Political discourse is no longer the sole province for spirited and emotional debates on cable news; you can now include the ethical debate over keeping wild animals in captivity. Earlier this week, a Sea World trainer was tragically killed while working with an orca in captivity. CNN anchor Ali Velshi had on guests Jane Velez-Mitchell and Jack Hanna to discuss this calamity; things got really heated.

CNN just reported that it’s been confirmed that Dick Cheney had a “mild heart attack” yesterday something which was apparently determined through stress tests after he was admitted to the hospital last night. Cheney, 69, has a history of heart problems. According to CNN he remains in the hospital for further testing. Video below.

This weekend I was on CNN’s Your Money with host Ali Velshi and CNN’s Richard Quest, talking about a variety of topics including Snowmageddon’s effect on jobs and the claim by various analysts that around 200,000 jobs would be lost as a result (which we all viewed with extreme skepticism), whether it was still a [...]

We are big fans of Ali Velshi, and have long been proponents of what we deem to be a very bright future at CNN. That said – he is getting used to some of the guiding principles of live television. For example, if someone who has called into your show mentions Howard Stern, there is an extremely good chance that he is not who he purports to be. Secondly, by all means do not ask that caller a follow-up question, else you risk being called a “dumb ass” on live TV. Just like in this following video.

CNN’s Chief Business Correspondent Ali Velshi is adding a new role at the network – general news anchor.

Mediaite talked to Velshi, who will anchor a soon-to-be-named program from 1-3pmET, about his new show, which was announced the same day other major day time changes are occurring.

As news broke yesterday and last night about the attempted terror attack, CNN stayed live the longest, until 11pmET, FNC the 2nd longest and MSNBC stayed in doc block programming for the majority of the night.

And the person who anchored CNN’s coverage until the end, Chief Business Correspondent Ali Velshi, was nearly universally praised on Twitter – with the opportunity potentially signaling bigger thing in 2010.

After a week off (my fault, long story), it’s time for another edition of Mediaite Office Hours. We’ll be live from Livestream.com’s studio at 3pmET, with guests including CNN correspondent Ali Velshi and NBC News legal analyst Dan Abrams (how’d we land that one?). And of course…you!

It’s time for another edition of Mediaite Office Hours, likely the final one from our conference room set. We lined up a great show: guests include CNN correspondent Ali Velshi (live from Missouri) and Garrett Graff of Washingtonian. And of course…you!

With Rick Sanchez on vacation this week, CNN turned to a non-traditional anchor to fill the high-profile daytime slot. Every day this week at 3pmET, chief business correspondent Ali Velshi has taken over for the new media star. What does it the move mean? For Velshi, it could signal big things to come (even if he won’t admit it to us).