If CNN Internet reporters (nee "blog reporters") Jacki Schechner and Abbi Tatton haven't been delivering on their politico blog meta coverage, Jon Klein has something in store for you! It's the network's "E-lection Nite Blog Party," about three steps down from a cuddle party and only 600 percent less interesting than MTV's True Life: I'm A Meth Addict. As the Los Angeles Times regurgitates the press release, we learn the cable net will play host to about two dozen bloggers in a Washington D.C. Internet lounge – free beverages and snacks provided, but feel free to bring your faves – who will be able to post live throughout election night (as the results flood in!) thanks to this new technology called wifi.
As for Jacki and Abbi? They'll be right there in the thick of it, reporting live from the scene as DailyKos throws down with RedState and the melee turns blue and red into one big purple sleep over. Meanwhile:
Subscribers to CNN Pipeline, the network's broadband service, will be able to monitor the happenings at the blog party through one of the online channels, which will be dedicated exclusively to footage from the event.
It's not that we don't have a CNN Pipeline membership that'll keep us from tuning in. It's just that we'd much prefer to be tuned into venusexgoddess1's live cam show.
CNN hopes blogging is election-night blessing [Matea Gold, LAT]
We thought CNN's "Internet reporters" had a pretty easy gig: Surf the Web, wait for Wolf Blitzer to address you then point at the screen like a newsy Vanna White. There isn't much "reporting" involved in their title, or so we assumed.
But it turns out Abbi Tatton and Jacki Schechner have much harder jobs than we thought — or at least they must be grueling, otherwise there's really no excuse for why they don't read full blog posts. (As for us, we're just lazy and overpaid.)
CNN internet reporter Abbi Tatton reported that MoveOn.org sent out an e-mail to the members saying that they "urgently need more information" on U.S. Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers. What Tatton didn't report about the e-mail is that it asked a bunch of loaded questions asking its members to specifically help dig up dirt on Miers.
Bias in the media that goes unaddressed? Wait — bias in the blogs that goes unaddressed? By blog reporters? We're swimming in meta media vomit.
Finally CNN's "blog chicks" are getting the attention they deserve. Getting name dropped on The Daily Show is one thing, but when the New York Observer sends its love, you know you've made it.
We've been loving the blog chicks too, otherwise known as CNN's own Vanna Whites, who sometimes point and touch giant computer screens as they jump from blog to blog, bringing the Internet's latest cultural whining to the forefront.
Blogs are the latest beat, and Abbi Tatton and Jacki Schechner are on it, folks.
In addition to giving the tinglies to CNN viewers and a voice to citizen journalists everywhere, the Blog Chicks are one possible answer to television news’ most loudly lamented conundrum: how to lure younger viewers without alienating older ones. Ms. Tatton and Ms. Schechner are supposed to appeal both to a tech-savvy audience hip to the latest in online communications, and to an older generation of people who actually watch CNN and have no idea what these so-called Web logs are anyway.
Oh, and they're supposed to appeal to grandpa's wanking while watching CNN in their ratty bathrobes. Vanna White hasn't secured this category just yet.
We love it when a gossipist just gives it to us straight without feeling the need to wind the story (usually, actually, just a punchline) around lengthy phrasing. This website gets away with it because, quite frankly, we'd be straight ripping off other columns otherwise.
So Fox 411's Roger Friedman gets a token of our thanks for wrapping up Jennifer Lopez's An Unfinished Life premiere behavior so nicely. And since it's Fashion Week, that means not one but two 8-balls.
What readers need to know right away is that she had a personal team of five gigantic security guys who accompanied her to last night’s premiere of “An Unfinished Life.†They did not take their eyes off of her.
Also: She, superstar husband Marc Anthony, her mother and sisters dined in a private room at Megu after the screening.
Though Roger could've taken an even easier route: "J. Lo remains a diva." Not quite the flair as the above, but it would've saved us a full minute we could've devoted to watching CNN blog reporter Jacki Schechner touch video screens.
But oddly, Roger makes no mention of the fact that, uh, J. Lo and hubby Marc didn't even walk the red carpet, thanks to PETA protestors. That's why she was apologizing (to the press) on David Letterman.
With Fox, CNN and – dare we say it? – MSNBC cashing in on Hurricane Katrina, we can't blame David Letterman for hoping to leverage a ratings bump from the coverage. Which is why his producers aimed their sights at both CNN's Anderson Cooper and Fox News' Shepard Smith, hoping their darts would hit at least one bullseye.
Turned out, producers missed. Cooper couldn't be bothered (he wanted to stay in New Orleans to report, or at least that's how CNN's publicity folks would like you to hear it) and Shep needed some Fox News hand wringing.
"Shep had to be convinced to do Letterman," a Fox News insider says. "Friday morning, he was scheduled to come back on Sunday. Things with Letterman were set up Friday afternoon."
More importantly, why is this being discussed at all? Aren't there more important things going on in the world?
Yes, like watching CNN Internet reporter (just weeks ago, we're certain it was "blog reporter") Jacki Schechner play Vanna White. After the jump, you'll see what we mean.
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PressThink's Jay Rosen opens up a very serious discussion (also known as the type we consciously avoid engaging in) on "Things I used to teach that I no longer believe," expanding on a panel he partcipated in wherein j-school profs waxed nostalgic on their instructional leanings.
Among the storytelling was the story of one j-schooler who gave up a $200,000 scholarship "just to get out of journalism." And no, that's not our autobiography. But what'd Jay have on his own list?
For many years I taught in my criticism classes that pointing out bias in the news media was an important, interesting, and even subversive activity. At the very least an intellectual challenge. Now it is virtually meaningless. Media bias is a proxy in countless political fights and the culture war. It’s effectiveness as a corrective is virtually zero.
Which, to us, sounds like an invitation to quit disclosing conflicts of interest. Because least of all would we be looking to support the terrorists fueling this "culture war." Meanwhile, he's also getting all Jon Klein up in here, slamming the lid on the deluge of critics.
Alas, I used to teach that the world needs more critics; but it was an unexamined thing. Today I would say that the world has a limited tolerance for critics, and while it always needs more do-ers, it does not always need more chroniclers, pundits, or pencil-heads.
Crankiness aside, where does that leave us? We're clearly not do-ers but recyclers, spinners and often talking heads. Maybe CNN blog reporter Jacki Schechner has some answers for us.
