2fer: CNN dumped dumpy Soledad for Faux MINXiness. And: Anybody more pompous than KOPPEL?

In the first link, if you can swallow the fawning references to Matt PUDGE and to CNN as "Chicken Noodle Network" and "CLINTON News Network"---well, then you're halfway there!!1


*******QUOTE*******

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/sex-always-sells-comes-tv/story.aspx?guid=%7B066F0F24%2DE029%2D4DAA%2DAF52%2D6A78F67F101F%7D
JON FRIEDMAN'S MEDIA WEB

Sex always sells when it comes to TV news

By Jon Friedman, MarketWatch
Last Update: 12:01 AM ET Apr 6, 2007

.... But CNN's top news executive in the United States, Jonathan Klein, can be accused of coming pretty darned close -- even though Klein reminded me that he wasn't running CNN's news operation when the "sexy" comment caused a fuss.

The occasion was a conference call with journalists after CNN announced that Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien (no relation) were out as the anchors of "American Morning." John Roberts, who had come over to CNN from CBS, and Kiran Chetry, recently added from Fox News, would be replacing them.

This is what transpired on the call, according to the Wall Street Journal's Web site: "As for Ms. Chetry, who joined CNN in February from Fox News Channel,

'One look at her tells you why she deserves the spot,' Mr. Klein said. 'She's a terrific anchor who lights up the screen.'"

....

Now, Klein should know better than to give someone an impression that CNN cares, above everything else, about looking sexy. Even if this was the last thing on his mind, it came through, and it didn't have to. ....

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- CNN has done it again: It stuck its foot in its mouth in public.


http://www.slate.com/id/2163593/?nav=fix
press box: Media criticism.

Ted Koppel Predicts! Only a reporter this intimate with the story could get it so wrong.

By Jack Shafer
Posted Thursday, April 5, 2007, at 6:04 PM ET

Is there a more pompous egomaniac purring on the airwaves today than Ted Koppel?

Two days ago, the bouffanted one filed a commentary piece on NPR pegged to the seizure of 15 British sailors and marines by the Iranians. For self-obsessives like Koppel, all journalism is autobiography, so the story doesn't seem new to him. Instead, it echoes the hostage-taking of American diplomats 28 years ago in Tehran because, as Koppel doesn't have to remind listeners, it was the news event that started the show America Held Hostage that became Nightline and made his career! ....

Early on, Koppel offers listeners a little self-disparagement to remind them the story is about him, noting that 28 years ago he predicted in a piece that the face-off between Iran and the West would end soon. "If, by soon, I meant 444 days, I was right on the money," he chortles.

Because it's déjà vu all over again, Koppel predicts that the current incident will unfold like the last: The Iranians will humiliate Prime Minister Tony Blair—as they humiliated President Jimmy Carter—by holding the captives until a new head of state takes office.

The British sailors and marines touched down in Heathrow Airport today. ....

********UNQUOTE*******

The Pic:

but the fact that it appears like she fell for the "Sharper Image Air Purifier" scam (IMO) doesn't bode well.

It's unwatchable. Jesus, all American newscasts are becoming unwatchable. I live in the UK now, and some channel (can't remember if it was BBC or ITV) would run the ABC Nightly News at around 1:00AM, after some of their own newscasts. It was a joke. A terrible, terrible joke. It made me want to throw things at the screen.

American TV journalism has gone way, way downhill.

and told me that EVERY channel that she watched was drek and she had even choicer things to say about radio.

She was, in her words- gobsmacked, though she understood a lot more about American society after having seen for herself the kind of crap people are subjected to.

I do not believe these netwrks get it. John Roberts as
an entertainer????????????

Miles O'Brian comes off as more easy going to pair with
the spiritedness of Chetry. I could be wrong.

Is your am show entertainment as Fox is with a bit of
serious subjects thrown in and covered lightly or
is your am show a more serious news show with a
bit of entertainment thrown in??

It is impossible to do both in the same period??