Friday, August 05, 2005
Klein on Novak Situation
According to an article in Broadcasting and Cable, CNN is still deciding Bob Novak's future at the network. The article says, "CNN President Jon Klein who was off yesterday when the incident occurred as well as today, said he has not yet spoken with Novak and does not know when they will speak, although he said a discussion between them did not necessarily have to occur before the network decides its future plans for Novak.
“At some point I’m sure we’ll speak to each other but there’s nothing imminent or scheduled,” Klein said. “[Novak]’s actions speak for themselves so we’ll just have to see. His actions kicked all of this off, so I don’t know how much more discussion is necessary for the network to decide what to do about it. I think our actions speak for themselves for now and we’ll just see how it plays out.”
Novak, who has contributed to CNN since Jun, 1980, was slated to be a contributor to CNN’s new afternoon Wolf Blitzer-hosted political show, The Situation Room, which starts Monday (Aug. 8). But Klein said he was unsure if that was still the case.
“This obviously throws that up in the air,” Klein said. “Again, we’ll just have to see how all this plays out.”"
UPDATE: 7:01pm EDT An article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has additional quotes from Jon Klein:
"He's an intelligent guy. He's an insightful guy with extremely good contacts," Klein said. Novak, Klein added, made a valuable contribution "up until" Thursday's incident.
Klein said the Plame investigation isn't a factor in deciding whether Novak has a future at CNN. "One can take the incident on its own," Klein said. "On its face, walking off our air and using expletives is not acceptable."
“At some point I’m sure we’ll speak to each other but there’s nothing imminent or scheduled,” Klein said. “[Novak]’s actions speak for themselves so we’ll just have to see. His actions kicked all of this off, so I don’t know how much more discussion is necessary for the network to decide what to do about it. I think our actions speak for themselves for now and we’ll just see how it plays out.”
Novak, who has contributed to CNN since Jun, 1980, was slated to be a contributor to CNN’s new afternoon Wolf Blitzer-hosted political show, The Situation Room, which starts Monday (Aug. 8). But Klein said he was unsure if that was still the case.
“This obviously throws that up in the air,” Klein said. “Again, we’ll just have to see how all this plays out.”"
UPDATE: 7:01pm EDT An article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has additional quotes from Jon Klein:
"He's an intelligent guy. He's an insightful guy with extremely good contacts," Klein said. Novak, Klein added, made a valuable contribution "up until" Thursday's incident.
Klein said the Plame investigation isn't a factor in deciding whether Novak has a future at CNN. "One can take the incident on its own," Klein said. "On its face, walking off our air and using expletives is not acceptable."
# posted by ATN @ 6:17 PM 
