On Tuesday night CNN hosted a compelling 10 p.m. hour of insanity concerning NBC suspending star anchor Brian Williams for six months and Jon Stewart leaving “The Daily Show.” With Don Lemon at the helm of the cuckoo’s nest, they threw out conspiracy theories like Williams and Stewart switching jobs.
They had GWU’s Director of the School of Media and Public Affairs Frank Sesno seriously wondering if Williams lied about where he went to college. He said he had a source inside NBC tell him as much. They had Lemon mistakenly state that Sesno worked at the White House with Williams. Sesno squinted at Lemon all perplexed. Lemon apologized. “Oh, no worries man,” was the gist of Sesno’s reply. Among the big “revelations” from selfie-loving media baldy Brian Stelter was that this was NBC buying time to figure out what to do.
The panel then went into mind blowing speculation about what happens to Williams in six months. Who knows? Something the panel knows for sure: They have zero clue. “How is he going to rebuild people’s trust when he’s off the air?” Stelter asks.
(Seriously, if this isn’t genius TV, I’m not sure what is.)
Pretty much no one thought Williams would return after his timeout.
Lots of WTF indeed
.
Among the main points bandied about was this blurring of lines between news and entertainment.
Lemon went on and on about Williams for this, as did “Inside Edition” anchor Deborah Norville, who made some salient points by phone into the show. Shortly after, CNN aired an ad for their new painfully dorky quiz show, which of course does just that — blurs the line between entertainment and news.
Imagine that. Spend an hour dissecting the downfall of the leading newsman in the business for trying to be both a serious newsman and an entertainer and then advertise an ENTERTAINMENT show featuring top talent at CNN, including Lemon, Anderson Cooper (who will play game show host), Jake Tapper, Erin Burnett, Alisyn Camerota and Chris Cuomo.
I mean, why learn anything from the Brian Williams scandal?
Hey Jeff Zucker, you watching all this? Is anyone over there watching?
CNN talent drifts into entertainment land next Monday on Presidents Day.
The quiz show begins with presidential trivia.
Stay tuned…