Soledad O’Brien will leave CNN’s morning show soon, but she will still have a limited role there producing documentaries. She will no longer be exclusive to CNN and will no longer have a morning show on the network. That means she is free to produce content, take hosting jobs, and do reporting work at other networks.
Ms. O’Brien will go from being an anchor to an outside producer. She may have had little choice in the matter: the new head of CNN Worldwide, Jeff Zucker, decided even before he started the job in January that he wanted to replace Ms. O’Brien’s morning show…
O’Brien has been doing some great stuff lately, including some hardcore interviews, one of the few out there who is unafraid to confront or challenge her guests. For example:
No matter how passionate Soledad O’Brien was, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get to square one with Governor Avoidy McGunGun who flat out refused to answer her directly. He ducked, he covered, he bobbed, he weaved, but true to form, Soledad was in his bald face.
But hey, he sure supports the Second Amendment.
Soledad O’Brien:
Okay. I think with all due respect, are you not going to answer my question, because I guess — I just want you to tell me what you’d be comfortable to support, and I get it, it’s gonna be part of a conversation, but I think there have been a number of things on the table and I don’t feel like you’re telling me, you know, should people not be able to buy those high-capacity magazines? Some people suggested that. What thing are you willing to say would be a good start, that YOU would bring to the table in any conversation about gun control?
Rick Scott (who kind of slurs his words, did you notice?):
Well, you know, my perch on things like this is, one, respect the families, mourn their losses, make sure our schools are safe, and then start the conversation and listen to Floridians. What I do every day is travel the state, almost, pretty much every day, and listen to Floridians and get their ideasand then come back, based on those ideas of what we can improve.
Soledad O’Brien:
Well, I that hope all those conversations turn into meaningful legislation somewhere down the road before I get to go out and cover another tragedy of which we’ve now done a bunch of them.
So to recap, what Gov. Avoidy will bring to the table is listening to others talk as he respects them. If that’s not a man of action, nothing is.
But Scott [argued] that “It is at just such times that the constitutional right to self defense ismost precious and must be protected from government overreach.”
Her latest In Your Face was with Republican Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions pointing out his hypocrisy about cutting food stamps at the expense of his lower-income constituents.
“You voted in fact in 2002 and 2008 to grow the program yourself. I think first under President Bush in 2002, and when it comes to fraud, this Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says SNAP has ‘the most rigorous quality control systems of any public benefit program in recent years, it’s received its lowest error rates on record.’”
“Most people who are on it aren’t working the system, they are just hungry people.”
“Twenty percent of your constituents are on food stamps and they look at the people who are actually eligible? It’s something like under 70 percent who are eligible who sign up.”
“…When you’re thinking of things to cut, people basically say, why are you trying to balance the budget on people who are making under $23,000 a year. I think that range roughly, is the national average for what a family of four would get on food stamps. So why not cut something else? There are other things that could be on the table before you pick a program that is feeding the nation’s poor children.“
“Two of those times you voted for it, sir. 2002 and 2008 you voted for it. Right? You voted for it. Some people would say it’s growing because people are hurting.”
Soledad O’Brien does it again. The hypocrisy of Republicans looking for any reason to scream “Impeach!!” is stunning. Of did Joe just get his Rices confused?
What the Heck?
GOP Rep. Joe Heck of Nevada:
You don’t put somebody out who doesn’t know about the issue and just have them go out to feed us the information that the administration wants put out. So we have to get to the bottom of what happened in Benghazi, and certainly the Senate will hold confirmation hearings, if she’s nominated…”
O’Brien:
“Isn’t that exactly analogous to what happened to Condoleezza Rice, who John McCain supported, and who Lindsey Graham supported?”
Heck:
“Condi Rice was in a position to be able to be the face, and the information was wrong. But here we had wrong information, and weeks later we had the administration coming back saying, well this person had nothing to do with the situation…”
O’Brien:
“Let’s walk through that more slowly — let me walk through that more slowly so you don’t lose me. So you’re saying the issue in both cases, weapons of mass destruction and information intelligence coming to the U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, both cases the information was wrong. What you take exception with is what the White House did later. Is that what you’re saying?“
Heck:
“Exactly.”
O’Brien:
“You’ve lost me completely.”
“Charles Blow, help me. Forgive me. I’m not being facetious at all…. He’s saying nobody said that Condoleezza Rice didn’t have anything to do with the situation.”
Charles Blow:
“What I was trying to figure out is, are you saying that Condoleezza Rice actually should have known, because she had more intimacy with the information and then still said something that she knew was wrong– In fact, Susan Rice is a sacrificial lamb because she was put out as the face of the administration but she didn’t know anything? In fact, it’s more of a defense of Susan Rice than it is a condemnation of Susan Rice.”
O’Brien:
“Forgive me sir, will you walk us through this one more time. You think it’s different because Condoleezza Rice actually had first-hand knowledge?”
Heck:
“Blahblahblahblah… public face… Rice Rice Rice… failures… blahblahblah.”
O’Brien:
“I feel like you’re saying, from your own comments, that Susan Rice had nothing to do with either of those things. She didn’t have something to do with the intelligence failures, which I believe you just said. And it looks as if she also had no knowledge at the time, so she’s cleared on that front… Why would you possibly blame her then?”
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