Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Ratings For the Week of December 7th
John King's TVWeek Interview On The Move To Primetime
TVWeek recently spoke to John King about his new Primetime program scheduled to begin in January.
King said in an interview from on the road in Little Rock, Ark., that his new show “will build on some things we know that work, and create some new things.” The giant touch-screen “Magic Wall” that became his trademark for explaining election results during the 2008 political campaign is one of the elements that will make the transition.
While ideas are still being kicked around, he said, “one thing I do know is I want it to be constructive and contextual, to peel back some of the big questions people have,” whether about what to do with the economy, or what’s really in the health bill or “who are the Taliban.” The debate can be “provocative,” he said, but it won’t be led by an anchor who’s an advocate for one side or the other.
Indeed, asked his view on immigration, King called it “a powerful issue in our country, an issue we need to cover. It’s a gut-wrenching and divisive issue.” Then, after a beat, he added: “We will cover it. And many, many, many, many, many, many, many other issues.”
“People always say you can’t do policy on television, I just don’t buy that,” King said. But he does get a constant complaint from viewers that, while they are interested in issues, “‘you guys don’t speak our language.’ The defining challenge, I believe, to anybody in our business right now is relevance. People are in a hurry, and they have so many options. They don’t want their time wasted. They want you to talk about things they care about and to do it in their language.”
That language won’t be the “shouting” that some of his competitors employ, he added. Those shows can be “fun to watch,” he said, “but they’re not newscasts.”
In taking on the new program, King will have to give up Sundays, where his program has been gaining traction. “I hope to carry the passion over to five nights a week,” he said.
He will also have to give up many of his days on the road, a hard transition for a former national political reporter. Even for the Sunday show he has traveled to almost all the states in his 11 months on the job — Arkansas was his 45th — and the need to spend more time in Washington, D.C., will be a challenge, he said.
“One of the things I’m struggling with is how do I reach out and keep in touch with people when I can’t do it myself as much,” he said, adding that, by getting out Washington, he makes sure he’s asking the questions that viewers want to hear.
... to read the full article: John King Scrambles to Ready a CNN Primetime Show
Monday, December 14, 2009
More on Cheating Death
Thanks to all who entered the Cheating Death book giveaway. We have notified the five winners.
US News & World Report recently published an interview with Dr. Gupta on his book, Cheating Death. Here's the intro and a few of the questions and answers. To read more just follow the link.
Sanjay Gupta operates on Mondays and sees patients on Wednesdays. The rest of the week, he leads CNN's medical coverage. Gupta has to be the first (one hopes the last) news reporter to perform brain surgery while on the job in a war zone. He enjoys his weekly responsibilities so much that he turned down President Obama's offer of the surgeon general's position. Cheating Death: The Doctors and Medical Miracles That Are Saving Lives Against All Odds, Gupta's second book, takes a fresh, hard look at assumptions that doctors have accepted for decades: CPR works. You're dead when your heart stops. If your brain looks like mush and the top doctors at a top medical center say you're brain-dead, there's no possibility of coming back. I asked Gupta how the compelling stories he presents should change our ideas about modern medicine and what they might mean for healthcare reform.
Cheating Death and its accompanying CNN specials air some of medicine's basic deficiencies (like how we define death). What's your aim?
I've been thinking about this book since I was a medical student. The way that we pronounce people "dead" and the whole process of death is something that we know more about now than we have ever before. It's not a perfect system. I take some of these concepts that are usually more squarely in the realm of science and the journals and try to make them more approachable for a lay audience. I'm not trying to be controversial or to raise debates.
You write about Lance Becker, director of the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Resuscitation Science, who says death occurs when doctors quit. That's pretty harsh. Do you agree with him?
If you're in the middle of a code and there's no response to the resuscitation attempts, at some point someone says, "OK, that's enough." I'm not saying that if we'd only tried another 10 seconds everything would be different. But the world that we live in, based on the assumption of what is alive and what is dead, does have a subjective nature to it. That, in and of itself, is surprising to people, and "death is when doctors quit" is one example.
Soledad O'Brien Interviewed At Yale University
Soledad O'Brien spoke at Yale University on November 10, 2009. The Yale Bulletin posted an article about the visit: Possibilities Abound in a Nation That Is Diverse, CNN Journalist Says.
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O'Brien, who was part of a team that earned CNN a George Foster Peabody Award for its Katrina coverage, described some of the horrific scenes of destruction she witnessed in New Orleans — a city, she said, that she "will never abandon."
While issues of diversity and community — such as those highlighted in New Orleans — have gained popularity in newsrooms (they once had such low status they usually followed the weather, she pointed out), O'Brien said she doesn't choose her subjects for that reason or to advocate for a particular agenda.
"I just want to tell great stories," she said.
Sometimes, the stories that she tells are "heartbreaking," said O'Brien, such as one in "Latino in America" describing the death of Mexican immigrant Luis Ramirez from a beating by a group of teenagers in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. The teens were only charged with simple assault.
"His identity cost him his life," she stated.
She ended her speech with a quote from Dante's "Inferno": "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crises, maintain their neutrality."
"Think about it — a person who has perpetrated something bad isn't even as bad as a person who stands by," she said.
"I think we have a great opportunity now to lead the charge. ... There are so many issues to solve, and it's going to require all of us — in all of our diversity — to come up with a wide range of solutions. What could be possible to make a difference?"
... to read the full article on the Yale Bulletin: Possibilities Abound in a Nation That Is Diverse, CNN Journalist Says
In addition to the lecture, O'Brien was also interviewed by Calhoun College master and historian Jonathan Holloway. The interview is available for download from iTunes.
O'Brien also spoke at a Calhoun Master’s Tea. The Yale Daily News had an article about the event:
The process of developing a documentary that resonates with viewers can be difficult, however, O’Brien noted. Finding characters that not only tell compelling stories but also have personalities that translate on-screen can be a challenge, O’Brien said.
“If someone’s story is riveting, you just know,” she said. “And other times they just don’t sing on camera and the plot just dies.”
The search for good characters also involves many arguments in the editing process of choosing which people and which moments to highlight, she said.
In terms of her interviewing skills, O’Brien admitted that it has been a learning process in which her technique went from “awful” at the outset of her career to “quite good.”
Listening actively and doing your homework beforehand are crucial steps to keeping control of the interview, she added. But an interviewer should not rush.
“I love having awkward conversations,” she commented. “In interviewing, the beauty is in the silence; 99 out of 100 times, they will say something surprising.”
... to read the full article: Soledad O’Brien sheds light on media
Photo credit: Grace Patuwo/ Yale Daily News
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Rick Sanchez on Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
John King Interviewed By Boston Globe
Last week, The Boston Globe interviewed CNN's John King. In the three page article, King talks about growing up in Boston and his early days in TV news. The article also quotes two of King's siblings as well as a few of his CNN coworkers.
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Though he has lived in the capital for 21 years, King still answers "Boston" when asked where he’s from. Specifically: "beautiful Dorchester, Massachusetts, God’s country. St. Mark’s Parish, between Ashmont and Fields Corner." He’s the third of seven children: five boys, two girls. They lived on the third floor of a triple-decker. His father was a guard at the old Charles Street Jail; King keeps his badges on his desk.
Both his parents died young: his father at 55 of colon cancer, his mother at 59 of emphysema. "They were magicians. They gave us everything with nothing," King says. "And to be in a position [now] where I could put them on a plane, or a cruise, or rent a big house for everybody on the Vineyard - at least once a day I bemoan that fact."
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His older sister, Jean Rodriguez - "J-Rod," John calls her - recalls the childhood holiday when there was a bonfire in a nearby park. John and his friend threw gasoline on it to see what would happen. "He got blown through the air and landed on his head and had a concussion," says Rodriguez, 48, who lives in Marshfield. "He was a little mischievous."
She misses his presence and says her children don’t know their Uncle John like they know the others. "In that sense, it’s something that’s been lost," she says. "I think he misses it, too, sometimes."
... to read the full article: In the neutral zone
Larry King at Niagra Falls in March 2010
CNN's Larry King will perform a pair of shows at Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort, on March 26 and 27. He will be joined by his wife and country artist, Shawn King.
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