Tag Archives: Media News
Andrew Breitbart Dead At 43 video
Andrew Breitbart, the conservative blogger and journalist, died suddenly on Thursday morning, according to his website Big Journalism. He was 43.
The site said that Breitbart died of “natural causes” shortly after midnight on Thursday. ABC News confirmed that Breitbart had passed away. Breitbart’s attorney also confirmed the news to CNN.
Heather Mills Alleges Mirror Group Hacked Her Phone
Mills recounted that a Mirror Group journalist had called her asking about an argument between her and her then-boyfriend Sir Paul McCartney, “quoting verbatim the messages from my machine.” Mills said the journalist admitted to hacking the voice mails after she questioned where the journalist had gotten their information and threatened to go to the police if the material was published.
Mills said the journalist told her, “OK, OK, yeah we did hear it on your voice messages, I won’t run it.”
She was clear that the journalist in question was not Piers Morgan—the editor of the Mirror at the time—but the message in question may be one that Morgan had admitted to hearing. In 2006, Morgan wrote in the Daily Mail that he “was played a tape of a message Paul had left for Heather on her mobile phone.”
“It was heartbreaking,” Morgan wrote. “The couple had clearly had a tiff, Heather had fled to India, and Paul was pleading with her to come back. He sounded lonely, miserable and desperate, and even sang ‘We Can Work It Out’ into the answer phone.”
Mills told the BBC that “there was absolutely no honest way that Piers Morgan could have obtained that tape that he has so proudly bragged about unless they had gone into my voice messages.”
Leanne Suter, Los Angeles TV Reporter
KABC-TV 7 in Los Angeles, was shot in the hand by a pellet from a BB gun on Saturday evening while giving a live news report.
Suter and her photographer came under fire during the 6 p.m. newscast, although Suter was the only one hit, according to ABC News. She was treated at a nearby hospital and released without serious injury.
Al Jazeera English Breaks Into NYC Market
At midnight, Al Jazeera English launched in New York City on Time Warner Cable, a major step in the network’s goal of expanding further into the U.S. cable market and a chance to reach two million households in a world capital of culture and commerce. The network will also launch on Verizon FiOS in the coming days.
Al Anstey, managing director of Al Jazeera English, told The Huffington Post that AJE’s website receives more online traffic from New York City than from any other city around the globe –- evidence of high demand in the Big Apple. Now that the network will be reaching cable viewers, too, Anstey hopes to make further inroads into the media capital.
“New York is a very important city,” Anstey said. “It’s looking at all directions on the globe and all directions are looking back at New York City. So it’s a truly global city. It’s got a very outward looking, diverse, intelligent audience — obviously an influential audience in some quarters as well. So it’s a key part of our strategy.”
Since launching in Nov. 2006, AJE has been dogged by lingering fears about its mission, stemming from the Bush administration’s condemnation of its sister network, Al Jazeera Arabic. In addition to verbally criticizing the Arabic network — which had been airing Osama bin Laden’s video communiqués — the U.S. military fired missiles at Al Jazeera’s office in Kabul in 2001 and later dropped bombs on its Baghdad newsroom during the Iraq invasion.
CNN’s Don Lemon And Rand Paul Clash Over Debt Ceiling
As the House and Senate again failed to reach an agreement on how to raise the debt ceiling, Paul appeared on CNN to explain the Tea Party position on the talks. Lemon started off the interview by asking him to chat “without talking points.” He also began aggressively trying to get Paul to answer his questions, asking him repeatedly how he had voted on the so-called “Cut, Cap and Balance” bill from the House.
Lemon then wondered whether Paul’s insistence on measures like a balanced budget amendment were isolating him.
“The Democrats have made many concessions when it comes to what’s going on here, and even the Tea Party position it appears to most people remains rigid,” Lemon said. “The question is, have you made your point? And by continuing to go on with this, do you feel like you’re overreaching and that you’re going to lose the clout?”
Paul started talking about how he didn’t want to add any more debt to the country’s finances. Lemon cut him off. “Hang on, hang on,” he said. “Can we just stick to that–we’re going to get to that–”
“Let me finish my thought,” Paul said.
“Hold on, please, be respectful here,” Lemon responded. “I’m trying to answer your question, you’ve interrupted my answer,” Paul said.
“If you answer the question, I’ll give you plenty of time,” Lemon said.
The two clashed again when Lemon asked who Paul thinks will be to blame if the U.S. defaults on its debt obligations. Again, Paul didn’t answer the question directly, and, again, Lemon pressed him on it. There was yet another contentious back-and-forth when Lemon asked Paul about whether he understood that the public is frustrated with Washington, and Paul started talking about measures he had introduced in the Senate.
“I don’t want talking points, with all due respect, I’m asking you, do you feel the public sentiment in Washington?” Lemon asked. “This isn’t a talking point, I’m trying to tell you what we did 30 minutes ago in the Senate,” Paul shot back.
Fox News’ Pat Caddell Hits Hugh Hewitt Video
Fox News analyst Pat Caddell actually pushed conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt in the arm.
The two were engaged in a lengthy shouting match about the debt ceiling drama in Washington. Caddell was trying to say that both Democrats and Republicans were “screwed up,” and Hewitt was, at the same time, trying to say that only Democrats were the problem. Caddell grew more and more frustrated as Hewitt kept talking over him.
White House Emails Show Staffer Calling ‘ Bret Baier A ‘Lunatic’ Video
White House staffers complaining about Fox News and calling one of its anchors a “lunatic.”
Judicial Watch released 81 pages of email correspondence from October 2009 that it obtained through a FOIA request. The emails mostly show the back-and-forth between various White House aides, Treasury Department staffers and members of the media over a series of interviews with Kenneth Feinberg, who had been tapped to provide oversight of the TARP bailout program.
One email shows a White House staffer emailing a Treasury colleague, saying it would be better “if you skip Fox News” in a group of media outlets that was conducting a pooled interview with Feinberg.
Other members of the White House press pool balked at this, and Fox News’ Major Garrett ultimately interviewed Feinberg. At the time, though, the White House and the Treasury strongly denied that there had been any attempt to exclude the network. Most of the emails show staffers coming up with a response to the flurry of emails and published reports about the controversy from various journalists (including HuffPost’s own Michael Calderone, then working for Politico).
Another email lashes out at “Special Report” anchor Bret Baier: “Bret Baier just did a stupid piece about the [rumored exclusion] — but he is a lunatic.”
Keith Olbermann Issues Blistering Warning To Obama – Video
Keith Olbermann tore into President Obama for contemplating a compromise with the Republicans over the debt ceiling that includes cuts in Social Security and major changes to Medicare.
Obama has repeatedly offered to raise the age of Medicare eligibility, and has put Social Security cuts firmly on the table in his attempts to craft a deal with the GOP to raise the debt ceiling.
In a Special Comment on his Monday show, Olbermann spoke out strongly against any tinkering with Medicare and Social Security. He delivered what he called a “sermon” about what he called America’s “greatest accomplishment”: the social safety net that includes the two programs.
Elizabeth Smart To Work As ABC Commentator
ABC spokeswoman Julie Townsend tells The Associated Press that the Utah woman who was kidnapped, raped and held captive at age 14 by a Salt Lake City street preacher can provide viewers with a unique perspective on such cases.
Townsend says the deal with the now 23-year-old Smart has been in the works for some time.
She says Smart could be on the air within the next few weeks.
Smart spokesman Chris Thomas says the Brigham Young University music student wants to use the media position to create awareness about cases involving missing children.
Casey Anthony NOT GUILTY OF MURDER Full Video
Anthony has been found not guilty of killing her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee. She was also found not guilty of aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter of a child. But she was convicted on charges of misleading law enforcement.
The case against Anthony was mostly circumstantial, but as it unfolded she was portrayed in the trial as a promiscuous, self-centered woman who became a cold-blooded killer. The motive, prosecutors alleged, was to allow her to live a carefree life without her daughter.
The state’s case theory was that a desperate Anthony used chloroform to subdue her daughter and then suffocated her with duct tape. Anthony then fabricated fantastic lies to cover up her deeds, they said.
Anthony’s attorney Jose Baez told the jury his client was the victim of an abusive upbringing.
According to Baez, Casey Anthony and her father, George Anthony, were home alone on June 16, 2008, when they noticed Caylee was missing. They began a frantic search, looking under beds and in the garage. Then George Anthony took the search outside to the above-ground pool where they found a lifeless Caylee floating in the water, Baez said.
