reza Aslan was on American Morning Wednesday to talk about the situation in Iran:

Protests in Iran are erupting again today and once again we are getting word only through cell-phone videos and and Twitter messages. It is amazing to see all of this happening. It could so easily have been swept under the rug, but ... "can't stop the signal." The world IS watching.

Today on NewsRoom, Ali Velshi spoke with Michael Ware about the "surge" in violence in Iraq. Michael points out that it ain't a surge, it's just daily life in Baghdad... and Ali is smart enough to point out that the graphic they are using is wrong:

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A Slow-moving Military Coup

Events in the Iranian election certainly caught everyone off-guard this week, and in fact devolved so quickly that it was hard to keep up with them. Here, Reza Aslan talks to John Roberts on Thursday's American Morning, before the bottom fell out:

Friday, Reza spoke with Rick Sanchez about what was clearly coming into focus as massive election fraud:

(Reza has a column posted today on The Daily Beast that is the source of the post title.)

Here also are the clips from Sunday's Fareed Zakaria GPS of Christiane Amanpour's report from Tehran and the panel discussion:

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Also, a look at the latest move for al Qaeda, reported by Barbara Starr, with an appearance from Peter Bergen:

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Where in the World...?

MONDAY: Joy Behar was in for Larry King.

TUESDAY: Christiane Amanpour was in Tehran to cover the election; Nic Robertson was in London; Ted Rowlands was still in Wichita, Kansas.

WEDNESDAY: Allan Chernoff was in Miami; John King was in Orlando; Ed Lavendera was in Mexico City; Karl Penhaul was on Fernando de Noronha Island, Brazil; Anderson Cooper was in Los Angeles.

THURSDAY: Don Lemon was in Hamilton, Bermuda; Anderson was still in Los Angeles. Kitty Pilgrim was in for Lou Dobbs.

FRIDAY: Gary Tuchman was in Chicago. Kitty was in for Lou. AC360 was a special report, "American Radical: The Lone Wolf" (above).

SATURDAY: no events

SUNDAY: no events

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Iran Rocks the Vote; Pakistan Bombing

Christiane Amanpour is in Tehran to cover the elections, and for Tuesday's American Morning, she waded into some of the political rallies in the streets to talk with supporters of both candidates:

Wednesday, she showed more rallies on NewsRoom and then spoke via phone with Heidi Collins:

Immediately following Christiane's report, Heidi spoke with Reza Aslan about the meaning of this election:

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Tuesday a suicide bomber struck a major hotel in Peshawar, Pakistan. Rick Sanchez spoke with Nic Robertson (in London) about the attack:

Nic was also on Richard Quest's International program to talk about the bombing:

Wolf Blitzer spoke with Reza Sayah about the attack, so similar to one carried out last year at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad:

On Wednesday, Reza also had a look at the Pakistani police officer who recently stopped a suicide bomber from entering a police barracks:

That's it for me this week ... as always, here's hoping that the CNN teams stay safe as they report from around the world; best of luck to the Iranian people as they vote (may the best man win!) and to the Pakistani people as they fight for control of their country.

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Where in the World...? (4/25 - 5/1)

Where in the World...?

SATURDAY: Reggie Aqui was in for TJ Holmes.

SUNDAY: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Karl Penhaul, and Ted Rowlands were all in Mexico City to cover the swine flu epidemic. Mary Matalin joined husband James Carville as a CNN contributor, and they appeared together from NOLA. Reggie was in for TJ.

MONDAY: Phil Black reported on the swine flu cases in Auckland, New Zealand. Alina Cho was in for Kiran Chetry; TJ was in for Kyra Phillips.

TUESDAY: Kyra hosted from DC (above); Wolf Blitzer hosted from New York (below).

WEDNESDAY: Special programming to mark President Obama's 100 days in office had Wolf, John King, and Candy Crowley all in New York. Lou Dobbs Tonight and No Bias, No Bull were pre-empted; AC360 aired at 11pmET and Larry King Live at midnight.

THURSDAY: Wolf was still in New York. Sanjay was on live from Mexico City in the morning (above) but back in Atlanta by afternoon (below, and doesn't he look exhausted?).

FRIDAY: Jim Acosta was in Havana for May Day celebrations. Anderson Cooper was not on the New York studio for AC360 (he spoke at a college in Connecticut earlier in the evening); he also hosted and took part in (via pre-recording) a special on Time magazine's '100 Most Influential People' at 11pmET. Wolf was back in DC; TJ was in for Kyra; Joy Behar in for Larry King.

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A couple of clips for you. First, Jon Stewart used a clip of Rick Sanchez this week, and it was hilarious -- so much so that I was going to risk the wrath of Viacom to share it here! But then they showed it on American Morning, and I tossed the first clip and went with that one. Then Rick showed it on his hour of NewsRoom and added in some great 'blackmail' footage of Jon, so I tossed the one I'd prepped and went with that one! This is great stuff:

Second, during the "Report Card" special, John King showed some Very Special Footage recorded during a recent vacation -- say hello to Anderson Pooper and Woof Blitzer:

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Fareed Zakaria will be the guest on The Daily Show on Tuesday night, May 5th.

That's all for me today ... see you again on Monday!

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Out of the Box

It has been a rather slow week for appearance announcements, but here's what we have:

Anderson Cooper

Anderson will receive a special humanitarian award from International Medical Corps' on Feb. 18th for his reporting from Africa. Sheryl Crow will be part of the evening's entertainment and Ben Affleck, Diane Keaton, Joel Madden, Felicity Huffman, Nicole Richie, Forest Whitaker, Kevin Spacey, Kate Walsh, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Vinessa Shaw, Elizabeth Berkley, Hank Azaria, Patricia Heaton, Tate Donovan, Deion Sanders, Heather Graham and Marshall Faulk are among the celebs slated to attend. The event will be held at the House of Blues in West Hollywood, CA.

Ali Velshi

The Executives Club of Chicago will present a half day conference on Thursday, Feb. 12, from 7:30 a.m. - 1:45 p.m. at the Fairmont Chicago, 200 North Columbus Drive, Chicago, IL. Ali will moderate a discussion entitled "The Sustainable Advantage: Who Will Survive and Why".

In the better late than never category:
Rick Sanchez

Rick hosted the 'Shorty Awards' on Wednesday night. The shorty awards are for the best producers of short content in 2008 140 characters or less, on Twitter. The ceremony was held in NYC.

And in the probably shouldn't happen category:

John Roberts
After seeing John Roberts strumming his guitar on American Morning we couldn't help but wonder if we'll be blogging his concert schedule anytime soon? Take a look:

BTW, could it be that the when Rob told JR to grow out his hair he was referring to something like this?
Rob should know better than to cast the first stone. Remember this blast from his past?


In other CNN news:

Michelle Jaconi, a 12-year veteran of NBC’s Meet the Press, will join CNN Worldwide as executive producer of State of the Union with John King. Jaconi began working for Meet the Press in 1997, starting as an intern and working her way up to producer and political analyst.
She earned a degree in international politics from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and later earned her master’s degree with honors distinction. While earning her master’s, she wrote for PoliticsNow.com, a Web site that was co-owned by the Washington Post, ABC News and the National Journal Group.

We came across another mention that Roland Martin might be doing the honors when Campbell Brown is on maternity leave and I thought I'd pass it along. This one was in the Chicago Trib.

Expecting? Syndicated columnist Roland S. Martin, a contributor to CNN, TV One and Tom Joyner's national radio program, is said to be a candidate to fill in during Campbell Brown's CNN maternity leave this spring. Nothing official yet out of CNN, but word is the one-time editor of the Chicago Defender and former morning host on Chicago's WVON-AM 1690 isn't booking speaking engagements from late March through May.

Happy Belated Birthday to the lovely Zain Verjee who was 35 on Wednesday.

As always thanks to Julie and Cyn for all their help gathering material for this post.Enjoy the rest of your week and hope to see you back here soon. ~Phebe

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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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