Tag Results for Eliot Spitzer

We now know what CNN will stand for: Frequenting prostitutes, yes; Laudatory tweets about controversial Islamic religious leaders, no.

But with the recent hiring of former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer as a talk show host and the firing of Senior Middle East News Editor Octavia Nasr, it's getting harder and harder to figure out what the network itself stands for.

A commitment to journalism? CNN couldn't move fast enough to dump Nasr and her 20 years of reporting experience. Spitzer has none. Redemption? Apparently admitted law-breaker Spitzer is worthy of a second chance, while Nasr, whose crime was 140 ill-chosen characters without context, isn't.

Objectivity? I suppose you could make an argument there. Nasr certainly compromised hers with her tweet about Hezbollah's religious leader - "Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah  . . . . One of Hezbollah's giants I respect a lot" - while Spitzer's problem was more personal than professional. Some people also thought Nasr's explanation of and apology for her tweet were lacking.

But as Glen Greenwald argues in Salon, the US media hasn't exactly applied objectivity standards objectively and the punishments don't always fit the crimes. To be sure, Nasr bears responsibility for flirting with the political third-rail that is the US-Israel-Middle East relationship. But for turning on the juice and letting her fry, it's all on CNN.

Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was forced out of office after a sex scandal came to light. Now Spitzer now has a prime-time gig on CNN.  Is this a smart move or just a blatant ratings grab by CNN?

Why would anyone at CNN think it was a good idea to give a prime-time talk show to former New York governor Eliot Spitzer and Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker? There is only one reason anyone thinks Spitzer will be a ratings winner, and it's not his non-existent journalism background or even his sharp analytical mind.

I'm not going to rehash what I've said before about CNN; you can read it here if you like.

Briefly, though, CNN touts itself as a profitable, news-driven alternative to the ideological talk shows on Fox and MSNBC. So why act as though your every programming decision is based on ratings?If CNN is truly in a different business from Fox and MSNBC, then what does it mean to say CNN comes in "third"?

Given that there is almost no way CNN can have an impact at 8 p.m. against the O'Reilly-Olbermann juggernaut, Jon Klein and company should have tried something radical. Like news. How about an hour of CNN International, which everyone who has traveled overseas tells me is exponentially better than what's on the three U.S. cable nets?

Was just gazing in doe-eyed wonder at this quote today. It's from an Associated Press story about how former NY Governor Eliot Spitzer - who resigned after a prostitution scandal - is a "hot commodity" as a possible cable news host:

"He's got personality, he's got smarts, he's got an edge and he's got enough controversy about him that the name means something," said Frank Sesno, a former CNN Washington bureau chief and now a professor at George Washington University.

Oh, his name means something alright. It means if you've proven you're morally unfit for New York politics, cable news outlets will soon be falling over themselves to make you one of the public faces of American journalism.

And we wonder why people hold the news industry in such low esteem.

"Beat the Press" panelists sound off on their rants and raves of the week: Campbell Brown gracefully bows out of CNN; is Eliot Spitzer in talks with CNN?; Google TV's disastrous demonstration; politicians dodge Freedom of Information Requests; and who watches ABC's Lost anyway?

"Beat the Press" panelists sound off on their rants and raves of the week: the media's obsession with high-profile sex rehab; Gov. Patrick's debut on talk radio; MSNBC suspends anchor David Shuster; ABC's "This Week" teams up with PolitiFact; and the New York Times debuts four new features.

The NY Post hires Ashley Dupre, the call girl who derailed Eliot Spitzer's political career, to write a sex and relationship column. Was this a smart business decision, or is it over the line?