Mikey Kaus blogs about the CNN/YouTube debate and thinks they’re blowing it…

So who will decide which 30-second YouTube “video questions” get broadcast on Monday?

CNN will produce the televised events and will select the questions used in the debates. [E.A.]

Kind of misses the point, doesn’t it? Instead of being spontaneously and uncontrollably selected by Web democracy, the YouTube questions will be safely filtered through the predictable, respectable sensibilities of CNN editors. They’ll be not much different from the queries traditionally sent to the front of the room on index cards–just in video form. Sure, the questions will be asked by “voters from around the country,” but debates have been accepting (filtered) email questions for years, no?

UPDATE: The St. Petersberg Times’ Eric Deggans blogs about the incident and says FNC wasn’t involved…

Not long after Olbermann’s session ended, I moseyed into the TCA press room, where reporters can hop on the Internet, pick up press releases and make phone calls between press conferences. Someone — I wanted to believe it was a staffer from Fox News, but I have been assured it was not them — had festooned the room with color copied flyers proclaiming Olbermann’s Countdown show was “fourth in a four horse race at 8 p.m.” 25 percent of the time among viewers aged 25 to 54, behind O’Reilly, CNN’s Paula Zahn and CNN Headline News’ Nancy Grace.

Glenn Beck will be airing the entire RFK Jr. interview he did a couple of weeks ago. The previous version apparently had edits in it. Afterwards Beck will comment further on it.

I’ve been doing this blog for over two years now. In all that time I have not seen such a sustained commentary response over any talent as I’ve witnessed over the two blog posts I did on Tamron Hall. You wouldn’t notice unless you could monitor the blog’s comment traffic. Since I posted those two entries on May 17th a steady stream of comments has been rolling in…two to three per day. 152 total, so far. Obviously they’re mostly Chicago viewers but still it’s unprecedented. BTW, I hear Tamron Hall may start at MSNBC as early as next week.

The Street’s Brett Arends writes about something that, if it happens, would be CNBC’s worst nightmare…

Naming rights to the DJIA may be the surprise kicker to Murdoch’s $6 billion-plus battle for control of The Wall Street Journal’s publisher. Dow Jones spokesman Howard Hoffman confirms that the company’s owner would have exclusive rights to the index and its name.

Hoffman questions whether Murdoch would want to tinker with one of the most famous names in the financial world. “The Dow Jones Industrial Average is an iconic brand,” he points out.

Just think. If News Corp. does acquire Dow Jones, it is entirely feasible that CNBC could have to refer to the “Fox Business Network Industrial Average”. As would MSNBC. And CNN. And HLN. But would it really happen? And would there be blowback?

All three cable news channels are covering the transformer/steam pipe explosion in NYC at 7pm ET. As I just got home I don’t know for how long this has been going on.

Tuesday was not CNBC’s night. The network scratched every hour in the Demo from 6-9pm. Fast Money and American Made double scratched. Donny Deutsch scratched in Total Viewers. Mad Money scratched in the Demo at 11 pm. Three networks, MSNBC, CNBC, and HLN all scratched in the Demo at 6pm.
CNN’s You Tube Debate Countdown beat Countdown without Keith Olbermann in Total Viewers and the Demo.

Cable News Ratings for July 17, 2007

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 894,000 viewers
CNN – 463,000 viewers
MSNBC – 261,000 viewers
CNBC – 196,000 viewers
HLN – 202,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 1,636,000 viewers
CNN – 725,000 viewers
MSNBC – 350,000 viewers
CNBC – a scratch with 109,000 viewers
HLN – 348,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC – 269,000 viewers
CNN –139,000 viewers
MSNBC – 81,000 viewers
CNBC – 69,000 viewers
HLN – 86,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 387,000 viewers
CNN – 200,000 viewers
MSNBC – 97,000 viewers
CNBC –a scratch with 45,000 viewers
HLN – 132,000 viewers

Morning programs P2+ (25-54)
FOX & Friends – 750,000 viewers (312,000)
American Morning – 425,000 viewers (118,000)
MSNBC Live (7-9 AM) – 230,000 viewers (53,000)
Robin & Co. –152,000 viewers (74,000)
(more…)

There’s quite a bit of buzz going on in some corners of the internet over last night’s segment on the Senator Vitter saga on Countdown with substitute host Alison Stewart. I did not see the segment myself but this is what I have been able to piece together. Stewart was interviewing Radar’s Jeff Bercovici on the subject of Vitter and his wife’s choice of outfit selection for the statement Senator Vitter made on Monday.

While the segment played out, a series of lower thirds with rolled by saying things like “Don’t Mess with the Mrs.”, “Vitters’ Sweet Symphony”, “Fashion ho-pas?”, and “Dressed to Kill”. The entire segment concerned Mrs. Vitter’s fashion choice.

STEWART: When you first saw Mrs. Vitter standing by her man, what was your reaction?

BERCOVICI: I think you have to call it disbelief. The idea that somebody would wear that kind of outfit to any sort of crisis control press conference is hard to believe enough in itself. But to go to a conference where your are addressing your husband‘s infidelity with prostitutes and you yourself are looking like—apologies for this—but she‘s looking a little like a prostitute.

STEWART: She looks saucy, we‘ll say.

BERCOVICI: I think it brings up associations that you don‘t want to bring up in that situation.

STEWART: And he is really not in the position right now to say, honey, could you slip into a cardigan and some pearls?

BERCOVICI: Exactly.

This segment has caused a bit of an uproar on the internet for two reasons. One, some objected to the subject. Daily Kos’ Osterizer thought the whole segment was out of bounds…
(more…)

David Rhodes internal memo to staff announcing the hiring of former ABC Newser John Boswell as FNC’s Atlanta Bureau Chief.

From: Rhodes, David
Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2007 11:30 AM

Subject: Atlanta-Bureau Chief

John Boswell is our new Atlanta Bureau Chief, beginning work Monday, July 23rd.

John joins us from ABCNews, where he was Assignment Manager for that network’s southern bureaus, based in Atlanta.

Over the years John has managed ABC’s coverage of major field assignments from hurricanes to elections to Elian Gonzalez. Earlier in his career he worked at WAGA.

For this transition: Assignment Manager Tim Gaughan will be in Atlanta on John’s first day Monday. Miami Bureau Chief Nancy Harmeyer will work out of the Atlanta bureau for the balance of next week, giving John an orientation on Fox News.

We’re pleased to welcome to Fox News someone with John Boswell’s experience and editorial strength.

TVGuide’s Stephen Battaglio writes about Keith Olbermann hosting the AFL-CIO Forum and also has Olbermann at the TCA siding against the Democrats in the CBC Institute/FNC Debate…

Olbermann, a critic of the Bush administration whose ratings have spiked as the president’s popularity ratings have dropped, is by far the most partisan TV news anchor selected to moderate such an event in the current campaign season. His selection comes after the Democrats have very publicly rebuffed offers by Fox News Channel to sponsor a debate because they believe the channel has a pro-Republican bias. Olbermann, never known to come to the defense of Fox News, believes that was a mistake.

“I don’t know if I would advise anyone to pass up free television time,” he told reporters at the Television Critics Association press tour. “Whether it’s Fox News or Al Jazeera.”

In a total must read, the Seattle Post Intelligencer’s Melanie McFarland blogs about Keith Olberman’s appearance at the TCA. Olbermann doesn’t specifically say it, but, if you read between the lines from some of these responses, he’s practically outing his show Countdown as Liberal oriented - I believe the first time he’s come anywhere near doing that.

On why there is no liberal answer to Fox News Channel:

“I have no doubt about this in my mind … if tomorrow morning, if Rupert Murdoch woke up and – well, first off, if tomorrow morning Rupert Murdoch woke up – but if he woke up and someone had convinced him or it came to him into a dream that he could make twice as much money by turning Fox News Channel into a liberal operation, I think he’d do it. How he interacted with British politics showed that.

“I’m not really sure why people haven’t come and tried to pick our pocket on this, because there is an audience for this. I think there is something to the idea that a lot of the people who would consume what I do are out at some sort of fundraiser at 8 o’clock at night, and might be watching it on DVR or might be watching the thing only on YouTube without actually being in front of a television, and people at the other end of the political spectrum might be.

“But to what degree that explains … I don’t know. I don’t think that anybody has done the fundamental thing you need to make a non-conservative version of Fox News work — the number one thing being, they have to be good shows.

“And if you look at a lot of the stuff that has been offered, it’s not good television. It might not be good radio. It might lack any sense of humor. You’re going to lose the people who don’t have a sense of humor to the conservative version of it anyway. They’re already over there. You’re not going to get them.

“So why not try to mix it, as we did, mix it with elements of the newscast? Make it pop culture. Make it societally relevant to people. Make it full service.

The Orlando Sentinel’s Hal Boedeker blogs about Keith Olbermann’s appearance at NBC’s part of the July TCA…

Olbermann said he sends e-mails back and forth to White House spokesman Tony Snow, who watches Olbermann’s “Countdown” and often yells at the screen. Olbermann said their e-mail conversations these days focus on baseball.

Olbermann has become one of the Bush administration’s most vocal critics. His commentaries have become viewer favorites. The first one about Donald Rumsfeld got the biggest reaction, Olbermann said. “That was a dam-burst kind of thing,” Olbermann said.

His other standout commentary was a fiery July 3 segment urging President Bush and Vice President Cheney to resign. “This one seemed to have hit a lot of people who hadn’t seen the ones previously,” Olbermann said.

Is Olbermann generally angry these days?

“No, I’m a lot less angry now that we started doing these,” he said.

The Wall Street Journal’s Sarah Ellison, Matthew Karnitsching, and Dennis K. Berman write about the latest developments in the News Corp./Dow Jones saga…

The board of Dow Jones & Co. voted to approve News Corp.’s $5 billion bid for the company last night, with two directors abstaining from the vote and one leaving the meeting early, according to people familiar with the matter.

Leslie Hill, a member of the Bancroft family, and Dieter von Holtzbrinck abstained from the vote, while Christopher Bancroft — who has been actively seeking alternatives to the News Corp. bid — left the meeting early, these people said. One person familiar with the deliberations said that legal liability prevented the two Bancroft members from registering “no” votes, but that their sentiment was against the deal.

The backing of the 16-member board sends the offer to the Bancroft family, which controls the majority voting power of the company, for a final vote. The family is set to meet Monday and will be given several days to consider the deal. The board’s endorsement puts some pressure on the Bancrofts to back a sale, but doesn’t obligate family members — who have been divided over the bid — to do so.

Marketwatch’s Jon Friedman interviews Tim Russert…

Maybe because I hold Russert to such high standards, I was disappointed by “Meet the Press” last Sunday. For a moment, the exchange between Sens. Jim Webb and Lindsey Graham threatened to disintegrate into “Crossfire,” formerly a noisefest on CNN that masqueraded as political commentary.

From where I sat, the Virginia and South Carolina senators were grandstanding as they talked tough. Graham at one point rolled his eyes and Webb challenged him by saying, “May I speak?”

When I asked Russert about it, he said: “It was a first for me. Political pundits have gotten theatrical. But I’ve never had two senators who got that passionate and emotional. I thought this [discussion] was so important — about the war — that it would be helpful for the country to see just how frayed and raw the emotions are in Washington.”

Last night on Hardball John Edwards agreed to a three person debate with Hillary Clinton and Dennis Kucinich. It’s not clear when this debate will occur.