Know which Super Bowl ad we really responded to?
The one where MasterCard calls the ability to charge all of our terrorist-related bomb building equipment "priceless." Just think how much cash back you could get just from buying that tube sock, ball point pen, and fertilizer.
Best Super Bowl Ads [AOL]
(To view this ad, click "4th Quarter," then "Mastercard: Macgyver.")
Unlike Colin Ferrell's sex tape, not a soul has seen the footage of Bob Woodruff and his cameraman Doug Vogt experience of their vehicle bombing in Iraq.
ABC executives made the controversial decision not to remove the tape from the camera.
"It is not first, second, or third thing on anyone's mind," said the insider.
The camera will be hand-carried and delivered to ABCNEWS headquarters in New York later on Thursday, from Washington, a source claims. "No one has seen what is on the tape. No one."
In some sort of bizarre evidence like treatment of the video, ABC execs have left the tape in the camera, not even removing it to watch what's on there. Plans to treat the tape with the "same editorial judgement applied to any war footage."
Which means nobody will ever see it, because that would actually require bringing the war to the public's attention. Wait, wasn't that, like, the point of Woodruff being there in the first place?
ABCNEWS HOLDS TAPE OF ANCHOR BOMBED IN IRAQ [Drudge Report]
Even we thought it might be hard to take on Jon Friedman's column today, given its emotional twinge as Jon-Jon effuses on journalists in the war zone, from Christian Science Monitor scribe and current hostage Jill Carroll to Bob Woodruff and Doug Vogt, whose roadside IED attack have left them both hospitalized.
But Friedman – quickly gaining notoriety around Jossip HQ as "that guy who won't participate in our talking head email polling" – has managed to accomplish something we never expected: prove us wrong.
You see, we can take on his column today! Begins Friedman:
I wonder if it's time for the media to reject the whims of hostage-takers in Iraq and elsewhere, and decide not to air terrorists' news footage.
On Monday afternoon, MSNBC showed a brief, heartbreaking image: a television clip of Jill Carroll, the American freelance journalist who had been taken hostage in Iraq on Jan. 7.
The riveting shots, made available by al-Jazeera, showed the 28-year-old Carroll clad in a white head scarf. We saw the stricken, agonized expression on her face as she spoke. The footage lasted less than a minute — not quite the time it takes to air a Coke or Pepsi commercial. Still, the pictures provided such an indelible portrait of one courageous woman's fear that it will be a long time before I can get them out of my mind.
You see, even we aren't using something as gravely solemn as Carroll's hostage situation to tip off the likes of McCann-Erickson and FCB Worldwide on how to sell more soda. Just get a white female with tears in her eyes and a plea for help and – bam! – they could probably convince consumers New Coke Is It! in a mere 30-second spot.
How the media can help Jill Carroll [Jon Friedman, Marketwatch]
Injured ABC newsman Bob Woodruff is back in the U.S. after a medical stopover in Germany. He's in a Maryland hospital en route to recovery and, at long last, there's a talking head updating the press on his status besides ABC president David Westin.
Yep, Bob's brother David Woodruff is filling us in on the World News Tonight anchor's status.
"It's tough to look at. He definitely has some facial wounds, but they're pretty much on one side of his face. It looks like kind of a burn that you might get from being hit with some sand," he said.
"Those things, frankly, for us, are minor compared to just making sure he's going to return from the injury to his head."
Maybe minor to family members, but you think Westin is going to let Woodruff – chosen for his pretty boy looks, like Liz Vargas was chosen for her "grace" – return to the air looking like one of the bloodied soldiers he tried to report on? Harsh, sure. But true none the less.
Meanwhile, as we predicted, ABC has asked Charlie Gibson to fill in the WNT anchor chair — and Diane Sawyer as well. So expect even more saddle bag undereyes, as their Good Morning America duties haven't been relinquished just yet.
Anchor improves [Helen Kennedy, NYDN]
Gibson, Sawyer to fill in for injured Woodruff [AP]
Earlier: With Woodruff shock over, let's start talking numbers
Earlier: Alessandra Stanely just couldn't help but weigh in on Woodruff
Earlier: Forget Woodruff's health. What about ABC's ratings?
Earlier: Bob Woodruff & Doug Vogt 'stable' after Iraq assault
Related: All Bob Woodruff coverage
Last night, we watched as Dan Abrams closed his show by backhanding the New York Times – much as we did in the wee hours of the A.M. – for running such an impersonal article about how Bob Woodruff's injuries in Iraq would affect World News Tonight ratings.
Now, from an AP story filed yesterday afternoon, just as Jossip was closing up camp:
With "World News Tonight" anchor Bob Woodruff showing improvement Monday, a reeling ABC News division was coming to grips with what his injuries mean for the future of the recently revamped newscast and its ratings prospects.
That's the first graph. At least the Times waited till the fourth.
(Meanwhile, Woodruff is said to be returning to the U.S. as soon as today.)
ABC's Woodruff Improving After Iraq Blast [David Bauder, AP]
Earlier: Alessandra Stanely just couldn't help but weigh in on Woodruff
Earlier: Forget Woodruff's health. What about ABC's ratings?
Earlier: Bob Woodruff & Doug Vogt 'stable' after Iraq assault
Related: All Bob Woodruff coverage
Damn, looks like "tawonda" got the leg up on us all! She's the last Bob Woodruff well wisher to get a word in before David Westin & Co. locked us all out.
World News Tonight Forum [ABCNews.com]
Given Alessandra Stanley's recent (and historical) ability to deliver egregious factual errors in any body of copy, we were a little concerned when we spotted her byline accompanying an item about something so serious as Bob Woodruff's attack in Iraq. So, the investigative journalists that we are, we decided to go through her piece with a fine-toothed comb. And we mean fine-toothed, folks. This comb has got tiny ass bristles. Like, skinnier than Nicole Richie's calves.
So begins Stanley:
Bob Woodruff was in Baghdad for ABC reporting the good news that the Bush administration complains is ignored by the news media, and he ended up as a glaring illustration of the bad news.
So far, so good, 'Sandra.
Mr. Woodruff, the newly named co-anchor of "World News Tonight," spent Friday chatting with friendly Iraqis on the street and slurped ice cream at a popular Baghdad shop to show how some in Iraq are seeking a semblance of normalcy.
Sure, we've got no way of independently verifying that Woodruff "slurps" his ice cream rather than bites into it with his front teeth, but given Iraq's heat index, we imagine that's how a news anchor might eat his ice cream. So, check.
Yesterday he and an ABC cameraman, Doug Vogt, were badly wounded while traveling in a routine convoy with Iraqi military forces who are being trained to impose that normalcy and allow American troops to go home.
What happened to Mr. Woodruff and Mr. Vogt was one of those chilling television moments that mark a milestone. This conflict has shown all too clearly that soldiers, civilians, aid workers and journalists are all targets.
Normally facts reported elsewhere and repeated verbatim would be an opportunity for Stanely to slip up — but she's wow-ing us here. Wow-ow-ow-ing.
Soldiers, American and Iraqi, are wounded and killed by roadside bombs and ambushes every day in tragedies so common they float to the back pages. But until now, at least, network anchors always seemed to sail through hot spots with an inalienable aura of invulnerability, like senators or movie stars.
Mr. Woodruff's plight underscored at a whole new level that Americans there feel like sitting ducks, picked off by a faceless enemy.
We're a little wary here. "Every day?" Surely there was a 24 hour period when neither an American or Iraqi soldier was injured or killed. Well .. Hah! Who are we kidding? The way George Bush is running things over there, we're surprised when 60 minutes go by without incident. Way to go, Ales-es-es-es-es-sandra. Another gold star.
The attack, which led all the network evening newscasts, was obviously a blow for ABC, which only last month appointed Mr. Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas as a team to replace the late Peter Jennings, packaging the duo as pioneers of a new, more light-footed style of evening news show. Last night, Ms. Vargas did the anchor duties alone in a dark pinstriped jacket, gravely interviewing other ABC correspondents about the escalating danger of roadside bombs.
We'll give Stanley the benefit of the doubt here: Yes, we believe she watched Sunday night's broadcast, even if she did file her copy so shortly after it wrapped.
One reason networks, and ABC in particular, have been loath to appoint a single female anchor is that many news executives believe that in an emergency, viewers prefer a comforting fatherly presence. In this case, ABC's chosen authority figure was hurt in a crisis, and the distressing news was delivered by a female anchor chosen more for her on-air grace than her experience or gravitas.
Ding! Ding! Ding! Now that's what we were looking for: a reason for the Times to issue one of its many Alessandra Stanley Brand corrections.
Vargas was hired more for her grace than her "experience or gravitas?"
You know Tuesday's paper is going to carry the following: "An article on Monday that described ABC World News Tonight co-anchor Elizabeth Vargas' hiring misrepresented her qualifications. She was identified as having grace, while she was actually hired because, when sat next to dreamboat Bob Woodruff, viewers want to fuck the news."
Thanks for playing along at home!
A Bomb Detonates, and an Anchorman Tells a Story of the War by Becoming the Story [Alessandra Stanely, NYT]
Earlier: Forget Woodruff's health. What about ABC's ratings?
Earlier: Bob Woodruff & Doug Vogt 'stable' after Iraq assault
Related: All Bob Woodruff coverage
Glad to know we aren't the only ones considering how Bob Woodruff's life-threatening injuries might affect ABC's ratings. It took the New York Times' Richard Oppel and Jacques Steinberg just four graphs to get there.
For years now, "World News Tonight" has been lagging in the ratings, and ABC has much money and prestige riding on its new co-anchor format, which was intended to stand out from its competitors by having Mr. Woodruff and his partner, Elizabeth Vargas, take turns reporting from the field while the other stays in New York.
Shrapnel, schmrapnel.
ABC News Anchor Is Badly Injured by Bomb in Iraq [Richard Oppel & Jacques Steinberg, NYT]
Earlier: Bob Woodruff & Doug Vogt 'stable' after Iraq assault
Related: All Bob Woodruff coverage
By now, you've certainly heard the horrible news: Newly inducted World News Tonight anchor and long term ABC heavyweight Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt were severly injured when their military convoy was hit with an IED attack on Sunday just north of Baghdad.
First, the good news: they're alive. More so, it looks like the shrapnel that sliced through their body armor – and into their heads – did not pierce their brains. After the loss of Peter Jennings, the entire ABC family and everyone in the industry is doubly feeling this tragedy. Even us sarcastic and usually morally reprehensible folks at Jossip are saddened by the news.
While fellow news media have been feeding on the story, ABC president David Westin has been keeping his Disney-owned minions informed. Jossip has obtained the emails he's been sending out to staff since top brass first learned of Woddruff and Vogt's conditions.
The first email was sent First, when the attack first took place.
8:05 am
Bob Woodruff and his cameraman, Doug Vogt, were injured in an IED attack near Taji, Iraq today. They were embedded with the 4th Infantry Division, traveling with an Iraqi Army unit in an Iraqi mechanized vehicle. Bob and Doug are in serious condition and are being treated at a U.S. military hospital in Iraq. At this point, we don't know much more than this. We'll keep you posted as we learn more. I know that all of us will keep Bob, Doug, and their families in our thoughts and prayers.
Then two hours later, came a short update:
10:03am
Our best information as of now is that Bob and Doug are in surgery at Balad Air Force Base north of Baghdad. We will let you know as we get more information concerning their status.
Westin popped in again, in the afternoon:
13:08
We have learned from the U.S. military and from our producer on the scene that Bob and Doug are out of surgery and are both in stable condition. We take this as good news, but the next few days will be critical. The military plans to evacuate them to their medical facilities in Landstuhl, probably overnight tonight.
It's been standard procedure for journalists injured in Iraq to be immediately treated at a U.S. military medical facility before being transferred to Landstuhl, Germany, once the victim is stable enough for transport. And that's exactly what's happening with Woodruff and Vogt — while Woodruff's newly minted co-anchor Elizabeth Vargas was wrapping Sunday night's program.
Certainly, our main concern is with the health of Woodruff and Vogt. But the media world, and those couple million people still tuning into World News Tonight (but not enough to ump it out of fourth place), want to know: What's David Westin going to do about World News Tonight?
The heavily touted dual anchor format that was supposed to buoy ABC's news program out of last place suddenly looks as fragile as ever. Will Charlie Gibson – who refused to join the multi-anchor format because he wanted a 3-year, not a 2-year, deal – be asked to fill in for the interim? Will Vargas assume sole responsibilities, becoming the single female-only anchored network news program on the air? If Woodruff is out of commission for the foreseeable future, will his future as co-anchor be jeopardized if the "Vargas only" format proves to be a ratings winner? And, uh, were the cameras rolling when this went down?
We'll let you know what secrets continue to pour out of David Westin's email outbox. In the meantime, catch him and (a very exhausted) Vargas on this morning's Good Morning America.
In addition to imaginary WMDs, Nacho Cheese Doritos, and caves, we now find out a few more tidbits on everyone's favorite forgotten terrorist, Osama Bin Laden.
Wherever he is, Bin Laden's got cable, and he loves him some Larry King Live. Oh, yep, he's a "news junkie." He also likes feta cheese, and has a hot socialite niece trying to make a modeling career in New York.
Apparently, he also has a death wish. When you're the only one in Pakistan with cable and feta cheese, you'd think you'd have it pretty good, but, Peter Bergen, author of The Osama Bin Laden I know says not so much:
"There is no evidence that he's dead. If Osama were dead, Al Qaeda would get up on the rooftops and say: 'At last, he finally got his wish.'"
Um, ok, so maybe that was Bush's logic. Apparently it's really not as much fun hunting down some guy who watches Larry King Live and wants to die. Hits too close to home, maybe?
Osama Bin Laden, cable guy [Rush & Molloy, NYDN]
Yes, but what do you think the album art is going to look like? Think Osama Bin Laden can score some of those $10,000 diamond eyelashes that Madonna is sporting on her "Sorry" single?
Take a trip down memory lane with us for a moment. Remember back to 2001, when just weeks after the Twin Towers fell and the plot was born for a new DVD, various parties started receiving anthrax-filled envelopes.
A Senate building in D.C. Tom Brokaw's NBC outpost. Oh, and American Media Inc.'s building in Boca Raton, Florida.
The incident cost at least one life: The Sun photo editor Bob Stevens. But it also meant the building was cordoned off, staffers were left without desks (and all their work, potentially contaminated, abandoned inside) and AMI without a headquarters. AMI, of course, has since relocated here in New York.
But the de-anthraxing (it's a technical term, if you're unfamiliar) of AMI's former haunt in Boca Raton has been going on ever since. And thanks to MARCOR Remediation, the process is all but complete — once they disinfect the exteriors of boxes filled with celebrity photos, they'll call it a day.
And those boxes, we gleefully report, will be returned to AMI.
So should Joe Dolce ever decide to run a "Before & After" of Sean Penn, a "Look Who's Thin, Again!" of Kirstie Alley or "Someone got work done" on Demi Moore without the help of a wire image service, you can thank MARCOR Remediation. They're helping repair the building blocks of American culture, one paparazzi shot at a time.
The full release, after the jump.
Related: Anthrax Alarm [Newsweek]
CONTINUED »
The MTA is going all special ops on the Verrazano Bridge, secretly planning to reinforce the cables on the world's second largest suspension bridge. It's billed as a preventative measure to protect against terror attacks, because somehow transportation officials think terrorists will attack the connection between Brooklyn and Staten Island.
Another source said that Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials have examined a composite material that includes Kevlar and ceramics. The material, which is as strong as steel but lighter, is used to help protect Black Hawk helicopters.
"It offers a high degree of protection against an explosive blast," one of the sources said.
If nothing else, it's an explanation why the MTA, with its nearly $1 billion surplus this year, isn't eliminating two planned fare hikes in the coming years. But at least you'll get your holiday savings!
Protecting the Verrazano [NYDN]
• According to American Express, the L train is the best place to find love on New York's subways. What a credit card company is doing releasing a survey on such a topic instead of telling us we're past due is, and will remain, a mystery. [New York Post]
• Even though last week's subway terror alert has been deemed a hoax by most, that didn't keep the city's rich and powerful from receiving the news before Mayor Michael Bloomberg released the information to the general public. [New York Daily News]
• With the Wall Street Journal just announcing it'd begin printing a less wide newspaper by 2007, the New York Times is playing follow the leader and considering dwarfing its own sheet to a tabloid size — but hanging on to that upscale horizontal fold. [New York Post]
• Talent handler ICM may have been sold. For real this time. [Page Six]
• We may be late to PR Week's "10 media trends to watch," but not as late as they are to naming blogs as, ahem, a media trend to watch. [PR Week]
• Joan Rivers once bought us drinks a couple years ago, so we can't harp on her too much, but there's plenty of evidence pointing to her taking over the reigns from Michael Jackson as the supreme plastic surgery fanatic. [CityRag]
Yesterday we told you about Keith Olbermann's stab at responsible journalism, wherein he noted all the sudden (or not so sudden) coincidences of major news stories breaking, each taking some heat off the previous one.
Last night, he took to the airwaves on Countdown again (as he did last Thursday) to school viewers viewers on how well politicos and their handlers game coverage — and Jossip's own Intern Wendy filed this report.
Why do I love Countdown With Keith Olbermann? Let me count the ways. Michael Jackson Puppet Theatre. Oddball. The Worst Person in the World. But most of all? While other shows cover the missing white coed of the week, celebrity breakups, or are just too damn scared to criticize Dubya & Co. for fear of being branded "unpatriotic," Countdown has gone after stories that need to be covered.
Intern Wendy's full rant, after the jump.
Earlier: Keith knows counting
Related: Bloggerman [Keith Olbermann's blog]
CONTINUED »
• Normally, reality show producers have to use trick editing to produce scathing plotlines. And then there's E!'s Kill Reality, which was sultry enough by itself to bring about the uncensored DVD compliment. [Fresh Intelligence]
• Is there a little White Stripe on the way? Reports claim Jack White and supermodel Karen Elson may be expecting. A rep refused to comment, natch. [Page Six]
• The Rolling Stones hope to bring satisfaction to daytime drama viewers, premiering their new song "Streets of Love" on Days of Our Lives next week. But don't expect to see Mick and the boys scarfing Gramma Horton's homemade doughnuts .. the tune will be used as background music only. [NYP]
• Keanu Reeves newfound love with Diane Keaton is obviously blinding him. From hygiene, for instance. [Cityrag]
• While the New York Times rambles on about how post-9/11 terrorism communication is still flawed, where are all the accusations that Mayor Michael Bloomberg used the subway threat to steal attention for his campaign? [NYT]
• OK! magazine might've paid $3 million for Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher's wedding photos, but the video rights went to someone else. [Four1Six]
Keith Olbermann might know his sports, but he's a bit more well known these days for his counting. He's got a show called Countdown, after all.
So it makes sense that he did a little bit of that recently when, seeing one too many major news stories pop up with each taking heat off the previous one (i.e. bird flu, U.S. troop withdrawal, subway terror alert), he went and counted up how many times this has happened.
Thus, as Mayor Michael Bloomberg held a 5:30 p.m. press conference urging everyone to stay calm and the major networks prepared stories on the threat, Mr. Olbermann’s staff began tallying up the precedents. By the 8 p.m. start of Countdown with Keith Olbermann, they had picked out 13 examples of what Mr. Olbermann considered suspiciously timed news stories. Said the host near the top of his show: “How could the coincidences be so consistent?â€
The question is, How? For such a bright and successful newsman, Keith Olbermann should really get around to knowing who Karl Rove is.
Getting Mixed Messages on Terror Threat—And Giving Them, Too [New York Observer]
• Expect to see Donatella Versace pop up on Oprah late this month to discuss her field of expertise: drug use. Oh, and they'll probably talk about fashion, and maybe anorexia too. [Gatecrasher]
• You aren't supposed to be able to pick up the 2006 Zagat guide until Oct. 17, but one Barnes & Noble pulled a Harry Potter and had it on bookshelves two weeks before its release. [Page Six]
• Michael Jackson appeared in public with his children for the first time since, well, we're not sure — it's easy to forget about veiled kiddies. This time he took them on a trip to see an exact replica of himself at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in London, whereupon Paris, Prince Michael Jr. and Prince Michael II immediately added six years of therapy. [The Sun]
• Supposedly, learning you're losing your heavily sought after gig at Vitals is easier to absorb when delivered by Fairchild president Mary Berner, also known as the chic that's firing you. [Page Six]
• When we heard rumblings a couple days ago that the New York Post and New York Daily News had – gasp! – called a truce, we were reluctant to believe it. And then the Post's Page Six confirmed our suspicions yesterday when they continued their anti-NYDN rally. Or maybe the NYP's deadlines were before the white flag handshake? [Page Six]
• Dancing to Kabbalah can be hazardous to your health if you're Madonna. Because the dance diva wrote a track about one of the sect's holy men, she's been warned it could lead to divine retribution and forbidden from using his holy name for profit. Funny how they weren't squawking about her devotion being used for their profit up till now. [Globe & Mail]
• Yeah, so about that subway terror alert? Fuhgettaboutit. [AP]
• Hearst greenlights Weekend, Conde Nast greenlights Men's Vogue and, in unrelated news, Jossip greenlights the crack pipe.
• Meanwhile, to Conde Nast's shock, Men's Vogue is not the "most notable launch of the past two decades." It's Cooking Light, which has skyrocketed to a circulation of 1.7 million — or, if you're using Newsday's counting methods, 19.7 million.
• Had you decided to actually grin and bear the NRQW line and, uh, been blown up by a terrorist bomb, you have WNBC/Channel 4 to blame for withholding the story.
• The Weinstein duo have hit the $420 million fundraising marker for their Weinstein Company, with hopes of releasing 25 films per year. We hope there's a The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3D spin-off in there somewhere.
• TiVo isn't just a means to watch Katie Couric's legs on repeat, but it's also an advertiser's best friend. And we thought blogs held that title.
• If New York magazine is to believe, JT Leroy is a fraud. But remember, New York is also where you heard (stratospherically falsely) that Jessica Coen earned a paltry $30,000 a year.
• Camilla Al Fayed (daughter of Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed) will not, in fact, be working at Vogue under Anna Wintour's whip, as had been rumored. She'll be stashed away in the fashion closet and ad sales, otherwise known as where editorial and advertising blend into one homogeneous black hole.
• Time Inc. is trying its hand at a humor website with former Maxim editor Mark Golin at the helm, with some help from Upright Citizens Brigader Chris Kula. Bonus round: Even Norm Pearlstine might get the punchlines.
If NY1's Debbie Duhame doesn't include any mention of that terror alert warning in her morning rail and road report, then we're pretty confident there's nothing to worry about.
After all, do you see any exploding bomb on that map? Didn't think so.
