Did #NBCFail?
By John Sepulvado, CNN
(CNN) – The 2012 Summer Games are over, and while the U.S. Olympic Team left with more medals than their competitors, the U.S. broadcaster, NBC is leaving London bruised by bad publicity.
The #NBCFail phenomenon got us wondering if NBC actually failed at their broadcasts of the 2012 Summer Games. We asked three media writers what they thought of NBC’s Olympic performance. FULL POST
Sunday Playlist: End of the Road
By Lisa Desjardins, John Sepulvado, Emma Lacey-Bordeaux, Jonathan Binder and Gavin Godfrey, CNN
(CNN) - Usually on Sundays we present some of our favorite listening discoveries produced by other audio storytellers.
This week, we depart from the usual and highlight our own work. We want to focus on a series CNN Radio has been presenting for the past several weeks, "Embed America."
The series was an attempt to take a different approach to election coverage: to turn away from the scripts of the presidential campaigns and, instead, focus on the issues important to voters where they live.
We invite you to explore the variety of stories our reporting teams produced from all over the country. Our reporters and producers worked very hard to bring these stories about a nation in the midst of a pivotal election year.
– Chip Grabow, Senior Editor, CNN Radio
Embed America: Lemon Grove, California as microcosm of U.S.
By John Sepulvado, CNN
Lemon Grove, California (CNN) - Our Embed America election series has been exploring the issues important to American voters and their communities. The stories we discovered frequently involve issues we're not hearing much about in the presidential candidates' campaigns.
From Florida to California, CNN’s John Sepulvado has been reporting on issues as varied as gun control, education, or public transportation and how those issues play out in the lives of American voters.
Wrapping up his leg of the Embed America journey across the southern United States, he takes us to his hometown of Lemon Grove, California. When he arrived there, his brother, James Sepulvado, told him the local recreation center was closing:
[2:51] “It’s kind of unique, as far as I know of, that the city had funded what was essentially an after school program,” says James Sepulvado. “We would play sports there, they had games like foosball, pool, you know, you could do arts and crafts…it was like, this safe place and there were some really amazing people that worked there, and they had this great knack for knowing which kids needed some guidance, and which kids needed some extra adult figures in their life. And I think they actually saved a lot of people.”
Embed America: Transportation, the invisible pocketbook issue
By John Sepulvado, CNN
Durango, Colorado (CNN) - In the center of this small, Western town, there are bartenders who rock handlebar moustaches and pour sloe gin fizzes. Some waitresses wear feathers in their hair and tight-fitting western dresses while serving clams and steak. There’s an old rail car that rumbles through downtown, with a conductor dressed in a blue and white rail cap.
Much of downtown Durango seems like a Old West re-enactment.
Yet, this scenic town of 16,000 is pursuing one of the most ambitious transportation plans in the country. It includes miles of bike-ways and walking trails, and it aims for a public transit stop within fifteen minutes of any point in town.
[3:51] “We know that not every single initiative in this plan is implementable, particularly in the near-term,” says Durango Mayor Doug Lyon. “We don’t have to do the whole thing to be successful.” FULL POST
Embed America: Ask Grand Canyon
By Jonathan Binder, CNN
Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona (CNN) – A road trip through the American South West wouldn’t be complete without a stop at the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Embed America’s Team South visited the canyon to not only admire the scenic views from the rim, but also to get the political views of a family visiting from Lake Arthur, New Mexico.
Carrie Jackson, Clinton Jackson, Jessica Gamboa, and future voter Darin Jackson, 11, were on a family road trip together. And despite them not all agreeing about politics, they say it would take more than politics to ruin their vacation.
Although their votes may not all line up, there was a shared frustration with the lack of cooperation across the aisle in Washington. Gamboa says the government needs to come together:
[1:39] “I wish it would quit being Republicans against Democrats – would learn to work together as a people and realize government wasn’t so powerful because right now it’s like a tyranny. They’re making too many, too many laws and rules, that it was never meant to be like this.”
You can check out all our Embed America coverage here. And track the team's progress on our Embed America map.
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