CNN announced its plans to cover the Shuttle Launch…

As the only broadcast network to air every NASA shuttle launch live, CNN plans to continue that tradition across numerous platforms with live footage both on-air and online of the Space Shuttle Discovery launch on Saturday, July 1. Coverage includes live reports on CNN/U.S., CNNRadio and CNN Pipeline as well as an hour-long launch day special.

The special, “Shuttle Discovery: Miles O’Brien Reports” will air on Saturday from 3-4 p.m. on CNN/U.S. to coincide with Discovery’s scheduled liftoff at 3:48 p.m. CNN space correspondent and American Morning anchor Miles O’Brien and Eileen Collins, commander of the previous shuttle mission and the first female shuttle commander, will host the special.
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The AP’s Lynne Elber has a profile on CNN’s Jack Cafferty… (via WHAC)

This provocative figure is the same one who, as a longtime local New York anchorman, once was dismissed by a TV critic as having a broadcasting style that was “dry, workmanlike and at times, dull.”

If that was the case, it changed substantially when Cafferty joined the now-defunct CNNfn. On a lark, Cafferty started to read on-air the e-mails “that were trickling in (and) kind of built this following,” he said. His performance after the Sept. 11 terrorism attacks led to a co-host spot on “American Morning,” where his “Here‘s What I Don‘t Get Segment” allowed him to rant at will.

On “The Situation Room,” he plays color commentator to stolid play-by-play man Blitzer. Cafferty also anchors CNN‘s weekend business show, “In the Money.”

“In many ways, he‘s the voice of the Everyman on our program,” said Sam Feist, senior executive producer of political programming for CNN/U.S., with “The Situation Room” among his responsibilities. “He just wants to hold our political leaders accountable, and he takes it very seriously.”

NBC News announced today that it is expanding its Investigative Unit…

NBC News President Steve Capus announced today that NBC News will significantly expand its Investigative Reporting Unit, doubling the number of producers working on hard-news investigative stories. Reporting will appear on “NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams,” “Today,” “Dateline NBC,” on NBC News’ cable stations MSNBC and CNBC, and online at MSNBC.com. The expansion is effective today.

In making the announcement, Capus said, “Expanding NBC News’ Investigative Unit clearly demonstrates the News division’s commitment to investigative journalism, and NBC’s willingness to invest in stories that will have a major impact.” Capus continued, “For the past four years, the Investigative Unit has led the way with exclusive stories on terrorism, the government’s failings in Hurricane Katrina, and political corruption. This expansion will allow us to continue to break a wide variety of important stories on all our NBC News programs, and to further distinguish ourselves from our competitors.”
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Broadcasting & Cable’s Anne Becker writes about a new Podcast launched by CNN featuring Dr. Sanjay Gupta. (no release CNN?)

CNN launched a new podcast with video from Senior Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Doc Talk, which features Gupta giving listeners health advice, is currently available on CNN’s Website at cnn.com/podcasting, and for free on iTunes. In the first installment, Gupta offers advice on energy bars.

MediaWeek’s Anthony Crupi writes about the Q2 numbers…

Fox News Channel tallied its 18th consecutive quarterly ratings win over rival CNN, averaging 1.38 million viewers in prime time in the second quarter of 2006 versus CNN’s 700,000.

According to Nielsen Media Research, between March 27 and June 25 FNC was the eighth-most-watched ad-supported cable network in prime time, even as the network’s nightly audience shrank 11 percent year-over-year. CNN was down 5 percent versus the same time a year ago.

June 27
P2+ Total Day
FNC - 823,000 viewers
CNN - 475,000 viewers
MSNBC - 185,000 viewers
HLN - 167,000 viewers
CNBC - 165,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC - 1,759,000 viewers
CNN - 805,000 viewers
MSNBC - 258,000 viewers
HLN - 360,000 viewers
CNBC - 161,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC - 212,000 viewers
CNN - 146,000 viewers
MSNBC - 76,000 viewers
HLN - 65,000 viewers
CNBC - 61,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC - 335,000 viewers
CNN - 167,000 viewers
MSNBC - 109,000 viewers
HLN - 134,000 viewers
CNBC -90,000 viewers

Morning programs
FOX & Friends - 762,000 viewers (277,000)
American Morning - 443,000 viewers (196,000)
Robin & Co. - 156,000 (87,000)
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Johnny Dollar emailed in to note that FNC has suddenly replaced the “Fox News Alert” with “Breaking News Now”. This happening on the heels of MSNBC GM Dan Abrams’ recent comments about having the network focus more on Breaking News. The timing of this change is….interesting…

UPDATE: Had a quick moment to steal a glance at this. Also included is a banner in the upper right corner that scrolls across and repeats the words “Breaking News”….

The New York Daily News’ Bob Raissman writes about an incident on the radio where both Keith Olbermann and Dan Patrick called the owner of the Carolina Hurricanes names…

At one point in their critique, Patrick called Karmanos a “scumbag.” Shortly after that tasteless reference, Olbermann called Karmanos a “douchebag.”

I don’t know if Karmanos is aware of these over-the-top characterizations, which have absolutely no place on a sportstalk radio show airing early in the afternoon, but ESPN suits heard what Olbermann and Patrick said and were not amused.

“It’s not our policy to take cheap shots or resort to name calling,” said Rob Tobias, an ESPN spokesman. “And to that end, we will be handling this matter internally with both Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann.”

Bill O’Reilly is in D.C today. He’s got Tony Snow on tonight. He’ll have the rescheduled John Kerry interview tomorrow…

I had noted several times recently that Bill O’Reilly had been keeping quiet in this spat with MSNBC for quite a while. I had thought he had finally figured out the only practical way to deal with Olbermann. I was wrong. Last night O’Reilly went after MSNBC again…

If you’ve read any of my books, you know I believe in karma. Do bad things, you’ll get yours eventually. Do good things, you’ll get rewarded. Recently, two bad guys got theirs:

Air America fired its president, Gary Krantz. The disastrous radio network booted him out on the heels of the removal of CEO Danny Goldberg. We believe there is major chaos at that far left concern.

There’s also major chaos at MSNBC, where Rick Kaplan has left after pretty much destroying that place. He did the same thing at CNN before he got fired over there. Closing in on its 10th anniversary, MSNBC’s ratings are lower than they were six years ago, which might be ridiculous.

You just had to do it Bill. You couldn’t leave it alone. Congratulations. You just gave Keith Olbermann’s feud with you a new lease on life…

Reese blogs on Lou Dobbs and suggests that when the illegal immigration issue fades, so will Dobbs’ audience…

The Dobbs show attracts a select audience that cares about the same issues he does. I am not sure the audience will remain when the issue pales. One of the worst mistakes that CNN made was its concentrative coverage of the OJ Simpson trial. It, too, attracted a large, select audience. But after the verdict came in the audience vanished and the core audience never returned. Before the Simpson trial CNN had a point-7 audience. After, it fell to point-5’s and even point 4’s. Immigration and job loss will unfortunately last longer than the trial but at the end CNN may find itself searching for a new 6:00 PM program.

The New York Observer’s Rebecca Dana writes in a must read about how Anderson Cooper’s name recognition and celebrity hasn’t transformed into ratings success…

Mr. Cooper squats in a giant billboard opposite Fox News Channel headquarters on 47th Street, appears on Oprah, writes a column for Details, headlines his own blog, sustains many others and in May gave the graduation speech at his alma mater. 60 Minutes found room for him, even as it was crowding out Dan Rather. There’s buzz he might inherit the World News Tonight anchor chair some day. There’s buzz he might climb the ranks at CBS, and more buzz on top of that, so much that it seems to have drowned out the little voice of Nielsen.

“I just don’t get it,” said one cable news executive. “I watch the show, and there’s nothing there for me. All of a sudden, I’m looking at the upfront for CBS, and he’s one of the faces of 60 Minutes. One of the three faces of 60 Minutes! How did that happen? It keeps rolling along, this media-sensation thing.”

The AP’s David Bauder has Jonathan Klein defending the Anderson Cooper/Angelina Jolie interview…(via TVNewser)

“I don’t know of any news organization that would not have talked to Angelina Jolie,” said Klein, “and I also don’t know of any other news organization that would have aired that interview as the apex of a day’s worth of coverage … of that important issue. It was both good journalism and well within the brand of CNN.”
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Klein said he recognized the danger of a public backlash against Cooper, whose profile has increased markedly since the newsman’s coverage of Hurricane Katrina.

“The public will always sniff out a fraud,” he said. “Since Anderson is so obviously the real deal, I don’t think there will be any backlash that sticks. There will be an increasing number of people who will want to throw darts at him, but I think they will bounce off harmlessly.”