Even though she said yesterday that she didn’t want to reveal more details of the special because she wanted viewers to see it, today GretaWire…well…reveals more details of the special….

Now that I have more time (I am not rushing to the airport), I will tell you something about our special audience show that airs next Friday (and which we taped in New York City on Tuesday.) I have posted today some pictures from behind the scenes at our taping. We taped a show with three parents — the parents of Natalee Holloway, Taylor Behl, and LaToyia Figueroa. As you know, Natalee has not been found but Taylor and LaToyia have been found… murdered. The three parents have very similar ugly experiences, but with some important differences. One thing they all have in common: a broken heart.

What I was hoping to discuss — and we did — was the impact of having a police force stay in frequent communication with the family even when the police have little to relay. Staying in constant communication helps relieve some of the pain and takes away some of the mystery. It also can have a significant impact on the investigation and lets the family know the case is important. When the police ignore the family, there is a high risk of trouble — including that the family thinks, rightfully or wrongfully, that the investigation is being dropped.

The Chicago Sun-Times Richard Roeper writes a mini review of Ryan Seacrest’s stint on Larry King Live…

Every once in a while you’ll see something on TV that seems like a “Saturday Night Live” sketch, only it’s real.

Exhibit A: Ryan Seacrest filling in for Larry King on CNN. What, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog wasn’t available?

(more…)

I don’t like citing NewsMax for anything. To me it would be like trying get all your Beltway information from Page Six. And NewsMax’s activist agenda is well known to all. Nontheless, they’re the only one with this story. Carl Limbacher has a chronicle of Tuesday’s behind the scenes action at Countdown in regards to the O’Reilly controversy with San Francisco’s ROTC recruiting ballot issue…

A source tells NewsMax that Olbermann’s staff invited Alioto on his show Tuesday night, expecting that she would echo calls for O’Reilly’s head.

A producer is said to have asked, “Now, you’re calling for O’Reilly’s firing, right?”

She told him that she wasn’t - explaining that the Fox host was merely exercising his first amendment rights.
With that, Alioto’s segment was canceled.

But it looks like Olbermann’s staff got what they wanted after all, replacing Alioto with Chris Daly, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors,

“You know, this is dangerous,” Daly told Olbermann on the air. “Fox News and Westwood One need to take some accountability for this and terminate Bill O’Reilly’s employment.”

FTVLive is reporting that CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo twice tried to pitch her services to Roger Ailes the past few years….

Peter Ames Carlin in The Oregonian likes Mad Money with Jim Cramer….

Even I know that it’s a bad idea to build a personal portfolio based entirely on what you hear on cable TV. But it’s compelling to note that featured picks on “Mad Money” have risen at a combined rate of nearly 6.25 percent this year, nearly twice the rise of Standard & Poor’s 500 index. This expands upon Cramer’s own record as a hedge fund manager (24 percent average return over 15 years) and as co-founder of thestreet.com. Now that he’s jumped to the fore of CNBC’s prime-time schedule, ratings have skyrocketed.

And though Cramer’s reputation and manic showmanship have something to do with that, so too does his populist approach to doing business. For all his locker-room ranting and leaping around, Cramer is a sweet-natured guide who delights in demystifying the jargon-heavy world of finance.

A lecture last week on the wisdom of investing in India included references to Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and E.M. Forster (”You gotta expatriate your money!”), then concluded with a quote from the rapper Ludacris. “We gotta do some pimpin’ all over the world!”

The Commercial Property News’ Colleen Corley wraps up Neil Cavuto’s address to the CPN Executive Summit…

The media’s role in aggravating real estate trouble has its roots in the missed opportunities of the 1980s, Fox News Channel anchor Neil Cavuto told a crowd of top real estate executives last night at the CPN Executive Summit 2005 conference dinner and awards ceremony.

Cavuto’s advice was to think twice before believing the hype. The award-winning business journalist explained that the media suffers from a “collective guilt” having to do with missing the signs of overdevelopment in the ’80s, and the post-pop costs of the bubble. With the country debating how fast the air will be let out of some of today’s most active markets, Cavuto argued that the media is missing many of the positive forecasts for commercial real estate–and particularly condo–activity in 2006.

“It’s important to keep history in perspective,” Cavuto said, using George Washington’s steadfastness at Valley Forge as a reminder. “That’s what bothers me in the coverage of a lot of news. We forget that we’ve been through much worse.”