Lou Dobbs Quits CNN

Lou Dobbs' longtime presence at CNN has ended, again. During his Lou Dobbs Tonight broadcast on November 11th, Dobbs announced to viewers that he reached agreement with CNN to leave, immediately, with two years remaining on his contract.

Dobbs joined CNN, at its inception, in 1980 as chief economics correspondent and anchor of Moneyline. He also served as corporate executive vice president. Dobbs left the network in 1999 after clashing with then-CNN president Rick Kaplan. After Kaplan's 2000 departure, Dobbs returned to CNN in 2001.

Back in the day, I always admired Dobbs' smooth and virtually unflappable anchoring style. But, in recent years, the inclusion of his often overbearing personal opinions into his broadcasts really turned me off and as a result, I turned him off. I can't tell you how many times I cringed while watching him put CNN correspondents in awkward positions by asking them leading, opinionated questions in crosstalk forcing them to sidestep in order to maintain their own on-air, unbiased credibility as journalists.

Whatever Dobbs decides to do moving forward, I'm sure he'll have a loyal following of like-minded viewers and listeners (he does a daily radio show) and he will continue to have influence and impact on America and the world. But his departure from CNN is a welcomed move for this news person.

Oh, Good Evening!

Everything on Silver Platter

I was stunned on Sunday to read an Associated Press story on Jenna Bush-Hager, the daughter of former President George W. Bush, being hired by NBC News as a correspondent for the morning "Today" show. WOW! A few weeks earlier, it was ABC News hiring comedian Steve Harvey as a special correspondent for "Good Morning America." WOW! Great gigs if you can land them. Bush-Hager and Harvey did, but on what crednentials were they hired? AP actually wrote that NBC had hired someone "with White House experience" in reference to Jenna Bush-Hager. I am amazed.

When I got into broadcast journalism more than 20 years ago, I was told-- and pretty much already knew-- that I would have to pay some dues to get where I really wanted to be in my career. I would graduate from college, likely secure my first newsroom job at a small market television station and build from there. The notion that I would walk across the stage at Southern University, receive my diploma, then walk right on to the anchor desk or the executive producer chair, or even the news director's office was a pipe dream.

Well, that was 1988. Clearly, things have changed in 2009. We have managers running news operations with no news backgrounds; we have news executive producers who have never been news producers; and, we have egomaniac "millennials," as they're called, coming out of colleges, not only thinking they should immediately get a big job, paying big money, they expect to get a big job and big money right away. The sad thing is-- they're getting them. It has become quite obvious that paying dues is a dead concept and viewers are the big losers. The journalism is not of the caliber it should be and people tune out, not in.

Jenna Bush-Hager and Steve Harvey have no backgrounds in journalism. They got their news jobs based on celebrity. Knowing several colleagues who have lost jobs at networks and television stations across the country, I don't have to think very long or very hard about how many qualified, experienced broadcast journalists are available who would love to have the NBC "Today" and ABC "Good Morning America" opportunities. All I can say is, if things continue down this horse path, it's going to be tough to avoid all the manure piles.

Oh, Good Evening!

Would You Like A Pony?

Ally Bank is a new online institution using a great series of commercials to drum up business. The pony commercial is of particular interest.

While it is funny, it includes what some believe are subtle hints at discrimination. The favoritism shown to one girl over the other is obvious and understood in conveying the message of the spot. Both "customers" are girls, they both appear to be white but the "favored" one is blonde and the "less favored" one is brunette.

This also has some feeling the subtle undertone has racial connotations with the blonde girl representing white customers (favored) and the brunette girl representing black customers (less favored). What do you think? Watch the commercial and comment.



Oh, Good Evening!

Hurry Up and Wait!

Don't you just love rushing to the airport to arrive well in advance of your scheduled flight only to find out while checking in that your departure is delayed two hours? That's my situation as I sit here at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas typing this entry. The red eye flight scheduled to leave at 10:25 PM will not leave until, at least, 12:40 AM.

Oh, Good Morning!

An Apple a year...

Apple does it again. First, the company introduced the iPhone and priced it at $600.  A year later, it released the more powerful iPhone 3G model and reduced the price to $199 for an 8GB version and $299 for a 16GB version.  Now, a year after that, it's introducing an upgraded iPhone 3Gs with new features, including video capabilities, at the same prices, but with more (16GB/32GB) capacity! Plus, the iPhone 3G, which I bought less than a year ago, will now sell for $99!

This really comes as no surprise.  Technology companies have been doing this for years.  They put out the hot, new, must-have gadget with an introductory price that makes it affordable only to those with an abundance of disposable income, then within a year they release a better version at a lower price and either discontinue the original model or they slash the price making its resale value next to nothing and, in this case, the cell phone companies make it even more expensive to upgrade if you haven't completed your mandatory two year contract commitment on the original purchase.

Why do we allow them to get away with this?  If you ask me, it would make more sense for the $99 version to be the first version released with all subsequent upgrades adding features which would then justify price increases.

Oh, Good Evening!