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Brian Williams From Afghanistan: How Kabul Changed Overnight, What The Troops Think, & Why He Had To Go

2009-10-30T16:44:38Z

"NBC Nightly News" anchor and managing editor Brian Williams conducted an e-mail Q&A with the Huffington Post from Afghanistan, where he has been reporting from all week. Williams wrote his responses to the Huffington Post's questions Friday in Kabul.

Huffington Post: How are things different now vs. your last visit in June 2008?
Brian Williams: Things are different depending where you go in Afghanistan. So far on this trip, we've visited a U.S. Army Special Forces mountain outpost (better), Bagram Airfield (Same), and Kabul (worse). They are all narrow slices of a huge military effort inside a huge country. There are 35,000 villages in this nation, roughly the size of Texas -- and no two villages are alike.

HP: Does this feel like any of your Iraq trips? As in, does Afghanistan today feel like Iraq from 2004? 2006?
BW: Again, it depends on where you are and what you're doing. While the U.S. strategy is much more about "hearts and minds" these days in terms of big-picture theory, generally the Afghanistan we encountered on this trip seems tighter and more militant and militarized.

Yesterday the ride from Bagram to Kabul felt very Baghdad-like. We made the trip in armored vehicles with heavy security. The mechanics of the motorcade felt very similar to how the same type of journey would be undertaken in the urban areas of Iraq: we spaced the vehicles out, as to avoid getting bunched up and trapped in traffic (and vulnerable to attack or ambush). Our drivers and guards (and passengers who know what to look for by dint of experience) have all become hyper-aware of the same things you look for in Iraq: idle men by the side of the road who seem unusually interested in us, any changes in road pavement (that might indicate a newly-buried IED) and any objects like plastic jugs, dead animals, lumber -- anything that could be stuffed with explosives. Potholes are to be avoided, and when possible, drivers should follow in the tracks of the vehicle immediately in front of them. Similarly, here in Kabul, the attack on the U.N. compound was a wake-up call for security -- and we are taking steps for our own safety that we frankly would not have done 6 months ago.

HP: Did Richard Engel almost being on one of those helicopters that crashed drive home the dangers of covering war?
BW: Richard's experience (getting bumped from a helicopter flight that later crashed) was no different from the airport interviews we've seen in the States...people holding boarding passes from doomed flights, which for whatever reason they never boarded. Richard is brave but not reckless, fearless but never dangerous. There is a price to pay for covering our nation's dual wars. In Afghanistan especially, helicopters are de facto busses with rotors. They are the primary means of getting around. A flight on a Chinook or a Blackhawk is fairly routine. Even as a part-time visitor to war zones, I've gotten so that I sit in the same seat every time (right rear of the Blackhawk, right side midships on the Chinook) and I now handle the five-point harness latch and the headset microphone and crew intercom like a grizzled veteran. Richard has been on too many missions to count. He has had many close calls, and this was another one. No one loves his job more...no one loves life more. When I leave here to fly back to New York and resume my life and work, Richard stays behind here to do his job. He will spend as many hours flying in helicopters during the month of November as I will driving in my car back home.

HP: There's all this talk of making the cities more secure. Is there any sense that the people in the cities want the foreign troops there?
BW: Whereas some of the locals in Iraq (depending on the circumstances) will often be comforted to see U.S. dismounted infantry patrols, (in ways they were not until fairly recently) and will ask them for help and to stay with them, the situation here in Afghanistan is different. The two societies are vastly different. It is not helped by the fact that U.S. forces often take a very aggressive posture -- arriving in small towns in massive armored vehicles with machine gun turrets, each infantryman with his hands on his M-4 rifle in front of him...and often on the trigger with the safety off. Of course there's a reason for this: they get shot at and killed, and they are soldiers in an unforgiving place -- surrounded by an enemy they often can't see. So its a Catch-22 of sorts. It made big news here when Gen. McCrystal started the practice of removing his body armor while on walkabouts, or when meeting with local leaders. By his reasoning, the locals aren't wearing such armor. It should also be pointed out that he gets around in a massive, armored SUV with security vehicles in tow, dismounted infantry flanking him and able to unleash fearsome amounts of suppressing fire, and air support overhead whenever he is out and about. Even when U.S. troops are handing out something "good" -- food supplies, medicine, school supplies for the Afghan children, its not as if local villagers tending to their goats on a Thursday afternoon sit around thinking, "If only a dismounted platoon of heavily-armed American soldiers would come visit us today, preferably accompanied by an armored mechanized column...". The rumored/leaked Obama plan to concentrate on the population centers would essentially cede huge tracts of the countryside to the Taliban -- and it would reverse some hard-fought gains made by some military units who have been in almost daily firefights, often for control of mere acres at a time. Its not like it would be the first change in military policy for either war.

HP: How have the increased attacks in Kabul affected the atmosphere in the streets? Do people go out less, visit restaurants less? The UN is now on lockdown -- is the whole city?
BW: Kabul has changed -- a little bit, but literally overnight. The U.N. attack was a huge wakeup call. As I indicated, Kabul has hardened and tightened -- its much more about security now that the Taliban has "entered the battle space" with such a brazen attack. Richard Engel talks wistfully about the street life and nightlife here -- and he's talking about 6 months ago! There's a plan afoot for several of us to visit a local bar tonight -- but if we decide to go, we have to bring plain clothed security and have armored vehicles standing by outside and at the ready. Our security guys (the best I've ever worked with) already nixed our request to visit an open-air market that we visited without incident 16 months ago. It has changed here. Friday is a holiday, so street traffic is light (we just came back from a tightly-choreographed and heavily-guarded 2-hour outing to cover a story for tonight's Nightly News broadcast) but it doesn't feel locked down in any way.

HP: Have you gotten a sense of the troops' attitudes towards the war, Obama, McChrystal, etc.?
BW: Its hard to speak to the attitudes of uniformed personnel about their commanding generals or their Commander in Chief. This volunteer force, in keeping with military doctrine and chain of command training, is extraordinarily mission-oriented. They don't spend much of their time ruminating about McCrystal's plan or Obama's deliberations. They do not, however, like limbo...and I did hear a few complaints that the review process was taking too long. In the meantime, they do their jobs. There is also the usual disparities among personnel in uniform: two days ago, the Lance Corporal who drove us in a shuttle bus from our Chinook to the barracks at the air base never greeted us, made eye contact or turned down the hip hop music blaring from his stereo. He was just doing his job...the absolute bare minimum. We don't know what else is going on in his life. From there, we saw the other extreme, in a meeting with the 2-star General in charge of the 82nd Airborne and the entire military district surrounding the Kabul region. In that meeting was a Colonel I had previously met at Al Faw Palace in Iraq at the height of that war, another Colonel widely rumored to be on a fast track to Brigadier General -- and some of the sharpest, most squared-away officers the Army has to offer, male and female.

You've really got to WANT to cover this story. Its remote and its dangerous. Its difficult and expensive to get here, to broadcast television from here...even to drive across town. It is so much easier to stay in my office and newsroom at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York, and go home at the end of the day. Instead, I'm writing this in a dimly-lit room inside a barricaded, heavily-protected compound in Kabul, wearing boots covered in ash from the fire that consumed the U.N. Here on my desk is the military MRE (meal ready-to-eat) that I will happily consume for dinner. This is something I volunteer for -- and demand to do -- because its essential to understanding of this story. To be in my job for the past 5 years and NOT have a ground-level familiarity with both of our nation's ongoing wars would be reckless, I think. Getting to know the military -- sleeping where they sleep, eating what they eat, going on patrol with them, learning about their lives here and at home -- has been one of the great blessings of my life...and anybody who knows me knows I feel that way. Its one thing to post an opinion on the web about what the U.S. is doing here, from the comfort and safety of home...and its quite another to be here and experience it...and come back and do it again and again. For all the pejoratives attached to the MSM label, it also means we have the money and means to get over here and report what we see and experience. Our viewers can make their own judgments. That's the way its supposed to work.

Below, view photos from Williams' trip in Afghanistan, courtesy NBC News:

Watch Williams' vlogs from Afghanistan below:

"We're in the middle of an earthquake"

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

UN guesthouse a "war zone"

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Behind-the-scenes at Bagram Airfield

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

View more photos/blogs/vlogs from Williams' Afghanistan trip

Joy Behar Talks New HLN Show, Why Rosie Won't Be On, & Why Charles Manson Should Be Killed

2009-09-29T21:14:35Z

Joy Behar's new show will open with a splash this week — Bette Midler, Bay Buchanan, and Janeane Garofalo are scheduled for tonight's debut, with Michael Moore, Bill Maher, Ann Coulter, Larry David, and Regis Philbin all lined up — but one person who won't be appearing on "The Joy Behar Show" is Rosie O'Donnell, who turned down her invitation.

When asked whether her former "View" co-hosts O'Donnell or Star Jones would be welcome on her new HLN show, Behar said, "Maybe. I asked Rosie, she wasn't available for some reason."

Behar is referring to the show, which premieres tonight at 9PM, a "variety talk show" and while she's known for her liberal political perspective on "The View," she does not plan for "The Joy Behar Show" to be an overtly political show.

"You can see a lot of politics on a lot of different channels," Behar said. "I'm not interested, really, in talking in some wonky conversation about politics, though. It's not my speed. I'm not interested in the ins and outs of health care."

Further, she said she has some views that may surprise viewers who expect her to offer traditional liberal politics.

"I don't believe in the death penalty, but in Charles Manson's case I would say, 'Just do it,'" she said. "So that's a conservative position. Somebody who commits a heinous crime like that, and we know for sure 100% that they did it, why leave them in jail? Why spend money on it and aggravation? They need to be taken off the face of the earth, and I don't think that's a liberal position."

Behar also dismissed the New York Post's speculation, printed Monday, that CNN executives are viewing her as a potential replacement for when Larry King's contract expires in 18 months.

"He's not retiring," she said of her friend, for whom she has guest-hosted several times. "The guy's never gonna retire. And also I have this show so why concentrate on that? But it's nice to be mentioned. That's great company to be in."

The article also mentioned Katie Couric, Ryan Seacrest, and John King as potential King replacements.

Behar is settling in with her female-heavy HLN family, saying she had "a lot of fun" at a photoshoot recently with Nancy Grace, whose strong lead-in she will hope to take advantage of at 9PM.

"She's just a regular girl," Behar said of Grace. "I like her a lot. And Jane Velez-Mitchell is really a lot of fun. We get along just fabulous."

"CNN Headline News" re-branded to HLN in December 2008. "The Joy Behar" show rounds out its opinionated evening lineup, which includes "Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell" and "Nancy Grace," in addition to "Showbiz Tonight."

Fox News Producer Caught Rallying 9/12 Protest Crowd In Behind-The-Scenes Video

2009-09-20T04:37:08Z

A Fox News Channel producer has been caught in a behind-the-scenes video rallying the crowd during last weekend's 9/12 protest in Washington.

The Huffington Post has confirmed that the woman in the below video — seen raising her arms to rally the crowd behind Griff Jenkins, who was reporting from the scene for Fox News — is Fox News producer Heidi Noonan.

"The employee is a young, relatively inexperienced associate producer who realizes she made a mistake and has been disciplined," Bryan Boughton, Fox News Channel Washington Bureau Chief told the Huffington Post.

The video shows the producer on her cell phone as she urges the crowd behind Jenkins to cheer louder. An "I'm A Foxaholic" poster appears nearby.

The 9/12 movement has been championed by Glenn Beck, and is designed to "bring us all back to the place we were on September 12, 2001" when "we were united as Americans, standing together to protect the values and principles of the greatest nation ever created."

Fox News heavily promoted the protest event, and took out an ad in newspapers Friday asking how other news networks could "miss [the] story," only to have competitors hit back with proof that they covered the protest extensively.

WATCH RICK SANCHEZ REFUTE THE FOX AD HERE (bottom of post)

Watch:

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Below is video of the segment as it aired on Fox News (via MediaMatters):

Roger Friedman Files $5.2 Million Lawsuit Against Fox News

2009-06-30T01:57:16Z

Updated with complaint below

Fired Fox News entertainment columnist Roger Friedman filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against Fox News, News Corp, 20th Century Fox and Rupert Murdoch in New York State Supreme Court Monday, the Huffington Post has learned.

In the suit, Friedman seeks $5,180,000 in damages for wrongful termination, tortious interference, and libel defamation.

Friedman was fired in April after reviewing a copy of 20th Century Fox blockbuster "Wolverine" that had leaked online, a move seen as an implicit endorsement of piracy.

Friedman, who now writes for the Hollywood Reporter, is expected to allege that the piracy incident was an excuse to fire him, and that News Corp really bowed to pressure from Scientologists, who had been seeking his dismissal over columns critical of Scientology.

Update: In the complaint, seen below, Friedman does not allege that News Corp caved to pressure from Scientologists to fire him. Though the complaint does make reference to Scientology — namely that editor Refet Kaplan suggested that some of the blog backlash to Friedman's column may have been motivated by his columns criticizing Scientology — it never alleges that Scientologists pressured News Corp to fire Friedman. Rather, it claims that the copy of "Wolverine" that Friedman viewed was a copy of the movie that had leaked from Murdoch's control and that Friedman was fired to cover up Murdoch's mistake:

20th Century Fox, NewsCorp and Rupert Murdoch induced and compelled Fox News to terminate Friedman's contract in part to cover up the fact that the version of "Wolverine" that Roger Friedman saw online was actually a copy of the work print of "Wolverine" which had been in the possession and control of Murdoch.

The complaint also references a January 2009 article from the London Times — also owned by News Corp — which gave detailed instructions on how to download pirated movies but which resulted in no penalties for its writers.

The complaint also reveals that Friedman earned $250,000 annually, and is seeking $180,000 for wrongful termination (the remainder of his contract, which was set to expire at the end of this year). He is seeking the additional $5 million for libel defamation.

Full complaint below, embedded via DocStoc:

Roger Friedman Lawsuit -

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Fox News Denies Report: We Didn't Force Ensign To Admit Affair

2009-06-19T17:12:47Z

Fox New is denying claims that Doug Hampton — whose wife Cynthia is the other woman in Senator John Ensign's sex scandal — sent the network a letter pleading for help exposing the affair five days before the Senator announced it in a press conference and that Ensign came forward with the affair because he knew Fox was working on the story.

The Las Vegas Sun reported Friday that Hampton sent Fox News' Megyn Kelly a two-page, single-spaced letter dated June 11 detailing the affair and asking for help in exposing the Senator. The Senator came forward with the affair on June 16 — in part, a spokesman told the Sun, because his office had learned that Hampton approached "a major television news channel."

"We learned of this fact before the news conference," the spokesman told the Sun.

Tom Lowell, senior producer of "America's Newsroom," hosted by Kelly and Bill Hemmer, says no one at Fox News ever received a printed letter, but that a booker on the show received an email from Hampton with the letter attached on June 15 — the day before the Senator's press conference.

"We never received any letter from Mr. Hampton," Lowell told the Huffington Post. "He might have sent it, but we never received it. He did reach out to us about 24 hours before the news conference, and he sent an e-mail to a booker on my staff."

Lowell said that a member of his editorial staff followed up with Hampton that day.

"We followed up with him, but he seemed evasive and not credible, thus we didn't pursue it," he said. "We certainly weren't going to rush to air with accusations against a sitting Senator without doing due diligence on the reputability of the claims.

"We always evaluate people when they call into the newsroom in terms of: does this sound like its solid? Does it sound like its actionable?" Lowell said. "There were some questions here, so we decided that we would make some inquiries but that it wasn't something we needed to move on immediately. And before we could nail everything down and confirm this story the Senator had already announced his press conference.

"We get hundreds and hundreds of items a week," he added. "They could be requests for help, please look into this, I think someone did this...we have to filter all that. Clearly this guy had a story to tell and we just didn't get to it before the Senator got to it."

Lowell also stated emphatically that no one at Fox News reached out to the Senator to alert him about the story.

"I know there are people asking if we alerted the senator," Lowell said. "Definitely no one on our editorial team called anyone in Senator Ensign's office prior to the announcement. We just hadn't gotten to that point of confirming the story yet. Somehow, somebody told the Senator something and I don't know how that happened. But I categorically deny that we ever reached out to the senator in any way shape or form prior to him making his announcement."

Ensign spokesman Tory Mazzola could not be reached for comment Friday morning.

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Joy Behar Discusses HLN Show: Wants Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Sees Show As Sunday Times

2009-06-12T16:14:34Z

Sarah Palin may not be sitting down with David Letterman anytime soon, but come this fall there will be another comedian looking to book her: Joy Behar.

Behar, whose new 9PM show on HLN was just announced, said in a phone interview Thursday afternoon that she'd love to have Palin on "The Joy Behar Show."

"I'd love to have Sarah Palin on the show," Behar said. "She would do very well with me, because I'm not out to get Sarah Palin. I want to hear from her, she has things to say."

Behar, an outspoken liberal, said she wants to invite guests from both sides of the aisle to appear on her show.

"I don't want to do just a liberal show," she said. "I interviewed Ann Coulter when I was sitting in for Larry King a couple of times, and we have a rapport. I like to talk to her. I think it's interesting to me to talk to people who don't agree with me all the time. Rush Limbaugh, let's get him on the show! Even Dick Cheney is welcome on my show. I'll have a faucet ready for him but he can come."

Behar said the show, which will premiere in the fall, came together in the last few weeks, and that she's envisioning it like the Sunday New York Times.

"I have a lot of interests. It's not just politics," she said. "I'm interested in so many different things and I'd like to cover a lot of territory. I'm trying to see my show as the Sunday Times. You have the Arts & Leisure section, you have the Op-Ed page, you have the Book Review...even the Style section has those wonderful essays about relationships. I love that topic -- I've been married, I've been divorced, I've been dating for 27 years -- I have lots of stuff to talk about. So there's all sorts of relatable topics and I hope that my audience comes over to my new show."

Behar said that her friend Larry King -- who she's subbed for many times and who she'll now go up against at 9PM -- called immediately to congratulate her.

"Larry called me [Wednesday] night as soon as he heard and congratulated me, and we have a plan to have dinner. We have a date in a couple of weeks," she said.

The 9PM hour's leading cable news host, Fox News' Sean Hannity, hasn't yet reached out.

"Hannity hasn't called!" Behar said. "Why not? I wonder, he doesn't call, he doesn't send me an email -- what's up with that?"

Regarding Rachel Maddow, who also airs at 9PM, Behar said, "I like Rachel very much. She was on 'The View' and we bonded. She's a very smart girl."

Ken Jautz, Executive Vice President of CNN Worldwide and the head of HLN (which rebranded from Headline News in January), said, "Joy fits very well in the HLN primetime lineup," which he said is dominated by what he calls the '"3 Ps" -- personality, passion, and point of view.

But he cautioned that while Behar and King are both on at 9PM, the networks don't consider them competitors.

"Absolutely not," Jautz said, when asked if Behar would be competing against King. "Joy's show, like the other HLN shows, is opinion based. Larry has always kept his personal point of view to himself. I see opinion as a differentiator between the shows in this hour. It's also a differentiator between the two networks."

HLN's strategy, Jautz said, is to develop a primetime lineup that is "distinct and different from CNN's."

"Our goal is to develop the two networks such that they are not competitive," he said. "We have two goals -- to strengthen and grow both of our fully-distributed domestic networks, HLN and CNN, but also to differentiate both of them. And I think that's what this does and that lineup does."

Jautz moved to create a new show at 9PM to capitalize on the lead-in from "Nancy Grace," which in May 2009 was up 72% in total viewers and 84% in the A25-54 demo compared to the previous year. The hour currently features a repeat of Lou Dobbs' 7PM CNN program.

"This was not a surprise to Lou," Jautz said. "Lou and I have been speaking all throughout...that I'd like to use Nancy's strong lead-in on an original program."

Behar, who will remain a co-host on ABC's "The View," said that she isn't nervous about being too busy once she adds HLN host to her list of duties because she has always had much of the afternoon free.

"I get up at 7, I do 'The View,' we're on the air from 11-12, and there's always something to do and then I'm free," she said. "So it's just more things that I like to do. That's how I see it.

Jon Meacham: Newsweek Getting Smarter To Reflect Changing Times

2009-05-18T17:08:42Z

It's not your father's Newsweek, but that's not what Jon Meacham wants it to be.

The 76-year-old magazine is in the midst of a dramatic overhaul — a redesigned and reorganized issue hits newsstands today; a new Newsweek.com rolled out last week; the magazine is slashing its circulation in favor of a smaller, but more engaged (and high-paying) audience; and soon, the company will move from its Midtown Manhattan headquarters to a decidedly hipper (and cheaper) location in downtown New York.

Structurally, the magazine has been reorganized into four parts, what Meacham calls a shift from organization by "content to genre." In the front of the book, Periscope has become Scope, a section of short-form content. The magazine's columnists have been assembled together in a section called The Take, and after a features well, there is a culture section.

"The culture section replaces the more traditional nation/foreign/business/arts section structure," Meacham said in an interview last week. "I think it puts us in a stronger position to produce things with high caliber magazine values."

But more important than the structure, the magazine's mission has changed — indeed, it looks (with its increased use of white space and more dramatic use of photography), feels (with its heavier stock), and reads (with articles like Meacham's interview of President Obama and Tina Brown's profile of Nancy Pelosi) more like a monthly magazine than a newsweekly.

"We will be engaging, in depth, and tethered to the news but not trapped by it," Meacham said. "Our goal was not to scramble around getting little mentions of things that were in the news. A key part of this process is putting out the magazine that only we would want to read and not pretending that the generic reader out there needs a remedial course in current events."

It's that "only we" factor that is driving the magazine's effort to slash its rate base and court an elite audience that will pay more for each issue.

"The goal is by this time next year to be down to 1.5 million subscribers who will be paying slightly more for the magazine in order to produce a more engaged and definable demographic audience for advertisers," Meacham said. "The magazine is quite inexpensive now to subscribe to, and even after we raise it it's not terribly expensive. I think at the highest end it'll end up being something like $0.85/week, far less than a good cup of coffee these days."

And while it may sound as though Meacham is aiming to make Newsweek more like The Economist — something he's claimed to be interested in many times before — he cautioned that his magazine is unlike anyone else's.

"I hesitate to compare it to other magazines just because this is Newsweek and what we want to do," he said. "I love The Economist, I love the New Yorker, I love Time magazine, I love the Atlantic — I admire all of those editors and all of their staffs, but I just think in a country of 307 million people, in a globalized age, there's room for a lot of different voices and I think we need a lot of different voices. And we're going to be one of them."

Meacham called the redesign process — which he undertook with design firm Number 17 — "incredibly invigorating and liberating," but he emphasized that while he was excited to reimagine the magazine, it is the product of "76 years of blood, sweat, and tears and excellent work of the folks who came before us."

"We stand on the and in the shadow of the people who have been putting this magazine out week in and week out since 1933," he said. "And it's not that Newsweek wasn't good before today. It has always been an excellent magazine for the times, but the times have changed, and the business realities have changed."

Tucker Carlson, Dana Perino Join Fox News As Contributors

2009-05-15T20:36:39Z

Tucker Carlson and Dana Perino have joined Fox News as contributors, the Huffington Post has learned.

Carlson hosted the 6PM hour on MSNBC until March 2008, when his show, "Tucker," was canceled. Since then, he served as a senior campaign correspondent for MSNBC and has written for The Daily Beast.

Perino served as White House Press Secretary from September 2007 through the end of George W. Bush's second term. Last month, it was announced she'd be joining Mark Penn's public relations firm, Burson-Marsteller, as "chief issues counselor."

CNN's Jim Acosta In Cuba: "This Island Needs Help"

2009-05-04T18:29:41Z

Jim Acosta, correspondent for CNN's "American Morning," has been reporting live from Havana since last week. Acosta, a Cuban-American whose father left the island in 1962 (just two weeks before the Cuban Missile crisis), reported live on Friday from Havana's May Day parade and has been filing reports as well as blogging and Twittering the trip.

On Friday, Acosta called the Huffington Post from a cell phone in Havana to reflect on his first visit to the country where his father was born.

"It's warm and it's as colorful as all get-out," he told me. "It's like nothing I've ever seen before."

Acosta said the trip came together at the last minute — "I've had more notice for being deployed to hurricanes," he said — but that he had been trying to arrange an assignment in Cuba since the Obama administration eased travel restrictions for Cuban Americans last month.

"I started asking about an assignment down here after the new Obama administration policy affecting Cuban-Americans," he said. "And we started making some inquiries, we talked the Cuban Interests Section in Washington...and basically we put in a request with them, and we got word that we were allowed to come to Cuba one day before we left. We got the word on Wednesday and we left Thursday morning."

Acosta said that he was most surprised by the level of poverty he encountered when he arrived.

"I didn't expect to see the level of poverty that I'm seeing," he said. "This island needs help. I think that's part of the reason why we're seeing the Cuban government sound so open about talking with the US about a whole host of issues that they hope would lead to a normalization of relations. They would like trade and travel."

He was also surprised, he added, by the Cubans' friendliness.

"Nobody has said, 'Yankee go home!' Nobody has said, 'Down with America! Down with USA!'" he said. "There's none of that here. If anything, people are very friendly and they're sort of ready to throw out the welcome mat if you say that you're an American. They're like, 'Yeah, come on in! Have a mojito, have a cigar.' I was doing live shots this morning and somebody handed me a Cohiba — so I stuck it in my shirt pocket and said, 'I'll have that tonight, thank you!' So that has also been surprising and kind of nice to see. I didn't know exactly how the people would be and they've just been completely friendly."

In his reports, as well as in our interview, Acosta stressed that Cubans feel the change the Obama administration has brought to Washington.

"What we've found is really that attitudes are changing here," he said. "For years, the Cubans would shake their fists at the United States and obviously they did not like the previous administration. But this one they're giving a chance. And we're hearing that time and again. They're not absolutely sold on President Obama. They recognize that he is the President of the United States, and that he did not instantly end the embargo on Cuba when he came into office, so there are Cubans here who are not satisfied yet. But when you talk to the average Cuban on the street, they will tell you that they're hopeful, and I think that's something we haven't heard in a very long time coming out of this island."

Acosta said that he would like Cuba to become a "pseduo-beat" of his, and that he expects that there will be more developments in American-Cuban relations.

"I think this is a developing story," he said. "I think we're going to see more changes coming. I could be wrong about that, but I think that the White House would like to have a dialogue with the Cubans. I think they would like to see more exchanges in terms of cultural programs, areas of common interest, that sort of thing. I have no sense as to where they're gonna go with the policy, but my feeling is, after talking to the Cubans down here, that they like what they're hearing out of Washington. They just want to hear more."

As for Acosta's own father, he was "shocked" that his son was returning to the island he left when he was twelve and hasn't returned to since.

"I only got to talk to my dad as I was leaving the Miami airport, and he said, "You're doing what?!" Acosta said. "He was shocked. He was definitely surprised, but he understood. I've been wanting to come down here for myself for a long time."

Watch Acosta report Monday on Cuban embargo politics:

Watch Acosta report Friday from Havana's May Day parade:

"Today" Show Grounded By Swine Flu

2009-04-30T15:20:11Z

The "Today" show has postponed its upcoming vacation series over the swine flu outbreak.

The morning show opted not to send Matt Lauer on his annual globetrotting "Where in the World Is Matt Lauer?" series due to the recession, opting instead to explore affordable vacation destinations within the United States. The show was set to tape from Key West, San Antonio, and a surprise location next week.

But due to fears of swine flu, and the anchors' need to cover the developing story from New York, the show has delayed the trip.

"Because of the developing swine flu story, we have decided to postpone our 'Today Takes A Vacation' trip to San Antonio and Key West," a "Today" show rep said in a statement. "Given the uncertain direction of this story, we are in a better position to cover it fully with all of our anchors, staff and crew at our home base in New York. We have not yet set a new date for the trip, but we look forward to visiting these great cities soon."

Fox News Claims Top 11 Cable News Programs In April, #2 Network In Cable

2009-04-28T21:57:18Z

Fox News had another dominant month, claiming the top 11 program spots in cable news and placing 2nd in all of cable in primetime, behind only USA.

"The O'Reilly Factor" was the #1 cable news show in April, averaging 3.498 million total viewers. "Hannity" (2.566 million), "Glenn Beck" (2.230 million), "On the Record with Greta van Susteren" (2.173 million) and "Special Report with Bret Baier" (1.631 million) rounded out the top five. The full top 20 appears below.

Fox News also placed #2 among all cable networks in primetime, averaging 2.350 total viewers. USA took the top spot with 3.044 million total viewers, just 694,000 ahead of Fox News. Fox News is currently selling advertisers on the idea that it is gunning for USA's cable crown.

CNN placed 23rd with an average of 917,000 total viewers; MSNBC came in 25th with an average of 826,000 total viewers.

Interesting Note: While end-of-month ratings typically mean press releases galore, Fox News has not issued a release on their April ratings win (unlike the other three networks, who each spun various victories or growth figures). A network insider told me, "We didn't want to take away from the battle for fourth that's raging between CNN, MSNBC and Headline News [HLN]."

Top 20 Cable News Programs by total viewers, April 2009

1. "The O'Reilly Factor" (Fox News): 3,498,000 total viewers
2. "Hannity" (Fox News): 2,566,000 total viewers
3. "Glenn Beck" (Fox News): 2,230,000 total viewers
4. "On the Record with Greta van Susteren" (Fox News): 2,173,000 total viewers
5. "Special Report with Bret Baier" (Fox News): 2,047,000 total viewers
6. "The Fox Report with Shepard Smith" (Fox News): 1,915,000 total viewers
7. "The O'Reilly Factor" (Fox News, repeat): 1,723,000 total viewers
8. "Your World with Neil Cavuto" (Fox News): 1,520,000 total viewers
9. "America's Newsroom" (Fox News): 1,505,000 total viewers
10. "Studio B with Shepard Smith" (Fox News): 1,314,000 total viewers
11. "Happening Now" (Fox News): 1,247,000 total viewers
12. "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" (MSNBC): 1,237,000 total viewers
13. "The Live Desk" (Fox News): 1,210,000 total viewers
14. "Larry King Live" (CNN): 1,093,000 total viewers
15. "Anderson Cooper 360" (CNN): 1,058,000 total viewers
16. "The Rachel Maddow Show" (MSNBC): 1,042,000 total viewers
17. "Situation Room" (CNN): 898,000 total viewers
18. "Lou Dobbs Tonight" (CNN): 826,000 total viewers
19. "Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull" (CNN): 786,000 total viewers
20. "CNN Newsroom" (CNN): 725,000 total viewers

HLN Tops CNN, Nancy Grace Beats Keith Olbermann In April Demo

2009-04-28T19:41:03Z

HLN is one Hot Little Network.

In the month of April, HLN topped big sister network CNN in the primetime Adults 25-54 demo for the first time ever. HLN averaged 274,000 A25-54 viewers compared to CNN's 265,000. Fox News came in first with 662,000 and MSNBC placed second with 298,000 in the demo.

As a network, HLN — which rebranded from Headline News in January and adopted the tagline "News + VIews" — is growing in every hour of the day, posting 60% growth in the prime demo and 46% growth in total day demo.

At 8PM, "Nancy Grace" beat Keith Olbermann's "Countdown" in the demo, averaging 411,000 viewers to Olbermann's 384,000 (she also beat him at 10PM, when both of their programs repeat). Grace is up 103% in the demo compared to April 2008, the biggest increase in the demo of all primetime cable news programs.

In addition, "Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell" beat MSNBC's 7PM edition of "Hardball" in just its sixth month on the air.

And in one of the more surprising stats, "Morning Express with Robin Meade" placed second only to "Fox & Friends" in the demo — averaging 173,000 viewers and besting both MSNBC's "Morning Joe" and CNN's "American Morning."

Fox News Files Freedom Of Information Request With Department Of Homeland Security Over Right Wing Extremist Threat

2009-04-22T22:13:33Z

The Huffington Post has obtained a letter from Fox News to the Department of Homeland Security requesting they release the entire report on the right-wing extremists identified as a national security threat.

The letter, sent Wednesday from Senior Vice President of Legal & Business Affairs Dianne Brandi, was sent pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act.

Last week, the Department of Homeland Security issued a report saying that right-wing extremists could use the bad state of the U.S. economy and the election of the country's first black president to recruit new members to their cause.

Read the entire report here.

In the letter, Fox News requests "any and all documents that contain factual material or compiled factual material that the [Extremism and Radicalization Branch of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis] relied upon" to make the conclusion that right-wing extremists pose a national security threat.

"Given the vast amount of discussion and concern for domestic terrorism and the equal quantity of discourse over the possible compromise of America's constitutional rights, Fox News has a particular urgency to inform the public about the facts behind this much-discussed Assessment."

See the letter below:

In December, Fox Business Network sued the Treasury Department over failure to comply with a FOIA request on the use of bailout funds.

MySpace uReport: Fox News, MySpace To Team Up On Citizen Journalism Feature

2009-04-20T13:29:35Z

Fox News and MySpace are expected to announce Monday a new partnership that will allow MySpace users to upload citizen journalist reports with the chance to be featured on Fox News.

The MySpace uReport community represents the first partnership between Fox News and MySpace, which are both owned by News Corporation. Fox News already uses the uReport brand for its citizen journalist coverage.

MySpace users will be able to upload videos, photos, and stories in various MySpace uReport categories — including USA, World, Entertainment, and Politics — which could then be used on Fox News or foxnews.com. Users will also be able to link to their favorite Fox News personalities' profiles.

In January, MySpace partnered with the Wall Street Journal to send one MySpace user to the World Economic Forum in Davos as a special correspondent.

Ed Schultz To Be MSNBC 6 PM Host

2009-04-02T00:53:16Z

UPDATE 8:55 PM

The #1 story on Countdown was Keith Olbermann introducing Ed Schultz as the new host of "The Ed Show" on MNSBC weeknights at 6PM ET.

Olbermann joked that the qualifications for MSNBC hosts are being "an ex-sportscaster born on the 27th of January" (the two share a birthday), and then introduced his new colleague, who was sitting on set with him.

Schultz's show premieres next Monday. David Shuster will be an afternoon anchor, co-hosting 3-5PM ET with Tamron Hall. Norah O'Donnell will move to an as-yet unannounced hour in the morning.

Here's video from Countdown:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

The full press release is at the bottom.

* * * * *

PREVIOUSLY: 7:50 pm

The Huffington Post has learned that radio host Ed Schultz will be announced as the new host of the 6 pm hour on MSNBC. The announcement is due shortly, likely during "Countdown."

No word on what will happen to current anchor David Shuster, or if the hour will remain "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue."

Schultz, 55, has guest anchored in the past.

MSNBC did not respond to a request for comment.

In a recent Observer profile, the progressive talker, who has been guest-hosting for Shuster, was rumored to be a candidate for the 6PM or 10PM slots. But earlier this week, network execs announced that the 10PM slot has been put on indefinite hold.

Schultz's eponymous radio show, which he started in early 2004, is syndicated on more than 150 stations around the country. His 2004 book is titled "Straight Talk from the Heartland."

From a bio on his radio show's website:

Schultz is a graduate of Minnesota State University Moorhead. His competitive nature helped him lead the nation in passing & achieve All-American status and as a quarterback at MSUM. His son Dave Schultz is a professional golfer on the PGA Nationwide tour. A devoted family man, Ed and his wife Wendy have six children. He shares his passion for hunting, fishing and flying with his large family.

FULL PRESS RELEASE:

NEW YORK - April 1, 2009 - Veteran talk radio host Ed Schultz joins MSNBC as host of "The Ed Show," premiering on Monday, April 6. "The Ed Show" will air weekdays, 6-7 p.m. ET. The announcement was made today by Phil Griffin, President, MSNBC.

"I am thrilled to have Ed kicking-off our primetime lineup," said Griffin. "Ed's proven that he can connect with Americans and will be a perfect compliment to Chris, Keith, and Rachel. He's already made his mark on radio and I'm excited to see what he'll do with the 6 p.m. hour."

"I'm excited to have this opportunity with MSNBC," said Schultz. "I look forward to having a day to day discussion with fellow Americans on issues that really matter to all of us."

David Shuster, currently hosting "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue" at 6 p.m. ET on MSNBC, will join Tamron Hall as host of a new 3-5 p.m. ET program on MSNBC. Shuster will also continue to anchor breaking news coverage during the day and serve as a regular substitute anchor for "Countdown with Keith Olbermann." Norah O'Donnell's hour will move to the morning. The exact hour will be announced at a later date.

A veteran of 30 years in broadcasting and the radio industry's top rated progressive talker, Schultz is also the host of the syndicated radio program "The Ed Schultz Show," airing live weekdays from noon - 3 p.m. ET with a weekly audience of more than 3 million listeners on 100 stations across the country. Schultz has been the breakthrough talent in an industry dominated by conservative voices. As an avid voice for the middle class Schultz will bring his hard-hitting style to MSNBC.

Schultz has won three Eric Sevareid Awards and has managed and been lead talent for a team that won two Marconis and a prestigious Peabody Award. He has been named one of the top ten radio hosts in the country by "Talkers" magazine in each of the last two years. In 2007, Schultz was nominated for Syndicated News/Talk Personality of the year by "Radio & Records."

Schultz is the author of "Straight Talk from the Heartland" published in 2004.

Schultz is a graduate of Minnesota State University Moorhead where he led the nation in passing and achieved All-American status as a quarterback at MSUM. Schultz and his wife Wendy have six children. His son Dave Schultz is a professional golfer on the PGA Nationwide tour. He shares his passion for hunting, fishing and flying with his large family.