The NY Daily News’ Lloyd Grove picks up on all the Banfield/Cooper chatter yesterday and gets Banfield to comment on it!

JUMPING THE SHARK? Now that Anderson Cooper - who launched his two-hour show last night - is CNN’s brightest star, a couple of television critics warn that he’ll meet the same fate as Ashleigh Banfield. Remember her? The MSNBC correspondent was the flavor of the millennium after her dramatic reports on 9/11, her on-air glasses were all the rage, and she even got her own show. Then her career imploded and she was out of a job.

“Cable’s a very fickle business,” Banfield told me yesterday. “But I think Anderson’s got incredible talent and a long career in front of him.” Banfield, who’s over the moon about her 2-week-old son, Jay Fischer Gould, declined to comment on rumors that she’ll be anchoring a new show in January for Court TV.

The New York Times’ Julia Preston writes about a discrimination suit filed against FNC by the Equal Opporuninty Employment Commission…

The suit, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan, is based on an investigation by the commission, with headquarters in Washington, of a claim brought by a former Fox employee, Kim Weiler.

“We investigated the allegations and charges that were made and found them to be baseless,” said Steven Mintz of the New York law firm Mintz & Gold, which represented Fox News in the commission’s investigation. “Fox News questions the motivations behind the charges.” Mr. Mintz declined to elaborate further yesterday evening.
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Variety’s Michael Learmonth writes about yesterday’s announcement… (sub. req)

“I want to bring in people who are interested in news, not people who are circus fans or looking for a great movie,” said MSNBC president Rick Kaplan. “We want people interested in smart conversation — no matter what their age or agenda.”

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CNN announced that HLN anchor Renay San Miguel will host a one hour special “Immigration Reform” Thursday Nov 10th at 2pm on CNN Radio’s affiliates.

Immigration Reform,” explores all sides of this issue with relevant guests including representatives from the sometimes controversial Minuteman Project and Border Angels groups, U.S. lawmakers and a top-ranking official from the Mexican government.

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