Day: 7/27/2007

TVNewser Turning Into Drudge?

Posted by on July 27, 2007 at 1:41 pm. 3 Comments :

People who are in the television news business, or are interested in following the inside machinations of the media, have come to rely on a spunky little site called TVNewser. Recently, its founder, a college student at the time, Brian Stelter, graduated and was hired by the New York Times.

Well, it’s only been a week and there are already signs of trouble, as seen in this excerpt from an item about newsman Bob Franken:

“…his cousin, ex-Saturday Night Live star Al Franken, a rabid leftie, is running for the Senate in Minnesota.”

This is a disturbing and inauspicious beginning for new TVNewser, Chris Ariens. It exhibits the kind of juvenile disparagement one might expect from Matt Drudge. You could have reasonably described Franken as Liberal or Progressive, but “leftie” is a deliberately pejorative abbreviation. And what exactly is “rabid” about Franken’s positions, which fit squarely within the mainstream of America that is overwhelming against the war in Iraq, in favor of universal health care, worried about global warming, and disapproving of Bush and Cheney?

The next day, TVNewser had an item about liberal groups pressuring FNC advertisers. However they never reported on Bill O’Reilly’s targeting of liberal bloggers and their sponsors, which is what motivated the liberal groups to respond in kind.

This isn’t the first instance of a dubious omission. A couple of weeks ago, Glenn Beck filled in for Paula Zahn on CNN. He bombed in the ratings, but TVNewser, whose mission it is to report on such ratings performance, never mentioned it.

Jupiter Media purchased TVNewser’s parent, Media Bistro, earlier this year. While I have no reason to criticize Jupiter, I believe it is worth noting that the spunky little web site is now part of an expansive, publicly traded, Internet conglomerate.

Whether or not these changes are responsible for the recent degradation in tone at TVNewser, I can’t say with certainty. However, I can say that if this is what I can expect from TVNewser in the wake of Stelter’s departure, I will certainly not consider it a useful resource in the future, and I suspect that many others will agree with me.

Feel free to email your thoughts to TVNewser.

Random O’Reilly Ramblings

Posted by on July 27, 2007 at 1:26 pm. 2 Comments :

The Fester: “This [raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy] would result in assets being moved offshore to places like Curacao, which (sic) ironically far left financier George Soros has a base.”

I’m sure O’Reilly just forgot to mention the U.S. companies based offshore like Accenture, Tyco, Transocean, etc. And it probably just slipped his mind that Republicans in the House are opposing, and Bush has threatened to veto, legislation that would rein in such activity.

The Fester: “One of our competitors, CNN’s Paula Zahn, leaving that network. And I’d just like to say, Ms. Zahn did a nice job with the program. It was very professional. CNN, in stark contrast to the dishonest (sic) at NBC News, is generally a classy outfit. And we enjoy the competition because it is honest. I hope good things happen to Paula Zahn.”

This uncharacteristic fawning couldn’t have anything to do with Zahn’s future employment, could it? Fox is launching their new business network October 15, and they are going to need on-air personnel. Zahn’s friend and former colleague, Liz Claman, recently left CNBC with a non-compete clause that expires on … October 15. Wouldn’t it be an amazing coincidence if the woman O’Reilly just lavished praise upon ended up at his boss’ new network?

Republicans Are Afraid Of YouTube

Posted by on July 27, 2007 at 12:35 pm. 3 Comments :

News Corpse readers are aware that I was not impressed with the Democratic debate co-sponsored by CNN and YouTube (see The Two Hour YouTube Commercial On CNN and We Report. CNN/YouTube Decides). But my objections were based on execution, not on YouTube or the introduction of citizen participation in the electoral process. Despite it’s shortcomings, there is merit in venturing out into new constituencies and the broadcast did attract a record number of 18-34 year olds.

Republicans, however, are shrinking from the ghastly specter of pajama-clad netizens. So far, only John McCain and Ron Paul have RSVP’d. The others have not actually sent their regrets and they may yet agree to attend. But Mitt Romney was overtly dismissive, saying…


“I think the presidency ought to be held at a higher level than having to answer questions from a snowman.”

Perhaps so. But the real question is, “If you can’t stand up to a snowman on YouTube, how can you stand up to Al Qaeda?”

Update: A coalition of Republican bloggers has mounted an Internet campaign to Save The Debate. From their web site:

“Republicans cannot write off the Internet […] If you approach the Internet from a position of paralyzing fear, you will be out-gunned, out-manned, and out-raised at every turn. It is fundamentally unacceptable to surrender to the Democrats on one of the most important battlefronts of this election.”

This online petition has the potential to be effective, except for one thing: It’s online and Republicans are afraid of that.

The Not Issuing Orders Guy

Posted by on July 27, 2007 at 3:29 am. NO Comments :

After having endured years of the comedy stylings of a bumbling War President who variously describes himself the Decider Guy or the Commander Guy, the circle has finally closed around an alter ego that is a far more believable persona for our little chameleon.

Aboard Air Force One, the President’s press secretary, Tony Snow, presided over what he called a “speed gaggle.” Near the end, a reporter managed to squeeze out a probing question:

Question: “Tony, if the President can order the U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia not to pursue criminal contempt charges, doesn’t that sort of put him in the position of being able to determine unilaterally what executive privilege is?”

That seems like a nicely pointed question that reasonably seeks an explanation for an apparent overreaching on the part of the White House. Let’s see how Tony handles it.

Mr. Snow: “Well, the President can assert executive privilege, but you’ve misstated the way this works. In fact, the Department of Justice has the responsibility — the Department of Justice has already published an opinion; furthermore, there is a longstanding series of opinions out of the Department of Justice from Democratic and Republican administrations that talk about the inapplicability of criminal contempt of Congress citations when it comes to people asserting executive privilege.

So, number one, the President is not issuing orders; this is something that falls under the purview of the Department of Justice. And number two, legal precedent all points in one way and it would not be the way contemplated by the House Judiciary Committee.”

Holy Transformer, Batman! The Deciding Commander Guy has turned into the Not Issuing Orders Guy. What makes this even more fantabulous is that it is wholly untrue that the Department of Justice has responsibility for asserting executive privilege. That is an authority reserved for the President. But even if the DoJ did have jurisdiction, it would be just a tiny bit unseemly for them to exercise it when the subject of the investigation is the Attorney General himself.

However, things may not be quite as bad as they appear when you consider that this Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, is uniquely qualified to assert a privilege he doesn’t have and then conveniently forget that he had done so.