The New York Times’ Richard Siklos has an interesting article on NBCU and News Corp. trying to get Viacom to rejoin a planned group effort to launch an alternative to YouTube. Not exactly cable news but I found it interesting nontheless…

JEFF ZUCKER, the newly minted chief executive of NBC Universal, ventured to the Times Square headquarters of Viacom two Wednesdays ago with Peter A. Chernin, president of the News Corporation. It was not a social call as much as a social-networking call, to see Philippe P. Dauman, Viacom’s chief executive. After all, Viacom had rather publicly ordered YouTube, the Internet’s most popular video-sharing site, to remove thousands of clips of MTV material.

A few weeks earlier, Viacom had also bowed out of a partnership with NBC and the News Corporation to set up their own alternative to YouTube, which was recently acquired by the search juggernaut Google. Not to be dissuaded, their idea is that a Web start-up featuring the broadcasters’ most Web-friendly fare (comedy clips and even whole episodes of their popular shows) could gather a crowd on its own and also be a powerful consortium for licensing content to other destinations around the Web — including, of course, “GoogTube.”

According to people briefed on the visit, Mr. Zucker and Mr. Chernin ran through a presentation on why they thought Viacom ought to rejoin their group. So far, Viacom has not rejoined the venture, and the project’s fate remains unclear. (No love is lost between Viacom and the News Corporation, since the latter snatched MySpace.com from under Viacom’s nose.)

Yahoo, meanwhile, eager to regain some ground on Google, has been courting the media giants to let it distribute their video wares.

Will any of you change your viewing habits with regards to Kiran Chetry’s move to CNN? Or is who is anchoring a particular show not as important as what’s being said?

The Chicago Tribune’s Phil Rosenthal chronicles his paper’s legal maneuverings to wrestle control of the name “Red Eye” away from FNC…

Chicago Tribune Co., the unit of media conglomerate Tribune Co. that publishes this newspaper as well as its–yep–RedEye edition, has filed a federal trademark infringement suit because News Corp.’s Fox News Channel had a new late-night show called “Red Eye.”

Apparently there’s only room for one eye in Chicago, and the United States, for that matter.

The question in this Eye for an “Eye” battle is, having failed to get Fox News to voluntarily change the name of its show and unable to get a temporary restraining order, can the Chicago Tribune Co. somehow make the network of Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Greta Van Susteren blink?

“Viewers are likely to assume Fox and the RedEye products owned by Tribune are collaborating, thereby causing confusion,” the publishing company’s suit, filed Wednesday, claimed.

UPDATE: Crain’s Paul Merrion has the story as well (via TVNewser)

Fox News “admitted that it did not conduct a trademark search,” according to the suit, and “ignored” Tribune’s demand to not use the name. The suit says the Fox News “Red Eye” show first aired on Feb. 6, 2007.

The AP has another article on Fox Business Channel which also notes the early days of competition between CNN and FNC…

What worked in politics is not likely to work in business, said Porter Bibb, of Wall Street’s Mediatech Partners and author of a biography on CNN founder Ted Turner released the year after Fox News Channel started.

Bibb believes CNBC’s advantage will be too much for Fox to overcome. CNBC, which started in 1989, is in more than 90 million of the nation’s 110 million homes; Fox will start this fall in 30 million homes. There’s usually room for only one TV on the desks of business leaders, and it will stay tuned to CNBC, he said.

In this case, Fox’s criticism of CNBC as anti-business doesn’t make much sense, he said.

“You can ask anybody on Wall Street and they will tell you that’s the hollowest threat,” Bibb said. “CNBC is totally user-friendly in terms of business and finance.”

Page Six gleefully chronicles the story…

Another Web site, FTVLive.com, cattily commented: “Looks like Ferriter tried to play hardball with [Fox News Chairman] Roger Ailes . . . And to think that some people say TV agents are bad. We know of one that certainly is.” A Fox spokeswoman confirmed the story to Page Six. Ferriter did not return a call for comment.

Meanwhile, fast-sinking, second-place CNN picked up top-rated Fox’s crumbs yesterday, signing Chetry as a substitute anchor and correspondent. One Fox insider scoffed: “Let’s see what happens. Remember, the last one they took from us was Paula Zahn, and look where she went.”

As does The Post Chronicle’s Jim Brogan who also throws a sharp elbow at Gretchen Carlson…
(more…)

The Worcester Telegram’s Lee Hammel writes about WTAG radio switching from CBS News to Fox News…

Mr. Brown said he decided to switch to Fox News because “they’ve done a really nice job in other markets around the country … Not only was it the Fox News branding, but the writing, the reporting — they really made the commitment to the radio news. This wasn’t just a simulcast of the television news.”

Mr. Brown said that the other conservative programming on NewsTalk 580 is “giving listeners what they want. Rush and Glenn are two of the most successful radio shows in the country right now.”

The Miami Herald’s Glenn Garvin…

Say what you will about The ½ Hour News Hour, it’s not trying to fool anybody about where it’s coming from. Sunday’s debut episode opens with a shot of the White House, then cuts inside to the Oval Office where sits . . . President Rush Limbaugh.

When it comes to judging the size of the show’s audience, Nielsen ratings may be less effective than counting emergency-room admissions for heart-attack victims.

The LA Times’ Martin Miller…
(more…)

The Hollywood Reporter’s Paul J. Gough writes about the whirlwind past 24 hours for Kiran Chetry…

Kiran Chetry, who had been a FNC anchor since 2001, was signed Friday by CNN about an hour after Fox News sent a fax to her agent, John Ferriter, releasing her from her contract that was to expire March 6.

Chetry had had discussions with other networks but seemed closer to reupping with Fox News, sources said. But the negotiations, which lasted more than a month, ran aground late Thursday over a clause that Chetry wanted to include in the contract regarding the future of “Fox & Friends,” the channel’s morning show.

The source of the dispute seems a matter of interpretation, with Fox News saying that it would have led to them agreeing to fire the current co-host, Gretchen Carlson, and another source saying that it merely asked for written clarification of whether Chetry would become a “Fox & Friends” co-host and when. If that didn’t happen by a certain date, then Chetry would have a window to exit her new contract.

U.S. News & World Report’s Alex Markels profiles CNBC’s Jim Cramer…

With just seconds to go before his top-rated cable tv show begins taping, Jim Cramer, the maniacal host of CNBC’s Mad Money, and his crew frantically search for the perfect prop to drive home his first stock pick of the day.

“Yes!” he finally shouts as an assistant hands him an electric screwdriver, and Cramer feigns the crazed dentist of Marathon Man.

“Let’s roll!” shouts the producer.

Heavy-metal guitar blasts through the studio as the 52-year-old former hedge fund manager hunches over his laptop, taking a last sip of hot tea as he psyches himself up for a daily rant that—between throwing books, swinging baseball bats, and slamming fists on a panel full of campy sound-effects buttons—will melt a pound or more off his sweaty, 173-pound frame and knock a decibel or more off his already creaky voice.

“Pull this one out of the closet!! It’s been left for dead! But I think it could make you some mad money!!!” he yells into the camera as a four-paragraph-long disclaimer warning of the perils of following his advice scrolls down the TV screen.

“Hey! I’m Cramer! Welcome to Cramerica!” he jabbers. “Other people want to make friends! I’m sure you and I both know that’s a poor use of my time. I just want to make you money!”

It’s a conceit, of course. Over the next hour, the stock trader turned tv star will attempt to do both: proffering the fruits of his stock-picking prowess to help his 350,000 or so daily viewers better invest their cash, while at the same time endearing himself with a blathering, stream-of-consciousness, WWE SmackDown-meets-Dr. Phil-meets-John Madden routine so daffy that it’s sometimes hard to tell where insight ends and madness begins.