CNN's Brown plays through shuttle story

LA Times ^ | 2/4/03 | dcretiree

[dcretiree]

LA Times - CNN's Brown plays through shuttle story

NEW YORK -- Tom Brokaw was snorkeling off the Virgin Islands Saturday morning when he saw the boat's captain, 40 feet away, frantically waving. Two planes and less than nine hours later, just before 3 p.m. PST, he was on the air anchoring NBC's Columbia space shuttle coverage from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

The lead anchors for ABC and CBS made it on the air too, but not CNN's Aaron Brown, whose absence until Sunday night was the source of much speculation. Brown, it turns out, was playing golf in the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic at La Quinta in Palm Desert, which was televised on CBS midday Saturday after the network ended several hours of shuttle coverage.

CNN sources said Brown, who was promoted as the network's lead anchor when he was hired away from ABC two years ago, told the network he wasn't available to come to work. The decision infuriated some executives as well as some on his staff, the CNN sources said. Brown, through a spokeswoman, declined to comment, but was quoted Sunday in the Palm Springs Desert Sun as saying that it didn't make sense to go to New York. Going to CNN's Los Angeles offices, he said, "didn't make any sense because I didn't have any clothes."

[dcretiree]

What was CNN thinking?

[InvisibleChurch]

he was playing goff in the nude?

[Savage Beast]

Some time back, while channel surfing, I accidently turned on CNN. They were hyping this guy as the new presenter of their "news".

"He caaaaaaaaaaaaaaares!" intoned the overvoice.

"CNN" I muttered silently to myself flipping the channel as fast as I could.

[steplock]

He was playing with Rush - no?

Actually - what does it matter that he stayed on vacation ... especially since he wasn't informed of what happened for a few hours. The big story is the breaking one - not the follow-ups. He missed the breaking story, shrugged and kept on playing.

That's What I'd have done myself.

[ArcLight]

Nope...sorry. This just isn't done. I'm a journalist, and I don't even cover the space program. I dropped what I was doing, and headed for the newsroom. It's what reporters do. If you don't think that way, you don't belong in this business. i think Aaron Brown's behavior was inexcusable.

[MtHLancerFan]

i think Aaron Brown's behavior was inexcusable.

Isn't Aaron Brown also a dentist? I don't know if he's still practicing, but it seems he's always had late night or weekend news gigs.

[steplock]

As for how another of the same profession views his actions - you are probably correct.

But, as far as the public cares about him - We could care less. These talking heads usually think a lot more of themeselves and other "celebreties" opinions than we (the citizenry) do.

Nothing personal to you.

brokaw and the others are really some of the dumbest people I have ever seen on tv. They can look at a double decker highway collapsed and say "doesn't look too bad down there". They do read cue cards very well (good?)though. :>)