WHAC notes the article on Modern Mom.com by Lolita Carrico which profiles Soledad O’Brien’s life as a mother…

MM: What is a Modern Mom?

SO: A mother who can multi-task and juggle numerous things…and do it without driving herself crazy and cracking. She is a mom who loves her children fiercely but understands that she is a person too with goals and dreams and desire. We all know that a happy, fulfilled mom is the best mom of all.

The article also mentions the book O’Brien is writing…

MM: Tell us what you’re up to now:

SO: I’m working on a book about the importance of family and raising your own children. I’m working on getting my kids ready for school. And working on the one year anniversary of the Tsunami and traveling back to Thailand.

FOX again beat everybody combined in the 7-11 pm block with both O’Reilly and Greta having strong evenings. MSNBC had a decent night; The Situation beat Showbiz Tonight with a ratings spike, Scarborough beat the Nancy Grace repeat, and both Scarborough and Rita had good nights. Showbiz had a stronger than usual debut hour, nearly doubling its normal viewing audience. Nancy Grace was very strong for HLN. I wonder if it has occurred to anyone that HLN is rigging its prime time ratings totals by putting Grace on twice during the prime time hours? Usually cable channels do a sequential re-broadcasting of their prime time shows (with Carlson moving to 11 MSNBC has stopped doing that though as the Countdown repeat comes on after The Situation instead of Hardball). But HLN flips Grace and Showbiz in an attempt to stack the ratings deck. And considering her success, you can’t fault HLN for taking this route. It’s the smart business move. HLN’s prime time totals would drop if it put the Showbiz repeat on at the 10 pm hour.
(more…)

WHAC has a copy of the email CNN’s soon to be ex-Political Editor, John Mercurio, sent out today…

RantingProfs has a great takedown of the story…

Now, as I say, so easy to posture after your host has refused your request to do the story.

But if you watch the Daily Show what was so beautifully brutal was their roundup of clips of the more important things CNN has been covering — including Larry King’s asking Pamela Anderson about her tatoo, a Guiness record about eyebrow length and, well, you get the idea.

Brutal.

The Philadelphia Enquirer’s Gail Shister writes obout Bruce Weinstein’s role as contributor to CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360…

Weinstein’s segments analyze news of the day from an ethical perspective. Nothing and nobody is out of bounds - including CNN and its blood rival, Fox News Channel, he said Tuesday.

“Everyone and everything is grist for the mill. No one has ever shut me up or told me I can’t say something… . I’m not taking a political position. I’m speaking as an ethicist, with a secular, nonreligious, nonpartisan point of view.”

Why with Cooper instead of, say, Paula Zahn or Aaron Brown?

Cooper “is the hot commodity,” Weinstein said. “He’s considered the up-and-coming broadcaster in the country. I have a nice relationship with him. That’s not to say I wouldn’t work with” Zahn or Brown.

Could this be CNN’s response to MSNBC’s Ethical Edge series? Weinstein’s association with CNN predates MSNBC’s series by years but the timing of this (announcing Weinstein’s role on 360 a little over a month after MSNBC started doing regular Ethical Edge segments) is interesting, albeit most likely co-incidental…

The Daily News’ Rush and Molloy have a little blurb on Donnie Deutsch talking about Tom Cruise…

Donnie Deutsch thinks Tom Cruise is afraid of him. The ad man turned MSNBC host tells us the “War of the Worlds” star “would never come on the show. I understand why [”Today”] host Matt [Lauer] handled him the way he did. He just let him implode. But I’d go right in his face. ‘What the [bleep] are you talking about?’” Deutsch celebrated his show with a party at Stone Rose Tuesday night.

Uh-huh. And Deutsch’s show’s status in the ratings on CNBC couldn’t possibly have anything to do with Cruise deciding whether or not to come on to the show if asked….