I’ve received a few emails inquiring about the “new set” for America’s Newsroom. I don’t know if it’s a new set or not but the show did move to a different studio on Monday (UPDATE: Or maybe not). It’s probably connected to the work that will be required to launch Fox Business Channel. I hear that there may be more changes coming for some FNC programs soon. But nothing concrete to write about.

In case you were living under a rock and didn’t know, Paris Hilton is on Larry King (right now). Here are some highlights from the interview…

ON HER RELEASE:

HILTON: It was one of the happiest days of my life. Like — it’s hard

to even describe. It was so exciting even just being in the fresh air and

looking up at the sky and the stars and being outside and then it was just

pandemonium and then as soon as I saw my mom I just ran to her to give her a

hug. So that was really exciting for me.
(more…)

Yup…they really ran a countdown clock during Paula Zahn Now…

Eat The Press’ Rachael Sklar needles CNN for hyping the Paris Hilton interview with Larry King during The Situation Room…

Talk about milking the story: Just a few minutes ago at 5:45 pm, CNN covered Paris Hilton arriving at CNN studios for her interview with Larry King. Tracking her from her car into the building — with two cameras, so no angle was missed — CNN ran a full segment catching viewers up with what Hilton had been doing since getting out of jail yesterday (holing up at home; giving an exclusive interview to People for $300,000 undisclosed terms, if any — a magazine which also happens to be owned by Time Warner, just like CNN. Oops, they didn’t mention that.)

Cable News Ratings for June 26, 2007

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 973,000 viewers
CNN – 551,000 viewers
MSNBC – 311,000 viewers
CNBC – 195,000 viewers
HLN – 361,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 1,792,000 viewers
CNN – 953,000 viewers
MSNBC – 521,000 viewers
CNBC –310,000 viewers
HLN – 724,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC – 286,000 viewers
CNN – 188,000 viewers
MSNBC – 128,000 viewers
CNBC – 58,000 viewers
HLN – 165,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 454,000 viewers
CNN – 295,000 viewers
MSNBC – 230,000 viewers
CNBC –92,000 viewers
HLN – 293,000 viewers

Morning programs P2+ (25-54)
FOX & Friends – 870,000 viewers (337,000)
American Morning – 421,000 viewers (154,000)
MSNBC Live (7-9 AM) – 287,000 viewers (105,000)
Robin & Co. –253,000 viewers (137,000)
(more…)

This open letter is on Rosie’s site…

Is it true you bumped Michael Moore from your show to interview a celebrity famous for her porn and drunk driving? Really? Remember Michael Moore? He made Farenheit 911? Changed how we Americans viewed the war? Perhaps your manorexia has caused your brain to eat itself, and you don’t recall. Or, maybe, CNN is owned by some neo-cons, and the decision wasn’t really up to you, it was up to the people who own CNN? Either way, Larry, I am sure you are hitting yourself. I know, I can’t imagine if I had to be you and sit there across fom some poptart who’s labia has seen more sunshine than Cheney’s drunk chrome on a hunting afternoon. I can’t imagine what you will have to tell yourself as you prep for that interview in the makeup chair.Just remember, Larry, as history is written, there will be proof spilled everywhere, like ink. The truth will berry-stain: impossible to forget stain… And you know what? I am going to look back at this time, a time when real journalists could have saved us all some grief by reporting truth instead of soaps, and I will laugh and say “Remember how Larry King dumped Michael Moore for Paris Hilton?”

MSNBC announced that John Edwards will be on Hardball with Chris Matthews tonight.

Last night on “Hardball with Chris Matthews,” Elizabeth Edwards took on Political Commentator Ann Coulter. Tonight, in a cable exclusive, Former Senator and Democratic Presidential Candidate John Edwards plays “Hardball.” In addition to talking about his campaign, Edwards will address last night’s exchange between Coulter and his wife, Elizabeth Edwards. Edwards called into “Hardball” last night to ask Coulter to “stop the personal attacks.”

The New York Times’ Caucus Blog’s Michael Falone blogs about YouTube users being upset with YouTube over CNN’s final say in what videos are broadcast for the Debate…

Liberal and high-tech bloggers had already complained that CNN had usurped the online community’s shared power by assuming control over which video-questions would be broadcast at the YouTube-CNN presidential debates. Now, some worry, the redesign makes it harder to find those video submissions, or to view the most popular among their peers.

Now the Miami Herald’s Glenn Garvin is getting in on raking CNN and Jonathan Klein over the coals for Larry King’s Paris Hilton interview…

CNN is just busting its buttons over scoring the first interview with grizzled ex-con Paris Hilton, Wednesday night at 9 p.m. on Larry King’s show. Only the churlish would point out that Hilton came to CNN only after the three broadcast news divisions were shamed into dropping the idea. And only the churlisher would do something as mean as point out that CNN boss Jon Klein is always bragging that his network doesn’t do bimbos or car chases, just Serious News.

Klein in 2005: “Our editorial chops are alive and well. We’re kicking butt everyday. The American people want serious news — and they’re not getting enough of it from cable…We are the most essential source of information for Americans. We’ve aligned all of our day parts to be the newsy alternatives.”

UPDATE: So is Eric Deggans of the St. Petersberg Times…
(more…)

The Chicago Tribune’s Stephen J. Hedges and John Crewdson write about the recent flood of CIA documents that have been released and one facet of the story was how it went after news leaks in general and journalist in particular - including a young assistant of Jack Anderson named Brit Hume…

The CIA’s Hilton observation post also was used to monitor syndicated columnist Jack Anderson and his assistants, including Brit Hume, now an anchor with Fox News, who had their offices nearby. Hume said in a telephone interview that he believed the CIA’s interest in Anderson’s sources had been occasioned by the leak of “this enormous stack” of classified documents showing that the U.S., although publicly neutral during the 1972 India-Pakistan war, was privately “tilting toward Pakistan,” then a military dictatorship, at the expense of India, “the world’s largest democracy.”

Anderson’s columns caused a furor and won him the Pulitzer Prize. Hume said he had known for years that the CIA had photographed him and Anderson entering and leaving their office, and also the outside of Hume’s residence, “watching my wife take the kids to school.”

Chris Matthews sprung an Elizabeth Edwards phone-in on an unsuspecting Ann Coulter on yesterday’s Hardballa to spectacular results… (video here)

CM: You wanna say something directly to the person who’s with me?

EE: I’m calling you … in the south when we — when someone does something that displeases us, we wanna ask them politely to stop doing it. Uh - I’d like to ask Ann Coulter — if she wants to debate on issues, on positions — we certainly disagree with nearly everything she said on your show today — um but uh it’s quite another matter for these personal attacks that the things she has said over the years not just about John but about other candidates — it lowers our political dialogue precisely at the time that we need to raise it. So I want to use the opportunity … to ask her politely stop the personal attacks.

Ann Coulter: OK, so I made a joke — let’s see six months ago — and as you point out they’ve been raising money off of it for six months since then.

CM: This is yesterday morning, what you said about him.

AC: I didn’t say anything about him actually either time.
(more…)

NBC Universal announced that NY10 will be airing in New York City taxis and include content from NBC News, CNBC, and MSNBC…

NBC Universal and Clear Channel Taxi Media have received final approval from the Taxi & Limousine Commission to begin airing the NY10 network in New York City taxicabs. As announced earlier this year, taxis connected to NY10, Clear Channel’s New York Taxi Entertainment Network, will feature exclusive, short-form content from NBCU, including WNBC, NBC News (including network programs, MSNBC and CNBC) and NBC Entertainment.

“We’re proud to be the exclusive content provider for NY10,” said Mark French, Senior Director for Strategic Partnerships, NBC Universal. “Not only can we provide informative and entertaining NBC programming to an on-the-go audience, but we can offer our advertisers a new platform to better achieve their marketing objectives.”

The NY10 network will air NBC news and entertainment content and advertising on screens developed by Creative Mobile Technologies’ FREEdom Solution. The screens will also provide passengers with live digital maps and the ability to pay their cab fare by debit or credit card.
(more…)

KTNV anchor Christina Brown is joining MSNBC as a news anchor (via the Napoli Management Group via FTVLive)

CHRISTINA BROWN moves east to anchor for MSNBC. Her prior experience includes anchoring weekends and reporting at KTNV in Las Vegas and serving in the United States Air Force.

Marketwatch’s Jon Friedman takes CNN down a peg for its upcoming Paris Hilton interview…

After competing for the cheap “get,” many journalists pulled back when word leaked out that the Hilton camp was going to rake in big bucks fromsomeone. Hilton’s handlers began to resemble rug merchants in an Istanbul market, desperate to unload their wares.

Enter CNN, and Larry King.

Has anyone noticed that “the world’s most trusted name in news” isn’t exactly covering itself in glory these days? Don’t forget Wolf Blitzer’s meltdown during the Anna Nicole Smith saga. The news network’s decision to replace morning anchor Soledad O’Brien with “Fox and Friends” fixture Kiran Chetry was questionable.

Maybe we all should accept that news and entertainment have become so intertwined that there’s no distinguishing between them.

UPDATE: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Tim Cuprisin weighs in too…
(more…)

Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono Lennon, Olivia Harrison and Guy Laliberté appeared with Larry King last night from the Beatles Revolution Lounge at The Mirage in Las Vegas. On Morning Joe this morning they were making hay of the fact that Larry King had a case of “name trouble” and got Ringo Starr’s name wrong. Transcript higlights from the show follow:

UPDATE: The Las Vegas Review Journal writes up a different name confusion story that occurred earlier in the show…

CNN talk-show host Larry King had a comedic senior moment during Tuesday’s Beatles dedication honoring the late John Lennon and George Harrison. When King opened the event by identifying the music legends as “John Lennon and George Hamilton” some laughs erupted among guests. “Why’s that funny?” blurted King, before realizing he had mistakenly lumped Hamilton, best known for his eternal tan, in with the legendary Fab Four …

Transcript highlights:

McCartney and Starr on the influence of The Beatles’ music:

KING: Come on, you changed the world.

MCCARTNEY: We were just kids from Liverpool.

KING: Yes.

MCCARTNEY: And, yes, it is quite amazing, because as time goes on, it kind of becomes more and more of a phenomenon.
(more…)

Cable News Ratings for June 25, 2007

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 1,045,000 viewers
CNN – 473,000 viewers
MSNBC – 273,000 viewers
CNBC – 204,000 viewers
HLN – 336,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 2,051,000 viewers
CNN – 846,000 viewers
MSNBC – 600,000 viewers
CNBC –207,000 viewers
HLN – 702,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC – 294,000 viewers
CNN – 159,000 viewers
MSNBC – 97,000 viewers
CNBC – 60,000 viewers
HLN – 132,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 478,000 viewers
CNN – 265,000 viewers
MSNBC – 230,000 viewers
CNBC –93,000 viewers
HLN – 235,000 viewers

Morning programs P2+ (25-54)
FOX & Friends – 904,000 viewers (340,000)
American Morning – 363,000 viewers (139,000)
MSNBC Live (7-9 AM) – 163,000 viewers (a scratch with 39,000)
Robin & Co. –218,000 viewers (106,000)
(more…)