We could have Sheen that coming...

Well, according to Variety it's all over but the coverage as far as Charlie Sheen's time on Two-and-a-Half Men. CBS has reportedly sent Sheen a termination letter today, despite the well-publicized fact that Charlie had another season to go on his contract.

Citing "erratic behavior" CBS has pulled the plug on the star, but isn't saying if a decision has been made about the series itself. Given his recent appearances I'd say very few of us outside the TV industry are surprised, and probably relatively few inside are either - although in pursuit of the bottom line there's naturally some question about how much this publicity might have boosted Sheen's ratings.

If only we could get this much coverage for stories like how Congress is - or isn't - creating jobs, and why it's so important to fund wars that we don't have enough money to properly address poverty, hunger, public education, or the cost of health care.

Political Correspondent Thomas Hayes is a former Congressional Campaign Manager; he's a journalist, photo/videographer, entrepreneur, and communications consultant who contributes regularly on topics ranging from economics and politics to culture and community, who incidentally thinks Sheen may have gotten carried away and had some challenges distinguishing himself from his successful character - and needs more professional help (even though Sheen didn't ask.)

You can follow Tom as @kabiu on twitter. Tweet

Walter Cronkite Died - An Icon Of American Culture

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A few minutes ago, a part of me passed away: the most trusted man in news Walter Cronkite died. It's now 5:21 PM PST as I write this, and it's as hard in its way as the passing of Michael Jackson was almost exactly two weeks before.

I'm not going into a long blog post about his stats, just what I remember. Walter Cronkite was American Culture of the time, and the way many have wanted it to be, I think: smart, smooth, certain, definite, classy, and professional. I watched him through my childhood and remember feeling robbed when he was forced to retire in the mid-80s.

Cronkite was CBS News, and the one place that this young African American could look to and not see or even think of prejudice. Yes, it was revealed that he was liberal later, but that never was an issue: I just assumed that he was too smart not to be. Yes, I wrote that.

 

Walter Cronkite 

(Indeed, after I wrote this, my Mother called to remind me that Cronkite was the mentor of the late Chicago anchor Michelle Clark, who worked at United Airline with my mother before moving to journalism. My Mother said "It was remarkable in those days for someone like Cronkite to reach out to a young black woman and help her as he did.)

Walter Cronkite was the person through which it seemed we vetted what information was important, and what was not. I came to associate the space program - America's "Can Do" period - with him. I think I watched every single launch and can remember the ones later that didn't have him at the CBS helm; they just were not as important to me.

No.

Walter Cronkite represents the best of America and our culture. Like Michael Jackson, he will never be replaced. A sad day. May he rest in peace and enjoy his trip to Heaven.

CNN's Brianna Keilar Now Regular Anchor On CNN Morning

After what seemed to be fits and starts, Brianna Keilar, who I met at the 2005 NFL Draft and was then with MTV-U, then after an agent contacted me in late 2005 -- well, pestered me, really -- about seeing her here online at this account I wrote about Brianna Keilar at the 2005 NFL Draft, I informed her and after she responded with an approval, I gave him her then current contact information.

The result, in 2006, was that Brianna Keilar was hired by CNN, and after she really thought it was going to take years to get there. I've not got a note from her since, even as we were emailing back and forth before then in 2005 and that agent guy was really bugging me for her contact information, and even though I wrote "Congratulations! A glass of wine would be cool."

The funny thing is that we -- she and I -- were talking about the importance of relationships as a key to success, you'd think she'd have said "thanks" at least. It's not like we didn't connect after the NFL Draft.

We had a lot of people we knew in common, from Frank Sommerville and Kenny Wardell who was then at KTVU with Sommerville, and the Cal-Berkeley connection, but for some reason now that she's a "big star" she doesn't even mention Cal on CNN when she had the chance to this morning. Yikes!

Hey, Brianna, saying "GO BEARS" on CNN just once will not kill you and Cal fans will sing your praises for years after that. The point here is that once people have done something for you, don't forget to thank them. In my case, an email saying, Hey, thanks so much for sending him my way; look what happened!"

That's enough for me, really.

Regardless, I'm glad she's got on a regular schedule. She's finally comfortable behind the camera, after it seemed that she was a bit uncomfortable reading the teleprompter live.

I just wonder if she's still wearing those fishnets?

Ok, I've not wrote this before, but truth be told, she had a wicked set of legs in fishnets and all the guys in the 2995 NFL Draft gallery were going GA GA over Brianna. And if she denies this, she's telling a massive fib! She looked hot, but in the lunch room all the guys totally ignored her as if they were afraid to talk to her, so I figured I would since she was all alone.

That's how it all started.

This is Brianna's basic background:

Brianna Keilar (born September 21, 1980) is a recently hired general assignment reporter for CNN in the Washington, D.C. bureau. She previously worked for CNN Newsource as a national correspondent, also in Washington, D.C.

Keilar started in television news as an intern and production assistant at KTVU Channel 2 in Oakland, California. In 2001, she went to work as a general assignment reporter at KIMA, the CBS affiliate in Yakima, Washington. During that same time, she also worked in radio as a morning show personality and weekend news reader.

In 2003, Keilar moved to New York to be an anchor, reporter and producer for CBS News on mtvU, a newscast that aired on MTV's college network. At CBS News on mtvU, she covered the 2004 presidential primaries and election from New Hampshire, Boston and New York. Brianna also covered events like the 2005 NFL Draft for MTV-U. Keilar was 23 when she fill-in anchored on CBS News' overnight newscast, Up to the Minute, for the first time.

She was also a freelance reporter for CBS Evening News Weekend Edition before moving over to CNN.

Let's see if we can get Brianna's Cal attention... HEY BRIANNA, GO BEARS!!!!

Facebookers Launch Official Petition Against Hillary Clinton's Insult

In The Politico.com , it was reported that On Saturday, November 10th, Clinton advisers told reporters this about Barack Obama's voters:

“Our people look like caucus-goers,” Grunwald said, “and his people look like they are 18. Penn said they look like Facebook.”

Penn added, “Only a few of their people look like they could vote in any state.”

This was reported by Roger Simon in his column today and the well-reported quip angered more than a few Facebook users. It was one of the dumbest errors commited by the Clinton campaign, and could serve as another nail in the coffin of her Presidential campaign.

The Clinton camp's way too arrogant, and comments like those of Gruwald and Penn prove it.

The anger of Facebook users has materialized into a petition against Hillary Clinton, which you can see and respond to with a click here.

Heroes On Hulu - Watch The Entire Episode "Out Of Time" Here, Now Live!

Click on the arrow to watch the entire Heroes episode "Out of Time."

Hulu is NBC's new website system that allows one to see HD-quality online versions of shows from NBC, CBS, and other providers. I don't see it as a YouTube replacement for reasons I state over at Zennie's Zeitgeist, but it's a fun system, none the less.

CBS' Les Moonves Gets YouTube and New Media - Wired

I loved reading this interview with CBS Television head Les Moonves as it reveals a person who gets new media and how it impacts CBS. Why can't Viacom have this view?

CBS Chief Isn't Worried About YouTube or Google — 'As Long as We Get Paid'

Frank Rose 05.16.07 | 2:00 AM

CBS President Leslie Moonves

What happens to network television in the Internet age? As broadcasters confront ever-shrinking audiences and increasingly Net-savvy advertisers, that's a big question in certain quarters of New York and Los Angeles. With hits like CSI and Survivor, CBS president Leslie Moonves is the current ratings champ, but he knows Wall Street is ultimately going to judge him on how he manages the transition to the digital world. Moonves talked to Wired about user-generated video, tiny TVs, and how those clips of his wife made it onto the Internet.

Wired: Right now, traditional broadcasting accounts for the bulk of your viewership and income. Will that change?
Leslie Moonves: I think many years from now, people will still watch television, though it will probably be 150 inches wide. What will change is the ability to get CSI not only on TV but also on the Internet, even watching it in a foreign country as it's playing in the US.

Wired: Major advertisers, including Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble, are shifting money from network television to the Internet. How concerned are you?

Moonves: We're not. There are plenty of people who are willing to pay $2.6 million for 30 seconds on the Super Bowl and hundreds of thousands of dollars for American Idol. There will be advertising dollars on the Internet. We're there as well. We win either way.

Wired: How do you feel about Google trying to get into television advertising?

Moonves: Hard to say. Right now we like selling our own inventory.

Wired: Does user-generated video pose a threat to traditional television?

Moonves: Only when they're taking content without permission. Genuine user-generated content — like the guys from OK Go dancing on the treadmills, which I liked a lot — I don't think poses any threat. A lot of it is garbage; you know, your cousin Fanny sitting outside on a swing. But there's some great amateur stuff coming out. They don't have to steal the professional stuff.

Wired: Will professional television change in response?

Moonves: It already has. We have a bunch of people coming up with ideas for original shows that are very cheap, very experimental. There isn't a lot of advertising revenue on this, so you need young people who don't want a lot of money yet. They will later.

Wired: You were in talks with Fox and NBC to join their partnership to distribute programming on the Internet — the so-called YouTube Killer. Why did you decide not to?

Moonves: What was difficult for us was the idea of exclusivity. We would have had to funnel every piece of content through that mechanism. It didn't give us the freedom we wanted to make partnerships all over the place. We're so much in the infancy of the Internet; three years from now, this is going to seem like the dinosaur age. We've got to learn about users — how much they're using, why they're using it, when they're using it — and we have to connect with them. We think we can accomplish as much alone as they're doing together.

Wired: There's a lot of CBS material on YouTube. How does that work?

Moonves: You have to look at it in two different ways. One is content that you will get paid for directly, and the other is promotional content. Our attitude is, either pay us for it or give us promotional value that will eventually lead to our getting paid for it.

Wired: How do you tell the difference?

Moonves: If there's a one-minute clip of CSI, or user-generated clips like different shots of David Caruso taking off his glasses, that's great promotion. If they were showing a whole episode of CSI and we weren't getting paid, we'd object.
Wired: Do you have your own favorite YouTube video?

Moonves: My wife is the host of Big Brother. Her name is Julie Chen, and she'll say, "Da da da, but first we do this." So they mashed together her saying "but first" a couple dozen times. Literally. In different outfits. And when you cut it together like that, it appears very robotlike. They called her the Chenbot.

Wired: Recently, you made a deal with Verizon Wireless. Do you think mobile TV is going to work?

Moonves: We think wireless is going to grow tremendously. Do I think people are going to watch an episode of Survivor on a 2-inch television set? I doubt it. But I do think somebody's going to go to a grocery store in the middle of a football game and watch that game.

Wired: Of all these new distribution channels, what's the most valuable?

Moonves: They're all good. We don't care how you get our content — over the air, over cable, satellite, the Internet, or on your cell phone — as long as we get paid for it.

Contributing editor Frank Rose (frank_rose@wired.com) wrote about 2007 Rave Award winner Michael Wesch in issue 15.05.

Betsy Morgan - CBSNews.com Head Now CEO Of Huffington Post - NY Times

Besty Morgan at the Webby's -- From Flickr.com

Betsy Morgan
Originally uploaded by jdlasica

As New Media advances and overtakes Old Media, more and more executives are making the transition, thanks to well-financed efforts like The Huffington Post.

In this case, the Huff Post -- a blog site that's a amalgam of articles with commentary, and of which this writer is a contributor -- has brought on Betsy Morgan .

Morgan says, "This is a tremendous opportunity to work with Arianna and Ken. In less than three years, The Huffington Post has distinguished itself as a major player in interactive news. HuffPost's range of contributors is extraordinary, its breadth of coverage expansive, and its network of online communities unparalleled. I look forward to helping steer the site toward even greater heights."

Earlier this year, Morgan said that CBS needed to figure out how to get bloggers onto the site, whom she calls "microjournalists." Now, she will be in the middle of a blogger-laden company.

Ms. Morgan joins The Huffington Post from CBS Interactive, where she was in charge of the network's 24-hour on-demand news service. Under Ms. Morgan's leadership, CBSNews.com has been an industry-leading provider of advertiser-supported free video across the web and wireless platforms. CBSNews.com has been recognized with several prestigious industry awards.

Before joining CBS Interactive, Ms. Morgan was a Vice President of CBS News in charge of business development, digital media and new television ventures. She began her career at CBS as the Head of the CBS Television Network's Strategic Management Group working in the Office of the Chairman and CEO of CBS. She has also worked for News Corporation's American Sky Broadcasting and before that started her career in investment banking. Ms. Morgan has a BA in political science and economics from Colby College and a MBA from Harvard Business School.

CBS Has Only Sold 70 Percent Of Super Bowl XLI Ads - Mediaweek

January 15, 2007

By John Consoli Mediaweek

NEW YORK -- The Super Bowl has become a super pain for the broadcast networks to sell.

Case in point: CBS this year. With just three weeks to go until kickoff, the network has sold slightly more than 70% of the in-game commercial units. And with a total of 58 spots, the network still has about 16 slots available.

With so much potential revenue and prestige at stake—CBS could take in as much as $140 million on the three-hour game alone, in addition to millions from the six hours of pre-game programming—the three weeks prior to kickoff can generate severe angst for sales teams facing fourth and goal.

One media agency executive described this current Super Bowl selling season: "CBS is definitely in hustle mode, trying to come up with any innovative way possible to move those in-game units."

As the cost of a 30-second spot rises each year, so does the pressure on advertisers to come up with innovative and creative spots that will be talked about and acted upon by the 78 million viewers who tune in. The growing popularity of polls such as USA Today Ad Meter, which have consumers rate the in-game commercials the next day, has become a major factor in the decision-making process of advertisers as to whether or not they should create a spot and run it in the Super Bowl.

One network sales executive, who has sold past Super Bowls, said the next two weeks are crucial for CBS to get a bulk of the remaining units sold before Feb. 5. "It's OK to go into the week before the game with three or four units left, but it can be a real problem if you have more than that," the exec said.

The closer to game day, the more the ad community is in the driver's seat as far as trying to price down the spots because the network cannot sharply lower prices without running the risk of alienating clients who came in early and paid more.

While the remaining spots are mostly in fourth quarter and early birds most likely are in the first half when the attention level is usually higher, no advertiser, regardless of placement, is going to be happy seeing a straggler get in the game at a deep discount.

"There are always Super Bowl units still available at this point, but this year there seem to be more left than the norm," said one media exec, echoing the viewpoint of many contacted for this story.

But John Bogusz, CBS evp-sports sales and marketing, and Tony Taranto, svp of NFL sales at CBS, both insist the network is right where it was sellout level-wise when it televised the Super Bowls in '01 and '04.

"It is getting to be a harder sell, and we do wish more advertisers would embrace it for what it is and take advantage of the huge audience it draws," said Bogusz, acknowledging the harder slog to sell out. Added Taranto, "Advertisers should realize that in addition to the in-game units, those ads are going to be replayed all over the Internet in the days and weeks following the game. Awareness levels for those ads rise every year."

But that heightened awareness of the commercials—not the price tag per spot, which this year ranges anywhere from $2 million to $2.6 million depending on pod location and quantity bought—can be the problem, according to media agencies charged with buying Super Bowl spots for clients.

"The decision an advertiser faces is not a price dilemma," said Marc Goldstein, CEO at media agency MindShare. "The reason advertisers may not go in is because of creative issues. No one wants to run an old commercial in the Super Bowl, so you have to go out and spend money to produce a new one. And the advertiser wants to make sure that this commercial does well in all the recall and opinion polls the next day. Many advertisers feel if they do not have a new product to launch, it is not worth the risk."