Alone among the networks, FNC did something very very smart after the SOTU ended. While everybody else went into post SOTU analyzing mode with anchors and pundits talking away, Brit Hume kept quiet as the President made his way out of the House Chamber with a live microphone. Hume was extremely prescient to note the live mic and wanted to hear what was being said between the President and the members who greeted him on the way out of the chamber. Hume said, “This is kind of fascinating to watch. I don’t think we’ve ever been able to hear it this well”. And he was right. It was a unique opportunity to catch a President and the members of Congress in an environment that few are privelaged to witness. Hume grumbled when the camera didn’t keep following Bush outside the chamber, “Hrmmmm…..backed off”. Regardless of whatever else the pundits have to say on all the channels the rest of the night, FNC wins the coverage war in my book based on this move alone. Eveyone else had the feed, but only FNC stuck with the audio where we could hear it.

It’s not like I’m trying to pick on Chris Matthews, but he has had some issues on live TV lately. Tonight’s incident: a very long tease…a point he noted. YouTube has the video…

Brit Hume on FNC with pre-SOTU coverage…

Wolf Blitzer and Paula Zahn anchoring the pre-SOTU coverage on CNN…

John Gibson commented on his radio show again about the Obama/Insight story and noted that CNN didn’t go after Glenn Beck for noting the story the same way Fox and Friends did. Gibson spent copious time going after Howard Kurtz. He trotted out the “conflict of interest” charge which has been leveled numerous times by some bloggers (Eric Alterman and Mickey Kaus being in particular) at Kurtz. Interestingly, Gibson noted Hardball’s Chris Matthews going after Clinton adviser Howard Wolfson over oppo research. Johnny Dollar has the audio…

Keith Olbermann has an interview with Hillary Clinton tonight on Countdown. MSNBC has already put out a transcript of the interview. Here’s a highlight…

OLBERMANN: Right. To that point, with the fullest possible respect, what qualifies you to be president of the United States? What, if you could pick and could only show to the voters one element of your resume, would you say, “This is it, this why”?

CLINTON: Well, I think my service in the Senate and as first lady in the White House, the combination. Obviously, I have a lifetime of experience that I’ll be sharing with the voters on a range of issues and causes that I’ve been involved in.

But having seen what happened a White House when you face difficult decisions, understanding how to structure it, how to work with the Congress, how to take your message not only to our country but to world and then — now, having been in the Senate and having been reelected based on my record in the Senate, I feel confident that I would be able to work with the Congress. And I think that, you know, presidents who come in oftentimes, you know, try to make it us versus them. That doesn’t work. You’ve got to enlist the Congress in your own party, as well as the other party, and really find common ground in order to make progress in America.
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Under the headline “FNC’s Daily Show Rip-Off Falls Flat”, Radar Online’s Jeff Bercovici scoops with some new info on FNC’s under development half hour comedy program…

Producer Joel Surnow, whose credits also include 24, has described the show as a cross between Comedy Central’s Daily Show and Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update” segment. A source who attended the tapings describes the format as far more similar to the latter, with a two-anchor setup and skits interspersed with the talking-head segments. “It was hit and miss—some stuff was inspired, and some was droppable, to say the least,” says the source. Not surprisingly, he adds, most of the jokes had a conservative slant.

Cable News Daily Ratings for January 22, 2007

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 957,000 viewers
CNN – 528,000 viewers
MSNBC – 304,000 viewers
CNBC – 215,000 viewers
HLN – 211,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 1,994,000 viewers
CNN – 872,000 viewers
MSNBC – 511,000 viewers
CNBC – 201,000 viewers
HLN – 441,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC – 285,000 viewers
CNN –170,000 viewers
MSNBC – 121,000 viewers
CNBC – 90,000 viewers
HLN – 95,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 492,000 viewers
CNN – 289,000 viewers
MSNBC – 204,000 viewers
CNBC – 107,000 viewers
HLN – 197,000 viewers

Morning programs P2+ (25-54)
FOX & Friends – 786,000 viewers (310,000)
American Morning – 394,000 viewers (102,000)
Imus in the Morning– 341,000 viewers (127,000)
Robin & Co. – 164,000 viewers (86,000)
(more…)

Last Saturday, SNL did another Hardball spoof with a mock Hillary Clinton interview. YouTube has the video…

Lynne Sweet in the Chicago Sun-Times recaps the whole story and gets Obama’s spokesperson to say on the record that he doesn’t think Team Clinton was involved…

Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said the episode was not damaging to Obama’s campaign but was “a black eye on journalism” because it “shakes people’s faith in the truth.”

I asked Gibbs if he thought Clinton’s camp had anything to do with this and he said, “I don’t.”

(photo via Ben Smith at The Politico)

Bill Clinton and Bill O’Reilly at Terry McAulliff’s book party last night in Manhattan. What was it O’Reilly said? He doesn’t get invited to parties?

FishbowlDC speculates that FNC’s Jennifer Griffin is moving to Washington D.C.

ICN has heard this story is wrong on a couple of counts. Aside from the fact that Griffin isn’t Middle East Bureau Chief, Eli Fastman is, a Fox insider tells ICN that Patrick Gavin never bothered to check any of this information out before reporting it and further notes that Griffin’s current deal to report from and be based in Jerusalem remains the same. The insider remarked, “You’d think a DC based blog would be able to have their facts straight in their own backyard”

FNC will be doing something new during tonight State of The Union…

Tonight during the President’s 6th State of the Union address, FNC will give viewers the opportunity to text message their reaction during the address and post-analysis using mobile devices. This will be the first time the network has offered something like this. Graphics will be displayed on screen during the coverage with information on how to text vote. At the same time, the responses will be displayed in real-time on screen as they come in. Hannity & Colmes will present the final results at 11PM/ET

Cable News Ratings for January 20, 2007

P2+ Total Day
FNC –764,000 viewers
CNN – 467,000 viewers
MSNBC – 300,000 viewers
CNBC – 302,000 viewers
HLN – 255,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 890,000 viewers
CNN – 491,000 viewers
MSNBC – 350,000 viewers
CNBC – 429,000 viewers
HLN – 233,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC – 226,000 viewers
CNN – 184,000 viewers
MSNBC –142,000 viewers
CNBC – 141,000 viewers
HLN – 98,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 189,000 viewers
CNN – 221,000 viewers
MSNBC – 167,000 viewers
CNBC – 218,000 viewers
HLN – 80,000 viewers
(more…)

I guess CNN is taking advantage of the situation. TVNewser notes that Anderson Cooper followed Howard Kurtz’s and Wolf Blitzer’s lead and rubbed FNC’s nose in it over the Obama school story…

Then, introing John Vause’s segment, he said: “Other news organizations ran with Insight’s story. They didn’t check the facts. We did.”

And after the package, Cooper concluded: “Well, that’s the difference between talking about news and reporting it. You send a reporter, check the facts and you decide at home.”

Page Six has a story that hints that a high ranking Citigroup official departed the company because he was making the company jet available to friends, including CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo…

Sources said that Thomson, whose unit was a financial success story inside the firm, had been warned about his high-flying ways - but that the tipping point came when Bartiromo joined him on the Citi corporate jet between New York and Beijing last year.

A CNBC spokesman later said: “Maria sought and received approval in advance to fly to Asia on Citi’s jet. Billing was handled between CNBC’s corporate parent and Citi.”

Bartiromo, reached via e-mail in Davos, Switzerland, said any connection to Thomson’s departure was “flat-out wrong.”

UPDATE: The New York Times’ Eric Dash has the story as well…
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