The much talked about move of MSNBC to 30 Rock is on schedule. The technical operations team has been working all out getting the technical operations and office renovations ready and as of now all MSNBC programs slated to move to 30 Rock are on schedule to move well before Thanksgiving.

FishbowlNY speculates that a lunch date with Shelley Ross and Dan Abrams at Michael’s may be more than meets the eye…

11. An interesting duo: Shelley Ross and MSNBC’s Dan Abrams. There was buzz that the deposed ABC producer is about to land a top spot at CBS but perhaps her dance card is fuller than we know …

Eat the Press’ Sklar chronicles the fireworks on Morning Joe this morning as Joe Scarborough teed off on Don Imus…

WOW. Joe Scarborough delivered nothing short of a tour de force this morning on “Morning Joe” once the subject of Don Imus came up. Yes, that would be the very same Don Imus whose morning-show seat Scarborough’s been warming for the past three-plus months since Imus infamous “nappy headed hos” remark in late April, followed by his ignominious ouster. Now Imus has settled his termination dispute with CBS for a reputed $20 million and is free to once again work the airwaves (depending on who will have him) — and Joe had some opinions, which took the form of a hilarious stream-of-consciousness monologue peppered with arch commentary from sidekick Mika Brzezinski, plus a producer nervously talking through Joe’s earpiece telling him to wish Imus all the best. Joe wasn’t having any of that. Slightly edited version below, with our favorite quotes to follow:

Cable News Daily Ratings for August 14, 2007

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 868,000 viewers
CNN – 517,000 viewers
MSNBC – 305,000 viewers
CNBC – 195,000 viewers
HLN – 206,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 1,648,000 viewers
CNN – 937,000 viewers
MSNBC – 528,000 viewers
CNBC – 146,000 viewers
HLN – 356,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC – 237,000 viewers
CNN –147,000 viewers
MSNBC – 128,000 viewers
CNBC – 60,000 viewers
HLN – 81,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 395,000 viewers
CNN – 296,000 viewers
MSNBC – 213,000 viewers
CNBC – a scratch with 47,000 viewers
HLN – 153,000 viewers

Morning programs P2+ (25-54)
FOX & Friends – 832,000 viewers (271,000)
American Morning – 408,000 viewers (129,000)
MSNBC Live (7-9am) – 224,000 viewers (65,000)
Robin & Co. – 243,000 viewers (99,000)
(more…)

TVWeek’s Michele Greppi writes about a Rupert Murdoch profile CNBC’s Erin Burnett turned in on the Today show…

But there was no mention of the fact that CNBC will be confronted with its first direct competition for business news audiences from the Fox Business Network, which News Corp. plans to launch, or that MSNBC runs a distant third to Fox News Channel, or that News Corp. and NBCU are collaborating on a TV-and-movie distribution Web site, for that matter.

That absence was a glaring one, particularly given the extremes to which NBC News is going to showcase CNBC stars almost daily on “Today” and other NBCU platforms. In addition to Ms. Burnett, CNBC’s biggest star, Maria Bartiromo, also was spotlighted Tuesday in a live exchange about the volatile stock market during the first news wrap-up on “Today.”

ICN has obtained an email Roger Ailes just sent out announcing the passing of Chet Collier. Collier was a producer of the Mike Douglas Show and helped launch Fox News Channel.

It is with great sadness that I must announce that one of the great leaders of television, Chet Collier, passed away a short time ago in Florida. He had been battling illness for awhile and when I went to see him for two days over the 4th of July week, he was still watching the Fox News Channel every hour of the day. He was also still giving me good advice. He loved Fox News and was very proud of the accomplishments here. He never took any credit for himself, but we couldn’t have accomplished everything we did without him.

I do not know any more details at the moment, but I believe next month we’ll put together a memorial service here in New York. My condolences to his wife Dottie and his family. Godspeed Chet. We’ll miss you.

UPDATE: Shepard Smith is talking about Collier right now on Studio B…

In a must-read, Foxnews.com’s Roger Friedman writes that NBC/MSNBC News Executive Phil Griffin was a driving force behind Don Imus’ public apology “tour”…

More surprisingly, though, is news about why Imus suddenly turned up on the Rev. Al Sharpton’s radio show so quickly after his firing — and did a lot of press that some feel harmed him and fed the controversy. Some feel those media appearances led to his dismissal.

Now I’m told Imus was coaxed into doing them by NBC senior vice president Phil Griffin. Imus, sources say, wanted to just apologize to the Rutgers women’s basketball team he offended and leave it at that. In fact, they say, he apologized to the team several times for his derogatory remarks.

But Griffin, sources close to the action insist, pushed him into high-profile interviews on the “Today” show and elsewhere. Griffin, they say, threatened Imus with canceling his MSNBC TV simulcast if he didn’t do the big interviews. The result was that he fueled the fire instead of putting it out.

“He didn’t care about Imus,” says a source, “only NBC. He told Don he would lose the MSNBC show if he didn’t do the interviews. And then NBC canceled the show anyway.”

Someone has the long knives out for Griffin…

CNN announced the first stop in the Campaign 2008 seaason for the Express Yourself Tour will be the Iowa State Fair…

The CNN Election Express Yourself – the network’s customized Airstream trailer designed to give Americans across the nation an interactive political experience – will pull into Des Moines, Iowa, on Friday, Aug. 17, and Saturday, Aug. 18, when it arrives at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. The fair marks the first stop in the 2008 political season for the traveling exhibit as it makes its way across the United States visiting cities and events leading up to next year’s presidential election.

“The CNN Election Express Yourself gives our audiences the chance to express themselves on a whole range of issues that have an impact on the American political scene,” said Scot Safon, senior vice president of marketing and promotion. “In this new age of independent thinking and self-expression, Election Express Yourself gives people a chance to share their perspectives with CNN’s entire global audience.”
(more…)

Last night, Greta Van Susteren aired an interview with former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto during On The Record. The interview is now posted online. Yesterday, Greta blogged about it…

You may find these facts interesting if you don’t already know them: she was first Prime Minister in 1988 at the age of 35, her father, also a Pakistani Prime Minister was executed, she was educated at Harvard, has been under arrest in Pakistan and now lives in exile. She told us she wants to go back to Pakistan and participate in an election (she wants to be Prime Minster again) but that the current Prime Minister, General Musharraf, would arrest her if she went back there. Oddly they met in secret in Dubai in July (a meeting she admits to but says she can’t admit to…) We asked her many questions including what effect she thinks Senator Obama’s latest remarks about Pakistan have on the Pakistanis.

This morning on MSNBC, Jay Barbree mentioned his space book will be coming out soon. TVNewser is treating it like MSNBC scooped NBC but the reality is this book wasn’t any big secret. TVN and ICN both blogged about the Imus Show Blog’s story on it back in July of 2006…

TVNewser is reporting that Heather Nauert will be starting on The Big Story after Labor Day…

CNBC announced that it will air “Against the Tide: The Battle for New Orleans” Sunday, August 26th at 10pmET…

UPDATE: CNBC released an updated version which I have replaced the original with.

August 15, 2007-”Against the Tide: The Battle for New Orleans,” an original CNBC one-hour documentary analyzing how the New Orleans business community has recovered from the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina two years later, will be broadcast Sunday, August 26th at 10PM ET, on CNBC, First in Business Worldwide.

From an in-depth look at “The Road Home”-a program created to give federal funds to Katrina-struck homeowners-to a look at the small businesses that have helped revive New Orleans, CNBC examines the business side of the New Orleans recovery effort.

“Unlike many of the other Hurricane Katrina anniversary programs, CNBC focuses on the businesses and their integral role in the revival of the city,” said Josh Howard, Vice President Long Form and Special Programming. “The documentary investigates how the business community responded to the crisis and the stories behind which businesses rebuilt and which businesses to this day are still lost in the tragedy.”
(more…)

Just curious, but has anyone on cable picked up on this LA Times story? I would think this would be big news…

Intent on demonstrating progress in Iraq, the top U.S. general there is expected by Bush administration officials to recommend removing American troops soon from several areas where commanders believe security has improved, possibly including Al Anbar province.

According to the officials, Gen. David H. Petraeus is expected to propose the partial pullback in his September status report to Congress, when both the war’s critics and supporters plan to reassess its course. Administration officials who support the current troop levels hope Petraeus’ recommendations will persuade Congress to reject pressure for a major U.S. withdrawal.

UPDATE: A little after 10 am ET, FNC’s America’s Newsroom reported on the story. Anyone else?

MSNBC.com put up the Guilty Pleasures page on the MSNBC TV page yesterday. And now I understand why. It’s a tie in to a theme from MSNBC.com’s Lifestyle section asking readers to submit their own guilty pleasures.

Information Week’s Thomas Claburn writes about Wikipedia now having the ability to trace editors’ IP addresses as part of an effort to cut down on spin control. One section in the article caught my eye…

In addition to a generic submission form that accepts queries by organization, IP address, or Wikipedia page, WikiScanner provides a list of links that execute pre-set queries for high-profile companies that are or have been embroiled in political or social controversies. These companies include Amgen, Diebold, ExxonMobil, Pfizer, and Wal-Mart. The site also includes links to query about media organizations like the Al-Jazeera, New York Times, and Fox News.

The Fox News link reveals, for example, that October 11, 2005, someone at an IP address associated with Fox News (12.167.224.228) edited Fox News anchor Shepard Smith’s Wikipedia entry to remove a paragraph about Smith’s 2000 arrest “for aggravated battery with a motor vehicle.” At some later point, that information was restored.

Wired News maintains an ongoing list of “the Most Shameful Wikipedia Spin Jobs,” which includes efforts by numerous companies to improve their public image by removing unflattering information.