[ginnyfan]

I just finished Hala Gorani's new memoir. It is a really fantastic read that I would recommend to anyone, especially anyone who is or was a CNNI fan. Much of the book is a reflection on her Arab-Franco-American identity, her family's roots in Syria, her more rambunctious days in school, and her search for belonging across the world. She has a lot of really great stories reporting from the field. Some of the most compelling stories she tells include her time in Tahrir Square in 2011 and co-anchoring from a Cairo hotel room with Andersoon Cooper, getting questioned by Syrian authorities while filming Inside the Middle East with Schams, and reporting from the somewhat raucous Baghdad bureau during the war, with another CNN correspondent later professing his love for her.

She doesn't really get a lot into the weeds on the TV business or presentation, but a few snippets I found interesting that people on here might find interesting:

- Lou Dobbs was the one who hired Hala at CNN. He was the managing editor of CNNfn at the time and decided she was the right hire after watching her tape for less than a minute.
- She and Richard Quest are not friends and have never really socialized outside of work, but she thought that they made for a great anchor team and could balance each other out well on air. (Conspicuously there is almost no mention of one of her other CNNI co-anchors: Jim Clancy).
- CNNI put "biz" or "business" into show titles in the early 2000s because they thought it would make the shows more attractive to advertisers, but nobody at CNN seriously thought of shows like BizNews as actual business programs.
- Hala unsuccessfully tried to persuade Jeff Zucker to allow CNNI to do its own coverage of the 2018 US midterm election for an international audience. She thought it was important that CNNI cover big world and US events separately from CNN/US for an international audience.
- She criticizes Zucker for sidelining CNNI anchors for CNN US anchors for all of the big stories, and she speaks at various points about how she always felt like CNNI talent was always seen as second fiddle to the main CNN US talent.
- She does not go intro too much granular detail about why she ultimately left CNN, and she is too classy to lay blame at anyone. But, she criticizes the shrinking of international news budgets. She contrasted CNNI's coverage of the 2022 French presidential election, where she did it all in studio in London, to previous years when she anchored from the field on the Champs-Elysees. She said the same thing about the 2022 German elections.
- Hala turned down an offer to anchor Le Grand Journal on Canal+ after Antoine de Caunes left.
- Hala was close to going to one of the big 3 US networks in 2004 but had a very condescending final job interview with one of the evening news anchors, who told her she wasn't correspondent material. (Find out who in the book!)

Thanks for the summary, Charles. I was very interested in Hala's book and would love to read it. I watched most of her promo interviews and social media updates. Of course, the CNN bits are of special interest to us.

I'm not surprised about her not being friends with Quest, they always had that good colleagues vibe. Hala was close to Samuel Burke, on and off air, attended each other's weddings etc. As for Jim Clancy, from my memory Hala did seem a bit unhappy during those YWT Atlanta years. Plus her rise after YWT came with Jim's demise.... Still Clancy was one of CNNI's finest so I'm sure they had a professional, good working relationship.

Interesting bit about all the Biz titles in early 2000s, makes sense now, though most shows were regular news bulletins. Still it was CNNI at its peak.

About Zucker, no surprise there, I'm sure she was not/is not the only CNNI anchor frustrated with how things are in relation to domestic. Too bad Zucker had no understanding or desire to follow Hala's advice.

Final bit about US anchor is intriguing.... I had no idea evening news anchors interview new possible hires at the network.

As I type this, Nina Dos Santos is a guest on The Context on BBC News.

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[TMD_24]

Wasn't mentioned in the press release but Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will moderate the presidential debate.

x.com 

[sky303]

Maybe some of our American friends might know… how unusual is it for broadcasters to host general election debates? I can’t think of another example of a network producing their own debate outside of the three (four including VP) Debate Commission events?

It's uncommon, usually it's the debate commission debates that get simulcast across the board. Usually because of the scheduling where the conventions where the formal nominations happen are in the summer, the elections are in November (though some early voting starts in September/October) and they want more captive audience in the fall TV season so usually those 3 +1 VP debates happen in September-October, so probably why networks themselves never did one themselves the schedules never really had room.

[oscillon]

It's uncommon, usually it's the debate commission debates that get simulcast across the board. Usually because of the scheduling where the conventions where the formal nominations happen are in the summer, the elections are in November (though some early voting starts in September/October) and they want more captive audience in the fall TV season so usually those 3 +1 VP debates happen in September-October, so probably why networks themselves never did one themselves the schedules never really had room.

It appears that this time it will all be done bypassing the traditional Debates Commision: not 3+1, but two debates (plus maybe something between VPs): first, on CNN on 27th of June (when both candidates aren't even officially declared candidates yet). The second one will be aired on ABC and it looks like ABC will allow other networks to carry their debates, while CNN's debate will be exclusive to CNN.

[matthieu1221]

I just finished Hala Gorani's new memoir. It is a really fantastic read that I would recommend to anyone, especially anyone who is or was a CNNI fan. Much of the book is a reflection on her Arab-Franco-American identity, her family's roots in Syria, her more rambunctious days in school, and her search for belonging across the world. She has a lot of really great stories reporting from the field. Some of the most compelling stories she tells include her time in Tahrir Square in 2011 and co-anchoring from a Cairo hotel room with Andersoon Cooper, getting questioned by Syrian authorities while filming Inside the Middle East with Schams, and reporting from the somewhat raucous Baghdad bureau during the war, with another CNN correspondent later professing his love for her.

She doesn't really get a lot into the weeds on the TV business or presentation, but a few snippets I found interesting that people on here might find interesting:

- Lou Dobbs was the one who hired Hala at CNN. He was the managing editor of CNNfn at the time and decided she was the right hire after watching her tape for less than a minute.
- She and Richard Quest are not friends and have never really socialized outside of work, but she thought that they made for a great anchor team and could balance each other out well on air. (Conspicuously there is almost no mention of one of her other CNNI co-anchors: Jim Clancy).
- CNNI put "biz" or "business" into show titles in the early 2000s because they thought it would make the shows more attractive to advertisers, but nobody at CNN seriously thought of shows like BizNews as actual business programs.
- Hala unsuccessfully tried to persuade Jeff Zucker to allow CNNI to do its own coverage of the 2018 US midterm election for an international audience. She thought it was important that CNNI cover big world and US events separately from CNN/US for an international audience.
- She criticizes Zucker for sidelining CNNI anchors for CNN US anchors for all of the big stories, and she speaks at various points about how she always felt like CNNI talent was always seen as second fiddle to the main CNN US talent.
- She does not go intro too much granular detail about why she ultimately left CNN, and she is too classy to lay blame at anyone. But, she criticizes the shrinking of international news budgets. She contrasted CNNI's coverage of the 2022 French presidential election, where she did it all in studio in London, to previous years when she anchored from the field on the Champs-Elysees. She said the same thing about the 2022 German elections.
- Hala turned down an offer to anchor Le Grand Journal on Canal+ after Antoine de Caunes left.
- Hala was close to going to one of the big 3 US networks in 2004 but had a very condescending final job interview with one of the evening news anchors, who told her she wasn't correspondent material. (Find out who in the book!)

Hala Gorani on Le Grand Journal would have been very interesting! Surprised that Canal+ really cast that broad of a net when trying to find a new presenter.