Don't be too sad if you are one of the Election Day layoff staffers over at Viacom: you're not missing much of a Christmas party, anyway.
MTV's parent company isn't the only one calling off its major annual bash; Lydia Hearst already did or did not call out her dynasty for throwing elaborate parties while the country goes broke, and now it's been shut it down as well.
Full list of the companies going rogue Scrooge this year after the jump. At least they'll be able to cut in half their companies' sexual harassment lawsuits?
CONTINUED »
ABC is showing their support of Asa Eslocker, the producer for the station who was arrested at the DNC for trying to film high-rolling VIP Democrats at a private shindig. Even though Eslocker apparently used a corporate credit card to release himself on bail, everyone at ABC is just shaking their head and chuckling. Charlie Gibson is even going to blog about it!
"We got a kick out of the fact he swiped his corporate credit card to put up the five hundred. The charge of trespassing against him still stands. But the video of the incident shot by our crew clearly shows him standing on a public sidewalk with many other people on the same sidewalk. We hope the charges will be dropped."
Then Chuck G. goes into a long story about a time he got arrested at the 1984 conventions, proving once again that old people don't know how to write for the Internet. He'd be lucky if your ADD meds kicked in for long enough to get to the end of that quote.
Don’t you love when a news story could possibly be part of a larger phenomenon you’ve never heard of? We do!
Some are wondering if Barack Obama’s loss last night was due to the Bradley Effect.
Haven’t heard of it? Then you haven't been watching enough cable news!
Not to make you feel stupid, but the phenomenon is the propensity for white people to pretend (while responding to exit polls or otherwise) to be voting for a black candidate during polling because they don’t want to seem racist. And when it’s just them and the curtain, they’re all, "Psych! I really am racist because there’s nothing more racist that supporting a non-black candidate for separate and unique political reasons."
But we exaggerate. And conflate. A lot of stuff went down in New Hampshire this weekend. CONTINUED »
This morning, we woke up thinking it had been a while since we heard about that perennial news story, evening news ratings. Sure, the Internet, CNN and pharmaceutical ads have made evening news irrelevant and impossible to sit through, but millions of Americans still get their news through basic cable. And that demands coverage. CONTINUED »
Did you hear the amazing news? The WGA strike is finally over! No, not the one that's depriving you of your favorite quality mindless television and film entertainment. The preemptive one that threatened to jeopardize your ability to watch boring network news shows containing information you already saw on CNN and read on the Drudge Report.
ABC News said yesterday that it reached a tentative new contract with workers represented by the Writers Guild of America East that includes a 3.5 percent wage increase and a one-time signing bonus. The union, comprising approximately 250 news writers, editors, artists and assistants in New York and Washington, D.C., has been working under an expired contract since Jan. 31, 2005.
We'd love to stick around and celebrate, but we happen to be extremely busy and important. And that DVR full of Scrubs and Law & Order reruns isn't going to watch itself.
Like so much MTV programming, the channel’s partnership with MySpace to “rap” with young people about the 2008 election is now irrelevant.
That’s because Facebook, the only social networking site people use, has collaborated with ABC to do the same thing. ABC has just forced its reporters to join Facebook, and Facebook has integrated ABC news coverage on its site.
ABC and Facebook will sponsor a Republican and Democratic debate three days before the New Hampshire primary.
And yet somehow, Facebook status updates continue to reference binge drinking, not the value of a free democracy.
Alexis Debat may have pretended to interview Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Michael Bloomberg, but he never screwed ABC on a story.
Last week, ABC cleared their French consultant from any wrongdoing on his reporting for the network. But there are still some questions about when exactly ABC discovered this.
According to an ABC memo, when concerns about Debat came up in May, the network had Chris Isham, then head of their investigative unit, look into Debat’s work.
ABC News has completed its investigation of Alexis Debat (a.k.a. the French Jayson Blair) the "journo" was recently fired by the work for "falsifying his resumé" and "generally making shit up."
Ultimately, ABC has concluded that "the reporting he had contributed to the network was sound." Somewhat less sound, however, are ABC's lax non-discriminatory hiring guidelines and noticeable absence of background checks.
Fortunately, reports the Times, "ABC says it will make changes to its hiring practices." To that end, the proposed change already being taken under advisement: Stop hiring any/all known plagiarists.
"The educated reader's top enemy is the "filler" of non-news, he argues, which the mass media pumps out whenever there's not enough hard news to complete a newscast or fill a newspaper." That's Jack Shafer belated summary of Fark.com founder Drew Curtis' book It's Not News, It's Fark: How Mass Media Tries To Pass Off Crap As News. "Through this crack come the inaccurate, fear-mongering stories about germs, earthquakes, and potential terrorist attacks; the worthless formula stories hooked on changing seasons, hot-weather spells, shark attacks, and holiday traffic patterns—the media events generated by PR firms that reporters translate into news stories."
What ever could he be talking about — reporters letting PR firms dictate their news items?
In unrelated news, here's a recent story from ABC news: "Let's Eat at Delta Tonight!: Airline Opens a New York Lounge to Show Off New Cuisine, Sans Air-Sickness Bags."
We're hearing that ABC News president David Westin (whom some people find strangely attractive) is about to completely overhaul the structure of his news division. Insiders say Paul Slavin (the SVP of ABC News since 2003) will no longer be Westin's second-in-command going forward, and will now have a bullshit assignment jurisdiction over "Digital" rather than oversight of the news programs.
Update: WABC general manager Dave Davis joins ABC News as its new executive vice president [TVNewser]
Former CBS exec producer Rome Hartman stopped by CNN's Reliable Source and shared his reactions to the Dan Rather lawsuit:
More than anything, it made me sad. I just — it made me sad for him and for CBS News. I don't understand why he would choose to dredge back into the spotlight what's undoubtedly going to be remembered as the darkest moment of his career and a very dark moment for CBS News.
Hartman's sentiments echo those over at rival networks, where an insider told us "people at ABC were surprised that he would risk further tarnishing his reputation with this lawsuit. Certainly not viewed as a wise move — more evidence that he 'doesn't get it.'"
Despite certain anchors (ahem, Katie Couric) on certain other networks who recently ventured to Iraq as part of a certain ill-fated publicity stunt, Meredith Vieira swears she won't be packing her bags and hopping a plane to Baghdad anytime soon. "I'm not going to go because somebody tells me I have to for the sake of appearances. I think that's crazy," she avows to (the NBC-owned) Access Hollywood. When asked for comment, Vieira's Today co-anchor, Ann Curry replied, "Sounds great. What time do I leave?"
When asked (by USA Today's Peter Johnson) why he has become the nation's most-watched TV news anchor, ABC World News Tonight's Charlie Gibson grinned and replied, "Unbridled sex appeal."
And they said this guy had no sense of humor.
• Donna Martin graduates…to a coveted spot on still-running ABC trainwreck, Dancing With The Stars.
• Even without a hottie ombudsman, ABC news admits it kind of effed up by interviewing Allawi lobbyist, Phillip Zelikow
• Yankees clubhouse accidentally-on-purpose promotes gang violence.
• Rumor (still) has it that Jake Gyllenhaal's been doing a lot of "rehearsing" for Brokeback Mountain 2. You know, when he's not going on shirtless bike ride with his totally heterosexual friends.
• Hendrik Hertzberg loses his blogging v-card. As expected, the first time could best be described as "awkward and underwhelming."
• Crazy old lady celebrates her 100th birthday by lighting up her 170,000th cigarette.
Remember the other day when we told you a long, and slightly boring story about how Stephen Colbert broke his wrist then turned it into a drawn out pseudo-feud with Brian Williams? Well, in his new perch at the NYT ("All the news that's fit to print…eventually") Brian Stelter is on hand to breathe new life into the already week-old piece. And he's armed with a sort of stupid quote from the ubiquitous HuffPo editor Rachel Sklar, and this poignant observation about broadcast news.
Brian Williams, the “NBC Nightly News” anchor, and Katie Couric, the “CBS Evening News” anchor, both played along. But Charles Gibson, anchor of ABC’s “World News,” did not, and some media observers interpreted his recalcitrance as a statement that real news shows are not to be conflated with parodies.
Wait, they're not? Well, damn! That notorious prankster Walter Cronkite must be turning over in his grave right about now.
Remember that ominous memo (entitled "The Future!") ABC News prez David Westin sent out on June, 22nd, that shook up an otherwise humdrum summer Friday with the scary-sounding news that 35 jobs were being "trimmed?"
Well, apparently (snip-snip!) the first sixteen cuts have already been made.
And then there were (next to) none at the Washington Bureau.
BONUS: Still 19 more "trimmings" to go!
Have you heard the news? "NBC News and The New York Times are teaming up to cover the 2008 Presidential Election," reports brand-new TVNewser Chris Ariens.
"As part of the collaboration," continues Ariens (who's doing a fine job thus far!) "NBC News will 'have first access to breaking news' reported by the Times, and vice versa. In a release, NBC says the deal is 'drawing on both news organizations' strengths in political journalism.'"
Or, in other words, Bill Keller will have unfettered access to Brian Williams' blog entries before they go live, and Williams will now be required to sign the "Get Well Soon!" card circulating the Times' headquarters in regards to injured/litigation-happy journo Jill Abramson.
Apparently, one of ABC News' interns had a not-so-happy ending to her week when co-workers found out about her tawdry extracurricular activities. Reports Gatecrasher:
ABC News sent an e-mail to its employees last week, reminding them that they shouldn't be cruising adult Web sites on company time.
The reason?
"Word got out that one of the summer interns had nude pictures online," laughs an insider. "And everyone was trying to find them."
Reportedly, the office-wide email had less to do with the impropriety of accessing adult websites and more to do with protecting everyone from the potentially traumatizing sight of witnessing creepy newsman Sam Champion log onto www.wank.net.
Don't you hate it when you're sitting back at your desk, enjoying another lazy summer Friday, celebrating the fact that your boss is out of the office (and is, in fact, rotting at his lake house on Cape Cod with his two bratty kids) when suddenly, you get one of those "Uh Oh, Someone's Getting Fired" emails?
Well, that's exactly what happened over at ABC headquarters today, when news president/hottie David Westin sent out an officewide memo (read: to everyone at ABC News) announcing that they're "consolidating some operations," and "yes, some positions will be lost."
But is Charlie Gibson's coveted anchor spot safe over at World News Tonight? And what about the co-Daytime Emmy award-winning staff of Gay-MA GMA?
Writes Westin:
And, of course, you want to know as quickly as possible whether this will affect you personally. We haven't made final decisions about everything we're considering, but to give you a sense of the ultimate outcome: After we've added positions in some areas and cut positions in others, we will trim about 35 jobs from ABC News staff worldwide.
Translation: The on-air talent is most likely safe, however only time will tell whether the freelance desk assistant with the annoying laugh will live to answer phones another day.
The full memo (creepily entitled "The Future") after the jump.
As many of you know, even credited network news stations (as well as Fox News) have been known to make the occasional mistake or two every now and again. Usually, the mistake is nothing more than a simple control room mix-up, but once in a while it's something slightly more embarrassing, as when Fox accidentally confused disgraced (black) Congressman William Jefferson with law-abiding (also black) Michigan Congressman, John Conyers.
And this week, it turns out ABC has made a similar—perhaps even more egregious—error.
The zany (and not-at-all) race related mix-up? They inadvertently confused that crazy (black) DC judge—the one who's suing his dry cleaners for $54 million over a misplaced pair of pants—with the (black) former DC mayor/crackhead, Marion Barry.
Dios mio!
Editorial Director
