All Blog Posts from Public Eye

In case you missed it this morning at 6am EDT, the folks at MSNBC went on the air in their new way-cool digs.

The people who got to cut the ribbon? Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Willie Geist and the rest of my friends at “Morning Joe.” (Along with their big brain behind the curtain, producer Chris Licht.)

The first couple of minutes was spent piling praise on the construction crew, the engineers and pretty much gawking at their new habitat.

I dropped a line to Willie Geist to see what he thought of the new place...

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I suppose it may be odd that a women’s magazine lauding the frighteningly-fetching Scarlett Johannson, Kate Bosworth and Jennifer Connelly could at the same time stick up for the non-exceptionally-beautiful, but Elle succeeds in playing it both sides this month. Or at least trying to.

(Blogging trick number 48: Use attractive celebs’ names to get your hit count up. Thanks, Elle!)

They did something called an “Elle Beauty Investigation” about the looks needed for women to succeed in TV news. The piece led off with an anecdote about aspiring TV correspondent Laura Wells, who was purportedly lowering herself to dye her hair to advance her career. Unfortunately, the piece seems to have been lacking a modicum of truthiness.

But Wells’ dubious biography aside, that doesn’t mean that the theme was off-base necessarily. Just how bad is it for women in TV nowadays? I decided to contact two different women, at two very different rungs on the media ladder, to see what the pressures are for women in TV.

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"Not feeling 100 percent today, Matt. How about you take the first 3 hours and I'll take the rest?"

That's what passes for "Good Morning" at 5:08 in the morning from Joe Scarborough. Which is far superior to the spastic and overly-caffeinated "HeyAlrightHowAreThingsTodayDidYouSeeTheTimesEditoralToday?" that I've been able to volley back. (The gag, of course, being that the show is three hours in total.)

Many thanks, dear readers, for bearing with Public Eye this week as the number and pace of posts has slowed a tad. For the past week or so – as noted in this space last week – I've been joining the cast of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program each morning from 6am-9am (EDT) and will be doing so again tomorrow.

At the close of each show, Joe, co-host Mika Brzezinski and I have a little "Doogie Howser"-esque or "Jerry Springer"-esque (take your pic) moment where we answer the question "What Did We Learn Today?" In that spirit, I thought I'd share number of things I've learned in the past 6 mornings:

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"Not feeling 100 percent today, Matt. How about you take the first 3 hours and I'll take the rest?"

That's what passes for "Good Morning" at 5:08 in the morning from Joe Scarborough. Which is far superior to the spastic and overly-caffeinated "HeyAlrightHowAreThingsTodayDidYouSeeTheTimesEditoralToday?" that I've been able to volley back. (The gag, of course, being that the show is three hours in total.)

Many thanks, dear readers, for bearing with Public Eye this week as the number and pace of posts has slowed a tad. For the past week or so – as noted in this space last week – I've been joining the cast of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program each morning from 6am-9am (EDT) and will be doing so again tomorrow.

At the close of each show, Joe, co-host Mika Brzezinski and I have a little "Doogie Howser"-esque or "Jerry Springer"-esque (take your pic) moment where we answer the question "What Did We Learn Today?" In that spirit, I thought I'd share the top ten things I've learned in the past 6 mornings:

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"Not feeling 100 percent today, Felling. How about you take the first 3 hours and I'll take the rest?"

That's what passes for "Good Morning" at 5:08 in the morning from Joe Scarborough. Which is far superior to the spastic and overly-caffeinated "HeyAlrightHowAreThingsDidYouSeeTheTimesEditoralToday?" that I've been able to muster. (The gag, of course, being that the show is three hours in total. Hey ... it's 5 in the morning.)

Many thanks, dear readers, for bearing with Public Eye this week as the number and pace of posts has dipped a tad. For the past week or so – as noted in this space last week – I've been joining the cast of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program each morning from 6am-9am (EDT) and will be doing so again tomorrow.

At the close of each show, Joe, co-host Mika Brzezinski and I have a little "Doogie Howser"-esque or "Jerry Springer"-esque (take your pick) moment where we answer the question "What Did We Learn Today?" In that spirit, I thought I'd share number of things I've learned in the past 6 mornings:

Read full post…

A month ago, MSNBC’s Morning Joe news anchor Mika Brzezinski famously refused to read a story about Paris Hilton, going so far as attempting to set her news script on fire. (Unfortunately, her partner’s Bic lighter wasn’t up to the task) And in doing so, she became a YouTube celebrity, with the footage now having been viewed nearly three million times.

And yesterday, CNN’s lovable curmudgeon Jack Cafferty went so far as to – on live TV, mind you – ask/demand that the Lindsay Lohan story be removed from his teleprompter. On the grainy YouTube footage, he says “I wonder if we could get the Lindsay Lohan DUI arrest out of the teleprompter and put my script in. Is that possible?”

What’s going on nowadays?

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As the daughter of Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter, CBS News correspondent and substitute anchor Mika Brzezinski learned what it was like to be in front of news cameras at a young age. And since then, she can't think of anything else she'd rather be doing. Read on for her answers to our standard questions and one of yours.


So, what do you do for a living?

I travel the country looking for people and stories that fascinate me. I try and find the stories that affect my day to day life as a wife and mother of two. I have such a great job it’s embarrassing.

What is not being covered enough at CBS News?

I don’t think there is enough news, period. Hard to capture what really matters in 22 minutes.

What’s the strangest thing that has ever happened to you on the job?

I took a cab from the Philadelphia train station to a town about 30 miles away. Two hours later, I was in the middle of nowhere arguing with him that he didn’t know where he was going. He wouldn't let me out ... and was arguing with me and he kept driving the wrong way. Producer Sally Garner told me on the phone just to get out of the car! So I threw cash at him and opened the door while the car was still moving ... and hopped out. Then Sally had to come find me. I was a mess ... scary!

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If you watch the CBS “Evening News,” you might have caught correspondent and substitute anchor Mika Brzezinski’s weeklong road tour that examined the obesity crisis in America. Brzezinski also kept a web diary of her experiences along the way. We’ve already noted some of her more recent stories, so check them out and e-mail us with any questions for her or post them below. She’ll answer ours and yours tomorrow.

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Mika Brzezinski has been a correspondent for CBS News since 1997 and she serves as a substitute anchor for the Sunday edition of the “Evening News.” Some of her more recent stories included a profile of an organization that provides rides to seniors who cannot, or should not, be driving. She also reported extensively on the legal online sale of cell phone records. Check out her full bio here and e-mail us your questions or post them in comments. She'll answer 10 of ours and one of yours on Thursday.

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