The AP’s Frazier Moore writes about MSNBC in a post Imus world. It’s a surprisingly opinionated piece from the veteran AP writer who usually doesn’t reveal his hand to this degree. Consequently it’s a must read. And do note the ready-for-plastering-all-over-CNN’s-ads quote at the bottom of this partial transcript.

But what was this strange interloper - an interview-and-humor anti-TV program hosted by a cantankerous shock jock - doing on MSNBC? Wasn’t MSNBC a cable news channel trying to establish itself as a credible alternative to CNN? Didn’t it have the vast resources of NBC News at its disposal?

More than a decade later, isn’t a morning program long overdue that’s better suited to MSNBC’s presumed mission?

You bet. And it’s needed, too.

Two years ago, I wrote about the sorry state of morning TV. I bemoaned the wake-up fare on ABC, CBS and NBC, all too fond of rock concerts and celebrity chat and sign-waving fans and contests and breezy personal advice.

I heard from lots of other viewers who felt the same way, with many of them recommending I simply turn off my TV and tune in NPR’s “Morning Edition” (which, of course, I sometimes do).

Meanwhile, my clear choice on TV now, as then, is CNN’s “American Morning,” which gives news its first priority and keeps fluff to a minimum.

Shepard Smith will be co-hosting Fox and Friends tomorrow…

MSNBC is in semi self-examination mode right now because the Virginia Tech shooter mailed a package of materials to NBC News. MSNBC.com’s Alex Johnson writes about the story…

NBC News President Steve Capus said the network received the package in Wednesday morning’s mail delivery and immediately turned the materials over to FBI agents in New York.

The package included a long, “rambling, manifesto-like statement embedded with a series of photographs,” Capus said. The material is “hard-to-follow … disturbing, very disturbing — very angry, profanity-laced,” he said.

It did not include any images of the shootings Monday, but it did contain “vague references,” including “things like ‘this didn’t have to happen,’ ” Capus said in an interview late Wednesday afternoon.

“NBC Nightly News” planned to show some of the material Wednesday night.

UPDATE: The AP has more…

In one of the photographs broadcast tonight on “NBC Nightly News,” Cho is shown grimacing and swinging a hammer with two hands. Other photos show him smiling, or brandishing two pistols.

NBC said still others, which were not broadcast, show him holding a knife, and some show hollow-point bullets lined up on a table.

Johnny Dollar has the video of Shepard Smith reacting to the bomb threat at the University of Minnesota…

Continuing to cover the Virginia Tech shooting spree, Greta Van Susteren will host tonight’s On the Record live from the gunman’s high school, Westfield High School, in Chantilly, VA tonight at 1opm ET…

FNC swept the daytime and had the most viewers in primetime. CNN won the primetime Demo. Anderson Cooper 360, minus the still trying to get to the USA Anderson Cooper, beat On The Record in both Total Viewers and the Demo in the first hour. On The Record regained the Total Viewer lead from 360 in the 2nd hour but couldn’t take back the Demo.

Cable News Ratings for April 17, 2007

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 1,454,000 viewers
CNN – 1,139,000 viewers
MSNBC – 399,000 viewers
CNBC – 231,000 viewers
HLN – 323,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 2,007,000 viewers
CNN – 1,623,000 viewers
MSNBC – 526,000 viewers
CNBC – 369,000 viewers
HLN – 444,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC – 499,000 viewers
CNN – 483,000 viewers
MSNBC –168,000 viewers
CNBC – 77,000 viewers
HLN – 144,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 597,000 viewers
CNN – 648,000 viewers
MSNBC – 232,000 viewers
CNBC – 127,000 viewers
HLN – 167,000 viewers

Morning programs P2+ (25-54)
FOX & Friends – 1,410,000 viewers (681,000)
American Morning – 834,000 viewers (379,000)
MSNBC Live- 314,000 viewers (131,000)
Robin & Co. – 288,000 viewers (185,000)
(more…)

USA Today’s Robert Bianco writes about the coverage of the shooting spree…

Despite what you may have heard about the “24-hour news cycle,” there was very little in the Tuesday morning shows that had not already been reported Monday evening. (The first major shift in the story, the identification of the gunman, did not come until after 9 a.m. ET.) That’s why cable newscasts spent most of both days doing little but guessing and second-guessing, as people who knew nothing debriefed people with nothing to say.

So you get MSNBC talking to media activist Brent Bozell about violence on TV, though we have no idea what the killer watched, or CNN interviewing retired profiler Candice DeLong, who said the shooter was likely mentally ill or “very, very upset about something.”

Though there may have been no clear journalistic reason for networks to provide wall-to-wall coverage, the argument can be made they had another role to play. By eschewing entertainment, just as by sending anchors on location, they confer another level of legitimacy on an event, marking it as one we’re all expected to share.

Last night during On The Record with Greta Van Susteren there was a segment done where many of the victims of the shooting spree were shown on screen. Motion Box has the video…

Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia spoke with FOX News Channel’s Gretchen Carlson this morning and shared his thoughts about what happened on the Virginia Tech campus, “Innocence has been taken away and the haven of a university for learning is no longer the haven that it was.”

MSNBC.com noted yesterday that it saw a big surge in web traffic on Monday when the shooting spree occurred…

Millions of people turned to msnbc.com for breaking news and in-depth coverage of the tragic events unfolding on Virginia Tech’s campus in Blacksburg, Va. On Monday, overall traffic hit an all-time high, with 15.3 million unique users, a 37 percent increase over the site’s all-time one-day record set during the coverage of Hurricane Katrina. Heavy demand for msnbc.com’s extensive range of multimedia offerings resulted in 90 million page views. Video reports also reached a new all-time high, with over 10 million streams, making msnbc.com the number one news site for video streams.

YouTube has the video of MSNBC Live from Monday where Any Robach is called a liar on the air by one of her guests and things go downhill from there real fast.

The New York Observer’s Nicole Brydson talked with Soldedad O’Brien at the 0th-anniversary Dress for Success Gala at the Times Square Marriott Marquis…

The Transom asked for Ms. O’Brien’s take on the recent scandal over at CBS, which fired producer Melissa McNamara after she plagiarized a Wall Street Journal column for one of Katie Couric’s first-person commentaries. “Well, you know, she’s a mentor of mine, so I talk to her all the time,” Ms. O’Brien said of Ms. Couric. “When I was at NBC and I didn’t have an agent, she called up her agent, and the next thing I knew, I was represented by CAA. I mean, people don’t do that. So I’ve always been incredibly grateful to her.”

The Washington Post’s Linton Weeks writes about the media being everywhere…

In the middle of the day yesterday, the media swarm moved — for a few hours –from Blacksburg to Centreville as news emerged that the Virginia Tech shooter, Cho Seung Hui, had grown up in the Sully Station II neighborhood. There was something in the chilly winds that seemed unsettling.

“They live in that third house on the left,” one cameraman shouted, pointing to a yellow-front townhouse — in a row of eight — on a small U-shaped drive. It was just an everyday kind of rowhouse, the mirror image of several others within sight, the kind that pizza delivery drivers like because the tips are big.

“It’s a circus,” said Officer C.K. Thibault of the Fairfax County Police Department as she herded media people behind a line of orange cones.

The St. Petersberg Times’ Eric Deggans writes about that Virginia Tech cell phone video and what it signifies, if anything…

He was the undisputed star of CNN’s newscast Monday. And he hadn’t even finished college.

The cell phone video provided by Virginia Tech student Jamal Albarghouti re-created the horror of the shooting rampage that left 32 people dead - with jittery footage of people running, gunshots cracking in the distance.

Later, Albarghouti stood in front of a CNN camera holding a microphone like a correspondent. He also described his experiences on Larry King Live, and anchors urged viewers to send more material.

But was that an indirect message: Head to the crime scene and get us something juicy?

“I would certainly hope we’re not encouraging people to do what he did,” said Jonathan Klein, CNN U.S. president, noting the online video attracted more than 2-million views by Tuesday morning.