Archive for February 14th, 2008
Chez Pazienza, a senior producer for CNN’s American Morning, says the network fired him this week for blogging. Pazienza runs Deus Ex Malcontent, and he blogs occasionally for the left-leaning Huffington Post, but he says he never identified himself as a CNN producer. “I will write about the media in general and, at times, the very sorry state of it, including the TV news media,” he said. “I think I have the right to.” On his own blog, Pazienza didn’t hide his dislike of George W. Bush. “I wake up every morning baffled as to why America hasn’t thrown George Bush and Dick Cheney in prison,” he writes.
When asked about Pazienza, the cable network said “CNN has a policy that says employees must first get permission to write for a non-CNN outlet.” Pazienza acknowledges that he did not ask permission, but he said, “Does that mean I can’t post on a MySpace blog that my friends read? Does that mean I can’t post something online to my wife?”
So, what do you think? Was CNN right to give him the boot?
Related: Amazon cans worker over Billy Ray Cyrus blog post
February 14th, 2008
Ok, you’ve probably seen the Obama music clip on YouTube. Smart, stylish and very popular. And now Hillary supporters have posted, um, this thing. “(It’s) an embarrassment to politics, music and modern dance,” quips blogger Lerone Wilson, who points out the Hillary clip has a one-star rating. “The problem is, of course, that the patently bad music, coupled with a dance routine better suited for a high school football game halftime show, did nothing to prove her case. Instead, she came off as the 50 year old guy who inexplicably spends most evenings trying to schmooze with twentysomethings at the club.”
Maybe this will morph into an aerobics routine, or something.
Update: As many have suspected, it appears Clinton’s YouTube clip was produced by a random supporter, not the campaign. (Thanks, Curtis!)
February 14th, 2008
Here’s the Nielsen-Netratings monthly list for news sites (ranked by uniques followed by time on site):
1. Yahoo! News - 36,074,000 - 0:23:58
2. CNN Digital Network - 35,598,000 - 0:41:58
3. MSNBC Digital Network - 35,410,000 - 0:30:00
4. AOL News - 23,732,000 - 0:31:12
5. NYTimes.com -20,461,000 - 0:35:47
Every site in the top 5 increased uniques from the previous month. Proof that NNR numbers differ from internal numbers, Cory posted below that MSNBC reported 94 million uniques. That’s 59 million more than Nielsen reports.
February 14th, 2008
One idea on the table would be for News Corp. to “swap its ownership of MySpace and several other online properties for a stake of 20% or more in Yahoo,” reports the WSJ. But people familiar with the deal at News Corp. say there’s only an “outside chance” of a deal. (WSJ sub. req.)
February 14th, 2008
