Brit Hume interviewed James Baker and Lee Hamilton on the release of the Iraq Study Group’s report. Highlights follow…

On whether the President could implement some of the recommendations and how effective it would be:

“What it means is that this is a comprehensive strategy for dealing with a very, very difficult problem, in Iraq, itself, and within the region. So, they would be best be implemented as a whole. They are somewhat interdependent. They are mutually reinforcing and it would be better not to treat it as a fruit salad and say, well, we’ll do this and we won’t do that, we’ll do this. Because they do — the are to some extent interdependent.”

On both incentives and disincentives for Syria in helping the U.S. in dealing with the situation in Iraq:
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Cable News Ratings for December 5, 2006

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 783,000 viewers
CNN – 487,000 viewers
MSNBC – 242,000 viewers
CNBC – 236,000 viewers
HLN – 222,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 1,622,000 viewers
CNN – 752,000 viewers
MSNBC – 435,000 viewers
CNBC – 454,000 viewers
HLN – 428,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC – 257,000 viewers
CNN – 173,000 viewers
MSNBC –106,000 viewers
CNBC – 96,000 viewers
HLN – 93,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 400,000 viewers
CNN – 235,000 viewers
MSNBC – 170,000 viewers
CNBC – 182,000 viewers
HLN –146,000 viewers

Morning programs P2+ (25-54)
FOX & Friends – 794,000 viewers (296,000)
American Morning – 380,000 viewers (172,000)
Imus in The Morning- 252,000 viewers (124,000)
Robin & Co. – 223,000 viewers (123,000)
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CNN announced today that Dr. Sanjay Gupta now has his own blog…

Answering the call for more consumer-friendly health and medical news, CNN senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta and CNN’s Medical Unit has launched the “Paging Dr. Gupta” blog on CNN.com. The blog, which debuted Monday, Nov. 13, offers be a behind-the-scenes look at the latest medical news stories while providing insights on current health and medical trends.

“Sanjay’s style of reporting is simple, factual and engaging and has earned him credibility with his audience,” said Carol Kinstle, director of CNN’s Medical Unit. “It’s only natural to extend that same rapport across CNN’s digital platforms with the launch of this blog.”
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The air date for this item has now been moved forward from next week to this Thursday and Friday…

New York Yankee Johnny Damon appeared on The O’Reilly Factor last night to talk about the Wounded Warrior Organization, which supports wounded war vets. Damon called for professional athletes and celebrities to get involved with supporting our war veterans who he called “the true American heroes.”

CNN announced its coverage plans for the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery, scheduled to launch Thursday December 7th…

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 Thursday, Dec. 7. Coverage includes live reports on CNN/U.S., CNN International, CNN Radio and CNN Pipeline.

The launch marks NASA’s first night launch in nearly four years. NASA had barred such launches following the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in order to better monitor any foam-strike incidents like the one that doomed the shuttle’s seven-member crew in 2003. Commanded by astronaut Mark Polansky, this Discovery mission plans to dock with the International Space Station to complete extensive electrical rewiring for new solar arrays and to prepare the station for additional laboratories.

Correspondent John Zarrella, a veteran broadcaster of numerous shuttle launches, will report live from Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the launch beginning at 11 a.m. (ET) on launch day and through the scheduled launch time of 9:35 p.m. (ET) Both Larry King Live on CNN/U.S. and CNN International plan to break into normal programming to air the launch live.
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From an emailer…

At 11:59pm CNN’s Breaking News lower third says “CNN obtains details on Iraq Study Group report.” and Anderson is staying on for an extra 2min past 12am to talk about it.

UPDATE: Here is are two transcripts of CNN’s Ed Henry reporting on the news. The first is from last night’s breaking news at the tail end of 360. The second transcript is from this morning’s American Morning

COOPER: And we have some breaking news to bring to you, a CNN exclusive. Our first true look at the Iraq Study Group report. It is due out tomorrow.

CNN’s Ed Henry has gotten some information about it.

Ed, what do you know?

ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, this evening one source close to the Iraq Study Group who has had access to this report, pieces of it. We have gotten an early look. This is obviously the highly anticipated report that will be coming out in full tomorrow.
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