The numbers are in for Keith Olbermann‘s first night on Current. You can’t tell a lot from any new show’s first night ratings—ask Jay or Conan—and there is not much direct precedent for a cable-news star moving shop to an almost-unknown network.
But for one night anyway, I would bet Olbermann and Al Gore are happy. According to the …
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The first thing you notice about Countdown with Keith Olbermann is its similarity to Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Indeed—considering how tough the NBC organization has been with intellectual property with its former late-night hosts–it’s striking how much of the rhetorical …
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The Anthony Weiner twimmolation saga ended today with all the dignity began with: a heckler (Benjy Bronk from The Howard Stern Show) shouting his resignation speech down, cable-news anchors saying the word “sexting” repeatedly and Weiner saying he would step down “most importantly, so …
The ratings are in for the first week of Scott Pelley‘s anchoring of the CBS Evening News. Everyone knows that you can’t tell much by an anchor’s first week alone; everyone, including the network, will try to. So how did he do? Depends who you ask. According to some of the immediate press reactions, he showed a worrisome lack of …
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Last night in New Hampshire, CNN held its first debate of the Republican presidential primary. Among the headlines: Michele Bachmann announced that she had filed papers for a Presidential run, an indication of her seriousness about entering the race that was evidently not sufficiently conveyed …
David Simon may feel vindicated by the new report from the Federal Communications Commission. The final season of The Wire, set largely in the newsroom of the Baltimore Sun, made the point that–despite the proliferation of new media sources–cuts at newspapers meant block-by-block, meeting-by-meeting coverage of local events was drying …
With a political sex scandal all over the headlines, at some point the time comes for the argument—well worth having—about whether it should be in the headlines at all. In Salon, Glenn Greenwald makes the impassioned argument that the Anthony Weiner case is none of our business, and that it’s a sad comment on journalists’ …
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In the most shocking political press conference since the last time a some dude was forced to hold a press conference admitting a sexual transgression, New York Rep. Anthony Weiner took to a podium this afternoon to vindicate every joke made about his surname for the last week.
It …
In an unexpected move, The New York Times announced this morning that Bill Keller, executive editor since 2003, would be stepping down to write full-time, and will be replaced in September by longtime deputy Jill Abramson.
I tend not to blog much here about personnel changes in print journalism—those being of interest mainly to, well, …
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Was Anthony Weiner framed, or did he self-twimmolate? Was it his package or was it hackage? We don’t know, and after a round of TV-news interviews yesterday, we may be even farther from knowing.
The controversy over the Twitter photo of a tumescent man in undies posted to …
Public Policy Polling recently conducted a survey of Republican voters in early caucus state Iowa. In it, they placed former Utah governor Jon Huntsman‘s support at one.
Not number one. Not 1%. One guy polled says he would vote for Huntsman. Meanwhile, former Godfather’s Pizza CEO and Tea Party darling Herman Cain came in tied for …
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Having recently parted ways with Keith Olbermann, whose controversies and run-ins with management proved too much for the channel, MSNBC now has an Ed Schultz problem. The cable network suspended the evening host for a week after he called conservative commentator Laura Ingraham a …
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Fox News’ Republican-professional commentator ranks have been thinning lately, with contributors Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum leaving to explore Presidential runs. So you’d think that Fox might be a promising perch for former GOP party chief Michael Steele. You would be wrong: …
