Catastrophic Failure

We don't often do opinion here at All Things CNN, that's not what we're about. But we're making an exception today because of recent events and a few shocks yet to come.
We were saddened this week to learn of John Roberts departure from CNN. He, like so many others who moved on this past year, could have helped CNN to return to its former glory, if they had been used properly and appreciated more. Do you realize how many fine journalists left CNN in just the past 365 day? It's rather shocking when you see it presented in list form.

December
John Roberts
Tony Harris
Karl Penhaul
Jamie Kraft, producer
Larry King

November
Abbie Boudreau

October
Cal Perry
Rick Sanchez

September
Jon Klein

July
Campbell Brown
Octivia Nasr

March
Christine Amanpour
Betty Nguyen

February
Gerri Willis

January
Susan Lisovicz
Erica Hill
Eliane Quijano
Nicole Lapin
Heidi Collins
Abbi Tatton


We know it's not the viewers job to fix the problem but ultimately you. the CNN viewer, will be the decider (to quote our last President). CNN needs to get its act together and fast. They can't survive another year, both in terms of talent loss and ratings failure, like 2010.

We'll leave you with a classy but subdued Tony Harris as he signed off CNN for the last time.







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Reports: John Roberts leaving American Morning; Tony Harris leaving CNN

Mediaite quoting the New York Post...

Will the new year bring a slew of shakeups at CNN, now under new Ken Jautz-led management? The New York Post thinks so.

The Murdoch-owned tab says the head-rolling and chair-shifting will being in January, with American Morning co-host John Roberts first on the list to pick up a new gig, at least according to the Post’s “insiders:”

John Roberts is finalizing a contract to leave “American Morning” and start a new life as a CNN national correspondent in At lanta, where his pregnant fiancée, Kyra Phillips, anchors “CNN Newsroom.” Insiders speculate that handsome newsreader T.J. Holmes, who filled in for Roberts yesterday, is one of the favorites to take over Roberts’ role and anchor alongside Kiran Chetry. “T.J. Holmes has always been groomed for a bigger gig,” an insider told us.

The Posties also suggest it’s the end of the CNN road for CNN daytime anchor Tony Harris, who will reportedly “announce to his staff…that he’s leaving the network after six years.”

CNN told the Post it would not comment on talent contracts.

More later, no doubt...

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Field Doctor Sanjay Gupta

Tony Harris aired this video on Thursday morning of Dr. Sanjay Gupta, reporting for CNN from Haiti, treating a 15 day old baby with a head injury.

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Haiti Earthquake Coverage

CNN is on the ground in Haiti covering the devastation from the earthquake. Anderson Cooper is reported to have been the first news anchor on air.

Updates are available from CNN on:

• CNN.com
• Twitter
• CNN Video

Photo Credit: CNN. Anderson Cooper and Victor Diaz Rua, Dominican Minister of Public Works in chopper en route from Santo Domingo to Port-Au-Prince.

In a press release that was updated as of 6pm ET - January 13, 2010, CNN has the following journalists/ anchors reporting from Haiti:

On the ground – Port-au-Prince

• Susan Candiotti, CNN national correspondent (arrived 12:02pm ET, Jan. 13)
• Anderson Cooper, CNN anchor (arrived 10:05am ET, Jan. 12)
  
  
  
• Sanjay Gupta, CNN chief medical correspondent (arrived 2:19pm ET, Jan. 13)
• Juan Carlos Lopez, CNN en Español - Washington D.C. (arrived 2:19 pm ET, Jan. 13)
• Jonathan Mann, CNN International anchor & correspondent (arrived 2:19pm ET, Jan. 13)
  
  
  
  
• Gary Tuchman, CNN national correspondent (arrived 12:02pm ET, Jan. 13)
  
  
  
• Ivan Watson, CNNI correspondent (arrived 10:46am ET, Jan. 12)
  
  
  
  
  
• Chris Lawrence, CNN Pentagon correspondent (arrived 3:08pm ET, Jan. 13)
• http://twitter.com/cnnbrk/haiti, CNN Radio

En route to Port-au-Prince

• Rafael Romo, CNN International - Senior Latin American Affairs Editor – in Santo Domingo
• Karl Penhaul – in Santo Domingo
• Jason Carroll – in Santo Domingo (will be on a 7am ET flight to Port-au-Prince)
• Willie Lora, CNN en Español

Video links of first and exclusive reports:

**Sanjay Gupta first exclusive with Haitian President Rene Preval

Anderson Cooper

Ivan Watson

Susan Candiotti w/Gary Tuchman

Sanjay Gupta

Chris Lawrence (on CNNI’s Amanpour first)

Chris Lawrence (on CNN)

Key airtimes ET

January 12, 2010

17:06	Received first iReport
17:12	CNNI broke in BackStory with Michael Holmes
17:15	CNN.com/International broke news
17:17	CNN.com/US posted breaking news banner
17:20	CNN US broke in "The Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer
17.47	CNNI simulcasts CNN US "The Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer

January 13, 2010

12:02	Haitian Prime Minister- Jean Max Bellerive is on live with Tony Harris
14:44	2007 CNN Hero Bobby Duval on CNN
15:19	Gov. Charlie Christ (R) Florida is on CNN
15:28	Sanjay Gupta exclusive first interview with Haitian President Rene Preval
15:56	Emilio Estefan Ambassador of Latin Music is on CNN
18:09	Former President Bill Clinton on “The Situation Room” with Wolf Blitzer

Thanks to Phebe for the screencaps from CNN's live coverage.

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Black Men in the Age of President Obama

photo by John Nowak/CNN
A year after the election of America’s first African American president, CNN delves into President Barack Obama’s impact on African American men in a week-long multi-platform partnership with ESSENCE Magazine. On air and online, CNN will feature discussions on family, education, and healthcare to gauge how and/or if President Obama has impacted this community since the November election, either by actions taken as the commander-in-chief or as a symbol of possibility. For their November issue, ESSENCE Magazine reached out to a few iconic men to share their reflections about how it feels to be Black and male during this moment, in the age of President Obama, when everything is possible, but nothing is guaranteed.
photo by John Nowak/CNN
In the CNN Newsroom, Don Lemon moderated a roundtable discussion that aired on Saturday, Oct. 31 and Sunday, Nov. 1 and was conducted at historic Morehouse College. CNN education contributor Dr. Steve Perry, Bishop Eddie Long, author and entrepreneur Farrah Gray, Tyree Simmons (aka DJ Drama) and Morehouse senior Tyrone McGowan revealed their insights into what has changed, if anything, in their lives, families, workplaces and communities in the year since the 2008 presidential election.Tony Harris highlights his interview with radio host Steve Harvey, who wrote a first-person essay “When A Man Loves A Woman” for ESSENCE Magazine, airing on Friday, Nov. 6 starting in the 11 a.m. (ET) hour.HLN presents a week-long series of interviews beginning Nov. 2 during the 4 p.m. (ET) hour. Richelle Carey sits down with actor and author Hill Harper on relationships; Harvard University professor and author Dr. Alvin Poussaint on education; and Syracuse University professor Dr. Boyce Watkins on finance; to name just a handful of the featured interviews.CNN, HLN and ESSENCE Magazine take an unprecedented look at President Obama’s impact on black men in America. President Obama has urged black men to take responsibility for their lives and families and he’s called on all Americans to volunteer to help restore their communities. To learn more follow the link. Has President Obama inspired Americans to take action? What are the challenges still facing black men in America? Audience members are encouraged to share their thoughts in the discussion through iReport, the network’s user-generated online news community.

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Between Mexico and Afghanistan...

Now, I ask you ... how could I not lead with that photo?

Michael Ware has returned from covering the Mexican drug cartels and joined Anderson Cooper in the studio last night to talk about the situation in Afghanistan. Michael, of course, spent a year there prior to heading to Iraq to cover the war there and is planning to return to Afghanistan within the next few weeks:

Michael also appeared on BackStory Monday to talk with Michael Holmes about what's going on in Iraq:

Speaking of, all next week American Morning will be doing a series on the vets returning from those two wars; here is the promo currently airing:

Meanwhile, Tony Harris updated the latest offensive by the Marines to try to secure areas of Afghanistan in time for next week's election and then spoke to Atia Abawi about how the election is likely to go:

Cal Perry reported from Islamabad about the charges facing former president Musharraf if/when he returns to the country:

And tonight, don't miss Christiane Amanpour's 2-hour special, "Generation Islam" -- here is a piece from it that has been airing as a preview:

CNN also has a web page up to support the program, and it is a terrific resources for anyone who wants to learn more about the region and the issues. (Nice way to cross-platform, guys!)

That's a wrap for me this week... see you Monday!

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Saturday's Scoop

Fareed Zakaria wrote an article called "No Velvet Revolution for Iran." Click here for the article.

Roland Martin wrote an article for Houston Style Magazine called "US-Iran History is Why Obama Should Be Quiet on Protests" Click here for the article.

Congratulations to Jim Bittermann for being made 'Chevalier' (Knight) of the National Order of the Legion of Honor, France's highest decoration. Click here for the article.

Congratulations to CNN.com for winning a 2009 Edward R Murrow Award

Twitter Pictures:

Here are some pictures that have been posted to twitter:

Tony Harris

Randi Kaye and Rev. Al Sharpton

Sanjay Gupta on a road trip to upstate NY

Randi Kaye with producers Kay Jones and Susan Chun

Sanjay Gupta and Michael Holmes

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Who Runs Iran?

The election turmoil in Iran continues to dominate the news this week, and I have been trying to pull some clips that explain what is happening as far as the political realities within the country.

Tuesday, Ivan Watson (in Istanbul) filed a report explaining what the Guardian Council is and why they are important in this process. Afterwards, Tony Harris asks him questions regarding the various factions of protesters:

Later, the same report airs on The Situation Room, followed by a different comment from Ivan. Then, Wolf Blitzer does a brief bio of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei:

Tuesday night on AC360, Anderson Cooper hosts a three-way discussion with Christiane Amanpour, Reza Aslan, and political scientist Kaveh Afrasiabi:

On Wednesday's NewsRoom, Heidi Collins spoke with Reza about the future stability of Iran -- how will things change because of what is happening now? However this resolves, things have changed, spurred especially by the technology of the internet and social networking sites:

Today on American Morning, John Roberts talked with Middle Eastern scholar Fawaz Gerges about the power structure inside Iran:

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Ratings For The Week of May 25, 2009

Ratings for the week May 25, 2009 - May 29, 2009

	8PM^Adults 25-54 FOX 658,400 CNN 180,000 1 MSNBC 349,000 2 HLN 303,400
	9PM^Adults 25-54 FOX 472,800 CNN 219,200 MSNBC 244,750 2 HLN 117,800
	10PM^Adults 25-54 FOX 387,800 CNN 196,000 MSNBC 204,000 2 HLN 205,400

For the first time in several weeks - there was a slight change in the day to day ratings (Adults 25 - 54 demographic). FOX actually didn't win every timeslot in prime time this week - on Monday (Memorial Day) they came in second to MSNBC's special programming at 8PM and 9PM. FOX still has the number one average for all three hours of prime time (regular programming).

CNN came in third for the week during 9PM and wound up in fourth place for both the 8PM and 10PM hours.

MSNBC had a good week coming in second during the 8PM and 9PM hours and third during the 10PM hour.

HLN placed third during the 8 PM hour; fourth during the 9PM hour; and second during 10PM.

Ratings for the May 1, 2009 - May 29, 2009

	8PM^Adults 25-54 FOX 666,762 CNN 149,632 3 MSNBC 321,850 4 HLN 297,762
	9PM^Adults 25-54 FOX 508,000 CNN 226,571 MSNBC 242,750 4 HLN 125,048
	10PM^Adults 25-54 FOX 418,190 CNN 206,619 MSNBC 203,750 4 HLN 230,476

Above are my calculations on the Adults 25 - 54 demographic ratings for the month of May (May 1 - May 29), Monday - Friday regular programming (21 nights). They do not match up exactly to numbers that you'll see in the press release below and as much as I've tried- my calculator just doesn't come out with the same numbers... so you be the judge.

¹ 3 night average used for CNN at 8PM. Special programming shown on Monday and Friday nights.

² 4 night average used for MSNBC at 8PM, 9PM, and 10PM. Special programming aired on Monday.

³ 19 night average used for CNN at 8PM.

⁴ 20 night average used for MSNBC at 8PM, 9PM, and 10PM.

^{^} Courtesy Nielsen Media Research; Demographics where noted; Live + Same Day (LS) Fast Track Nationals.

Here is the latest CNN Press Release concerning their May ratings:

CNN

In May, CNN easily outperformed third place MSNBC in total day in both total viewers and in the demo 25-54. For the month, CNN averaged 535k total viewers, an impressive 41% advantage over MSNBC's 379k, and posted 154k in 25-54, 11% ahead of MSNBC's 139k. May also represents CNN's second best total viewer performance in a decade among total viewers with 535k, second only to last year's peak of 577k during the prolonged primary season.

In the morning, CNN's American Morning (6a-9a) topped MSNBC's Morning Joe (6a-9a) by 4% (428k vs. 411k) among total viewers in May and by 6% (147k vs. 139k) among P25-54. In addition, Morning Joe placed fourth in the demo, with HLN's Morning Express with Robin Meade (6a-10a) topping it by 7% (149k vs. 139k) among P25-54.

CNN's Larry King Live is ahead of MSNBC's Rachel Maddow at 9p (1.0 mil vs. 902k) in total viewers and at 10p, Anderson Cooper tops MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann in total viewers, (798k vs. 662k) and in the demo 25-54 (223k vs. 213k).

Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer tops MSNBC's Chris Matthews and Ed Schultz at 4p, 5p and 6p in both total viewers and in the demo 25-54. On Sunday, State of the Union with John King outperforms MSNBC at 9a, 10a, 11a and noon in total viewers and the demo, and Fareed Zakaria: GPS is #1 at 1p in the demo with 191k, FNC follows with 188k and MSNBC had 123k.

HLN

In May, HLN (formerly Headline News) experienced the largest M-Su and M-F Prime growth among cable news networks, up 43% among P2+ (619k vs. 434k) and 40% among P25-54 (220k vs. 157k) vs. year-ago in M-F Prime. HLN is up 41% in M-Su prime among P2+ (536k vs. 379k) and 41% among P25-54 (193k vs. 137k) vs. year-ago.

Nancy Grace posted the best May performance at 8p in the network's 27-year history among total viewers and the 25-54 demo. Nancy Grace also topped MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann in growth up 72% among total viewers and up 84% among 25-54 while Countdown with Keith Olbermann is flat among total viewers and down 23%. Additionally, this is also the best May in HLN's history at 11p for Showbiz Tonight with 389k among total viewers and 189k among P25-54, increasing 4% and 7% respectively over year ago.

Morning Express with Robin Meade (6a-10a) topped MSNBC's Morning Joe by 7% (149k vs. 139k) among P25-54 in May and is the #1 morning show among 18-34 viewers for the month in cable news.

CNN and HLN 2009 to-date

Year-to-date, CNN continues to grow – increasing 12% in total viewers and is up 3% in the demo 25-54. CNN's year-to-date average represents the best total day performance in total viewers (676,000) and in the demo (209,000) in six years (since 2003/Iraq war). YTD, CNN's advantage over MSNBC in total day is 53% among total viewers and 27% in the demo. In primetime (M-Su), CNN tops MSNBC by 13% in total viewers and in M-F prime, has a 5% advantage among total viewers. YTD at 10 pm, Anderson Cooper is having its second best performance ever in both total viewers and in the demo 25-54 (last year's election coverage was the program's best).

HLN has the largest M-Su and M-F Prime growth among cable news networks, up 49% in M-Su Prime among P2+ (622k vs. 418k) and 55% among P25-54 (245k vs. 158k) vs. year-ago. Among M-F Prime, HLN is up 54% among P2+ (735k vs. 476k) and 60% among P25-54 (288k vs. 180k) vs. year-ago.

REACH

CNN continues to reach more viewers each month in May with 61,702,000 cumulative total viewers, surpassing FNC's 54,796,000, and MSNBC's 49,139,000. HLN averaged 47,239,000

Among 25-54 cumulative viewers, CNN outranked the competition with 27,511,000, MSNBC averaged 23,871,000, FNC averaged 23,342,000 and while HLN averaged 22,401,000.

CNN DIGITAL

In April, CNN Digital Network continued its long-standing trend as the #1 most used online news destination with 1.4 billion total usage minutes (1,395 billion), exceeding MSNBC's 1.0 billion usage minutes by 38% and Fox News Digital's 652 million by 114%. The CNN Digital Network also outranked Yahoo! News, The New York Times, ABCNews Digital and CBSNews Digital. Additionally, CNN Digital's usage was up 10% over April 2008. (Source: Nielsen Online, P2+ Home/Work Panel April 2009).

April CNN Digital Network Highlights:

CNN Digital also had the most committed and dedicated audience in April as measured by time spent per person (37.5 minutes per person) and pages-per-person (42 pages per person).

CNN Digital was the #1 online news source for video in April with more than 112 million video streams served, 5% ahead of MSNBC's 107 million and 78% ahead of Yahoo! News' 63 million. (Source: Nielsen Video Census April '09).

CNN Digital was #1 among all News and Information sites in total time spent viewing and time spent per viewer in April and ranked 6th among all brands in unique visitors and 10th in total streams

Source: CNN via TVNewser

And last but not least tonight, a follow up from my post on Sunday. Thanks to Cyn, we have a video clip of Ed Henry doing his radio show on Friday morning. John King was in the studio with Ed and they both spoke with Tony Harris.

44 with Ed Henry is on CNN Radio at 11AM every Friday morning. If you miss the live program, the podcast is available from CNN.com. You can access this past Friday's program here.

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Extreme Challenges ... and Reza Aslan

There will be another program in the "Extreme Challenges" series airing tonight at 11pmET. This looks like another terrific hour of intelligent, thought-provoking viewing:

AC360 is running a special hour, “Extreme Challenges: The Next 100 Days”, on Thursday night. Anderson is the host of a compelling hour of panel discussion with some of the brightest minds at CNN who examine the crucial issues facing President Obama over his next 100 days in office. Topics include The Wars (Afghanistan and Iraq), Foreign Policy (mainly Iran and the Middle East), The Economy, America’s Health (Reforming Healthcare), The Supreme Court, and Change in America (governance). The panelists are David Gergen, Christiane Amanpour, Michael Ware, Fareed Zakaria, Candy Crowley, Ali Velshi, Sanjay Gupta, Jeffrey Toobin and Joe Johns.

(Guess which part of that paragraph makes me very, very happy? Hint: check the photo I chose for the top of the post!)

Another preview clip is available on CNN.com:

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Monday, Fareed Zakaria was a guest on The Situation Room, where he discussed the meeting between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Resolving the Palestinian crisis will be a major challenge but is crucial in resolving so many issues in the Middle East:

Also on Monday, Tony Harris had a very interesting three-way discussion with Ivan Watson (in Islamabad) and Stan Grant (in Kabul) regarding the Pakistan/Afghanistan border issue:

Tuesday, Anderson Cooper focused on the fight against the Taliban and the refugee crisis -- now the largest mass-movement of people since the one that occurred during the genocide in Rwanda. First he spoke with Ivan Watson:

That was immediately followed by a discussion with Fareed Zakaria and Peter Bergen:

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Tuesday night, I was fortunate enough to be able attend a book-signing event with Reza Aslan. As you know from his appearances on CNN, he is absolutely brilliant at explaining the complexities of how the Muslim world views the West and our actions (especially of late!). His first book, No god but God, is essential reading for anyone who is looking for a primer on Islam, and his new book, How to Win a Cosmic War, details the thought processes of those who are fighting not for land or freedom, but for other-worldly objectives. It's one thing to someday be able to sit down with Hamas and talk about negotiating land boundaries and peace treaties, but how do you ever sit down with al Qaeda and discuss the removal of all borders in order to create a Muslim caliphate? "Cosmic" warriors are not interested in events in this world, they are focused on the world to come, which is why they find it easy to martyr themselves and anyone who gets in their way.

(One of the things that I find extremely interesting is the concept of apostasy, which is what allows Islamic extremists to slaughter so indiscriminately, despite Mohammed's explicit teachings that to kill innocents is a violation of Islamic law. But if you decide your neighbor is misguided in how he worships, if you declare him an apostate, then you rationalize a way to excuse it; in fact, it is now essential that you kill him, he is worse than an unbeliever because he sullies your one true religion. This is why Sunnis kill Shias, as we have witnessed for so many tragic years in Iraq. But in his book, Reza lays out the concept as it is used by Jewish and Christian "warriors" as well. It is an easy and effective tool whenever a cosmic war is waged.)

At any rate, yesterday Ms. Sapphire listed the remaining dates from this month's book tour; next month he spends a week in the UK and then is back here for a few more dates... keep an eye on his schedule and by all means go see him speak if you can. He has a wonderful way of cutting through the fog and of puncturing so many of the misguided precepts that were applied to this "war on terror." (Unfortunately, we usually only get to see the very serious, buttoned-down Reza when he appears on CNN; in person he is very, very funny and mocks what so desperately needs to be mocked. We have given more power to these groups by acting as if we are all cowering under our beds because of them.)

Also, for what it's worth, he's a really nice guy. He appreciates "the greatest book store in America." (It really is.) And he started his talk with a swine flu joke ... you gotta love that!

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Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Monday, Reza Aslan spoke to Roland Martin about President Obama's outreach to Muslims worldwide:

Tuesday morning, Reza spoke to Carol Costello about the new image America has abroad:

On the way back to the US, Obama made a "surprise" stop in Iraq. At 11amET, Tony Harris spoke with Frederik Pleitgen in the Baghdad bureau:

Wolf Blitzer introduced a piece from Chris Lawrence about Obama's trip to Iraq; the piece includes comments from Fawas Gerges:

Wednesday morning, former Time magazine Baghdad Bureau Chief Bobby Ghosh appeared on American Morning and told Kiran Chetry that he thought Obama should have skipped Iraq and visited Afghanistan instead:

Within a few hours, the president was home in DC and reporters were scrambling to cover a new story -- Somali pirates had seized a ship flying the American flag. Fredericka Whitfield spoke with Nic Robertson, who got to visit the roof in London for a change of scenery:

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Where in the World...?

SATURDAY: Drew Griffin was in for TJ Holmes on Saturday Morning. Domestic took the International feed for part of the overnight hours to report on North Korea's missile launch and President Obama's speech in Prague.

SUNDAY: Ed Henry and Suzanne Malveaux were both in Prague with the President. Richard Lui was in for TJ on Sunday Morning. Domestic took the International feed for part of the overnight hours to report on the earthquake in Italy and President Obama's speech in Ankara.

MONDAY: Suzanne and Ed were in Ankara; Frederik Pleitgin is in Baghdad this month; Paula Newton was in L'Aquila, Italy to cover the earthquake, as she would all week. Carol Costello was in for John Roberts; Betty Nguyen was in for Heidi Collins; TJ was in for Rick Sanchez.

TUESDAY: Suzanne and Ed were in Istanbul; Larry King was in New York. Carol was in for John Roberts; TJ was in for Heidi; Christiane Amanpour was in for Anderson Cooper.

WEDNESDAY: Barbara Starr was in Manama, Bahrain to cover the ship seized by Somali pirates; Nic Robertson was in London in the morning (discussing the pirates; above) and Manchester in the afternoon (discussing the terror-cell arrests; clips on Monday); Sanjay Gupta had been in Quebec sometime during the week to investigate Natasha Richardson's death. Carol was in for John Roberts; Fredricka was in for Heidi; Don Lemon was in for Wolf Blitzer.

THURSDAY: John King was in Park Ridge, New Jersey filming his weekly "diner" segment. TJ was in for John Roberts; Don was in for Heidi.

FRIDAY: Stan Grant was in Mombasa, Kenya covering the Somali pirates. TJ was in for John Roberts; Betty was in for Heidi; Don was in for Rick.

That's all for me today. Enjoy your weekend, and for those of you who celebrate, all of us at ATC wish you a Happy Easter and/or a joyous Passover festival.

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Updates from Kabul, Kandahar, Islamabad, Istanbul, and Baghdad

Early Sunday morning, CNN had the International feed running on Domestic in order to cover President Obama's speech in Prague. Ralitsa Vassileva spoke with Atia Abawi in Kabul and Reza Sayah in Islamabad for their reactions to the speech.

First, Atia discusses the likely reaction to the President's pledge to wrap up "loose nukes":

In the second part, Reza discusses the portion of the speech addressed to Iran:

This morning, Reza Aslan spoke to Kiran Chetry from Istanbul, as the President spoke in Ankara. They had some serious audio problems during the transmission, but it's always worth listening to Reza even if you can only hear every other word:

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Meanwhile, Barbara Starr is currently in Afghanistan and on Friday had a report on The Situation Room about the spike in violence there:

And this morning Kiran introduced an interview that Barbara did over the weekend with General James Conway, Commandant of the Marine Corps as he visited the bases amidst concerns of a new wave of violence from the Taliban:

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Frederik Pleitgin is back in Baghdad, and Don Lemon introduced a piece Frederik did about the targeting of gays in Iraq, where at least six gay men have been murdered in the past ten days:

This morning, Frederik spoke with Betty Nguyen about a number of car bombs that went off in Baghdad today:

Tony Harris also spoke with Frederik about the importance of Turkey to the US military forces in Iraq, especially to the planned withdrawal:

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Don't forget about Wolf Blitzer's exclusive interview with Vice-President Biden during Tuesday's program.

Have a good week!

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Thursday Odds and Ends

Tonight I have a whole bunch of wonderful finds from our amazing research assistant Julie.




THR.com had a Q&A with Fox’s Bill O’Reilly and during the conversation, Anderson Cooper is mentioned. I guess there were worse things Bill could have said so Anderson should be flattered.



Here is a great article about CNN reporter Nkepile Mabuse



Tony Harris was recently in South America and you can see a picture of Tony by checking out this blog.

D.L. Hughley talks about his show ending with the Daily News.

Christiane Amanpour on panel awarding grants for the stories of change program. You can about the event by clicking here and here.

Here are two articles about Christiane Amanpour’s new show and Executive Producer Kathy O’Hearn you can read them here and here.

Book Asylum came across a great pic of a portrait of Kiran Chetry and her son Christopher on the AMFIX blog and it is really amazingly well done. Check it out right here.

Kiran Chetry and Robin Meade were recently names by the television show Extra as some of the hottest women in morning television.

Congratulations to CNN on there Peabody Award win for Coverage of 2008 Presidential Primary Campaigns and Debates.

That's it for me. See you next week ~ Sapphire

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

Explaining Terror

Peter Bergen was on all day Friday, trying to explain who might be behind the Mumbai attack, and why. Also, what do we do next?

First, speaking to Joe Johns during the 6am hour:

With Carol Costello, 8am:

Fredricka Whitfield, 9am:


Tony Harris, 11am:


And with Wolf Blitzer at 4pm:

Nic Robertson filed this report after the assault on Chabad House:

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Every now and then I grouse about something that the graphics department does, but this one really blew my mind: I was watching the coverage when I was suddenly distracted by the sight of the Cartoon Network logo included with the "Terror in India" slug. See it below Fredricka's left hand? Could anything be less appropriate during this horror?

... uh ... never mind. Sorry, graphics guys! I should have known that even in the midst of the insanity that must be the behind-the-scenes reality during breaking news coverage, you wouldn't have made that kind of a blunder! My apologies!

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Where in the World...?

SATURDAY: Ed Henry and Jessica Yellin are still in Chicago.

MONDAY: Suzanne Malveaux and Candy Crowley were in Washington; Nic Robertson reported from London on the Michael Jackson trial; Joe Johns was in for John Roberts all week; Betty Nguyen was in for Heidi Collins Monday and Tuesday; TJ Holmes was in for Rick Sanchez through Wednesday and again on Friday; Miles O'Brien was in for Wolf Blitzer through Wednesday; Soledad O'Brien was in for Anderson Cooper Monday and Tuesday.

TUESDAY: Gary Tuchman was in Lansing, Michigan; Tom Foreman was in for Campbell Brown Tuesday and Wednesday.

WEDNESDAY: Suzanne was in New York; Carol Costello was in for Kiran Chetry through Friday; Fredricka Whitfield was in for Heidi Collins through Friday; Kitty Pilgrim was in for Lou Dobbs. In mid-afternoon, the terrorist attack in Mubai begin, and Andrew Stevens began reporting from that city; Nic Robertson was in London, where he had reported on the al Qaeda threat to NY subways in the morning but stayed to report on the new attack; Jim Clancy of International was on-set in Atlanta; Erica Hill hosted live coverage through the AC360 timeslot. Domestic carried the International feed all night.

THURSDAY: American Morning started a half-hour early; Christiane Amanpour was in New York; Peter Bergen in Washington; Paula Newton and Phil Black in London; Sarah Sidner on the scene in Mumbai; Reza Sayah in Islamabad; International's Michael Holmes on the set in Atlanta. Kyra Phillips stayed on the air through Rick Sanchez' timeslot and the first 90 minutes of The Situation Room, after which, Domestic picked up the International feed for the rest of the day until the "Heroes" special programming began.

FRIDAY: Matthew Chance and Nic Robertson were in Mumbai; Wolf Blitzer hosted TSR from Miami.

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