Behind any popular news organization there is a PR department that labors to get its organization known. Erica Iocono in PR Week writes about the PR staff at FNC… (via TVNewser)

One misconception about the department is that it will fight any criticism, no matter what the factual basis. Lewis and Briganti deny that.

“Hit us fairly and we’re fine,” says Briganti. Case in point: the recent brouhaha over a New York Times story by Alessandra Stanley stating that Fox News reporter Geraldo Rivera “nudged an Air Force rescue worker out of the way so his camera crew could tape him as he helped lift an older woman in a wheelchair to safety.'’ Briganti says she reviewed the clip in question, determined there was no nudge, and asked for a correction.

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I just got home and turned on CNN expecting Cooper and found Blitzer. Very interesting. This sparks a whole slew of questions for me…

- Was this planned in advance or was it dictated by events (Alito/Libby/etc..)?
- If it was planned in advance what does that mean for Newsnight this week if Brown is off (according to info on TVNewser)? Is Cooper doing Newsnight only and The Situation Room is filling in for 360?
- Is CNN in danger of reaching a “Blitzer saturation point” with its viewers that could damage The Situation Room as an individual program identity if it’s all over the place? And is that bordering on gimick status rather than a news program?

Multichannel News’ R. Thomas Umstead writes about FNC’s new fee rate it is looking to get from cable operators… (via TVNewser)

Fox News Channel, by its own account, is fair, balanced and, now, expensive.

The home of Bill O’Reilly and the “No Spin Zone” is about to quadruple the fee it charges cable and satellite distributors when it begins negotiating new carriage deals next year, according to News Corp. officials.

The top-rated news channel will seek payment of $1 per month, per subscriber from cable and direct-broadcast satellite operators that want to carry it, according to a News Corp. executive on the condition of anonymity. That compares with the 25-cent fee Fox News currently receives from most distributors.
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Broadcasting & Cable’s John M. Higgins reports that CNN is close to a decision on the two hour Newsnight…

Will CNN stay live at 11 p.m.? Network executives are expected to decide within two weeks whether to make its two-hour “special edition” of NewsNight a permanent feature on its schedule.

NewsNight has been a one-hour show anchored by Aaron Brown at 10 p.m. ET. It was followed by a repeat of Lou Dobbs Tonight at 11 p.m., giving it a better shot at snagging West Coast viewers who miss its original run at 6 p.m. (3 p.m. PT).
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The San Francisco Chronicle’s Tim Goodman finds some scary things on TV….

Say, hey, it’s Halloween. So, boo to you. And we’ve decided to break out the orange — as in cheese — and write one very hacky, predictable and cliche-riddled Halloween Column. Let us get right to it and discuss the Scariest Things About Television.

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The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Tim Cuprisin has an interview with FNC’s Neil Cavuto…

Successful broadcasters make it look easy, appearing to talk directly to each viewer, rather than an audience of millions.

There’s usually a strategy behind their style, and Fox News Channel’s top business guy, Neil Cavuto, says he acts as if he is speaking to one person - one specific viewer.
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All three networks covered the Alito nomination at 8 am EST this morning. But while CNN and FNC both followed up with lengthy analysis, MSNBC went back to Imus In The Morning. NBC’s David Gregory did a phone-in for a few minutes but by 8:30 Mike Wallace, who is hawking his new memoir, was being interviewed.

This just has to drive MSNBC staffers nuts seeing this happen. And it’s not the first time. To even suggest, as NBC/MSNBC News brass will, that Imus is capable of covering a story like this, is patently ludicrous. They crammed in sports scores within 15 minutes of the announcement! They talked about a Bill Clinton radio ad on John Corzine! Now Wallace is being interviewed. What does this have to do with Alito? Where are the all star analysts? Where are the NBC/MSNBC reporters, besides Gregory? Unbelievable…

Yes, I’m aware of it. I don’t know what’s the cause but I’m assuming it’s Blogsome’s servers forcing them down our throats. I’m trying to find out the cause but there’s probably nothing I can do about it…

I don’t have a lot of information on this because it’s so under the radar but Hardball is scheduled to air a special tonight at 9 pm EST on the CIA leak investigation/Scooter Libby indictment. The only reason I know this is happening is because my on screen program guide says so. Other than that I haven’t heard a peep on this last second special.

Newhouse News Service’s Mathew Futterman has an in depth look at Mad Money with Jim Cramer and its host…

“The reserved Jim Cramer you saw on ‘Kudlow & Cramer’ the past three years, that wasn’t me,” Cramer says calmly during a recent interview on the set of his show at CNBC’s Englewood Cliffs headquarters. “This show is me. This is what it was like at the hedge fund. The screaming, the yelling at the computer monitors as the ticker crawls on the screen. That’s me.”

Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t. Does it matter?
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Tim Cuprisin of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel uses the release of the new film “Good Night, and Good Luck” to look at who may be today’s version of Edward R. Murrow….

One of those news personalities is Geraldo Rivera, who reported live from New Orleans for Fox News Channel after Hurricane Katrina struck two months ago. He sees some of the coverage of that disaster as following in the tradition set by Murrow.

“Shep Smith was magnificent,” Rivera said. “Anderson Cooper was also very good.”

Smith is with Fox News, Cooper with CNN. Rivera isn’t alone in citing the cable news anchors for their work from New Orleans, tracing their style back a half-century.

Rivera described them as being in the Murrow mold of “sincere men motivated to use the power of television to right a terrible social disaster that was unfolding right before our eyes.”
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Broadcasting & Cable’s Anne Becker writes about the pressure of the TV news industry for female news talent who are over a certain age…

Even in an HD world, network news executives maintain that they do not discriminate on the basis of age.

“No one should be under the illusion that cable news networks are trying to attract 25-year-olds by putting on 25-year-olds. That would be a foolhardy effort,” Klein says. “Our stock and trade is our authority, experience, trustworthiness and objectivity. Those qualities develop over time, and you’d be shooting yourself in the foot to simply go for youth and looks at the expense of ability.”

CBS News Senior VP Marcy McGinnis says the network is proud of its record. “It’s important not to get defensive about hiring people who are going to move through the ranks,” she says. “I don’t want all 40-year-olds any more than I want all 30-year-olds or all 70-year-olds.”

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Hal Boedeker of the Orlando Sentinel writes about yesterday’s Libby indictment coverage (and throws a chop block at CNN’s The Situation Room)…

A lot of the commentary fell into predictably partisan ruts. On MSNBC, conservative Pat Buchanan saw good news because Rove wasn’t indicted and praised Bush’s comments on Libby as brilliant. On CNN, Clinton administration veteran Paul Begala said Bush needed to say more before hopping on a chopper to Camp David.
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Jose Cardenas in the St. Petersberg Times writes about the Leauge of United Latin American Citizens dispute with CNN and how Lou Dobbs and the cutting away from Florida Governer Jeb Bush’s comments in Spanish play a role…

While other stations carried Bush’s remarks in both English and Spanish, CNN broke away when the governor began to speak in Spanish.

Cazares believes that showed disregard for Spanish speakers in Florida, and said he plans to write a protest letter to the network. He urges LULAC members to do the same.

Cazares also wants to bring attention to a boycott that LULAC, which he has rejoined, launched against the network last summer.

LULAC members think CNN is hostile toward immigrants because one of its reporters, host Lou Dobbs, has spoken regularly against illegal immigrants on his program Lou Dobbs Tonight.

He’s not on cable news but Al Roker is the only one really responding to critics of hurricane coverage… (via FTVLive)

Stop whining. Just because your medium is irrelevant when it comes to a breaking story like a hurricane doesn’t mean you have to trash others who are out there covering it.

I am in no way comparing the two, but common sense would tell a person…don’t go to a war zone. There are bombs and people with guns and danger. Yet, we send good, brave journalists into harms way every day to cover a story.

I’m not a fan of these weather “stunts”. But at least Roker is a meteorologist. It’s his job. But at the same time comparing covering a hurricane by sticking yourself out in an environment like that isn’t nearly at all like covering a war.
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Following up on this story, CJR Daily’s Liz Cox Barrett has an interview with Mediabistro’s Elizabeth Spiers and one of the topics discussed is the Fishbowl NY/CNN firing flap….

Liz Cox Barrett: On Monday, Gawker (your former blog) reported that one of its posts led to the firing of a Conde Nast researcher — the researcher emailed an internal Conde Nast memo to someone at Gawker, who published the (rather mundane) memo. Wrote Gawker: “We’re shocked. We’re disappointed. We’re a little mad at our ourselves …”

Two days later, Gawker rival fishbowlny (which you co-edit for at least a few more hours) had it’s own look-we-got-someone-canned! moment, reporting that it caused the firing of one of its insider sources — a CNN employee — after it blogged about internal CNN matters, including the details of a closed company meeting (to which this employee gave fishbowlny access). Fishbwolny’s Rachel Sklar wrote: “I deeply regret this result, and am surprised at it considering that I was never contacted regarding any of my coverage and Thomsen never received any sort of warning regarding the Fishbowl coverage … For the record, there was no malice intended toward CNN, just the desire to report on an influential newsgathering organization.”
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Newsweek’s Marc Peyser weighs in on last weekends Wilma coverage…

The tedium of storm coverage reached its low-water mark during this week’s coverage of Hurricane Wilma. Because Hurricane Katrina turned into truly a catastrophic event, the TV storm chasers were out in huge numbers, even though this was a much less deadly storm. At one point, CNN had Miles O’Brien and Anderson Cooper on screen at the same time for no other reason than to show us the Storm Tango—two star reporters falling down in unison. (Were they actually together? It was hard to tell, thanks to another hallmark of storm coverage: “technical difficulties.”) Whatever the case, when they had both almost landed on their feet again, we arrived at another staple of TV storm stories: the voice of the anchor, ensconced in his warm, dry studio, pleading with the reporters to get inside. And so they did.
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CNN announced today that Paula Zahn Now will devote a full hour to eating disorders on Wednesday, Nov 2 with a special called “Walking The Thin Line”…

The special will feature the following segments:
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I was watching Newsnight a little while ago when Aaron Brown announced that the New York Times was reporting that “Scooter” Libby would be indicted tomorrow. I flipped over to MSNBC and they were already talking about it. I flipped over to FNC and Greta was talking with Beth Holloway Twitty. I waited until the bottom of the hour and Dari Alexander gave a news update but didn’t mention the Times report. So I’m not 100% certain about the order but it appears MSNBC was first, CNN second, and I don’t know when FNC will mention/did mention it.

FAIR issued a media advisory today. FAIR is a liberal group and you have to filter that out when reading it. The thrust of the FAIR alert was about MSNBC having a conservative bias. But buried in FAIR’s rhetoric is a quote from Keith Olbermann from Countdown on Tuesday when uber liberal Al Franken was on…

You were good enough to come on this newscast with me late in the summer of 2003. It was August or September. And by coincidence, either the next day or the day before, Janeane Garofalo had been a guest on the newscast. And I got called into a vice president‘s office here and told, “Hey, we don’t mind you interviewing these guys, but should you really have put liberals on, on consecutive nights?”

FAIR goes on to complain about MSNBC program lineup (conservatives Carlson and Scarborough on back to back shows, etc…) but Olbermann’s comment, if accurate, is interesting. Which VP was complaining? And more importantly, why? What’s wrong with two high profile liberals on consecutive nights? Nobody (outside of liberal groups like FAIR and Media Matters for America) apparently complains when two conservatives appear on consecutive nights. And it’s not like Keith books his guests (though I’m sure he has direct input on the show’s content), so why is he getting called on the carpet?

I’m watching Brenda Buttner give a Morning Market Report on FNC in a split screen with a video shot of the White House on the right side. The Miers withdrawal broke this morning and all three networks have been on it. But what’s with the live shot? Is something going to happen at the White House? No. Can we see anything happen at the White House from that distance? No. Does it have anything to do with Buttner’s business report? Not really. So why the live shot?

All three cable networks have this problem, where they shrink down their anchors into teeny tiny squares so that they can cram in footage of nothing in particular into another screen but FNC seems to be the biggest perpetrator of this tactic. Yesterday, for a good portion of the morning FNC viewers were treated to a chopper shot of people standing around in a line in Florida waiting for ice. This would be an appropriate shot if FNC was talking about that. The problem was that most of the time FNC was talking about something else.

Here’s a novel idea for the cable networks; make judicious use of the TV screen and show things that will inform viewers and is relevent to what you’re talking about…

Because Bravesfan demanded it, The Iowa State Daily’s Kristin Arneson has a mini-profile of American Morning’s Soledad O’Brien. Ok, I’m kidding about Bravesfan demanding it…

Mentoring has been a vital aspect to the career of Soledad O’Brien, co-anchor of CNN’s “American Morning” show.

Dianne Bystrom, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center, said O’Brien was chosen to come to Iowa State because she speaks about topics related to leadership and politics, such as mentoring. Her African-American, Hispanic and Irish background also brings diversity to the journalism world, she said.

“She is the most visible Hispanic woman in television and news,” Bystrom said.
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FishBowl DC reports that one of its CNN sources has been fired…

It is with regret and surprise that FishbowlNY reports that our source at CNN has been fired, unfortunately for Fishbowl-related reasons. Tom Thomsen, a now-former CNN employee and director of a weekly performance (unrelated to mediabistro) in which I participate, told me that he was fired from CNN for the following reasons: speaking about the company to an outside source without authorization; revealing information about a meeting where executives were speaking to employees, not the general public; and granting an outside person access to the company for inappropriate reasons and sharing proprietary company information with that person.

Hal Boedeker of the Orlando Sentinel questions some of the cable news coverage strategies for Wilma…

Another hurricane, another chance for Anderson Cooper to act like a fool.

Television relayed a lot of vital information Monday morning about Hurricane Wilma’s march through Florida, but the silly moments overshadowed the substantial ones. One reason Floridians feel hurricane fatigue is reporters’ stupefying willingness to stand in lashing winds and carry on like Indiana Jones.

In doing so, they transform reports into misguided adventures. Worse yet, they trivialize the disaster facing their viewers.
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The Monitor’s David L. Tijerina writes about Soledad O’Brien address to students of the University of Texas Pan-American Student Union…

When she first graduated from Harvard and applied for a job at one news station, she was told her name was too hard for people to say and she should think about changing it. And when she applied for another she was told she was “not black enough” to fill a position slated for a black person.

“I was, in a 48-hour span, told I was too ethnic, and was told I was not ethnic enough.”
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Eric Deggans in the St. Petersberg Times questions the relevance of the “reporter braving the hurricane” concept….

I thought I was the only one who disliked seeing reporters lashed by driving wind and rain during Hurricane Wilma coverage.

Then Florida Gov. Jeb Bush spoke up Monday.

“My wife and I woke up at 5 a.m. and … (saw) these characters on television reporting the news and putting themselves in harm’s way,” said Bush, speaking during the morning news briefing at the Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee. “It creates a bad example, I think, for others. They think somehow this is fun. It isn’t fun. It’s very dangerous.”

St. Petersburg Times reporter Joni James asked Bush to elaborate after the briefing.
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The Contra Costa Times’ Chuck Barney takes multiple shots at Nancy Grace…(via FTVLive)

Nancy Grace, the hyperventilating legal commentator and heat-seeking missile for CNN Headline News and Court TV, is best consumed in small doses. But because Grace lately has been all over the Pamela Vitale murder case, she has been all over the TV screen.

No wonder my head is aching, my ears are ringing and my blood is boiling.

What’s that? Yours, too?

Barney has enough ammo left over to fire at cable news’ coverage of Wilma (and unfairly singles out Fox News Channel)…
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TVNewser has the internal CNN Memo from Jonathan Klein laying out the plan to end Daybreak and expand American Morning by an hour starting November 28th…

I’m pleased to announce that American Morning will be expanding to four hours, 6-10am, beginning Monday, November 28th. Although we will discontinue Daybreak, Carol Costello will continue as a vital member of our morning team in her role as news reader and reporter for American Morning along with anchors Soledad O’Brien and Miles O’Brien.

The New York Daily News’ David Bianculli wraps up the coverage of hurricane Wilma… (via FTVLive)

Look at the trees,” the Weather Channel’s Jeff Morrow said from Miami Beach. “I almost don’t have to say anything, folks.”

That was true - and more and more, the networks this time seemed to rely not just on the power of pictures but on the quantity of them, splitting the screen into three, four, sometimes five images. CNN, at one point, had quadrants showing Deerfield Beach, two views of Naples, and Doppler radar; Fox News, at one point, split its screen to show Longboat Key, Everglades City, Marathon and its own radar. In addition, there was footage from Mexico and Cuba, reminding viewers that this was an international story, leaving a path of destruction in a devastating oval.
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The Orlando Sentinel’s Hal Boedeker writes about FNC’s Neil Cavuto…

He’s going on with palpable zest, traveling the country to promote his book. He frequently mentions his book tour and self-described oddball personality on Your World.

“I am weird, and my show is weirder still,” Cavuto writes in Your Money or Your Life. “I like weird chief executives, weird politicians and weird moments in life.”

That style endears him to viewers, and he uses the book tour to connect with them.
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The Denver Post’s Cindy Rodriguez takes on FNC’s Bill O’Reilly…

That day, a national expert said it’s not just victims who have to stop bullies; bystanders need to speak up too; otherwise they’re enabling the bullies.

So today I’m standing up to one of the biggest bullies I know: Bill O’Reilly.

On his TV show, “The O’Reilly Factor,” the host interrupts guests, denigrates them, calls them names, and when someone makes an intelligent point countering him, O’Reilly cuts the microphone and shouts, “you’re spinning!”
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The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Gail Shister has a mini-profile of Hardball’s Chris Mathews, who happens to praise the competition…

The Big 3 evening newscasts could learn a lot from Fox News Channel’s daytime news shows, says Chris Matthews, of blood rival MSNBC.

Top-rated FNC’s lineup “has a nice zest to it. You can almost hear the old news ticker. There’s a sense of immediacy and significance when they present the news. I think they do it very well.”

Matthews, 59, a Philly guy and host of hard-luck MSNBC’s No. 1 program, Hardball (5 p.m. weekdays), is among seven honorees today at Temple’s Lew Klein Alumni in the Media awards.

CNBC announced this afternoon that it will be airing a one hour special tonight at 7pm EST on Ben Bernanke, the nominee selected by President Bush to succeed Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. The special “Changing Of The Guard: New Man At The Fed” will be hosted by Ron Insana.

Using the unmatched bench strength of CNBC, Insana and CNBC correspondents will focus on what the change means for business, the economy, the Bush administration, interest rates, and your personal economic health. Joining Insana will be various guests from the worlds of politics, finance, and of course CNBC’s own expert anchors who have had a unique window on the 18 year tenure of the most famous economist in the world.

CNN announced today that it will air “CNN Presents: Undercover in the Secret State” on Sunday Nov, 13th at 8 pm…

Grainy footage, never before seen on Western television, shows a crowd being ordered to gather in a dusty field in North Korea. A public official tells the people that those who go against their country will end up with a fate like this one. Minutes later, a man is tied to a pole and shot by a firing squad, his body slumping lifelessly to the ground. His alleged crime: trying to make contact with the outside world.
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American Morning is running until Noon today. It will be followed by The Situation Room from Noon to 1pm. Live From takes over from 1-3pm. The Situation Room returns from 3-6:00 pm EST.

CNN.com has a dedicated hurricane page….
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