AM on Holiday?

Lady Gaga still “wins.” With American Morning co-hosts Kiran Chetry and John Roberts off today, it appears their copy editor was playing hooky. As guest co-host Jim Acosta read the MTV Video Music Awards headlines story, the graphics read, “Lady Gaga Winds Big: Takes home eight trophies at MTV VMAs.” (N.B. Glaring error: “Winds” vis-a-vis “wins.”) To make matters worse, it occurred twice: once at 7:07 a.m. ET and again at 8:07 a.m. ET. Doubtless, a timorous truant is awaiting a good tongue lashing by his executive producer–unless Jamie Kraft, too, is on an AM vacation.

John & Sanjay: 1 A.M. “Bromance”

For some men, the answer to getting old is a younger beau: For others, it might be a younger bro. Today, American Morning co-anchor John Roberts seemed to opt or, rather, re-opt for the latter. I.e., a renewed bromance from July.

AM’s “silver fox” feeling old? Apparently, so. After misreading a headline news story, John groused, “You know, from this distance, sometimes, an “8” looks an awful lot like a “3”: when guest co-host Alina Cho tried to imply kindly that it might be his contacts, John declared, “Telling you. This getting old thing? Hate it!” Later, after mistakenly saying that Lady Gaga was DirecTV’s ad gal, he admitted that he had trouble telling Lady Gaga and Christina Aguilera apart (even though he re-affirmed his “unique fascination” with Lady Gaga).

When the subsequent post-break segment with Dr. Sanjay Gupta began to “The Remedy,” a still smarting John exclaimed, “Him, I know. Jason Mraz….Lady Gaga, Christina Aguilera, I’m still having a problem.” Before Sanjay started his report entitled “Americans May Live Longer,” he looked at John and advised, “You need to get more sleep.” When Sanjay had concluded his story, John joked, “And, he [Gupta], is chastising me for not getting sleep. We were emailing each other at one o’clock in the morning.”

Dismissively, Sanjay stated, “That’s right. Yeah, it was about work stuff. Yeah.” Turning to Alina and then pointing to Sanjay, John smiling queried, “Notice how he qualifies it by saying, ‘It was about work stuff.'” Blushing, Sanjay looked down and chuckled. Grinning puckishly, John continued, “He’s always trying to downplay the bromance here.” As they all shared a lavish laugh, an abashed Sanjay struck his forehead with his papers and incredulously asked, “Back to that again?”

Sanjay, apparently, what’s old is new again!

American Morning Censored?

Iconic sex symbol Marilyn Monroe’s alleged marijuana use? Hush! Controversial pop SINsation Lady Gaga’s gender? Hush! Hush! What is going on at American Morning this week or, actually, the last eight days? Unfortunately, it appears that  AM executive producer Jamie Kraft has presided over its becoming C.N.N. (not CNN), i.e., the Censored Network News.

Last Wednesday, when AM co-host John Roberts reported on the recent sale of a private Marilyn Monroe video, he failed to inform his AM audience that Marilyn Monroe was allegedly smoking marijuana in it: rather, he simply twice said, “[It] shows her acting casually on the couch with friends, smoking and drinking wine.”** However, cable news rivals FNC* and MSNBC did not shy away from Marilyn Monroe’s alleged pot use nor did the main stream media, e.g., ABC, BBC, and the New York Times.)

Today, Jeanne Moos reported on Lady Gaga’s meeting Queen Elizabeth II in Liverpool, England, after the Royal Variety Performance.*** Afterwards, Roberts remarked, “I’ll admit that there’s something strangely fascinating about her but, I mean, it’s all image and marketing.” Co-host Kiran Chetry concurred, “Of course, it is!”

Really? According to recent concert footage, Lady Gaga may be Laddy Gaga: In the NSFW Gawker.com clip, as she gets off a motorcycle and subsequently shimmies in a micro red mini, she exposes what seems to be a small male member. According to Bossip.com, Lady Gaga confirmed her hermaphroditic status, stating “It’s not something that I’m ashamed of, just isn’t something that I go around telling everyone. Yes. I have both male and female genitalia, but I consider myself a female.” Reportedly, she added, “The reason I haven’t talked about it is that it’s not a big deal to me.”

With Marilyn Monroe, AM omitted a material fact, i.e., her apparent smoking of marijuana. As to Lady Gaga, AM seemed to include a significant fiction, i.e., that her “strangely fascinating” nature is “all image and marketing.” If Kraft does not give his AM viewers the full news, sans such salient omissions and questionable inclusions, they may begin to lose confidence in the accuracy of American Morning and, by extension, CNN.

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*Fox & Friends (12/02/09)

** Full quote: A new home movie of Marilyn Monroe unscripted has surfaced. The quick clip from the ’50’s shows her acting casually on the couch with friends, smoking and drinking wine. The copyright to the film will be offered on Ebay this week by a collector who paid a quarter of a million dollars for it.” American Morning (12/02/09)- @ 6:08 a.m. ET and @8:39 a.m. ET (Second reading omitted “and” between “smoking” and “drinking” and substituted “one” for “a” before “million.”)

***American Morning (12/09/09) – @6:55 a.m. ET