Ok, this is a first…I’m citing NewsBusters because it has a fair and balanced article. Rich Noyes writes about Anderson Cooper exposing Hezbollah’s media control tactics; something which Noyes noted yesterday that Nic Robertson failed to do in a report he gave last week…

But instead of merely transmitting Hezbollah’s unverified and unverifiable claims to the outside world, Cooper — to his credit — exposed the efforts by Hezbollah to manipulate CNN and other Western reporters. It’s quite a contrast from the much more accommodating approach taken by his colleague, Nic Robertson, in a report that aired on a variety of CNN programs (including AC360) back on July 18, a report that Robertson himself has now conceded was put together under Hezbollah’s control.

Unlike Robertson, Cooper was explicit about how Hezbollah’s operatives had set all of the rules: “Young men on motor scooters followed our every movement. They only allowed us to videotape certain streets, certain buildings,” he explained. He countered Hezbollah claims that Israel targets civilians by pointing out that the group based itself in civilian areas and that Israel’s air force drops leaflets warning of attacks.

Cooper exposed for CNN viewers that the sight of speeding ambulances, sirens blaring, was just a phony play staged by Hezbollah: “One by one, they’ve been told to turn on their sirens and zoom off so that all the photographers here can get shots of ambulances rushing off to treat civilians….These ambulances aren’t responding to any new bombings. The sirens are strictly for effect.”

Found by the MSNBC board…
(more…)

The L.A. Times’ Matea Gold writes about yesterday’s FNC news at the TCA…

“I really want to talk about our journalism,” Ailes said. “I actually think that Fox News is underrated in journalism.” Ailes expressed his commitment to foreign news coverage, saying that the network has been “beefing up” its reporting of events abroad.

To buttress his case, the Fox News chief had anchor Shepard Smith chime in via satellite from Israel, where he’s been reporting since the most recent conflict there began.

“I can’t think of a place more important for the anchor to be than here,” said Smith, who offered a lengthy and detailed analysis of Israel’s air war campaign against Hezbollah. “The most ridiculous thing any of us can do is fly off to some place, parachute in and just anchor your show there and not go out and do any reporting. We’ve hit the ground every day.”

Yes it appears that that Scarborough Country number isn’t a typo. 179,000? MSNBC Investigates doubled that the next hour. MSNBC was flat across the board last night and wound up in fourth place behind HLN in Total Viewers.

July 24
P2+ Total Day
FNC – 1,122,000 viewers
CNN - 598,000 viewers
MSNBC - 242,000 viewers
HLN - 172,000 viewers
CNBC – 167,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 1,982,000 viewers
CNN – 1,038,000 viewers
MSNBC - 290,000 viewers
HLN – 335,000 viewers
CNBC - a scratch with 113,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC - 364,000 viewers
CNN - 221,000 viewers
MSNBC – 111,000 viewers
HLN – 71,000 viewers
CNBC – 58,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC - 595,000 viewers
CNN - 328,000 viewers
MSNBC - 134,000 viewers
HLN – 108,000 viewers
CNBC – 60,000 viewers
(more…)

Here are the top 20 cable news programs for last week…

FNC Th The O’Reilly Factor 2,676,000
FNC M The O’Reilly Factor 2,585,000
FNC Tu The O’Reilly Factor 2,502,000
FNC W The O’Reilly Factor 2,449,000
FNC M Hannity & Colmes 2,303,000
FNC Th Hannity & Colmes 2,154,000
FNC W Hannity & Colmes 2,079,000
FNC Th On The Record 2,053,000
FNC W On The Record 2,049,000
FNC Tu Hannity & Colmes 1,975,000
FNC M Special Report 1,944,000
FNC M On The Record 1,832,000
FNC Tu Special Report 1,802,000
FNC M The Fox Report 1,785,000
FNC Tu The Fox Report 1,784,000
FNC M Fox News Live 9:18-10:00 am 1,737,000
FNC M Studio B 1,693,000
FNC M The Big Story with John Gibson 1,684,000
FNC M Fox News Live 1,682,000
FNC Fr The O’Reilly Factor 1,674,000
FNC Fr On The Record - 1,670,000

UPDATE: TVWeek’s Michelle Greppi writes up the story under the banner “Fox News Reigns as News Heats Up”…
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via Romenesko’s Letters page…

Response to Ailes. “Over the line?” Where was Roger Ailes when Bill O’Reilly defended the Nazi SS stormtroopers from Malmedy in World War II? The SS shot 84 American POW’s there in 1944, and three different times in the last year, Bill called has called those dead American heroes war criminals. I guess there is no line at Fox News.

Saturday
July 22

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 989,000 viewers
CNN – 674,000 viewers
MSNBC – 315,000 viewers
HLN – 234,000 viewers
CNBC – 141,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 1,271,000 viewers
CNN – 865,000 viewers
MSNBC – 314,000 viewers
HLN – 216,000 viewers
CNBC – 157,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC – 348,000 viewers
CNN – 281,000 viewers
MSNBC – 142,000 viewers
HLN – 106,000 viewers
CNBC – 54,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 382,000 viewers
CNN – 286,000 viewers
MSNBC – 139,000 viewers
HLN – 99,000 viewers
CNBC – 59,000 viewers
(more…)

Variety’s Michael Schnieder writes about yesterday’s TCA tour where Roger Ailes and Shepard Smith (via satellite from the Middle East) spoke… (sub. req.)

When you’re No. 1 in the cable news ratings, it’s easy to take shots at the competition.

Using the occasion of Fox News Channel’s 10th anniversary, chairman-CEO Roger Ailes did just that Monday, lobbing zingers about the scandals that have hit rival news outlets.

“We haven’t had to fire our reporters or anchors for making up the news,” he proclaimed, meeting with reporters for the first time in several years at the TV Critics Assn. press tour.

Subtly referring to several skirmishes that have dogged his cable and broadcast rivals, he added,

“We haven’t been forced to eat our words.”

_________________

A decade later, Ailes noted that Fox News Channel hadn’t lost to CNN “in almost 60 months now.” He added that Fox News had kept a stable primetime lineup while “our competition has canceled 54 shows” in the interim.

Ailes couldn’t resist tweaking CNN, noting that CNN/U.S. prexy Jonathan Klein told the TCA critics two weeks ago that the cabler had met its three main goals.

“We’re very happy about that,” Ailes quipped.

Broadcasting & Cable’s Christopher Lisotta writes about Roger Ailes talking a bit about the new morning show hosted by Mike Jerrick and Juliet Huddy…

“There’s not much in the pipeline of syndicated programming coming forward,” he said. “It is clear the more we can become self reliant, the better off we can be going forward.”

For his new morning project, Mr. AIles said he prefers a soft launch with less money going towards promotion in January rather than a more promoted launch in the fall.

“We didn’t hype Fox News coming in, and we’re not hyping this show coming in,” he said. “It’s a style issue more than anything else.”

New York Magazine Arianne Cohen has a blurb about Greta Van Susteren’s new hobby…

Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren and her old friend Elaine Lafferty, who was editor-in-chief of Ms. magazine for two years, are now in the restaurant business. The two are part-owners of the Old Mill Inn, a 144-seat seaside restaurant in Mattituck, L.I. Lafferty covered the O. J. Simpson trial for Time, which is how she met Van Susteren.

Broadcasting & Cable’s Ben Grossman writes about Roger Ailes’ comments at the Television Critics Association tour…

Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes says his organization is beefing up foreign coverage as international conflicts continue to intensify, but he doesn’t see his proposed cable business network going forward in 2006.

“We are beefing up our foreign coverage, not cutting it back,” Ailes says.

The AP’s Beth Harris writes about Roger Ailes’s comments today at the Critics Association tour regarding Keith Olbermann’s antics Saturday…

Ailes, appearing Monday at the summer meeting of the Television Critics Association, said Olbermann takes shots at Fox’s O’Reilly because it boosts his ratings.

“Clearly he has no viewers except those he gets when he attacks Fox News, and particularly has made himself committed to continuing to attack Bill,” Ailes said.

Olbermann opened his Saturday session at the critics’ meeting by whipping out a mask of O’Reilly and giving a Nazi salute.

“I really think that’s over the line,” Ailes said.

Harris also notes that FNC will celebrate its 10th Anniversary by doing a “Thank You America” tour later this year that will have its primetime shows plus Your World touring the country with live audience shows.

UPDATE: Broadcasting & Cable’s Ben Grossman has the story too and has a different spin on it than Harris does. Which one is correct?

“He’s made himself committed to continuing to attack Bill and, therefore, his family and I really think that’s over the line…. It seems like the use of corporate assets for personal vendettas.”

Olbermann had used a Saturday-morning breakfast session at the Television Critics Association press tour to fire yet another shot at O’Reilly, holding up an O’Reilly mask while raising his right arm in a Nazi salute to mock his on-air rival.

Fox’s Ailes refused to comment directly on the action, or what his reaction would be if one of his staffers did something similar.

Ok, did Ailes comment on Olbermann’s Saturday antics as Harris’ write up suggests or did he not comment on it as Grossman’s write up suggests? It seems like the latter to me…

UPDATE 2: Harris also wrote about Olbermann’s Saturday appearance and wrote…

Olbermann said his phone number has been distributed at Fox and his e-mail hacked into.

But this is what Olbermann said at the event…

It comes with the territory. There has been — there have been some abuses. There have been — my emails have been hacked into. My phone number has been distributed at Fox.

The first section sort of implies that Fox may have been involved in having Olbermann’s email hacked. But the original quote doesn’t say that at all.