Ben Affleck appeared on Hardball tonight and professed strong preference for Barack Obama. Transcript follows…

CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Hollywood stars have a big voice in politics.
Let`s see if one of them, Ben Affleck, can answer some tough questions.

Let`s play HARDBALL.

Good evening. Welcome to HARDBALL. Tonight HARDBALL`s asking one of
the biggest stars in today`s Hollywood, Oscar-winning writer, actor and
political activist Ben Affleck, some tough questions. Do celebrity
endorsements help causes and campaigns? And who would Hollywood pick as
our next president? Do the East Coast frontrunners, Hillary Clinton and
Rudy Giuliani, have West Coast backing? Plus, on-line questions from you
for actor Ben Affleck.

Ben Affleck is directing, by the way, “Gone Baby Gone,” which comes
out in the fall. Ben, thank you very much for joining us. I`m here
because I think you`re so smart about politics. I`m now going to — that`s
what you call a set-up here. We want to hear what you think. You say —
you`ve said the other night on Bill Maher, I believe, that the frontrunner,
as you see it, the most likely Republican candidate for `08, is Mitt
Romney. How so?

BEN AFFLECK, ACTOR: Well, I think Mitt probably is — you know, has
got the least negatives. You know, I think politics, at least from my
point of view, being just — not an expert, but just a kind of an everyday
fellow, comes down to, you know, when you`re trying to sell somebody
something, you got to give them the least reasons to say no to you. And I
think Mitt probably has the fewest of those.
(more…)

An emailer says Joe Scargorough ended his show this morning by getting up and crawling all over the desks. I had held off mentioning this until I got home to check my Tivo but alas the recording got jettisoned by a system event. So I can’t confirm this happened or why it happened. Anybody got the video (if it exists)?

UPDATE: According to the comments Joe and Mika Brzezinski were goofing around and Joe was trying to grab a sign Mika kept holding up. He wasn’t crawling on the desks though. I was watching an hour earlier and that sign was being displayed then as well.

UPDATE 2: Another emailer…

At the very end, Mika is holding up a sign that says “Gag Order.” Just as the MSNBC animation comes across - Joe gets up on the desk on all fours to go after Mika and grab the sign.

Cable News Ratings for June 6, 2007

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 839,000 viewers
CNN – 446,000 viewers
MSNBC – 255,000 viewers
CNBC – 203,000 viewers
HLN – 259,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 1,920,000 viewers
CNN – 722,000 viewers
MSNBC – 440,000 viewers
CNBC –257,000 viewers
HLN – 538,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC – 226,000 viewers
CNN – 165,000 viewers
MSNBC – 86,000 viewers
CNBC – 70,000 viewers
HLN – 116,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 476,000 viewers
CNN – 256,000 viewers
MSNBC – 149,000 viewers
CNBC – 80,000 viewers
HLN – 219,000 viewers

Morning programs P2+ (25-54)
FOX & Friends – 787,000 viewers (300,000)
American Morning –407,000 viewers (128,000)
MSNBC Live (7-9 AM) – 142,000 viewers (51,000)
Robin & Co. –202,000 viewers (96,000)
(more…)

Greta blogs about doing video blogging in the not so distant future…

If all goes as planned, I am going to start video blogging on this blog. We already post lots of pictures and video, but the new feature is video blogging. It may start today — we are working on getting the kinks out of the system.

Last night, when we got back to our hotel, my BlackBerry began buzzing like crazy: an arrest was announced in the Kelsey Smith murder. To give you an idea of what work is like in cable news, I then spent about an hour on the phone and BlackBerry getting details. Yes, good news that an arrest was made… and even better news if this IS certainly the killer so that another killer is off the street.

Like you, I have just learned that Paris Hilton got out of jail. Well, to be more precise, her terms of confinement have changed. She is still confined, but her confinement is in her home. Yes, it is much, much, much better than the solo cell in the jail. Many people may be upset with this change in circumstances, but I assume the sheriff decided that it was better — big picture better — to change her terms of confinement. He probably took into account overcrowding, cost, etc., in making this decision. It is being reported that he did it for medical reasons. I assume we will get more info as the day marches on.

Nancy Pelosi will be appearing on Hardball tomorrow according to a transcript of the interview MSNBC released….

CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC ANCHOR: Madame Speaker, thank you. The Senate has failed to pass a cloture motion on the issue of immigration reform. Does that mean the issues are dead in the House too?

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: No, well I’m still hopeful that it’s alive in the Senate. We’ll see what happens on the next cloture vote. But in the House, we will act upon what the Senate sends us. I always said this process had to begin in the Senate. And the bill could not pass the Congress without the full attention and leadership of President Bush.

MATTHEWS: Is there any way the House would take up this bill and try to take leadership on this issue?

PELOSI: Certainly we would take up the bill if the Senate —

MATTHEWS: If they don’t pass it?

PELOSI: Well, we will meet among ourselves and make that decision. But right now we’re optimistic that on another cloture vote that that will pass, and that the bill will be taken up.

MATTHEWS: Has President Bush read his party correctly on the immigration bill or has he been caught by surprise?

PELOSI: President Bush has been a leader on the immigration issue. He knows what the right thing is to do and he has acted up on it. All of these things take leadership though, and persuasion of members of your party. And the country needs more of that explaining.
(more…)

This morning on CNN Newsroom , Tony Harris and Heidi Collins had an exclusive interview with Lt. Gen. David Petraeus. Transcript follows…

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And as the G-8 is going on, we have a rare opportunity today. We have General David Petraeus standing by — the commander of the Multinational Forces in Iraq. He is joining us now live from Baghdad.

General, welcome to the show. Thanks for being here. I guess, quickly, we’d like to start off by asking you about some of today’s news.

As you know, General Lute is in the middle of his confirmation hearing. He will be a war adviser for both Iraq and Afghanistan. What does that mean for you and your command?

LT. GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS, CMDR, MULTINATIONAL FORCES, IRAQ: Well, first of all, it means that a very close friend — someone who knows combat, who knows this region and who also knows Washington — will be our point man there, a single point of contact for the issues that we have, particularly with the inner-agency there in Washington.
(more…)

FNC’s Megyn Kelly was co-anchoring America’s Newsroom from Overland Park, Kansas this morning where yesterday the body of 18-year old Kelsey Smith was found. Kelly interviewed Kelsey’s boyfriend John Byersmith. It was the first time he spoke since the kidnapping and death of his girlfriend.

To know that there’s a suspect that they have arrested and about to charge, I mean, its great news but I don’t know… I can’t.. They haven’t shown a picture of him to us, so there’s no way I can give you any hard evidence.

HLN anchor Christi Paul sang the national anthem at yesterday’s Atlanta Braves/Florida Marlins game. (Photo Credit: Mark Hill for CNN © 2007. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved)

Paris has been freed. Which network is going to be the biggest offender overhyping this story?

TV Guide’s Stephen Battaglio interviews Tim Russert about Father’s Day and his Meet The Press program…

TVGuide.com: After you wrote a book about your dad and a follow up, is the bar now too high for you on Father’s Day?

Tim Russert: It’s a great question. Last Father’s Day, the Yankees played the Washington Nationals, and I brought my dad to the game. Yankees manager Joe Torre brought Derek Jeter over, and he made a big fuss over him. He loved it.

TVGuide.com: But the book has had a big impact on you.

Russert: The book changed my life. Not a day goes by that I do not get a phone call or a letter or someone stops me somewhere wanting to talk about his or her dad. It happens every day. It’s been so rewarding. It’s all, “Let me tell you the lessons my dad taught me.” Or they’ve said, “My dad was no good. He abandoned my family, and my mom was my mom and my dad.” It’s an opportunity for me to break away from the poisonous ideological fighting in Washington. Democrat, Republicans, liberals, conservatives, east, west, blacks, whites, everyone has a story about their father. It’s universal. For my own dad, it hasn’t changed his life all that much. He’s 83. I saw him two weeks ago in Buffalo. I talk to him every day.

The Hill’s Betsy Rothstein has a profile of FNC’s Jennifer Griffin…

For Griffin, ease means living in the thick of danger. “I feel comfortable when I’m out in the field,” she says. “It’s hard being inside a Pentagon briefing room and there is no noise behind you.” She pauses, thoughtfully: “I’m adjusting.”

Griffin says she didn’t set out to lead this sort of life, it just found her. “I didn’t plan on falling in love with this intriguing lifestyle,” she says. “In its heyday, it was a pretty great way to see the world and do journalism.”

Among the scarier times were surviving gun battles in Soweto and living in the basement of an Associated Press house in Afghanistan in a sandbagged room, with rockets routinely landing close by. In Moscow, a number of her sources were murdered. In Jerusalem, there were a dozen suicide bombings within a one-block radius from her home.

In one striking moment after the birth of one of her daughters, Griffin recalls being with her husband and getting news of a bombing. “Each of us had to cover it,” she says. “I handed the baby to him, he handed it back to me.” The bomb had gone off at the Moment Café, one block from their apartment.

Journalisms reports that CNN anchor Don Lemon will be covering India temporarily in the wake of Satinder Bindra’s departure from the network…

Cable News Ratings for June 5, 2007

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 837,000 viewers
CNN – 589,000 viewers
MSNBC – 222,000 viewers
CNBC – 174,000 viewers
HLN – 230,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 1,643,000 viewers
CNN – 1,363,000 viewers
MSNBC – 415,000 viewers
CNBC – a scratch with 118,000 viewers
HLN – 324,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC – 208,000 viewers
CNN – 206,000 viewers
MSNBC – 79,000 viewers
CNBC – 63,000 viewers
HLN – 94,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 304,000 viewers
CNN – 460,000 viewers
MSNBC – 127,000 viewers
CNBC – 65,000 viewers
HLN – 85,000 viewers

Morning programs P2+ (25-54)
FOX & Friends – 854,000 viewers (325,000)
American Morning –355,000 viewers (146,000)
MSNBC Live (7-9 AM) – 235,000 viewers (89,000)
Robin & Co. –204,000 viewers (98,000)
(more…)

The National Association for Multi- ethnicity in Communications announced that Anderson Cooper will be honored with the 2007 Mickey Leland Humanitarian Achievement Award…

The National Association for Multi- ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC) has named veteran journalist Anderson Cooper, host of CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” as the recipient of the 2007 Mickey Leland Humanitarian Achievement Award. The announcement was made today by Alicin Reidy-Williamson, board chair, NAMIC and senior vice president of Corporate Responsibility and Public Affairs for MTV Networks. David L. Cohen, executive vice president, Comcast Corporation and Andrew T. Heller, president of Domestic Distribution for Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. are the 2007 Honorary Co-Chairs. Scheduled for September 16-18, 2007, the 21st Annual NAMIC Conference will be held in Manhattan at the Hilton New York.

Presented in conjunction with the Annual NAMIC Conference, the Mickey Leland Humanitarian Achievement Award was established in 1992 in memory of the late Congressman from Texas and his lifelong advocacy of social justice and equality for people around the world. By recognizing Cooper, NAMIC continues its tradition of honoring individuals and organizations affiliated with the communications industry that demonstrate a commitment to advancing the causes and concerns of people of color. “NAMIC is pleased to honor such a worthy recipient,” said Reidy-Williamson, “It is a privilege to pay homage to a member of our industry that has fostered a sense of humanism in today’s media.”
(more…)