Tag cnn

Anderson Cooper Helps A Hatian Child

It’s difficult to figure out what to feel about photos like this. On one hand, Anderson Cooper is a journalist who should be covering a story rather than creating one. However, on the other hand, Haiti requires all the help they can get. This sort of thing came up hypothetically in James Fallows’ book “Breaking the News” that I am currently reading (link to Chapter 1):

He asked Jennings to imagine that he worked for a network that had been in contact with the enemy North Kosanese government. After much pleading, the North Kosanese had agreed to let Jennings and his news crew into their country, to film behind the lines and even travel with military units. Would Jennings be willing to go? Of course, Jennings replied. Any reporter would-and in real wars reporters from his network often had. But while Jennings and his crew are traveling with a North Kosanese unit, to visit the site of an alleged atrocity by American and South Kosanese troops, they unexpectedly cross the trail of a small group of American and South Kosanese soldiers. With Jennings in their midst, the northern soldiers set up a perfect ambush, which will let them gun down the Americans and Southerners, every one. What does Jennings do?


Dear CNN, Re: Your Twitter

Dear CNN,

You probably don’t know me, but I am one of your 2.8 million followers on Twitter. I’ve been with your Twitter since before you knew twitter existed and your account was run by English hacker James Cox. I subscribed because I wanted to have breaking news updates sent to my phone via text message. For a long time this worked well, and I especially liked the (very) occasional human touch Mr. Cox put in when he screwed something up on accident.

In the beginning, breaking news was just that: big news. I would get a text every few days, sometimes more, but this was a volume that I could handle. Sometimes you posted breaking news about people such as O.J. Simpson and it was easy to forgive you, because the signal to noise ratio was relatively high.

Then you discovered Twitter. You decided to accept Ashton Kutcher’s challenge to reach one million followers after acquiring the breaking news account from James Cox. This, I’ll have to admit, was perhaps the high point of your stay in the Twitterverse. Over the summer, you ran unconfirmed reports from the Iranian protests citing only Twitter, and more recently, your volume of tweets has been unacceptable. Let’s take friday’s ten tweets as an example:

November 27, CNN Twitter

Of these tweets, I would say that only three of these could be considered breaking news. Four of the others are about the thanksgiving mishaps of a single person, two were completely expected reports, and one was about secret service mishap that happened days before.

CNN, I would love to tell you that I am going to unfollow you in protest–I wish I could do that–but I am simply too reliant on the actual news reporting you inform me of. You feed my addiction to information, but you’re feeding me too much nonsense. So please, stop sending me fourteen texts while I’m asleep, I really don’t care about Tiger Woods.

Sincerely, @ctbarna

Lou Dobbs vs. Howard Beale

Submitted (yet again) for your approval:

Lou Dobbs:

Howard Beale:

Lou Dobbs has announced he’s leaving from CNN. Reaction from the left and from the right.

Sidenote: Somebody should make a mashup of Network with current cable news talking heads.

CNN’s Ratings Drop

Cable Viewers

So the news today is that CNN has been losing viewers as Fox has gained viewers. I believe it is easy to attribute Fox’s increase in viewership to ideological opposition to the White House, but I don’t think this is the reason for CNN’s viewership drop. When you have Ted Turner saying that his brainchild needs “less fluffy news and more international news,” I think there is something wrong.

CNN is on in the cafeteria at my school so I only encounter it for a few minutes every day. Here are two tag-lines that I’ve seen in the last two days that I feel are indicative of CNN’s current state:

“I Can’t Taste The Difference!”

Saw this on CNN this morning. In other news, they cut the New York Times subscription to residence halls this year so I’m watching CNN.

Distorting Not Reporting

CNN strikes back again against Fox’s advertisement in the Washington Post last week.

Also, the New York Times is covering the feud.

Rick Sanchez Calls Out Fox News

From lgf.

Laura Bush Interviewed on CNN

It’s nice to see at least one member of the George W. Bush family giving interviews. Can hardly wait for both of their memoirs.

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