Rock It, Baby!

As we mentioned in an earlier post, John King was reporting from Vietnam this week. CNN.com has posted two of the reports. The first one is from the National Military History Museum in Hanoi.

The second video is of John King’s interview with Cindy McCain:

Earlier this week, CNN's Christiane Amanpour attended the 67th Annual Peabody Awards at the Waldorf Astoria in New York. She received an award for God’s Warriors.

TVWeek had an article about this years Peabody award receipients. Amanpour mentions in the article that God's Warriors has not been released on DVD because CNN has been unable to get rights to some of the historical footage.

I have had the song Home Sweet Home going through my head ever since I found out that Larry King was interviewing Motley Crue about their new album on Larry King Live Friday night. There are few people who are just as comfortable interviewing world leaders & politicians as they are hard rock legends. Larry King got to go behind the scenes and play drums and guitar with Motley Crue. Here are a few clips from the program:

“Rock it, baby” so says Larry King.

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Fun Clip Thursday

Tonight I thought I would share some great moments from CNN this past week.

Last Friday was Kyra Phillips last day of filling in for Kiran Chetry while Kiran was out on maternity leave. With the rising cost of airline tickets and new luggage charges, master of the prop, Ali Velshi brought out one of Kyra's suitcases to get the point across.

Friday brought us the third installment of the Washington Trio's reports (Zain Verjee, Tom Foreman and Jamie McIntyre). At the end of the piece Zain Verjee joined John and Kyra. What happened next has to be one of the funniest intros I have ever seen. Also the best reaction award goes to John Roberts. This clip is so funny it was Jon Stewart's moment of zen Wednesday night.

John began and ended Friday's American Morning letting the viewers know it was Kyra's last day on American Morning. Only Kyra would add her own flare to the fist bump.

Monday morning was Kiran Chetry's first day back on the job after her two month maternity leave. The end of the show had some cute pictures of Kiran's two beautiful children. Phebe posted the first pics of baby Christopher and he has certainly grown since those pictures were taken

Thursday morning John Roberts learned how freeing not wearing pantyhose is to women. Seems that Kiran, Heidi Collins and Tony Harris have a good laugh.

You know we are living in a dot.com world when people are introduced as a web address. Ali Velshi and Poppy Harlow had a cute moment during Issue #1's Quick Vote segment.

I did check and as of this posting no one has bought that site domain name.

Every afternoon edition of CNN News Room ends with the closing bell on Wall St. Before the closing bell a piece aired on people who spend $15 on a single cup of coffee. Betty Nguyen, Don Lemon and Stephanie Elam discussed the idea out this "expense"

What would a week be hear at ATC with a Daily Show with Jon Stewart clip regarding something that aired on CNN. Jon was covering the coverage of the Midwest floods. Gary Tuchman, Don Lemon and Susan Roesgen all made appearances.

Hope you enjoy these light hearted moments from this past week in CNN. Until next week ~ Sapphire

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Vietnam, Black in America and Vespas

CNN chief national correspondent John King is reporting from Vietnam this week on a critical chapter in presidential candidate Sen. John McCain’s life. King will visit the village in Vietnam where McCain’s plane was shot down during the Vietnam War and the “Hanoi Hilton” where the then-lieutenant commander was a prisoner of war for more than five years.King’s reports will began airing on Wednesday during The Situation Room.
While in Vietnam, King will interview people involved in both McCain’s rescue from the plane wreck and his subsequent imprisonment. On Thursday, June 19, he will conduct a one-on-one interview with Cindy McCain, the senator’s wife, who is visiting the country on behalf of the nonprofit Operation Smile.

Credit: Edward M. Pio Roda/CNN
On Monday evening Soledad O’Brien and CNN Worldwide president Jim Walton hosted an exclusive preview of CNN’s Black in America at Atlanta’s High Museum of Art. The documentary examines the issues, achievements, challenges and experiences of African Americans in the forty years since the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., told through the stories of ordinary people. The worldwide broadcast premiere of Black Women & Family and Black Men will air in July.
Credit: Jeremy Freeman/CNN
CNN anchor and special correspondent Soledad O’Brien during the Q & A after the screening.
Nearly 800 attendees joined O’Brien and show producers for a viewing of the photography exhibitions, “History Remix: The Road to Freedom” and “After 1968,” following the screening.
Among the attendees were Phil Kent, Chairman and CEO of Turner Broadcasting, Mark Nelson, vice president and senior executive producer; Isaac Farris, president The King Center; Alexis Scott, publisher Atlanta Voice; CNN's Elizabeth Cohen and a few other CNN personalities.
Credit: Jeremy Freeman/CNN
CNN Newsroom anchors Don Lemon and Fredricka Whitfield, Headline News anchor Susan Hendricks, CNN anchor and special correspondent Soledad O’Brien, and CNN Newsroom anchors Betty Nguyen and TJ Holmes
Wednesday morning American Morning sent Richard Roth out onto the streets of NYC to do another first hand report. If you remember a few weeks back AM had RR reporting from the horse track? This time Mr. Roth was exploring the practicality of owning a Vespa in NYC. I'm not sure why I enjoy RR's reports so much, but it must have something to do with the strange juxtaposition of this very proper United Nations reporter exploring subjects much less dignified.

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Ratings At A Glance, John King, & Jon Stewart

Ratings for the week JUNE 9, 2008 - JUNE 13, 2008

	8PM^Adults 25-54 FOX 453,800 CNN 251,000 MSNBC 385,500 1
	9PM^Adults 25-54 FOX 412,800 CNN 333,400 MSNBC 205,500 1
	10PM^Adults 25-54 FOX 324,800 CNN 272,800 MSNBC 246,750 1

No primary coverage last week and not a lot of excitement on the campaign trail. Result: CNN’s ratings took a hit last week. FOX had the highest Adult 25 – 54 ratings in all three time slots: 8PM, 9PM, and 10PM. The absence of Anderson Cooper probably didn’t help them any in the 10PM hour. AC360 only had the highest demo on Thursday night and that was the only time all week that one of CNN’s prime time programs were ahead of the other two networks.

Friday, June 13th MSNBC ran special coverage throughout the night remembering their colleague Tim Russert. Their ratings for that night were understandably high. They had the highest number of viewers Adults 25-54 for ever hour between 5PM - MIDNIGHT. Their ratings peaked during the 8PM hour with 524,000 viewers Adults 25 - 54 and 1,358,000 total viewers. FOX and CNN aired their regular programming, but Russert's passing dominated the news. FOX had the second highest demo ratings during the 8PM & 10PM hours. CNN had the second highest demo ratings during the 9PM hour.

¹ 4 day average. MSNBC Friday Night Special coverage of Tim Russert's death excluded.
^{^} Courtesy Nielsen Media Research; Demographics where noted; Live + Same Day (LS) Fast Track Nationals.

NBC has a daunting task ahead of them in attempting to fill Tim Russert’s position. Here they are in the middle of one of the most exiting election seasons in recent memory and they are now without a Washington, D.C. bureau chief and the moderator of their highly rated Meet the Press. There is almost as much speculation as to who might be on the list of potential replacements as there is on who might be the VP on Democrat and Republican tickets.

An AP article on CNNMoney.com caught my interest today. The article lists the obvious choices that already work for NBC including Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann.

Washington hands David Gregory and Andrea Mitchell are lesser-known, but fit into the objective reporting format that made Meet the Press with Russert the first stop for Washington newsmakers. Outsiders Gwen Ifill of PBS' "Washington Week," a former NBC correspondent, and CNN's John King could fit the same mold.

Could you see that? Meet the Press… with John King

The article went on to speculate that NBC may use Brian Williams or Tom Brokaw to fill in on Meet the Press and hold off naming a successor until after the November 2008 general election.

Keep in mind that reportedly John King’s contract with CNN expires at the end of this calendar year. He clearly has the credentials for moderator job with his years covering politics & the White House at both the AP and CNN. Plus, he has an interview style that fits in with the current Meet the Press format. He values journalistic integrity, asks the right questions and doesn’t insert his own opinions into the story.

Hardly a week goes by that Jon Stewart doesn't include a quote or two from CNN on The Daily Show. Tonight's clip includes Abbi Tatton, Anderson Cooper and John King.

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This Week in Ware

The past week has seen some extraordinary reporting out of Baghdad from Michael Ware ... so much so that I decided it was about darned time I unleashed an all-Michael post!

The week started "quietly" enough, with an update on the Status of Forces Agreement (SoFA is the treaty that will allow US troops to stay in Iraq after the UN mandate authorizing the 2003 invasion expires at the end of this year) for last Monday's The Situation Room:

On Wednesday, word broke of an incredible exclusive to be unveiled on that night's Anderson Cooper 360 -- Michael's sources within the Iraqi insurgency (now the US-backed Awakening Councils) had given him copies of several hard drives used by al Qaeda in Iraq:

Michael also wrote an article for CNN.com: Papers give peek inside al Qaeda in Iraq. It would seem that AQI was using these computers as electronic HR departments, containing employment applications, pay records, plans, and most disturbingly, dozens of videos submitted as proof of executions.

The prepared piece was bumped from 360 that night due to breaking news, which allowed for a bit more promotion, at least:

The piece did run on Thursday:

Friday morning brought us another exclusive out of Baghdad: the SoFA talks are deadlocked, as the Iraqis have rejected not one but two US proposals, and have now come up with a very clever twist, which will use our bureaucracy against us:

(Oh, but we Americans sure do think that political gamesmanship was invented in Washington, don't we? Ha!)

Michael was also one of the panelists on Sunday's Fareed Zakaria GPS (which would appear to have been filmed on Thursday) to discuss the current situation in Iraq. First, Fareed asks him to respond to a recent Brookings Institution report that says that things have improved there. Yes... but...:

Fareed later asks him about the affects of the enormous walls we have put up to segregate the different neighborhoods of Baghdad:

Oh, but the week wasn't over quite yet! On today's American Morning (in the midst of yet another sandstorm) Michael did another summary of the current state of affairs in Iraq -- the reasons for the success of the surge, and the realities of the SoFA negotiations as well as a possible withdrawal of US troops:

And that was only a look at six of the 15 clips I posted about Michael this week -- quite the intense week for our favorite straight-shooting, ass-kicking, former-rugby-playing ex-lawyer war correspondent, currently in residence at CNN's Baghdad bureau. (Not sure whether anyone has told Wolf yet, but Michael is now the only western journalist to have lived in Iraq throughout the war. Come on, Wolf, the man deserves his own promo phrase!)

But seriously... as I have soapboxed many times, we are very, very fortunate to have a journalist of his caliber and bravery working for an American network. Good onya, Michael!

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Remembrance

NBC's Meet The Press this morning remembered Tim Russert. NBC has posted the program on their website. I was fortunate enough to be able to take the time this Father's Day to not only watch the program, but to do so with my own father. The panel this morning was made up of Tom Brokaw, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Maria Shriver, Gwen Ifill, James Carville, Mary Matalin, Betsy Fischer, and Mike Barnicle. Tom Brokaw set the tone saying that it was going to be a celebration of Russert's life, but understandably there were difficult moments.

The other Sunday morning talk shows added their own tributes. Below is a clip from CNN's Late Edition as Wolf Blitzer opened the program:

There was another passing this week, this one at CNN. Bob Coleman was an executive producer for CNN. At the end of Sunday morning's CNN Newsroom, T.J. Holmes and Betty Nguyen paid tribute to him.

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Scams

I come to you, dear readers, with a heavy heart... apparently my last offering to the Blogger gods was not accepted, because after weeks of being perfectly well-behaved, the rackedy-frack system is just not letting me upload videos today.

So I'm afraid I will have to try to make do with the old-fashioned written word and occasional graphic...

One of the clips I intended to upload today was a report that Entertainment Correspondent Lola Ogunnaike did for American Morning on Tuesday. She had received a message on her Blackberry warning her that her life was in danger. This is from her online article:

I received a really disturbing e-mail the other afternoon.

"Do you know the person pictured in the following video," it read. "If so, please contact me immediately. Your life might be in danger." The sender claimed to be a Detective James Nicholas, Director of Crime Prevention for the Universal Crime Network.

The e-mail included a link that showed a "crime scene" video -- shown on what would appear to be a sister-station to CNN -- about a series of murders that had been linked to a music video by singer Ashanti. 

Again, from her article:

It's not everyday that I get death threats, so naturally I freaked, clicked on the link and up popped a news report about a series of copycat murders that had been inspired by the R&B singer Ashanti's video "The Way That I Love You," a song about a woman who discovers her boyfriend has been unfaithful.

Clutching a butcher knife and dressed in beaded gown, she cries and croons about betrayal. The cheater ends up dead in bathtub.

Jealous lovers, according to the report, were on a rampage -- and the next victim, it suggested, would be me. On the wall of one of the crime scenes were the words "Lola Will Die," written in what appeared to be blood.

Sadly (and yet, of course, thankfully!) this whole thing was a publicity stunt to promote Ashanti's latest record. People could send "Gotcha-grams" to their friends (?) and even choose the method of death used in the clip shown.

The saying is that there is no such thing as bad publicity... but this one seems to have backfired; the site has been removed and Ashanti now says she has regrets about it. Good to know...!

You can read Lola's full article on CNN.com.

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The lone video I did get to upload was a very short clip also from Tuesday's American Morning: Ali Velshi does a Clint Eastwood impression. Well, at least I can leave you with a laugh!

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Where in the World...?

SATURDAY: Wolf Blitzer, John King, Gloria Borger, and Candy Crowley were all reporting from Washington DC, covering Hillary Clinton's speech suspending her campaign.

SUNDAY: Atika Shubert reported from Jerusalem.

MONDAY: Susan Roesgen was in Columbus, Indiana, covering the floods; White House Correspondent Elaine Quijano was traveling with the president and reported from Ljubljana, Slovenia; Anderson Cooper was in Ruhengeri, Rwanda, working on Planet in Peril 2; Campbell Brown filled in as host of AC360 all week; John King, Dana Bash, and Jessica Yellin all reported from DC. 

TUESDAY: Jamie McIntyre interviewed Defense Secretary Robert Gates at the Colorado Springs Air Force Academy; Nic Robertson reported from London about the air plane crash in Sudan; Frederik Pleitgin and Elaine Quijano reported from Berlin during President Bush's stop there.

WEDNESDAY: Susan Roesgen was in Lake Delton, Wisconsin, where the lake had completely disappeared; Sean Callebs was in Des Moines, Iowa, covering the flooding there; Dana Bash was with the McCain campaign in Philadelphia; Michael Ware had a major exclusive from Baghdad.

THURSDAY: Dana Bash was in NYC; Elaine Quijones was in Rome with the president; Sean Callebs and Dan Simon were in Little Sioux, Iowa to cover the tornado that touched down nearby at a Boy Scout camp; Susan Roesgen was in East Bristol, Wisconsin, reporting on the flooding, while Gary Tuchman was in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

FRIDAY: Michael Ware (above) reported on major developments for the future of our troops in Iraq; Dana Bash was in Penberton, NJ to sit down with John McCain for an interview. (The rest of the day was primarily focused on the sad and untimely death of Tim Russert.)

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That's all for me today. Sorry about the lack of videos. 

A couple of, as they say, programming notes: Sunday on Fareed Zakaria GPS, there will be a discussion about Iraq that promises to be excellent. Well, just check out the guest list:

This week on the show: the subject of Iraq. Two controversial scholars, Michael O'Hanlon and Ken Pollack of the Brookings Institution, have just returned from Iraq and we'll be hearing their assessment of the current situation. Michael Ware, our correspondent in Iraq, will put his two cents in, as well as New York Times war correspondent Dexter Filkins. Don't miss what promises to be a fascinating and original discussion.

I am planning to post several of Michael's clips on Monday... he had a couple of exclusives reports this week that were just incredible. (Yes, I'm biased; doesn't mean I'm wrong!)

Enjoy the weekend!

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