ICN has learned MSNBC’s all day anchor rotation for the 2007 SOTU coverage. Chip Reid, Campbell Brown, Joe Scarborough, Norah O’Donnell, Andrea Mitchell, Tim Russert, and Ann Curry will anchor.

Eat The Press’ Rachel Sklar writes about the microwave oven that Stephen Colbert “stole” from the O’Reilly Factor green room…

Hilarious — but how the hell do you sneak out of a studio with a microwave? We wondered, so we asked. And brace yourself, Nation — it was planned.

According to FNC spokeswoman Irena Briganti, Colbert told O’Reilly off-camera of his plan to take the microwave from the Green Room. “We were well aware of it and entirely amused - it was all in good fun,” said Briganti in an email earlier today. “We honestly just thought the whole thing was hysterical.”

Here’s a spreadsheet showing last night’s O’Reilly Factor and Colbert Report ratings compared to their 2006 4th quarter averages…

Walter Mondale and Jimmy Carter made a rare joint public appearance together on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer which is airing portions of it in every hour of the program to commemorate the Carter Administration’s 30th Anniversary of taking office. Highlights follow…

On the Carter-Mondale administration and honesty

MONDALE: One of the things I am proudest of about our four years together was that we told the truth and we obeyed the law and we kept the peace. It doesn’t sound like much, maybe just what is expected, but I think we’re seeing evidence of what happens when you stray from these fundamentals principles.

BLITZER: Excuse me for interrupting. That that’s an implied criticism, if not a direct criticism, of the current president and vice president.

MONDALE: Well, that’s acceptable to me if you want to draw that conclusion. But the fact of it is that ours was an honest administration, you could believe what you were told, we never played games with the law. We were true to that oath of office and we did everything we could to enhance American power based on our principles and tried to avoid war and we accomplished that and I feel good about it.
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Colbert’s appearance on The Factor last night brought in 2.9 million viewers with a Demo number (746,000) greater than the 2nd place program’s Total Viewer number (Countdown’s 740,000)

Cable News Ratings for January 18, 2007

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 938,000 viewers
CNN – 520,000 viewers
MSNBC – 348,000 viewers
CNBC – 273,000 viewers
HLN – 246,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 2,160,000 viewers
CNN – 798,000 viewers
MSNBC – 630,000 viewers
CNBC – 481,000 viewers
HLN – 399,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC – 282,000 viewers
CNN –170,000 viewers
MSNBC- 142,000 viewers
CNBC –111,000 viewers
HLN – 105,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 566,000 viewers
CNN – 259,000 viewers
MSNBC – 236,000 viewers
CNBC –193,000 viewers
HLN –159,000 viewers

Morning programs P2+ (25-54)
FOX & Friends – 722,000 viewers (303,000)
American Morning – 321,000 viewers (137,000)
Imus in the Morning- 397,000 viewers (162,000)
Robin & Co. – 241,000 viewers (143,000)
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Martin Fletcher blogs about the contrasts between Gaza and London for a hard hitting journalist such as himself. I caught some of Fletcher’s reports on MSNBC and, yeah, you could see that the gossip stuff was a bit much to him.

When I got the assignment to come to work out of the NBC London bureau I was delighted. That should make a nice change from war and mayhem in the Holy Land, I thought.

After ten days, I can’t wait to get back to Gaza.

First ‘Posh and Becks’

First, David Beckham announced he was going to earn $128,000 a day by leaving Real Madrid and going to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy in the American soccer league.

That kept us busy recycling every poor pun from the soccer and financial worlds. “From Becks to Bucks” won my lottery for best headline.

Gail Dines in the Atlantic Free Press roars about Paula Zahn Now’s Duke Lacrosse case racism special; a special Dines took part in…

UPDATE: Ok, it’s really not the Duke rape case anymore since the charges got dismissed. But that was the popular nomenclature for the case so I stuck with it. But after a flood of complaints…well okay one complaint…I’ll change it. Calling it the Duke no longer rape case seems a bit obtuse so I’ll just call it the Duke Lacrosse case…

As the green room starts to fill with guests, I am getting the distinctly uneasy feeling that there are too many people here for a one-hour show that has promised me two to three segments. Guests come and go, and my segment cohort is still sitting in the room at 8:20, 20 minutes after the start of the show. There’s no way to watch the show in the green room, and so I have no idea as to what the other guests are saying and am clueless as to what I am walking into.

As it turns out I was on camera for less than five minutes, and most of that time was taken up by Peterson railing against the “alleged” victim for setting these poor white guys up. Kristal got to make a few points but also was cut short. Zahn was clearly more intrigued by Peterson than either of us; her body language and eye contact focused on him. As I tried to interrupt his tirade, she cut me off and returned to him. He got the last word of the segment, saying that the “stripper” has no humanity, no morality (she had children out of “wedlock”) and should be jailed for what she has done to these athletes. As I got up to leave the studio I ask Zahn how she could do a show that once again leaves this woman stripped of her dignity and rendered invisible as a human being. Zahn smiled and offered her hand as a way to tell me they are done with me.

Broadcasting & Cable’s John Eggerton writes about Dennis Kucinich’s appearance on Lou Dobbs Tonight where he talked about holding hearings on bringing back the Fairness Doctrine…

Per his telegraph to a media reform conference last week, Ohio Democratic Representative and presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich has been named head of a new House Domestic Policy Subcommittee and he plans to hold hearings on media ownership with an eye toward a reintroduction of the fairness doctrine. The doctrine, which was scrapped by the FCC in 1987 as unconstitutional, put an affirmative obligation on broadcasters to air both sides of controversial issues. It’s absence is also credited with the rise of conservative talk radio.

Broadcasting & Cable’s Ben Grossman scoops that Anderson Cooper has signed a new deal with CNN…

According to industry sources, Cooper’s old deal was worth in the neighborhood of $2 million a year and his new payday is more than double that amount. CNN has also made Cooper the center of an unprecedented multimillion-dollar promotional campaign.

Last December his newscast was up more than 30% in the key 25-54 news demo.

CNN announced that Pipeline will be free all day on Tuesday, January 23. Cisco Systems will be sponsoring the free day.

CNN.com will offer broadband Internet users worldwide free access to CNN Pipeline, its premium live news video service, on Tuesday, Jan. 23. CNN Pipeline’s “Free Day” will begin at midnight and run until 11:59 p.m. (ET) and feature live coverage of events ranging from President George W. Bush’s sixth State of the Union address to the announcement of the 79th Academy Award nominations.

Throughout the day, Internet users will have the ability to view ongoing and breaking news events across the world through CNN Pipeline’s multiple live video streams, video archives and on-demand news clips from CNN’s unmatched global newsgathering operation.
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CNN Student News announced its coverage plans for the SOTU…

On the day of President George W. Bush’s sixth State of the Union address, CNN Student News will provide educators and students with several resources in addition to its daily program to help them understand the impact of the speech, as well as the history of the State of the Union address itself.
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MSNBC contributor Andy Dehnart was underwhelmed…

The long-awaited meetings between Bill O’Reilly and Stephen Colbert were not epic, televised confrontations that resulted in verbal worldplay. Nor did their appearances result in someone coming across as a winner and the other as the loser.

That’s because, when each guested on the other’s program Thursday night, Stephen Colbert stayed in character, and Bill O’Reilly remained out of character. Colbert, as usual, played the part of an irrational, extremely conservative talk show host, while O’Reilly atypically softballed his guest and played along.

Had they both stayed true to who they are on their own shows, but not when they appeared as a guest on the other’s program, we might have actually learned something. Instead, the two appearances came across mostly as a lark, a promotional stunt designed to help both hosts and hurt neither.

On Wednesday, The Houston Chronicle’s Mike McDaniel wrote about Bill Maher’s comments on FNC…

HBO’s Bill Maher on Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly: “Fox doesn’t want Bill or any of their people to do my show. And some of the people who we would like to have on our show, like Sean Hannity — I’ve done his show many, many times, but he’s never done my show. I understand that. They’re afraid they’ll get eaten alive.

“Bill O’Reilly, to his credit, did buck the request of his own network and did come on my show. And actually, I can have a very fun conversation with him. If you look at his politics, I know he’s blustery and he’s a blowhard and he’s an egomaniac and he’s a bully and — and those are the things I like about him.

Well yesterday, McDaniel wrote up FNC’s response…

“The truth is, he has no ratings, and we tend to steer clear of shows that lack buzz.”

— A Fox News spokesperson, on why Fox talent does not appear on HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher

New York Magazine’s Intelligencer had a pair of critics IM’ing each other after the events were all over…

Nussbaum: So, as a member of the sniggering media elite that loves “wise guys,” what did you think?
Sternbergh: Hmmm. I didn’t love these wise guys.
Nussbaum: Both segments displeased you?
Sternbergh: I was very glad they finally had this fabled face-off.
Sternbergh: But I didn’t think either worked particularly well.
Sternbergh: Somehow Colbert playing Colbert seemed weird.
Sternbergh: I’d rather just hear the two of them talk. As O’Reilly did on Letterman.
Sternbergh: Rather than all that fake ironic deference.
Nussbaum: I honestly found it kind of fascinating, and there were moments when it was almost shocking.
Nussbaum: Colbert on O’Reilly in particular freaked me out.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Jill Vejnoska blogs about last night’s twin events…

The truth (truthiness?) can now be told: Bill O’Reilly and Stephen Colbert most definitely are not the same person.

We got the definitive proof Thursday night when they both appeared in the same place at the same time - twice - by guesting on each other’s hit cable shows. And for all their remarkable similarities (same dark suit with the merest hint of charcoal pinstripe, same dark and foreboding view of the world with nary a hint of self-doubt), one major difference stood out:

Colbert stabs you in the back. O’Reilly prefers the full frontal approach:

Crooks and Liars has the video…

Marketwatch’s Jon Friedman does a story on CNN’s Reliable Sources…

What makes “Reliable Sources” stand out from the pack is its unique subject: The program is all about the media and their successes and (largely) shortcomings. Its competitors concentrate on politics.

Speaking about CNN’s Sunday morning strategy, Lucy Spiegel, senior executive producer of weekend programming, said: “We’re going at it from a different angle. This gives us an opportunity to hold the mirror up with lively debates and introspection (about the media), which you don’t get anywhere else.”

Kurtz told me: “My core strategy is to stress accountability, not bloviation, and have a little fun in the process.” (And CNN executives clearly appreciate the energy that Kurtz, 53, brings to the show. When I told Spiegel I had just interviewed him, she asked: “How’s the Energizer Bunny today?”)

Spiegel said the show is succeeding when it’s making news — “when you have somebody say something they’ve never said before or show introspection. That’s what we’re in the business to do.”

Allessandra Stanley in the New York Times’ I guess was expecting the two to fight it out like Letterman/O’Reilly did. Does Stanley even get it?

Mr. Colbert, in character as a media-elite-hating archconservative, dismissed Mr. Stewart as a “sexual predator.” He paused for a beat, then said to his guest, “You have no idea what that’s like.” It could have been an innocuous joke, of course, but it sounded like an oblique reference to the sexual harassment suit that a former producer on “The O’Reilly Factor” filed against her boss in 2004 and settled out of court.

And Mr. Colbert was also cheeky as a guest on Fox News, veining his mock adoration for the man he called “the master” with sly jabs at Mr. O’Reilly’s expense. When Mr. O’Reilly asked him why he does his comedy show, Mr. Colbert replied, “I want to bring your message of peace and love to a younger audience, people in their 50s and 60s, who don’t watch the show.”

The Post Chronicle’s Miked Baron apparently did get it though he makes the same mistake the AP made last night and thought O’Reilly’s “This was a mistake” line was said in seriousness when it was obvious it was a very well timed joke.
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The AP’s Jake Coyle writes up tonight’s spectacle…

Once inside Colbert’s studio _ decorated for the occasion with a large “Mission Accomplished” banner and a portrait of O’Reilly placed fireside _ O’Reilly seemed to be regretting the decision.

“This was a huge mistake, me coming on here,” he muttered.

It may have been a greater error allowing Colbert into the Fox News headquarters, located near the “Colbert Report” studios in Manhattan. There, Colbert smuggled a microwave out of the green room, a bounty which he proudly displayed at the conclusion of his show.

A spokesman for Fox News confirmed that Colbert stole the microwave, but said it was all in good fun.

Had to catch the repeats as I missed The Factor part. Of the two encounters, I thought the Colbert Report version was better. O’Reilly seemed much more relaxed and the interplay between the two was better. It may have been because of the differing formats of the two shows. Both O’Reilly and Colbert had some great lines (there was an obvious edit in the segment though and I wonder what got cut out)…

Colbert: Let’s educate the people…what is the Culture War and why is it so important?

O’Reilly: The Culture War is between secular progressives like yourself…

Colbert: I am not a secular progressive sir..

O’Reilly: You’re not?

Colbert: I’m a deep religious man who will do anything you say. Go ahead.
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