If you ever held doubts regarding Anderson Cooper's…er…delicate sensibilities, then the most recent interview with the silver fox should clear it right up for you. Not only does Anderson manage to namedrop a) Kathy Griffin, b) Scissor Sisters, and c) dancing with Karl Rove, but your gay best friend from high school also loves to talk about his feelings:
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Breaking: Throngs of black people evacuated to nearby sports arena due to dangerous conditions and inexcusable overcrowding in a Southern state!
Nope, it's not another horribly mismanaged national disaster. Just an overwhelming display of solidarity by Barack Obama Oprah Winfrey supporters. [Stereohyped]
[Photos via WireImage]
Two weeks ago, Anderson Cooper shot a Hurricane Katrina special in New Orleans. Last week, CNN called Cooper up while he's vacationing to inform him they'd lost the tapes and demand that he fly back immediately and reshoot. A justifiably pissed Cooper was overheard to complain, "Great, now I'll never get a tan." [P6]
In honor of the 2-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Time Inc. sent 12 editors from 10 of its 150 magazines on a 2 day trip to New Orleans.
"I came back thinking that the Katrina story really wasn’t over — and while some people had moved on, the city of New Orleans was still dealing with it in every aspect, environmentally, socially, politically,” said People Group editor, Martha Nelson.
An incensed Nelson then went on to say that she was both outraged and appalled at Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff's mishandling of the situation, before returning home, hopping into her nice warm bed, and promptly forgetting all about it.
[NY Times]
The CBS Evening News anchorwoman's May 16 "exclusive news" – that Hurricane Katrina victims are getting sick over the FEMA-provided trailers they're living in – wasn't exclusive, nor was it news (in the sense that news is new). MSNBC had a story back in July 2006, and Dan Rather reported the story on his unwatched HDNet show two weeks before Katie. Dan Rather beat Katie. Now that's gotta sting. [Mervin Block]
As many of you know from watching Ellen re-runs this morning, it's been a year since Hurricane Katrina, and our government has basically done shit for the people of New Orleans.
But that doesn't mean we New Yorkers should all go about our lives without the survivors and victims in our hearts.
Especially since you never know when you might be on the other end of disaster.
We're just sayin'.
NBC Weather Watch [WNBC]
Katrina Rebuilding "Long Way Off" [New York Times, Reuters]
In the face of adversary, the people affected by Hurricane Katrina are holding on to their news.
Turning to it in times of need, the citizens of New Orleans and surrounding towns and cities are clinging to their papers like the good media consumers every newspaper loves.
So devoted to their print media, they are even reading their newspapers in coffee shops. On streets that have been clearly marked for other reading material purposes.
At CC's coffeehouse on Magazine Street one morning last week, there were so many people absorbed in that day's Times-Picayune that the scene looked like a commuter train.
Newspapers on Magazine Street? We applaud you, citizens of Louisiana, for being so loyal. Here in New York, people are only going to internet cafes and reading blogs. (We hear they're even doing it in Times Square.)
As Katrina Recedes, Newspapers Still Float [Katharine Q. Seelye, New York Times]
Today on CNN: mudslides, hurricanes, dead babies, and dirty fast food water.
But, seriously, y'all. Don't worry. Britney Spears is going to be just fine.
MORE NEWS [CNN]
As if New Orleans didn't have enough problems, walking natural disaster Britney Spears is raining her chaos on the poor people of the ravaged city.
The 24-year-old pop star will appear on ABC's "Good Morning America" on Feb. 28 (7 a.m EST), when the morning show reports live from New Orleans. ABC announced that Spears will bring "surprises for a group of very deserving young residents."
Honestly, we thought the point of having Mardi Gras this year was to get people to go to their city, not drive them away in fear of a surprise Brit incident.
Maybe it's because she already got halfway on a Girls Gone Wild New Orleans video at the Grammys? Or because all the children will feel safer knowing that at least their mommy doesn't try to get them thrown through a windshield?
Now that it's totally in to push the racial envelope, people are saying some pretty crizazy stuff. Especially yesterday, which was Martin Luther King Day, pretty much anything politicians wanted to say about black people, went.
But who went there, and who's just lost it? Chris Rock told everyone at the Golden Globes they only had to be nice to black people for two more hours. Nobody really laughed, but he went there.
Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, lost it. In a speech for the Martin Luther King ceremony, the senator claimed that, "the way the House of Representatives has been run, it has been run like a plantation," and then just told people, "and you know what I'm talking about."
Nope, sorry Hil, we hate the admin, too, but we haven't really seen signs of cotton picking or slave trading lately.
Then, of course, there was the Mayor of New Orleans himself, Ray Nagin, with his astute comments on things that had little to with Martin Luther King or equality:
"Surely God is mad at America … surely he is upset at black America also. We're not taking care of ourselves.
It's time for us to come together. It's time for us to rebuild New Orleans _ the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans," the mayor said. "This city will be a majority African American city. It's the way God wants it to be. You can't have New Orleans no other way. It wouldn't be New Orleans."
Now, is that racist against blacks or against everyone else? "Chocolate city" is not really kosh, but neither is telling non-blacks that New Orleans doesn't want them. But, then again, the mayor then proceeded to explain his imaginary conversation with MLK — so, this guy really lost it.
Politicians, comedians, everyone, do us a favor. Stop tarnishing the eloquent Dr. Martin Luther King Jr with your mind-numbing, nonsensical speeches that try to prove you're one of the people. Ok? Seriously, that's our job.
New Orleans Mayor Says God Mad at U.S. [AP]
Controversial Words At Sharpton's MLK Event [CBS]
• If you count Web visitors, newspaper circulation is doing just fine. Harper's circulation, meanwhile, still isn't. [E&P]
• Last night's Nightline – the first sans Ted Koppel – was live, Live, LIVE. [TVNewser]
• Turns out all those reports of gang rape, shooting at helicopters and carjackings during the Hurricane Katrina relief effort were peddled by none other than the Associated Press and other news outlets, even though there was nary a scent of confirmation. But rest assured, the blacks were still "looting" while the whites were "finding." [Reason]
• Yes, we get it: There's no such thing as off the record, especially in a room packed with journos. [Slate]
• Remember that obnoxious bar code-reading CueCat device? Yeah, it's back — but only in Germany, thankfully. [Wired]
• Kanye West's latest enemy isn't the Bush administration but Shirley Bassey, who's fuming (with lawsuit in hand) that the rapper sampled her "Diamonds Are Forever" without permission.
• Mayor Bloomberg wants the NYPD to assume control of the Port Authority and MTA during any future terror attack, effectively making New Jersey law enforcement our bitch
• Now that they're shunned from Manhattan's West Side, the Giants have teamed with the Jets to build an $800 million stadium in, ahem, New Jersey. It's the first time two NFL teams went in on a joint stadium. It's also the first time we can avoid two sports teams simultaneously.
• Anderson Cooper is said to be shopping around a book documenting his experiences during Hurricane Katrina. It's only a matter of time before Geraldo Rivera sells a tome based on his experiences with the New York Times.
• Vice magazine doesn't need to be Vanity Fair to stay successful. It just needs to keep making "your mama so fat" jokes.
• To help finance his Good Night and Good Luck, George Clooney mortgaged his Los Angeles home — but not his palatial Italian estate.
• Imitation of Christ's Tara Subkoff had more cons than pros to deliver at The New Yorker Festival's "Generation X Fashion" panel, much like we have more to gripe about media than kudos to offer. But hey, we're not leaving the business, and neither is she.
• Fittingly, Kate Moss will hold on to her Rimmel cosmetics contract to promote its new line Recover, which features ads showing Moss putting on the makeup after a hard night spent partying — otherwise known as real life.
• If the newspaper you're working for offers you a buyout deal a la the New York Times, take it, you jackass.
• 9/11 got the travel magazines all tear eyed, at least for a few pages before returning to those $18,000/night suites. Now Hurricane Katrina and Rita are scoring the same sentiment.
ABC News President David Westin is hard at work trying to find a permanent replacement for Peter Jennings, quickly growing tired of tossing Charles Gibson and Elizabeth Vargas into rotating anchor chairs while NBC's mainstay Brian Williams is cleaning up in the hurricane ratings game.
Meanwhile, CBS News prez Andrew Heyward (or rather, CBS head Les Moonves) has been on the hunt since November when Dan Rather stepped down and Bob Schieffer began filling in — and still ABC is expected to name their nightly news replacement first.
But you already knew all this, right?
ABC is conducting its search for a successor very privately. CBS has struggled, although it gave itself the bigger challenge.
NBC's ratings spiked high in the wake of Katrina and the very visible work of its anchorman, Brian Williams. Even though its anchor decision hasn't been made, ABC moved aggressively to make sure its biggest names were on the scene with Rita: Charles Gibson and Bob Woodruff both reported from Texas, and Diane Sawyer spent a rare Saturday co- anchoring "Good Morning America."
If only they had snagged Katie Couric in time, she could've uncrossed her legs for CBS instead of hammering nails on the Today show.
After plenty of bitching over the New York Times' claiming he staged a Hurricane Katrina rescue for the benefit of the cameras — and securing the support of WaPo media critic Howard Kurtz and even NYT public editor Byron Calame — Geraldo Rivera is finally getting his NYT correction.
But it's certainly no apology and sounds much closer to a snide aside. And that's why we love those folks on West 43rd.
The TV Watch column on Sept. 5 discussed broadcast journalists' undisguised outrage at the failings of Hurricane Katrina rescue efforts. It said reporters had helped stranded victims because no police officers or rescue workers were around, and added, "Fox's Geraldo Rivera did his rivals one better: yesterday, he nudged an Air Force rescue worker out of the way so his camera crew could tape him as he helped lift an older woman in a wheelchair to safety."
The editors understood the "nudge" comment as the television critic's figurative reference to Mr. Rivera's flamboyant intervention. Mr. Rivera complained, but after reviewing a tape of his broadcast, The Times declined to publish a correction.
Numerous readers, however - now including Byron Calame, the newspaper's public editor, who also scrutinized the tape - read the comment as a factual assertion. The Times acknowledges that no nudge was visible on the broadcast.
Hear that? No nudge, even if Alessandra Stanley channeled one.
While CNN prez Jonathan Klein doesn't want his CNN relegated to some 24-hour tabloid news channel, he does understand the importantance of branding, which is why we were so impressed by his executive decision to outfit his hurricane reporters with CNN-brand windbreakers.
Unfortunately, they weren't too flashy, which is why we have FishbowlNY to thank for this much lovelier designs.
Combine the two and you've got a Vanderbilt sex tape.
MSNBC will go to any lengths to bring you the stories of Hurricane Katrina.
Including, it appears, sending Chris Jansing around New Orleans to trespass and snoop around other people's homes.
Michael Jackson's back in New York — and nobody bothered to send us a press release? We feel so unimportant! Seriously, even our contact at JFK's customs office left us in the dark (well, darker than Jacko anyway).
But Roger Friedman (the Fox 411 gossipist, not to be confused with the MarketWatch's Jon Friedman, who we already covered today) has the scoopage, in that no-nonsense way we love:
Sources are claiming that Michael Jackson has returned to New York.
He may have sneaked back in the last couple of days. His point of alighting would be the Palace Hotel on Madison Avenue.
His kids may have preceded him to the U.S. Sources say their nanny, Grace Rwarmba, was spotted in California two weeks ago.
Word has it he's trying to put together an all-star charity event. But if Naomi Campbell has her way, she'll figure out a means to upstage him.
• Gwen Stefani might be the one throwing cell phones at her assistant, thanks to Naomi Campbell. The suddenly spiritual runway diva plans to one-up the L.A.M.B. designer with an impromptu Hurricane Katrina fashion show benefit to take place just after Gwen wraps up.
• Meanwhile, Naomi needed two hours to pull herself together for a CNN interview, which she delivered (when she finally showed up) with emotion — naturally causing journo Richard Quest to burst into laughter.
• At Wednesday's H&M party, David LaChappelle had a few words for the Simpson family: He's sorry. Well, sorry for Fox's Simpsons that're helplessly associated with Jessica and Ashlee, that is.
• John Rutter landed himself three years and eight months of jail time, stemming from his attempt to blackmail Cameron Diaz out of $3.5 million to keep her topless photos from circulating. Now he can only hope his prison mates are nicer fellas.
• Not that it's really "news," but Tom Sizemore was ordered yesterday to stay in rehab for another 30 days, though he can leave to work and attend charity events. Which is good news, since he has five films on his docket already.
• Ladies (and gentlemen), rejoice: Your wish to see Brad Pitt give a full frontal shot are about to be granted. In a sacrifice for his art, Brad will pose totally nude (standing in a bathtub, no less!) in his new flick, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. No strategically placed rubber duckies have been spotted on set.
• Mayoral hopeful Anthony Weiner conceded the democratic primary race to Fernando Ferrer, which will give the congressman more time to get back to wooing Gigi Stone.
• Meanwhile, Robert Morgenthau will continue his 30-year reign as Manhattan D.A., thanks to a big win (59 percent of the vote) over Leslie Snyder.
• Russell Crowe is hoping Manhattan prosecutors don't think his phone throw was as serious as, well, a bloody cut up face. He's hoping to have his assault charges reduced so any admission or conviction wouldn't keep him from returning to the U.S. to work.
• The Lindsay Lohan "did she or didn't she?" breast implant debate continues, with discussion as obvious as her chest's truth.
• The 60th anniversary of the United Nations isn't merely causing Midtown East traffic woes but it's created the puzzle of placing so many presidents in a limited number of presidential suites.
• Sounds like Lisa Marie Presley cashed out of the Elvis business just in time. The Broadway show All Shook Up that's based on the rock'n'roller's music is expected to lose more than $10 million and will join Rosie O'Donnell's Taboo in the canceled corner.
• Despite 29 networks simulcasting Friday's Shelter from the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast to more than 100 countries, only 24 million people tuned in. Compare that to the 9/11 telethon America: A Tribute to Heroes, which ranked in 89 million viewers.
Editorial Director
