Bolduan Gives Birth!

Cecelia Eve debuts! CNN New Day anchor Kate Bolduan and hubby Michael Gershenson welcomed their first child, Cecelia Eve, into their family yesterday morn (September 25) at 10:39 a.m. Less than a week after taking maternity leave, Kate gave birth to a beautiful daughter weighing six pounds and measuring 18.5 inches.

This morning, Kate’s New Day co-host Chris Cuomo proclaimed the good news with pictures of the happy mom and her new bundle of joy in ND‘s “Good Stuff” segment at the end of the show. Declaring little Cecilia the “most beautiful new baby in the world,” Chris remarked, “The ‘Good Stuff’ couldn’t get gooderer…..”

Subsequently, when Chris segued to Carol Costello (CNN Newsroom co-host), she aptly added, “What a beautiful baby: But, I didn’t expect anything less of Kate Bolduan. Let’s face it!”

Congratulations, Kate and Michael!

[Author’s aside: For pics of the new princess, link here.]

Unlike Kilmeade, Eric Mans Up: Apologizes

Bolling: “When I got home, I got the look!” Greta was right: Did The Five co-host Eric Bolling ever “get into so much trouble” for dismissing the ISIS-bombing U.A.E.’s first female fighter pilot as “Boobs on the ground” in a Five segment Wednesday! And, yesterday, he “manned” up and apologized for his offensive jest.

After Eric’s Five co-anchor Kimberly Guilfoyle introduced the “One More Thing” segment, she called on him immediately. Looking straight into the camera, Eric remarked, “Okay, for my ‘One More Thing’ tonight, I want to go back to yesterday: About this time, I made a joke. When I got home, I got the look–and realized [that] some people didn’t think it was funny at all: I said sorry to my wife, and I apologize to all of you as well.” For emphasis, he added, “I just want to make that very clear!”

If Eric’s apology were not very clear, Kimberly added, “And, you love women, and you have respect for them.” Chastened, Eric concurred, “And, I do.”

Kudos, Eric! Kilmeade could learn from you.

Eric & Greg: “Boobs on the Ground”?

Greta: “Ouch! Oh, man!…They’re going to get into so much trouble over that one!”* Yesterday, The Five co-anchor Kimberly Guilfoyle saluted a true “femme fatale,” U.A.E. ace Major Mariam Al Mansouri (during the “One Last Thing” segment): The U.A.E.’s first female pilot, who serves as squadron leader, led the American/Arab air strikes as she and the boys wreaked havoc on ISIS on the Syrian front. Instead of celebrating the Major in a part of the world where a woman sometimes cannot even drive and oft has to hide behind a burka, Kimberly’s co-hosts, Greg Gutfeld and Eric Bolling, acting like puerile, pubescent schoolboys, took cheap misogynistic shots.

After Kimberly had lauded Mansouri a/k/a “Lady Liberty” for “raining hell down on ISIS,” Greg jejunely jested, “The problem is after she bombed it, she, she couldn’t park it.” Chuckling, a less than clever Eric punned, “Would that be considered ‘boobs on the ground’ or no?” As Kimberly looked down in incredulity, even the ever bawdy co-anchor Bob Beckel looked on in disbelief, exclaiming, “Did you just say what I thought you said!””

“Boobs on the ground,” Eric? No, just boobs on The Five. And, not the nice kind.

[Author’s aside: The subtitle, supra, refers to the final segment on On the Record with Greta Van Susteren last night: As the show concluded, Greta remarked, “And, live TV, well it can be unpredictable like the discussion on The Five today about the U.A.E.’s first fighter pilot bombing ISIS. Ouch!” After playing the clip of The Five segment describing the aforementioned juvenile exchanges, Greta remarked, “Oh, man! Do you think that the gents on The Five minus Bob should get a do-over on that one? They’re going to get into so much trouble over that one!”]

Heather: Happening Now Happily

Tony Snow: “God made you beautiful: Now you’ve got to make yourself smart.” Quirky Fox & Friends newsreader Heather Nauert seems to have found a more fitting slot of late on FNC as guest co-host of Happening Now.  Paired with HN regular co-anchor Jon Scott oft now that Jenna Lee is on maternity leave, the “Chicago” chirper excels in her new chair as a sharp counterpart to FNC’s whilom Shakespearean actor/go-to aviation “expert” Jon: Consequently, fans of F&F are treated to a more mellifluous Carolinian cadence in the early morn as F&F First co-hosts Heather Childers and Ainsley Earhardt often fill in for Heather N. as headline news anchor.

F&F fans can now enjoy their show more as the Southern belle beauties ameliorate their Yankee (Rhode Island) colleague Elisabeth Hasselbeck‘s too oft nasal sounds with their delightful drawl. To boot, the viewers are not subjected to a pedantic Ms. Romper Room Nauert who too oft wants to “tell you about this” before she actually does.

Yes, the “younger sister of another Heather (Locklear)” is beautiful, and she is smart. But, she can be pedantic and irritating a la erstwhile F&F anchor Gretchen Carlson when she talks down to her audience who generally know as much or more than she does. Like the former Miss America [vid] with her new show (The Real Story with Gretchen Carlson), Heather now seems to be more relaxed and at ease on HN–not feeling as if she has to prove her smarts to her audience vis-a-vis the boys, F&F co-anchors Brian Kilmeade and Steve Doocy.

Heather Happening Now: beautiful, smart–and, finally, starting to chill.

[Author’s aside: The subtitle, supra, is based on a Tony Snow quote cited in a Paul Farhi article in the Washington Post.]

F&F Fam Fun: “Sis” Lis Turns 1!

Has her bro Brian’s back. Sorry! Yesterday, Fox & Friends co-anchor Elisabeth Hasselbeck celebrated her first year anniversary on the cable news morning show juggernaut. The new queen of the curvy couch was feted by F&F producers with their fun take-off [vid] of MC Hammer’s “Can’t Touch This” vid and a even wetter redux of her fun physical hijinks initiation into the family [vid].*

As a proud new member of the family, Elisabeth had her co-host and “brother” Brian Kilmeade‘s back. In an interview with Joel Keller of Parade, she was asked, “When you talk for three hours a day, you may end up saying stuff that people might turn their eyebrows up at: this happened to Brian the other day with the Ray Rice elevator video, when he joked that the lesson is to take the stairs.” Instead of addressing Brian’s inane, insensitive jest directly, Elisabeth answered, “I was not there that day. I can say that Brian Kilmeade and [their fellow co-anchor] Steve Doocy are two of the most honorable men that I know….[T]hose two men are credible husbands, extraordinary fathers, and they are two of the greatest friends that I have been able to make.”

Sounding like Brian’s bumptious non-apology apology for his callous callow joke, Elisabeth continued, “I don’t want to get off track or distracted. I think it’s quite easy to do that in with Ray Rice, but to be very clear, the most offensive thing about anything that’s going on with Ray Rice is what occurred in that elevator [TMZ vid]]. Bottom line.”

Bottom line, Elizabeth, is that you are right as to “what occurred in that elevator” is “the most offensive thing about anything that’s going on with Ray Rice”: But, that does not excuse NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell for his absurd initial two-week suspension of Rice for his apparent assault and battery of his then fiancee nor Brian for his callous quip re Rice’s fiancee.

As to F&F re Rice, unfortunately, Elton John was right: “Sorry seems to be the hardest word.”

[Author’s aside: Elisabeth often likens Brian and Steve to brothers: In fact, as the show opened yesterday memorial Lis’ first year, she cooed, “You guys treat me like a sister.”]

*Fox & Friends (redux) – 09/16/14 (@ 8:52 a.m. ET).

Brian’s Non-Apology Apology

And Steve’s silence. Sounding more like a politician than a journalist, Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade tried to do damage control this morning and he had his talking points down pat: To wit, whatever he and his co-anchor Steve Doocy may have joked about yesterday as to Ravens’ Ray Rice’s alleged elevator assault on his then fiancee (TMZ vid), they take domestic violence seriously. Very seriously.

Smartly tackling the matter at the very start of the show, Steve introduced the video of Rice seemingly cold-cocking his now wife in a casino elevator and questioned why the NFL had not asked the casino for a copy of the video. Instead of giving NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell a veritable pass as usual for giving Rice an asinine, flaccid two-week suspension, Brian iterated the question as to why the NFL did not ask the casino for a copy of the video and said that TMZ had indicated that NFL knew about the video in question.

As the segment ended, Brian tried to put an end to the controversy engendered by his and Steve’s flippant jests as to the message of the Rice video, respectively, to “take the stairs” and to remember that “when you’re in an elevator, there’s a camera.” Looking down at his papers, Brian intoned, “Comments that we made during this story yesterday made some feel like we were taking this situation too lightly. We are not: we were not. Domestic abuse is a very serious issue to us I can assure you.”*

And, that was that. No apology from Brian, saying, “I made an unthinking, tasteless jest about the Ray Rice video yesterday, and I’m sorry.” And, unfortunately, no mea culpa from Steve either.

Brian may have game: But, he did not show it today. Nor did Steve. But, tomorrow is a whole new day–hopefully.

*Fox & Friends – 09/09/14 (@ 8:04 a.m. ET).

Kilmeade & Doocy Fails: Ravens’ Rice Jests

Anna Kooiman: “This is so shocking!” Today, Fox & Friends co-hosts Brian Kilmeade and Steve Doocy both committed major fails this morning in ill-conceived jests as to domestic abuse. After a segment on now erstwhile Baltimore Ravens player Ray Rice‘s apparent elevator assault on his then fiancee (vid via TMZ), Brian joked, “I think the message is [to] ‘take the stairs.'”* As Anna chuckled uncomfortably, Steve rejoined, “The message is when you’re in an elevator, there’s a camera.”

Today, normally surefooted Brian and Steve weighed into an area where any angel should fear to tread, i.e., domestic abuse and a cheap laugh. Obviously, assaulting a female is no joke and never should be treated as such. Unfortunately, Brian tried to add some levity after the horrific video and it fell fatefully flat: To make matters worse, Steve weighed in and was mired in the process.

For this longtime viewer of the show (dating back to when whilom F&F co-host E. D. Hill was E. D. Donahey), the aforementioned moment was definitely cringe-inducing. Even though the author assuredly does not believe that either Brian or Steve think that domestic abuse is a laughing matter, they should have known better this morning than to not let their condemnation of it be patently obvious and severe. Unfortunately, in the author’s view, Brian did not help matters by giving NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell virtual absolution for his bone-headed decision to give Ray Rice only a two-game suspension for his alleged assault–by commenting that Goodell had owned up to his “huge mistake” and had increased future penalties for domestic abuse to a six-game suspension for the first offense and a life-time ban for a second offense: Perchance, if Brian were not the FNC sports guy and former Fox News anchor Jane Skinner were not Goodell’s wife, Brian might have been less charitable in his assessment.

Happily, according to the Washington Post, “Fox & Friends will address [the] Ray Rice ‘stairs’ comments on Tuesday’s show.” And they should–because it is the right thing to do. And, for the cynical, if they do not, Fox News critics will use Brian and Steve’s ill-advised remarks to slam them and their network mercilessly henceforth.

[Author’s aside: Re the subtitle, it is guest co-host Anna Kooiman‘s assessment of the alleged assault before Brian and Steve’s errant extemporaneous utterances.]

*Fox & Friends – 09/08/14 (@ 8:32 a.m. ET).