MSNBC anchor causes on-air scuffle, refuses to report on Paris Hilton

MSNBC News anchor Mika Brzezinski gained a new fan base today after refusing to report the cable network’s lede story during the ‘Morning Joe’ program, hosted by Joe Scarborough.

During the live broadcast, Brzezinski begins a headlining report on Paris Hilton’s release from jail by saying, “I hate this story and I don’t think it should be our lede.” Later, she calls out producer Andy Jones for “not listening” and is seen reaching in to a male anchor’s chest pocket in search of a lighter saying, “give me this damn thing,” during which time the the male is overheard saying, “unhand me, woman… wench.” The blond-haired reporter then rips up the script after unsuccessfully attempting to ignite it with the lighter live on-the-air.

And as if that wasn’t enough, in yet another segment she is seen stuffing a copy of the Paris news script into a shredder, saying “I just don’t believe in covering that story, especially as a lede in a newscast on a day like today.”

I hope you’re paying attention, CNN.

CNN.com to relaunch this weekend

As mentioned before, the Cable News Network has been busy readying a major Web 2.0 overhaul to its ubiquitous news Web site. Yesterday the beta version of the site was pulled and replaced with a note from CNN.com’s Senior Vice President, noting the popular destination will relaunch “this weekend.” During the test period, users complained the site was “too white,” didn’t display enough news on the front page, and focused too heavily on ad-supported video packages. My suggestion to CNN editors: how about reporting actual news this time around.

Heres a rundown of top stories recently seen on CNN.com:

• Ailing woman gets a kidney from her boss Video
• Big gator pulled from house; 20 snakes in attic Video
• Vatican issues 10 Commandments for drivers
• Paris Hilton prosecutor hushed up wife’s crash
• He says zilch, stares, hopes you’ll vote for him Video
• Forget ‘fore’ — Nevada golfer yells ‘fire’

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CNN outs new website; Anderson Cooper next?

After pretty much giving up in the ratings fight with Fox, the most-watched Most Trusted Name in News™ unveiled a new beta of its flagship website Monday, promising improved site performance, greater ease of use and the introduction of flash video. In addition to giving Microsoft’s disgraceful Windows Media codec the boot, CNN Senior Vice President David Payne has promised to deliver free live breaking news streams on the site beginning next month. But while the network has remained tight-lipped on when the re-designed site will replace its aging brother, word is Turner PR executives are secretly mulling the possibility of announcing Anderson Cooper’s (‘AC 360′ to you thugs) long-awaited outting to publicize the launch. What say you, Wolf?

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Internet creeper’s latest obsession: Allison Stokke

18-year-old Allison Stokke, a senior and track athlete at Southern California’s Newport Harbor High School, has pole vaulted almost overnight from normal teenage student to hot internet celebrity… It all started with this picture of Stokke, snapped by a track and field journalist, showing her idly fixing her hair at a track meet in New York and posted as part of a report on a California prep track website. While the photo only caught the attention of a few pole vaulting geeks initially, a sports blogger later picked up the photo, along with several others, and quickly helped to skyrocket the future UC Berkeley freshman to Internet stardom. In the coming days, Stokke’s photos were plastered across dozens of admiring fan websites, facebook groups and myspace pages. A three-minute video of her was posted on YouTube (garnering over 750,000 views) and her story even made the front page of the Washington Post. Stokke, who took fourth place in yesterday’s state pole vault finals, says she now tries to avoid leaving her house alone, and that she gets gawked at in coffee shops. “Obviously, I’m not very happy about it, and if I could do something about it to stop it or slow it down a little bit, I’m going to do that,” she said. While Allison and her family may be upset from the unsolicited notoriety, it appears she is happily dating a douchebag.

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60 axed at Los Angeles Times

No stranger to lay offs, the second largest newspaper in America today announced a new round of shitcanning ‘changes’ to its news staff.

“LA Times publisher David D. Hiller ordered the reductions in an effort to prop up The Times’ profit at a time when many advertisers are leaving newspapers to chase consumers onto the Internet. The vast majority of the cuts were achieved through voluntary separations and will save a little more than $5 million a year from the more-than-$100-million newsroom budget.”

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Hillary: Senator today, president ‘tommorrow’?

“If you think you have a skills shortage now,” Clinton said to a room filled with 200 Silicon Valley executives Thursday, “project it out a decade and we’re going to be in real trouble.”

Little did she know she was the one with the ’skills shortage.’

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