Piers Morgan gets the boot from CNN's prime 9 pm slot

By Michael J.W. Stickings

David Carr at the Times:

There have been times when the CNN host Piers Morgan didn't seem to like America very much — and American audiences have been more than willing to return the favor. Three years after taking over for Larry King, Mr. Morgan has seen the ratings for "Piers Morgan Live" hit some new lows, drawing a fraction of viewers compared with competitors at Fox News and MSNBC.

It's been an unhappy collision between a British television personality who refuses to assimilate — the only football he cares about is round and his lectures on guns were rife with contempt — and a CNN audience that is intrinsically provincial. After all, the people who tune into a cable news network are, by their nature, deeply interested in America.

CNN's president, Jeffrey Zucker, has other problems, but none bigger than Mr. Morgan and his plum 9 p.m. time slot. Mr. Morgan said last week that he and Mr. Zucker had been talking about the show's failure to connect and had decided to pull the plug, probably in March. 

Like so many others, I don't much care for Morgan. While it's true that he's never really been able to connect with American cable news audiences, and while it's good that he can acknowledge that, and while on some issues, like guns, I thought he was right to take a vehemently critical view (I share his views on America's out-of-control gun culture), for the most part he only really made a name for himself as Larry King's replacement by being a self-aggrandizing blowhard or a blatant ignoramus, often both at the same time.

Which isn't to say that he's been all that much worse than King, who was truly awful in his later years on the job, but at least King was a generally genial institution who didn't really rub anyone the wrong way and who could at least conduct shallow celebrity interviews with a modicum of entertainment value. But from the start Morgan wanted to be much more than that, something other than King, and is there that he's failed miserably to make a difference.

Maybe Morgan still has a future on American television, maybe even at CNN if he's used the right way, whatever that may be. But it's probably best for the network that he'll soon be out of the key 9 pm slot. And I say that not as someone who watches prime-time CNN, or for that matter much CNN at all anymore, but rather as someone who remembers what CNN once was, the value it once had as the country's main cable news network, back before the landscape was overtaken by partisanism, and who hopes that it might again regain that status as the go-to network for, you know, news.

Thoughts on the mine rescue in Chile

By Michael J.W. Stickings

I was going to do some writing tonight -- and, yes, there's a whole lot to write about, with ever more Republican craziness polluting the public sphere -- but, honestly, nothing I want to blog about quite compares to the ongoing rescue of the 33 miners in Chile, trapped for 69 days a half-mile (a little more than the height of Toronto's CN Tower) underground.

It's simply amazing. And deeply, deeply moving.

I watched much of the Rays-Rangers game earlier this evening, but the coverage of the rescue on CNN and CBC has been absolutely riveting.

As I watch, the third miner is getting into the capsule, preparing to ascend. (What amazing live footage from inside the cavern.)

A few thoughts:

-- I cannot overstate just how incredible this is, both the courage of the miners through their long ordeal and everything that has gone into the rescue, an international effort that has become, understandably, a matter of national primacy for Chile.

-- I started off watching CNN, where Anderson Cooper, who thrives in such situations, did a great job, but then, at midnight, he turned it over to Larry King, and that's when I turned to CBC. King has had a long and distinguished career, but he's an idiot -- or, I should say, his questions and contributions are utterly idiotic. It may be a matter of age and general ignorance at this point, but it's embarrassing. When the second miner was on his way up, Larry noted that his name, (Mario) Sepúlveda, is also the name of some major thoroughfare in L.A. Who the fuck cares?

-- Larry aside, CNN's coverage has been quite good, with Anderson talking to a number of experts, as well as to the guy who led the drilling effort that ultimately got through. There were three such efforts, and this, B, is the one that made it to the miners first. Fascinating stuff, from a technical/technological perspective. And its coverage of the human side of the story, the key side, has been admirably respectful.

-- Check out CNN's full coverage, including an updated account of events.

-- I don't know enough about Chilean politics, and I haven't been paying close enough attention to this story the past two-plus months, to have an opinion as to whether Chilean President Sebastián Piñera, has been playing politics, using the story to try to score political points. What does seem apparent, though, is that the Chilean government is carefully stage-managing the rescue, with the president and first lady on hand, with the drama amped up, the tension and excitement building with each rise of the capsule to the surface. As someone on CNN suggested, this may be for the sake of transparency, understandable after what happened in Sago, West Virginia in January 2006. And, don't get me wrong, this is a story that transcends politics -- or should. And, again, I find it all deeply, deeply moving, not least when the miner (and the third one is just about to reach the surface) emerges from the capsule and greets a loved one. I just note that there's another side to this, what with the president standing there and with everything appearing so media-ready.

-- The Times (linked above) notes that "[t]he decision by Mr. Piñera, Chile's first right-wing leader in 20 years, to stake his young presidency on an unbridled push to rescue the miners was an extraordinary political calculation. But it has paid big dividends, bolstering his popularity at home and propelling him onto an international stage often dominated by other large personalities in the region." I certainly do not blame him for what he has done, and I do not criticize him for being there tonight, but it would be naive to think that politics had nothing to do with his decision. But hopefully he won't abuse this event (and his role in it) the way, say, Rudy Giuliani has abused 9/11 for personal political and financial gain.

-- For the most part, the coverage I've seen online has been excellent. Allow me to note one key exception: Michelle Malkin, who jingoistically titled her post "Celebrating American Greatness... in Chile." Seriously. I get that Americans have contributed a great deal to the rescue, but so did many others. I'm not sure if other conservatives are doing the same, but many conservatives these days -- and Malkin is just one of the most blatant examples -- are utterly incapable of viewing the world, including this heroic and spirit-lifting rescue in Chile, other than through the lens of (delusional) triumphalist American exceptionalism. (Canadians did a lot, too. Should I celebrate Canadian greatness tonight? Should I make it all about us? Please. I'm not that fucking arrogant.)

-- But that's not all. In Malkin's case, and this is also extremely common on the right, there's also partisan attacking to be done. She writes that the driller mentioned above, Jeff Hart, would, "[i]n a different day and age," be "the most famous American in our country right now." And why is he note? Because of Obama, of course, who is anti-drilling (and hence anti-Hart). This is stupid, if predictable. If Jeff Hart isn't as famous as he deserves to be, it's not because of Obama (or anything Democrats or liberals/progressives have done) but because of a dominant culture, one that the me-first, anti-government, anti-community, profit-is-everything right has manufactured according to its plutocratic greed, that prizes consumerism and superficial celebrity above all else.

-- CBC is saying now that some of the miners' families are planning to sue the mining company. With all the goodwill being expressed right now, it will be interesting to see how that plays out.

-- The miners apparently agreed to a pact of silence regarding the early days of their time underground. There are reports of infighting. CBC is also reporting that the miners want to get their story straight before speaking publicly, in detail, about their experience. Infighting is understandable, and so is the desire to keep what must have been an extraordinarily difficult time, full of conflict, private. Again, though, it will be interesting so see how this plays out, with books and movies to come. Will there be a standard account? If so, just how sanitized will it be, how packaged for wide public consumption? When will different perspectives emerge? Will the miners be able to maintain a unified front. It's unpleasant to think about such things at a moment like this -- I'm updating the post just as the fifth miner, the youngest of the 33 (and who had a daughter while he was trapped), gets into the capsule -- but the commercialization of this story is inevitable.

Anyway, three miners are out. There's still a long, long way to go, and of course any number of things could go wrong. But hope has prevailed throughout this ordeal and we are witnessing the culmination of a massive effort to rescue these brave men.

This is from the Times article linked above:

The race to save the miners has thrust Chile into a spotlight it has often sought but rarely experienced. While lauded for its economic management and austerity, the nation has often found the world's attention trained more on its human rights violations and natural disasters than on uplifting moments.

But the perseverance of the miners, trapped so far underground in a lightless, dank space, has transfixed the globe with a universal story of human struggle and the enormously complex operation to rescue them.

It has involved untold millions of dollars, specialists from NASA and drilling experts from a dozen or so countries. Some here at the mine have compared the rescue effort to the Apollo 13 space mission, for the emotional tension it has caused and the expectation of a collective sigh of relief at the end.

It is indeed an incredible story of human perseverance and determination. And hopefully it will all work out, with each miner, at long last, pulled safely to the surface.

Quote of the Day: Jesse Ventura on Cheney and torture

By Michael J.W. Stickings

In case you missed it, former wrestler and Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura was on Larry King the other night, and, facing Larry's typically inane questioning, he had some pretty interesting things to say about waterboarding, Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, and the Republican Party.

On waterboarding, he was clear: "It's torture." And:

It's drowning. It gives you the complete sensation that you are drowning. It is no good, because you -- I'll put it to you this way, you give me a water board, Dick Cheney and one hour, and I'll have him confess to the Sharon Tate murders.

You know what? Cheney's such a big fan of what is euphemistically called "enhanced interrogation," why not let Ventura -- a Navy SEAL who went through the military's notorious SERE program (and who was subjected to waterboarding as part of his training), have a go at him?

Why not let him have a go at all the other torture enthusiasts as well? Should they not know first-hand just what it is they're so enthusiastic about, not least because of the immense damage they've done to the Constitution and the rule of law, as well as to America's credibility and moral standing? They say it isn't torture, or that it's a necessary plank in the war on terror, that it's a useful weapon no matter what you call it. Well, let them experience it, suffer, and report back. I suspect that Ventura's right.

**********

Larry King also asked Ventura about Cheney specifically. His response:

I don't have a lot of respect for Dick Cheney. Here's a guy who got five deferments from the Vietnam War. Clearly, he's a coward. He wouldn't go when it was his time to go. And now he is a chicken hawk. Now he is this big tough guy who wants this hardcore policy. And he's the guy that sanctioned all this torture by calling it enhanced interrogation.

And about whether Limbaugh is "a better Republican than Colin Powell." His response:

No, not at all. In fact, if you compare the two, let's look at Colin Powell, who's a war hero, who strapped it on for his country, and didn't run and hide... And then you look at Dick Cheney who ran and hid. I have no respect for Dick Cheney. I have tremendous respect for General Powell.

That's some sound, straightforward commentary from a guy known for his unabashed bluntness, as well as for his independence. He was in top form the other night, and he spoke the truth.

Biden tonight

By Michael J.W. Stickings

If you can tear yourself away from the Bears-Packers Windy City Deep Freeze Bowl this evening -- and I'll be watching strictly for fantasy purposes (if Donald Driver catches a couple of passes, I'll finish third in my league), flip over to CNN for Biden on Larry King (if you can stomach any Larry King at all -- I'm not sure I can). It's a substantive interview, if this CNN preview is any indication. Some of you may remember that I welcomed the Biden pick for veep, and it's good to hear that Obama is including him at the highest levels of decision-making. He won't be a Cheney, perhaps, but he should be one of the key figures in the Obama Administration. Notable here is his statement that U.S. combat troops will be out of Iraq "within the next two years." I'm less enthusiastic about redirecting combat troops to Afghanistan, but, then, that's the one area of Obama's foreign policy that has genuinely troubled me.