TV News Review

 The slogan at Fox News is ‘We Report. You Decide”, but on Thursday morning’s ‘Fox & Friends” show host Gretchen Carlson refused to report the news.

When the breaking news story of the day was being reported, the Wednesday mall shooting in Omaha, Nebraska, Carlson refused to say the name of the shooter, Robert Hawkins. She further complained when his picture was shown on the screen. She continued to take this position of superiority throughout the full two hours.

This was irresponsible journalism, disrespectful to her fellow anchors on the show, and condescending to the viewing audience.

By refusing to report Robert Hawkins name as the shooter Carlson was picking and choosing which facts she would report in the lead story of the morning. The name of the shooter is not a salacious detail included for the titillation of the audience. His name is a central fact in the story. Carlson should not be censoring central facts in the major story and withholding information from the viewers.

No doubt Carlson felt she could refuse to say Hawkins name because her fellow anchors would report his name, as they rightful did. Carlson’s actions put her fellow anchors in the position of either doing their job and reporting ALL of the facts and allowing her to look superior in her taking a stand, or they join her in the refusal to say his name and they loose their journalistic integrity of telling the facts to the audience. Either way they were placed in a bad situation by Carlson.

Carlson also broke one of the rules of good journalism by making herself part of the story. She took away from the reporting and injected herself by continually saying that she was refusing to say his name.

Where does Carlson suddenly get this moral superiority to not report news that she doesn’t like? Has she refused to mention the name of other killers? Did she refuses to report the name of Cho Seung-Hui, the Va Tech shooter? Has she refused to say the name of murderous dictators? Has she refused to say Saddam Hussein’s name? Adolf Hitler’s? Joseph Stalin’s? Osama bin Laden’s? Maybe it has to be a current story in the news. So does she refuse to say the name of Drew Peterson, the suspect in the disappearance of his fourth wife and a person of interest in the mysterious death of his third wife?
Where does she draw the line in which bad guys she will report on and which she won’t?

Did Carlson inform Fox News and the producers at ‘Fox & friends’ that she was going to pick and choose which parts of which stories she would report?

Most of the time the news is filled with bad stories. Stories of robbery, rape, murder, and other violent crimes. The facts aren’t always easy to hear or to tell, but that is the job she chose to do. If Carlson refuses to report central facts in major stories, for no other reason than it violates her sense of right and wrong, than she should find another job.

Carlson’s actions were unprofessional. Carlson owes Fox News, who hired her to report the news, an apology. She owes her fellow anchors an apology for putting them in a difficult position. Most of all she owes the viewers an apology for setting herself up as the decision maker for what the audience did and didn’t have a right to know.

One Eyed Man

This blog has made no secret in other entries that I think Fox News anchor, Patti Ann Browne is a gold standard for news anchors and the best kept secret at Fox. But lately Fox has been keeping PAB so secret you would think that she is truly made of gold and they are keeping her in an underground bunker for safe keeping.

If not for a rare appearance on ‘Fox & friends’, the Friday morning after Thanksgiving, this blogger wouldn’t have seen her on the air in well over a month, telling the news. It was a very pleasant surprise to see Patti Ann doing the headline updates that morning, a job normally done by Alisyn Camerota (Camerota was off for the holiday weekend, along with Steve Doocy, Gretchen Carlson and Brian Kilmeade.) Patti Ann was her usual professional, charming, cheerful self. She looked beautiful in a cheery red top.

She attempted to engage in some banter with the weekend team of hosts, Greg Kelly, Page Hopkins and Kelly Wright, but they seemed unwilling to partake.

Patti Ann did share a cute ancedote of how she hosted over 20 people for Thanksgiving, in her New York apartment. She jokingly said the apartment was so tightly packed that she and her husband had to balance the turkey on the toilet to carve it.

It is unfathomable why Patti Ann has recently been used so little by Fox News. In the last several weeks I have seen many times that regular anchors have been off but rather than Patti Ann filling in we have been subjected to sub-par weekend anchors, and regular weekday anchors pulling second shifts. Fox News has become a sea of interchangeable, look-a-like blonds, often confusing even regular viewers as to who is who.

This blogger has nothing against blonds, but I can only surmise that a woman’s hair color has become the dominate reason for her to be scheduled as an anchor. Patti Ann’s auburn locks, or more precisely her lack of blond locks, can be the only reason that she seems to have been put on the back burner as an anchor. Patti Ann is an incredibly talented, intelligent and articulate lady capable of dealing with serious, unscripted breaking news as well as she is capable of handling a light, fun segment with a preforming parakeet. All of this in addition to her beautiful face, a wonderful smile, amazing legs and a figure that could make the Pope rethink his vow of chastity and fill Elton John with hetrosexual lust.

Patti Ann used to regularly fill in for Fox’s super-anchor, Shepard Smith on ‘The Fox Report’, along with filling in through out the day for other anchors. Patti Ann’s ability and beauty are as impressive as they have ever been, so the only conclusion that this blogger can reach is that Fox management has mistakenly decided what is on an anchor’s head is more important than what is in their head.
Would an auburn haired beauty with an abundance of talent (and a strong fan following) be so upsetting of an addition to the Fox News lineup once in a while?

Patti Ann has become a regular guest on the cult hit Red Eye, seen late night on Fox News. In this relaxed and irreverent atmosphere, Patti Ann regularly demonstrates her insight into the news of the day, as well as a wicked sense of humor that has even gotten her bleeped on occasion. Having seen her on this show it leaves me puzzled why she is not used as a fill in for Alisyn Camerota as a host on ‘Fox & friends 1st”, or a fill in host for Page Hopkins on the weekend version of ‘F&F’ or as a panelist on ‘The Live Desk’. There is no doubt that Patti Ann could be the ‘Wild Card’ for the day’s panel.

The Louve doesn’t hang the Mona Lisa in a closet. The New England Patriots don’t bench Tom Brady. The Yankees don’t pull A Rod from the line up. So why does Fox News hide Patti Ann Browne?? When you have the best you put them front and center. It is way beyond time that Fox News rediscovered Patti Ann Browne!!

One Eyed Man

*Caps of Patti Ann Browne borrowed from ‘The Patti Ann Browne caps collection”  linked at her fansite.

The best 10 minutes of TV is never seen on TV. Every weekday morning at 9am ET the ‘Fox and friends’ gang hand off to Bill Hemmer and Megyn Kelly. Then the ‘F&F’ gang begin their internet broadcast called the “After Show Show”, (jokingly referred to be some fans as the ASS) and the real fun begins!

Alisyn, Steve, Gretchen, Brian, the crew and sometimes a guest kickback and just talk. It reminds me of years gone by when ‘Fox and friends’ was the anti-morning show, more about being fun and entertaining than it was about seeing how many news maker interviews they could squeeze in. Back then you never knew what Steve, E.D. and Brian might do, neither did they! It was a roller coaster ride going where ever the moment took them.

That energy and fun of unexpectedness has been missing from ‘Fox and friends’ for quiet a while now, only glimpsed from time to time on the 6am ‘Fox & friends 1st”, but even it is too tightly scripted and planned out. But the ‘After Show Show’ brings back the spontaneity and wildness that first made ‘Fox and friends’ MUST WATCH TV, and damn is it good to have back!!

You never know what might be said on the ‘After Show Show’.  Gretchen and Steve seem to still censor themselves somewhat, uncomfortable with the newer freedom they have by being an internet broadcast. Luckily they have Alisyn, the true spark plug of this experiment. (She is also the magic that gives a reason to watch ‘Fox and friends’ instead of Robin Meade on CNN-HN, or CNN’s “American Morning” with John Roberts and Kiran Chetry, who do news better than ‘F&F’.) Alisyn understands they have more freedom to say what they want and how to bring the fun. Without the energy and vivaciousness that Alisyn brings, the ‘After Show Show’ might well leave you wondering why they had wasted your time, but as it is, with Alisyn on the only wondering you will do is wondering how you can get them to expand the ‘After Show Show’ to 30 minutes, or longer.

For those that can’t view the streaming broadcast live, later in the day the show is provided for viewing on Alisyn’s blog, ‘Alisyn in the Greenroom“  http://greenroom.blogs.foxnews.com/  Alisyn’s blog gives a look behind the scenes of ‘Fox and friends’.

The Greenroom blog is becoming a Fox fan favorite, showing rapid growth, recently having nearly 15,000 hits in one day. Alisyn tells what is happening behind the scenes, providing pictures of guests, and takes suggestions from the viewers that log into to read and respond to the blog. It is worth checking out several times a day as Alisyn often updates it with new photos and information about guests and segments that will be on in upcoming days. Alisyn’s blog and the ‘After Show Show’ go hand in glove. Together these two provide an interaction with the fans that makes the show much more entertaining.

‘Fox and friends’ used to be much more fan friendly, taking calls from viewers, reading emails throughout the show and often going outside to talk to fans that stopped by. But in recent years that interaction has been cut off. The show has been isolated even to having the windows frosted over so the fans outside can’t be seen. The show that was built on being the anti-morning show, the show that was more fun and didn’t take itself seriously like the network shows, has in many ways become less friendly to the fans and is more serious than GMA or Today are. Even at Halloween ‘F&F’ didn’t have a pumpkin on the set much less let the hosts wear costumes. This from a show that once had the hosts dressed up as characters from ‘Star Wars’.
Oh for the good ol’ days of fun and real belly laughs.

Alisyn’s blog and the ‘After Show Show’ are exactly what F&F needs to bring the wild fun and viewer participation back to the show. Once again it feels that the show cares about the viewers and is interested again in hearing from us. Hopefully the fun from the ‘After Show Show’ will become spread throughout the entire show and bring back the energy that made so many of us tune in every morning to see what would happen. Until then you must log onto www.foxandfriends.com and watch the streaming broadcast or watch it on Alisyn’s blog at http://greenroom.blogs.foxnews.com/

There is no other ASS better than the F&F ASS! No ifs, and or butts about it.

One Eyed Man

Happy Thanksgiving  everyone!!

I know some of you must think I have  given up on blogging about the good and bad of cable news. Well, I admit I have been a bit of a turkey (Thanksgiving humor!) and slacked off on postings the last couple of months. But they didn’t catch me. I still have my head. And I won’t be on anyone’s table tomorrow.

I am going to be trying to get back to the blogging and giving praise where deserved and pointing out when things go wrong.

Since it is Thanksgiving I want to just mention a couple of the things for which I am thankful.

My family. They are wonderful and give me love and support. Without them  I wouldn’t be anywhere.

My friends.  I have some great friends. They are warm, friendly and lots of fun.

To the couple of friends that know I do this blog I want to give a extra special thanks and shout out to them. They are really great people. They have encouraged me and given me words of support when I wondered if anyone was reading this blog.  Not only are they some of the smartest and funniest people I have ever known but they have an inner beauty that way surpasses their physical beauty. (And if you saw them you would know how impressive that is. On a scale of 1-10 they are freaking 25s.  I mean stone cold foxes! They could easily be on TV and have guys lusting after them everyday.) 
God has really blessed me by bringing them into my life. Now if He had just done it a little sooner before they got married. (Boy, I would catch hell if my girlfriend knew I wrote that. Of course I would have to have a girlfriend before that would happen. LOL)

My country. While the good ol’ USA may have her problems she is still the greatest country ever to be conceived of on this planet.

and lastly but most of all…

Jesus Christ, my Savior. I know it isn’t PC to mention one’s religious beliefs but hey isn’t the whole idea of Thanksgiving to give thanks to GOD for the gifts he has given us???!!!  God certainly gave us the greatest gift by sending his Son to die, and rise from the dead, for our sins so we can be forgiven.
If you are of another faith then I respect that and hope you give Thanks in your way to your God(s).
If you are an atheist and this upsets you, then I don’t give a flying rat’s ass!!  If you don’t believe in God then how can it possibly upset you that others believe in what you think is a figment of the imagination?? I don’t get upset when a little kid believes in the Tooth Fairy.  Maybe you get upset because in deep in your heart you know there is a God but you are too afraid to have faith and welcome him into your life and heart. Give it a try. You might find you like having the ‘imaginary’ being in your life.

A few things I have planned to write about soon….. 

“Fox & friends” …… The Fox Business Network……. “Red Eye”……… “America’s Pulse”……. “American Morning”……. “Lou Dobbs”……. All the guys and gals that report and anchor on the cable channels…. and MSNBC if I can find a reason to watch, (maybe Chris Jansing is the reason)…. and certainly there will be others as time goes.

One Eyed Man

Inside Cable News is reporting that Liz Claman will be joining Fox Business Network. She will reportedly be starting today at 2pm and anchoring through 5pm ET.

Liz Claman is going to be an excellent addition to FBN!

Day 3 of the new Fox Business Network, and it’s morning show ‘Business Morning’, came and went. They still are having trouble telling who is Jenna and who is Nicole.

Jenna, is that you in red?

Or are you in white this morning?

We have learned three things from this continued name mix up.

1) The people at’ Business Morning ‘ still aren’t paying attention to their graphics (or really don’t know which woman is which and figure they are right at least 50% of the time).

2) The people at ‘Business Morning’ don’t read this blog.

3) The people at ‘Business Morning’ don’t read Inside Cable News blog either.

Spud, thanks for the link.

One Eyed Man

I have been watching the new Fox Business Network for the last two days to see how it is measuring up.  The Fox Business day begins at 5AM ET with their show ‘Fox Business Morning’. It is hosted by two attractive women, both new to the Fox News viewers. But they might be new to the controlroom staff too since they seem to have trouble telling which girl is which
Ok, Jenna is the one in blue and Nicole is in red.

Wait! Now Jenna is the one in red and Jenna is the one in blue??!!

OKay, okay. I know you are thinking “A small mistake on Day 1. They will have it straightened out by tomorrow.”

Day 2
.
Ah hah.  So Jenna is the one in red! Nicole in green. Got it! 

I thought you were Nicole! But now you are Jenna??!

Come on controlroom guys! Pay attention and get the correct name under the right girl.

According to the Fox Business website. This is Jenna Lee. So the other girl must be Nicole, right?

 It could have been worse. Neither girl was misidentified as Neil Cavuto.  That would have been insulting!

One Eyed Man

Recently Bill O’Reilly has had Fox News anchor, Laurie Dhue join his show as the “Ombudsgal”, a name they coined because they didn’t want to call her an ‘ombudsMAN‘. Anyone that has ever seen Laurie Dhue will agree she could not be mistaken for a man.

According to the website for the Organization of News Ombudsmen an ombudsman is “someone who handles complaints and attempts to find mutually satisfactory solutions”.

The ONO says a news ombudsman receives and investigates complaints from newspaper readers or listeners or viewers of radio and television stations about accuracy, fairness, balance and good taste in news coverage. He or she recommends appropriate remedies or responses to correct or clarify news reports.

They also say that a broadcaster should have an ombudsman to improve the quality of news reporting by monitoring accuracy, fairness and balance. The ombudsman is also there to help his or her news provider to become more accessible and accountable to readers or audience members and, thus, to become more credible.

But we should remember that Laurie Dhue is not the ombudsman for ‘The O’Reilly Factor’ but instead she is the ‘ombudsgal’. The job description for ‘ombudsgal’ on ‘The Factor’ seems to be a bit more limited to picking a few viewer emails that complain about the show, reading them on the show, and then agreeing with Bill O’Reilly every time when he explains why the viewers were wrong and he was right.

Laurie’s Thursday segments have been little more than her sitting on the set with Bill, her looking pretty (a very easy job for Laurie) and being Bill’s ‘yes woman’. This blogger has to yet see Laurie once not agree with Bill that he handled a situation correctly and that the viewer was wrong for complaining.  Laurie shows the same enthusiasm for O’Reilly as she does when discussing Geraldo, another of her bosses.

Laurie Dhue seems to found the secret to her success at Fox News to be based upon her looking glamorous and being an extreme sycophant to any man with a TV show that will put her on the air. This success is at the cost of her integrity as a journalist and credibility with the viewers.

Hopefully for Laurie she is able to continue to shovel it high and fast enough to keep O’Reilly and Geraldo happy, because TV is filled with glamorous looking ladies. I am sure some of them are studying Laurie’s playbook and are willing to sell their credability too for some more airtime.

One Eyed Man

Reports of the demise of Bill McCuddy’s career at Fox News seem to have been greatly exaggerated.

Back in June TVNewser reported that Fox News had not renewed Bill McCuddy’s contract. TVNewser followed with that McCuddy would be leaving by the end of the summer. He was to be replaced by Fox new hire Jill Dobson, who had worked at Star Magazine. This story was also picked up by InsideCableNews.

July and August came and went. McCuddy was still at Fox News.

Labor Day rolled around, the unofficial end of summer, and Bill McCuddy was still seen on Fox News reporting on celebrities. September 21st, the official end of summer, was marked off the calendar and McCuddy was still there.

On Friday, October 5th, McCuddy was on ‘The Big Story’ but he wasn’t just reporting on a story. He was there to plug his special on Britney Spears, that will air on Saturday night, and repeat on Sunday afternoon.

Maybe this is McCuddy’s never ending summer because he doesn’t look like a man going anywhere. Nor should he be. McCuddy is a good entertainment reporter with 11 years at Fox News. Maybe Fox realized it takes more than a blond hair and a short skirt to balance out experience. (After all When McCuddy came to work at Fox News 11 years ago Jill Dobson was probably still in high school.)

Bill McCuddy is Fox’s Energizer Rabbit. He just keeps going, and going, and going, and going….. Way to go Bill!

One Eyed Man

I have been slacking off on the blog entries lately but I wanted to give some good and bad props to Fox News’ morning show ‘Fox & friends’.
 

THE GOOD: A few weeks back I let loose on ‘F&F’ for constantly having on their show Geraldo Rivera, an embarrassment to anyone that ever considered being a reporter. Since that time Geraldo has not been a guest on the show. I am not claiming that his absence has had anything to do with this blog, but none the less it has been a great improvement for ‘F&F’.

The show doesn’t appear to be raking the septic system of journalism by having him on. Neither do their hosts come off as some brainwashed cult followers looking adoringly at their leader awaiting the word to drink their kool-aid and join him on their trip to the heavens.
 

THE BAD: Last week show host Gretchen Carlson took vacation time. ‘F&F’ used 4 of their Fox News women to fill in for her. On Monday, the effervescent, talented and sexy Alisyn Camerota was the host filling on for Gretchen. Alisyn is the regular host of ‘Fox & friends 1st’, the show that immediately precedes ‘F&F’. Alisyn is the usual fill in for Carlson. Alisyn regularly proves she is extremely capable of the job and often can make one wonder why she is not the regular host of the show.

Then on Tuesday and Wednesday the producers had Alexis Glick as the substitute host. Alexis is the VP and Director of Business News for Fox News. She will be an anchor on the soon to launch Fox Business Network.

While Alexis has been a capable and solid fill in anchor for Neil Cavuto on ‘Your World w/ Neil Cavuto’, she is not a good fit for a morning tv show host. Alexis was at one time on ‘The Today Show’, some saying being groomed to be Katie Couric’s replacement. That didn’t work out and last week the reason was evident on ‘F&F’. Alexis was not bad, but she was neither good either.

Additionally, Alexis is an attractive woman with a nice figure but was dressed in a dowdy manner making her look at least 10 yrs older than her true age. This was even more noticable when compared to how youthful and attractively Alisyn Camerota always is dressed.

It was hinted at that Alexis may be the host for a morning show on the upcoming Fox Business Network. If true this most likely was Fox’s attempt to introduce Alexis to their audience. Unfortunately it didn’t seem to dawn on them that they were introducing their future competition. If someone is watching Alexis on FBN than they won’t be watching F&F.

On Thursday, F&F had ‘Big Story’ host Heather Nauert as the fill in host. Heather was not bad but also unimpressive. I believe she was on to promote her return to FNC and the new cohost of ‘Big Story’ with John Gibson.

Friday, Greta van Sustren was the fill in host and the ultimate culmination of the ‘F&F’ parade of women that should not have been asked to host ‘F&F’. At one point in the show Steve Doocey, one of the regular cohosts, said to Greta that she was the worst guest host they had ever had. While Steve was meaning to be humorous it was very true. Greta seemed bored and uninterested between her subtle insults to Steve and Brian. Perhaps her attitude problem could be discounted to her lack of sleep but it does not change she was a bad decision to ask as a guest host. She most definitely should NOT be asked back.

Two things became quiet obvious last week. One, that Gretchen Carlson is a better host than often given credit for being. Two, that when Gretchen is off they need to stick with having Alisyn host. Alexis, Heather, and especially Greta showed that they are not even a close substitute for Alisyn and Gretchen.

THE FRISKY: On Monday, October 1st, Gretchen returned from her vacation. While off she took a cruise to Greece and Turkey. At the top of the 7am hour Gretchen gave Brian and Steve presents of olives and baklava dessert. She then teased that she had special presents to give out later.
At the top of the 8am hour Gretchen said she was ready to give out the special presents. 

Gretchen started off giving Alisyn a bottle of Ouzo, a strong Greek alcohol.

This was followed by Gretchen giving both Steve and Brian a bottle of what she called the Turkish equivalent of Viagra. Apparently the top of the jar had a fairly explicit drawing of the effect it was reported to have upon the man taking it.

One need not guess why Gretchen was so excited to be back when she was handing out gifts to get Alisyn drunk and leave Steve and Brian “happy to see her”. That must have been quiet the after party Monday. This blogger hopes that Alisyn posts pictures on her blog. Although one might need a credit card to view the pictures.

One Eyed Man