TV News' 10 Most Powerful

FIRST ON Twitter.com/JeffParsons.com
So,,, the new list is out of TV News' 10 Most Powerful from TelevisionWeek. I'll save you the trouble of reading through the list. It's the same 'ol same 'ol.... leaders of NBC, CBS, CNN, FOX, etc. More interestingly though is that barring the brief glossing over of Univision in the list, the minority voice is barely represented. It is not the problem of Television Week. It's our industry. Pale, conservative males sit at the top.

Here's the list. Read more at TVWeek.
1. NBC News TeamJeff Zucker, president and chief executive officer
2. Roger Ailes, chairman and CEO, Fox News Channel, and chairman, Fox Television Stations Group
3. CNN TeamJim Walton, president, CNN WorldwideJon Klein, president, CNN/U.S.Ken Jautz, executive VP, CNN Worldwide, responsible for HLN
4. David Westin,president, ABC News
5. Sean McManus, president, CBS News and CBS Sports.
6. Jeff Fager, executive producer, “60 Minutes”
7. Comedy Central TeamJon Stewart, host, Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show”Stephen Colbert, host, Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report”
8. Univision
9. N.S. Bienstock
10. Huffington Post

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Rosie O'Donnell Compares Susan Boyle To 'Shrek'

Rosie O'Donnell compares British singing sensation Susan Boyle to 'Shrek'. Why did Rosie have to talk about this? From People.com
Rosie O'Donnell finally sees the human side of Simon Cowell after his response to hearing the Scottish singing sensation Susan Boyle. "Simon Cowell was genuinely moved when he heard Susan Boyle sing," O'Donnell, 47, told PEOPLE Saturday night at a Florida showcase of her artwork in Boca Raton's Wentworth Gallery. "He showed his humanity, and I actually liked him. It was a moment in time." Count O'Donnell, who is donating all proceeds of the three-hour art exhibition to her Rosie's Broadway Kids charity, as yet another fan who marvels at Boyle's voice. When the plain and overweight Boyle, 47, opened her mouth to sing on TVs Britain's Got Talent last week, Cowell – like most observers – was expecting a train wreck. "That moment is what every artist tries to capture," O'Donnell tells PEOPLE "Here is this ... Shrek come to life, directing energy towards her soul. This was so rare ... something authentic in a world that is usually manufactured. It was a perfect moment which will never happen again." Insists O'Donnell, "We should enjoy it for what it was."
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Susan Boyle, Susan Boyle, Susan Boyle: She's Everywhere

Susan Boyle, Susan Boyle, Susan Boyle: She's Everywhere.
When it comes to good news.. this is a feel good hit. I LOVE THIS WOMAN AND HER ATTITUDE. I want to be "gobsmacked" too.

She's on CBS (no embeddable video) and NBC's Today Show.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

And from the Associated Press.

You know.. this woman would seem to be so sweet and genuine to sit around and have a pint with!

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CNN Tea Party Report Is A Hit ... On FOX News

This report from CNN about the Chicago Tea Party is a big hit.. on FOX News and Youtube.

More from TVNewser.
Last night there was an O'Reilly Factor segment (featuring DC-tea party participant Laura Ingraham). Overnight, Red Eye got in on the act. This morning, Fox & Friends devoted a few segments to the report, and Megyn Kelly anchored a segment on America's Newsroom.
Then this afternoon, Neil Cavuto had a guest on who attended the Chicago rally. She claimed Roesgen "staged" the interviews. ("Staged", in this case not meaning orchestrated but rather, what the guest described as, "a gross misrepresentation of the surroundings.")
Another Chicago rally participant had his own camera rolling and captured a conversation Roesgen had with another attendee, just after her "anti-government, anti-CNN" live shot. It shows the discontent in the crowd over her report.
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NBC NIghtly News, Chuck Todd, Tea Party Rallies

A quick note..
It felt a bit odd for 'NBC Nightly News' reporter Lee Cowan to use Chuck Todd as an expert interviewee tonight's lead story about the Tea Party rallies. More and more, reporters seem to be "experts" in analysis. I know it happens. But that doens't make it any less odd as a viewer. Plus, while I like Todd... I still can't get my arms around him as the chief White House correspondent.

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Glenn Beck Guest Faints LIVE on TV - WATCH THE VIDEO

A guest on the Glenn Beck Show on FOX fainted tonight. He even tried to warn Beck by saying "I'm passing out."

FROM TVNEWSER
Beck and his guest, David Buckner, professor of organizational leadership at Columbia University program, were standing at a monitor talking about what is leading American companies to bankruptcy. Around 5:11pm, as they were getting to the final point, Buckner whispered to Beck, "I'm passing out."
Beck asked Buckner if he wanted to "sit down." As Beck took his hand, Buckner fell to the ground. The director then cut to a camera shot which showed Buckner on the studio floor, before going to break.
When he came back from the commercial, Beck, who called Buckner "a good friend," said the professor "was ill, apparently, this morning and just got a little lightheaded, but he is fine and we have medical professionals on the way to the set, and he is up and alert and fine."

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Some quick hits....
*Brian Williams' questioning during the interview with the commander of the Bainbridge was a little cumbersome. I hate when people ask a question, then try to explain the question and then ask it again. The commander was great. The questions could have been cut in hald.
*I don't know why but I flipped to watch the top of Barbara Walters' "The View" today. I wish I hadn't. It was not the show I liked years ago.
*It was nice to see part of a White House daily briefing in Spanish today.
*Remember to follow me on Twitter and twitter.com/JeffParsonsDC

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Glenn Beck Common Sense Tour

FROM TVNEWSER

FNC's Glenn Beck will be hitting the road in June for "The Common Sense Tour," his six-city live one man comedy show. Although the logo may continue the 9/12 Project branding, the tour will focus on the funny. ("After all, if we don't laugh, we'll cry," it says in the release.)
But if you can't make it to one of the stage shows, there's another option — watching the simulcast on June 4 in one of more than 400 movie theaters nationwide, from New York City to San Francisco and everywhere in between (see all the participating theaters here). And there will be an encore performance the following week as well

I have these movie theater events. I know it's a new revenue stream... but c'mon. Simpel broadcast the event over the air or on a cubchannel. Don't think that I am going to trudge to my local theater to see an event like this. If I go there, I was a movie.

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Did Barack Obama Bow To The King?

From Chicago Sun Times

A photo of President Obama apparently bowing in front of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is stirring a royal-size controversy.
The photo and a video were largely ignored by mainstream media outlets but created outrage in some quarters.
“Such an act is a traditional obeisance befitting a king's subjects, not his peer. There is no precedent for U.S. presidents bowing to Saudi or any other royals,” said the conservative Washington Times.
An Obama aide speaking anonymously denied that the president was bowing.
“It wasn’t a bow. He grasped his hand with two hands, and he’s taller than King Abdullah,” the aide was quoted as saying by Politco.com Wednesday.
That explanation was “absurd,” the conservative Weekly Standard said. And the caption attached to the Getty Images photo said the president was bowing.
The setting was world leaders mingling before their official photo at the G-20 economic summit in London on April 1.
The heads of state were being photographed with Queen Elizabeth II — to whom Obama did not bow, online commenters said.
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WHDH Refuses To Air Jay Leno At 10

It was a matter of time before a local TV station said to NBC: NO we won't air Jay Leno at 10 as the lead-in to local news. Now, that station has stepped up... and it's no small fight for NBC. WHDH says it will start a 10pm newscast each night... and offered to air Leno at 11pm. NBC said no way. Now there's a standoff of sorts. WHDH is standing firm. NBC says it may yank the affiliation from WHDH.

Here's my take on the key issues.. followed by more details.
--Locals are dependent, too much so, on the 10pm leadin. They hope to convert those viewers to the 11pm news. It's a losing proposition but many still live by it.
--The Leno audience may help NBCs younger demos. Those viewers won't convert to local news.
--WHDH may stand alone for a while. Not everyone is brave enough to jump on the bandwagon. The owers of WHDH (and WSVN) are.
--While WHDH is a shrinking ratings star in Boston, NBC is crazy to pull the affiliation. Are there other places to go? Yes. But just because you can, doesn't mean its a smart move.
--Local stations will be well served to re-assess the strength and priority of the 11pm news. Yes there's money there thanks to the legacy audience growth from prime time. That's disappearing. Rethink your long term strategy.... not just the plan for November. I lived in the Midwest before moving back to DC. I miss my 10pm news. Yes, I know FOX offers it.
--Here's a radical idea: shift all of the East and West Coast schedules. It works great for the viewer in the Midwest. It responds to the viewer demands.
--NBC may want to go the way of FOX. Find two strong hours a night instead of three mediocre hours.

From TVWeek.
“WHDH's move is a flagrant violation of the terms of their contract with NBC," Mr. Eck told the Boston Globe, which first reported the news. "If they persist, we will strip WHDH of its NBC affiliation. We have a number of other strong options in the Boston market, including using our existing broadcast license to launch an NBC owned-and-operated station."
NBC’s strong reaction isn’t a surprise. The network can’t afford to let local stations get the impression that preempting Mr. Leno’s new show is a viable option.
Of course, it’s unlikely that most affiliates would attempt such a gutsy play anyway. Most affiliate agreements prohibit stations from opting to make such a wholesale preemption, particularly when content issues aren’t involved.
By refusing to run Mr. Leno’s show, WHDH is essentially nixing nearly 25% of NBC’s primetime lineup. Unless NBC convinces WHDH to change its mind, or finds another station to air Mr. Leno, Mr. Leno’s new show will begin life without a top 10 market, something that would adversely impact its ratings.
WHDH owner Ed Ansin of Sunbeam Television told the Globe that he was worried Mr. Leno wouldn’t perform well at 10 p.m.
"We feel we have a real opportunity with running the news at 10 p.m. We don't think the Leno show is going to be effective in primetime," Mr. Ansin said. "It will be detrimental to our 11 o'clock. It will be very adverse to our finances.”
He also said the move was “a better financial plan for us.” Indeed, WHDH gets to keep all the ad revenue from a 10 p.m. news, but only gets a fraction of it from Mr. Leno’s show.
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Female Night On Evening Newscasts

It was nice to see three women anchoring the evening newscasts tonight.
Diane Sawyer subbed for Charlie Gibson.
Anne Curry subbed for Brian Williams.
Katie Couric... well she bolted back from last night's London broadcast to anchor the Friday 'CBS Evening News'.

To be honest, I really like all three of them. I have been a supporter of the CBS News content in Couric's broadcast. But tonight, I landed back ABC... watching the ever reliable Sawyer.

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Network Anchors In London

On the final night of the G20 Summit, the big three network anchors remained in London.
Brian Williams -- anchored outside in a trench coat while reporters stood beside him WITHOUT coats
Katie Couric - anchored outside in a coat while tossing to reporters with no coats.
Charlie Gibson -- apprently forgot the coat (JOKE) and anchored inside the ABC London bureau. Why do you think?

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