CBS NEWS CHIEF PUSHED OUT

The LA Times reports:

”NEW YORK — CBS News President Andrew Heyward is being replaced by CBS Sports President Sean McManus, the network announced today, the latest upheaval in an industry churning with change.

“In an interview, CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves said that he wanted to make a change after what he called “a traumatic year” for the news division, which was enveloped in controversy last fall after reporting a story about President Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard.

“Heyward’s contract is up at the end of the year, but McManus — who will oversee both news and sports — will take over Nov. 7, while the former news president serves as an advisor for the remainder of his term.

“Both Moonves and Heyward said the decision was mutual.”

Heyward was a producer who came up through the ranks. Some folks at CBS told me it was not a matter of if Heyward would go but when. Conveniently he leaves just before a book by Dan Rather’s producer Mary Mapes comes out and this may be a way to dampen any more controversy. He will apparenty will still qualify for CBS retirement.

Meanwhile Michael Petralis reports that McManus made a contribution to the 2000 Bush Cheney primary campaign in 2000. AP reports CBS declines to comment on this revelation.

http://mpetrelis.blogspot.com/_ (http://mpetrelis.blogspot.com/

US NEWS & WORLD REPORT, HARVARD BAN REPORTER WHO ASKED THE WRONGQUESTIONS

RUSSELL MOKHIBER AND ROBERT WEISSMAN report:

(Yesterday) morning, at the National Press Club, U.S. News and World Report held a press event to announcethe release of its list of “America’s Best Leaders 2005.” The event wasco-sponsored by the Center for Public Leadership at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. And it was paid for by theoil giant BP.

We saw a notice of the event on the National Press Club’s web site. At the appointed time, we went over to the First Amendment Lounge to attendthe event. C-Span was covering it (Brian Lamb was chosen as one of the “best leaders” — as was Roger Ailes of Fox News, Thomas Friedman of theNew York Times, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and formerSecretary of State Colin Powell, among others.)

So, we show up at the door to attend and are met by James Long, the manwho organized the event for U.S. News and World Report. Long tells usthat we are not allowed into the press briefing.

Why not? “Well, on all the notices, it said RSVP,” Long said. “And you didn’t RSVP.”

We didn’t see anything about RSVP. But okay, we’ll RSVP now. “No, you won’t,” Long said. “You are not allowed in.”…

IF YOU CAN’T BEAT ‘EM, COMPETE AGAINST THEM

The western attack on Al Jazeera is continuing, this time with the BBC announcing that the Foreign Office will be financing an expanding Arabic language service to compete against the popular station that has so antagonized officials in Washington and London.

The NY times reports:

The NY Times reported yesterday that British Government funded BBC World Service announced Tuesday that it would shut down 10 of its foreign-language broadcasts, most of them serving Eastern Europe, and open an Arabic-language television news and information service in the Middle East.

”The announcement is a sign of how much the global landscape has changed since the cold war, when countries under the aegis of the Soviet Union and elsewhere relied on World Service radio to provide news uncontrolled by the state.

“To that end, the new television venture - the BBC Arabic Television Service - is to broadcast 12 hours a day across the Middle East, beginning in 2007, and will be free to anyone with a satellite or cable connection. It will make the BBC the only “tri-media international news provider offering Arabic news and current affairs on television, radio and online,” the company said in a news release.

“An earlier effort to enter the commercial television The new service is to cost £19 million a year ($34million), money that will come from the British government, which is spending £239 million ($426.5 million) this year on the World Service.

“The changes add up to the biggest transformation of BBC World Service that has been undertaken - and one of the most far-reaching - since the BBC began international broadcasting more than 70 years ago,” Mr. Chapman said.

…..John Fray, deputy general secretary of the National Union of Journalists, said the move was akin to “robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

“While we welcome new services in the Arab world, it should not be at the expense of high-quality services across Eastern Europe,” Mr. Fray told the Press Association. “At a time when British business, the government and civil society talk about the need to
engage with the rest of Europe, the Foreign Office should not be allowing Britain’s voice to be silenced in significant parts of the continent.”

WHY BRITAIN BOTHERED

Britain’s Independent newspaper reports on Al Jazeera:

”It must have been seen as something of a back-handed compliment in the tiny Gulf state of Qatar. The BBC yesterday confirmed it is to axe 10 of its World Service radio services to find the money to launch an Arabic-language television station. The decision is powerful testimony to the extraordinary growth of al-Jazeera, the Arab satellite station which in less than a decade has developed from the personal indulgence of the Emir of Qatar into a global player on the international broadcasting stage.

http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article322273.ece

IRANIAN BLOGGER WINS HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD

”Human Rights Watch’s highest honour, the Human Rights Defender Award, will on November 8 be awarded to Omid Memarian, an Iranian human rights activist who has creatively used the internet to press for a more open and democratic political regime in Iran.

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/10/26/iran11923_txt.htm