Highlights State of the Union for May 17, 2009

John King's first guest this week on State of the Union with John King was the White House Budget Director, Peter Orszag, to discuss the economy. King used the magic wall to examine the latest economic indicators. They also discussed how the administration expects to be able to pay for their health care reform plan, when the administration plans to address the inevitable budget deficit resulting from Social Security, where the stimulus money going to, and address concerns that the administration's stimulus packages are not working. King also questioned Orszag about a conclusion he made in his senior thesis at Princeton regarding the Federal Reserve and Congress. Ryan Lizza brought this to light in a recent article, Money Talks, in The New Yorker.

Rep. John Boehner (R) responded to Orszag's claim that the administration's health care reform plan is "deficit neutral". King also questioned him about the Republican's response to the administration's policies on the war, the CIA photos, Speaker Pelosi's comments regarding torture, where the Republican party goes from here, and his response to the comments the President made about him at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner last week: "I'd rather be heckled than ignored."

Hilary Rosen and Alex Castellanos were next in the Washington studio to talk about Speaker Pelosi and the President's policies regarding detainees.

John King visited Selma, Alabama this week and spoke with Mayor George Evans about the jobless rate. He also talked with Beatrice Jackson, who has been unemployed for six months, and Jimmie Coleman, III, the manager of the Calhoun Food Store.

Howard Kurtz was in Los Angeles this morning for Reliable Sources. Stephanie Miller (in LA), Michael Medved, and Roger Simon discussed Cheney's media tour as the Republican's unofficial spokesperson, the coverage on Obama's decision to not release detainee photos, and more coverage of Miss California.

Next was a discussion about the mix of DC, politics, politicians, Hollywood celebrities, and the media. Kurtz spoke with Barry Levinson:

KURTZ: Are Katie Couric, Brian Williams, Wolf Blitzer, are they celebrities?

LEVINSON: At the same time they're news people.

KURTZ: Are they entertainers?

LEVINSON: We blur them together. Well, they are entertainers as well because they are on the television.

They have to entertain at the same time they have to inform. That's the -- once you step over from it being a public service, which is the way it all began, to now, news has to get ratings. So having a very good news show isn't enough in itself. It has to attract the ratings, that's the obligation of it all.

KURTZ: Didn't news always have to get ratings? The sainted Edward R. Murrow, he interviewed Marilyn Monroe on a program called "Person to Person."

LEVINSON: Yes, but that wasn't a news show.

KURTZ: Right.

LEVINSON: Right? I mean, that was his other kind of show that he did.

But in the very beginning we would just provide information, going way back. Once you go down that road -- and I'm not saying it is -- there is the upside, downside to all of it. You can't just paint it as a negative brush, but the ratings become just as important to a news show as it does to any variety show, or a sitcom or a drama.

KURTZ: You've got to get people inside the tent.

LEVINSON: Yes, get them in.

KURTZ: Once they're there, you might be able to give them a nutritious meal, you might give them empty calories.

What do you think of the political news show on cable -- O'Reilly, Olbermann, Lou Dobbs, Anderson Cooper?

LEVINSON: Well, look, some are better than others. And some of them are very good. Others of them become frivolous. There is a mixed bag out there.

KURTZ: Do you worry at all, that this news business, at least the electronic version, is becoming more of a circus, more of a -- there is more pressure to serve up the cotton candy?

LEVINSON: Yes, that I do believe is a problem. And some of the really big issues that we have, because there isn't a visual component to it, go unnoticed.

Source: CNN Transcript, Reliable Sources, May 17, 2009.

Kurtz talked with Mariel Hemingway about her twitter fame and her new book.

Next, Kurtz interviewed Variety's Peter Bart in the LA studio about the changes occurring in Hollywood and the media.

If you missed Reliable Sources, CNN has posted the podcast on their website:

John King was back at 11AM with James Carville and Bill Bennett in the studio with a heated discussion about Speaker Pelosi's comments, President Obama's commencement speech at Notre Dame, rebuilding the Republican party, the President's appointment of Utah's Governor Huntsman to Ambassador to China, RNC Chairman Steele's comments about party unity, and the administration's new drug czar (Carville & Bennett came really close to agreeing on this issue).

The diner segment this week came from Selma, Alabama where King spoke with residents about unemployment and race relations.

The reporter panel included Dana Bash, Ed Henry, and Joe Johns. The topics included Speaker Pelosi, the Supreme Court vacancy, and health care policy.

King interviewed another resident of Selma, Alabama, Zannie Murphy, who has preserved a piece of history through the headlines of a local paper; they discussed Bloody Sunday.

The Last Word went to Emily Toates who is graduating from Notre Dame and is boycotting President Obama's speech.

A few additional notes about this morning's program... during both interviews with those currently holding office (Orszag & Boehner), King reached into the CNN archives to pull clips from their previous appearances (Orszag on State of the Union and Boehner on Late Edition) to question them about previous comments and how their views may or may not differ today. And John King was doing his part to help save the newspaper industry, he asked viewers to go to the CNN State of the Union Facebook page and post the headline from the local newspaper. King read some of those headlines on air later on in the program.

Also, King's weekly staff briefing has been posted to CNN.com:

An added bonus this week, King recaps the program (in under two minutes) in this Sounds of Sunday video clip:

When CNN arrives in the area for some of these "outside the beltway" interviews, it causes a bit of a stir in the community. Here's an excerpt from one article that appeared in the Selma Times-Journal on May 13th:

CNN comes to Selma

The sound of an elevator and clanking metal caused some heads to turn during Tuesday night’s city meeting at Selma City Hall. A cameraman walked through the back door. Mayor George Evans paused in his report, nodded and grinned.

“That’s just CNN,” he said. “They’re here to interview me.”

More heads turned.

John King, anchor of State of the Union for CNN, strode into the room.

“There’s John King,” the mayor said. “He’s going to interview me.”

King grinned, ducked his head and waved off the attention.

Several minutes later, Evans left the room, following King. They interviewed as the two men walked down Broad Street.

Later, most city council members and others joined King and his crew at Grumbles for a late dinner.

... click here to read the rest of the article...

A follow up article appeared on May 15th: Moving in a positive direction

Here are your links to this week's podcasts:

• State of the Union with John King (video)
• State of the Union with John King (audio)
• Reliable Sources (video)

A few quick non-State of the Union items for you:

This press release caught my eye earlier today: Twitter Boosts CNN Reporter's Fight to Save Her Brother's Life

Thanks in large part to Twitter, a one-woman fight to get her severely ill brother a much-needed heart transplant has turned into a major grassroots campaign throughout the social media community, applying pressure on government authorities to prevent a tragedy resulting from a flawed domestic healthcare system.

Veronica De La Cruz, a former CNN anchor and reporter based in New York City, has experienced first-hand the influence and freedom of speech which such a position offers. Yet, she found herself to be as exposed to the flaws of the healthcare system as anyone else when her brother's condition became life-threatening.

Her brother, Eric De La Cruz, 27, is dying in Nevada. He is suffering from severe dilated cardiomyopathy and needs a heart transplant immediately. His heart, weakened and enlarged, is now incapable of pumping blood efficiently. The decreased organ function also severely limits his kidney function and his creatinine levels are high, all which result in fluid retention. The diuretic-type medications which he is currently taking are no longer working. Making matters worse, he cannot get health insurance because of a pre-existing condition.

You can read the rest of the press release at PRWeb.

I discovered that Tom Foreman is back to writing articles for the Philadelphia Metro... here is the latest article:

“Vice presidents ... are paid to be cheerful, Dick Cheney not withstanding.”

You don’t jump on the scales an hour after you push aside the doughnuts, and the Obama White House might be better off if it were not already trying to roll out reports on how well the stimulus plan is working.

That is the consensus among some political and economic analysts, who suggest the vice president’s progress report on the program, while laudable, is a tad premature.

The full article can be found on the Philadelphia Metro's website.

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Saturday's Scoop

The Toronto Star recently wrote an article on Ali Velshi's career from Toronto to CNN. Click here for the article.

Dana Bash and John King with Rahm Emanuel from last Saturday's White House Correspondent's Dinner Party. Check out the Vanity Fair article on the event.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta spoke at the University of Michigan, his alma mater, on Friday, 5/8. His advice to students: "Never lose sight of your truest and your best intentions." Click here for the full article which also contains a short interview.

Earlier this month the Huffington Post did an article on Jim Acosta's reporting from Cuba and talks about what his father, who is from Cuba, thought of his son returning to the island he left back in 1962. Click here for the article.

This past Tuesday John King was at the Atlanta Press Club. Here's an article on his talk.

Well, that's my first blog - ever. A momentous occasion for me. Just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone who posted well wishes on ATA a couple weeks ago for my wedding. They are much appreciated. Have a great week everyone! ~Julie

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Broken By War

Cal Perry is currently based in Beirut but prior to that he spent four years in the Baghdad bureau, and was a Bureau Chief for two of them. He is currently doing a rotation in Baghdad, and (sadly) got a lot of airtime this week on another tragic story from there.

Monday, five US servicemembers were killed by a fellow soldier at a stress clinic located at Camp Liberty in Baghdad. As the early reports came in, Cal was on the air hourly with updates. He spoke with Rick Sanchez about the story behind the killings:

Tuesday morning, Cal identified the name of the shooter and discussed the investigations into the shooting as well as whether it could have been foreseen and prevented:

A couple hours later, Cal had more information about the shooter, the fact that his gun had been taken from him by his commanding officer, and that he had been near the end of his third tour in Iraq:

Wednesday morning, Cal had a very moving piece about the stress of the war and the toll it is taking on the men fighting it:

There will be so many long-term ramifications from this war, but the men and women who served and will now be struggling with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (exacerbated by the multiple deployments so many of them served) will be an enormous issue that we must be aware of in order to help them and their families. We owe them that, whether we agreed with this war or not. We owe it to the memories of those who lost their lives in Iraq; we owe it to those who were wounded and are suffering with pain every day yet struggle to overcome their injuries; we owe it to all the families who sent loved ones to serve their country and now must deal with grief for the lost and damaged men and women that were returned to them and the knowledge that as badly as they are suffering, they know others whose pain is worse.

(And since this is a blogsite about CNN, I will also say that we owe it to the reporters and cameramen and producers and to the local staff, all of whom take risks and witness brutalities that we cannot imagine -- that they cannot even show on television -- in order to keep us aware of what our troops are dealing with in the midst of war.)

Please visit Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America to support our troops, and if you know a veteran or family member, encourage them to visit Community of Veterans and Support Your Vet for support.

Cal's CNN bio is here and you can also follow him on Twitter.

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Out of the Box May 13

Christiane Amanpour

Christiane Amanpour to deliver commencement address at Dickinson College on Sunday and will receive an honorary doctorate in journalism.

Christiane Amanpour and her husband to speak on 5/18 at the Temple Buell Theatre in Denver Colorado

Soledad O’Brien

Soledad O'Brien to host Adcolor awards on October 4

Follow Up

White House Correspondents Dinner

Kiran Chetry wrote a blog from the WH correspondents dinner. Photos courtesy of twitter

Rahm Emanuel with John King and Dana Bash at White House Correspondents Dinner

Sanjay Gupta

Article on Sanjay Gupta speaking at University of Michigan with pictures

Soledad O’Brien

Soledad O'Brien to be master of ceremonies at Lupus Foundation of America's Butterfly Gala – Tuesday May 12th

Anderson Cooper

Article on Anderson's speaking event on May 4

Dana Bash

Dana Bash attends Political Pursuit event

Multiple CNNers

John King, Dana Bash, Jessica Yellin attend Tammy Haddad's brunch


Much thanks to Julie who is now back from her honeymoon. See you all next week ~ Sapphire

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Ratings For The Week of May 4, 2009

Ratings for the week May 4, 2009 - May 8, 2009

	8PM^Adults 25-54 FOX 692,600 CNN 147,000 MSNBC 273,400 HLN 252,400
	9PM^Adults 25-54 FOX 538,400 CNN 240,000 MSNBC 224,800 HLN 104,000
	10PM^Adults 25-54 FOX 462,000 CNN 211,800 MSNBC 196,400 HLN 222,800

Your look at the Adults 25-54 ratings for the week, finds that 8PM doesn't have much new. MSNBC takes the second average ratings for the week. HLN is close behind in third and CNN trails in fourth.

During the 9PM hour, CNN took second place three nights out five (with Larry King interviewing ladies from the View all week) and ends up edging out MSNBC for the overall average weekly rating. HLN comes in fourth.

10PM is close race. HLN comes out on top with a second place finish. CNN had a downhill slide last week starting out in second place on Monday and Tuesday, then third on Wednesday, and fourth on both Thursday and Friday. The mixed bag of ratings puts them in third place. Fourth place goes to MSNBC.

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

And here are a few of the ratings related articles for the week:

The first is by Jon Fine over at Business Week:

In prime time it's not enough to lean on CNN's advantages: your bigger reporting staff and middle-course sensibilities. Those help when viewers hunger for continuous coverage of big breaking events or for ongoing stories like last year's election. They don't help much right now. Changing realities require changing tactics. Your opponents have staked their evening programs--successfully--on pugilism, not punctiliousness.

It's time to embrace a new prime-time ethos for CNN, which encompasses the bona fides of the brand CNN and the fact that, like it or not, on-screen combat is good TV. No, CNN should not suddenly solely air food fights, though a little food fight never hurt anyone. No, CNN should not dive madly toward some new and overt point of view. No, don't bring back Crossfire. (Pace blogger Mickey Kaus, who has suggested that.) Rather: Remake Crossfire. Make prime-time CNN the place for vigorous debate. (You can add the word "respectful" to the description if you feel the need.) The venue for intellectual combat. Two, or more, viewpoints enter an arena; one comes out the victor.

I know: CNN was healthy enough last year to throw off around $500 million in profit, and you guys take pride in being the financially strongest news joint around. I know much institutional ego is wrapped up in CNN laying claim to a sober take on the news. (Here's where I mention Lou Dobbs' loud opinions; here's where CNN execs shift uncomfortably.) The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times show that capital-J journalistic outlets can sling some serious smack-talk--on their op-ed pages, at least.

The election may have come and gone, but the issues haven't. One new-style debate show--or more--can capitalize on the national conversation regarding the government's new roles in the economy and business. You can do this and subtly elevate your brand above all else: CNN is the place for debate, not the place for argument. (You can claim in on-air promos, if you feel you need to drape gravitas around this new idea, that CNN is honoring a robust American tradition going back to Lincoln-Douglas. Or something like that.) And a healthy on-air argument spawns online clips, which, while not especially monetizable yet, bolster a brand and show it off to those who don't tune in.

This will require a remake of the political shoutfest, which has been pretty much the same for decades. A new talent stable may be required to ensure that, as CNN President Jon Klein puts it, these shows' participants don't fall into "Punch-and-Judy roles, and spit out talking points." Great. So CNN can reinvent this form and make it its own. If it doesn't, maybe the 2010 election cycle will be a barn-burner, or perhaps a bunch of really bad rainstorms this summer will rescue the ratings. Would you rather depend on your programming skills or the weather?

You can read the rest of the article here.

Next up to take a punch at CNN's ratings is Joe Flint at the Los Angeles Times:

Kay Jones, a producer on CNN's Anderson Cooper's "AC360," recently blogged on the show's website that she "deserve[s] the month of May off." Well, she might as well take it because Cooper's fan base is doing just that already.

Cooper's ratings have been in a sharp decline all year, and so far the month of May is no exception. According to Nielsen, the audience for the 10-11 p.m. hour of his show so far this month is 933,000 viewers. This is the first time he's fallen below the one-million mark since the dog days of last August. Anderson is losing almost 20% of his lead-in from Larry King and is in danger of being passed in the ratings by MSNBC's 10 p.m. repeat of "Countdown with Keith Olbermann." Since the start of 2009, Cooper has lost one-third of his audience.

CNN has invested heavily into marketing Cooper as the face of the network. The hype has never really translated into commercial success, and now that MSNBC is suddenly competitive, CNN finds itself being flanked on the right and the left.

Next up to the punching bag is Bill Carter of the NY Times.

The election of Barack Obama does not seem to have ushered in a kinder, less-polarized environment in politics — or television.

And that’s not a good break for CNN, a network whose strategy is to steer the middle course in its news coverage. CNN’s competitors have been finding more success pounding away at those poles — at least during prime time.

Since the beginning of March, CNN has fallen behind both the longtime ratings leader, Fox News Channel, which, as the voice of disaffected conservatives, again has an imposing lead, and the upstart MSNBC, which has tried to mirror Fox’s success by steering to the left.

CNN has even dipped behind its sister network HLN (formerly Headline News) on many occasions. Since the beginning of 2009, CNN has finished fourth in prime time among the cable news networks on 35 out of 84 weeknights.

The development raises an obvious question: With its rivals stoking prime time with high-octane political opinion and rant, can CNN compete effectively with a formula of news delivered more or less straight?

Executives of competitors and even some of CNN’s own staff members say recent trends suggest the answer may be no.

“The people who watch these channels are news junkies,” said Phil Griffin, the president of MSNBC. “They’ve already had access to the headlines all day long on the Internet. In prime time you’ve got to stand out and make a splash.”

One veteran CNN correspondent agreed. “All of a sudden it seems a little unfashionable to be in the middle,” said the correspondent, who requested anonymity in order to speak freely about CNN’s strategy. “I think people are struggling with that.”

You can read the rest of the article on NYTimes.com.

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Pakistan's refugees

Fareed Zakaria sat down with Wolf Blitzer this week to discuss the problems in Afghanistan and Pakistan as the Taliban movement strengthens and both governments finally seem to be taking the situation seriously:

So what's the latest in this mess? On Wednesday, a piece from Ivan Watson showed a UN refugee camp in Northwest Pakistan set up for people trying to escape the fighting in the Swat Valley region:

Why so many civilian casualties? John Roberts spoke to David Kilcullen, one of the foremost authorities on counter-insurgency warfare (he was crucial to the American change of war plans in Iraq), who explains how the Pakistani Army is fighting the wrong war, just as we once did in Iraq:

Don Lemon reported on Saturday on the possibility that the Taliban is using local residents as "human shields," and then ran a report from Reza Sayah on a family who fled the Swat Valley to come to a refugee camp outside of Islamabad, including one young son who needs a bone-marrow transplant:

Over the weekend, Ivan Watson was reporting on a group of boys who were trapped in their orphanage in the Swat Valley after the Pakistani army chose the roof of the four-story building to conduct their fight against the Taliban. The boys were huddled in the basement for several days, but then finally escaped and made their way to Peshawar. Ivan also says the latest estimate is that 360,000 people have come to UN camps in the past 10 days:

There was, at least, fantastic news from Iran today as US journalist Roxana Saberi was released from prison.

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Highlights State of the Union for May 10, 2009

Happy Mother's Day! Hopefully, those of you celebrating the holiday had a good day.

The first guest on with John King this morning was General David Petraeus to discuss Pakistan and the Taliban; as well as Afghanistan.

The next discussion was with Senator Bob Corker (R) and Senator Bob Casey (D). The topics included Pakistan and Afghanistan. Sen. Corker was not impressed with the President of Afghanistan at the recent luncheon in Washington, D. C. The discussion also turned to the economy; the results of the "stress test" of the banks; the future of the Republican party; and Sen. Specter's party change. King tried to ask Sen. Corker about comments that VP Cheney had made, but the Senator decided he preferred to talk about Sen. Specter.

Mary Matalin (R) and Hilary Rosen (D) were the next guests. King threw the question about VP Cheney's comments to Mary Matalin. They also debated how safe the US is with Obama as President and comments made at the White House Correspondent Association dinner.

Los Angeles is said to the homeless capital of the world. John King went there this week and interviewed Ruth Martinez, a homeless mother with a young son. He also interviewed Rudy Salis who works with a Community Outreach program. The version of this interview on CNN.com appears to be an extended version:

Reliable Sources with Howard Kurtz started off with Rachael Sklar, Amanda Carpenter, and Joe Klein. The topics included the state of the Republican party, Obama's Presidency, the Supreme Court vacancy (the President's "empathy" remark), Congressional hearings about the news industry, and of course, the White House Correspondents Association dinner, journalists dining with politicians, and the President and Vice President having a burger for lunch.

The next panel included Lois Romano and Lola Ogunnaike to discuss Elizabeth Edwards' book, Bristol Palin's interviews, and Miss California's photos.

Gideon Yago talked to Kurtz about the Al-Jazeera network not getting picked up by many cable providers and the shoe-throwing journalist.

Donna Brazile and Bill Bennett joined John King during the 11AM hour to discuss Gen. Petraeus' remarks about Pakistan and Afghanistan, VP Cheney's recent comments, the Republican party, and the White House Correspondent Association dinner.

In the CNN Diner segment, King spoke with three mothers at a diner in Los Angeles about the economy.

The political round table included: Ed Henry, Barbara Starr, Jill Dougherty. The topics included: Pakistan, President Zardari's comments regarding Bin Laden, and the White House Correspondent Association dinner (of course).

John King's second report on homelessness was an interview with another homeless single mother, Dina Acevedo. She lives at a hotel with her three daughters and is unable to work because of her immigration status.

The Last Word this morning went to a mother serving in Iraq at Camp Al Taqaddum Airbase, Marine Staff Sergeant Brandy Ovanek. King surprised her with having her family on the phone line.

John King talked about his trip to Los Angeles in this week's staff briefing:

The podcasts from Sunday are available at CNN.com/Podcasts:>

• State of the Union with John King (video)
• State of the Union with John King (audio)
• Reliable Sources (video)

CNN.com has several clips of the red carpet arrivals that included some familiar CNN faces:

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