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Thursday, July 8. 2010
Good Bye Larry, Happy Birthday Roxanne!
Larry King is retiring. He’s been on the air interviewing people for 56 years — since 1954? This guy’s old. Monday night CNN aired King’s 25th Anniversary episode, with Donald Trump interviewing the old man.Just read this; King’s replacement is supposed to be some British guy, Piers Morgan. Never heard of’em.
CNN has gotten so wishy-washy over the years, ever since Ted Turner sold his Turner Broadcasting in a bid to buy CBS — for the second time, I think.
His first bid to buy CBS was in 1985 and the second in the late 1990’s.
Turner sold it to Time-Warner, one of the largest media conglomerates in the world, although he remained on the board of AOL-Time Warner. Turner thought he would remain in control of Turner Broadcasting, but he lost control after selling his broadcasting interests.
Since then, CNN has become unimportant. There was a time when we could watch Crossfire and really see some cross fire. And in 1990-91 CNN trumped every network in the world when it covered the first Gulf War from Baghdad. Who can forget Peter Arnett and Bernie Shaw broadcasting from the El Rashid Hotel?
Arnett was fired from CNN for a program he was involved in about the government allegedly using the nerve agent against soldiers deserting during the Vietnam War. He was later fired from NBC for granting an interview to Iraqi-controlled TV just before the current Iraq War started in 2003.
It’s just a guess, but I would bet that were Ted Turner still in charge of Turner Broadcasting and by default, CNN, Peter Arnett would still be reporting for the first all news network. Now we get guys like Rick Sanchez. He’s okay, but he’s “safe.” He doesn’t get controversial — except when he let himself get tasered on TV, everyone still laughs — and he tries to be “fair” with both sides of the issues, even if one side is completely bonkers.
The difference between the CNN of old and the post-Turner CNN: the network that had once been, legitimately, the leader in broadcast news, ranks #3 among the three cable news networks — and FOXNews is hardly a news network.Why? Because management tries to avoid controversy or being labeled on one side of the political divide or the other. CNN will always have a platoon of reporters at major stories like Hurricane Katrina, when their coverage was second to none, but when it comes to reporting on elections and campaigns, including those for issues like health care. Maybe I missed it, but when opponents of health care said crazy shit like “death panels” and called the president and the health care bill “Socialism,” the anchors and reporters didn’t call those people out. In fact, they often legitimized the nonsense.
It’s no secret MSNBC is the current whipping post of the Right, as Dick Armey made clear. After Kentucky Tea Party Candidate for Senate Rand Paul voiced his opposition to that part of the Civil Rights act that forbids having separate facilities for non-White customers on Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC program, Armey said conservative candidates should not go on that network, lest that have to explain themselves and answer tough questions.
I still like to watch Anderson Cooper: 360 and in the past would hope to get lucky and see a report from Christiane Amanpour. That won’t be happening anymore though; she will be the new anchor for This Week on ABC. Good for her. Amanpour deserves this kind of success.
Of course, like her former colleague Peter Arnett, Amanpour has had some controversy, like when she reported on the war in Bosnia. The criticism was that she wasn’t an objective observer, as most journalists aspire to be, and quite frankly, she wasn’t “objective.”Amanpour, born a Catholic in Iran if I’m not mistaken, had clearly biased opinions in favor of the Bosnian Muslims. Her reply to that criticism: “There are some situations one simply cannot be neutral about, because when you are neutral you are an accomplice. Objectivity doesn’t mean treating all sides equally. It means giving each side a hearing.”
CNN still has some excellent reporters, like Susan Candiotti and Candy Crowley, and of course Anderson Cooper, but their anchor news program is called The Situation Room. Wolf Blitzer anchors that one and they have all the great gadgets for airing the news, but usually, Blitzer is trying too hard to be the neutral broker. And they over use that congeniality! CNN just looks and sounds bland.
But Larry King, he was the real anchor of the network, the highest rated program on CNN. Hard to imagine anyone stepping in and carrying the network as Larry King has for the past 25 years. To be honest, I didn’t watch him every night, maybe once or twice a week at best and even more rarely did I watch the entire hour. But he interviewed some of the most prominent people in entertainment as well as important figures in the news.
It was a nice show, Monday Night. King reminisced about his favorite moments, like interviewing Marlon Brando and it really was a trip down memory lane. Everybody likes Larry King, which is why he was able to get guests like Brando. He could ask tough questions or lob softballs, and it wasn’t based on political affiliation.In one show, back in 1993, King acted as the referee when Ross Perot debated then Vice President Al Gore on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). That show is considered the turning point in the debate on NAFTA. Until then, most Americans were leaning against the agreement, but once they saw Gore skewer Perot on Larry King’s program, public opinion changed and NAFTA became law.
Larry King will leave a vacuum in cable news that won’t be filled, regardless of who steps in to King’s time slots.
Thursday was Roxanne Dawn’s birthday! I won’t reveal her age, but she’s one of my favorite people on the planet! Very sweet, respectful and humble, Roxanne is the epitome of what it means to be human. Happy Birthday Roxanne!
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