Olbermann Watch notes that one of the topics to be discussed on tonight’s countdown was a story that the Department of Homeland Security was looking to confiscate all copies of the movie 1982 Disney CGI classic “Tron” because it was allegedly filmed in a secret location. This turned out to be an internet hoax. I know Tron inside out. The movie had a huge impact on me as a teenager. It was the first VHS movie I ever owned. When the 25th Anniversary edition came out on DVD, it was the first DVD I bought (and I didn’t even have a DVD player at the time). Tron is indirectly responsible for this blog’s existence (Tron got me into computers and computer animation way before computers and CGI became mainstream). Anyway, I knew Tron wasn’t filmed in a secret location. But apparently the Countdown production staff didn’t know it when they sent out the daily Media Advisory. Or was this an April Fool’s gag of their own? In any case the segment got killed before air (if it really ever existed)…

CORRECTION: This did not originate in the Countdown Newsletter, which wasn’t sent out yesterday, but in a programming advisory email, the contents of which are displayed after the jump…
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FishBowlDC has some early numbers for The Situation Room…

HLN beat MSNBC in the primetime Demo again. It beat CNN as well.

Cable News Ratings for March 30, 2007

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 789,000 viewers
CNN – 461,000 viewers
MSNBC – 314,000 viewers
CNBC – 183,000 viewers
HLN – 254,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 1,810,000 viewers
CNN – 621,000 viewers
MSNBC – 536,000 viewers
CNBC – 146,000 viewers
HLN – 579,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC – 202,000 viewers
CNN – 156,000 viewers
MSNBC –123,000 viewers
CNBC – 72,000 viewers
HLN – 103,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 391,000 viewers
CNN – 187,000 viewers
MSNBC – 167,000 viewers
CNBC – 75,000 viewers
HLN –232,000 viewers

Morning programs P2+ (25-54)
FOX & Friends – 779,000 viewers (266,000)
American Morning – 367,000 viewers (113,000)
Imus in The Morning- 439,000 viewers (206,000)
Robin & Co. – 177,000 viewers (104,000)
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FNC was the first cable news channel to break the news of the shooting in Seattle at the University of Washington. At 1pm ET, Laurie Dhue reported that there were two deaths in the shooting, which reportedly took place at 9am PT at the University of Washington’s College of Architecture and Urban Planning building on the Seattle campus.

Newsday’s Verne Gay has a profile of Sean Hannity…

His office at Fox is literally on the opposite end of the floor from O’Reilly’s. There have been long-standing rumors at Fox that he and fellow Long Islander O’Reilly don’t like each other, so the office placement is fortuitous. Hannity will say only that O’Reilly is “wrong on a lot of things.” Up on a bookshelf, Hannity has a small-scale model of that famous scene at Ground Zero with the firefighters hoisting the flag. (There’s a life-size model at home.) His father was in the Navy during the Big One, and he shows me the huge bowie knife his dad carried around.

“If you know Sean personally as I do,” says friend, mentor and Fox senior vice president of programming Bill Shine, “then you’d know he’s a very nice, sweet person, who takes his kids to the park. On the other hand, when it comes to politics, he’s the most … passionate guy I know.”

Oh yeah.

“If I didn’t have this outlet,” Hannity says, referring to both TV shows, “I’d be driving around in a car giving monologues to myself. … It’s a passion. These are very consequential times.”

For those who don’t know what he’s referring to, here’s the brief annotated list: The war, border protection, “Islamofascism” (”no doubt about the threat”) and government growth - his one point of departure from Bush.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Tim Cuprisin has an interview with FNC National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin…

Although she’s been at her new job for a couple weeks, you can hear the wistfulness of a foreign correspondent who has come home because she had to.

“I think the work is equally important, because we have to understand how our military is going to operate in this, kind of, new world order,” she says.

“But is it different, and am I having an adjustment period? Yes. And do I question what I’ve done? A little bit.”

The Houston Chronicle’s Mike McDaniel has a brief Q&A with Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace…

Q) Who is your audience?

A) It isn’t the typical Fox News audience. The fact is we get the majority of our audience from the Fox broadcast channel. (It also airs 5 p.m. Sundays on Fox News Channel.) Channel 26 is not a conservative station. It’s the station of American Idol and 24 and local news. So as we’re watched by local stations around the country as we’re broadcast first on Fox broadcasting, I don’t think our audience is necessarily conservative.

MSNBC.com launched a slightly modified layout for its website this morning. The most obvious change is the logo which is not quite the same as the on-air logo (the on-air logo is in all caps. The web one isn’t.) And MSNBC.com now has a tagline; “A fuller spectrum of news”. Also worth noting is the Rita Cosby Specials section has come down. But Rita’s bio still remains. As does John Seigenthaler’s…see for yourself.

UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal’s Emily Steel has more on the changes, which are part of a branding campaign…(via TVNewser)

MSNBC.com, the No. 2-ranked news Web site behind Yahoo News, is starting its first branding ad campaign this week. Instead of selling itself as a “breaking news” destination, as it once did, the site is trying to highlight the range of news and entertainment it offers. Spots in print, on TV, outdoors and online will carry the tagline “A Fuller Spectrum of News,” highlighting both MSNBC.com’s original reporting and its partnerships with news outlets such as NBC, Newsweek and the Washington Post. MSNBC.com, jointly owned by Microsoft and NBC Universal, is spending $4 million on the campaign which runs through June, not including the cost of spots on NBC-owned networks. New York communications firm SS+K designed the campaign.

UPDATE 2: MSNBC.com’s press release on all this…
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The Hollywood Reporter’s Paul J. Gough writes about Jeff Greenfield’s departure from CNN…

Greenfield’s contract at CNN had been up, and though CNN execs wanted him to stay, Greenfield was intrigued by an opportunity offered at CBS. He will appear on “CBS Evening News With Katie Couric” as well as do work for “Sunday Morning” and other shows, not just on politics but also on popular culture. But Greenfield likely will have a big role in the network’s coverage of the 2008 election.

Sources said the parting with CNN was amicable; Greenfield was on the network Friday. It wasn’t immediately clear when he would leave CNN, but it is likely that he could begin work at CBS within a month.

FNC’s Bill Hemmer is reporting from London this morning on America’s Newsroom. Hemmer is covering the Iranian detention/hostage crisis…

Alisyn Camerota made her return from maternity leave today. Her new position will be hosting the 6 am hour of Fox and Friends as well as doing the 7-9am news update segments.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Bill Osinski interviews Daryn Kagan about the Rising Star Documentary…

It was this aspect of the Rising Star story that attracted Kagan to the documentary project.

“I call them ‘inside-out’ stories,” Kagan said. “They’re stories that show the world what’s possible when people take bad experiences and turn them into something positive. Becky has transformed her world, and, literally, the world.”

After leaving CNN, Kagan started a Web site, www.Darynkagan.com, devoted to what she calls “inspriational news.” The Rising Star story is a prime example, she said, adding, “It’s a story about healing and helping.”

I was out today and came back to read email that John Seigenthaler’s last night was tonight. TVNewser has more. Obvious question…what does MSNBC do with all those “Investigates” intros and Lockup voice overs now that Seigenthaler is gone?

Johnny Dollar has video of this morning’s Fox and Friends where Greg Kelly helped out the circus which needed a bike…

Drudge is reporting that CNN’s Michael Ware heckled Lindsay Grahm and other Senators at a presser on Iraq…

During a live press conference in Baghdad, Senators McCain and Graham were heckled by CNN reporter Michael Ware. An official at the press conference called Ware’s conduct “outrageous,” saying, “here you have two United States Senators in Bagdad giving first-hand reports while Ware is laughing and mocking their comments. I’ve never witnessed such disrespect. This guy is an activist not a reporter.”

UPDATE: YouTube has video from American Morning this morning where Ware talks about the Drudge story and in my mind thoroughly discredits the story.

O’BRIEN: Let me ask you a question. There was a report that said you were heckling and you were laughing during the senator’s press conference. Is that true?

WARE: Well, let’s bear in mind that this is a report that was leaked by an unnamed official of some kind to a blog, to somewhere on the Internet. No one has gone and put their name forward. We certainly haven’t heard Senator McCain say anything about it or any of his staff have come forward to say anything about it.

I did not heckle the senator. Indeed, I didn’t say a word. I didn’t even ask a question. In fact, when I raised my hand to ask a question, the press conference abruptly ended.

So what I would suggest is that anyone who has any queries about whether I heckled, watch the videotape of the press conference. Soledad.

O’BRIEN: Michael Ware is in Baghdad for us this morning. Thank you, Michael.