Ali Velshi Introduces “Ali’s Crib” – And His Cable News Philosophy
CNN’s Ali Velshi took a few minutes at the end of his daytime program to break down his personal philosophy for cable news.
He also introduced viewers to “Ali’s Crib” – a designation we’ll probably be using from now on to discuss his show.
Velshi was responding to a tweet from TV critic Eric Deggans, who asked, “OK Twitterverse and Facebook buddies, I’m wondering about this for a column; what are the five things you’d fix about TV right now?”
Without detailing five specific things, Velshi discussed the plan for his two hour show. “I want to get great at keeping you connected to ideas that you otherwise don’t have time to read about,” he said. “Together, we can raise our voices when we’re passionate, but not in endless, tiresome, predictable debate.”
He did talk about the “three things” he aimed to convey: “Conversation, respect and above all curiosity.”
This sentiment felt like a slightly more interesting twist on CNN’s philosophy in general – passion, yes, but not shoutfests. And as dozens of journalists give their advice to CNN (a great one from Time‘s James Poniewozik recently), Velshi seems to have his own take on how to fix the network.
Also, there’s the comfortable relationship Velshi wants with the viewer, someone he sees as “my friend.” “My team and I affectionately call it Ali’s Crib,” he said of the show (and a term I’ll be using exclusively to describe his two hours of CNN Newsroom. Also, relating to new media, “It’s a two-way street here in the Crib.”
Velshi says “it’s about being different,” at the Crib. Not just different from what’s happening on cable news at 1pmET (news hours like Andrea Mitchell‘s and Megyn Kelly‘s), but maybe even different from the traditional CNN news hours.
Here’s the clip (h/t TVNewser):
