The Canadian Press writes about Rachel Marsden’s departure from Red Eye and has Marsden shooting down Page Six’s story on her…

In an e-mail exchange, Marsden denied the Post claim, and said it was standard procedure to be escorted from the building when given a pink slip at Fox News.

“They are always concerned that someone will take a laptop or a computer or something,” Marsden said in the e-mail. “Truth be told, the show started off being newsy and political, but the content had changed drastically from its inception.”

Marsden added: “I have nothing but the utmost respect for Fox News CEO Roger Ailes and the other show hosts at Fox News who have been very professional and supportive of me, and I prefer to leave `Red Eye’ with my own professionalism and integrity intact – and that includes staying clear of any mudslinging.”

The Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Richard L. Eldredge blogs about an interview with Daryn Kagan regarding her book deal and other issues…

Former CNN anchor-turned-Web-site-entrepreneur Daryn Kagan has signed a publishing agreement with Meredith Books that includes a book to be released next spring. “What’s Possible! Creating Possibilities Beyond Life’s Five Biggest Obstacles” will be in keeping with darynkagan.com, her 6-month-old Web site that spotlights positive and hopeful news stories.

The content “will be almost all original,” Kagan said Wednesday, although the book will feature some of her favorite stories from the Web site. Otherwise, “It would be kind of like telling Jimmy Buffett he couldn’t put his favorites on a greatest-hits CD!”

As noted earlier, Greta Van Susteren will be interviewing Donald Trump tonight on On The Record on FNC at 10pm ET…

Former Senator Fred Thompson gave an exclusive television interview today with Carl Cameron, FNC’s Chief Political Correspondent . One of the things Thompson commented was the process of getting a possible campaign going…

It’s a daunting challenge, takes a while to get your team together and to get up and running but we are taking the steps necessary to put us there if we make that decision.

Public Eye’s Matthew Felling questions some Democratic Presidential candiates’ strategy vis a vis the CBC Institute/FNC Debate…

While this reporter has been critical more than once of Fox News Channel’s approach to broadcast journalism, this boycott effort seems counterproductive to the groups’ goals. If they believe Fox News Channel treats them unfairly, why not take the opportunity to have their party’s candidates appear on the network and say so, rather than allowing the purported campaign to continue unabated? When Bill Clinton went on Fox News Channel in 2006, his interview with Chris Wallace became a debate that ignited a public discussion of his administration’s efforts to fight terrorism – and rallied the left. Why not use the same page from the playbook?

America’s media landscape is already polarized enough. Partisans listen to their own radio shows, watch their own media outlets and generally seek out information that reinforces their political leanings. The Democratic presidential candidates are missing out on an opportunity to get their message out, confront the channel they view as a foe, and define themselves in their own words, rather than letting themselves be defined by what they see as Fox’s mischaracterizations.

Joe Scarborough tied American Morning in the Demo yesterday. But what happened with Hardball?

Cable News Ratings for May 30, 2007

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 751,000 viewers
CNN – 442,000 viewers
MSNBC – 252,000 viewers
CNBC – 197,000 viewers
HLN – 237,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 1,612,000 viewers
CNN – 725,000 viewers
MSNBC – 436,000 viewers
CNBC – 215,000 viewers
HLN – 341,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC – 229,000 viewers
CNN – 147,000 viewers
MSNBC – 108,000 viewers
CNBC – 56,000 viewers
HLN – 113,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 384,000 viewers
CNN – 183,000 viewers
MSNBC – 148,000 viewers
CNBC – 84,000 viewers
HLN – 112,000 viewers

Morning programs P2+ (25-54)
FOX & Friends – 815,000 viewers (305,000)
American Morning –360,000 viewers (155,000)
MSNBC Live (7-9 AM) – 291,000 viewers (155,000)
Robin & Co. –239,000 viewers (154,000)
(more…)

Following up on this post from earlier in the week, an insider calls the numbers “cherry-picked”…

Beware of the numbers that these blogs use to “prove” that Glenn is suffering. They are cherry-picked comparisons from strange time periods and not statistical or professional examples of ratings performance. Simply, they are wrong. Glenn is not suffering at 9; in fact, in May 2007 he is up double digits versus prior year (standard industry comparison) up 33% in P2+ and up 16% in P25-54. Glenn is doing well at 7p, he is up a whopping 37% in P2+ and while he is down in P25-54, it is a mere 11% and he is being compared to his show prior year so it isn’t a surprise. What is a surprise is his ability to grow his entire audience nearly 40%– that is a success and one that these blogs fail to address because it works against their argument.

Dan Abrams email to staff on MSNBC’s May ratings…

From: Abrams, Dan (NBC Universal, MSNBC)
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2007 3:16 PM
To: MSNBC Everyone
Subject: congrats…again

I just wanted to congratulate everyone on another fantastic month in the ratings! Yes we increased our total number of viewers by 14% for the Total Day while Fox and CNN were down, and sure we were up 51% in Weekday Prime (M-F 8p to 11p) while CNN and Fox dropped. But how about the fact that in the number that matters most to the business, “Sales Prime” (M-Su 7p to 2a), we almost achieved our goal of overtaking CNN! For the month of May (which on the Nielsen Calendar ended Sunday 5/27/07) we were just 9 thousand behind CNN in the key adult demographic (25-54). And if you include Monday (which is still the month of May on my calendar) the gap is narrowed even further to just 6 thousand! Your hard work continues to pay off. Thank you and let’s keep it going!

Dan

CNN announced that it will be airing a one hour special with Ali Velshi called “Going Green, Going Broke?” for CNN radio affiliates…

When Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, announced its plans to “go green” and reduce its impact on the environment, the effort reverberated through its 66,000 vendor companies, forcing many to find ways to reduce excess packaging and waste and improve recycling. But “going green” affects the bottomline, making it difficult for some to handle such commitments to the environment.

CNN senior business correspondent Ali Velshi, through interviews with Wal-Mart and other businesses, examines in “Going Green, Going Broke?” what jumping on the green bandwagon means for business. In addition, the program takes a look at how some consumers have managed to take themselves completely off the national power “grid.” This hour-long program, produced by CNN Radio supervising producer Sherri Maksin, will be available to affiliates on Thursday, May 31.
(more…)

CNBC announced that Mad Money with Jim Cramer will have a special “Father’s Day” show on Thursday, June 14 6pm ET…

In a Father’s Day special, CNBC’s Jim Cramer welcomes a live student audience of fathers and their kids. On the program, Cramer will use his expertise to educate investors of any generation whether they want to save for a first car or are getting ready for retirement CNBC’s Jim Cramer also welcomes his father, Ken Cramer, to the program as well as NBC News Washington bureau chief and moderator of “Meet the Press” Tim Russert and his son Luke.

CNN put out a release on the upcoming debates in New Hampshire as well as its week long coverage plans for said debates…

Mixing a moderated debate with the traditional New Hampshire-style town hall, CNN, along with Hearst Argyle’s WMUR-TV and the New Hampshire Union Leader, gather presidential hopefuls to respond to questions from both political journalists and registered New Hampshire voters for the Democratic and Republican presidential candidate debates on Sunday, June 3, and Tuesday, June 5, respectively.

For the first hour of both two-hour, commercial-free debates, candidates will address questions from CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, WMUR-TV political director Scott Spradling and New Hampshire Union Leader State House bureau chief Tom Fahey. In the second hour, candidates move from behind their lecterns to the front of the stage to field queries directly from an audience of more than 100 undecided registered voters.

The debate will be broadcast live throughout New Hampshire on WMUR-TV and nationally on CNN, CNN Radio, CNN International, CNN.com, WMUR.com and UnionLeader.com. In an unprecedented move, unlimited debate coverage will be made available without restrictions at the conclusion of each live debate.
(more…)

GretaWire reports that Adam Housley had some belongings stolen from him while down in Venezuela…

FNC’s Adam Housley (who incidentally played professional baseball… a pitcher) has had some bad luck while covering the riots in Venezuela. His personal camera equipment and iPod were stolen. I talked to him yesterday and he was a good sport about it, but was unhappy that on his long flight back to California he will have no music to listen to… of course at the rate things are going in Venezuela, I am not sure when he will be leaving.

Cable News Ratings for May 29, 2007

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 755,000 viewers
CNN – 442,000 viewers
MSNBC – 300,000 viewers
CNBC – 251,000 viewers
HLN – 224,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 1,557,000 viewers
CNN – 747,000 viewers
MSNBC – 525,000 viewers
CNBC – 405,000 viewers
HLN – 408,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC – 210,000 viewers
CNN – 164,000 viewers
MSNBC – 129,000 viewers
CNBC – 97,000 viewers
HLN – 98,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 334,000 viewers
CNN – 252,000 viewers
MSNBC – 176,000 viewers
CNBC – 172,000 viewers
HLN – 161,000 viewers

Morning programs P2+ (25-54)
FOX & Friends – 724,000 viewers (279,000)
American Morning –363,000 viewers (166,000)
MSNBC Live (7-8 AM) – 234,000 viewers (86,000)
Robin & Co. –195,000 viewers (80,000)
(more…)

Greta Van Susteren continues her cross country road trip for FNC’s On The Record. Yesterday, she was in Arizona speaking with Cindy McCain. Today, she heads to Trump Towers in New York to talk to Donald Trump…

Lou Dobbs responded to the New York Times article from yesterday…(via WHAC)

I’ve been — over the years, because of our reporting on controversial issues and my strongly held beliefs on those issues — attacked, and usually pretty vigorously, by both the left wing and the right wing of this nation’s media, both mainstream and otherwise, and of course the politicians that form the extremes of our political spectrum.

As a matter of fact, I’m regularly attacked by the right wing — the biggest business lobbyists in the country, “The Wall Street Journal” editorial page, the Bush administration — for my criticism of so-called free trade policies and outsourcing.

I’m regularly attacked by the left wing as well — the Southern Poverty Law Center, “The New York Times,” “The Nation,” MALDEF and MEChA — for my opposition to illegal immigration.

Today, “The New York Times” published a column that picks up where an advertisement — a paid advertisement in “The Times,” paid for by the Southern Poverty Law Center — left off two weeks ago.
(more…)

Well the CNBC contest started out with controversy and it appears it will end with controversy. Reuters has the story…

The cable network said on Wednesday that it is investigating whether entrants in its “CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge” contest engaged in illicit trading to boost their results.

“CNBC has been contacted by several contestants alleging unusual trading in violation of contest rules among some of the 20 finalists,” the cable news network said in a statement.

“Once these questions were raised, CNBC immediately launched a thorough investigation to determine who may have violated the rules,” it added.

The probe was looking at “unusual trading” and “potential irregularities,” CNBC said.

UPDATE: The New York Post’s Paul Tharp provides some additional background color…

But one red flag involved the fact that only 375,000 players joined the online contest, which ended May 25 - yet more than 1.5 million separate portfolios were created.
(more…)

Radar Online’s John Cook writes about something that occurred on an episode of Lou Dobbs Tonight…

But in the finished piece that aired, the Graham accusation looms large, and Overholser’s on-camera soundbite—”I think there are different ways to do journalism legitimately, but you have to … not pretend that you’re doing objectivity when you’re not”—comes on the heels of a conservative talking head from Accuracy in Media raising the accusations against the Post. “To the degree that this implies that I would have been chiding Graham,” Overholser says of the segment, “it is completely out of line.”

Sylvester declined to comment for the record. A CNN spokeswoman, taking time out of her busy day fending off href=”http://www.gawker.com/news/surprising-buried-news/lou-dobbs-loves-white-supremacists-hates-imaginary-lepers-264414.php” target=”_blank”>charges that Dobbs’s show is a forum for white supremacists, said Feldstein misinterpreted the producer’s comments. “It’s ridiculous to suggest that anyone was trying to coach anyone,” she said. “The fact is that they were trying to get someone neutral, and the booker was just explaining what Lou’s take is.”