Media Re-invention

[Gaspar]

It continues.  Baldwin is now off the rails (even more) and talking about his experience with MSNBC.  Piers Morgan's America bashing show is being canned from CNN after 3 years of hemorrhaging ratings, and they may resurrect (almost literally) Larry King.



Baldwin taking a stroll off set.
http://www.vulture.com/2014/02/alec-baldwin-good-bye-public-life.html
Once they fired me, a former MSNBC employee I knew emailed me. He said, "You watch now, Phil is going to start leaking left and right to bury you." When I left, "Page Six" was flooded with lies about me. Another told me, regarding the "toxic little queen" comment, that Rachel Maddow was the prime mover in my firing, as she was aghast that I had been hired and viewed me as equivalent to Mel Gibson. Another source told me, "You know who's going to get you fired, don't you? Rachel. Phil will do whatever Rachel tells him to do." I think Rachel Maddow is quite good at what she does. I also think she's a phony who doesn't have the same passion for the truth off-camera that she seems to have on the air.



http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/24/business/media/piers-morgan-and-cnn-plan-end-to-his-prime-time-show.html?_r=0
CNN's president, Jeffrey Zucker, has other problems, but none bigger than Mr. Morgan and his plum 9 p.m. time slot. Mr. Morgan said last week that he and Mr. Zucker had been talking about the show's failure to connect and had decided to pull the plug, probably in March.


Fox used to be the enemy for CNN and MSNBC, but now they seem to be running hit pieces against each other as they battle for the bottom.  They need some new blood at the top.  I think CNN bringing back Larry King will be good. MSNBC is being carried by Rachel Maddow, and she is quite good, be it emotional, but most of MSNBC's appeal is to emotion.  Melissa Harris-Perry is so visceral that she has become nothing more than a source of apology for the MSNBC.


Slowly, both channels have begun reporting the news again after realizing that serving as a mouthpiece only hurt them by tying their popularity to that of the president.  Morning Joe, has reinvented itself and become informative again.  I watch it at the gym in the morning, and over the last few months it has improved vastly, but Mika may be on her way out because she has a hard time not looking pissed off when a story is anything less than complementary to her monarch.  The difficult roll-out of Obamacare has been very hard on her.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/feb/21/sekulow-a-tone-deaf-fcc-hears-a-retort-loud-and-cl/
The Obama administration's plans to put "monitors" in newsrooms to make sure they were "reporting the right information" has now been busted by one of the FCC's own commissioners, Ajit, Pai, and I think that was probably a wakeup call for all media.  Funny part is that the plans included placing monitors in print news organizations too, and print does not even fall under FCC regulation.

FOX News who has served as nothing more than a shill for the Republican party has now began to shift more time to Libertarian voices like Napalitano and Stossel, but O'Reilly still dominates everything that Fox does, pulling more than double the ratings than the other networks combined in that time-slot.  Regardless of O'Reilly strength, I think FOX senses the eminent demise and fragmentation of Republicanism and hopes to maintain appeal with a more liberty minded viewership.  Heck, I think that's what all of these networks are realizing.  

Hopefully cable news will continue to make shifts back to reporting news rather than interpreting it for a specific crowd.  I think the "state media" experiment may be over soon, and that makes me happy.

[AquaMan]

You're such an expert on so many things. One wonders why you bother with such inane political insider bickering among network types. Unless you have some sort of agenda or something.........

How was the Liberty meeting this weekend? Press showed lots of empty seats. But they would since they are so biased.

[Gaspar]

You're such an expert on so many things. One wonders why you bother with such inane political insider bickering among network types. Unless you have some sort of agenda or something.........

How was the Liberty meeting this weekend? Press showed lots of empty seats. But they would since they are so biased.

I have opinions I share, and you have snipe that you share, and we are both free to do so.

I wholeheartedly support your right to ridicule, belittle and disparage other people. 

Merica! 

[Townsend]

I've noticed you categorize most replies to your posts as "snipes".

[Gaspar]

I've noticed you categorize most replies to your posts as "snipes".

Snipe or snark is typically reserved to replies that don't offer any intelligent debate, but I'm open to other definitions if you have any to offer.

[Townsend]

don't offer any intelligent debate.

Congratulations.  You've defined your threads

[swake]

Congratulations.  You've defined your threads

Now that's some quality snark. +1

[sgrizzle]

I can't say I agree with Baldwin politically, but I tend to believe his characterization of recent events. His show wasn't doing good and MSNBC took an easy out by claiming morals clause to fire him without paying him. He can likely sue and will settle out of court for most of the money he's owed.

[Gaspar]

I can't say I agree with Baldwin politically, but I tend to believe his characterization of recent events. His show wasn't doing good and MSNBC took an easy out by claiming morals clause to fire him without paying him. He can likely sue and will settle out of court for most of the money he's owed.

It was only a matter of time with him.  He is far less emotionally stable than several of the others that have been forced to resign from MSNBC for lapses in judgement. I think perhaps management weighed the options and realized that a Baldwin "episode" could actually result in more than just the typical MSNBC apology issuance.  I think he could hurt someone if provoked, and now that the TMZers of the world know he has thin skin, they are relentless in their attempts to get him to react.

CNN had already cornered the market on pompous with Piers Morgan, and I'm sure that case study provided some insight on how Baldwin would ultimately be received by the public on MSNBC. They simply couldn't afford it, and I can't blame them.

[Gaspar]

Speak of the devil. This was just released.
http://www.newsweek.com/covering-alec-baldwin-was-nobodys-favorite-job-230059
It was one day a few years ago that I found myself assigned to a job no reporter wanted - I was on Alec Baldwin watch.

Every reporter had to cover celebrities from time to time and on this Thursday morning I was unfortunate enough to have the 8 a.m. shift. Alec Baldwin was our cover story that day. We needed a follow.

Like most journalists, I hated covering celebrities. During my seven years at the New York Daily News I was more accustomed to covering crime all around the country.

A few weeks earlier I had gotten back after a month in Florida investigating the death of Trayvon Martin. A few weeks before that I was in North Dakota, then Florida again, investigating the strange affair of General David Petraeus.

But on this morning in late June of 2012 I was assigned to stand outside of Mr. Baldwin's East Village apartment hoping to get a reaction to that day's story.

I also had a personal stake in confronting Mr. Baldwin.

It was only two days earlier that Mr. Baldwin had been walking down the stairs outside the New York City marriage license bureau. It should have been a happy day. He was about to marry a beautiful young yoga instructor.

After a life in the public eye Mr. Baldwin would have had to expect a few photographers to be waiting outside to capture the moment.

One of those photographers was Marcos Santos of the New York Daily News.

It was an assignment that Mr. Santos didn't want either.

I know because Mr. Santos is not only a former co-worker, but a good friend. He is also an award-winning photographer who is widely respected in the industry.

Mr. Santos had more important things on his mind than Alec Baldwin. He and his wife had just welcomed a new baby into their little family and now he was looking forward to snapping a few pictures, ideally of a smiling Baldwin holding his marriage certificate, sending the shots into his desk, then going home to spend time with his child.

That was not to be.

Mr. Baldwin burst through the doors in a rage and went straight at one of the photographers, threatening words streaming out of his mouth. Mr. Santos, believing that his co-worker was in danger, put his camera down and shouted at the actor: "Hey, leave him alone."

The actor responded by turning around and punching Mr. Santos in the jaw.

Every moment was chronicled by other photographers. (No charges were filed against the actor.)

It wasn't that Mr. Baldwin had lost his temper that irked me so much. It happens to all of us. Maybe he was having a bad day. Who knows? Mr. Santos wasn't seriously hurt.

What grated on me was what happened afterwards.

The next day the powerful actor lied about the incident, claiming that Mr. Santos hit him with his camera. The allegation was beyond incredulous. The pictures clearly show Mr. Santos backpedalling with his arms flailing up in the air and the actor lunging forward.

Mr. Baldwin's next move was to go on Letterman and yuck it up at the expense of the photographer.

The actor pointed his finger at the image of himself landing a blow on Mr. Santos's chin on the New Daily News page, then joked;

"I think you see, I'm forming the letter 'F' with my mouth, and what I'm saying is — I said to him as I walked up on him, 'What F-stop are you on with that camera?'"

They all laughed. How funny.

While Mr. Santos was deeply embarrassed by the incident it seemed to be something Mr. Baldwin couldn't be more proud of.

[Townsend]

How has this effected your MSNBC enjoyment?

[Gaspar]

How has this effected your MSNBC enjoyment?

Somebody sign this to that Towny can move on.

[Townsend]

Somebody sign this to that Towny can move on.

Ooooooo, good one.  Gosh you've added so much.

I can't imagine anyone could go much further if they didn't have your opinions to expand their intellect.

Again, ooooooo, good one.

[Gaspar]

Morgan's future is a bit more problematic.  I don't think MSNBC is likely to hire him, and it's unlikely the British media will take him back since he was previously fired in 2004 from the Daily Mirror for falsifying photographs to implicate British soldiers in torture. Consequently he is not very liked at home.  http://www.theguardian.com/media/2004/may/14/pressandpublishing.iraqandthemedia

Jeremy Clarkson, host of BBC's Top Gear, suggested on Twitter that he take a job hosting a Nigerian talk show.

[dbacksfan 2.0]

Jeremy Clarkson, host of BBC's Top Gear, suggested on Twitter that he take a job hosting a Nigerian talk show.

I got an email from Nigeria today saying they found millions of dollars belonging to me, and I can have it tax free if I keep Piers Morgan here in the US.