ZDNet.com reports that MSNBC.com was the top news site in July….(via WHAC)

Most popular news sites in July 2005: MSNBC, Yahoo! News, CNN by ZDNet’s ZDNet Research — Nielsen//NetRatings published the list of most popular news sites in July 2005.MSNBC - 27.4 mln usersYahoo! News - 27.3CNN - 22.8AOL News - 20.0Knight Ridder - 8.7Tribune - 7.9USA Today - 7.8NY Times - 6.8Google News - 5.8ABC News - 5.6

FOX wins overwhelmingly again in primetime beating the competition combined at 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 pm. Larry King was flat again…was Costas subbing again? Cosby continues to bounce around in the ratings…today she bounced up from yesterday but Scarborough still had more viewers. And the Situation had an 80,000 uptick in the ratings…almost a 50% increase over it’s usual numbers. What was the subject… Nude oil wrestling? Crowley was subbing for Carlson last night….
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Matt Zoller Seitz of the New Jersey Star Ledger has some very interesting tidbits on the promotion of Roger Ailes to Chairman of the FOX Television Group with an emphasis on the future…

Ailes said he’s “definitely” looking for ways to leverage Fox News Channel’s resources and on-air talent.

For example, Ailes said, “It’s not out of the question a (Fox News) talent could front a local special, but we couldn’t simulcast it on cable and broadcast.”

Fox News already shares resources with local affiliates across the country — everything from live news feeds and raw footage to graphics and music cues. And locally, News Corp. uses Channel 9’s Secaucus broadcast headquarters as what Ailes calls a “relief studio,” producing Twentieth Television’s “A Current Affair” and some satellite feeds there.
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“We can’t sell (cable franchise owners) a Bill O’Reilly show and then turn around and put it on the broadcast network,” Ailes said.

For the same reason, Ailes couldn’t simulcast Shepard Smith’s popular 7 p.m. Fox News Channel newscast on broadcast affiliates — a move that would increase Smith’s audience to the point where it might out-rate one or more of the network newscasts.

Ailes thinks the latter scenario will happen anyway, without any help from News Corp.’s broadcast side.

Scott Leith in the Atlanta Journal Constitution writes that CNN’s Jim Walton’s email in box got jammed with 10,000 emails after CNN ran the anti-Roberts NARAL ad…(via WHAC)

The campaign focused on a controversial ad that attacked Roberts. CNN and others are often hit by such orchestrated efforts, but CNN spokeswoman Laurie Goldberg said that most e-mails go to a general inbox, not an individual executive, and the numbers are usually lower.

The e-mail campaign is a reminder that the Web is a key factor in modern lobbying of big organizations, especially on hot-button political issues. The NARAL ad was blasted by critics for claiming Roberts sided with violent anti-abortion activists. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), who supports abortion rights, was one those who called the ad unfair.