This sounds unbelieveable. Texas, a state that has been firmly Republican territory for a long time, this year, could go to the Democrats?
This seemingly wild idea, actually comes from a site that is not known for it's wild, unsubstantiated ideas. This comes from Real Clear Politics, who are usually somewhat conservative, at least in a cultural sense, when it comes to election predictions. By comparison, Politico, NBC News, CBS News and CNN are still firmly placing it on the Republican side, although Politico, CBS News and CNN are all saying that it's only leaning Republican right now.
The current scorecards for the race to the White House are very interesting. All of them have Biden leading. Real Clear Politics makes it 222-115, with both Florida's 29 Electoral College votes, and Texas' 38 Electoral College votes up for grabs. If Biden were to win both of those states, then Trump has no way to win.
By comparison, Politico scores it 268-203, NBC News scores it 231-201, CBS News 248-188, and CNN scores it 232-205. As of writing this, neither ABC News or FOX News currently have a scorecard for the race to the White House.
It would be completely shocking, if the Democrats did indeed take Texas, even by just a handful of votes. The Republican Party losing their single biggest block of Electoral College votes? To many of us seasoned political observers, it seems to be anything from unlikely to impossible. But Politico have noticed something.
In 2012, Mitt Romney won Texas by 16 points. In 2016, Trump won it by just 9 points. It's getting closer and closer. Currently, Real Clear Politics has it listed as a tie for this year at 45% each on their polling average, but that just means that right now, it's too close to call, which considering Texas' history as a Republican and their one reliable source for a big pile of Electoral College votes, the fact that it could, just could go to the Democrats, will shake everything up if that happens. We'll just have to wait and see.
Showing posts with label CNN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CNN. Show all posts
Tuesday, 14 July 2020
Sunday, 2 July 2017
Viewpoint: Can We End This Nightmare Now, Please?
So let me get this straight. Donald Trump posted footage from WWE, from
Wrestlemania 23 to be precise, phtoshopped to replace Vince McMahon's
head with a CNN logo, footage that showed him beating up on "CNN".
That's low. That's dispicable. That's sad. Using one fake thing, professional wrestling, to accuse CNN of being fake, and showing how he wants to beat up on them. Sadly, his fans just eat it up.
The rest of us know that he has sadly demonstrated that he does not respect the media, which we already knew, but that he also does not respect the office of President.
This is not reality TV, this is not a ratings war. He is supposed to be the President of the USA. Instead, he is nothing more than a cult leader, destroying the United States, under the Cult Of Trumpistan.
He's too stupid to resign, and his cabinet is too in his thrall to dump him. Somebody needs to do something to end this travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham of a presidency.
Somebody in the Congress needs to do something, soon, whilst there is still something of the United States left to salvage.
That's low. That's dispicable. That's sad. Using one fake thing, professional wrestling, to accuse CNN of being fake, and showing how he wants to beat up on them. Sadly, his fans just eat it up.
The rest of us know that he has sadly demonstrated that he does not respect the media, which we already knew, but that he also does not respect the office of President.
This is not reality TV, this is not a ratings war. He is supposed to be the President of the USA. Instead, he is nothing more than a cult leader, destroying the United States, under the Cult Of Trumpistan.
He's too stupid to resign, and his cabinet is too in his thrall to dump him. Somebody needs to do something to end this travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham of a presidency.
Somebody in the Congress needs to do something, soon, whilst there is still something of the United States left to salvage.
Saturday, 3 November 2012
US Election Analysis and Coverage.
This election cycle in the US has been the most divided and one of the closest in recent memory, certainly the closest since 2000. But an improving economy and the most unwelcome of October surprises in Hurricane Sandy, handled brilliantly by President Obama, may have swung the election away from Mitt Romney. Obama had the easier path to 270 anyway this year, and Mitt Romney looks like he has had just too much to do to turn it round.
However, don't expect the declaration of the winner to be made by 11pm ET / 4am GMT. This will be a lot closer than the 365 to 173 electoral college votes that we saw in 2008. Indeed, it's quite possible that Mitt Romney may get more votes overall, but lose the election due to the particular quirks of the US election system. I am fully expecting the declaration of the winner, to come after Midnight ET, maybe closer to 1am ET.
However, just as interesting as the final result, is just how many people will vote for the third party candidates, as two debates featuring only the 3rd party candidates have aired or are about to air on RT America, one of those debates was actually produced by online TV operation Ora TV with Larry King, former CNN host moderating. RT America can be seen by over 50 million people in the US, which is still far less than CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, who can all be seen by at least 200 million people, but still means that candidates that have not been seen on more mainstream media outlets, have gotten more exposure this time around than in previous years.
Also, likely to possibly change things around a bit this year, is the Occupy movement, which the right wing media have done their best to downplay or ignore, calling it a spent force or a dead movement. Now, by contrast, nobody has refered to the Tea Party movement on the Republican side as a spent force, which says to me that the Republicans are genuinely scared of how the Occupy movement could have a major impact on the political scene, especially after the movement changed the discussion framework of the debate on government spending in the US in 2011.
Another factor that could be an issue is Roseanne Barr. Whilst the actress and comedienne was unsuccessful in getting nominated for the Green Party, she has used her twitter feed to actively campaign on Green Party issues, to her over 174,000 followers. It does mean that we are in for a much more interesting time in this election cycle, rather than just who's gonna win. With Ron Paul backing Gary Johnson, the Libertarian party candidate, it will mean that there are more stories in this election than in 2008. The only story in 2008, was how much Barack Obama would win by, it was that obvious.
There will be a lot of coverage of course, on TV and radio, across the world, as this story has global impact. In the UK, the BBC will have coverage on both radio and television. Radio 5 Live will start the ball rolling at 10pm GMT / 5pm ET, with Richard Bacon hosting coverage for 8 hours, with 5 Live Breakfast taking over at 6am. Radio 4 will also have coverage, anchored by James Naughtie and Bridget Kendall, until 6am when the Today programme will continue the coverage. BBC1 and BBC News Channel will have coverage starting at 11.35pm, and continuing into Breakfast. Outside of the BBC, ITV is anchoring its own coverage also starting at 11.35pm and going on into Daybreak. Commercial radio however, doesn't seem to be covering it outside of news bulletins. LBC, the UK's only news/talk station, has no speciall coverage planned as I write this, although I expect the overnight hosts will talk about it, with a full roundup expected in The Morning News with Susan Bookbinder at 6.30am.
Satellite viewers can expect to find a lot of coverage. One of the more unexpected sources this time is PBS America, who are airing the live PBS NewsHour coverage from Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff, starting at 11pm GMT and going on until at least 5am. Sky News are starting their coverage at 10.30pm, and going on until 9am. Bloomberg's coverage starts at Midnight and runs until 5am. CNBC is providing their own coverage after the live NBC Nightly News at 11.30pm, and the coverage goes on until 7am. Al Jazeera's coverage runs from 9pm to 7am, whilst FOX News Channel's coverage starts at 11pm and goes on until 10am. But CNN International take the award for the most coverage, starting off at 11am, including a special hour long edition of Amanpour at 8pm, switching to a simulcast of CNN USA at 9pm until 7am, when they resume coverage until 3pm, when they switch to a modified normal schedule, with an additional hour of International Desk at 5pm. Although Piers Morgan Tonight is scheduled for 11pm, I expect that to be replaced with an edition of World Report from Hong Kong.
Over in Ireland, TV coverage is the order of the night, as radio seems to be giving live overnight coverage a wide berth. Neither RTE Radio 1 nor NewsTalk have any scheduled coverage outside of daytime and news bulletins. NewsTalk's George Hook is presenting his drivetime programme, The Right Hook, from America all week, but there is no overnight coverage scheduled. On television RTE 1 has their own anchored coverage from 11.35pm until 3am, then they join CBS News for their coverage at 3am, switch to EuroNews at 7am, before RTE return to their own anchored coverage at 8am until 9.40am.
TV3 on the other hand, are doing something weird. Undoubtedly, the story will feature in the regularly scheduled Tonight with Vincent Brown at 11pm. TV3 will join CNN's live coverage at 2am until Ireland AM starts at 7am. However, betweem Midnight and 2am, TV3 are showing Psychic Readings Live. I don't need to be psychic to know that TV3 will basically have given RTE the ratings victory in that timeslot. Also, Ireland AM is not known for its news coverage, so that could be an interesting programme.
As we get closer to Election Day in the US, I will be finding out more about how other broadcasters around the world will be covering the story, and I will update the blog with those details as I find them. Also, if I get any word on internet streams of coverage, and I expect there to be such streams from Politico and Democracy Now amongst others, then I'll bring that information to you as well. On the night, I myself will be live tweeting on @cityprod. It should be a fascinating night.
However, don't expect the declaration of the winner to be made by 11pm ET / 4am GMT. This will be a lot closer than the 365 to 173 electoral college votes that we saw in 2008. Indeed, it's quite possible that Mitt Romney may get more votes overall, but lose the election due to the particular quirks of the US election system. I am fully expecting the declaration of the winner, to come after Midnight ET, maybe closer to 1am ET.
However, just as interesting as the final result, is just how many people will vote for the third party candidates, as two debates featuring only the 3rd party candidates have aired or are about to air on RT America, one of those debates was actually produced by online TV operation Ora TV with Larry King, former CNN host moderating. RT America can be seen by over 50 million people in the US, which is still far less than CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, who can all be seen by at least 200 million people, but still means that candidates that have not been seen on more mainstream media outlets, have gotten more exposure this time around than in previous years.
Also, likely to possibly change things around a bit this year, is the Occupy movement, which the right wing media have done their best to downplay or ignore, calling it a spent force or a dead movement. Now, by contrast, nobody has refered to the Tea Party movement on the Republican side as a spent force, which says to me that the Republicans are genuinely scared of how the Occupy movement could have a major impact on the political scene, especially after the movement changed the discussion framework of the debate on government spending in the US in 2011.
Another factor that could be an issue is Roseanne Barr. Whilst the actress and comedienne was unsuccessful in getting nominated for the Green Party, she has used her twitter feed to actively campaign on Green Party issues, to her over 174,000 followers. It does mean that we are in for a much more interesting time in this election cycle, rather than just who's gonna win. With Ron Paul backing Gary Johnson, the Libertarian party candidate, it will mean that there are more stories in this election than in 2008. The only story in 2008, was how much Barack Obama would win by, it was that obvious.
There will be a lot of coverage of course, on TV and radio, across the world, as this story has global impact. In the UK, the BBC will have coverage on both radio and television. Radio 5 Live will start the ball rolling at 10pm GMT / 5pm ET, with Richard Bacon hosting coverage for 8 hours, with 5 Live Breakfast taking over at 6am. Radio 4 will also have coverage, anchored by James Naughtie and Bridget Kendall, until 6am when the Today programme will continue the coverage. BBC1 and BBC News Channel will have coverage starting at 11.35pm, and continuing into Breakfast. Outside of the BBC, ITV is anchoring its own coverage also starting at 11.35pm and going on into Daybreak. Commercial radio however, doesn't seem to be covering it outside of news bulletins. LBC, the UK's only news/talk station, has no speciall coverage planned as I write this, although I expect the overnight hosts will talk about it, with a full roundup expected in The Morning News with Susan Bookbinder at 6.30am.
Satellite viewers can expect to find a lot of coverage. One of the more unexpected sources this time is PBS America, who are airing the live PBS NewsHour coverage from Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff, starting at 11pm GMT and going on until at least 5am. Sky News are starting their coverage at 10.30pm, and going on until 9am. Bloomberg's coverage starts at Midnight and runs until 5am. CNBC is providing their own coverage after the live NBC Nightly News at 11.30pm, and the coverage goes on until 7am. Al Jazeera's coverage runs from 9pm to 7am, whilst FOX News Channel's coverage starts at 11pm and goes on until 10am. But CNN International take the award for the most coverage, starting off at 11am, including a special hour long edition of Amanpour at 8pm, switching to a simulcast of CNN USA at 9pm until 7am, when they resume coverage until 3pm, when they switch to a modified normal schedule, with an additional hour of International Desk at 5pm. Although Piers Morgan Tonight is scheduled for 11pm, I expect that to be replaced with an edition of World Report from Hong Kong.
Over in Ireland, TV coverage is the order of the night, as radio seems to be giving live overnight coverage a wide berth. Neither RTE Radio 1 nor NewsTalk have any scheduled coverage outside of daytime and news bulletins. NewsTalk's George Hook is presenting his drivetime programme, The Right Hook, from America all week, but there is no overnight coverage scheduled. On television RTE 1 has their own anchored coverage from 11.35pm until 3am, then they join CBS News for their coverage at 3am, switch to EuroNews at 7am, before RTE return to their own anchored coverage at 8am until 9.40am.
TV3 on the other hand, are doing something weird. Undoubtedly, the story will feature in the regularly scheduled Tonight with Vincent Brown at 11pm. TV3 will join CNN's live coverage at 2am until Ireland AM starts at 7am. However, betweem Midnight and 2am, TV3 are showing Psychic Readings Live. I don't need to be psychic to know that TV3 will basically have given RTE the ratings victory in that timeslot. Also, Ireland AM is not known for its news coverage, so that could be an interesting programme.
As we get closer to Election Day in the US, I will be finding out more about how other broadcasters around the world will be covering the story, and I will update the blog with those details as I find them. Also, if I get any word on internet streams of coverage, and I expect there to be such streams from Politico and Democracy Now amongst others, then I'll bring that information to you as well. On the night, I myself will be live tweeting on @cityprod. It should be a fascinating night.
Friday, 6 April 2012
My "Countdown" of today's top stories.
In homage to Keith Olbermann, who has filed a lawsuit against Current TV for wrongful termination, I present to you my "Countdown" of the top stories. So I suppose I ought to begin with the immortal words...
...Which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow?
5: George Zimmerman's lawyers and a forensic audio expert, both claim that Zimmerman used the word "punks" on that now infamous cellphone call. CNN aired the "cleaned-up" audio, which if I'm honest, as an audio man myself, didn't sound that different to the original, but on listening back to it myself, I can't hear the word punk. What I do distinctly detect is an "ooo" sound, that might come from a particular racial slur, and that "ooo" sound definitely is not present when you pronounce the word "punk". Listen to it yourself, and see if you agree.
4: Sky News has become the latest part of the NewsCorp clan to have been caught up in hacking. Now we know why James Murdoch resigned this week. Sky News today confirmed that two email accounts, one belonging to a suspected paedophile,and one belonging to 'canoe man' John Darwin were hacked. Both resulted in information that was passed onto the police. Sky News claimed the hacking was done in the public interest, but hacking emails is a crime under the Computer Misuse Act, and that act does NOT have a public interest defence attached to it.
With Ofcom investigating British Sky Broadcasting, there is a number of possibilities now rearing their heads, and I'll talk about them in a future post.
3: Rick Santorum obviously doesn't know when to quit, or indeed how to lose with good grace. The Republican Party establishment has been telling him to leave the race, but Santorum, much like Newt Gingrich, has stuck two fingers up to the establishment. And he met with supporters to discuss the way forward.
Mathematically, it's getting beyond the realms of possibility, especially given that the only remaining state with a winner takes all race, California, looks like a certainty for Mitt Romney. But it does appear right now that Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich are both in line for a fairly major Republican Party smackdown, before we get to Tampa, maybe even before we get to the end of the primary process.
2: Is it ethical for a journalist to express their own political viewpoints through signing a petition? Apparently, some TV stations in Milwaukee don't think it is. WTMJ, WISN and WITI have confirmed that journalists on their payrolls have signed the recall petition against controversial Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. WTMJ went as far as to say that they took this matter seriously and would be dealing with it internally. Apparently, one of the people who signed the petition was an on-air anchor at WTMJ.
One thing is for certain, Scott Walker has done incredible damage to Wisconsin. Any attempt by these stations to censure their staff for signing the petition would be a direct contravention of the First Amendment. And no news station, no matter how good their checks and balances are, could ever claim to be totally unbiased.
1: Current maybe now being sued by Keith Olbermann, but they may soon have bigger problems. A report from Reuters indicates that Current needs to hit ratings benchmarks every quarter. Should they miss those benchmarks two quarters in a row, they could be dropped by Time Warner Cable. So far they have not missed those benchmarks, thanks to Keith Olbermann, but with his sudden departure last week, Current's ability to hit those benchmarks consitently maybe in doubt.
...Which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow?
5: George Zimmerman's lawyers and a forensic audio expert, both claim that Zimmerman used the word "punks" on that now infamous cellphone call. CNN aired the "cleaned-up" audio, which if I'm honest, as an audio man myself, didn't sound that different to the original, but on listening back to it myself, I can't hear the word punk. What I do distinctly detect is an "ooo" sound, that might come from a particular racial slur, and that "ooo" sound definitely is not present when you pronounce the word "punk". Listen to it yourself, and see if you agree.
4: Sky News has become the latest part of the NewsCorp clan to have been caught up in hacking. Now we know why James Murdoch resigned this week. Sky News today confirmed that two email accounts, one belonging to a suspected paedophile,and one belonging to 'canoe man' John Darwin were hacked. Both resulted in information that was passed onto the police. Sky News claimed the hacking was done in the public interest, but hacking emails is a crime under the Computer Misuse Act, and that act does NOT have a public interest defence attached to it.
With Ofcom investigating British Sky Broadcasting, there is a number of possibilities now rearing their heads, and I'll talk about them in a future post.
3: Rick Santorum obviously doesn't know when to quit, or indeed how to lose with good grace. The Republican Party establishment has been telling him to leave the race, but Santorum, much like Newt Gingrich, has stuck two fingers up to the establishment. And he met with supporters to discuss the way forward.
Mathematically, it's getting beyond the realms of possibility, especially given that the only remaining state with a winner takes all race, California, looks like a certainty for Mitt Romney. But it does appear right now that Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich are both in line for a fairly major Republican Party smackdown, before we get to Tampa, maybe even before we get to the end of the primary process.
2: Is it ethical for a journalist to express their own political viewpoints through signing a petition? Apparently, some TV stations in Milwaukee don't think it is. WTMJ, WISN and WITI have confirmed that journalists on their payrolls have signed the recall petition against controversial Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. WTMJ went as far as to say that they took this matter seriously and would be dealing with it internally. Apparently, one of the people who signed the petition was an on-air anchor at WTMJ.
One thing is for certain, Scott Walker has done incredible damage to Wisconsin. Any attempt by these stations to censure their staff for signing the petition would be a direct contravention of the First Amendment. And no news station, no matter how good their checks and balances are, could ever claim to be totally unbiased.
1: Current maybe now being sued by Keith Olbermann, but they may soon have bigger problems. A report from Reuters indicates that Current needs to hit ratings benchmarks every quarter. Should they miss those benchmarks two quarters in a row, they could be dropped by Time Warner Cable. So far they have not missed those benchmarks, thanks to Keith Olbermann, but with his sudden departure last week, Current's ability to hit those benchmarks consitently maybe in doubt.
Monday, 23 January 2012
Neil Cavuto: John King was right to ask the question.
I don't normally agree with the FOX News hosts a lot, but I do agree with Neil Cavuto on this.
Saturday, 7 January 2012
Sources, Stories and Motives: When will websites learn?
I am constantly amazed that in an era when we are supposedly more aware and more discerning about many things, including where we get our news, that a website would take an obviously suspect report and back it up.
News On News basically highlighted Claire Atkinson's reporting at the New York Post on the exodus of talent at CNBC.
Now if that sentence isn't already setting off alarm bells, then it should be.
It's not that the story hasn't got a lot of facts in it. It does. Guy Johnson and Trish Regan have joined Bloomberg, Erin Burnett joined CNN, and Melissa Francis joined Fox Business.
What has got me going is the speculation about CNBC's David Faber being the next one to depart, which is based on absolutely nothing.
If you think about it for a moment, the motive for the story is clear. The New York Post is owned by NewsCorp, the troubled company at the centre of the News Of The World phone hacking scandal.
NewsCorp also owns the Fox Business Channel, who is a direct competitor of... CNBC.
This is the same basic trick that NewsCorp worked so well while they establishing Fox News Channel. Talk down your opposition and slowly build yourselves up.
People are wiser to this trick now. But why News On News didn't spot that obvious conflict of interest, I'm not sure.
News On News basically highlighted Claire Atkinson's reporting at the New York Post on the exodus of talent at CNBC.
Now if that sentence isn't already setting off alarm bells, then it should be.
It's not that the story hasn't got a lot of facts in it. It does. Guy Johnson and Trish Regan have joined Bloomberg, Erin Burnett joined CNN, and Melissa Francis joined Fox Business.
What has got me going is the speculation about CNBC's David Faber being the next one to depart, which is based on absolutely nothing.
If you think about it for a moment, the motive for the story is clear. The New York Post is owned by NewsCorp, the troubled company at the centre of the News Of The World phone hacking scandal.
NewsCorp also owns the Fox Business Channel, who is a direct competitor of... CNBC.
This is the same basic trick that NewsCorp worked so well while they establishing Fox News Channel. Talk down your opposition and slowly build yourselves up.
People are wiser to this trick now. But why News On News didn't spot that obvious conflict of interest, I'm not sure.
Friday, 1 October 2010
CNN Fan is back
Turns out they were only moving servers, but with their site having been recently hacked and the memory of that still fresh, I did wonder if something similar had happened again.
Never mind, all back up and running now.
Never mind, all back up and running now.
CNN Fan disappears again
The website cnnfan.org which is linked to the CNN Observations blog has once again disappeared mysteriously.
This time it happened at about 1923 GMT (2023 UK). It talks about the site having moved to a new location and that it may take up to 48 hours for your ISPs DNS servers to catch up. I'm dubious about the validity of this, and am watching CNN Observations for more details.
I will be tracking this story over the next few days.
This time it happened at about 1923 GMT (2023 UK). It talks about the site having moved to a new location and that it may take up to 48 hours for your ISPs DNS servers to catch up. I'm dubious about the validity of this, and am watching CNN Observations for more details.
I will be tracking this story over the next few days.
Thursday, 18 March 2010
Amanpour to leave CNN.
TV Newser is reporting the worst kept secret of the week. Christiane Amanpour is leaving CNN to join ABC News in the US as anchor of “This Week”, the weekly political and public affairs programme.
This will mean that Amanpour will finish at the end of April before Christiane takes over on This Week in August.
When Amanpour does finish, CNN should move Connect The World to 8pm, and put World One on at 9pm, before Back|Story at 10pm, all times are UK by the way.
Thursday, 21 January 2010
“Hope For Haiti Now” – a global telethon.
“Hope For Haiti Now” is something of a first. A global telethon that will truly be seen worldwide.
CNN International will be airing the 2 hour telethon at 8pm ET / 5pm PT / 0100 GMT / 0200 CET. It is also being aired internationally on National Geographic Channels around the world and MTV channels around the world, including China.
In Canada, the CBC and CTV are both airing the telethon. So far, I have heard nothing about any UK or Irish terrestrial broadcasters taking the telethon. US Local broadcasters, including affiliates of ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, The CW and PBS, are airing the telethon at 8pm local time, except in the Central time zone where it airs at 7pm.
Any further news on broadcasters airing the telethon, I’ll let you know.
Sunday, 27 December 2009
CNNI Weekends: Needs Improvement
CNN International is quite frankly one of the better news channels out there. But it is a commercial operation and thusly, needs to make a profit.
But it has to be said that when CNNI airs on Freeview at the weekend, the only live programmes are 2 editions of World Report at 7pm UK 7 11pm UK, and World Sport at 10.30pm UK. That’s just 1.5 hours of live programming out of 5 hours. There’s really not enough live news, especially when you consider that France 24 has 10 minute news bulletins every 30 minutes, all the time, even weekends.
Perhaps the best way for CNN to maximise the programming is to share with CNN Domestic. Far from ideal, but perhaps a better solution than the over-reliance on taped programming that seems to be the case now.
Thursday, 12 November 2009
Lou Dobbs leaves CNN
In his final edition of “Lou Dobbs Tonight”, the former business anchor spoke about his decision to leave the network he was a founding member of back in 1980.
There has been lots of speculation about Lou going to Fox News or Fox Business, but I do remember previous speculation about him making a run for Congress at some stage. It could well be that he might make a run for a congressional seat, not sure where. Alternatively, he may turn up somewhere completely unexpected.
Lou Dobbs has a radio show, so he won’t be leaving the air entirely. It’ll be interesting to see what his next move will be.
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
CNN Abu Dhabi opens.
CNN has opened up their new Abu Dhabi broadcast hub, and broadcast their first shows from there. Amanpour is currently airing a week of programmes from there, and Stan Grant is anchoring a programme called “Prism” every day.
In this video, Stan Grant himself takes us around the new bureau and broadcast hub.
Monday, 7 September 2009
CNN’s Freeview stream: don’t sell hours to others!
When CNN started on Freeview, they ran from 9pm to 1am. Not a lot of time for a 24 hour news channel. Then it got extended to 7pm to 2am, but then they sold on their last two hours to SuperCasino, then to Challenge Jackpot, and now to Rocks & Co.
Last night, after the best of the Sitaution Room, we got treated to a lesson for broadcasters in why it is not a good idea to sell hours on to other broadcasters, when you already have the programming available to fill it.
Rocks and Co, who are currently timesharing the 7 hour CNNI stream on Freeview, have spent the whole time since midnight showing a very boring loop, stating that Live Auctions will begin at 8am. Now that’s as well may be, but that’s of no use to us watching on Freeview Channel 84, which will switch off at 2am, 6 hours before the next set of live auctions is due to begin.
If this is going to keep happening then maybe CNN should forget about selling on the 2 hours from Midnight to 2am. CNBC has all but given up on their 3 hour “Poker Channel Europe” slot, restricting it now to Saturdays and Sundays, whilst Asian market coverage gets aired the rest of the week. Now, CNN should take a leaf out of the CNBC book, and forget completely about selling the two hours after Midnight. Just air CNN Today on Freeview, and you’ll not only fill the hours, but when the US President speaks to the US, usually at 8pm ET, you’ll be on air in the UK for people to watch, instead of tuning to Sky or Cable.
Tonight’s after midnight debacle should be a lesson to all those who think broadcasting is about making money. Nobody will have stayed tuned in during these two hours. They will have tuned away almost immediately, because there was nothing to show. Content is still king, and like it or not, will forever be king. That’s why so many people are watching internet shows and podcasts, reading blogs and tweets, because that’s where the content is.
Monday, 9 February 2009
Porn star to turn politician?
Hey, stranger things have happened in the past, but this would be a case of poacher turning gamekeeper. CNN's Sean Callebs reports on a campaign to oust Senator David Vitter, the Republican senator from Louisiana.
Hey, if I could vote for her, I would!
Hey, if I could vote for her, I would!
Thursday, 15 January 2009
CNNI starts, slowly, with Breaking News
CNN International got off to a slow start this evening.
It took them 10 minutes to actually activate the video feed, and another 6 minutes to get sound going. But there was breaking news out of New York to greet us, about a plane that had crashed into the Hudson River. I say it crashed but to be honest it looked like it had landed, cos it was intact.
CNN International had joined their domestic network for coverage from Wolf Blitzer in The Situation Room. Meanwhile BBC News had joined BBC World at about 9.30pm for continuing breaking news. Coverage was presented by BBC World's Mike Embley and BBC News Channel's Sophie Long. They stayed with BBC World's breaking news coverage from N8, whilst N6 produced the BBC News at Ten for BBC1 viewers only.
Sky News had dropped their 15 minutes every 15 minutes bulletins for breaking news coverage as well.
At the time I write this, CNNI is still carrying CNN domestic coverage, whilst BBC News Channel is continuing to carry BBC World News for the moment. Sky News is continuing their breaking news coverage as well. CNN.com is also carrying coverage online right now as well.
It took them 10 minutes to actually activate the video feed, and another 6 minutes to get sound going. But there was breaking news out of New York to greet us, about a plane that had crashed into the Hudson River. I say it crashed but to be honest it looked like it had landed, cos it was intact.
CNN International had joined their domestic network for coverage from Wolf Blitzer in The Situation Room. Meanwhile BBC News had joined BBC World at about 9.30pm for continuing breaking news. Coverage was presented by BBC World's Mike Embley and BBC News Channel's Sophie Long. They stayed with BBC World's breaking news coverage from N8, whilst N6 produced the BBC News at Ten for BBC1 viewers only.
Sky News had dropped their 15 minutes every 15 minutes bulletins for breaking news coverage as well.
At the time I write this, CNNI is still carrying CNN domestic coverage, whilst BBC News Channel is continuing to carry BBC World News for the moment. Sky News is continuing their breaking news coverage as well. CNN.com is also carrying coverage online right now as well.
CNNI arrives on Freeview
CNN International has finally arrived on Freeview. Officially it launches at 9pm tonight with Back Story, followed by World Sport, World News Europe, The Situation Room and CNN Today, ending it's broadcast day at 1am.
Even though the EPG slot on 84 is properly there, there is as yet no MHEG for the channel. Also, there is an interesting note. It lists the channel as "CNN" not CNNI. Now, whether this means anything at all, especially since the channel is listed as CNN on Sky's EPG and has been for some time, is anyone's guess. But here's mine.
CNN has been making less use of the CNN International name for a while, and more and more reference to the channel only as CNN. Perhaps they intend to phase out the International part and have it seem like one CNN across the world. Either that or out of CNN International will come regional versions of CNN for each part of the world. Heck, they're almost there already. It wouldn't take much more to get to that point.
We will see in time, but first, we'll see how they launch at 9pm tonight. With Back Story being the first programme, I get a sense it will get mentioned by host Michael Holmes.
Even though the EPG slot on 84 is properly there, there is as yet no MHEG for the channel. Also, there is an interesting note. It lists the channel as "CNN" not CNNI. Now, whether this means anything at all, especially since the channel is listed as CNN on Sky's EPG and has been for some time, is anyone's guess. But here's mine.
CNN has been making less use of the CNN International name for a while, and more and more reference to the channel only as CNN. Perhaps they intend to phase out the International part and have it seem like one CNN across the world. Either that or out of CNN International will come regional versions of CNN for each part of the world. Heck, they're almost there already. It wouldn't take much more to get to that point.
We will see in time, but first, we'll see how they launch at 9pm tonight. With Back Story being the first programme, I get a sense it will get mentioned by host Michael Holmes.
Campbell Brown: Mr President, you are wrong on Katrina.
I rarely highlight Campbell Brown's commentaries, called "Cutting Through The Bull", simply because far too often she misses far better stuff because she thinks she'll sound too much like Olbermann or O'Reilly. However, when something does punch her buttons, she does react to it, like she did on President Bush's final press conference Monday.
Unfortunately, the video cuts off too early and misses the best part, which sums up her comments nicely, so I quote it here.
"Mr. President, you cannot pat yourself on the back for that one. We will debate the war in Iraq, national security, the economy and the rest of your legacy. Those debates will continue for years to come. But on how you handled Katrina, there is no debate."
Well spoken, Campbell. More commentaries like this one that you obviously care about would help your program no end.
Unfortunately, the video cuts off too early and misses the best part, which sums up her comments nicely, so I quote it here.
"Mr. President, you cannot pat yourself on the back for that one. We will debate the war in Iraq, national security, the economy and the rest of your legacy. Those debates will continue for years to come. But on how you handled Katrina, there is no debate."
Well spoken, Campbell. More commentaries like this one that you obviously care about would help your program no end.
Thursday, 27 November 2008
Mumbai attacks: More media coverage
Unsurprisingly, the continuing developments in Mumbai dominate the news, though most channels currently are covering other stories as well. Even GMTV seems to have taken on a more sombre tone this morning with the story getting more coverage than most international stories do. There is a ticker running this morning with continual information about this one story. I don't see much GMTV normally, but I don't remember GMTV running a ticker normally. I could be wrong.
Not surprisingly NDTV 24x7 and most of India's other major news channels are running the story as continual breaking news. CNNIBN is one that does too, and is currently supplying pictures to sister network CNN International, who continue to cover it as breaking news. Star News seems to be one of the few that has switched away from it.
Al Jazeera is majoring on it, with a lot of breaking news coverage but they do attempt to cover over stories as well. Most channels seem to be on normal schedules with the story dominating the news. Fox News Channel is running normal programmes, but with Fox News Alerts replacing ad breaks in some cases. DW-TV is on normal programmes, but the story dominates.
ITN's online channel also leads with the story but continues on it's roughly normal schedule. Press TV from Iran also leads with the story, but also continues to cover other stories. CNBC is also providing some coverage too, using the resources of CNBC TV 18, their Indian partner.
I'll have more on the media coverage of this story, later on.
Not surprisingly NDTV 24x7 and most of India's other major news channels are running the story as continual breaking news. CNNIBN is one that does too, and is currently supplying pictures to sister network CNN International, who continue to cover it as breaking news. Star News seems to be one of the few that has switched away from it.
Al Jazeera is majoring on it, with a lot of breaking news coverage but they do attempt to cover over stories as well. Most channels seem to be on normal schedules with the story dominating the news. Fox News Channel is running normal programmes, but with Fox News Alerts replacing ad breaks in some cases. DW-TV is on normal programmes, but the story dominates.
ITN's online channel also leads with the story but continues on it's roughly normal schedule. Press TV from Iran also leads with the story, but also continues to cover other stories. CNBC is also providing some coverage too, using the resources of CNBC TV 18, their Indian partner.
I'll have more on the media coverage of this story, later on.
Wednesday, 26 November 2008
Mumbai Attacks: Media Coverage
Whilst the media has been all over this story, there is no real surprise that NDTV 24x7, CNNIBN, Star News, Zee News and Headlines Today, the major news channels in India, are the primary sources for all the world's news channels.
Fox News, Al Jazeera, BBC News Channel, BBC World News, CNN International and France 24 are all over this story, as are MSNBC and CNN US, . In Australia, ABC News Breakfast on ABC2 has been covering the story heavily. Sky News, rather surprisingly, haven't switched to breaking news, despite their Indian sister station Star News being right in the center of the action. They decided to stick with 15 minutes format. After 10pm, they switched to a breaking news format.
BBC News Channel switched at 10pm to the usual BBC News at Ten simulcast with BBC1. After the simulcast, they switched back to breaking news. BBC News Channel and BBC World News are due to simulcast together at 1am UK time, so, dependent on what happens in this story, the simulcast may be a breaking news format rather than the usual bulletin format.
Fox News, Al Jazeera, BBC News Channel, BBC World News, CNN International and France 24 are all over this story, as are MSNBC and CNN US, . In Australia, ABC News Breakfast on ABC2 has been covering the story heavily. Sky News, rather surprisingly, haven't switched to breaking news, despite their Indian sister station Star News being right in the center of the action. They decided to stick with 15 minutes format. After 10pm, they switched to a breaking news format.
BBC News Channel switched at 10pm to the usual BBC News at Ten simulcast with BBC1. After the simulcast, they switched back to breaking news. BBC News Channel and BBC World News are due to simulcast together at 1am UK time, so, dependent on what happens in this story, the simulcast may be a breaking news format rather than the usual bulletin format.
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