Public Eye’s Vaughn Ververs notes the MSNBC ad blitz which is apparently not quite what the New York Times said it was going to be…

Well, today we’re getting a glimpse at the initial ad offering and so far, it’s a little different than what was described in The Times. Sites today like TVNewser, Buzz Machine and even Daily Kos are running the MSNBC ads. We’ve stumbled across a couple of variations so far, but the most common is a simple seedy-looking neon silhouette outline of a woman’s body with the following text:

“Porn. It’s jumped out of the seedy theaters and back-alley video stores, and into the family computer. See where it’s heading next.”

I’m not quite sure exactly how this kind of advertising helps promote MSNBC’s TV shows…

The Chicago Tribune’s Debra Pickett has an interview with FNC’s Neil Cavuto which apparently turned somewhat adversarial…(via Romenesko)

But, even as we talk about his suburban New Jersey life, his wife, his three kids, and his 1997 diagnosis with multiple sclerosis, there’s something in his with-us-or-against-us world view that puts me off from feeling like I can really understand him. And he’s clearly annoyed that I’ve dared to venture off the “so, tell me why you decided to assemble this book” script.

Our lunch does not end on a particularly cordial note.

After the interview, a Fox News Channel publicist calls to tell me that “the whole Fox News media bias angle” won’t make a very interesting story. She helpfully advises me to stay away from it.

The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Gail Shister has a mini-article on CNBC’s new documentary head, Josh Howard.

Howard and CNBC president Mark Hoffman began talking in late August. Howard’s mandate is to increase the network’s output of long-form programming.

Smart move.David Faber’s investigative reports on Wal-Mart and eBay scored record ratings for CNBC, and the Wal-Mart piece, which debuted in November ‘04, won its first-ever Peabody Award.
(more…)

The MRC’s Brent Bozell pens a biased opinion piece on PittsburghLive.com that cherry picks which targets to attack and why. See if you can figure out which of the three cable news channels that had emoting talent in New Orleans gets conveniently overlooked for attack. It shouldn’t be too difficult…

Williams, like CNN’s new evening star Anderson Cooper, is showing the new anchorman model is based on being the nation’s leading bleeding heart, the one who cannot be out-compassioned in his pursuit of federal aid for disaster victims. These anchors are not only crusaders, but the crusade is more important than the truth.

The New York Times’ Stuart Elliot reports on MSNBC’s big internet ad blitz that’s scheduled to begin this week…

The MSNBC cable network plans to flood the Internet this week with its largest concentrated online pitch, running advertising on hundreds of Web sites and blogs. The cost of the campaign, to promote three prime-time programs, is estimated at just under $1 million.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Tim Cuprisin has an interview with Joe Scarborough about Hurricane Katrina…

If you’re looking for another cable news guy whose on-camera image was transformed by Hurricane Katrina, try MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough.

“Katrina actually shaped the way I looked at TV, at my show, realizing that I needed to be myself and not run it through any filters, but be as blunt as possible,” says the host of “Scarborough Country,” airing weeknights at 9.

“It changed the way I looked at the government, and it changed the way I looked at life. It may sound melodramatic, but obviously anybody that went down and saw that firsthand, and saw it happening in this country and saw, you know, 15-month-olds dying because they weren’t getting water and shelter on the streets of one of the largest cities in America (would be changed).”