While on the scene of the destruction today, Wolf Blitzer began talking to a young woman about her experience. At one point he said, “I guess, you gotta thank the Lord, right?” The woman, no doubt finding herself in an awkward situation, responded that she was in fact an atheist. Even so, she says that she doesn’t “blame anybody for thanking the Lord.” In the end, they all had a good laugh about it.

After what she and thousands of others went through over the last few days, I don’t blame them either.

[h/t: Raw Story]

Jolie, who wrote a piece for the New York Times this week about her brave decision to go under the knife as a preemptive strike against breast cancer, says she did it partly because she watched her mom go through a battle with the disease and doesn’t want to leave her own children without their mom. Sambolin says the same thing inspired her to elect for the invasive surgery.

“I struggled for weeks trying to figure out how tell you that I had been diagnosed with breast cancer and was leaving to have surgery then Angelina Jolie shares her story of a double mastectomy and gives me strength and an opening,” Sambolin wrote on Facebook.

Sambolin says her prognosis is a good one due to early detection, and says she wants to warn women of the dangers of being neglectful with their breast care. She is scheduled to undergo surgery on May 28.

The Atlantic Wire has the absolutely bizarre tale of two anchors – Ashleigh Banfield of CNN and Nancy Grace of Headline News – holding an interview in the same parking lot. Now this wouldn’t be so strange if both women were in the same shot talking to each other. Instead, CNN has a split-screen set up indicating that both women are far away from each other. The background, however, tells a different story (gifs courtesy of The Atlantic Wire).

It’s painfully obvious that this interview is being held in the same parking lot. What makes it so sad is that these two anchors are not even that far away from each other. By watching the background car movements, you can tell that they are no more than 50 feet away from each other.

Some are taking this as a sign of wholesale deception, but that’s a little extreme. It’s probably just CNN being the sad kind of silly yet again. Either way, we’ll hopefully get another hilarious Jon Stewart spoof out of it.

Carol Costello, the news anchor for the 9 am to 11 am segment of CNN Newsroom, revealed this weekend that she had been robbed on Thursday. She claims that she was “walking down a beautiful, leafy Atlanta street” while talking on her iPhone. Three “teenagers” then ran up to her and grabbed her phone. Costello fought for the phone but had a “chunk” of her hair pulled out for her trouble.

According to a wsbtv report on the incident, Costello was walking in the 1100 block of Piedmont Avenue. Costello gave the police a description of the iPhone thief. The anchor vented about the event on her Facebook page, where she wrote that she was “angry”:

Carol Costello CNN3 days ago

Good Morning. In retrospect, what happened to me yesterday is insignificant in light of what happened in the Boston.
Still, I feel the need to vent. And isn’t that what friends are for?
I was robbed.
And I am angry.
I was walking down a beautiful, leafy Atlanta street, talking on my IPhone.
Guess what happened next?
Three teenagers ran up behind me. One of them grabbed my IPhone. Stupidly I struggled to hold on-to it. But, he was a big guy. And he pulled out a chunk my hair.
I let go.
As he ran down the street, laughing, I hurled a few expletives his way.
I felt no fear at the time, I was just angry. Now I’m angry, shaken and sad. What a lousy life those kids have ahead of them.
Turns out, according to ABC news: “cities across the country are on alert as officials warn of an uptick in stolen Apple products, dubbed “Apple picking.”
Thieves steal IPhones, wipe them clean, then sell them for up to one-thousand bucks.
So, a warning for you. Do not talk on your IPhone as you walk down the street.
Oh, and let go of the stupid device if someone tries to steal it.
Hope you join me at 9 and 10 AM ES. Powered by socialditto  390 likes ·  740 comments

IPhone theft is nothing new, and though thieves may be getting better at it, apps such as iCloud can help locate an Apple device once it is stolen.

Curry, who was famously let go from her “Today” position opposite Matt Lauer earlier this year, has been offered a high-profile gig with CNN now that her old boss Jeff Zucker is set to take over at the network, and she wants it. The problem is, she’s locked into a non-compete contract with NBC which states she can’t take another job with a news outlet for two years.

“She has formally asked her attorney to explore exit options from the network. However, NBC bosses have indicated they are unwilling to release Ann from the contract,” a “source” told RadarOnline.

Curry feels, however, that NBC breached her contract when they demoted her, and reportedly has her lawyers checking all available options to her.

With Zucker at the helm, CNN could be receiving a programming overhaul soon; the network has suffered serious ratings drops despite the popularity of Anderson Cooper and Piers Morgan.

Clouding IP is claiming such media giants as CNN, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, Fox News, Time, and Gannett infringe on its patent by “among other things, making using, offering for sale, selling and/or importing products and/or services in the United States that enable access to and manipulation of data using a pervasive device, such as a mobile phone, by receiving a data request from a pervasive device, obtaining the requested data, determining the available data manipulation operations and locations of such operations for the obtained data and returning the obtained data and the data manipulation operations and locations to the pervasive devices.”

Yep.

Jeff John Roberts at PaidContent shares the NYT complaint:

Deadline Hollywood shares the CNN complaint, which says:

“CNN has infringed and continues to infringe the ’481 patent by, among other things, making, using, offering for sale, selling and/or importing products and/or services in the United States that enable access to and manipulation of data using a pervasive device, such as a mobile phone, by receiving a data request from a pervasive device, obtaining the requested data, determining the available data manipulation operations and locations of such operations for the obtained data and returning the obtained data and the data manipulation operations and locations to the pervasive device. Such products and services include, but are not limited to, CNN’s websites, including cnn.com, and CNN’s mobile applications…”

As Roberts notes, the New York Times and another patent troll recently agreed to dismiss the case, and both parties simply paid their own costs.

Clouding IP has also been involved in a patent suit with Rackspace this year.

image: TheElectricBananas (YouTube)

“I am thrilled to join the distinguished team of journalists across the worldwide platforms of CNN,” said Zucker. “The global reach and scale of the CNN brand is unparalleled in all of news. Outside of my family and the Miami Dolphins, there is nothing I am as passionate about as journalism. I spent the most rewarding years of my career as a journalist, and it’s where I look forward to spending many more. I am grateful to Phil Kent for this opportunity, and I’m excited to return to daily newsgathering and compelling storytelling in a place that values those above all else.”

Zucker began his career as a researcher for NBC Sports, and was named executive producer of NBC’s Today show in 1992. From there, he rose through NBC to eventually become president and CEO of NBC Universal in 2007.

Turner Broadcasting System CEO and Chairman Phil Kent announced Zucker’s appointment.

“Jeff’s experience as a news executive is unmatched for its breadth and success,” said Kent. “He built and sustained the number-one brand in morning news, and under his watch NBC’s signature news programming set a standard for quality and professionalism. As a programmer, a brand-builder and a leader, he will bring energy and new thinking to CNN. I couldn’t be happier to welcome him or more excited about what he’ll accomplish here.”

(Photo credit: David Shankbone via Wikimedia Commons)

And it looks like the Republican National Convention is doing its job (one of its jobs, at least): It’s making people talk about Mitt Romney.

Day-over-day, Facebook discussions of Mitt Romney have increased by 137%. This includes comments, posts, likes, and various other Romney-related mentions on the site. Romney’s running mate Paul Ryan has also seen a surge, at +102% since yesterday’s true launch of the convention.

Of course, the Election Insights have their limitations. They don’t differentiate between negative and positive mentions, meaning that a “Go Mitt Romney” post and and “Mitt Romney is a tool” post both factor into total buzz. But it does serve one purpose: it shows just how much a party convention can affect the national dialogue. By comparison, Obama and Biden only show a buzz increase of 13% and 20%, respectively.

When the Democratic National Convention kicks off in September, we’re likely to see a similar buzz increase for the incumbent.

Campaigns must utilize Facebook to not only rally the troops and provide updates to potential voters, but to generate revenue as well. Barack Obama already has an online store app tied to his Facebook account, and Mitt Romney’s page just launched its own.

With the online store app (situated right next to the Donate app on his Timeline), Romney can pitch his growing fanbase a variety of campaign products like hats, mugs, stickers, and magnets. Although users are directed to the offical Romney campaign site to complete any purchases, there is one important reason to tie it all into Facebook:

Sharing:

With every link to Mitt Romney’s Facebook page via a tag in a post, the campaign has a chance to grab donations and sales. With the huge upswing in mentions across the site generated by the convention, the Romney/Ryan ticket has the opportunity to expose voters to their message.

The Election Insights page is housed on CNN’s site, and features charts and graphs based on real-time data from Facebook concerning the amount of buzz each candidate is receiving. The tool tracks President Obama, Paul Ryan, Joe Biden, and Mitt Romney and displays information like the percent change in people discussing them, as well as demographic breakdowns of the conversations.

“Facebook is naturally a place where friends engage in political discourse, and we’re pleased to announce that the Facebook-CNN Election Insights tool will offer an interactive, real-time glimpse into how and where this conversation is taking place across the country,” said Elliot Schrage, Vice President-Corporate Communications & Public Policy at Facebook.

Political junkies can do they’re own demographic breakdowns by filtering the data based on state, gender, age, and time period. And for those who wish to get involved in the conversation, the page feature a Facebook comments plugin.

According to Facebook, the two entities worked with Mass Relevance to create the Election Insights tool.

“Today’s launch builds on a previously announced multi-platform partnership between CNN and Facebook intended to bring an interactive and uniquely social experience to CNN’s on-air, mobile and online audiences and Facebook’s more than 160 million U.S. users. The Facebook-CNN Election Insights tool is powered by Facebook Insights and was designed and developed by Mass Relevance, a social integration firm that specializes in the curation and display of real-time social content.”

Last week, Facebook and CNN unveiled the “I’m Voting” app, which allows Facebook users to share their political leanings (candidate support, positions on the issues, party perceptions, etc.) with their friends via Open Graph sharing.

Facebook’s U.S. Politics and Government team is currently taking on the GOP convention.

Today, they’re finally launching the I’m Voting app, which was first announced in early July as one of the key products of the Facebook/CNN partnership.

“With Election Day right around the corner, it’s time for everyone to get involved, understand the issues, and make a commitment to participate. We believe that the power of friends – the social dynamic that creates a societal impact — will result in a more involved citizenry that turns out on Election Day, informed about the most critical issues facing the nation,” says Facebook’s U.S. Politics & Government Team.

When you first launch the app, you’ll be asked to take a very simple voting pledge. all you have to do it click “Yes, I’m voting” to get started. If you don’t want to make that kind of a crazy commitment (?), you can skip it and head on to the meat of the app.

The I’m Voting dashboard consists of questions, maps, results breakdowns, and a comment section – everything you need to get the political discussions going. Users can cycle through questions like…

What’s your political leaning?
Which issue matter most to you?
If the election were held today, who’d get your vote?
Should the public be able to see all of a candidate’s previous tax returns?
Should Americans be required to have health insurance?
Should states be able to enact tougher immigration laws than the federal government’s?

…and many more. You can click on “Support” for whichever position you choose and then decide if you want that answer pushed to your Timeline and your friends’ news feeds & tickers by simply checking or unchecking the share box. Every page has a comments section that you can once again choose whether or not to post to your Timeline.

Here’s a sample of the page layout:

Facebook says that the app will also become a “second screen” for CNN on-air and online content. Presumably, that means that the network will use data compiled from the app in its broadcasts.

Like I’ve said before, 2012 is the first truly social election. Not only are the candidates more invested in getting out their message (and the vote) via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. – but voters have a better opportunity to share and debate than ever before. Politics on Facebook gets a bad rap – and rightfully so sometimes. People are oftentimes as*holes, to put it bluntly.

But sharing your opinions on the issues via Open Graph app – that has to be better than a snarky status, right?

Disclaimer: I am guilty of many a snarky political status.