MSNBC didn’t waste any time following yesterday’s announcement of the deal with NBC and the New York Times. Today they had on the Times’ Jodi Kantor in the studio throughout the day to discuss this article she wrote. And MSNBC is already playing ads noting the new partnership.

FNC’s uReport continues to generate viewer response to participate in breaking news stories. Last week, two FOX News’ viewers submitted uReport videos of the Dallas, TX fire caused by a chemical explosion. Using these videos, FNC was able to show viewers what was going on right outside of the chemical plant that exploded and did a phone interview with the viewer who described first-hand the footage submitted.

Vice President Cheney appears on Larry King Live tonight at 9pm ET. Transcript highlights follow…

Vice President Cheney on the letter from the Department of Defense to Senator Hillary Clinton:

KING: A member of the Department of Defense sent Hillary Clinton a letter saying she should not criticize, because it helps the enemy. Do you agree with that letter?

CHENEY: It didn’t say she should criticism. She was demanding the plans for withdrawal from Iraq. And…

KING: Do you agree with that letter?

CHENEY: I agreed with the letter Eric Edelman wrote. I thought it was good letter.
(more…)

CNN’s Dana Bash interviewed Alaska Senator Ted Stevens for The Situation Room this afternoon. Transcript follows…

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, a top Republican senator is caught up in a public corruption investigation that stretches from here in Washington to Alaska. There are questions about Ted Stevens’ ties to a company whose executives have pled guilty to bribing some Alaska public officials.

Federal agents have raided the home of the senator, a home he owns in Alaska, seizing many unidentified objects.

Our congressional correspondent, Dana Bash, is up on Capitol Hill.

You caught up with the senator just a short while ago. Tell our viewers what he said. What’s going on?

DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what’s going on is that Senator Stevens really has been hard to find today, Wolf. In fact, I want to set the scene for you.
(more…)

Cable News Daily Ratings for July 30, 2007

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 912,000 viewers
CNN – 480,000 viewers
MSNBC – 303,000 viewers
CNBC – 248,000 viewers
HLN – 271,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 1,767,000 viewers
CNN – 791,000 viewers
MSNBC – 564,000 viewers
CNBC – 217,000 viewers
HLN – 616,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC – 262,000 viewers
CNN –152,000 viewers
MSNBC – 110,000 viewers
CNBC – 89,000 viewers
HLN – 105,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 401,000 viewers
CNN – 230,000 viewers
MSNBC – 205,000 viewers
CNBC – 83,000 viewers
HLN – 241,000 viewers

Morning programs P2+ (25-54)
FOX & Friends – 849,000 viewers (308,000)
American Morning – 390,000 viewers (157,000)
MSNBC Live (7-9am) – 204,000 viewers (69,000)
Robin & Co. – 168,000 viewers (85,000)
(more…)

I missed this when it came out Sunday. The Washington Post’s Jose Antonio Vargas writes about five myths about politics and YouTube…

2. It doesn’t matter who asks the questions; what matters is that the question is asked.

Sitting in front of three American flags that had covered the coffins of his grandfather, father and oldest son, Gary Berry wanted to know how many family members each candidate has serving in uniform. Jordan Williams, who’s black, was curious about how Obama will answer critics who say he’s not “authentically black enough.” Both were powerful questions made even more powerful by who asked them. It’s one thing for CNN’s Wolf Blitzer to ask about same-sex marriage, which he did in last month’s Democratic debate in New Hampshire. But it’s quite another for Mary and Jen, a lesbian couple from Brooklyn, to ask the candidates if they’d let them get married.

In a must read, Big Head D.C. blogs about the CNN/YouTube Republican debate in Florida and how FNC factored into CNN having to reschedule because Florida’s GOP Chairman Jim Greer committed to two networks at the same time…

According to insiders involved in the Florida debate, “Greedy Greer” conveniently forgot that the GOP made an agreement with FOX News Channel to have FNC’s debate in October serve as the first debate in the state for the 2008 race. Greer, who has yet to pass up a media opportunity, heard rumblings that CNN wanted to bring its YouTube debate to Florida for GOP candidates. Instead of respecting the agreement with FOX, Greer revealed his apparent man-crush on Anderson Cooper and Co. by publicly partnering with YouTube and CNN for the September 17 debate.

Big Head D.C. goes on to talk about how this caused candidates to drop out and CNN to reschedule and has FNC reaction…

MSNBC is noting, and not without reason, its Sales Prime Demo victory over CNN in July. But it’s also worth noting how MSNBC scored the win. Here is a chart of MSNBC’s top 25 programs by Demo for July…
(more…)

HLN is noting its July numbers…

Headline News Averaging Most Total Viewers on Record Year-to-Date — aided by Double-Digit growth in July

Headline News Attracts More Unduplicated P25-54 Viewers than FNC and MSNBC in July

HLN is currently on track to post its best P2+ total day delivery in history aided by double-digit gains from 7p to midnight in signature programs Glenn Beck, Nancy Grace and Showbiz Tonight.

July 2007 vs. July 2006
7p Glenn Beck up 60% in P2+ (295k vs. 184k) and up 11% in P25-54 (111k vs. 100k)
8p Nancy Grace up 24% in P2+ (572k vs. 463k) and up 50% in P25-54 (209k vs. 139k)
9p Glenn Beck up 62% in P2+ (359k vs. 221k) and up 30% in P25-54 (113k vs. 87k)
10p Nancy Grace up 36% in P2+ (387k vs. 285k) and up 52% in P25-54 (167k vs. 110k)
11p Showbiz Tonight up 46% in P2+ (333k vs. 228k) and up 38% in P25-54 (155k vs. 112k)
(more…)

GretaWire blogs about being on the road with the Romney brothers…

If you saw Monday night’s show, you know we were in Iowa on Sunday with Governor Mitt Romney’s sons. They are traveling to all 99 Iowa counties in the “Mitt Mobile.” We showed some of the video last night. It really was worth watching since it gives you that insider view on the sons and a bit of an idea of Gov. Romney as a father. It does not touch on Gov. Romney’s views — you need to listen to him for that. It was not intended to be about Gov. Romney’s views, but rather to introduce you to his family and what they are doing on the campaign.

MSNBC announces that it beat CNN in the Sales Prime Demo for July…

MSNBC has achieved ratings victory for the month of July over CNN in the adult demographic during sales prime (7:00 pm to 2:00 am ET), according to Nielsen Media Research data. While CNN’s numbers are dropping by double-digit percentages, MSNBC was up +42% over a year ago in the adult 25 to 54 demographic with 195,000 viewers (versus 137,000). CNN was down –26% with 189,000 viewers (versus 254,000). This represents the first time MSNBC has beaten CNN for a total month in six years (August 2001).

MSNBC is also running neck-and-neck with CNN in primetime (8:00 pm to 11:00 pm ET), up 42% in the adult demographic with 201,000 viewers (versus 142,000 a year ago) and up 54% in total viewers with 529,000 (versus 343,000) while CNN was down –22% in the adult demo with 216,000 viewers (versus 278,000) and down -17% in total viewers 717,000 (versus 864,000).
(more…)

CNN announced this morning that it will air “CNN Special Investigations Unit – Afghanistan, Lifting the Veil” on Saturday, September 15th at 8pm ET…

When CNN aired Beneath the Veil in August 2001, the acclaimed yet startling documentary exposed the harsh realities of Afghan life under Taliban rule. Women were barred from working and excluded from public education. The government sanctioned beatings and executions for those who defied religious law. But a promise of a better future for Afghanistan loomed after U.S. and coalition forces invaded the country following 9/11.

CNN Special Investigations Unit: Afghanistan – Lifting the Veil reveals what the liberation of Afghanistan has meant for the lives of its people. The one-hour documentary will premiere on CNN on Saturday, Sept. 15, and Sunday, Sept. 16, at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. All times Eastern.

Reporting for CNN, award-winning journalist and filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy criss-crosses the impoverished nation. She meets with ordinary Afghans and witnesses firsthand the struggles women still face and a nation trying to rebuild amid continued war, corruption and chaos. Obaid-Chinoy learns that stalled foreign aid, repressive clerics and a dysfunctional government stymie progress.
(more…)

CNBC’s David Faber broke news earlier this morning that Dow Jones, via the Bancrofts, was going to be accepting the News Corp. bid… (via FishbowlNY)

“It did come awfully close, in fact, closer than many had anticipated,” Faber said. “But at the end of the day, according to people who were working on this, a number of the Bancrofts who had been somewhat vocal in their opposition–Chris Bancroft for example–seemed suddenly at the realization that they were going to have to pay all these banking fees said ‘Wait a second. Hey, if you pay my fees, I’ll give you my vote.’ And that may have turned it.”

New York Business.com’s Valerie Block writes about CNBC launching a new branding campaign…

CNBC, preparing for the competitive onslaught from the Oct. 15th launch of News Corp.’s Fox Business Network, will break a new branding campaign, according to a source with knowledge of the plan. Featuring interviews with high-level chief executives who often featured on the network, the spots could start in the next week.

Weekends continue their recent history of ratings turbulence. MSNBC won the Total Day and Primetime Demos on Saturday and beat CNN in the Sunday Total Day Demo. CNN edged out FNC for second in the Saturday Primetime Demo. MSNBC beat CNN in P2+ on Saturday daytime and primetime and Sunday daytime. FNC had nearly a million viewers in Sunday primetime while CNN and MSNBC were in a race for 2nd.

Cable News Ratings July 28, 2007

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 603,000 viewers
CNN – 405,000 viewers
MSNBC – 459,000 viewers
CNBC – 137,000 viewers
HLN – 251,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 813,000 viewers
CNN – 534,000 viewers
MSNBC – 564,000 viewers
CNBC – 139,000 viewers
HLN – 213,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC – 199,000 viewers
CNN – 139,000 viewers
MSNBC –211,000 viewers
CNBC – a scratch with 51,000 viewers
HLN –100,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 194,000 viewers
CNN – 195,000 viewers
MSNBC – 265,000 viewers
CNBC – a scratch with 46,000 viewers
HLN – 76,000 viewers

Cable News Ratings for July 29, 2007
(more…)

Following up on this from June, it appears that The Politico “embargo” over at NBC has been ended, or, at the very least, scaled back. I saw Executive Editor Jim VandeHei being interviewed on MSNBC Live last week.

The Washington Post’s Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts write that Dana Bash and John King are more than just co-workers these days…

Dating: John King, 43, and Dana Bash, 36. The CNN Washington correspondents, both divorced, clicked off-air and recently went public with the office romance.

Following up on this from yesterday, the first thing that popped into my head when I saw this release was “I wonder what The Washington Post thinks about this?” The Post is a partner with NBC and MSNBC. And now they would be playing second fiddle to their bitterest rival for Campaign 2008 as NBC will get first access to Times material. Talk about being a jilted lover. I can’t see The Post being happy about this development. And then there’s Newsweek…

I half expected to be reading a subsequent release announcing that The Post had partnered with CNN or something similar that meant a severing of the NBC/Post relationship. But apparently everything is fine over in NBC/MSNBC/The Post/NYT land. For the moment…

The Hollywood Reporter’s Andrew Wallenstein interviews NBC Universal President and CEO Jeff Zucker…

THR: Rupert Murdoch could acquire the Wall Street Journal. If he integrates that with Fox Business Channel, what does that mean for CNBC?

Zucker: If this were two years ago, I would be far more concerned. CNBC has transformed itself into a strong and thriving operation under Mark Hoffman’s leadership. We feel very comfortable with where CNBC is at today. We don’t take any new competitor lightly. We’re not going to make the same mistake CNN made when Fox News Channel came along a decade ago. We’ll be strong and aggressive and continue to prove what makes CNBC by far the leading financial news broadcaster in the world. With all due respect to the success that News Corp. has had in many different places, just because Rupert Murdoch wants to launch something, it doesn’t mean it’s an automatic success. I think there is a degree of irony that the company that broke the story that Rupert Murdoch wanted to buy Dow Jones was CNBC.

Big Head D.C. rains on the Mika parade for no apparent reason as far as I can tell…

The Politico’s Anne Schroeder blogs that Jacki Schechner’s contract at CNN wasn’t renewed…

MSNBC beat CNN in primetime Total Viewers and the Demo and also beat it in the Total Day Demo. MSNBC’s Dock Block came out big for the network with all three docs doing better than 600,00 viewers. Headline News beat CNN in the Primetime Demo as well. Morning Joe scratched in the Demo as did Prime News with Erica Hill (6pm hour).

Cable News Daily Ratings for July 27, 2007

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 817,000 viewers
CNN – 433,000 viewers
MSNBC – 327,000 viewers
CNBC – 241,000 viewers
HLN – 253,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 1,341,000 viewers
CNN – 600,000 viewers
MSNBC – 627,000 viewers
CNBC – 215,000 viewers
HLN – 478,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC – 236,000 viewers
CNN –126,000 viewers
MSNBC – 131,000 viewers
CNBC – 82,000 viewers
HLN – 101,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 266,000 viewers
CNN – 144,000 viewers
MSNBC – 278,000 viewers
CNBC – 75,000 viewers
HLN – 197,000 viewers

Morning programs P2+ (25-54)
FOX & Friends – 873,000 viewers (353,000)
American Morning – 306,000 viewers (131,000)
MSNBC Live (7-8am) – 155,000 viewers (a scratch with 44,000)
Robin & Co. – 233,000 viewers (113,000)
(more…)

Tonight on Special Report with Brit Hume, FNC’s Greg Palkot will interview Alastair Campbell, media and political advisor to former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair…

Campbell provides behind-the-scenes perspective on Blair and his relationship with President Bush on the eve of his book debut in the U.S. This exclusive interview also comes during the first visit by new British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to Camp David.

NBC announced this afternoon that it would collaborating with the New York Times for coverage of Campaign 2008…

The New York Times and NBC News/msnbc.com announced today that they will collaborate on coverage of the 2008 presidential election, drawing on both news organizations’ strengths in political journalism. Effective today, the two entities will work together to showcase each other’s journalism on their web sites, in video and in print, and to broaden and deepen their coverage of the campaign for viewers and readers.

As part of this collaboration:

–Msnbc.com will publish premium national political content from NYTimes.com on its award-winning website that reaches 28 million monthly unique users. (Source: Nielsen//NetRatings).

–The New York Times will have access to NBC News’ premium political video content for streaming and publishing on NYTimes.com.

–NBC News will have first access to breaking news and enterprise reporting from New York Times journalists on the campaign trail for all its on-air and online platforms.
(more…)

The New York Post’s Jamie Schram writes about the death of Eric Wishnie…

An award-winning NBC news producer who was married to correspondent Dawn Fratangelo was killed near his Manhattan home early this morning by a hit-and-run driver, police sources said.

Eric Wishnie, 45, a senior segment producer on “NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams” was found at the corner of 6th Avenue and 10th Street at 2:51 a.m.

UPDATE: The Post story is in error but it’s not The Post’s fault. WNBC says that Police now believe Wishnie fell off a roof…

The Louisiana Weekly’s Edmund W. Lewis interviews CNN’s T.J. Holmes regarding New Orleans…

“I don’t know what I was expecting,” he admitted. “I got pretty much the experience that a lot of the folks in the visitors’ bureau want visitors to get, which is that of a thriving New Orleans, and you do see that when you come down and just stick around in downtown New Orleans… That’s the impression you get and that’s the impression they admittedly want people to have. …Of course, people around the country see stories about the murder rate and crime in New Orleans, but they want the visitors to keep coming…That’s the experience that I got. I got very much what New Orleans officials want people to have, the image of a thriving New Orleans that is doing well and is safe.

“I didn’t go too much outside of downtown New Orleans,” he added. “I saw a couple of hard-hit areas that received damage from Katrina but I certainly didn’t go to some of the worst areas.

“I got the impression of a thriving city, a comeback city, a city that can handle guests, that can handle big events and is a party town.”

Back in Atlanta, Holmes joked about the Crescent City’s notoriously high summer temperatures last week. “Even the rain was hot,” he recalled. “Everything is hot. That threw me off. They say you all deal with it day in and day out, but a shower will move in and go away and the wind and rain are going sideways. That threw me off, how the showers could come in and go (so quickly). …It’s some strange stuff going on down there in New Orleans weather-wise.”

Eat The Press’ Rachel Sklar forced herself to sit through it so you didn’t have to…

The New York Times’ Adam Nagourney writes about the CNN/YouTube Democratic debate…

Here is what you missed watching it on television, starting with some fluff.

Anderson Cooper is taller than he looks on television. He also was wearing a much nicer suit than any of the men on stage who wanted to be president. (If you are now looking for some carping about Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s fashion sense, you have come to the wrong place: turn the page or click the link, or whatever it is one needs to do these days to move on.) Mr. Cooper is also rather funny, in a droll sort of way, as was clear during the moments he bantered with the audience in those expectant moments leading up to the debate.

“We really have no idea if this is going to work,” he said.

“Take a deep breath!” someone yelled from the audience.

If you were wondering why the audience seemed so pumped, that is because the producers assigned someone to pump up the crowd. “Five minutes until we are live on the air!” he announced. It reminded me of what I saw many years ago – many, many years ago – while attending a taping of the Ed Sullivan Show in New York City.

Vantiy Fair’s Michael Wolff writes about the News Corp./Dow Jones saga (Note to Vanity Fair: Really bad Photoshop job guys)…

At News Corp., no one, to say the least, opposes Rupert. As a C.E.O. he’s an entirely sui generis figure—not a replaceable manager, not even an iconic entrepreneur, but more like a giver of life. For most of News Corp.’s history, Murdoch himself was the only power—the company was his instrument. And yet, quite naturally, as Murdoch grows older, and the company ever larger, it has become a more ordinary corporate enterprise. And, within it, it was suddenly possible to detect if not objections then questions about what in bloody hell Rupert was doing. What was the point—inviting all this bad press, this negativity and opprobrium? Why risk it? And for a declining business—and to pay almost twice the market value for a declining business? Was this really the best use of News Corp.’s time and capital?

Peter Chernin, the company’s president and C.O.O., a larger and larger figure within the company (and not, as a Murdoch insider recently explained to me, necessarily “a believer” in all things Murdoch), stayed remote from the deal, in fact was concerned primarily with a much larger transaction—a potential deal with Yahoo involving MySpace, which News Corp. owns, for as much as $10 billion. Nor was Roger Ailes, the powerful executive who runs Fox News, and who will direct the new cable business channel for which, presumably, Murdoch was buying the Journal, much involved. Even James Murdoch, Rupert’s 34-year-old son, who runs SkyTV in the U.K. (in this dynasty-fixated family, his brother, Lachlan, 36, and sister, Elisabeth, 39, while still deeply engaged in family business matters, had themselves both quit their jobs in their father’s company—to his chagrin), was getting a little testy about all the bad press.

Yesterday, Greta Van Susteren was in Iowa to experience the “Mitt-Mobile,” the campaign RV that is driven by the Romney sons to gain support for their dad’s bid for presidency. Greta interviewed the boys with behind-the-scenes access to the campaign that will air tonight during IOn The Record with Greta VanSusteren at 10 pm ET…

YouTube has footage from the interview…

AdAge’s Ken Wheaton blogs about MoveOn.org’s “campaign” against FNC…

Funnier still is that MoveOn, until now, has been unable to get much media coverage — unless one counts The Huffington Post and DailyKos as the sort of media that’s going to move the masses. Both of those, by the way, are part of this little coalition of speech police, so that’s kind of like getting recognized by your parents for a job well done.

Now the coalition, unable to accomplish much on a national level, has gotten media attention for declaring its intention to monitor local businesses that advertise on Fox News.

That will really hit Fox where it hurts.

Never mind the complexities of buying ads on cable TV — note to the coalition, local cable buys aren’t show specific so attacking Joe’s Deli for advertising on “O’Reilly” might be a little more than silly.

Gail Shister has an interview with Mika Brzezinski…

After her on-air Paris snit, “I was hoping I didn’t come off as a train wreck,” says Mika B., a regular on Joe Scarborough’s Morning Joe and host of her own 10am ET hour. Suddenly, “my BlackBerry and phone were ringing off the hook. It was outrageous. I think I touched a nerve; that people were sick of this crap. Within the next couple of weeks, I got my own show and NBC was firming up a contract.”

Washington Whispers’ Paul Bedard notes that it has been almost a year since the time Olaf Wiig and Steve Centanni were kidnapped in Gaza…

It’s been almost a year since Fox News Channel reporter Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig were seized in Gaza and held for 13 days. But with the exception of fresh falafel and a big story, they aren’t eager to return to the Palestinian territory. “It’s really not a good time to go back,” says Centanni, who was seized with Wiig August 14 and held until August 27. Besides diplomatic reporting, Centanni now works to free other reporters held captive around the globe. About the falafel, he says his captors some times ordered out for their prisoners. “It’s hard to believe it was a year ago.”

FNC’s Greg Kelly will be featured on tonight’s Extra as part of the show’s “New York’s Most Eligible Bachelors” series this week. Kelly was getting all sorts of grief yesterday on Fox and Friends Sunday for this…

The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz has an interview with Campbell Brown…

Brown’s move raises two intriguing questions: Why are only two other women (Greta Van Susteren of Fox and Nancy Grace of Headline News) on the air as prime-time cable news hosts? And is it possible to succeed with an 8 p.m. show built on news and interviews — as Zahn tried to do — when up against the ultra-opinionated likes of Bill O’Reilly and Keith Olbermann?

Zahn was pushed to try several different formats, from politics to magazine-style reports. She concedes the constant changes hurt her ratings, but she also won plaudits for tackling such difficult subjects as race in America. Still, despite some gains with younger viewers, she sometimes slipped into third or even fourth place (behind Grace).

“Looking at the success of the opinion-driven shows, we tried to counterpunch as best we could, and we never sacrificed our objectivity or our quality,” Zahn says.

Brown now inherits a similar challenge. “It’s an incredibly difficult time slot,” she says. “I can’t obsess over that or I’ll make myself crazy. . . . I’m not Bill O’Reilly. I’m not Keith Olbermann. I’m not going to do opinion. That’s not who I am.”