Whew. Many's the time I've been watching NBC News' Richard Engel report on some strife in the Middle East, missiles exploding around him, and thought, that dude is going to get hurt one day. I've often thought the same thing watching Anderson Cooper in the same sorts of scenarios. Well, Anderson has experienced some harrowing events, but I doubt anything like Engel's recent disappearance. Monday, the news filtered throughout the internet--despite NBC's pleas for a blackout--that Engel and his news team were missing, and had been since Thursday. When you go missing like that in Syria, I can't imagine the odds are good that you'll turn up relatively unscathed. Thankfully, Engel and his team are okay.
[Excerpt] Richard Engel of NBC Is Freed in Syria
Richard Engel, the chief foreign correspondent for NBC News, and his crew had sneaked into Syria before. They knew where to go, where not to go; what to say, what not to say. But last Thursday, in a demonstration of the perils of reporting from the war-torn country, Mr. Engel’s crew was taken hostage by an unknown group and told they would be used to secure the release of hostages being held by Syrian rebels. . .
Isn't that headline just the most thrilling thing ever? Yeah, I know. I can't figure the fuss out either. So, Microsoft has ended its business deal with NBC. They haven't been part of the cable station for years. Still, some conservatives are having schadenfreudegasms over the news. Let them have their fun. MSNBC.com was different from the channel, and it looks like the renamed site will continue to be. Party on, dudes. Whatever.
[Excerpt]
NBC, Comcast draw a line between MSNBC website, TV channel
NBC News and Comcast Corp. moved on Monday to fix brand confusion between the MSNBC 24-hour cable news show, whose ratings have surged with liberal commentators Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews and Ed Schultz, and the straight-news MSNBC.com news website. . .
UPDATE: It looks like--cross your fingers--that the oil leak in the Gulf is presently stopped. Stopped by mud, but stopped, for now. They still have to cap it off with cement, 1 mile down, but there you are. The piece below is still relevant, as it might be useful to look at what was done in 1979 post-disaster.
ORIGINAL POST:
If you've read this blog before, you know I'm a big Rachel Maddow fan. But did you know there was an oil spill in 1979, very much like the spill going on right now? Neither did I. It was, like today, in the Gulf of Mexico, and spewed for months. Remarkably, the response then was almost identical to what is happening today, down to the "junk shot" and the "top hat" (then called a "sombrero"). None of it worked then. Do we think it will work now? Ultimately, the only thing that worked was to drill relief wells.
Maddow unearthed some old NBC News clips of the 1979 disaster, and the similarity is uncanny. How could we have forgotten about this? And what was the resultant fallout from that event? Might it help us in the current cleanup?
Whoa. That I did not expect. Tim Russert's input in the Presidential primaries is so recent and fresh. I don't think I've missed more than two or three Meet the Press episodes in the last couple of years. I haven't always had nice things to say about him, but I have to say he was the best of the Sunday morning hosts (followed closely by Face the Nation's Bob Schieffer).
It's too bad he didn't at least get to see how this election season panned out. RIP, Tim. And readers, watch the news closely this weekend. When you a story like this breaks, it tends to obscure what else is going on. Friday night is already the place where news is intentionally buried. As Rachel Maddow says, read that Saturday morning paper!
Tim Russert, NBC News’ Washington bureau chief and the moderator of “Meet the Press,” died Friday after being stricken at the bureau, NBC News said Friday. He was 58.
Russert was recording voiceovers for Sunday’s “Meet the Press” broadcast when he collapsed. He was rushed to Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, where resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful, said Russert’s physician, Michael Newman, who said the cause of death was not immediately known. . .
Political pundits are everywhere, all the time these days, pontificating and predicting--and are very often wrong. One person, NBC "Numbers Guy," Chuck Todd is more accurate than most. He has an interesting take on what the next two days--and the end of the primary process--hold in store.
I make it a policy at Greenlee Gazette to only post stories that interest me in some way, be they political, newsworthy, silly, or just entertaining. So, I honestly must say, I don't really care about this particular story. The reason I'm posting it, is for the photo, and only for silly reasons.
What are my reasons? Only to ask a question. Is it just me, or is the old adage saying the longer you are married to someone, the more you start to resemble them, true in this case? Just wonderin'.
Maria Shriver said she won't resume her TV news career and the late Anna Nicole Smith is the reason why.
Shriver, speaking Tuesday at a conference on women, said the media circus surrounding Smith's accidental drug overdose death last February led to her decision.
"It was then that I knew that the TV news business had changed and so had I," Shriver said. "I called NBC News and told them I'm not coming back."
