If you wake up with CNN, get ready for Soledad O’Brien. The network announced it’s remaking its morning lineup and will bring O’Brien back as the host of a new show, set to air weekdays from 7a.m. to 9a.m. ET. The show will be designed to be more conversational, likely in attempt to compete with rivals Fox & Friends and Morning Joe, which follow more conversational formats. CNN’s current a.m. show, American Morning – which O’Brien hosted from 2003-2007 – has struggled to get significant viewership.
Cohosts John Robers and Kiran Chetrey left American Morning this past year leaving the network open to adding different hosts and experimenting with various approaches.”There’s a real opportunity to do a show that has more thoughtful conversations,” O’Brien revealed. The show will feature O’Brien as the host, with a combination of panelists.
Time will tell whether CNN is mimicking the competition, or really trying for something different.
It’s not exactly official yet, but all signs point to Katie Couric leaving her CBS Evening News position for good. Â Couric is said to have found her role as anchor too restrictive, and she wants to branch out and try to do her own show, perhaps a talk show where she can control the content and the tone.
But that doesn’t mean she’s necessarily leaving the network itself – in fact, CBS is one of the main networks Katie’s in talks with to get a syndicated show under way. Â She’s also talking to other networks like CNN and NBC, so it’ll be interesting to see who offers her a deal she likes.
In the ’80s we all wondered what the future of computing would be, and now we know: it’s Justin Bieber. Â Dustin Curtis, one of Twitter’s designers (Twitter has designers?) tweeted, “At any moment, Justin Bieber uses 3 percent of our infrastructure. Racks of servers are dedicated to him.”
Last year, when Bieber was still in the womb, Ashton Kutcher made headlines when he beat CNN to be the first Twitter user to gain a million followers. Â Everyone thought that was a huge deal, but Bieber currently has more than five million followers, and his name as a topic trends nearly constantly on the microblogging service.
But Bieber is not the only popular thing on Twitter. Â Curtis claims that many popular stars on Twitter have their own dedicated servers, and that aside from talking about Bieber, Twitter users also enjoy hating on their least favorite airlines, and hating on the Comic Sans font. Â If there’s any better use of the information superhighway, I’ve yet to hear about it.
The clips just keep coming! Our mainstream media talking heads got all UP in the sauce on Inauguration night. First Diane Sawyer, now, Snarkista’s “Silver Fox” Anderson Cooper. Anderson is still trying to work his suave-ness. It’s clear, however, that he took seriously the mandate to chug up his share of Messiah juice. God only knows what a drooling piece of insanity Keith Olbermann became the other night! (And really, would you be able to tell the difference?!) Here’s Mah Boo Andy trying to “keep ’em honest” while slogged.
UPDATE:Jennifer Hudson has identified the child’s body found in the white SUV as that of her nephew, Julian King. Law enforcement sources said that the boy was shot multiple times in the back of the vehicle. Police are testing the clothing of William Balfour for gunshot residue. He had been separated from Julia Hudson for about 2 years, and the alibi he gave police was that he was with his girlfriend during the time of the murders. She said NO HE WASN’T. Police descended on her house where Balfour was arrested, and searched it thoroughly. Now police are checking all surveillance cameras in the area to try and place Balfour and the SUV together. Rest in peace Julian, Darnell and Jason.
Chicago Breaking News says:
The boy’s aunt, actress-singer Jennifer Hudson and three other relatives went to the office and identified the body, authorities said. Chicago police brought Julian’s body to the medical examiner’s office about 12:15 p.m., said office spokesman Sean Howard. Hudson and relatives arrived about three hours later. When the group entered a viewing room at the office Hudson held her head down, as if praying, Howard said.
The family identified Julian via a video screen mounted on a wall that showed his face, according to Howard. With Hudson were two other aunts of Julian’s, an uncle, three other family members, two detectives, Howard and a medical examiner, the spokesman said.
When they saw the boy’s face on the screen, Hudson told investigators, “Yes, that is him,” Howard said.
As Snark Food reported earlier, the white SUV that Chicago police had been searching for all weekend, was found this morning on Chicago’s West Side. Inside was the body of a child, believed to be Jennifer Hudson’s nephew Julian King. Chicago police Cmdr. Wayne Gulliford said the SUV is the one wanted in an Amber Alert issued for the Oscar-winning actress’ nephew, Julian King, 7. King has been missing since Friday. That Amber Alert has just been canceled. Hudson family members were expected at the medical examiner’s office this afternoon to identify the body.
Julian had been missing since the horrific double homicide of Jennifer Hudson’s mother and brother on Friday. A neighbor who lives a block away from where the SUV was discovered parked at 1313 S. Kolin, says he remembers seeing the car Saturday. During the police press conference, the man came forward and claimed he called cops that same day but no one responded.
Meanwhile, two other neighbors told a Chicago reporter they are sure the SUV was NOT there on Saturday. If true, it may mean someone other than the suspect, William Balfour, drove it there with the body inside. Balfour was arrested Friday night.
Some neighbors of Jennifer Hudson’s family said they saw two men enter the house Friday morning before gunshots were heard. Julia Hudson, Jennifer’s sister, found the bodies of her mother and brother around 2:45pm Friday, when she came home from work. Julian was gone. Police began an intensive search for Julian AND William Balfour, and put out an Amber Alert for the boy and the white Suburban.
Investigators have closed off the area where the vehicle was found. It is not clear how long the vehicle was parked on the street. Early Monday morning, police sources say that they searched a home in the 1900-block of South Spaulding, which is about six or seven blocks from where William Balfour, 27, a person of interest in the murders, was arrested.
The SUV was reportedly found by a 75-year-old who lives on the block named John Louden. He said he has lived on the block for 18 years and worried about people selling drugs in the abandoned building behind it. He saw the SUV while walking his dog. After a second look, he realized the license plate matched the one police were looking for.
“I didn’t look in there. I didn’t touch it. I knew it was a strange vehicle,” Louden said. He said police showed up in about five minutes after his wife called them. They discovered the child inside. The body was removed and the SUV was towed away for evidence processing. “I feel bad about that baby,” Louden said.
An autopsy is currently being done on the young child. The Medical Examiner is trying to identify the child that was found. Sadly, it is almost certainly Julian. Hudson’s family members and supporters assumed this was the third member of her family killed since Friday. The FBI is now saying that it is “believed to be” young Julian King, age 7.
“It’s shocking. It’s unreal. We had been praying that it would not come to this,” said Rev. Krista Alston, a cousin of Hudson and a minister at the Pleasant Gift Baptist Church in Chicago. “We know it’s a reality now, but it’s still shocking.”
Our prayers go out for the Hudson family. Updates here as they become available.
Horrible news this morning: Chicago police have found a child’s body that matches the description of 7- year old Julian King, Jennifer Hudson’s nephew. It was found inside the white SUV with the same tags that police had been looking for. The SUV was found a few miles from the area where cops arrested William Balfour, the estranged husband of Julia Hudson, Jennifer Hudson’s older sister. Chicago officers located the vehicle at about 7 a.m. Monday morning, about 13 miles northwest of the Hudson home. The white Suburban SUV was parked at 1313 S. Kolin, on Chicago’s West Side. Television footage showed police vehicles escorting a flatbed tow truck as it took the SUV away from the scene with the body still inside.
Hudson, the Oscar-winning actress offered a $100,000 reward for her nephew’s safe return. He is the son of her sister, Julia Hudson. There has been no positive ID so far, but it is believed authorities will release the identity fairly quickly. Neighbors say the vehicle has been parked there since Saturday, and was near Balfour’s current girlfriend’s house. The Hudson family had taken the SUV away from William, and had kicked him out of the house earlier. Balfour is rumored to have threatened to “kill the whole family” because of his anger at the situation.
William Balfour was arrested Friday night. The SUV has been towed with the body still inside the vehicle. The SUV is now at a police garage in Chicago. Chicago police fear that little Julian is dead. This is just an unbelievably sad story. Please pray for the Hudson family.
Updates to come. This is tragic news no matter what, and it looks like it is more terrible news for the Hudson family.
If you wake up with CNN, get ready for Soledad O’Brien. The network announced it’s remaking its morning lineup and will bring O’Brien back as the host of a new show, set to air weekdays from 7a.m. to 9a.m. ET. The show will be designed to be more conversational, likely in attempt to compete with rivals Fox & Friends and Morning Joe, which follow more conversational formats. CNN’s current a.m. show, American Morning – which O’Brien hosted from 2003-2007 – has struggled to get significant viewership.
It’s not exactly official yet, but all signs point to Katie Couric leaving her CBS Evening News position for good. Â Couric is said to have found her role as anchor too restrictive, and she wants to branch out and try to do her own show, perhaps a talk show where she can control the content and the tone.
In the ’80s we all wondered what the future of computing would be, and now we know: it’s Justin Bieber. Â Dustin Curtis, one of Twitter’s designers (Twitter has designers?) tweeted, “At any moment, Justin Bieber uses 3 percent of our infrastructure. Racks of servers are dedicated to him.”
