ITV

Tag: White House

  • Warner Bros Discovery hires Robert Gibbs as chief communications & public affairs boss

    Warner Bros Discovery hires Robert Gibbs as chief communications & public affairs boss

    MUMBAI: Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has announced the appointment of  Robert Gibbs as chief communications & public affairs officer. In this newly created role, he will oversee WBD’s corporate and business communications as well as public affairs. An experienced and proven communications and public policy leader, Gibbs will officially assume the role on 5 August and report to WBD CEO David Zaslav.

    “At this transformative time in our industry, Robert is the right leader to assume this new, critical global role, as we continue to grow the Warner Bros Discovery brand and presence around the world,” said Zaslav. “Robert is an insightful and respected leader with experience spanning Fortune 500 companies, the White House, and winning political campaigns. He will be an invaluable part of the team as we create the most captivating stories and content for consumers around the world. I am thrilled to welcome him to WBD.”

    “I couldn’t be happier to join Warner Bros Discovery and to help tell the incredible stories of so many iconic brands across entertainment, news and sports,” said Gibbs. “I’m particularly excited to work with the global team to fully and clearly capture WBD’s vision and communicate the meaningful growth potential in front of us. I am looking forward to getting started and being a part of this world-class organisation.”

    Gibbs most recently served as a partner at Bully Pulpit International, a strategic communications, public affairs, and corporate reputation advisory firm. From 2015 to 2019, Gibbs served as the executive vice president for corporate relations and global chief communications officer for McDonald’s, where he oversaw the company’s global corporate communications, internal and executive communications, government relations and public affairs work. At McDonald’s, Gibbs globalised the communications function, led communications strategy for the company’s successful launch of delivery service, and drove significant awareness of key strategic initiatives including improved food quality and the “America’s Best First Job” campaign.

    Prior to McDonald’s, Gibbs held several senior communications and advisory roles in the Obama White House and his presidential campaigns. He was the Obama Administration’s first White House press secretary and an assistant to the president from January 2009 to February 2011. Gibbs began working for Obama in 2004 as communications director for his US senate campaign. He held the same job in Obama’s US senate office and during his 2008 presidential campaign. After leaving the White House, Gibbs served as a senior advisor to president Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign.
     

  • CNN News18 to cover race for White House

    CNN News18 to cover race for White House

    MUMBAI: After weeks of campaigning and widely watched debates, the U.S. Presidential Election is in its last leg. As the final phase of one of the most anticipated elections comes to a close, CNN News18 is all geared up to cover the elections through its new show – Race for White House.

    The channel will present 30 hours of non-stop coverage, from 5:30 pm on 8 November until the results are called and declared.

    Special shows starting from 1 November will capture the mood of the voter, as well as the issues which have dominated the Trump-Hillary race.

    Drawing on its partnership with CNN, the extensive in depth coverage on CNN-News18 will be driven by the channel’s team of editorial experts led by executive editor Anubha Bhonsle, who will be live from Washington and New York. The channel’s team comprising anchors and experts will provide coverage of the elections – exclusives, projections and insightful analysis, tracking America and the verdict about who will move into White House.

  • CNN News18 to cover race for White House

    CNN News18 to cover race for White House

    MUMBAI: After weeks of campaigning and widely watched debates, the U.S. Presidential Election is in its last leg. As the final phase of one of the most anticipated elections comes to a close, CNN News18 is all geared up to cover the elections through its new show – Race for White House.

    The channel will present 30 hours of non-stop coverage, from 5:30 pm on 8 November until the results are called and declared.

    Special shows starting from 1 November will capture the mood of the voter, as well as the issues which have dominated the Trump-Hillary race.

    Drawing on its partnership with CNN, the extensive in depth coverage on CNN-News18 will be driven by the channel’s team of editorial experts led by executive editor Anubha Bhonsle, who will be live from Washington and New York. The channel’s team comprising anchors and experts will provide coverage of the elections – exclusives, projections and insightful analysis, tracking America and the verdict about who will move into White House.

  • Zee Cafe and Zee Cafe HD to premiere season 4 of House Of Cards

    Zee Cafe and Zee Cafe HD to premiere season 4 of House Of Cards

    MUMBAI: Zee Cafe is all geared up to premiere the new season of House Of Cards on 12 and 13 March 2016. The show will air 5 pm onward. The increasing interest around the show prompted the channel to introduce marathon viewing of its third season which went onto become a trend in the English entertainment space. Keeping in with the success, the fourth installment will also have a marathon start to end run over this weekend to keep the viewers glued to their small screens. 

    The channel promoted the show’s latest season through innovative campaigns and social media strategies. An all-round 360 degree campaign was initiated spanning across mediums like print, TV, radio, outdoor and airport branding to garner maximum outreach. The channel introduced series of contests and activities on its social media platforms one month prior to the premiere to create the recall value. 

    A Watch & Win contest sponsored by New Renault Duster will also be launched by the channel. The viewers can answer questions asked during the episodes and tweet them to @ZeeCafe with #HOConZCafe. With one laptop and 4 smartphones up for grabs, House of Cards S4 would surely make for an epic premiere.

    Speaking on the promotional idea, Zee English cluster business head Ali Zaidi said “Bringing our viewers the best in English entertainment has been our forte and House of Cards has always topped that list. While the world is abuzz with talk of House of Cards Season 4, we feel proud to have a marathon run of the show for our viewers. Just like the third season, we hope this one will also live up to the expectations and gain maximum viewership upon its premiere.” 

    The fourth season of House Of Cards will show how the conniving, methodical and vicious, President Frank Underwood played by Kevin Spacey will take Washington by storm and try to retain his position in the White House. 

  • Zee Cafe and Zee Cafe HD to premiere season 4 of House Of Cards

    Zee Cafe and Zee Cafe HD to premiere season 4 of House Of Cards

    MUMBAI: Zee Cafe is all geared up to premiere the new season of House Of Cards on 12 and 13 March 2016. The show will air 5 pm onward. The increasing interest around the show prompted the channel to introduce marathon viewing of its third season which went onto become a trend in the English entertainment space. Keeping in with the success, the fourth installment will also have a marathon start to end run over this weekend to keep the viewers glued to their small screens. 

    The channel promoted the show’s latest season through innovative campaigns and social media strategies. An all-round 360 degree campaign was initiated spanning across mediums like print, TV, radio, outdoor and airport branding to garner maximum outreach. The channel introduced series of contests and activities on its social media platforms one month prior to the premiere to create the recall value. 

    A Watch & Win contest sponsored by New Renault Duster will also be launched by the channel. The viewers can answer questions asked during the episodes and tweet them to @ZeeCafe with #HOConZCafe. With one laptop and 4 smartphones up for grabs, House of Cards S4 would surely make for an epic premiere.

    Speaking on the promotional idea, Zee English cluster business head Ali Zaidi said “Bringing our viewers the best in English entertainment has been our forte and House of Cards has always topped that list. While the world is abuzz with talk of House of Cards Season 4, we feel proud to have a marathon run of the show for our viewers. Just like the third season, we hope this one will also live up to the expectations and gain maximum viewership upon its premiere.” 

    The fourth season of House Of Cards will show how the conniving, methodical and vicious, President Frank Underwood played by Kevin Spacey will take Washington by storm and try to retain his position in the White House. 

  • The Wolverine had plenty of bark at the box office, and just enough bite

    The Wolverine had plenty of bark at the box office, and just enough bite

    MUMBAI: The sixth installment of the X-Men franchise clawed its way to $55 million this weekend, according to studio estimates from box-office trackers Hollywood.com.

     

    While the debut was plenty to win the weekend – there were no other major newcomers as studios cleared a path for the comic-book adaptation – the opening fell short of analysts’ projections, which called for a bow of at least $65 million.

     

    Still, it snapped the string of high-priced live-action films that couldn’t claim the weekend crown. Last week, the $20 million horror flick The Conjuring opened to $42 million, crushing the $130 million supernatural film R.I.P.D., which debuted to a dismal $13 million. Similarly, Pacific Rim ($37 million), The Lone Ranger ($29 million) and White House Down ($25 million) opened well below projections, falling to cheaper movies and animated films.

     

    While Wolverine’s opening was solid for a sixth franchise installment, analysts wondered whether moviegoers are suffering mutant fatigue. The previous Wolverine film, 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, debuted to $85 million.

     

    But the new film resonated with viewers, which could help its run through a typically arid August at theaters. About 68 per cent of critics gave Wolverine a thumbs-up, and the movie scored an A-minus from moviegoers, says grading site CinemaScore.

     

    Among the holdovers, Conjuring took second with $22.1 million, followed by the animated comedy Despicable Me 2 with $16 million.

    The animated Turbo was fourth with $13.3 million, while Adam Sandler’s comedy Grown Ups 2 rounded out the top five with $11.5 million.

  • Matthew Perry honoured at White House for drug court advocacy

    Matthew Perry honoured at White House for drug court advocacy

    MUMBAI: Friends star Matthew Perry received the Champion of Recovery award from US drug czar Gil Kerlikowske, The Hollywood Reporter reported.
     
    Perry is no stranger to the White House; he played one of the president‘s counsels on The West Wing or, for that matter, to politics, since his Canadian mother was Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau‘s press secretary.

    The comedy actor was honoured not only for his outspoken support of president Barack Obama‘s effort to make rehabilitation-centered local drug courts a key component of the nation‘s approach to combating addiction, but also for his upfront discussion of his own experience with prescription drug addiction and recovery.
     
    The certificate of appreciation lauds the actor for "giving a voice to the millions of Americans in recovery." Perry called the ONDCP honor "surreal." "During my darkest times, I never could have imagined receiving an award at the White House," he told.
     
    Perry became hooked on prescription painkillers, which he frequently mixed with alcohol during the height of his success as part of the ensemble cast of the hit TV show Friends. After two trips to recovery, he had become a frequent public speaker on the perils of prescription drugs, national drug policy and his own experience with recovery.
     
    "Over time, I learned that drug courts are a wonderful solution to one of the biggest problems facing our criminal justice system: people suffering from substance-use disorders who are caught in the cycle of arrest and incarceration," Perry wrote in the post that appeared on the White House website.

  • Obama nominates Tom Wheeler as next FCC chairman

    Obama nominates Tom Wheeler as next FCC chairman

    MUMBAI: US President Barack Obama has nominated Tom Wheeler, a technology investor and former head of two major trade associations, as the next chairman of the media watchdog Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

     

    Obama announced Wheeler’s nomination at the White House and joked, “Wheeler is the only member of both the cable television and the wireless industry hall of fame. So he’s like the Jim Brown of telecom or the Bo Jackson of telecom”.

     

    If the US Senate approves Wheeler’s nomination, he will replace outgoing chairman Julius Genachowski, who had announced in March that he would step down from his post after four years. Until the Senate vote occurs, democratic commissioner Mignon Clyburn will serve as FCC interim chairwoman after Genachowski leaves in the middle of the month.

     

    National Association of Broadcasters (Nab) president and CEO Gordon Smith said, “Nab welcomes the nomination of Tom Wheeler as chairman of the FCC. He has the experience and temperament to serve the agency with distinction, and we look forward to working with him.”

     

    Meanwhile AT&T has called Wheeler an inspired pick, saying that his high intelligence, broad experience, and in-depth knowledge of the industry may, in fact, make him one of the most qualified people ever named to run the agency.

  • Obama speech writer Jon Favreau to turn to script writing

    Obama speech writer Jon Favreau to turn to script writing

    MUMBAI: President Obama‘s head speechwriter, Jon Favreau is considering pursuing a career in writing scripts for films.

    Favreau, who was just 23 when he joined then-Senator Obama‘s staff, will leave his job on 1 March.

    During his tenure, Favreau cultivated a celebrity persona of sorts, dating actress Rashida Jones and taking her to the 2007 White House Correspondents‘ Dinner. He was named one of People‘s most beautiful people in the world in 2009 and has been touted as an influential figure by GQ, Time and Vanity Fair.

    Favreau‘s friends are of the belief that he is interested in following the footsteps of former Obama speechwriter Jon Lovett, who went on to co-create NBC‘s political comedy 1600 Penn. Though he plans on staying in Washington for some time now but may move to Los Angeles later.

    During his time at the White House, Favreau penned big speeches for the president, including Obama‘s first inaugural address and his healthcare speech to Congress. The president has since thanked him for his service.

    Cody Keenan, who is a Chicago native in charge of writing Obama‘s upcoming State of the Union address will succeed Favreau.

  • Zee Studio follows ‘The Path to 9/11’ with five hour miniseries

    Zee Studio follows ‘The Path to 9/11’ with five hour miniseries

    MUMBAI: To acknowledge the fifth anniversary of the
    9/11 events Zee Studio will air the five hour miniseries The Path to 9/11 on 10 September from 9-12 pm and on 11 September from 9-11 pm. In the US the show will air on ABC on the same days.

    The miniseries is based on the 9/11 commission report.
    The report documents the trail from the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 to 9/11 in 2001. The miniseries has been shot in Toronto, New York, Washington and Morocco.

    The show takes viewers inside the world of the FBI, CIA, White House and into the world of the likes of Dick Cheney, CIA director George Tenet played by Dan Lauria, Condeleeza Rice, Madeleine Albright. Also playing an important role is veteran actor Harvey Keitel as FBI agent John O ‘ Neill who spent years chasing Bin Laden.

    The miniseries starts on 11 September 2001 showing teams of hijackers boarding four American airliners.

    Using mobile phones they keep in touch with each other for a progress update prior to the hijacking. The miniseries then goes back to 1993. On a similarly ordinary day, New York was shocked by a deadly bombing at the World Trade Center. The miniseries reveals the fact that the bombing could have been stopped. Unfortunately the authorities did not take seriously the warning of an informant Emad Salem.

    “They did not think you’ll were clever enough to do something like this” he is told by CIA analyst Patricia Carver played by Amy Madigan. In fact Salem was dropped by the agency after asking for $500 a week only to be reinstated after the bombing. Madigan’s character keeps asking her bosses to take stronger action against terrorism. America was very complacent regardless of whether the Republicans or the democrats were in power. In that and other respects the miniseries tries to be fair.

    Later on it also shows how the Clinton administration messed up capturing Bin Laden and not just once. For instance later on in the miniseries when the CIA surrounds Bin Laden’s house in Afghanistan they are unable to get authorisation to capture him for fear of a political repercussion should civilians get harmed. Political decorum it would seem is an ally of terrorism. Another strong point is that a lot of the sequences like the bombing have visual panache. The viewer gets disoriented at such moments as he/she should be.

    It is also unfortunate that there seemed to be perhaps too much awareness of jurisdiction which could prevent initiative. For instance when two NYPD officers take evidence from the World Trade center site in 1993 as they feel that it will damaged by rubble they are fired by their superior as it is then FBI’s case. Also the democrats apparently put up a wall that prevented the agencies from sharing information with each other. How is one supposed to tackle a threat if the left hand does not know what the right one is doing?

    A big plus is that the miniseries also focusses for a little bit at least on the terrorists. That way the viewer is able to see two sides of a coin. In fact the terrorists view the 1993 bombing as a failure. The aim at that time was to bring down the twin towers which was what they managed to do in 2001. In a telling scene in a nightclub they brag about how what they are doing will force America to change its policies. One member talks about having invented a small bomb that can be pieced together on a plane and then detonated using a Casio watch.

    Actor Nabile Elouahbi registers strongly as Ramzi Yousef who masterminded the 1993 bombing. Sometime later he had tested a small bomb on a plane that killed a passenger and nearly brought the plane down.

    In Manila there is a fire at his lab and the efforts of an alert policewoman lead to the discovery of his laptop, which show that he had planned to take terror to another level by using a dozen airliners in the US. He also planned to assasinate Clinton when he visied philipines by using a truck. The American officials look on in disbelief when they learn of this. It seems incompreghensible that anyone would have the audacity to plan such a complex attack.

    Yousef is eventually brought down in Pakistan after managing to evade the Philippines authorities and by doing that Keitel’s character is put on Bin Laden’ trail. Yousef was in fact told that Bin Laden was a wealthy man who could provide finance.

    It is to the credit of actors like Elouahbi that the depiction of terrorists is not one dimentional. The show also earns points for being as realistic as possible. This writer saw the first hour of the show and it should be more intriguing and complex as it goes along. It should be well worth watching for those who want to know not just about how 9/11 happened but also why and the circumstances around it.