Friday, August 11, 2006
CNN Coverage of Airport Terror Threats
> CNN International broke into taped coverage at 1:07 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 10, with a report from Max Foster and began full-time coverage at 1:15 a.m. All times Eastern. CNN International anchors covered the incident until 5:30 a.m. when American Morning on CNN/U.S. took over coverage.
> As soon as the story broke, CNN International dropped its regular programming and advertisements to provide rolling news coverage anchored from London. The network will hand over programming duties to Hong Kong at noon. CNNI affiliate ITN provided additional footage.
> The network deployed a satellite truck to Heathrow with anchors Adrian Finighan and Isha Sesay. CNN Marketing Director Mark Haviland was caught up in the travel chaos at Heathrow while on his way to Italy and provided one of CNN's eyewitness accounts during the network's morning coverage. Anchor Richard Quest reported live from Los Angeles and is due to return to London on Friday, Aug. 11.
> CNN Exchange created a special page to solicit video, audio, photos and text for I-Reports; user feedback and content about the terrorism threat. Users may upload their I-Reports at: http://www.cnn.com/exchange/ireports/topics/forms/terror.plot.html
> CNN.com posted numerous items on its front page in addition to the usual developing stories and updates, including free video of statements from President George W. Bush, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and officials from Heathrow Airport and Scotland Yard; the transcript of the announcement about the threat plot; and lists of delayed and cancelled flights resulting from the threat.
> CNN Pipeline continues to show live press conferences, as well as live footage of the congestion at airports across the country, which so far have included international airports in Atlanta, Seattle and Los Angeles. Anchor Nicole Lapin will provide live reports through the afternoon from Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport.
> As the only satellite-delivered television service available to waiting air travelers throughout the United States, CNN Airport Network has served as an essential news and information source about the latest terrorism threat. The network is available in more than 1,900 gate areas at 41 airports.
> CNNRadio began offering reports at 1:30 a.m. (ET) and special reports at 3:30 a.m. with plans to continue them through 9:30 p.m. Affiliates have immediate access to sound bites via the private affiliate Web site and satellite feeds. Network has access to more than 30 affiliate live shots for markets including Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Sacramento and San Antonio.
> As soon as the story broke, CNN International dropped its regular programming and advertisements to provide rolling news coverage anchored from London. The network will hand over programming duties to Hong Kong at noon. CNNI affiliate ITN provided additional footage.
> The network deployed a satellite truck to Heathrow with anchors Adrian Finighan and Isha Sesay. CNN Marketing Director Mark Haviland was caught up in the travel chaos at Heathrow while on his way to Italy and provided one of CNN's eyewitness accounts during the network's morning coverage. Anchor Richard Quest reported live from Los Angeles and is due to return to London on Friday, Aug. 11.
> CNN Exchange created a special page to solicit video, audio, photos and text for I-Reports; user feedback and content about the terrorism threat. Users may upload their I-Reports at: http://www.cnn.com/exchange/ireports/topics/forms/terror.plot.html
> CNN.com posted numerous items on its front page in addition to the usual developing stories and updates, including free video of statements from President George W. Bush, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and officials from Heathrow Airport and Scotland Yard; the transcript of the announcement about the threat plot; and lists of delayed and cancelled flights resulting from the threat.
> CNN Pipeline continues to show live press conferences, as well as live footage of the congestion at airports across the country, which so far have included international airports in Atlanta, Seattle and Los Angeles. Anchor Nicole Lapin will provide live reports through the afternoon from Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport.
> As the only satellite-delivered television service available to waiting air travelers throughout the United States, CNN Airport Network has served as an essential news and information source about the latest terrorism threat. The network is available in more than 1,900 gate areas at 41 airports.
> CNNRadio began offering reports at 1:30 a.m. (ET) and special reports at 3:30 a.m. with plans to continue them through 9:30 p.m. Affiliates have immediate access to sound bites via the private affiliate Web site and satellite feeds. Network has access to more than 30 affiliate live shots for markets including Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Sacramento and San Antonio.
# posted by ATN @ 12:00 AM 
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
TSR to go Political
In an article on Monday, CNN execs say The Situation Room will soon go political:""If you remember how we came up with the concept . . . it was the election of November 2004," Blitzer said. "I was our anchor, and we did it from the Nasdaq video screen wall in New York in Times Square. Jeff Greenfield and I could walk up and down and sort of instantaneously pop up, and say 'Let's take a look at Ohio; right now, 30% of the precincts have been counted.'
"And David Bohrman, our Washington bureau chief, who was producing our election night coverage that night, he came away from that and he said, 'We can really take this concept and go to another level of television production.'
"As we go into the political season . . . we're going to really take advantage of the capabilities. And we've got some new concepts that we're not ready to talk about publicly yet, and we're going to take advantage of some of the new technology and weave it into politics and political coverage."
The political coverage on "The Situation Room" is far from the mud-wrestling style of "Crossfire," though some of that show's regulars remain with the new one, like Paul Begala and Bay Buchanan.
"I've deliberately told them I don't want this to deteriorate into just screaming, and, you know, name-calling or anything like this," Blitzer said." MORE
"And David Bohrman, our Washington bureau chief, who was producing our election night coverage that night, he came away from that and he said, 'We can really take this concept and go to another level of television production.'
"As we go into the political season . . . we're going to really take advantage of the capabilities. And we've got some new concepts that we're not ready to talk about publicly yet, and we're going to take advantage of some of the new technology and weave it into politics and political coverage."
The political coverage on "The Situation Room" is far from the mud-wrestling style of "Crossfire," though some of that show's regulars remain with the new one, like Paul Begala and Bay Buchanan.
"I've deliberately told them I don't want this to deteriorate into just screaming, and, you know, name-calling or anything like this," Blitzer said." MORE
# posted by ATN @ 1:20 PM
Poll: 60 Percent of Americans Have Heard of AC
According to a Huffington Post poll, just over 60 percent of Americans have heard of Anderson Cooper. Of course they report the results backward as 39 percent of people polled have never heard of AC. AC also has a 43 percent approval rating by the people polled.
# posted by ATN @ 12:41 PM
HLN's Beck is "Crazy Like a Fox"
Looks like the pr machine is working getting HLN's Glenn Beck's name out there. Toni Fitzgerald with Media Life Magazine has written an article about the radio host turn "cable news host". Below is a portion of that article:
At present, Beck is getting stomped by Smith, who dominates the hour with 1.37 million total viewers, more than CNN, MSNBC and Headline News combined.
But if Beck continues to grow at this pace, it’s not hard to imagine him moving past Matthews to challenge CNN and perhaps Fox News in the coming months or years.
There is, of course, some irony in that. Beck was hired only after Headline News made a conscious decision to move away from the CNN model emphasizing storytelling and breaking news and toward the personality-driven approach at Fox News.
“Glenn Beck” is more yapathon than news program. Beck delivers summaries of stories while adding his opinions, which are always strong.
His refined demagoguery, which draws extreme reactions from liberals and conservatives alike, certainly would seem to attract the same type of viewer as Fox News. There are web sites dedicated to both trashing and praising him, with headlines like, “Glenn Beck: Moron, menace or both?”
Beck himself has a colorful past. A former top 40 radio host, he has battled alcoholism and drug addiction. After getting clean six years ago and becoming a Mormon, he returned to the radio as a talk host. His daily radio show, syndicated on more than 200 stations by Premiere Radio Networks, claims to be the third-most-listened to national talk show behind Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity."
At present, Beck is getting stomped by Smith, who dominates the hour with 1.37 million total viewers, more than CNN, MSNBC and Headline News combined.
But if Beck continues to grow at this pace, it’s not hard to imagine him moving past Matthews to challenge CNN and perhaps Fox News in the coming months or years.
There is, of course, some irony in that. Beck was hired only after Headline News made a conscious decision to move away from the CNN model emphasizing storytelling and breaking news and toward the personality-driven approach at Fox News.
“Glenn Beck” is more yapathon than news program. Beck delivers summaries of stories while adding his opinions, which are always strong.
His refined demagoguery, which draws extreme reactions from liberals and conservatives alike, certainly would seem to attract the same type of viewer as Fox News. There are web sites dedicated to both trashing and praising him, with headlines like, “Glenn Beck: Moron, menace or both?”
Beck himself has a colorful past. A former top 40 radio host, he has battled alcoholism and drug addiction. After getting clean six years ago and becoming a Mormon, he returned to the radio as a talk host. His daily radio show, syndicated on more than 200 stations by Premiere Radio Networks, claims to be the third-most-listened to national talk show behind Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity."
# posted by ATN @ 12:33 PM
