Herman Cain sat down with members of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial staff Monday, and gave the paper's JSOnline a five-minute clip that got plenty of buzz, and crossed over from cable news to the networks.
It was the number two story on NBC's "Nightly News."
Anchor Brian Williams opened the story thusly: "Herman Cain took a stumble on camera."
The National Review offered a transcript of the question and answer opening with Cain's first attempt at a response to whether he agreed with the president's Libya policy:
"Okay, Libya. … President Obama supported the uprising, correct? President Obama called for the removal of Qaddafi. Just wanted to make sure we’re talking about the same thing before I say yes, I agree, or no, I didn’t agree.
"I do not agree with the way he handled it for the following reason … no, that’s a different one …I gotta go back, see … got all this stuff twirling around in my head. Specifically, what are you asking me that I agree or … disagree with Obama?"
Here's the clip from the Journal Sentinel:
To be fair, the Journal Sentinel lucked into the interview – the Cain campaign offered the candidate for a 30-minute session. And the question should have been easier for the guy who's been the front-runner.
The smart move was to take that five-minute clip – far longer than a TV clip – and quickly post it on JS Online. Thinking digitally paid off.
On TV: So far, it looks like "Community" is off NBC's mid-season schedule. That's bad news for Milwaukeean Dan Harmon's innovative, but gives a home to returning "30 Rock." "Up All Night" moves to 8:30 Thursdays, while the abysmal "Whitney" goes to Wednesdays in January.
- Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton has been hired by NBC News as a special correspondent. Former first daughter Jenna Bush already reports for NBC's "Today."
- CBS' "Rules of Engagement" has been cut back to 13 episodes. CBS had originally ordered 18 episodes.
- There's talk. just talk so far, of Howard Stern replacing the departing Piers Morgan on NBC's "America's Got Talent."
The Regis era ends: We're already getting the goodbyes for Regis Philbin, who ends his morning show run Friday. And we have the first two two-week fill-ins: Jerry Seinfeld and Neil Patrick Harris.
Speaking of tributes, here's Jimmy Fallon's:
Tim Cuprisin is the media columnist for OnMilwaukee.com. He's been a journalist for 30 years, starting in 1979 as a police reporter at the old City News Bureau of Chicago, a legendary wire service that's the reputed source of the journalistic maxim "if your mother says she loves you, check it out." He spent a couple years in the mean streets of his native Chicago, and then moved on to the Green Bay Press-Gazette and USA Today, before coming to the Milwaukee Journal in 1986.
A general assignment reporter, Cuprisin traveled Eastern Europe on several projects, starting with a look at Poland after five years of martial law, and a tour of six countries in the region after the Berlin Wall opened and Communism fell. He spent six weeks traversing the lands of the former Yugoslavia in 1994, linking Milwaukee Serbs, Croats and Bosnians with their war-torn homeland.
In the fall of 1994, a lifetime of serious television viewing earned him a daily column in the Milwaukee Journal (and, later the Journal Sentinel) focusing on TV and radio. For 15 years, he has chronicled the changes rocking broadcasting, both nationally and in Milwaukee, an effort he continues at OnMilwaukee.com.
When he's not watching TV, Cuprisin enjoys tending to his vegetable garden in the backyard of his home in Whitefish Bay, cooking and traveling.
