I’ve been stewing over this (link via TVNewser) since I saw it on ReplayTV this evening when I got home (no streaming video capability at work). It’s so ridiculous but at the same time it’s really sad. This never should have seen air. The fact that as far as I know MSNBC never came back to the story and we never did see the Ostrich is telling. What’s perplexing is that MSNBC.com put the video up. I would have thought they’d want to bury it as quickly as possible.

Watching poor Chris Jansing being forced to ad lib through this (at one point blurting out “I went to College…I just want everyone to know that…”) made me wince. I felt badly for her. Jay Barbree nailed it when he said he didn’t know if that was breaking news (Jansing agreed she didn’t know either) and joked that he had a bicycle crash and wanted to know if they wanted to cover that. I hope Dan Abrams was watching this and realizes that yes indeed there are limits to what constitutes breaking news. Time for remedial training of your producer corps methinks.

Venezuellan President and Hugo Chavez was interviewed by FNC’s Eric Shawn in an exclusive interview that aired on The Big Story this afternoon. Transcript highlights follow…

ON CALLING PRESIDENT BUSH THE DEVIL:

“It’s an ecological matter. The matter is that the American empire is a threat for even you…It’s your government, not your country, it’s the government. It is two different things. Your government is lying to you. And also is taking the U.S. to start wars based on lies as they - you know how many young people have died in Iraq at this very moment? Killing children and innocent women just because of an obsession.”

ON HIS FEELINGS TOWARDS AMERICA:

“I love America. I love these people…I have great friends in the U.S.”

FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour general news service covering breaking news as well as political, business and entertainment news. For more than four years, FNC has been the most watched cable news channel in the nation and currently presents 11 out of the top 12 programs in cable news. Owned by News Corp., FNC is available in more than 85 million homes.

James McGreevy will be appearing on Hannity & Colmes tonight…

Cable News Ratings for September 20, 2006

P2+ Total Day
FNC - 990,000 viewers
CNN - 549,000 viewers
MSNBC - 277,000 viewers
CNBC - 146,000 viewers
HLN - 269,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC - 1,525,000 viewers
CNN - 759,000 viewers
MSNBC - 465,000 viewers
CNBC - 119,000 viewers
HLN - 546,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC - 348,000 viewers
CNN - 202,000 viewers
MSNBC - 123,000 viewers
CNBC - 55,000 viewers
HLN - 118,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC - 405,000 viewers
CNN - 265,000 viewers
MSNBC - 180,000 viewers
CNBC - 52,000 viewers
HLN - 247,000 viewers
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Here are excerpted highlights from Wolf Blitzer’s interview with President Bush that aired on The Situation Room today…

On fear

BLITZER: Because you know your critics say you’re simply trying to scare the American public to score political points.

BUSH: Well, they don’t sit where I sit. They don’t see the intelligence I see. And frankly if anybody thinks there’s not an enemy coming to attack us, they just don’t see the world the way it is…And this is a dangerous world, Wolf. And you know, I know there are some out there that kind of look at the world the way they wish it would be, but the job of the president — particularly one who saw what happened to us on September 11 and vowed that day to do everything to protect the people — is to do just that. That’s our most important responsibility.

On taking Ahmadinejad seriously
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The MSN MSNBC board is debating which shows is better, The Situation with Tucker Carlson or, the show that came after it, Tucker. The responses have been identical. Everone thinks The Situation was the better show…

Bill Maher appeared on Hannity & Colmes last night to discuss this “free speech” thing on the CBS Evening News. Highlights follow…

On His Follow-up Statement Regarding the CBS ‘free Speech’ Controversy

“You know what, I try to take the high road with my statement yesterday and saying, look, if there was a misunderstanding, great, then I’m happy to go on and do it. But you know, honestly Sean, I was just trying to call their bluff. I don’t think they want me at 6:30 at night to be saying what I would be saying about religion. Not that I would be profane in any way, I was just expressing my views on religion, which, by the way, are shared by millions of people.”
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FNC began using new lower thirds this morning. The logo and clock have been lowered a bit. The text is slightly larger. The live bug is down at the bottom. The lower thirds themselves now can animate from the bottom up. I suspect some folks in Secaucus are noticing a similarity in style.

The biggest change, which I didn’t even notice at first, is the U.S. Flag, which had been waving in the upper left corner of the screen since shortly after 9/11 occurred, is gone…

UPDATE: Apparently the flag was seen intermittently at the 9 am hour but according to Johnny Dollar it was gone by 10 am. May be a technical issue…

UPDATE 2: It’s back in the upper left corner again…
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WHAC tosses an accusation at TVNewser…

UPDATE 3:16 pm ET: I’d been waiting for WHAC to issue a retraction but it hasn’t come yet and since I already know that WHAC’s accusation is without merit and was successfully refuted in my opinion, I’ll say so.

The Hollywood Reporter’s Georg Szalai writes up Rupert Murdoch’s comments at a Goldman Sachs conference…

Asked about the state of talks about new carriage deals for the Fox News Channel, Murdoch said it has “not yet had productive talks” with Cablevision Systems in what observers took as a signal that the cable operator’s carriage arrangement is among the first to expire.

Saying that FNC is targeting carriage fees of about $1 per subscriber, Murdoch said: “CNN gets 54 cents or 55 cents, and we have twice the audience.”

Murdoch told reporters on the sidelines of the Goldman conference that he is indeed targeting the launch of a Fox business news channel for next year.

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