Tuesday, January 24, 2006

I am going to 'sit out' tonight.

People still disapprove of Aaron Brown's leaving.

Please note below.

Critics are still trying to make sense of the absence of Aaron Brown.

CNN Clueless in Hunt for Young Demos
Jan 16, 2006

By Marianne Paskowski

Memo to CNN chieftain Jonathan Klein: It has now been more than two months since you gave Aaron Brown, who anchored CNN's "NewsNight With Aaron Brown" for the past four years, the big heave-ho. I know, business is business and Mr. Brown's ratings were tanking.

But if you think you're going to get younger (or so-called more desirable) demographics with Anderson Cooper in that role, forget it. I don't know how old you are, Mr. Klein, but when I was a youngster still living at home, I could not care less about the 10 p.m. news.

That's because I was out partying with my pals and had no mortgage to pay or world issues to fret about. In contrast, my parents, who supported me, were glued to TV news each and every evening. They seemed to get some comfort out of it all. To me, watching news was punishment, and I watched it only when I was grounded.

Face it, news is never going to attract the younger demographic. Madison Avenue knows that. Why else would all those commercials for Maalox and Gas-X-products which I never knew existed in my carefree youth-run in news programs? Heck, even today I spend more time online than I do with my television set, and I am not a member of Gen Y.

For those of us who even watch news at 10 p.m., due to your decision, we have to endure a rather stiff-looking and -sounding Anderson Cooper, in Brown's old role, dutifully reading or showing the work of a dozen other reporters each night. He looks bored.

I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I'm now voting with my remote control and getting my news from Comedy Central's Jon Stewart or NBC's Jay Leno. They, just like Mr. Brown, have what Mr. Cooper lacks: a worldliness and grasp of current affairs and a wonderful sense of humor.

Instead of propping up Mr. Cooper in that ridiculous business suit in the news studio, it's time to put him back in the field, where he excelled: Reporting, on the scene, in his swashbuckling manner, about natural-disaster stories such as the Asian tsunami or, more recently, Hurricane Katrina.

That is his milieu. The other night Mr. Cooper seemed much more excited about a bomb scare in a San Francisco Starbucks than he was about the Supreme Court hearings. And that's OK. I can relate. Let him go back to do what pumps his adrenaline. What you've done here is akin to the powers that be here at TVWeek making me their chief counsel or bean counter instead of just allowing me to spew off as a columnist. They haven't offered me those other, more lucrative positions yet, but if they do, no thanks, I'll pass.

So, Mr. Klein, you might ask why is this nutcase writing this two months after the cow has been let out of the barn? Well, I'll tell you. The other day I caught "The Washington Journal" on C-SPAN and I heard Mr. Brown's name mentioned and I was excited.

Until then, I thought he had vanished from the planet.

At first I thought, "Yikes! He's coming back." Instead, it was a segment on a media bias study conducted by UCLA political scientist Tim Groseclose, who said his research found that CNN's "NewsNight" was one of the most centrist media outlets.

I was glad to hear that, but realized how much I still missed watching Mr. Brown in my home each evening. And I'm not alone. Internet bloggers remain enraged over his departure. We especially remember his poignant and comforting reporting on Sept. 11, during a time when fear enveloped America after the bombing of the World Trade Center.

Mr. Brown, back then, was only days on his new job, but somehow his passion, pathos and sensibility helped us all get through that tragic time.

It's certainly an interesting time in TV news. CBS's Dan Rather is gone. NBC's Tom Brokaw passed the baton. And, most unfortunate, ABC's longtime anchor Peter Jennings has passed away. Even ABC's "Nightline" anchor Ted Koppel threw in the towel as a regular weeknight fixture on TV.

Again, back to the demos. I don't envy you your job, Mr. Klein, because even if you produce news for online, wireless or iPods, the young demo you are seeking is simply out of your grasp. So why not cede the turf back to the veterans who report for adults who really watch news?

Only a suggestion. But while I'm at it, I have another one for you. Let's pare down CNN's "NewsNight" to an hour.

Like I mentioned earlier, I forced myself to watch Mr. Cooper for the full two hours. If I don't have an attention span of that length, do you think younger demos do?

Chasing The 25-54 Demo: Pointless?

TV Week columnist Marianne Paskowski writes a memo to CNN/U.S. president Jon Klein:"...If you think you're going to get younger (or so-called more desirable) demographics with Anderson Cooper" in the NewsNight time slot, "forget it. I don't know how old you are, Mr. Klein, but when I was a youngster still living at home, I could not care less about the 10 p.m. news.That's because I was out partying with my pals and had no mortgage to pay or world issues to fret about. In contrast, my parents, who supported me, were glued to TV news each and every evening. They seemed to get some comfort out of it all. To me, watching news was punishment, and I watched it only when I was grounded. Face it, news is never going to attract the younger demographic. Madison Avenue knows that. Why else would all those commercials for Maalox and Gas-X-products which I never knew existed in my carefree youth-run in news programs? Heck, even today I spend more time online than I do with my television set, and I am not a member of Gen Y..."

Cooper Is "Younging-Down The Hour"

In TV Week today, Marianne Paskowski criticizes Jon Klein's decision to appeal to younger viewers by placing Anderson Cooper in primetime. This afternoon an industry observer, not affiliated with any network, responded in an e-mail:"Paskowski's column is pretty hysterical because Cooper's gains are ALL in the younger demos. I've seen the numbers. In the 10p ET hour, 360's total viewers have risen just 2%. But what's happening is that Aaron Brown's older viewers are fleeing and being replaced by 18-49s. Whether it's worth all the hype is a separate question, but Cooper is absolutely younging-down that hour."That's why the Anderson-bashing is pretty much irrelevant: If older viewers are being replaced by younger viewers, the programming change is a success for CNN...


Complete Government Incompetence. The 'science' surrounding Katrina was completely sound.

AC 360 on Katrina 'foot dragging' also known as "Who cares!"

Perhaps we all need to be reminded how ridiculous the circumstances surrounding complete devastation of the Gulf Coast actually is:


Katrina vs. Sea Surface Height

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Katrina_vs_sea_surface_height.JPG

Katrina's Path

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Katrina_2005_track.png

Katrina's Landfall

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Hurricane_Katrina_August_28_2005_NASA.jpg

Katrina's Eyewall

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:HurricaneEye.jpg

Katrina Pictures

http://www.katrinahelp.com/hurricane-katrina-pictures.html


How to get a FEMA trailer. The date of the article is November 11, 2005.

http://www.wdsu.com/news/5305091/detail.html


Evidently, on December 1, 2005, it was a real event when 'neighbor's got a trailer.'

http://mediajunkie.com/insidethebowl/2005/12/our_neighbors_get_a_fema_trail.html


Update 1: New Docs Show Gov't Forewarned on Katrina

http://www.forbes.com/business/energy/feeds/ap/2006/01/23/ap2470511.html

1030

I hate to be a 'party pooper' but the issue with the Crown Victoria was introduced by Aaron Brown.

There was a time in this country when 'the culture' cared about people. They don't anymore. Companies have removed themselves from customer service as they have had their liability threshold reduced in any class action suit. In 'Bush's Brave New World' customers literally have put their lives on the line when they purchase any technology, medicine or what was normally protected including automobiles.

The 'class action' suit is no longer effective so much as 'embarrassing' a company. Consumers have to form 'unions' to protect themselves from corporate disinterest and greed.

www.customeraskford.com

I didn't get results at this website.

Ford

Something about this company that screams, 'Get Help Here !'

http://www.ford.com/en/default.htm

Perhaps a 'warning' notice here?

http://www.ford.com/en/support/Search_Results?referrer=home&search=crown+victoria&searchend=end&image1.x=35&image1.y=10

Ford is not interested in helping consumers. They want it all to go away.

I rest my case.

1050

The Alma Mine was a prime example of 'Safety Incompetency' encouraged by Bush's Administration, House and Senate. Bush deliberately reduced the 'cost' of mining by compromising miner safety, passing legislation eliminating independant 'air shafts' into mines. In other words, where there should be 'vents' to the surface allowing 'fresh air' in to the mine it was no longer necessary to comply with what was necessary for miner air quality. Miners are disposable you understand. See, Bush doesn't realize human beings also sit on the Board of Directors of mine companies. It's time the Board members, the CEOs as well as the stockholders that gamble with people's lives for profits are sued.

Air quality violations of the human lungs by the Bush Administration doesn't stop with lungs and lives of miners in West Virginia.

Clean-air shift called unsound
State officials, scientists dispute EPA bid to strip regulations on airborne dust in rural regions.
By Chris Bowman -- Bee Staff Writer


A Bush administration proposal to strip certain clean-air protections from such rural areas as the rice bowl north of Sacramento is scientifically unsupportable, California air regulators and scientists said Wednesday.

The rural rollback, supported by the mining industry, is one of several proposed revisions in the regulation of tiny airborne particles from vehicle exhaust, power plants, farming and mining operations and other sources.

In developing the proposals, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency scientists analyzed a mounting body of science that links the fine particles to heart disease, strokes, asthma attacks and shortened lifespans.
Under the proposals published Tuesday, the EPA would take the unprecedented step of setting a different level of clean-air protection for some Americans than for others. The daily limit on the amount of particle pollution in urban areas would be tightened while the restrictions in rural regions would be removed altogether.


The state Air Resources Board nonetheless disputes the federal EPA position that airborne dust in rural areas is relatively safe and does not warrant federal regulation.

"Rural areas still have airborne particles from diesel-powered farm vehicles and equipment, from animal wastes and from pesticides and fertilizers," said Jerry Martin, air board spokesman. "We don't think those particles are any safer just because they aren't emitted in urbanized areas."

The bulk of the health studies have been conducted in urban areas. The few performed in rural regions, like a recent investigation in Southern California's Coachella Valley, provide "sufficient evidence" that the coarser specks from farms are harmful, according to Catherine Witherspoon, the board's executive officer.

"There have been too few studies ... to allow an informed judgement as to the relative toxicity of rural vs. urban coarse particles," Witherspoon said in a recent letter to the EPA.

Further, state officials say there is no practical way to enforce a two-tiered air-pollution standard in many rural areas because windblown city pollution often ends up there. The rural Calexico region on the Mexican border, for example, records the most frequent violations of particle pollution levels in the state because of its proximity to the city of Mexicali.

EPA officials point out that its scientists and those on an independent review committee generally agreed the windblown specks in cities, coming mainly from vehicles and factories, are inherently more toxic than the typical rural dust kicked up on farms and dirt roads.

"The evidence to date does not support a national air-quality standard that would cover situations where most coarse particles in the air come from sources like windblown dust and soils, agricultural sources and mining sources," EPA spokesman John Millet said in a statement to The Bee.

Rural regions in chronic violation of the federal particle pollution standards are Colusa County, Imperial Valley, the Mojave Desert and the Owens Valley, which, as a result of Los Angeles' draining of the Owens Lake, has the worst dust storms in the nation.

Harry Krug, who doubles as agricultural commissioner and air pollution control officer in Colusa County - population 21,000 - said the state's phasing out of rice-straw burning in the Sacramento Valley ironically has worsened particle pollution there.

While the burning restrictions have lowered the levels of harmful airborne soot and bits of rice-straw fibers, the alternative of plowing the stubble into the fields has put more dust in the air, he said.

Even if the district had dust controls, Krug said, "there wouldn't be any uproar in Colusa County" over their removal.

A Bush administration proposal to strip certain clean-air protections from such rural areas as the rice bowl north of Sacramento is scientifically unsupportable, California air regulators and scientists said Wednesday.
The rural rollback, supported by the mining industry, is one of several proposed revisions in the regulation of tiny airborne particles from vehicle exhaust, power plants, farming and mining operations and other sources.

The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration regularly inspects the nation's mines and responds to accidents when they happen. When the government visited the Alma Coal No. 1 Mine in Logan County, W.Va., they recorded following information:
VIOLATIONS: During 2005, inspectors documented 95 violations at the mine. The most recent inspection -- conducted between Oct. 11 and Dec. 23 -- produced 29 violations, or about 30.5 percent of the year's total.
SUBSTANTIAL: Of the 2005 violations, inspectors documented about 48 of them as being of a "significant and substantial" nature.
ACCIDENTS: Inspectors documented 31 accidents at the mine in 2005, four of which occurred in December.


Now, given the fact rural America is primarily comprised of 'working farms' then there is OBVIOUSLY a delineation between people whom are protected by environmental law and those that aren't. Given that FACT now realized minimally in California is there any doubt how a mine operator views workers when precious metals are at stake. Are companies about profit only? When companies 'allow' lenient government policy to increase their employee morbidity and morality they are guilty of human rights violations. People are not commodities. The Chinese Gold Mine is no different when a Canadian company finds an opportunity for profits.

Canada Company Finds Gold in China

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: January 23, 2006
Filed at 10:21 a.m. ET
SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- Canadian mining company Magnus International Resources Inc. said it found ''encouraging'' gold results from drilling samples at a project in western China -- one of many foreign ventures moving ahead as international gold prices soar.


Final word on AC tonight regarding cuteness.

It's a survival mechanism, called neoteny. Projection of self into the offspring provides emotional bonding of a helpless infant. Neotenic development happens in humans when the rate of our childhood development is slowed significantly. This means that more learning can happen in humans during our development. There is more time for a richer and fuller development of our minds. Noted that human curiosity may have had a role to play in the development of human consciousness.

Not to make 'love' aseptic. Neoteny works to incude parents in a fulfilling experience as well.

Enough