What they heard on CNN

[Donna Halper]

Am I the only one who was puzzled by all of the technical glitches and 
problems that CNN had covering the convention this week? I felt bad for 
Anderson Cooper, whose mike kept going out whenever he tried to interview 
anyone-- and the other anchors had similar problems. But the worst part for 
CNN was when the Kerry speech concluded last night-- as I am sure many of 
you have heard or read by now, somebody left the mike open and you could 
hear the convention director shouting out orders (nobody figured out to 
kill his mike, I guess); and when the balloons and confetti didn't fall 
down quickly enough, the guy dropped the F bomb. Nobody wants to admit 
whose bright idea it was or to explain how this could happen... I wonder if 
CNN will get into trouble over it... Wolf Blitzer was apologising 
frantically for the "offensive word" (a Dick Cheney moment!), but I found 
the entire week of coverage odd-- one would expect CNN would have worked 
out those glitches ages ago, yet night after night, things went wrong. I 
thought NECN had excellent coverage.