Posts Tagged ‘FOX NEWS’

TONY POTTS: What If The Press Had Left Newtown After Day One Of The Horrific Shooting? Would Anything Be Different?

Posted: December 17, 2012 by Tony Potts in Uncategorized
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This past Friday at lunch here in Santa Monica, California, my wife and I watched with about 20-other customers, nearly every one of them students from the high school next door, the unfolding coverage of the horrific shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. All eyes were on the screen as everyone took bites of their pizza, pasta and salad.

Flash-forward 24-hours later and we’re having lunch Saturday afternoon in another establishment about an hour north of Los Angeles. Out of all the many screens in the restaurant, just one is tuned into the continuing coverage of the massacre. All the screens are usually filled with sports.

 As I looked at the screen watching wall-to-wall coverage, I was  hit with a interesting thought: What if all the news trucks, satellite trucks, producers and reporters went away — just packed up and went home? 

WOULD ANYTHING BE DIFFERENT?

I stopped eating and let that thought sink in.

Is the media adding any real value after Day One of a tragedy?

Now, you have to understand, I’ve been a journalist for nearly 30-years in news, sports, and entertainment. From the tragedy of the TWA-800 crash over Long Island, to Super Bowls, Olympics, every award show you can imagine to sudden deaths of celebrities, a horrific family tragedy where a father tried to hack his family to death with a machete, I’ve seen just about everything.  I’ve been the one ON THE SCENE. Sometimes for days, sometimes for weeks.

But in all those years and all those stories, I never thought about what would happen if we just showed up the day of the breaking news, informed the public and then left the next day?

Granted, in stories like Katrina and Sandy, those are different cases. The actual event continues for days.

But what about in Newtown? The tragedy has happened. It’s not an on-going, fluid situation anymore. It’s actually a by-the-book investigation now. Are the press adding anything of value for the residents of Newtown? For the rest of us?

What if this had happened in 1912, 100-years ago? We would have read about it roughly 2-3 days, possibly a week or so after it happened depending on proximity. No instant, live images as the event unfolded. No shocking immediacy. No real vivid imprint on our consciousness. No following of tweets about it or Facebook posts. No “Googling.” The Newtown of 1912 would have come together probably the same way it is coming together today. In churches and town halls and schools.  The town of Hillsville, VA did the same after the “Courthouse Massacre” in 1912.

So, is the media adding any value after the initial day of the tragedy?

 I’d like to think so, despite how the replaying of the same footage over and over and over for days would lead one to possibly believe otherwise. Maybe some of the stories of the incredible bravery by the teachers and first-responders help the rest of the nation take a slight edge off the sharp pains of what has happened.

Maybe.

Possibly the press putting forth the gun debate is of value.  Maybe publishing the shocking facts of “gun life” in the United States may help (see below)

 

The CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION keeps what are regarded by experts as the most reliable statistics.

The first set of numbers are from the year 2009 and are gun deaths of all types:

Suicide: 18,735 deaths
Homicide: 11,493 deaths
Unintentional: 554 deaths
Legal interventions: 333 deaths
Undetermined: 232 deaths
Total: 31,347 deaths

There is a second set of data regarding guns. It tracks non-fatal injuries by guns. This number of 73,505 in 2010. 

So, when you add it up, more than 100,000 people are shot in this country every single year.  There are a little more than 300-million people in the US. That means 1 in every 3000 people in this country will be shot next year.  The average odds of winning the lottery here in California are 1 in 15,000,000.  I’d prefer the inverse.

Time Magazine reported that 15 of the 25 worst mass shootings in the past 50 years happened in the U.S. The country in second place is Finland with two. The U.S. is at least 7.5 times more likely to have a mass shooting than any other country on earth. Or, as a percentage, we have 750% more mass shootings than any other country.

The question is, why? I don’t know the answer. But what is clear is that we use to pride ourselves on leading the ‘industrialized” world in all kinds of wonderful categories –innovation, productivity and more. Now we are leading that same world in gun violence and throwing great numbers of our population in prison. There will come a tipping-point. A seminal moment when we will be forced to change. Let’s hope that moment is now. And I hope the press is there to cover it when it happens, but maybe just the day of and then they can go home on day two and hug their families.

 

 

TONY POTTS: Fox News Is Brilliant And So Is CNN, Just At Different Things. However, they also $#@!

Posted: November 10, 2012 by Tony Potts in Uncategorized
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So here’s what I mean. Looking just at what happened these past two weeks —SuperStorm Sandy and the Presidential Election — we got an excellent look at what FOX News Channel and CNN can and can’t do.

CNN is by far the best when a calamity strikes. It’s in their DNA. They are excellent across the board. They not only bring you what is happening in a far-reaching, but pin-point immediacy, but they are a step or two ahead of the competition in advancing the story and ‘seeing-around-corners’ during a crisis. A ton of that has to do with veteran producers and fantastic, experienced talent in the field. To put it simply, they’ve been there, done that in an excellent way for years.

On the flip side, FNC is like local news when a huge event happens. Actually, there are some local news operations out there which are better. It’s just not what FOX News does or does best. I do have to give props to Shepard Smith. He can handle just about anything live –including a hurricane/nor’easter — and advance the story as it unfolds to where it is headed. But he’s really the only one who is solid in that type of calamity. And don’t even mentioned FNC’s Election Night coverage. Debacle is being kind. I’ve been in the business for more than 20-years and covered a number of major breaking news events –the crash of TWA 800 over Long Island, for instance –before I went to the darkside of journalism, aka entertainment news. So, I sat with a keen eye watching FNC during Superstorm Sandy and knew exactly where they were failing and where their coverage should have be going. FOX has a long way to go in that area. And, quite frankly, I don’t know if they will ever match CNN. CNN is a powerhouse.

However, CNN may never match FNC in being a powerhouse every other day of the year when ‘normal’ news rules the day. Why? Because FNC is brilliant knowing exactly who they are. Look, I’m not a fan of FNC as a whole, but I am a HUGE fan of FNC ‘the branding machine.’ FNC makes no apologies. Day in and day out they make no bones about their right-leaning agenda. And they do it very, very well. There was a report back in 2006 by The Project on Excellence in Journalism. It showed that 68% of FNC stories contained personal opinions. That same report found that 27% of MSNBC’s stories contained personal opinions while CNN came in at 4%. In reading the report further, it states via a ‘content analysis’ that “Fox was measurably more one-sided than the other networks.” It also found that Fox journalists were more opinionated on the air. Of course, that’s their brand. THAT is their POINT-OF-DIFFERENCE.

After years of swimming in a pool of what-the-hell-are-we alongside CNN, MSNBC and the suits figured out their brand and, subsequently and not coincidentally, increased their ratings. CNN hasn’t figured out it’s brand. They seriously need a branding expert OUTSIDE of the CNN sandbox to come in with a fresh perspective. By the way, CNN has an amazing team of producers and talent who are incredible at huge breaking news stories. The network now needs the new hybrid producers and hybrid talent for the other 364 normal news days of the year. From the talent side, which I obviously know, CNN needs five-tool players. Those who don’t just ‘front’ a show, but can create other content for the network while branding it –all within the social zeitgeist of the day with a wink and a nod to the importance of the emerging second screen experience. It is an amazing and thrilling time to be talent, to be in this business.

It would be thrilling to see CNN come back and give MSNBC and FNC a run for their money, instead of getting smoked in the ratings on a daily basis.
Although Washington and Colorado will probably vote for CNN getting smoked.

TONY POTTS: My Take On Fear and Loathing, Karl Rove and Karma

Posted: November 9, 2012 by Tony Potts in Uncategorized
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Here is all you need to know about Karl “I’m Melting” Rove.

He floated the John McCain “rumor” that McCain fathered a daughter with an African American prostitute. He orchestrated another campaign, accusing Georgia Senator Max Cleland, a Vietnam veteran AND amputee, of being soft on terrorism.

The ads were reprehensible. Karl Rove would do just about anything to get his candidate elected.

My wife often talks about karma. She’s Indian. It’s bound to come up. Karl Rove’s karma has come due. Massive failure in the 2008 campaign. And now Rove’s colossal failure of his $1 billion-dollar effort to elect Mitt Romney et al, culminating in “The Karl Rove Meltdown Seen Live! ‘Round The World”.

If you had wasted $1-billion dollars, not to mention $127-million dollars on more than 82,000 Mitt Romney television spots (according to ad-tracker company Kantar Media’s CMAG) and you were watching it all implode while you’re live on television, you’d have a meltdown, too.

Remember, Rove created the model for so-called outside money groups to raise and spend money –more than $1-billion on these elections. By the way, his two political outfits, Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies (really? THAT’S the name you picked? Grassroots?) and American Crossroads, saw almost no return for their money.

Rove’s old-school, bare-knuckle, despicable way of campaigning is now irrelevant. His irrelevance (and most of the old, white-guy pundits on tv) firmly cemented in these last two presidential campaigns by a new-age and new technology that has clearly passed by Karl Rove.

Data mining and social media have replaced fear and loathing on the political landscape. I actually think Hunter S. Thompson would drink to that or at least pop an amyl. Fear and loathing and Karl Rove, clearly not mutually exclusive, replaced in one fell-swoop on national television while millions watched Karl’s political self-immolation.

KARMA. Sometimes it burns.

TONY POTTS: Republicans Go Ballistic Over This Obama Video– “Lena Dunham: Your First Time”

Posted: October 28, 2012 by Tony Potts in Uncategorized
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So, I thought I’d read the republican reaction to this video BEFORE I watched it. That way I would be pre-disposed to view the video coming from a place duly influenced by the words put forth by the republicans.(link at bottom of post)
Well, I have some words for you, “Holy Shit!”. And I use “Holy” based on some republicans invoking God, Hell Fire and Satan.

I truly thought I was going to see some video with Lena cozying up to some half-naked women or, God forbid, some “Thunder from Down Under”, MEN! After reading the words of RedState.com’s Erick Erickson, “further proof we live in a fallen world destined for hell fire” coupled with FOX News’ Monica Crowley calling it “vile, stomach-churning, super-gross”, I was prepared for just about anything. BTW–’super gross’? What, are we in junior high?

But actually, the junior high comment wasn’t just me being a wise-ass. If you look at the debates, all three of them. I’ll point out the seminal difference between the Republicans and Democrats.
When Presiden Obama ‘bombed’ the first debate, Dems didn’t say…”oh, it was Jim Lehrer who screwed us! What kind of moderating was THAT? Etc…”. No, Dems said, “WTF was wrong with the President? He SLEPT through the debate. What a bone=head! (yes I did hear that, and yes, it reminded me of junior high).
When Romney lost debate #2, the Republicans blamed it on Candy Crowley. There were even “Candy Crowley conspiracy theories” thrown out by the Republicans. Just admit your guy had an ‘off-night’ and move on. Look, having that many kids and that many wives could distact even the best of us. Oh, wait, I was thinking of Bill Paxton’s character’s campaign on HBO’s “Big Love”. (incredible series)
Back to the video at hand. Lena’s cute and different take on voting for Obama and how “your first time” voting should be special etc is actually very TAME. And I disagree with John (don’t call me Nick) Nolte, of Breitbart.com, who tweeted, “How could a president with two young blossoming daughters release an ad as disgusting as this?”. (Blossoming?)
First off, in the real world, it’s far from disgusting.
Second, Malia and Sasha Obama are 14 and 11, respectively. I doubt it offends Malia. Remember, what we adults think a 14-year-old is and what she REALLY is are VASTLY different. I always tell friends with kids, just add three years, and that’s how old they really are in this day and age. So, Malia’s really 17.
I’m sure she could handle the video much better (and without such fear mongering and distortion and PUFFERY) than some of the republicans who are tweeting and shouting that this is the END of all things pure and  hell is coming followed by some sort of fire.
If you actually pay attention to Lena’s video, you know by the 12-14 seconds that she’s talking about voting.
Could the Obama Campaign have picked a better young person to speak to young voters? Who knows. I don’t. I’m not 18-24.
But here’s the real capper the republicans dont’ understand about the world in which we live. Their outrage at the video has helped it go viral. Yep, it now has more than 1,617,900 views in less than 48-hours.
And here is the great by-product of her video. It’s garnered a discussion. It has also strongly divided those who have watched the video in the ‘like’ and ‘dislike’ category.
Social media. Gotta love it. And I swear, Candy Crowley had nothing to do with Lena’s video altho, if I may say so, I do see some of the folksiness of Jim Lehrer in there.

Lena Dunham: Your First Time – YouTube.