Deborah Turness, the president of NBC News. She also says: "The heat that happens here is quite unique." Unique heat?
Some unnamed former colleague is quoted saying she brings "a bit of rock-chick swagger to a newsroom full of middle-aged men."
Rock-chick swagger? Where does bilge like that come from?
The only NBC news show I ever watch is "Meet the Press," which has been bad ever since Tim Russert died. We're told Turness thinks "Meet the Press" "needs more edge":
"It needs to be consequential. I think the show had become a talking shop that raked over the cold embers of what had gone on the previous week. The one-on-one conversation belongs to a decade ago.It belongs to 6 years ago, to be precise. Tim Russert was great at it, but you've obviously failed to replace him, so you might as well replace him with a panel. But...
"We need more of a coffeehouse conversation."Coffeehouse? I like coffeehouse conversation, but I don't want to watch journalists feeling comfortable and chatty with each other. Wouldn't that be "The View"?!
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87 comments:
More edge? How about competent to conduct interviews and promote in depth discussion of important issues of public interest?
Well Ms. Althouse you've confessed to one great failing--you actually watch an NBC News show. That's not as bad as watching MSNBC--an hour of that will kill as many brain cells as will occur if you drink a gallon of Everclear alcohol. But even the current edition of Meet The Press has a stupefying effect.
If NBC wants to regain lost ratings, it would be a helpful first step to stop being yet another vassal of the Democratic establishment. A bit of actual objectivity and fairness would go a long way to getting people like me to stop snickering when they ram their noses up every Democrat pol's posterior.
They're after audience and the only audience that can bring daily ratings is soap opera women.
So there you are.
The fiction is that it's news, because that makes their audience feel good about watching what they enjoy, soap opera takes on public affairs.
Oppressor and victim stories.
"Where does bilge like that come from?"
Desperation.
The Internet has revealed the truth that many who were once thought to be exceptional are only ordinary or worse.
"The View" is a group of journalists?
You have indeed been watching too much of something!
or drunk.
a bit of rock-chick swagger to a newsroom full of middle-aged men
The men must really want to work for someone like that.
Unless she's improved ratings (Has she? I've no idea) she hasn't done much.
As an aside: This has certainly been a red letter day for this blog. So many interesting items and commentary from the Professor. Should be saved for a "best of" repertoire or a book.
As dumb as journalists can sometimes be, it's impossible they could be as uninformed and empty-headed as the hosts of "The View."
I could not find one on-camera video of this woman.
Seems odd, doesn't it? A network news president who doesn't grant - or conduct - interviews.
Deborah Turness employs Al Sharpton.
Does it really matter what else she does?
"Where does bilge like that come from?"
Look no further that Steve Burke, the thoroughly rotten head of a very large dead fish. They used to wipe down smelly sea food with Clorox to kill the telltale odor of decay. Now they trot out some botox-enhanced "edgy" broad, i.e. the manners and vocabulary of a trollopish sophomore from Sarah Lawrence, but with crow's feet and a sun damaged neckline, and then declare victory over mortality.
There was a time... but that time is long past. David Brinkley has been gone quite a while.
Yes, NBC News is now merely "The View" with journalists, which is not nearly as much of a distinction as they'd like you to believe.
I don't know any thing about Deborah Turness. However, British journalists, even the ones left of Lenin seem to still remember they are journalists, rather than DNC operatives with press badges.
The most honest reporting about US politics seem to be offshore...
""The View" is a group of journalists?"
If you try to get a coffeehouse atmosphere and your journalists are the soft-bellied, chummy characters I've already seen on "Meet the Press," it will be like "The View." Yes.
Next stop CNN & HLN! Check out Drudge.
More edge? Try more substance. Try less cheerleading for Obama. Try not being a mouthpiece for Democrats. Avoid having hosts interviewing other members of the media--journalists interviewing journalists is not edgy. See that wasn't hard...
Rock-chick swagger?
It means that she has a tramp stamp.
For the last 6 years, Meet The Press has been nothing but Man Bites Dog. Boring and predictable does not make for good television.
It must have come from the cunning linguist, John McWhorter. Swaggery and Black English spice kit were modifiers he used in defense of Smiley droppin the g's! That there is bilge ifn I ever heard bilge. Remember that post a couple of weeks ago?
I gave up watching the Sunday interview shows so long ago that I still think of David Brinkley as a smart-ass young kid (I did like his show). If they ever do a show where journalists (note the word) ask the pols tough questions and don't accept their bullshit answers but keep after them and after them and after them, please let me know; I might start watching again. Otherwise, why bother?
NBC has a news organization? Who knew?
She sounds like Obama.
"I have achieved more in the first year than I ever thought I could"
... if I do say so myself.
I get better and more informed commentary on this blog than on any so-called Sunday morning show. And that includes Crack, Garage, ARM, RC and the former Inga among others commenting.
The Nothing But Crap ( or Commies) network is going to need more than some Brit broad with her so-called edgyness to begin to even considered somewhat credible as a news and commentary source.
Edge? They should change the title to "The Macho Response" and have Crack host it.
She obviously had very low expectations.
There is no such thing as "cold embers." There are coals, embers, and ashes.
Raking over the coals refers to the embers. It should be raking someone over the embers because the coal is hot at that point.
Stir the embers is probably what she means. While I enjoy the bastardization of a cliché, raking the cold embers doesn't do it for me.
Chuck Todd doesn't exude edge. Neither does NBC.
"Rock chick swagger" usually comes out of the mouth of a bad middle aged actor in the middle of a lame 60's/70's Roger Corman hippie movie...and lord knows NBC News is full of bad actors.
Who talks like that?
Bullshitters, by and large.
And her husband was a roadie for the Clash.
This would be like the BBC hiring someone from CBS and mentioning that the spouse was a roadie for The Ramones.
Ugh.
We must be in a sorry state if our nation has not one journalist capable of running the news division of a TV network.
"Where does bilge like that come from?"
Desperation.
No, it comes from the entertainment business, the source of the value set and kind of person they now embrace.
Your question answers itself. The bilge comes from the bilge. You seriously overestimate the intellects of these people if you think otherwise. To them, a cliche is an original thought. Try to engage Brian Williams in a serious conversation and expect to come away impressed. I dare you.
"Coffehoue atmosphere" brings up an image of Dr. Johnson; not Baba Wawa.
If NBC wants to regain lost ratings, it would be a helpful first step to stop being yet another vassal of the Democratic establishment. A bit of actual objectivity and fairness would go a long way to getting people like me to stop snickering when they ram their noses up every Democrat pol's posterior.
That's what I don't get. All of these stations are just leaving an audience for FNC all of the time.
If they cared about viewers, NBC would start to approach the middle.
If Joan Jett did the news, I'd probably actually watch it for a while.
They need Katie Couric back again. At least she has
the guts and the skill to get an answer.
I don't want to watch her news product and I don't want to buy products from her sponsors.
She can just go away.
"Where does bilge like that come from?"
Baby Boomers.
An interesting point, which indirectly comments on the banality of the NBC quote:
"Rock star" -- meaning someone who has intense charisma and is the idol of millions -- is itself a dated concept. The last really omnipresent rock album was probably Green Day's "American Idiot," written in the halcyon days when George W. Bush was thought to be so ignorant and superficial we would never see his like again.
The biggest music stars are rappers or solo singers, and have been that way for a decade or more. Rock stars are nostalgia acts or niche performers.
@mccullough
I deleted a section of the post that was trying to say something like that.
Thanks for saying it so well.
"If they cared about viewers, NBC would start to approach the middle."
What is sad and funny at the same time is that they think it is the middle.
If they ever do a show where journalists (note the word) ask the pols tough questions and don't accept their bullshit answers but keep after them and after them and after them, please let me know; I might start watching again.
@Godfather, when all the politicians are Republicans that's precisely what will happen. Until then ...
Eli Stokols does the show after Chris Wallace on Fox in the Denver market. Serious questions and answers, though like Russert slightly biased.
While he accuses Republicans and gives Democrats opportunities to expound on the goodness of their ideas, he usually addresses the more important questions not bubble gum "boxers or briefs" bullshit.
Sadly for me I have to accept my TV ideas do not work. I wanted a nearly All-Buckley network but the Krauthammer-hosted Buckley/Reagan Firing Line edited for a Saturday Special didn't light up the ratings charts as far as I am aware. Too bad.
I only watched about 10 minutes and then got bored, like a douche.
I have said before and still believe Ann Althouse, Ann Barnhardt, and former Govenor of Alaska Sarah Palin could combine to change our culture, in ways profound, were they to agree to a weekly Sunday show broadcast on Blaze TV and CNBC.
Reporters go out and find things called 'facts' and report them without fear or favor.
Journalists mold and shape the news to make 'the world a better place.'
'a better place' = bigger more powerful and intrusive government to help the little guy.
Should we believe her numbers and her self-congratulation? Perhaps her highest expectation was that she would make it to the studio every other day and she has managed to get there every day. Whoopee!
The author of the puff piece won't give us any hard numbers but from his comments it appears that NBC has made little to no progress in the ratings of various key shows. I don't watch any of these "news" shows, but I will make a fearless prediction that after the failure of an edgy Meet The Press Ms. Turness will be gone by next summer.
Hahaha! Someone from NBC thinks that MTP needs "more edge!" As if it already has "edge!" Ms. Furnace works in television (in the "News" division... which is just entertainment, really), so she wouldn't know "edge" if it came up and bit her on the penis.
Nothing says "edgy" like coffeehouse conversation, and Matt Lauer. Well, maybe he's edgy now that he's gone through menopause.
Just so y'all know, I bought The Guns of Will Sutton seasons One and Two.
The DVD's have arrived. No brag; just fact.
So Spelling shall now speak through me, along with Walter Brennan.
And what the Hell is this autocorrect all about if I spell Governor wrong?
Maybe Piers Morgan's back after a sex-change.
Or maybe some kind of Tina Brown-like creature has escaped Fleet Street and come over to sex-up the news.
Progress! Women! Pantsuits! Equality!
MTP and its equivalent on the other networks can't compete in the internet age. Too many real experts offering informed commentary are available online to bother with beltway gasbaggery. If the legacy news outlets have a service worth buying, even if the only cost is in your time to watch it, it's in providing current and reliable factual reporting -- which is the very service so many of those outlets can't be bothered with.
The only watchable NBC 'news' show for me is Live with Kathie Lee and Hoda.
They could always reach out to Keith Olbermann.
"They could always reach out to Keith Olbermann."
If Olberman could stay on his meds, he would blow them all away.
The "rebel songs" are outlawed at Irishfest.
And $7 per beer.
My mom noticed, and she is eo ipso their existence.
Me: Protein Wisdom.
Steyn.
The Reynolds of certain glen.
With certainty approaching the vicinity of 99% I know it isn't the GOPers changing Irishfest to suit Milwaukee and crony assholes persecuting their brethren.
So who the €%}# is doing this?
Never ask why we all know: power/money/prestige.
Rock-chick Swagger Exec says:
You think running a business is hard? In 1988 I made it back-stage after a Bon Jovi show in Jersey with little but acid-washed jeans, big hair and a willingness to blow the right roadies: that's PERSEVERANCE, people. It ain't the blow job, it is knowing the right people to blow, and in what order: write that down, it will be in my book.
Rock-chick Swagger Exec says:
You think running a business is hard? In 1987 I had the drummer from Def Leppard spank my naked ass with his stump in his hotel room in Toronto, and I made him believe I LIKED it. That's COMMITMENT, people. You don't get to the champagne without a little pain: write that down, it will be in my book.
Rock-chick Swagger Exec says:
You think running a business is hard? In 1987 I went to a Whitesnake concert in Cleveland, and after my knocking two other chicks out cold in his Jacuzzi David Coverdale asked me to sign HIS tits. That's STRATEGY, people. A good business deal is like a rock star's jacuzzi: you're either in or you're out. Write that down, it will be in my book.
Rock-chick Swagger Exec says:
You think running a business is hard? I was in Kansas City in the hotel room of the bass player from Poison, giving his drunk ass a lap dance when he threw up all over me. Did I freak out? I'm a PROFESSIONAL: I grabbed my clean back-up panties from my purse and called for housekeeping. PLAN AHEAD, people, and NEVER be the last one to clean up the vomit. Write that down, it will be in my book.
I believe Fuck McCain would have gone to literal wAr over amnesty.
The crazy fuck McCain ( not being elected) is the single greatest reason for American exceptionalism.
Blame the 2012 cheating for sure, but let us never again impuign motives from 2008. The reason is history has proven stupid people do that.
All too much.
I rejoice in retirement. Imagine being towards the end of your working life and suddenly have this dynamo from across the seas appear. She's probably got some kind of nebulous vision, and a lot of the old timers are simply too set in their ways to see its beauty. She'll fire a few people, raise the anxiety level of many others, and then, herself, get fired within the year.......When Stalin appointed a new Minister of Information, I bet the Pravda article on him had a similar tone to the Times article. They all say such nice things about one another until they don't.
Idiocy expounded could not be better exemplified than Sarah Palin's record versus each and all of every critic the Woman had and forever shall have.
All your Apple overlord's ask is you the algorithm
as God.
The consistency, the rabbit, wins I guess.
"We need more of a coffeehouse conversation."
They probably could go out onto Sixth Avenue and hire the first Starbucks barista they saw and he or she could probably get at least the same ratings as David Gregory's been pulling. Can Chuck Todd make a Java Chip Frappuccino?
Honestly, what is the point of these chat shows anymore? Why should I waste 30 minutes of my life listening to MSM pundits or some blowhard like Johnny McCain? You already know the answers before they ask the questions.
Originally, MTP had powerful politicians/elder statesmen answering thoughtful questions about important issues of the day. For example, YouTube had a video of Former President Hoover on MTP in the early 60s responding to questions.
But then I'm not the target audience. People like Althouse are.
Nancy Reagan knew, and knows, the greatest threat to Ameriica has been and will be, shortly, John McCain.
I say this as a tiny McKraut.
In 1987 I had the drummer from Def Leppard spank my naked ass with his stump in his hotel room in Toronto, and I made him believe I LIKED it.
Ok, this has been quite a Betamax day. It started with tears streaming down my face while laughing at the gangsta dentist who got shot at the dental convention in Dayton and ended tonight with a snort that the neighbors could hear picturing Rick Allen using his stump as a sex tool.
Super good stuff. Damn!
- Krumhorn
.
WAy better is
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KxaZeGGYji4
I'm reminded of the Doonesbury cartoon a million years ago. Mike is still married to JJ, and he tours her latest installation, doing the bathrooms at a new restaurant. She's put all the urinals inside of TVs and is showing Mike how the customers piss straight into the front where the glass used to be. Mike frowns and says J.J., as a long time user...
I have this image of Althouse furrowing her brow at Turness showing off her post-modern 21st century vision, of pissing in (or out of) the TV news analysis hour, and Althouse furrowing her brow. Er...as a long time user...
Her husband was a roadie for the Clash? He should have a chat show.
Don't know whether Turness has it or not.
That said, when I saw "rock-chick swagger" I instantly thought of Pat Benatar, for example, among others over a stretch of time (and now that I think about, including a longer stretch of time). I don't see the phrase (rock-chick swagger) as bilge at all in and of itself, as a phrase.
To reiterate, I'm not commenting re: Turness, about whom I haven't bothered yet to get a clue. Thanks for the nudge!
Edge? Is this going to bring us Poochie? Maybe if the panelists are wearing leather jackets and smoking the whole time--how edgy!
Or, they could actually have in depth, tough interviews where no one gets a free pass. I like the idea of a rotating panel of journalists across the spectrum, getting a chance to go at various public figures. The show devolved into softball.
What is sad and funny at the same time is that they think it is the middle.
Even more sad but less funny? Progressive memes, which for the most part are rehashed 3rd generation Marxist crapola, are becoming embedded in the conventional wisdom.
"Being rich is bad" has became an unstated assumption in every lefty political conversation, most classrooms, most media and every Sunday AM MSM opinion outlet such as "Meet the Press"
Other memes widely touted: Capitalism is bad, America is bad and the big government-forced redistribution of wealth is good. All Marxist in origin and since the sixties all in the process of becoming "the truth."
Good luck to the future of America. It'll need it.
TV news is circling the drain, just behind newspapers and home telephones.
It's something old people watch.
Hey Deborah! Here's something edgy for you
"The IRS filing in federal Judge Emmet Sullivan’s court reveals shocking new information. The IRS destroyed Lerner’s Blackberry AFTER it knew her computer had crashed and after a Congressional inquiry was well underway. As an IRS official declared under the penalty of perjury, the destroyed Blackberry would have contained the same emails (both sent and received) as Lois Lerner’s hard drive."
@grackle, "being rich" is not bad. George Soros is good. Lloyd Blankfein is good. Jeff Bezos is good. They spend obscene amounts of money to keep Democrats in power.
Working hard to make something of yourself is bad.
She's English? Maybe she could have a it hosted by a Dalek.
I havn't watched NBC non-sports programming for decades, but I can't help but notice that the Brit woman who heads their news dept used the word "I" three (3) times in one short sentence.
"We need more of a coffeehouse conversation."
We get that through NPR from the Friday morning klatsch on KBCS. It's deadly - four self-satisfied knowitalls speculating on the count of angels dancing on the head of a pin, without a whisper of diversity or dissent in the opinions.
Who talks like this? Thought of Faye right off [from IMDB]:
Diana Christensen: I watched your 6 o'clock news today; it's straight tabloid. You had a minute and a half of that lady riding a bike naked in Central Park; on the other hand, you had less than a minute of hard national and international news. It was all sex, scandal, brutal crime, sports, children with incurable diseases, and lost puppies. So, I don't think I'll listen to any protestations of high standards of journalism when you're right down on the streets soliciting audiences like the rest of us. Look, all I'm saying is if you're going to hustle, at least do it right.
One thing to keep in mind is that the people who want to package "edgy" wouldn't know an edge if it smacked them across the shins....
I think people worry too much about the middle and too little about a mix.
Place quotation marks as you will, won't you?
If they're going for a coffeehouse vibe, does that mean everyone will be sitting there working on their novel after paying for only one drink?
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