Stan Grant is currently doing a stint in Islamabad, and yesterday he reported on the recorded message from Zawahiri that calls on the Pakistani people to support the Taliban and fight against the Americans:
I really hadn't planned to turn my posts into Almost-All-Things Michael Ware, but recent weeks have had so much saturation-coverage of first Michael Jackson's death and now the Sotomayor confirmation hearings that it has been tough to get much else ... luckily for me, Michael has been working like a stevedore throughout all this and I have had a lot of clips to utilize! So ... from last night's AC360, here is Michael's piece about the bombings of Baghdad churches:
But it hasn't all been grim coverage in Baghdad. Monday night the Iraqi soccer team played its first home match since before the war began, and Michael was there to cover it:
And on International's BackStory, a look at the filming of the match coverage:
The Atlanta Film Festival celebrated the 20th Anniversary of Do the Right Thing, Saturday, July 11 at the Fox Theater. The audience watched the film, followed by Q and A moderated by CNN anchor T.J. Holmes with (l to r) Spike Lee, Monty Ross-co-producer, Joie Lee—Jade and Bill Nunn—Radio Raheem. The cast took questions from the audience as well at questions submitted via Facebook (CNN Black In America) and Twitter (blackamericacnn).
Welcome to this week's edition of the wacky world of ratings. Tuesday night's coverage following Michael Jackson's memorial service had a major impact on the averages for the week. Let's start with the 8PM time slot. On the surface the average adults 25 - 54 demographic ratings put FOX at number 1, CNN at number 2 (yes, that is CNN), MSNBC in third place and HLN trailing behind in fourth. If you look at the night to night rankings, FOX took first place four nights out of five. CNN came in first place on Tuesday night and had two third place finishes and two fourth place finishes. MSNBC took second place twice, third place once and fourth place twice. HLN took second place twice, third place twice, and fourth place once.
The averages are a bit more clear cut at 9PM. FOX came in first place for the week after taking the top spot four nights out five. CNN came in second place after coming in first place one night (Tuesday) and second place the other four nights. MSNBC was a consistent third place and HLN was a consistent fourth place.
The 10PM hour defies all logic when you look at the individual nights (but the math works in CNN's favor.) CNN takes the top spot when comparing the averages after having the highest demographic rating on Tuesday night and coming in second the other four nights. FOX comes in second for the week after coming in first four nights out of five and second one night. HLN comes in third place after coming in third three nights out of five. MSNBC comes in fourth place after coming in fourth three nights out of five.
^ Courtesy Nielsen Media Research; Demographics where noted; Live + Same Day (LS) Fast Track Nationals.
The ratings over the past two weeks have left lots of room for the networks to spin the results in their own favor. The Wrap recently posted an article titled Fox News Keeps Fending Off Rivals and they spoke with Miles O'Brien for his take on his former employer's ratings wins and woes. (Thanks to Julie for finding this for us.)
Prior to returning to Iraq last month, Michael Ware spent several weeks in Pakistan, and last Thursday we learned why ... he travelled to the Pakistan/Afghanistan border to give viewers a look at the mountainous terrain that allows Taliban fighters to slip back and forth with such ease (a border that US/NATO forces are unable to cross in pursuit.)
He also got a major exclusive -- for the first time since the war began in late 2001, a Pakistani military commander admitted to him on-camera something long assumed but never before confirmed: that they still have contacts amongst the major players of the Taliban leadership. In fact, the spokesman says they are willing to help open lines of communication between the US and the Taliban, an important first step in ending this war, one that can't be won by force of arms alone.
Here is Michael's original report as it aired on AC360:
Friday, members of the Obama administration were already reacting positively to the news. Here, Heidi Collins gives a brief update, which is immediately followed by a report from Atia Abawi, who is currently embedded with the Marines in Helmand province. The Marines are engaging in the new counterinsurgency doctrine of clearing and holding an area in the hopes of rebuilding the political and social infrastructure of the country:
This morning, more follow-up as Michael spoke with US Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke about the possibility of meeting with Taliban leaders and working towards a way to end this war:
MONDAY: Suzanne Malveaux was still in Moscow; Sean Callebs was in Anchorage, Alaska (no word as to whether they could see each other). Alina Cho was in for John Roberts.
TUESDAY: Kiran Chetry anchored from Los Angeles; Anderson Cooper and Soledad O'Brien went on the air at 10:30am PT to cover the Michael Jackson memorial, so Kyra Phillips and Rick Sanchez were not on the air. Alina was in for John.
WEDNESDAY: Paula Newton and Suzanne Malveaux were both in L'Aquila, Italy, covering the G8 summit; Kiran and Anderson were both back in New York. Alina was in for John; Ali Velshi was in for Kyra.
THURSDAY: Joe Johns was in for John; Ali was in for Kyra; Jim Moret was in for Larry King; Erica Hill was in for Anderson (who was on his way to Ghana to interview President Obama at Cape Coast Castle, above.)
FRIDAY: Ed Henry was in Rome. Joe was in for John; Ali was in for Kyra; Kitty Pilgrim was in for Lou Dobbs; Erica was in for Anderson.
SATURDAY: Anderson, Ed, and Suzanne were all in Accra, Ghana; Reza Sayah was in Washington; David Mattingly was in Beulah, Florida. Tom Foreman was in for Fredericka Whitfield.
SUNDAY: Jeffrey Toobin was in Washington. Wolf Blitzer was in for John King; Tom was in for Fredericka.
John King was off this morning and who better to fill in for him on State of the Union than Wolf Blitzer?
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was in the DC studio this morning to discuss health care reform. There are many suggestions on how to pay for this reform for instance: taxing health care benefits and additional taxes for those who are the wealthiest. Blitzer also asked her about whether the latest swine flu vaccination would be ready by flu season. According to the Secretary, there are about 1 million cases of swine flu right now in the US. (Why was this number a shock? You would think when the number of cases got this high the media would have been reporting on it.)
Senators Judd Gregg (R), Debbie Stabenow (D), Lamar Alexander (R), and Kent Conrad (D) talked to Blitzer about health care reform legislation. No consensus among the group on whether employer health insurance should be taxed or if there should or shouldn't be a public option.
The Senators also discussed the information the CIA withheld from Congress on VP Cheney's order. Isn't it interesting that all of a sudden when CNN tries to get a comment regarding this that the former VP is not available for comment.
Next on State of the Union were some highlights from Anderson Cooper's interview with the President while in Ghana.
More of the interview can be seen at 10PM Monday during AC360.
John King may not have been in the studio this morning, but his report on rural health care aired. He spoke with a health care provider and a couple, who do not have health insurance and do not seek medical treatment because they can't afford it, in coal country, Clay, West Virigina. This was one of two reports on this topic that aired during the program.
Howard Kurtz was back from vacation with a full hour of Reliable Sources. Kurtz missed the Palin resignation story last Sunday, but made up for it this morning. Kurtz spoke with Keli Goff, Matt Frei, and Michael Medved. They also talked about scandal fatigue: Ensign, Sandord, Burris...
The next topic for the panel was the coverage of the Michael Jackson memorial service.
Kurtz then focused on the Washington Post scandal concerning Katharine Weymouth and corporate sponsored dinners. It turns out that other news organizations already do this. Steve Roberts and Kara Swisher discussed the controversy.
Kurtz interviewed Sir David Frost earlier this week. What is Frost doing these days? Working for Al-Jazeera English. His program is called Frost Over the World. Kurtz also asked him about the Frost/ Nixon movie and his interview with President Nixon. They also briefly touched on the debate over whether or not news organizations paying for interviews and whether or not the practice is ethical. Frost had an interesting point that although some networks refuse to pay for interviews for ethical reason those same networks will "triple" advertising rates when the interview is aired.
At the end of the hour, it was back to Wolf Blitzer. Blitzer spoke with Mary Matalin and James Carville about the CIA withholding information from the Congress.
The next topic for the two strategists was health care reform. And then they discussed Gov. Palin's decision to resign.
John King was in San Francisco earlier this week and taped the CNN Diner segment at Howard's Diner. He spoke with three people who do not have full health insurance coverage about health care reform.
The next panel included Ed Henry, Jeffrey Toobin, and Candy Crowley. They discussed the confirmation hearings of Judge Sotomayor which start in the Senate on Monday morning. The panel also discussed whether the Justice department will prosecute officials involved in harsh interrogation (torture?) techniques.
As typical, the top of the last hour of the program brought us a repeat from the 9AM hour. 44 minutes later live programming resumed. The Last Word went to Representative Patrick Murphy (D) from Pennsylvania. Blitzer talked to the Congressman about the "don't ask/ don't tell" policy. 13,000 service members have been forced out of the military under this policy. The Congressman pointed out that this is the size of three brigades.
In case you missed the program this morning, you can always catch up with the podcast:
And this week, Tom Foreman had another article in the Metro: Obama-Palin in 2012?.
When Sarah Palin took her unexpected swan dive into Lake Nevermore by announcing she was quitting as governor of Alaska, I was suitably puzzled. I assumed she must have been conked in the head by a rogue moose, or stumbled into a patch of unripe salmonberries, or she had some secret hidden on the Appalachian Trail, if you know what I mean.
A reminder that CNN's coverage of the Sotomayor confirmation hearings start at 10AM on Monday morning with Wolf Blitzer anchoring the coverage along with the "Best Political Team in Television" (of course).
Men's Journal has a quick mention of John King in their article on how to overcome jet lag. His suggestion: power naps. They also provided the picture below. Click here for the full article.
Ali Velshi did an interview for Obsessed TV with Samantha Ettus.
mediabistro.com posted an interview with CNN correspondent Jill Dougherty. Click here for the interview.
Roland Martin will be hosting a weekly TV show on TV One beginning on September 27th. The tentative title for the show is Washington Watch with Roland Martin. Click here for details.
Roland also wrote an article for creators.com on why there should be a memorial to continue Michael Jackson's legacy. Click here for the article.
Twitter Pictures:
@sanjayguptaCNN tweeting
@kiranchetrycnn outside the Staples Center
@donlemoncnn outside the staples center
@donlemoncnn with Reverend Jesse Jackson and Teddy Riley
