TVNewser interviews Aaron Brown in a multi-part interview. Part 2 caught my eye…specifically this part…

Immediately after Hurricane Katrina, Fox’s reporting was terrific, Brown said. He specifically mentioned Shep Smith’s reports. And then…

“In my mind, when it became clear that the story had become the incompetence of the administration, that did not fit their view, so they walked away. They pulled troops out,” Brown said.

That’s not how I recall it. I don’t recall FNC pulling out. They had people down there as long as other networks, long past when the story became about the administration. Ok, so CNN has more employees than any other news network. That’s a given. They tend to throw more people at a big story because they have more people to throw at it. But that doesn’t mean that FNC made a concerted effort to cut its reporting back because the story changed.

And then there’s this part…
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Variety’s Michael Learmonth interviews Aaron Brown now that his contract with CNN is finished…

But over the next five years came the realization that the business of cable news was shifting and that he would probably not be able to shift with it. The low point came when he anchored four hours on the Robert Blake case.

“It was totally ridiculous,” Brown says. “We came in the next day and there were 6,000 emails. People were upset. They all said, ‘You told us you were going to be different.’ ”

But it was the net’s highest-rated block since the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 in Queens.

“It’s what people watch; I didn’t like doing it, and I don’t think people bought it from me,” he says.

But what truly killed off “NewsNight” was the story of missing teen Natalee Holloway, who disappeared in Aruba in 2005 and became a fixation for cable news. “We got our asses kicked — it was brutal,” Brown says of Fox’s aggressive coverage of the story. “People ask me if I miss it and I say, ‘You mean do I miss Anna Nicole Smith?’ ”

Now Brown is at work on a pilot for NPR and weighing his options.

GretaWire blogs about last night’s interview with the nurse who was in Anna Nicole’s room the day she died…

Thursday night we aired part of our interview with Taz, the nurse who was in Anna Nicole Smith’s room the day she died. I learned many things talking to her — including that she was not there as a nurse that day to care for a sick Anna Nicole and that her occupation was a coincidence. She is the wife to Anna’s former bodyguard, who was there as a friend. He was not working as a bodyguard for her at the time of her death. The things Taz told us did not answer all my questions. I don’t know if they answer any questions you may have lingering. Here is what sticks with me: Taz was right there and she specifically says has questions. She seemed like a smart decent woman who is not trying to stir up trouble, but genuinely has questions about the death. This is one of those deaths that may be a totally explainable, non-negligent death, but the lack of information and some odd facts makes me wonder if we have done justice to this investigation. No matter what you think about Anna Nicole Smith or anyone attached to her story, the investigation should be thorough and fair.

Cable News Ratings for July 5, 2007

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 843,000 viewers
CNN – 461,000 viewers
MSNBC – 288,000 viewers
CNBC – 178,000 viewers
HLN – 249,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 1,485,000 viewers
CNN – 710,000 viewers
MSNBC – 547,000 viewers
CNBC – 146,000 viewers
HLN – 454,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC – 264,000 viewers
CNN –156,000 viewers
MSNBC – 102,000 viewers
CNBC – 52,000 viewers
HLN – 117,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 346,000 viewers
CNN – 229,000 viewers
MSNBC – 158,000 viewers
CNBC –a scratch with 38,000 viewers
HLN – 199,000 viewers

Morning programs P2+ (25-54)
FOX & Friends – 842,000 viewers (357,000)
American Morning – 297,000 viewers (85,000)
MSNBC Live (7-9 AM) – 285,000 viewers (82,000)
Robin & Co. –189,000 viewers (91,000)
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CNN announced this morning that anchor T.J. Holmes will be covering the New Orleans Essence Music Festival…

CNN anchor T.J. Holmes will report from the 2007 “Coming Home to New Orleans” Essence Music Festival on Friday, July 6, during CNN Newsroom as the festival returns to New Orleans for the first time since Hurricane Katrina. Holmes interviews New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin and Police Chief Warren Riley about the effects the festival and its 200,000 attendees will have on New Orleans.

CNN contributor Roland Martin will also contribute to a series of empowerment seminars called “Claiming Our City…Claiming Ourselves,” focusing on topics such as “Hip Hop on a Higher Ground,” “Rebuilding the Village: How to Save Your Children,” “Into the Light: Putting an End to Black Pain” and “What Makes a Man.” This coverage is part of CNN’s continued commitment to covering New Orleans and the Gulf Coast post-Katrina.
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Cable News Ratings for July 4, 2007

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 657,000 viewers
CNN – 431,000 viewers
MSNBC – 327,000 viewers
CNBC – a scratch with 91,000 viewers
HLN – 240,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 779,000 viewers
CNN – 519,000 viewers
MSNBC – 493,000 viewers
CNBC –a scratch with 87,000 viewers
HLN – 323,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC – 219,000 viewers
CNN –166,000 viewers
MSNBC – 173,000 viewers
CNBC – a scratch 40,000 viewers
HLN – 98,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 184,000 viewers
CNN – 150,000 viewers
MSNBC – 282,000 viewers
CNBC –a scratch with 40,000 viewers
HLN – 122,000 viewers

Morning programs P2+ (25-54)
FOX & Friends – 620,000 viewers (202,000)
American Morning – 394,000 viewers (169,000)
MSNBC Live (8-9 AM) – 173,000 viewers (77,000)
Robin & Co. –173,000 viewers (59,000)
(more…)

Rush and Molloy dish about an interview Maria Bartiromo gave to Hamptons Magazine…

It’s official: Maria Bartiromo has trademarked the name “Money Honey.” The CNBC financial reporter will start her own show with that name, produced by her own production company, she tells Hamptons magazine in a spread with Maria looking sexy on her gorgeous estate out east. “I’ll be honest — I don’t feel like a celebrity,” she tells the glossy. Indeed, she beat out political reporters to score an exclusive interview on CNBC tonight with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Beginning Monday, all FNC shows that air from Studio B will move to various other studios (Studios A, C, and D. A new fifth studio, Studio E, is currently under construction). Studio B and its control room are to be gutted and renovated. The obvious question is what happens to “Studio B with Shepard Smith”? Of course the show will continue, but will it still be called “Studio B” since it won’t be airing from Studio B anymore? We shall see…