O'Brien To Speak at UT-Arlington

The University of Texas at Arlington’s Maverick Speakers Series lecture will host Soledad O’Brien. The event was rescheduled for February 24 because of production conflicts with O’Brien’s new television show. The lecture had originally been scheduled for Feb. 7, but O’Brien began hosting the new weekday morning show on CNN called Starting Point which debuted in early January.

Starting Point with Soledad O'Brien Premieres

CNN's American Morning signed off on Friday, after ten years on the air. It will be replaced by two new programs. The first show is Early Start with Ashleigh Banfield & Zoraida Sambolin from 5-7 a.m. which will lead into Starting Point with Soledad O'Brien from 7-9 a.m.

Starting Point marks the return of former American Morning anchor, Soledad O'Brien. American Morning was created in the months following the September 11th attacks and was based in New York City. O'Brien left the morning anchor job to work on CNN documentaries and special programming in 2007.

Her 2009 project, Latino in America, was a wide-ranging look at Latinos living in this country. Earlier that year, O’Brien reported for Black in America 2, a four-hour documentary focusing on successful community leaders who are improving the lives of African-Americans. O’Brien’s original Black in America in 2008 was a revealing look at the state of Black America 40 years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

She will debut on Starting Point live from Des Moines, Iowa on January 3, 2012.

The shows will be up against cable favorites Fox News' Fox and Friends, and MSNBC's Morning Joe, and the major network morning shows such as NBC's Today.

You can follow the new shows on Twitter and Facebook.

Early Start with Ashleigh Banfield & Zoraida Sambolin
Twitter: @earlystartcnn
Facebook: Facebook.com/earlystartcnn

Starting Point with Soledad O'Brien
Twitter: @startingptcnn
Facebook: Facebook.com/startingpointcnn

Soledad on Race on HuffPost LationVoices

From an interview with Cristina Costantini on the huffingtonpost.com

Soledad O’Brien believes America has changed radically in terms of race during her lifetime and she's devoted her most recent project to documenting that change.

O'Brien’s daughter reacted to Obama’s election as President with great concern. But, only because as a six-year old at the time, she simply couldn’t fathom the idea that Obama was the first black person to hold his position. This, O’Brien says, was a great indication to her that the racial climate she grew up in was a thing of the past.

“She said, ‘But the FIRST?’, like I was completely lying to her and had misleading her for months…‘Well, how many girls have been President?” And I said, “No girls. There have been no girl presidents.' She couldn’t believe it,” O'Brien said in an interview with HuffPost LatinoVoices.

O’Brien defines herself as “a bi-racial black girl from Long Island” that is ethnically Latina. Her father is Australian and her mother is Afro-Cuban. O'Brien's ethnic and racial background have always been important to her. She even refused to change her name when a local news station told her that “Soul-Dad” was too hard to pronounce. Instead, O’Brien changed jobs. She eventually went on to be a CNN news anchor and is now the host of “In America”, a documentary series on the same network.

Soledad O'Brien Talks About Race And Boxing In "Latino In America 2: In Her Corner"

Making Mornings Work on CNN

According to The Huffington Post, Soledad O'Brien has been given "what some might think is an unenviable task: making mornings work on CNN."

In early 2012, O'Brien will be back on CNN in the morning for a new 7-9 AM show which will replace American Morning which she co-hosted from 2003-2007.

O'Brien has been focusing on long form documentaries fro CNN that have garnered good reviews and ratings such as the In America series (Black in America, Latino in America, etc.)

Meanwhile, CNN's morning offerings have been at the bottom of the morning show ratings being consistently bested by FOX and MSNBC on cable and Today and other network programs.

American Morning 2005 with Bill Hemmer

2006 American Morning with Miles O'Brien

The new show will be a "conversational ensemble" show more in the style of MSNBC's Morning Joe.

A 5-7 AM program, hosted by former MSNBC anchor Ashleigh Banfield and local Chicago newscaster Zoraida Sambolin will lead in to O'Brien's currently unnamed show, musch the way MSNBC leads in with Way Too Early featuring Morning Joe regular Willie Geist.


Though O'Brien enjoyed the documentaries, she says that "The only way to really have a platform where you have the stories you want to tell is to have a show.”

It's not clear if the show will have a regular lineup or use a rotating cast.

Education in America: Don't Fail Me F.I.R.S.T. Teams with Soledad O'Brien

View Soledad O'Brien video of "Education in America: Don't Fail Me" showing the F.I.R.S.T. teams preparing and competing.

http://youtu.be/HpbXShBUtEs

Miami Reception for Soledad's Foundation

Soledad O'Brien attends a cocktail reception for her Soledad O'Brien + Brad Raymond Foundation hosted by Pharrel Williams - November 18, 2011 in Miami Beach, Florida.

Soledad O'Brien and husband Brad Raymond 

Photos by Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images North America via zimbio.com

Soledad O'Brien on Mike Arrington

Dr. Boyce Watkins writes on the Huffington Post writes about "Soledad O'Brien, Michael Arrington, and the Non-Existent Black Entrepreneur"

Soledad O'Brien's public spanking of Tech Crunch founder Michael Arrington is, in my opinion, the stuff that legends are made of.  During a recent interview, Arrington, who prides himself on covering the tech industry in detail, actually told Soledad that he doesn't know of any black entrepreneurs in the tech industry.  He then had the audacity to go on and say that he firmly believes that Silicon Valley is a meritocracy and that your level of success is determined by the size of your brain...

Soledad O'Brien Returns to CNN Mornings in 2012

 CNN anounced last week that it will launch a new format of news and conversation in the morning, including a 7-9am ET show anchored by award-winning journalist Soledad O’Brien in 2012.

O’Brien will anchor a new "conversational ensemble program" that explores top issues of the day while opening the conversation to people from all walks of life. O’Brien will continue to be a special correspondent for long-form documentaries at CNN.

“I couldn’t be more eager to return to daily news, to bring conversation and context to CNN viewers in the morning. I welcome the opportunity to give voice to people who aren’t often heard, and stories that are sometimes overlooked,” says O’Brien. “I love telling people’s stories, and I’m looking forward to bringing the perspective, heart and storytelling that have worked well in our documentaries to a morning audience”

Since joining CNN in 2003, O’Brien has reported breaking news from around the globe—including the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, hurricane Katrina, and the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. In addition, she has produced award-winning documentaries, including the acclaimed Black in America, Latino in America and Muslim in America. Earlier this year she was part of a CNN team that won an Emmy Award for their reporting of the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti.

O’Brien came to CNN from NBC, where she anchored the network’s Weekend Today show from 1999-2003. She was named Journalist of the Year by the National Association of Black Journalists in 2010. That same year she launched a personal foundation with her husband, the Soledad O’Brien and Brad Raymond Foundation to send underprivileged youth to and through college.

Banfield

Sambolin

Ashleigh Banfield and Zoraida Sambolin will anchor from 5-7am ET, kicking off the new CNN morning block with a new program covering a broad spectrum of the day’s news from two highly personable and passionate journalists.

O'Brien Interview on The New Promised Land, Silicon Valley

Soledad was interviewed by Mario Armstong about Black in America: The New Promised Land, Silicon Valley. The documentary airs on Nov. 13 8pm ET & PT
Mario Armstrong interviews Soledad O’Brien about CNN's Black in America special