Ok here’s a placeholder for all your comments on the coverage of the North Korea Missle test story. I was totally out of the loop this afternoon. I was making Ice Cream and when I wasn’t working on that I was watching Italy/Germany on ESPN. I got word that there was a launch via the radio and flipped the channels quickly to see who was on it and who wasn’t. Then I went back to Football/Ice Cream.

All three channels were covering it in some form though I noticed MSNBC was carrying the NBC feed with Ann Curry and using NBC graphics. I understand from some of the emails I’ve gotten that Bret Baier was all over it for FNC. CNN was still all over this when I last checked a short time ago with The Situation Room and John King. MSNBC was mostly dark and boy is the MSN MSNBC board pissed about that…

CNN should make a promo “Breaking News never takes a holiday.”

So since I was out doing my July4/World Cup thang, I defer to you to assess the coverage today…

UPDATE: At 8pm ET, both FNC and CNN continued their live coverage. CNN continued for the full hour with a CNN International simulcast. FNC dumped to O’Reilly at some point before the bottom of the hour. MSNBC continues in its taped hybernation…

UPDATE 2: Larry King was live on CNN covering the story. At 10pm On The Record was live with Jamie Colby. MSNBC continues to revel in tape. What a black eye for MSNBC and NBC.

The New York Post writes that CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo has shot a pilot for a talk show…

CNBC’s Money Honey, Maria Bartiromo, has filmed a pilot for her own syndicated talk show.

It is believed that the yet-untitled talk show, produced by NBC, will focus on “women’s empowerment,” according to a report in Crain’s New York Business.

The Courier-Journal’s Tom Dorsey writes about reader reaction to a story he did on Breaking News which is probably not what MSNBC GM Dan Abrams wants to hear right now…

Last week’s column on stories labeled “Breaking News” by TV stations touched a nerve with readers. Here are some of their comments:

“Thank you for speaking out for a lot of us who are sick of ‘Breaking News’ promotions!,” wrote Linda Traylor of New Albany. “Over the weekend we were talking about this with friends who also are totally turned off by the practice.”

Jack Ragan, who lives in Okolona, grew up in Chicago, where his favorite station only airs two hours of news a day.

“Of course, we here in Louisville have seven hours daily from WAVE, approximately the same as other top stations. Plus many break-ins for ‘Breaking News’ many times in an average day. Many of them shouldn’t get more than a casual mention in a regular newscast. Oh, for the good old days.”

The Minneapolis Star Tribune has a brief blurb on former MSNBC anchor Randy Meier…

MSNBC didn’t pick up the option on Randy Meier’s contract.

“This comes on the heels of them having me commute from Minnesota for two-and-a-half years while my family was here,” Meier told me. “This didn’t come as any big surprise to anyone.”

With the recent MSNBC management changes, Meier said, change was in the air. “MSNBC is trying to find a new role for itself, a new niche, not having the kind of success it has wanted.”

Is he really up for a job at FOX 5 in D.C., as reported by dcrtv.com?

“Nooo,” Meier said. “I’ve never been approached by them. You know whose job that is. You remember Michael Gargiulo, right? He vacated to come to New York.”

From an emailer…

FNC had a FOX news alert on during a taped interview that the launch was a “Go” for the 4th. A few min later, approx 9:06pm they went to the press conf.

MSNBC and CNN are not covering it or putting an alert on screen. Larry King Not Live is on with Star Jones. MSNBC is airing and old episode of lockup.

UPDATE: As has been made abundantly clear in the comments, this emailer got it wrong. CNN did in fact break in. I’ll have to be more careful in the future…