Chris Jansing does the “Pony-Hawk”…

Somebody’s going to feeze that and put it on YouTube…I know it!

Yup.

CNN’s Baghdad Bureau Chief Cal Perry blogs about a bombing of Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zubaie’s compound and what happened behind the scenes to report it…

I’m filming much in part because my personal security guards helped me past the very shaky and stunned guard force. We slowly made our way past guards running in each direction, showing our palms the entire time.

I’m keeping the camera low by my legs, to draw less attention.

The head of security for the deputy prime minister has given me permission to film. Granted, he gave me the permission while he was washing blood from his face. Without question — you can see it on his face — he’s in a complete state of shock.

I’m only filming for about 2-3 minutes when we can feel the situation changing. The Iraqi police are on the way and will be here at any moment. We walk outside, and try to make our way around the building so I can get some video of the damage caused by a second explosion — a car bomb that quickly followed the suicide bomb.

It’s maybe 30 seconds before the Iraqi police arrive, and they’re even more jumpy than the ministry security who actually lived through the explosion. Usually Iraqi police fire into the air, an announcement of their arrival.

MSNBC came in fourth in the primetime Demo behind CNBC. The 10pm Countdown repeat came in last. O’Rielly was number one in the primetime Demo…

Cable News Ratings for March 28, 2007

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 833,000 viewers
CNN – 465,000 viewers
MSNBC – 281,000 viewers
CNBC – 254,000 viewers
HLN – 219,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 1,597,000 viewers
CNN – 854,000 viewers
MSNBC – 480,000 viewers
CNBC – 497,000 viewers
HLN – 410,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC – 218,000 viewers
CNN – 147,000 viewers
MSNBC –116,000 viewers
CNBC – 90,000 viewers
HLN – 93,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 300,000 viewers
CNN – 229,000 viewers
MSNBC – 184,000 viewers
CNBC – 190,000 viewers
HLN –142,000 viewers

Morning programs P2+ (25-54)
FOX & Friends – 710,000 viewers (301,000)
American Morning – 292,000 viewers (97,000)
Imus in The Morning- 296,000 viewers (97,000)
Robin & Co. – 147,000 viewers (91,000)
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Barrack Obama was interviewed today on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. Transcript higlights follow…

On the war in Iraq

BLITZER: If you’re president of the United States in January of 2009, and the situation is basically the same in Iraq as it is right now…

OBAMA: Right?

BLITZER: … what would be your immediate first step?

OBAMA: Well, the bill that I put in I think…

BLITZER: Assuming that bill doesn’t go.
(more…)

Lou Dobbs is testifying today on Capitol Hill. I didn’t know this. Did you know this? Well the National Association of Manufacturers sure knew this and as part of its “Dobbs Watch” (Dobbs Watch? Hey, do the folks at Olbermann Watch know about this?) Pat Cleary goes to town on Dobbs…

Lou is coming to testify before the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on — get this — Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade. Guess they didn’t have one on demagoguery. The topic is, “Trade, Foreign Policy and the American Worker,” vaguely fitting under the expansive jurisdiction of this committee. Funny, we thought the Ways and Means Committee handled trade. Truth is, Charlie Rangel is too smart to allow his committee to be used as a platform for a commentator with an ax to grind.

We’ll keep you posted on what Lou says, but just as a wild guess, we’re figuring he’ll continue to weave his yarn about the war on the middle class and continue to blame trade agreements for our trade deficit. He’s mostly wrong on the first point and flat wrong on the second (just check out this chart, if you don’t believe us), but as we always say, never let the facts get in the way of a good story — or your ratings.

The Owensboro Messenger Inquirer’s Suzi Bartholomy in a profile of hometown gal Caroline Shively interviews her mother Katie Lowing.

One day when she was in Israel she left her mother a message saying, “If you want to know where I am watch TV tonight.”

“She’s quite amazing,” Lowing said. “Rockets, bullets, no big deal to her.

“When she called from Baghdad I asked her what that noise was and she yelled ‘Hey guys, are they shooting at us or are we shooting at them,’ ” Lowing said. “She was more worried about becoming dehydrated from the heat than the shooting.”

“She’s always been fearless,” Lowing said. Once when she was coming home from UK, her car broke down on the toll road. “She hitched a ride home with a trucker named Torch,” Lowing said. “I don’t know where she got to be so brave; I’m scared of the dark.”

RCR Wireless News’ Matt Kapko has a Q&A with Time Warner Executive VP of Business Development Dennis Quinn regarding Turner networks’ mobile initiatives…

Q: Do you see more value in content created exclusively for the mobile environment or a re-packaging of your already well-established content?

A: I don’t know that it’s an either or. On our sports content you’ll see whether it’s PGA or it’s NASCAR, it’s kind of hard for me to take it and say I’m not going to provide the drama and the excitement and all of that adrenaline pump of a race or at least highlight some of those kind of things. But how do I then get you a really good picture where you can follow on the smaller screen? So in those situations we look and say, OK, how do we capture that emotion and do we use an application, do we build an app, how do we transport that data and telemetry and make it an experience that is one, complementary to the television experience in this case; two, that delivers on what that consumer expects of a NASCAR experience; and then three, enables us to deliver something we’re willing to stand behind—the quality and the character of what we’re used to delivering? … We have an audience around Anderson Cooper that is young, savvy, very educated, articulate and happens to be very pro-technology. So this gives me a perfect opportunity to take those types of users who index very high on early adopters of all kinds of technology, so they’re prone to be people that are downloading and watching stuff on their handhelds. Well, I want to be able to capture what’s the best about him and bring them there, not necessarily show an entire Anderson Cooper show. So how do you do that in a way that delivers for that audience with the character and the content they want? And so it could be short-form clip or it can be done in a way that you can watch it in a condensed period of time. I’m not saying that we condense things, I’m saying in an appropriate period of time.

The Sacramento Bee’s Leigh Grogan writes about long hair…

Stylist Laura DuPriest, who says she coifs 800 to 900 customers a year in her Roseville salon, says only three of them wear their hair above the jaw line.

DuPriest adds that career women in traditionally conservative jobs, such as lawyers and lobbyists, are just as likely these days to sport long hair as short.

The same goes for women in TV news, where female anchors and reporters traditionally have gone for a more classic look. Now, there is an on-air mix of longer hairstyles, such as Carol Costello (CNN), Alex Witt (MSNBC) and Natalie Morales (NBC). And locally, there are Deirdre Fitzpatrick (Channel 3), Cristina Mendonsa (Channel 10), Brandi Hitt (Channel 13), Taryn Winter Brill (Channel 31) and Georgette Copes (Channel 40).

The Examiner’s Jeff Darfur and Patrick Gavin write about FNC’s pre-party bash at tonight’s Radio & TV Correspondents dinner…

Have you ever gone to a so-called “shwanky” D.C. after-party where “the action’s gonna be,” where the drink and food are said to be “top shelf” and where “so and so” is supposed to show up, and yet, when you got there, all you found was a bunch of 20-year-old interns and some Kendall Jackson?

Fox News Channel apparently knows the feeling, which is why, for the second year in a row, they’re saying that “pre-parties are the new-post-party.” Fox is forgoing an after-party at tonight’s Radio & TV Correspondents Association and opting for a pre-party instead (the invitation-only event will take place in the Washington Hilton’s outdoor gazebo). One Fox News insider told Yeas & Nays, “Most of the key players and A-listers in D.C. told us they blow off the post-parties because they’ve morphed into a prom atmosphere for junior staffers and interns to congregate — there’s a ‘been there, done that’ feel that was fine in the ’90s. …”

CNN issued a release describing the events that will be taking place celebrating Larry King’s 50th Anniversary in broadcasting…

Award-winning broadcaster Larry King marks his 50th anniversary in broadcasting with a weeklong celebration on Larry King Live and on CNN across all of its platforms, including on air, online and on radio. King kicks off the anniversary week with Oprah Winfrey, Katie Couric, Bill Clinton, Bill Maher and a two-hour special presentation, CNN Presents: Larry King – 50 Years of Pop Culture.

King’s career began in 1957 when he worked at a small radio station in Miami Beach, Fla., performing odd jobs. When an announcer suddenly quit, he was given his big break and offered a position as a disc jockey. Fifty years and 40,000 interviews later, King altered the face of broadcasting with his everyman touch. He has interviewed everyone from presidents and kings, celebrities and newsmakers and ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. When King made the transition from his successful national radio talk show to cable, he helped pioneer the future of cable news programming and CNN.

As part of the weeklong anniversary celebration, King will host a few of his favorite guests during the week of April 16-22 on Larry King Live.
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The AP writes about Larry King being honored at the Odyssey Ball…

“Larry King epitomizes the strengths and qualities that characterized my father, and for which the True Grit Award was created — uncompromising integrity and a commitment to the values of our great country,” said Patrick Wayne, chairman of the John Wayne Cancer Institute.

Jamie Lee Curtis will host the black tie event April 14 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. There will also be a special tribute to the Wayne family to commemorate the centennial of John Wayne’s birth.

Since the Odyssey Ball began 22 years ago, the gala has helped raise more than $14 million to support the John Wayne Cancer Institute’s lifesaving cancer research and treatment programs.

The Washingtonian blogs about Chris Matthews doing Nathans’ Q&A Cafe yesterday…

Left-leaning television pundit Chris Matthews sat tall at Nathans Q&A Cafe today. Matthews has lost thirty pounds since his Type II diabetes diagnosis in November, but he has not lost any of his fast-talking proclivities. Nathans Restaurant owner and former television journalist Carol Joynt barely achieved her goal of asking fifteen questions over the course of the roughly one-hour interview.

“Chris? Chris?” she’d ask, often to no avail.

UPDATE: FishbowlDC has more…

When Joynt asked Matthews if, it weren’t for the fact that NBC had him in their clutches he’d be off competing against Russert (”Bob Schieffer will go away eventually,” Joynt said), Matthews said, “that may have crossed a few minds.” “That’d be great to do that,” Matthews said, “because he’s the best right now and we’re #2.” But Matthews said that he has not talked to any other networks (”Hardball”’s contract expires in ‘09). “I created both Hardball and The Chris Matthews Show,” Matthews said. “They’re my babies.”