Tag: on air

Anderson Cooper takes down Florida’s Attorney General a second time

Post author By marc
Post date June 17, 2016

After an emotional statement on Monday’s Anderson Copper 360 about the tragedy in Orlando, on Tuesday Cooper grilled Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi over her anti-gay record. Mainly, he questioned her championing herself as a voice for the LGBTQ community by establishing a hotline for spouses when Bondi had actively worked to limit gay rights. Bondi’s administration had used anti-gay rhetoric to fight same sex marriage in court, and Anderson brought it up to her. Bondi grew flustered and the interview, which you can watch here, ended professionally but tersely.

After the segment aired, Bondi called in to WOR 710 radio and blamed Cooper for misleading her about the interview’s objective and editing her in a bad light. One problem, Cooper had his receipts and showed them on air that night.

Fighting words. Anderson Cooper responded on Wednesday, June 15, to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi’s claims that their interview in the wake of the Orlando nightclub shooting, which aired live on CNN the previous day, was edited to portray her in a bad light.

“She’s either mistaken or she’s not telling the truth,” the CNN host said on his show, Anderson Cooper 360. “Let’s be real here. Ms. Bondi’s big complaint seems to be that I asked in the wake of a massacre of gay and lesbian citizens about her new statements about the gay community and about her old ones.”

Bondi claimed during a radio interview with WOR 710 in New York on Wednesday that she was led to believe that the interview with Cooper would focus on donation scams affecting the victims and their families.

Instead, “when he posted the clip [online], he cut out the entire first portion that discussed people donating to legitimate funds,” she said, and insisted that all the interview did was “encourage anger and hate.” (CNN.com later posted the interview online in its entirety.)

“There’s a time and place for everything, but yesterday wasn’t the time nor the place in front of a hospital when we could have been helping victims,” Bondi added.

“For the record, my interview was not filled with any anger,” Cooper responded on air on Wednesday. “My job is to hold people accountable, and if on Sunday a politician is talking about love and about embracing ‘our LGBT community,’ I don’t think it’s unfair to look at their record and see if they have ever actually spoken that way publicly before, which I’ve never heard her say.”

“The fact is Attorney General Bondi signed off on a 2014 federal court brief that claimed married gay people would ‘impose significant public harm.’ Harm. She spent hundreds of thousands in taxpayer money, gay and straight taxpayers’ money, trying to keep gays and lesbians from getting the right to marry,” he continued.

“Good people can and do disagree on that issue — everyone has the right to their own opinion, thank goodness — but Miss Bondi is championing right now her efforts to help survivors. With the very right which allows gay spouses to bury their dead loved ones — that’s a right that would not exist if Miss Bondi had her way. I think it’s fair to ask her about that. There is an irony in that.”

[From Us Magazine]

I am so tired of the “time and place” argument to waylay discussions about gun and LGBTQ rights. I think when you can point to the result of these antiquated views and say, “that, right there,” it is the perfect time to hold a dialogue. Bondi did much more damage with her radio response than she did in the initial interview. Even without Cooper countering her every claim, she acted against her own argument that it wasn’t the time or place. She asserted Cooper stirred up anger and hate but she missed the point, Cooper’s questions were borne of the anger from the LGBTQ community. She could have admitted that her stance has changed and discussed what her office would do going forward but instead decided to call in for a proper pout to a radio station.

Cooper said he does not like to make himself the story but he felt strongly about addressing her claims. I’m very glad he did. Just like Connecticut’s Rep Chris Murphy’s filibuster to get gun legislation on the floor, we need to keep up the pressure to have a real discourse that brings about a solution to mass shootings.

Here’s is Copper’s full response to Bondi’s claims:

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NBC News suspends Brian Williams for six months without pay: fair?

Post author By videos
Post date February 11, 2015

Yesterday evening, NBC News announced that Brian Williams would not be returning from his “several days” off in self-imposed hiatus. At least for a while. NBC News’ president Deborah Turness has put Williams on a six-month suspension without pay following the past week and a half of rolling revelations about his very public lies and “misremembering.” Many believe that NBC News is just going to use these six months to get all of their ducks in a row and look for a new permanent anchor, and that at the end of the six months, Williams will be out completely. In the meantime, Lester Holt will be filling in as the temporary anchor. Which is awesome. Lester Holt is the best. Turness released this open letter about Williams’ suspension, and here’s something interesting: NBC’s internal investigation isn’t even completed!!

We have decided today to suspend Brian Williams as Managing Editor and Anchor of NBC Nightly News for six months. The suspension will be without pay and is effective immediately. We let Brian know of our decision earlier today. Lester Holt will continue to substitute Anchor the NBC Nightly News.

Our review, which is being led by Richard Esposito working closely with NBCUniversal General Counsel Kim Harris, is ongoing, but I think it is important to take you through our thought process in coming to this decision.

While on Nightly News on Friday, January 30, 2015, Brian misrepresented events which occurred while he was covering the Iraq War in 2003. It then became clear that on other occasions Brian had done the same while telling that story in other venues. This was wrong and completely inappropriate for someone in Brian’s position. In addition, we have concerns about comments that occurred outside NBC News while Brian was talking about his experiences in the field.

As Managing Editor and Anchor of Nightly News, Brian has a responsibility to be truthful and to uphold the high standards of the news division at all times.

Steve Burke, Pat Fili and I came to this decision together. We felt it would have been wrong to disregard the good work Brian has done and the special relationship he has forged with our viewers over 22 years. Millions of Americans have turned to him every day, and he has been an important and well-respected part of our organization. As I’m sure you understand, this was a very hard decision. Certainly there will be those who disagree. But we believe this suspension is the appropriate and proportionate action.

This has been a difficult time. But NBC News is bigger than this moment. You work so hard and dedicate yourselves each and every day to the important work of bringing trusted, credible news to our audience. Because of you, your loyalty, your dedication, NBC News is an organization we can – and should – all be proud of. We will get through this together.

[From NBC News]

Do you think this is the right decision? I think it would have seemed stronger if this had happened last week, you know? When the first wave of controversy hit last week, Williams should have been suspended for a few weeks to allow for an internal investigation, then once the investigation was complete, they should have just fired him. But, on the other hand, I guess NBC looks loyal to their on-air talent (except for, you know, Ann Curry) and like they were giving Williams the benefit of the doubt. But it’s pretty hardcore for Williams to be suspended without pay only a few days into the internal investigation. Williams has probably been lying about a lot more, don’t you think?

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Tom Brokaw thinks ‘liar’ Brian Williams should be ‘suspended or fired’

Post author By videos
Post date February 8, 2015

This Brian Williams mess is just growing is size. It’s really bad, you guys. On Wednesday, Brian Williams apologized on air on the NBC Nightly News. He apologized for “misremembering” a story he had told literally dozens of times in the past 12 years: he had always claimed that in 2003, when he was covering the Iraq War in Iraq that his Chinook had come under RPG fire. He always told the story as a way to explain his friendships with some military men. Except that when some military personnel who were in Iraq at the time started to contradict his story, he claims he simply “misremembered” the event. Stars & Stripes has a lengthy take-down of Williams’ story here.

The fallout from Williams’ admission has been swift and terrible. Social media has been having a field day, with #BrianWilliamsMisremembers trending on Twitter, and every conservative blowhard has luxuriated in the schadenfreude of “liberal” NBC getting a pounding. But it’s more serious than that. People are going through all of Brian’s public statements and it looks like he might have always had a difficult relationship with the truth.

More heroic tales of Brian Williams‘ adventures in journalism are being questioned. The NBC news anchor… is being called out for possibly lying about his experience covering Hurricane Katrina, according to a report. Williams claimed to have gotten dysentery from drinking flood water and seeing dead bodies float past his hotel in the New Orleans French Quarter while covering Hurricane Katrina.

However the The New Orleans Advocate noted that the French Quarter was not flooded and quoted a local health expert who did not recall anyone getting such a stomach ailment. Williams recalled his bout with the bug in interview with Tom Brokaw last year, when he said: “I accidentally ingested some of the floodwater. I became very sick with dysentery.”

The Advocate said a public health official never heard of people getting things like dysentery after the storm.

“I don’t recall a single, solitary case of gastroenteritis during Katrina or in the whole month afterward,” Dr. Brobson Lutz told The Advocate. “I don’t know anybody that’s tried that [drinking flood water] to see, but my dogs drank it, and they didn’t have any problems.”

Williams said also during an interview in 2006 that he saw dead bodies float past his window in the French Quarter.

“When you look out of your hotel window in the French Quarter and watch a man float by face down, when you see bodies that you last saw in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, and swore to yourself that you would never see in your country,” Williams said in 2006. But the French Quarter, the original high ground of New Orleans, was not impacted by the floodwaters that overwhelmed the vast majority of the city, The Advocate said.

He also said in his Brokaw interview: “Our hotel was overrun with gangs, I was rescued in the stairwell of a five-star hotel in New Orleans by a young police officer. We are friends to this day.”

[From Page Six]

Yeah, it’s bad. I think Williams might have been able to survive a scandal if it was just ONE misremembered story (he would have come out it battered and bruised, but he would have come out it), but this has given critics an excuse to go over EVERY story and if there’s a pattern of misremembered stories, then he’s out of a job. Fantasists and liars don’t get to be network news anchors. Sorry not sorry.

Meanwhile, Page Six (an outlet with an extreme hate-on for all things NBC) has a massive insider-y story about how NBC has bungled this whole thing and Tom Brokaw is telling everyone that Williams must go. A source claims “Brokaw wants Williams’ head on a platter…He is making a lot of noise at NBC that a lesser journalist or producer would have been immediately fired or suspended for a false report.” That’s actually true. Sources also say Brokaw knew Williams’ story was a lie a long time ago and he was “extremely uncomfortable with it.” Another source claims that Williams isn’t even well-liked among NBC News staffers. The source claims Williams is “a real pompous piece of sh-t” and “an a—hole… He’s not a journalist. He’s a reader.”

Thus far, Williams is not being suspended or reprimanded in any way and NBC staffers are in a “panic” according to Page Six. You know what? If people keep Truth Squading Williams’ public statements, I’m sure they’ll find something else. And then he’ll be out.

Update: NBC News says that Williams is now under investigation. It sounds like it’s an internal, in-house NBC News investigation. Also, the people who were originally involved in the 2003 Chinook incident in Iraq have some weirdly contradicting memories – Politico tries to sum up the situation here.

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Is Barbara Walters helping Elisabeth Hasselbeck save face after firing her?

Post author By celebrityabout
Post date March 12, 2013

On Sunday, I covered the Us Weekly story that Elisabeth Hasselbeck had been kicked off of The View for being “too extreme and right-wing” for test audiences. The actual wording of the Us Weekly story was that Elisabeth hadn’t been flat-out FIRED, though – sources claimed Elisabeth had been informed that producers would not be offering her another contract. Which gives her some room to claim that she was leaving of her accord as a goodwill face-saving gesture. I think Elisabeth is putting up some kind of fight, though! On yesterday’s View, Barbara Walters told the audience that “We have no plans for Elisabeth to leave the show.” Us Weekly is playing it like they’re still right, but Elisabeth hasn’t gotten the ax… YET.

Barbara Walters and Elisabeth Hasselbeck are keeping up appearances — for now. After Us Weekly and other outlets reported last week that Hasselbeck’s contract on ABC’s The View had not been renewed, Walters took to the air to address the issue. Walking onto the set arm-in-arm with her controversial co-host, the veteran journalist opened the March 11 episode by reassuring viewers that Hasselbeck was a respected member of the show.

“The truth is, we love Elisabeth…Beyond that, we value and appreciate her point of view,” Walters said Monday. “It’s important to us because Elisabeth helps give this show perspective and balance…We have no plans for Elisabeth to leave the show.”

That said, she added, “[Executive producer] Bill [Geddie] and I have always said that when one of you makes the choice to leave, that is your choice, and we will support your decision.”

A source tells Us that the denial is part of a strategy to “save face” for both Hasselbeck and the series. Producers are “just leaving the door open for Elisabeth to announce she is leaving on her own when she is ready,” the insider explains. “They don’t want to make her look bad and don’t want to make the show look bad for canning her…They just want to make it seem like Elisabeth decided to leave on her own when the announcement comes.”

Original panelist Star Jones departed the show amid similar drama in 2006; before Jones’ surprise, on-air exit, Walters had denied rampant rumors that Jones was on her way out. Jones returned to the show to bury the hatchet in February 2012, saying of her renegade departure: “I made the decision to go out on my own terms, to control it, so that if I was ever invited back, I would feel good about it.” Walters then admitted to viewers that Jones’ contract was simply not renewed and that the denials about her leaving were to “protect” Jones.

Us Weekly first broke the news of Hasselbeck’s departure on Friday, March 8. “The viewers they polled all said she was too extreme and right wing,” a source told Us of the conservative 35-year-old mother of three, who officially joined the cast in November 2003, after a guest-hosting stint following Lisa Ling’s 2002 departure. “People did not watch the show because of Elisabeth. So they told her [Thursday, March 7,] her contract would not be renewed.”

Hasselbeck isn’t the only host who won’t be returning to the couch. Joy Behar, the only remaining original cohort besides series co-creator Walters, announced last week that she would leave to pursue other interests after this season.

“You can’t stay forever on a show,” the 70-year-old host of Current TV’s Joy Behar: Say Anything! told Good Morning America of her decision to leave The View when her contract ends in August. “I am graciously exiting stage left. I’ve put in 16 and a half years and felt the time was right. I want to explore other opportunities.”

[From Us Weekly]

Yeah, I believe Us Weekly’s version of events. I think producers don’t want Elisabeth to come back and they’ve already informed her that she will not be offered a new contract, and she’s either fighting with them or Barbara is letting Elisabeth look like she’s leaving because she (Elisabeth) wants to leave.

Bizarrely, there are also rumors that Barbara is going to step down from cohosting the chat show too, which is weird because The View is Barbara’s baby, and I think it’s probably one of the most profitable talk shows out there right now. Not, like, Ellen DeGeneres profitable, but still pretty lucrative. And Barbara is the executive producer too! So, if Barbara steps down from co-hosting (Big IF), my guess is that she’ll still retain her producer credit and have a hand in deciding who should be hired and fired.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

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