NEWS WEBSITES COMPETING WITH TV NEWS

Broadcast and cable news are about to encounter some formidable competition. The New York Times reported on Sunday that some of the nation’s leading news websites, including Politico.com, the HuffingtonPost.com, and the online versions of The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters and the Times itself are ramping up video operations, including building stages […]

MEDIA “DEATH WATCH” FOR MANDELA AROUSES ANGER IN S. AFRICA

Plans by the media to cover the eventual death of Nelson Mandela have touched off a competitive clash among news organizations in South Africa and a cultural clash between the media and the country’s general population. Mandela, who is 93, has not appeared in public in nearly 18 months, and some media organizations have already […]

FINKE-WAXMAN FEUD HEATS UP

Bad blood between two entertainment industry bloggers, Nikki Finke and Sharon Waxman, continued to curdle over the weekend as, first, Finke, on her Deadline blog, disputed an article by Waxman and Brent Lang on TheWrap claiming that former CAA chief Michael Ovitz had failed in a bid to take over management of IMG, the sports […]

REPORT: BOX OFFICE HEADING FOR SUMMER RECORD

Despite the third-worst attendance figures of the century at theaters from January through April, a slew of movies that took a critical drubbing, plummeting interest in 3D, and the overall recession, the box office appears likely to set a record when total revenue from ticket sales for summer releases is tallied at the end of […]

WIRE SERVICES BOYCOTT REPUBLICAN DEBATE

Fox News had major coverage of the Republican presidential primary debate pretty much all to itself Friday night. It was unclear who had been responsible for instigating rules limiting coverage of the debate by photographers — Fox itself, the South Carolina Republican Party, or both, but the two major wire services, the Associated Press and […]

FOX AND CNN BATTLE IT OUT OVER LIBYA

A secondary war has broken out in Libya — this one between CNN and Fox News. It began when Fox’s Pentagon correspondent Jennifer Griffin claimed on Monday that British fighter jets armed with seven missiles had to abort an attack on Muammar Gadhafi’s compound because of the presence of CNN and Reuters crews at the […]

NFL BLOCKS TOYOTA AD ON PREVENTING BRAIN INJURIES

The NFL asked Toyota to halt continued use of a TV commercial that discussed helmet-to-helmet hits after it aired on ESPN’s Monday Night Football, Reuters reported on Wednesday. In the ad, Wake Forest University professors described the way Toyota technology simulating the way drivers are injured in auto accidents could prevent brain injuries in football. […]

CONAN’S SHOW TOO FAMILIAR? MAYBE THAT’S THE WAY IT SHOULD BE

Although the critics’ principal complaint about Conan O’Brien’s new show has been that it failed to innovate and dragged out just another tired, late-night-talk-show format, a veteran network executive has maintained that viewers demand such a format. In an interview with Reuters, Richard Wald, who served stints as president of ABC News and NBC News […]

GROUP BLASTS THAI GOVERNMENT OVER REPORTERS’ DEATHS

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has demanded that the Thai government reveal the results of official autopsies into the shooting deaths of Reuters cameraman Hiro Muramoto and Italian photographer Fabio Polenghi that occurred during its suppression of protest demonstrations in Bangkok last April and May. In a lengthy statement that included comments from […]

BBC TO ADD AMERICAN NEWS WEBSITE

The BBC has announced plans to launch a website focusing on U.S. news that will compete with American networks and newspapers. In a statement, Miranda Cresswell, who will be heading the U.S. operation, said, “Building on the incredible journalism already available on BBC.com, you’re going to see more analysis, more insight and more perspective that […]

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