Planet Abell

It took a year, very nearly the end of the world as we know it, and perhaps pity for some sincere remorse . But if every dog has his day mine came Thursday as I finally got face time with Contessa Brewer. She would certainly have no idea of my embarrassment for having failed to recognize her in our first interview in the same studio back in September 2008 — a faux pas she handled with grace and self-deprecating humor. This time we were soul mates, mourning even a brief interuptus with Twitter, the emotional impact of which we each implicitly understood. Ms. Brewer is an avid Tweeter as @contessabrewer , which she casually mentioned. When I told her that I followed her, she offered to reciprocate, and I am sure I blushed. On air, it was more of the same. Near the end of the interview, when I allowed as I had "misted" when Twitter failed this morning, she offered me a tissue and laughed when I told her friends had immediately e-mailed me to ask how I would be spending my ...

NBC, Third Floor Originally uploaded by John C Abell Apparently all is forgiven at MSNBC even though I won't soon be forgetting my embarrasing faux pas with Contessa Brewer . I got a call Saturday afternoon from a producer for an 8:30 a.m. Sunday hit. The call went straight to voicemail. So did the followup call from the wired.com publicist, on vacation in Florida. I was not playing hard to get. I was in a matinee performance of "Equus" with the family on my daughter's (day after) birthday. When I finally powered up my mobile they were still interested in having me on and, since I have become increasingly enamored of the sound of my own voice (and maybe enjoy the application of professional makeup just a little bit too much, though not to a Sarah Palin degree ) I was glad this opportunity had not passed me by as I tried to process Harry Potter as a sexually confused teen . I gratefully accepted the car both ways and, since we had just been in town all day and my daug...

Contessa Brewer on set, MSNBC Originally uploaded by John C Abell On Saturday I made two appearances on MSNBC, subject Barack Obama -- the tech president. I gratefully accepted the Town Car for the 30-mile trip and brought the fam to along for a day in the Big City, punctuated by my two brief appearances on the TV. It was a quiet day in the studio: We had the green room to ourselves (though a page told us that Beyonce was in the building for her SNL gig later that day) and the halls were mostly empty, except for several tours ambling by perhaps disappointed there wasn't anyone famous in the green room. I try to be casual about these things, the better to suppress the nerves. But this was only my second time around as a talking head and I may have come off as a wee bit too casual. In makeup, a woman who clearly worked there and was going to be on the air sometime soon graciously walked over and introduced herself as I was about to be layered with foundation. "Hi! I'm Conte...

I did a couple of appearances on MSNBC Saturday morning -- I was meant to do three, but the car they sent for me (I love saying that) was late. The subject was Friday's release of the iPhone 3G, which required me getting an iPhone 3G, which took more than six hours and which I chronicled on Twitter . The talking head thing was all new to me, but the experience is not unfamiliar to the smallish crowd of local regulars: you are well dressed only from the waist up (one woman actually wore shorts) and you sit in the green room chatting amiably with each other, including your on-air adversary if you have one. Every once in a while somebody comes in and says, "You're up" and you are led to a sound-proof room with a chair and a table and a light in your face (think: film noir police station interrogations). There is a camera pointed at your face, you are told by the control room the name of the person whom you will greet in the next few seconds as if you are old buds and th...

In a bid for stability over reinvention NBC has tapped former nightly news anchor Tom Brokaw to take over hosting duties for "Meet the Press," the Sunday public affairs program whose long-time moderator, Tim Russert, died unexpectedly 10 days ago. NBC said Brokaw would moderate MTP through the 2008 presidential election. The choice of gravitas over what might otherwise be seen as an attempt to attract another -- or at least an additional -- demographic is significant because NBC has an unusually deep bench of seasoned on-air political interviewers and commentators who ply their chair-bound trade nightly on MSNBC -- unlike any of the other networks, who do not have cable counterparts. Continue reading on wired.com's Epicenter blog.

P ut aside the considerations about free speech and commercial political speech. Recognize that there are no losers when enemies from opposite ends of the political spectrum mud wrestle. By the way, the clearest winner is always the feral beast , of course. Score one for MSNBC , which cracked the Ann Coulter lightning and stole a lot of thunder from CNN's get of that other tabloidly blond . The question is: will you have any impact when you "politely ask" a leopard to change her spots? Should you even bother? (remember, we're putting aside commercial political speech. It always make sense to raise money by demonizing your enemies.) The best-case scenario for accountability zealotry is that everyone will then know Coulter for what she is. Trouble is, her fans already know, and love it. We Can't All Get Along? OK. Some people can't be ignored because of the damage they may do. But Elizabeth Edwards v. Ann Coulter isn't Joseph Welch v. Joe McCarthy. Reuters ...

O K – so the most composed person at the Democratic debate was Brian Williams. And Dennis Kucinich seemed mainstream by comparison to Mike Gravel. And Joe Biden didn’t muck up his a Calvin Coolidge moment by being even slightly verbose about being too verbose. But anyone looking for something other than lackluster job interviews was bound to be disappointed despite the chorus of hype by every MSNBC talking head on the payroll. It's a shame that neither Barack nor Hillary showed off why they are considered first tier candidates rather than maybe just the best of the lot at raising money (ask Howard Dean about the difference). What is Edwards waiting for -- and I don't mean the suspiciously long time he took to answer a question about who his moral authority is (I guess Edwards' opposition to gay marriage stems in equal parts to "my lord," his wife and his father). The First Taste is -- Dull People: these early debates are for political junkies. Given NBC’s onerou...