CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta will have a special documentary on Saturday August 14th titled “Taming The Beast”. From today’s release…

Gupta visits The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston to learn about cutting-edge methods used to fight the disease and to meet some of its survivors. He provides a deeply personal glimpse into the lives of five cancer patients as he reveals their daily struggles and explores the revolutionary science helping keep them alive. CNN Presents also provides rare and personal access to those battling cancer by providing a unique video recording room in the hospital to allow patients, doctors, families, clergy and others the opportunity to share and record information about their experiences with cancer.

(via WHAC)

I’ve made a point lately of noting MSNBC’s insufficient promotion of their in-house specials like The Ethical Edge. But a CNN July 5th release for an August 14th documentary? Have they even shot any footage for this at this stage? CNN will probably have to issue a follow up release closer to air time just to remind people because nobody’s going to remember today’s release in a month…

Here are Friday’s numbers. FOX dominated as usual, beating CNN nearly 3:1 in Prime Time and better than 2:1 in Total Day. Nancy Grace clobbered Paula Zahn Now nearly 2:1 (PZN was canned I believe…not sure on that). MSNBC struggled, barely eeking out a 4th place finish ahead of CNBC in Total Day but falling to 5th in both the Total Day and Prime Time P 25-54 Demos. Hardball showed increased strength, due in large part to the O’Connor resignation I’ll wager. This seems to indicate that the fotunes of Hardball depend largely on how big the days’ political news is. If it’s a big political story day Hardball’s numbers jump. If it’s a normal day the numbers seem to be trending low. The Situation continues to struggle finding an audience…
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FOX News has promoted Brian Wilson to Congressional Correspondent.

Quoting parts of the release…

In making the announcement, Mr. Ailes said, “Brian’s extensive experience in Washington, D.C., and his first-rate reporting skills make him a natural for this position.”

On July 1, 2005, Wilson was the first to report on Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s retirement from the U.S. Supreme Court. Additionally, he has covered the ethics investigation into Rep. Tom Delay’s (R-TX) travel financing and his past relationships with lobbyists. In 2004, Wilson reported from numerous events during Election 2004, including the Democratic and Republican conventions, and earlier he provided in-depth coverage on a variety of stories, including the 2002 Washington, D.C.-area sniper attacks, and the devastation and cleanup at the Pentagon in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States.

Wilson currently serves as the Vice-Chairman of the Radio and Television Correspondents Association.

ICN has learned from an insider tip that Juliet Huddy and Mike Jerrick will be the subsitute hosts for Linda Vester on Dayside for the next year while Linda is on extended maternity leave. Huddy and Jerrick will not be co-hosting but will solo host on separate days. I would guess that this is so they will still be able to do their regular FOX and Friends Weekend gig.

Brokaw has an interview with Bob Woodward concerning his new book on his relationship with Mark Felt as Deep Throat. Also interviewed are Carl Bernstein, Ben Bradlee, and Robert Redford. The NBC special “The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate’s Deep Throat” will air tomorrow night on NBC according to today’s release. And then it will probably show up on MSNBC a week or two afterwards as NBC has a habit of doing with its specials…

TVNewser breaks fresh ground on the CNN broadband story…

CNN Pipeline will allow a subscriber to access a variety of live feeds — some of the same ones that CNN producers have access to. If you’ve had your fill of headlines from the CNN Pipeline anchor, you can change the channel and watch the White House press briefing or a press conference.

CJR Online has an interview with New York Times Magazine’s Matt Bai. Most of the interview covers the print journalism arena but Bai does spend some time talking about reporters appearing on Cable News Channels….

By and large, I don’t think they should be, and I personally choose not to. That’s not to say that I never do television — there are shows that I will do. I did “Nightline” last year, and I would do that for the magazine, because there are still some substantive forums, but I think the cable TV venue is really vapid, and I think it’s corrosive. It thrives on conflict and glibness and it almost demands that people talk about things they know nothing about.

It takes me months to do a story. If I went on a cable TV show they’d ask me about four different topics in sixty seconds or ninety seconds — how could I possibly claim to know what I’m talking about? I wish we’d reexamine it. I’m also fairly skeptical that there’s any real promotional value in it. I doubt there is.

Howard Kurtz in the Washington Post writes up today on all the stories going on about a Housing Bubble that is supposedly going to burst any day now…

CNBC anchor Ron Insana, who has a less rosy view, says he is drawing the same kind of criticism for “spoiling the party” as he did before the Nasdaq nose dive in 2000: “You get hate mail: ‘When are you getting off this topic? You want prices to go down?’ There are going to be some huge blowups. Someone’s going to get killed somewhere. It’s totally irresponsible to ignore the speculative behavior that’s going on.”