Classic Post--April 5, 2008/One more item about CNN

Let me say this about CNN: they proved me wrong.

In April, I closed the lead paragraph of the post titled "My fight with CNN" (reprinted in its entirety below) with the line "... but I bet you won't see me on CNN anytime soon."

And yo, here I am, just six months later.

Which speaks well for the network. I like the notion that major organizations don't hold grudges. Although I should add that the anthropomorphizing of organizations is, by and large, a dangerous practice and should only be done by experts such as myself.

I would also add this: Never in the history of me being interviewed by the electronic media has a crew been so nice. The correspondent was gracious, but that--unless you really piss them off--is standard operating procedure in situations like this. But the producer! Man, she was showering me with the love! Maybe she was being nice because early in our relationship I disclosed my earlier tiff with Campbell Brown and company. But regardless of motive, she was showering me with the love.

Here's how it started: Close readers will know that I'm recovering from a nasty weekend, healthwise. So my throat was still a bit raw and I was coughing a bit. So I say to the producer, "Can we take a moment? I want to buy a Snapple." She, in turn, says, "Let me get it. What kind do you like?"

Hmmm, I'm thinking.

I'm thinking this because I'm the kind of guy who, when offered an inch likes the notion of at least exploring the possibility of taking a mile. I'm not saying I'll take the mile, but I like knowing that the option exists.

So, after a brief discussion about what kind of Snapples I like (Peach, Diet Peach, Lemon, Diet Lemon, in what one might call 2/1/4/3 order), she asks, "Do they sell them in the pizza shop?" At which point I say, hating myself as I do so, "Yeah. Maybe later we can grab a slice?"

This is called "planting the seed."

I'm tired now and want to watch that dancing program so I'll make it short. In the end I got two snapples and two plain slices of pizza from the minions of the ghost of Ted Turner. I was gobsmacked, frankly. Makes me wonder what kind of stuff the network people will give you. Probably, now thinking about it, nothing but attitude.

Oh look--Toni Braxton is dancing the rhumba. Here, for your reading enjoyment, is a classic post:

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My Fight with CNN (April 5, 2008)

Did I tell you I had a bit of nastiness with CNN? More specifically, I wrote them a nasty letter about their coverage of The Annotated Spitzer and they wrote me an apology. Which I suppose is great, but I bet you won't see me on CNN anytime soon.

A portion of my letter went like this:

What really bothers me came later in the piece when Ms. Brown started talking about me taking the painting on a tour, ending up at room 871 of the Mayflower. At which point several things occurred to me:

I realized that the language in that portion of the segment was taken directly from, and without any credit being given to, Dealbreaker.com and its coverage of the painting. The copy from that piece ran, in part:

He'll be displaying it in front the stock exchange for the next week, before going on a tour that'll retrace Kirsten's steps from New York to DC, (hopefully) culminating in an exhibition in Mayflower room 871, which, interestingly enough, has yet to be cleaned.

This is the humorous ranting of a highly popular Wall Street blog. IT IS COMPLETELY FALSE.

As for Dealbreaker, I love reading it. I love that they have said some wonderful things about me in the past, some nasty things and some completely false things. Anybody who reads it regularly can tell the difference between all three categories. I'm a big fan.

CNN, however, is a completely different beast. Or one would at least like to think so. Surely whoever wrote that copy should have verified it in some manner, particularly knowing it came from a blog. Mr. [redacted], you know from personal experience that I am easy enough to reach and that I reply to inquiries quickly. Yet you guys just picked it up off the web and ran with it as if it were fact.

A part of their letter went like:

While we don't believe the story reported anything that is in any way damaging to you, we will accept that the line about the tour was not accurate. We apologize for any confusion that may have been caused.

Which I thought was nice enough. I mean, I take enough shit from Dealbreaker; you'd think I wouldn't have to get it from CNN as well.

I wrote a squishy note back accepting the apology.