Briefs
Thursday, July 29, 2004
When ***** Comes to Shove
Al Jazeera TV struggled to figure out how to explain to its viewers and Web
readers this week what Teresa Heinz Kerry said that got her into so much trouble.
She told a newspaper editor to stick it in your backside, the Arab-language
network finally concluded in its effort to translate the American colloquialism
into Arabic. However its translated, Heinz Kerrys now-infamous remark
Sunday to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review editorial page editor to shove it
is getting far more news-media mentions according to a search of Google News than
Vice President Richard Cheneys exhortation on June 22 to Sen. Patrick Leahy
to F--- yourself. During the five-day news cycle of the Cheney obscenity
uproar, the remark got roughly 430 mentions in the 4,500 news sources worldwide
that Google searches. A search of Heinz Kerrys intemperate retort yielded
some 1,700 hits -- roughly four times as many as the Cheney expletive.
On the Web
For three more days (until August 1) and again from August 26 through September
7, nationaljournal.com, Web site
of the weekly print publication, National Journal, offers full, free site-wide
access. The site contains a wealth of nonpartisan information on U.S. politics,
policy and government. It is typically available only to users with institutional
access (for example, the U.S. House of Representatives) and people who pay a hefty
$1,699 annual print/Web subscription charge. According to a Journal spokesman,
more than 10,000 people -- or 20% of National Journals usual readership
-- have logged on so far for free access.
Genevieve Hendrey
Reality TV Delegate-Style
Cashing in on the reality TV craze, CNN outfitted four delegates with digital
cameras for an insiders view of the convention. The delegate-cams arent
the $25,000 rigs the networks camera crew carry, but are more like the $500
department store variety parents use to record a childs first steps. The
four delegates who agreed to carry the cameras were trained by Amanda Townsend,
a CNN producer. She takes the tapes, interviews the delegates and marries the
sound and picture in an editing bay in the CNN trailer compound at the Fleet Center.
Does this mean the network is ceding its editorial decision-making to Democratic
operatives? No, says David Bohrman, the uberproducer in charge of
CNN convention coverage. With one of his producers controlling the final product
that viewers see, he says, it feels like the right mix.
Clarification
Media Nation reported on July 28 that MSNBC edged Fox News in ratings Sunday
night, based on information from an MSNBC executive. An MSNBC spokeswoman said
Wednesday afternoon that while her network won in some local markets on Sunday,
Fox won the night nationally. CNN won the night nationally on Monday. MSNBC beat
Fox at 10 p.m. Tuesday in both total viewers and the 25-to-54 demographic.
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