Financial pressures, the demand of ratings, the changing tastes of the American public all led to new decisions in newsrooms about what to cover and how.
— Dan Abrams
It was no easy feat becoming Dominick Dunne. Think about it. He was the most celebrated chronicler of downtrodden socialites. He feasted on their famine with little sympathy or admiration for their formerly exalted positions. Yet somehow they invited him back.
While not explicitly articulated in the Constitution, the presumption of innocence has, through Supreme Court opinions, become a fundamental tenet of our criminal-justice system, and rightly so.
My stint as general manager of MSNBC made me particularly sensitive to how the big stories are covered.
The idea behind Mediaite was always to focus on the punditry, focus on the personalities behind the political media.
When you're behind, you have to work harder. Women have had to work harder to get ahead, and now they are in a place where they are surpassing men.
I would never have thought, when I was in my 20s, that I would be 44 and single.
Growing up with a sister, someone I talk to all the time, helps me appreciate women.
I read our emails every day and I know there are people out there who think I'm awful.
I'm not going to let people get away with either a dishonest or inaccurate premise to what we're talking about because I think that does the viewer a disturbance.
You can be a great reporter and not be such a great talk show host.
For anyone in the news business, just the name 'Cronkite' conjures up images of a bygone era when journalists covered, and could at times impact, the most important stories of the day, rather than the most 'compelling' or salacious.
To the chagrin of many, the media gravitates towards controversy.
People constantly complain to me about news coverage of criminal cases. 'What happened to the presumption of innocence?' they ask at almost every turn. Well, I'm tired of it.
The way police do what they do is under the microscope. You've got people on the one side saying, 'We need to be holding our police accountable.' And you've got a lot of people who support the police saying they're being 'unfairly vilified.'
Trump has taken it to a new level. He is now viewing the media as the 'opposition party,' in his own words. Consequently, media coverage of Trump has become that much more significant.
I am comfortable in my own skin.
I think the Internet is comparable to the Homestead Act: Here's a parcel of land. Sign up, cultivate it, it's yours.
I have always been an amateur history buff, and I've been fascinated by legal history.
But doing what I do, you will never get unanimity of people.
They can say I have an opinion about something.
I think that in the end, a talk show is a very different animal.
I will miss my pal Dominick Dunne. I am sure his funeral will be just the sort of event he would have loved. Based on who will be there, I am sure he wishes he could have been there to cover it.
Demanding that all of us presume every defendant innocent outside of a courtroom is to demand that we stop evaluating facts, thereby suffocating independent thought and opinion. There is nothing 'reasonable' about that.
As a citizen - or even a TV legal analyst - am I required to presume innocence, i.e., that the authorities arrest the wrong person in every case? Not a chance.
When I started Mediaite, I didn't expect it to become the business that it's become.
In 2003, I had testicular cancer, and I didn't tell anyone about it - maybe five people. I had a fairly significant surgery. I was weak, slumped over. I told people at work I'd been in an accident.
There's no question that women are more risk averse, thoughtful, and deliberative.
I like the feeling that I'm on the right side of history.
Supreme Court arguments and decisions are fascinating to a few of us and really pretty boring to most.
Some people think I'm a total moron and I would hope most people think I'm very good at what I do.
I think by laying it out for the viewer I'm avoiding the issue of bias.
Certainly the O.J. Simpson case was a turning point in my career.
