Keeping CNN honest?

Sorry, I’m late with this post, but I’m on vacation and I really didn’t find the time to do this, so here it finally is. Better late than never, huh ; )?

Cat came across some nice beef between FOX News Greta Van Susteren and CNN (Btw, she has worked at CNN before she decided to change the side). It’s actually hard to blog about this as I don’t know about Great’a show (But I heard some nice stuff about FOX News like “Paris Hilton of CNN” or “Why not just tell  the same shit that our government tries to spread to the world??”) and I don’t wanna talk about things I can’t really judge. But I know that she said things about CNN and AC 360° that I don’t really support. So here’s the whole problem:

She is pretty pissed because AC 360° Producer David Doss said that ON THE RECORD is “not a news programm like AC 360°”. And she fires back on her blog (saying that she didn’t fire first):

1: AC 360° doesn’t follow it’s own motto “Keeping them honest”
2: AC 360° is a marketing experiment (27 mio $)
3: CNN sells bags and shirts that don’t really promote the show, but Andy
4: Anderson wasn’t the only one that was covering Katrina (No, but i’m pretty sure, he did best)
5: They cover crime, but don’t take viewers to the crime scenes
6: Anderson has a staff of 60, she just has “about” 12 (jealous??)
7: Admitts that CNN did better on the Polygamist’s trial, because they were osessed with that topic (this is what I like most)
8: How will Doss know about her show, he’s working when it airs
9:…..

To be honest, I like such fights (like that O’Donell Trump thing – too funny), but this is about Andy and AC 360°. I can’t tell if she is showing crime scenes to the viewers or if she just has a staff of 12, but I can tell that her harrasment against CNN is a list of childish reproaches (what is bad about being an marketing experiment? does this make the show less good?). You read thoughts of an insulted woman that calls herself the #1 of all cable news. David Doss’s comment hurt and insulted her in some way. I understad her anger, but fighting back means constructive criticism and this is what I can’t really fnd in her blog. Can you? I wonder how this will end.

 

For all of you who haven’t already read it, here’s the whole blog entry:

 

July 4th, 2008 12:32 PM Eastern

TIME TO KEEP CNN HONEST!! (something they say they are doing about everyone else…hhm…)

<!– Share –>by Greta Van Susteren

KEEPING THEM (CNN) HONEST

(ok, I admit I am having fun with CNN with this headline since that is what they flash up on their screen every night at 10 pm..!)

I just read this statement by the executive producer of CNN’s Anderson Cooper show (see below) Anderson Cooper’s show competes directly with ON THE RECORD. I feel somewhat reluctant to give them this free advertising but my staff deserves to keep them honest – in other words defend against what is an obviously effort to make less of our hard work covering news for you.

What I don’t get is that Anderson Cooper recently blogged and bragged that he did not take shots at the competition (meaning me and meaning ON THE RECORD.) Do take note: I did not fire first. I have been doing my own job and not insulting them or trying to make less of them. They fired first and I am responding as I am sure you would do likewise. It is thus time to keep CNN honest about their show. Coooper lets his surrogate attempt to make less of our show….my executive producer did not and would not do this and I would not permit it. So here is the quote:

“We’re a news program,” while Ms. Van Susteren’s show is “not a news program,” Mr. Doss told TVNewser on Tuesday. “It’s missing-person-of-the-day. There’s an audience for that, but it’s not what we do. We’re covering the world, not just covering who’s missing today.

Not a news program?

Now why is he picking a fight? and why is trying to make less of us at 10pm ? Is it because we consistently beat them and have for years?

This is silly that the CNN executive producer of Anderson Cooper is taking a swipe at our hard work but I am going to defend my staff from what is intended to pretend our show is not news.

Yes, now let me KEEP THEM HONEST:

Let’s take a look at this…I asked someone to get me some information (I am busy at 10pm so do not get to watch their show.) What CNN is doing at ten? And how do they conduct themselves? Credibility or not?

To paraphrase MS/NBC’s Keith Olbermann, yes many in the news industry behind the scenes – even my friends at CNN – laugh about the fact that CNN’s 10pm show has been a “marketing experiment.” It has been rumored that in one year they spent about 27 million dollars in advertising of Anderson Cooper in their experiment. No network has ever spent that kind of money just to market one person. By the way, the President of CNN told me that Anderson Cooper has a staff of nearly 60. We beat them with our staff…of about 12.

They have even done some rather bizarre (demeaning?) marketing. They have put Anderson Cooper on plastic bags like they are selling breakfast cereal.

Here is another example and you decide: CNN sells T shirts of Anderson Cooper not just promoting the show (all networks sell T shirts ) but check this out:

Not my boo? yikes…not exactly Walter Cronkite…

I know that the CNN executive producer is busy himself at 10pm….but, alas, if he watched ON THE RECORD at 10pm, he would know about our news show: we do everything that CNN does but we are not taking swipes and trying to make less of them.

They do news of the day. We do news of the day.

They do weather, we do weather. You would think with all their marketing that Anderson Cooper was the only one who covered Katrina….we were there, all producers were there, all my colleagues were there…but guess what? so was every one else in every news outlet in the nation!! The fact is that all the other news organizations had the dignity not to try and make a marketing experiment out of a giant catastrophe! Only one anchor wrote a book and thus collected money from Katrina. The rest of us saw the suffering and simply reported it rather than exploit it.

CNN does politics at 10, we do politics at 10. We have traveled with the President on 2 overseas trips — which BOTH included lengthy one on one interviews with the President in less than a year’s time. I have interviewed Secretary of State Rice…President Clinton…and every candidate for President including the two current nominees. I have had multiple interviews with Senator Hillary Clinton, President Clinton, President George H. W. Bush, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, First Lady Barbara Bush and even traveled throughout the Middle East with First Lady Laura Bush. I could go on and on. I guess these are missing persons, too. Hhm…Let’s keep CNN honest…the last I checked, none of these political leaders was a “missing person.”

Now let me get to crime. Do not be fooled…CNN at 10pm does crime. I have a giant list of crimes CNN has covered at 10pm. Here is the difference – we do it better. So yes, we get lots of attention. We do it much better because I leave the studio and take the viewers to many crime scenes. Plus, unlike those on the side lines, I am the real thing – I spent 15 years in the criminal courts trying criminal cases and don’t get my information from a teleprompter…I get it from both investigation and experience. And by the way, missing persons are important. Perhaps if CNN hit the road and spoke to the families they would understand — something you don’t get from the studio.

It is true….CNN does polygamy better. I will give that to them — but it is because they have so much more experience with the polygamy story than any other network. They were obsessed with it…night after night after night…even assigning multiple correspondents to the story to report only for Anderson Cooper.

After about 13 (?) years of being the #1 woman in all of cable news….and ON THE RECORD being in the top 5 cable news show for so many years, it gets tiresome listening to CNN bragging about themselves. Saying it is so …doesn’t make it so. Let’s keep them honest.

July 2, 2008

Anderson’s View: Competing to win

Posted: 03:24 PM ET

Permalink | 79 Comments

Anderson Cooper


Thank You.

I just wanted to take a moment and thank all of you who watch our broadcast for helping us win against our competition again this quarter. It’s the second quarter in a row we’ve won in the most important demographic, and it is all because of you. We’ve focused a lot on politics these past six months, and our viewers have responded. It’s great to win, but it’s even better to win reporting on things that are important. So, thank you, and I promise we will continue to work hard to bring you in depth coverage of the day’s most important stories.

I know it’s popular to attack one’s competition in cable news. Some people seem to spend as much time trashing their rivals as they do reporting the news. I understand why they do it, I get it, but I don’t want to take part in it, and I respect the fact that my competition on FOX, Greta Van Susteren has chosen not to do that as well. She has her program, I have mine. They are very different, but I respect her hard work and intelligence. I think the competition between us makes both our broadcasts better.