Tuesday, May 15, 2007
CNN Business Correspondent Veers Off Course at NCTA
Source: Broadcasting and CablePerhaps Ali Velshi should stick to TV.
That was the consensus among several audience members polled after watching CNN's senior business correspondent moderate an all-star executive panel at the closing session of last week's National Cable & Telecommunications Association conference in Las Vegas (see p. 16).
During a discussion that included Time Warner President/COO Jeff Bewkes, ESPN President George Bodenheimer and Cox Communications President Pat Esser, Velshi left many—including the panelists—wishing he would slow down and stick to the topic at hand: the future of cable.
Velshi—who also hosts The Ali V Podcast, among other CNN podcasts—opened the session with a long disquisition on what he called “the biggest deal in media”: his new customized iPod ear buds.
“Forget Murdoch and Dow Jones and YouTube,” he said, as he described making a cast of his ear (while struggling to don the ear buds on stage).
When he finally got around to asking questions, Velshi jumped around so much that Esser asked him at one point to ease up, saying, “You're throwing so much at us.”
After listening to the buildup to one query, Bodenheimer finally asked Velshi, “What's the question?” to scattered applause.
Even Bewkes, Velshi's corporate boss, had to put on the brakes, asking, “Can we just get back … I just want to wrap up the other question.”
Said one attendee afterward, “That fast banter may work on TV but not on a panel like this. It's too much.”
# posted by ATN @ 2:41 PM 
