Drudge is reporting on a Jonathan Klein interview in an upcoming New York Times article where Klein takes aim at FOX News’ Aruba coverage…

CNN President Jonathan Klein implies ratings news leader FOXNEWS is mired in coverage of “meaningless nonsense,” claiming: “Fourteen Americans dead, and they have Natalee Holloway on,” Klein says. “And they’re supposedly America’s news channel.”

“It’s easy and it’s brainless,” Klein charges in a telephone interview set for publication at the NEW YORK TIMES, explaining why cable news outlets are gravitating to the Aruba story. “They’re looking for an ongoing drama” along the lines of the NBC crime show “Law & Order,” he said, adding, “Except ‘Law & Order’ doesn’t do the same plot every night.”
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“If Jon performed as well as he talks, he wouldn’t have to explain his network’s dismal ratings,” says Irena Briganti, a spokeswoman for FOXNEWS. “We have trounced him on every breaking news story from the London bombings and last week’s events in Gaza.”

While it can be reasonably argued that there hasn’t been a lot of news on the actual story (what happened to Holloway), the fact is this story has, for better or worse, reached a critical mass stage where the story behind the story so to speak is able to draw viewers in. Is it journalism? I don’t know. Where is the line between journalism and hype in a medium that needs to fill hours at a time with coverage of something or another? And who is to be the judge of what is the journalism and what is the hype? And is the deliverer of the journalism to blame or the viewer for wanting it?

One thing I do know. Attacking FOX News without being able to prove that the viewers would want something else (as evidenced by the ratings) is probably not a winning strategy…

Ok, since he threw it out ICN will respond to the gratuitous dig TVNewser tossed out today at ICN. Normally I wouldn’t bother. But this is just so childish. It’s like watching Anderson Cooper and Dan Abrams trade barbs. Why TVNewser is so obsessed with ICN’s web traffic is a mystery to me. But whatever. If he wants to hem and haw about some news that came ICN’s way (as opposed to TVNewser’s way I presume) fine. Let him. I really don’t care. ICN isn’t about what TVNewser does or doesn’t do. But that doesn’t mean ICN is going to stand by and get cheap shotted for no good reason…

UPDATE: One more thing. I really don’t give a crap how many viewers ICN has. Whether its 200 or 10,000 it doesn’t change my focus. It has never been about competing with TVNewser and I’ve told him privately that was the case in the past when some of this blogs former writers used to take cheap shots at him which I didn’t care for and I told him so. He does his own thing his own way. And I do my own thing my own way. We may cover some of the same stories but we do it differently and for different reasons. It’s not like I’m out to compete with him or take him down (unlike say the rivarly between FTV and NewsBlues). There’s plenty of space out there for more than one blog and because the focus of the two blogs is different to a large extent it’s not like this is some sort of death match grudge, not in my eyes anyways. Which makes TVNewser’s unprovoked attack all the more galling.

UPDATE 2: TVNewser assures me that he got the ratings last night from MSNBC, and I have no reason to doubt what he said, so I will take down my accusation about that incident. But that doesn’t change the fact that ICN was unjustifiably cheap shotted. TVNewser has never used hit counts of another news blog as a weapon against said blog before. And with that I’ve said all I’m going to say about this incident.

FOX News averaged 0ver 2,000,000 viewers in prime time. In the battle for the table scraps, CNN continues to suffer an age gap for the third day in a row as it failed to come in 2nd in the Total Day or Prime Time demos…this time getting bested by HLN in both instances. Only Larry King seemed to have any kind of bounce for CNN as the rest of the prime time lineup was having an off night. The Situation Room continues to oscillate…one day below 400,000…the next day above 500,000. Mad Money’s prime time repeat scratched out bad. Rita topped Joe for the first time in a while while Countdown continues to suffer. And The Situation continues to get beaten by a canned entertainment repeat on HLN that consistently does terrible when it airs live four hours earlier.
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CNN did even worse in the demos than they did Saturday finishing last in Total Day’s demo and fourth in Prime Time’s demo. MSNBC’s Prime Time total viewer number is interesting. It’s higher than it is during the week. 481,000 tuned in to MSNBC reports. On the other hand, MSNBC came in last for Total Day, albeit by a whisker.
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FOX had a big Saturday night with each prime time program bringing in more than 1,000,000 viewers. CNN did not have a good night. MSNBC beat it twice in primetime in Total Viewers. A canned MSNBC Investigates handily outdrew a Live CNN Saturday Night. CNN Presents scratched in the Demo. And MSNBC beat CNN in both the Total Day and Prime Time demos. Tim Russert pulled in less than Suze Orman. Why is Russert’s show still on CNBC instead of MSNBC where it would probably do better? CNBC is a business network but Russert’s show is a news program. It belongs on MSNBC.
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ICN has learned that Bill Hemmer will debut on Fox News Channel this Monday, August 29th in the 12pm EST hour of Fox News Live

TVNewser notes Linda Vester’s comments on what her status will be when she returns to FOX News Channel in a year…

DAYSIDE: Are you coming back?

LINDA: Yes, I’m definitely coming back, though not for a whole year. It’s pretty unusual for a news anchor to take a whole year’s maternity leave, but I feel strongly this is something I want to do as a mom for my kids.

DAYSIDE: Will you come back as the host of “DaySide” again?

LINDA: Well, the honest answer to that is, I think so — but I really leave it in my boss’s hands. When he generously agreed to let me take a year’s leave, I said that when I come back, whatever he needs me to do, I’ll do.

The Wilmington News-Journal simultaneously praises Bob Costas for his self-restraint in not doing a Natalee Holloway show for CNN while criticizing Greta Van Susteren for being all over it…. (via TVNewser)

Meet Bob Costas, media dissenter.

Mr. Costas, best known for announcing sports games, did something unthinkable for a broadcaster these days. He acted on principle.

Bravo.
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Miss Holloway’s disappearance is a terrible thing, especially for her family and friends. Unfortunately, this being a slow-news summer and cable TV networks being what they are, her disappearance was ripe for exploitation.

The main exploiter is Greta Van Susteren on Fox News. She has been floundering about for a topic since Laci Peterson’s murderous husband was convicted and put away.

David Adams in the St. Petersberg Times takes a look at the Natalee Holloway story from a different angle….(via WHAC)

Within days of her disappearance packs of reporters - mostly cable TV producers and crews - descended on the unsuspecting island. They were soon followed by dozens of members of U.S.-based volunteer search groups.

Audiences in the United States are used to the sight of media satellite trucks arrayed outside Los Angeles courthouses, high school shootings and even a Pinellas Park hospice. But tiny Aruba has never seen anything like it. Only 20 miles long and 6 miles across, with 97,000 inhabitants, it is less than one-third the size of Pinellas County, with one-tenth the population.

Froma Harrop in the Philadelphia Enquirer rips the female anchors on American Morning….

The girls zeroed in on the divorce. In a kind of news summary, the seriously blond Kelly Wallace read, “A military mother whose son was killed in Iraq appears to be staying strong, despite some more trouble at home.” She looks up, and adds, “So some tough news for her.” Sighs all around.

Soledad O’Brien raises the possibility that the husband’s political opinions might differ from Cindy’s, not that any of these newshounds have bothered to ask him. And there’s no speculation, much less reporting, on what Casey Sheehan, the son who died, might have thought. At this point, someone at the hair salon would have put down the straightening wand and opined that Casey was, after all, a grownup who had volunteered for duty.
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At which point, doll No. 3, Carol Costello, pipes in: “OK. Let’s move on to Iraq… . “

By that, she means an interview with a mother and daughter who have both been deployed for combat training at Fort Bliss, Texas. The two women are members of the Oregon National Guard. Costello asks what it will be like going to war with mom. “We’re going to bond on this whole experience,” says daughter Karissa Smith.

Costello gushes in: “Oh! I think you will bond.” Giggles all around.

And so it goes. A perfectly good half-hour gone forever.
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Later in the day, CNN will offer commentators with facial lines, silver temples and expertise, as long as they’re not women. And in the evening, it will bring on Aaron Brown, a bundle of male sensitivity, though still somewhat weightier than the morning lineup.