David in Afghanistan
David Fitzpatrick is beginning his 13th year as a Senior Executive Producer for CNN. He currently serves as an investigative producer, whose work appears principally on CNN’s flagship broadcast, the Anderson Cooper show, airing nightly at 8 p.m. He’s spent much of that time working with CNN Correspondent Drew Griffin exposing fraudulent charities. He joined CNN days after the 9-11 attack in September 2001 and for years worked as an anchor producer for CNN’s Aaron Brown, who anchored what was at the time CNN’s mainstay prime time newscast, “NewsNight With Aaron Brown.”
Prior to joining CNN, he spent 25 years at CBS News in a variety of positions, including working for three years as a producer for 60 Minutes in the mid-1990s. He traveled the world for CBS News, including being based for three years in London. Among the significant stories he covered were the hostage crisis in Iran, the rise of Polish Solidarity, the Falklands War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the revolt and uprising at Tien An Men Square and countless other world events.
At CNN, he’s been involved in most of the major stories covered by the network, including most recently the explosions at the Boston Marathon and the capture and arrest of the two men deemed responsible. This year alone, he’s traveled to Egypt, South Africa and the Dominican Republic to produce stories for the Anderson Cooper broadcast.
David has lived in Darien since 1985 and is married to Adria Bates.
David will speak about “How To Watch TV News”. Just imagine… You’re sitting in your living room or den and watching television news. Either the nightly newscasts on the Big Three over-the-air networks or drawn to a cable news network. And your blood begins to boil a little bit. “How can they say that,? ” you’ll ask the person next to you. Or, perhaps: “This is all liberal clap-trap (substitute a favorite expression) and I’m not going to watch these guys any more.”
There is both and art a science to watching television news, especially on cable. In the prime time evening hours, the most popular channel, Fox News, rarely DOES any news. They TALK about it of course and it’s a brilliant business model. If you watch CNN, you might complain about a “liberal bias” but is there? For sure there is on MSNBC. But you do you actually know there’s a bias on CNN?
David will take you through the signals, both direct and subtle.
Arranged by Alex Garnett