Blogging is going to have to be temporarily scaled back for a few weeks. I broke my arm yesterday. So far getting around a keyboard/mouse has proven to be difficult with just my left hand. Because it now takes me four times as long to do what I could do when I had both arms going, I have to scale back the blog for now. I may have to change what the blog covers to account for that as well. We’ll see how the week goes…

This is old but Rory O’Connor weighs in on the Microsoft/NBCU deal on MSNBC…

Capus failed to note, however, that it still ranks below the WPIX programming of a burning Yule log in the latest Nielsen ratings… At the risk of making sense, may I humbly suggest that there might exist some relation between the quality of the ‘newsfood’ NBC’s cable outlet has been serving up for the past ten years, and its historical paucity of viewers?

The point may be best driven home anecdotally. A few years back, a bright, energetic, idealistic and extremely promising young woman – a recent Yale graduate, in fact – interned with me. Unfortunately, when the internship was done, I had no job to offer. So with some trepidation she took a producer position at MSNBC.

Six months later when I called to ask how she was faring, she said she was going to attend law school soon. Why? Because she just couldn’t take the misery, or the stupidity, or the lack of caring, any longer.

Dave Barry takes a look back at 2005 as only he can…

Israeli and Palestinian leaders reach an agreement under which Israel will withdraw its settlers from the Gaza strip, arousing peace hopes in amnesia victims everywhere. In response to this historic development, Fox News Person Greta Van Susteren heads for Aruba to report personally on the Natalee Holloway disappearance.

There’s been a running numbers dispute going on between FNC and CNN today over the 10pm hour and the battle between On The Record and Anderson Cooper 360. FNC has been trumpeting the raw Total Viewer and Demo numbers and the CNN has been trumpeting the Demo numbers trend since he took over at 10 pm which makes Cooper’s show look like it’s on the way up and Greta’s look like it’s on the way down….

If you want to read more about this he said/she said, go to TVNewser…

Maybe I just missed it all this time but FNC’s Dr. Manny Alvarez has a blog called “Ask Dr. Manny”…

“Scientists Clone Human!”
“Orange Juice Cures Hammer Toes!”
“Eating Bologna Helps Vision!”
“Sleep Cures Baldness!”

NO, NO, NO! These are NOT real news headlines. But they are how some headlines and what’s behind them can be perceived: as a magic bullet. So the question begs to be asked: Can all medical research be trusted? OF COURSE NOT!

CNN announced that it will be airing a one hour special on the Pakistani earthquake recovery. The special “Dr. Sanjay Gupta Reports from the Quake Zone”, airs Saturday, Dec. 31, at 6 p.m…

Dr. Gupta visits refugees now living in non-winterized tent cities and shares their stories of life and hope, loss and death.

“The snow has started to fall in many places in Pakistan…and it is a tremendously large problem,” Dr. Gupta reports during the special. “Obviously it is very cold, but even more pragmatically speaking, it just makes this area uninhabitable…some of the people here are telling me they can’t even dig to bury people…they can’t even dig their own graves.”
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Jossip has a little fun with Rita Cosby’s show being #1 on MSNBC this year…

What are the qualifications to be a savior? Well, for starters, you need to save oppressed people. You’ve got to inspire hope. You must be an example to those around you. And having a food product that bears your image and gets sold on Ebay for big bucks doesn’t hurt, either. Bearing this in mind, guess who’s joining the ranks of Moses, Jesus, Mohammad, and Mother Teresa? Rita Cosby (at least according to the latest Nielsen ratings).

FNC and CNN will be battling over New Year’s Eve with both networks hosting live specials from 11pm to 1 am ET.

FNC will air “All American New Year’s 2006″ with Mike Jerrick and Juliet Huddy and featuring reports from around the country and recaps of stories from 2005. Guest appearances include country music artists Aaron Tippin and Phil Vassar, the latter of whom will perform.

(Update: there’s some question about whether only Vassar is performing or both are performing. The way it’s written on the FNC website it reads like only Vassar is. Read the comments for more…)

CNN will have Anderson Cooper anchoring its coverage. CNN will also be jumping around the country and feature live perfomances from the John Mayer Trio from San Francisco, Barenaked Ladies out of Tampa, American Idol winner Fantasia from The Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas, “Godfather of Soul” James Brown from New York, country duo Brooks and Dunn from Nashville , and funk legends Kool and The Gang from Atlantic City.

The 2005 numbers are out. FNC easily came in first place for the fourth year in a row. CNN was a solid second place. MSNBC eeked out 3rd place over HLN. CNBC was fifth. HLN had the biggest overall gain of all five networks over a year ago thanks to its revamped lineup. CNN and MSNBC sported gains in the Demo while FNC lost viewers. MSNBC lost viewers in the P2+ category in Total Day and Primetime though not by much. It should be noted that MSNBC’s primetime lineup had a hole in it at 9pm which was filled by the low performing The Situation near the middle of the year. It wasn’t until Live and Direct took over that slot after half the year was over that MSNBC’s primetime lineup finally stabilized in the ratings in as much as 9pm wasn’t signficantly lower for it than any other time period as had been the case the first half of the year.
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CNN’s Jennifer Eccleston scored an exclusive interview with former Iraqi President Ayad Allawi. The interview aired earlier on Your World Today. Here is the full transcript of the interview…
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CNSNews’ Nathan Burchfiel writes about Hardball and its host Chris Mathews getting picked for year end raspberries by both sides of the political spectrum.

Note: CNSNews is an appendage of the MRC.

The host of MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews” is being slammed by two opposing media critics in their annual roundups of the worst examples of media bias.

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Tonight on Countdown Keith Olbermann returned John Gibson’s and Bill O’Reilly’s fire big time. I’d be spending the rest of the night transcribing the verbal assault so here are the highlights…

- He took on O’Reilly over his ratings comments from last week. Olbermann said that he never claimed that The Factor doesn’t draw more viewers than Countdown and recycled his “800 billion flies can’t be wrong” line he gave to TVNewser last week. Olbermann went on to say that O’Reilly never tries to refute the things Keith says he does but instead goes to the ratings. “That’s because the only things we’ve smeared O’Reilly with are his own quotes. To borrow another phrase, when you’re as guilty as he is, change the subject.”
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CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta recently traveled to Pakistan to report on the situation after its devastating earthquake earlier this year. He reports tonight on Anderson Cooper 360 on the relief efforts and profiles a U.S. Army MASH unit in the region. Below is a transcript of last night’s report…

COLLINS: Can we already have forgotten a calamity in which perhaps 90,000 people perished and hundreds of thousands were left homeless? The people of northwestern Pakistan have been asking: What has happened to the world’s attention in the two months since the earth gave way under them?
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The New York Post’s Liz Smith takes aim at Fox and Friends for “politicizing” Santa Claus….

But then Santa stopped over to visit the “Fox & Friends” merry morning crew. It was all very ho-ho-ho until Brian Kilmeade asked, “And so Santa, are you a Republican or a Democrat?” Santa replied that he was indeed a Republican, and then pointed to some decorations on his chest, which he said indicated “courage.” I’m sure Santa wasn’t implying that Democrats aren’t courageous. And he was probably just being polite to the Foxies. Santa was likely surprised to be drawn into a partisan discussion. (I was afraid that perhaps somebody was going to suggest not delivering presents to the children of Democrats!)

Still, I’d love to know what Santa would have said to Jon Stewart.

UPDATE: Johnny Dollar emailed in to note that this particular “Santa” was the official White House Santa and that a “regular” Santa was on the show later on. Smith left those details out of her attack. Still, the question in my mind is why is the White House Santa on at all and why does the White House Santa have to politicize anything? There’s already enough politicization of Christmas as it is along religious lines. Do we have to politicize the secular version as well?

David Hinckley in the New York Daily News compiled a list of things that happened in radio in 2005 that he didn’t care for…

5. Imus moves to MSNBC television studio.

Imus’ radio show on WFAN (660 AM) is as good as ever and he insists he likes being in a bright studio, instead of a dark Queens basement.

But this flash-and-glitter set feels like it breeds precisely the kind of TV fluff that Imus goofs on. More to the point, a radio show should come from a mysterious dark room, like Wolfman Jack in “American Graffiti.”

The Detroit News’ Mekeisha Madden Toby puts Hurricane Katrina coverage on her list of moving TV moments of 2005…

Meanwhile, TV journalist Rivera conducted interviews at the New Orleans Convention Center for Fox News and urged officials to send help or let evacuees leave.

CNN’s Anderson Cooper reported live from Louisiana and Mississippi and was among the 125 anchors, correspondents, producers and crew the cable news network assigned to Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
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Richmond.com’s Mark Wood finds some things on cable news in 2005 that he didn’t care for…

The worst of 2005: Cable news cannibalism. Between the tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and the Natalee Holloway disappearance, every cable news network was covering the same stories and interviewing the same sources. The network talking heads may have different styles, but the substance is all the same. In other news, Wolf Blitzer locked his keys in his car, Rita Cosby played the bass in a barbershop quartet, Nancy Grace ate a live rooster on the air and Greta Van Susteren was voted the official bird of Aruba.

With the Holidays, The Rocky Mountain News’ Dusty Saunders is in the giving mood…

• Wolf Blitzer - A cot, a coffee pot and a miniature stove to help him survive his seemingly around-the- clock schedule on CNN.
……………….

• Keith Olbermann - A dose of humility and an uninterrupted TV debate with Bill O’Reilly.

• Bill O’Reilly - A double dose of humility and a Denver outlet for his national radio show.
………………..

• Alan Colmes - A feed-store gift certificate to supply his needs as Fox News’ straw man on Hannity and Colmes.

to you and your family….

The New York Times’ Bill Carter writes about yesterday’s news and devotes a significant portion of his article to the timing on the announcement (something I also noted)…

The less-than-celebratory nature of the breakup seemed to be underscored by the timing of the announcement. NBC and Microsoft released the news at 8 a.m. yesterday, the Friday before Christmas, when the offices of both companies were already closed for the holiday weekend.

Of the two contacts listed on the release, one, from NBC, had a message on her office phone number saying she would be gone until Tuesday, and the other, from Microsoft, was at an airport with two toddlers ready to fly home for the holiday.
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Crooks and Liars has the video of Novak’s final appearance on CNN…

Liberal advocacy group (masquerading as a “watchdog”) Media Matters For America singles out Chris Mathews as 2005’s “Misinformer of the Year”. Read Mathews’ “crimes” and ask yourself, “Is he misinforming, or expressing an opinion?”

Since our launch in May 2004, Media Matters for America has monitored, analyzed, and corrected conservative misinformation in the media, wherever and whenever we find it. As you may remember, last year our staff conducted an extensive review of all the misinformation we identified and corrected in the early days in order to name the first annual “Misinformer of the Year.” We singled out one particularly egregious purveyor of falsehoods and awarded Bill O’Reilly the dubious title. O’Reilly graciously accepted the award on Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor.
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Variety’s Michael Learmonth writes about the news…

The price paid for Microsoft’s 32% of the venture was not disclosed. NBC Uni walked away from negotiations to acquire DreamWorks earlier this month after the price of the deal got too high.

Under the restructured deal, the cable channel may get a new moniker: NBC News Channel.
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Slate’s Jack Shafer shows you how….more or less…sort of…well ok…not really…

It doesn’t require independent thinking. In fact, independent thinkers need not apply. And it doesn’t necessarily pay money. But it will give you the opportunity to bore millions of Americans (well, maybe a couple hundred thousand) with your party’s current orthodoxy.

Right now the speed-dialing fingers of the bookers at The Situation Room, Scarborough Country, The Big Story (with albino werewolf John Gibson), Hannity & Colmes, Anderson Cooper 360 °, Fox Special Report With Brit Hume, CNN Live Sunday, The O’Reilly Factor, CNN Daybreak, and other shows are in need of fresh faces to field the political questions unearthed by the day’s news.

Albino Werewolf?

Here is the full transcript of Wolf Blitzer’s interview with Robert Novak on The Situtation Room…

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And now the man himself, Bob Novak is here in THE SITUATION ROOM. Bob, welcome.

ROBERT NOVAK, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: We’re going to get to the CIA leak and other issues in a few moments. Let’s talk about some of the issues right now on the agenda. The president of the United States, George W. Bush, he’s been in office now for five years, approaching his sixth year. You have been a good conservative all these years. Are you satisfied with the way he’s conducted himself? Has he been a good conservative from your perspective?
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Paul J. Gough in the Hollywood Reporter writes about the deal… (via TVNewser)

NBC has always had control over programming on the channel, with forays into joint efforts like “Connected Coast to Coast” dying quietly. But the structure of the joint venture has prevented NBC Universal from realizing costs savings in back-office and financial reporting. Those barriers have now been replaced.
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The New York Times has more information on today’s story…

The deal comes after nearly a year of negotiations to undo the partnership, in which each side was increasingly frustrated with the other. Within NBC, executives complained that they did not have enough control of the network’s budget to hire the right talent and market its programs.

Executives at Microsoft have worried that media business is outside their primary mission and may be a black hole. Microsoft sold its stake in Slate, the online magazine, to The Washington Post last year.

I guess yesterday’s one anchor wheel format was a test run…

Yesterday I noted MSNBC’s format change from Noon to 4 pm ET and how it was more or less a carbon copy of Headline News, though I’m sure MSNBC and NBC News Executives would vigorously deny or reject any direct comparisons. I was rushed yesterday when writing it up because the Blogsome servers have been really bad the past few days as they’re migrating to a distributed system so I didn’t really take time to say why I think this format is a bad move in a way that accurately expresses my points…

The fundamental issue here, as it has been since MSNBC’s beginning, is a question of purpose. What is MSNBC’s purpose? Is it a news channel? Is it a headline channel? Is it a talk channel? Is it to compete with CNN and FNC? Is it to compete with HLN? Therein lies the problem because MSNBC is sending mixed signals.
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CNBC issued a release yesterday that celebrated the “new” Squawk Box but at the same time was devoid of any news. Strange…

It may be a “new” “Squawk Box” on CNBC, but the foundation of the network’s signature morning program remains the same: When business leaders have something newsworthy to say, they say it on CNBC. Call them “Squawk Scoops.”

Monday, Dec. 19th marked the first day of CNBC’s “Squawk Box” with its new ensemble, including Joe Kernen, Becky Quick and Carl Quintanilla and on-air editor Charles Gasparino.

CNBC announced yesterday that Jim Cramer is hitting the road and taking his show to Harvard in the first of a series of School road trips in 2006…

It’s back to school for CNBC’s Jim Cramer.

Cramer, stock market analyst and host of CNBC’s hit “Mad Money w/Jim Cramer,” is headed back to school to face his toughest audience yet: college students. The “Mad Money Back to School Tour” visits the nation’s top schools making its first stop at Cramer’s alma mater, Harvard Law School, on February 1st at 6 p.m. ET (re-air at 9 p.m. and 12 a.m. ET). This will give college students the chance to experience the energy, passion and excitement of its popular host in person, up close and personal.
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NBC announced today that it has taken a controlling share in MSNBC. The timing of this news two days before Christmas and the fact that they buried the release on NBCUMV’s website by putting it on the Corporate page but not the MSNBC, NBC News, or Main pages is curious. Though maybe I’m reading too much into that…

NBC Universal and Microsoft today announced a restructuring of the MSNBC cable news channel. Under the terms of the new agreement, NBC Universal has acquired a controlling interest in MSNBC and an option to acquire 100% of the cable channel within two years. NBC Universal and Microsoft have also reaffirmed their strong commitment to MSNBC.com, which will remain equally owned by both parties. Terms were not disclosed
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Blogsome’s servers are still having trouble. They said that they’re working on the problem.

Being at work I don’t get to watch wall to wall cable news coverage so I only caught bits and pieces of MSNBC’s format change today. It wasn’t until I got home and checked the ReplayTV that the full extent of MSNBC’s changes became apparent.

Today MSNBC more or less became CNN Headline News from Noon to 4 pm ET, only slightly more stagnant than HLN is (and that is a tall order). The usual HLN traits were all there for you to see…
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FNC’s Greg Palkot, who is covering the trial of Saddam Hussein, turns in a Reporter’s Notebook…

I ran into the judge a few weeks ago at a hotel in Baghdad. He is a soft spoken pleasant man and I complimented him on taking on one of the most difficult jobs in Iraq right now. Then he posed a slightly unnerving question. He asked me how I thought he was doing. I was on the spot. I could either express my building concerns about Saddam’s grandstanding overshadowing the whole proceeding, or I could tell him I thought he was trying to strike a difficult balance between soft and hard. I chose the diplomatic latter.

Now I wish I had leveled with him.

Sitting through this week’s performance by the ex-dictator, sitting for the first time in the press box just a few feet from the fellow who had dominated the lives of Iraqis for decades (and my own reporting for years), I was struck by the growing craziness of the man, and the process. It was similar to listening to an aging hippie having an LSD flashback about the Summer of Love in San Francisco. Except it happened in the middle of one of the most important legal affairs on the planet right now.