TVNewser writes that Countdown came close to beating The O’Reilly Factor last night and broke out quarter hour numbers as evidence. I’m not convinced of the persuasiveness of this entry. Using quarter hours as a benchmark seems like shaky methodology to me at best. O’Reilly still won the hour so it really doesn’t matter what Countdown did for select 15 minute segments, does it?

And this really doesn’t change anything. The Factor continues to regularly beat Countdown in The Demo. TVNewser paints the Demo battle as getting closer, but the data is inconclusive at best. Countdown may be having a good week but it’s still just one week. Ratings trends need to be measured in the long term. Only time will tell whether Countdown is on the upswing vs. The Factor or this is just a temporary blip on the ratings radar. I would be interested in seeing a chart with long term Live+SD data (TVN uses Live+SD so that’s why I refer to it) for the two programs to accurately gauge what’s going on with the Live+SD ratings for the two programs.

Presidential candidate Fred Thompshon was interviewed by CNN’s Chief National Correspondent John King today. Transcript follows…

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I want to start with an issue inthe news today, the reports of a new bin Laden videotape to come out, this on the sixth anniversary of 9/11.

To what degree should the American people hold the president of the United States responsible for the fact that bin Laden is still at large six years later?

FRED THOMPSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think bin Laden is more of a symbolism than he is anything else. I think he shows and demonstrates to people once again that we’re in a global war.
(more…)

During CNN’s Newsroom, CNN’s Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre reported on the latest news regarding possible troop reductions in Iraq. Transcript follows…

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: New information on the idea of U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq.

Jamie McIntyre is at the Pentagon with more — Jamie?

JAMIE MCINTYRE, SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s been listening carefully to what General David Petraeus and his top commanders have been saying, but military officials are now confirming to CNN that General Petraeus will recommend to President Bush that the U.S. maintain the current troop levels in Iraq, at least until next spring when the surge is scheduled to end with the normal rotations that will bring down troop levels over a series of months from about 160,000 to 130,000.

Those officials also strongly disputed accounts that were — published reports today in both “The Washington Post” and “The New York Times,” suggesting that General Petraeus was — could accept or was willing to consider pulling out or pulling back a brigade of U.S. troops early next year to assuage critics in Congress.
(more…)

CNBC’s On the Money, Fast Money and Donny Deutsch all scratched in the Demo…

Cable News Daily Live Ratings for September 6, 2007

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 888,000 viewers
CNN – 530,000 viewers
MSNBC – 284,000 viewers
CNBC – 200,000 viewers
HLN – 221,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 1,711,000 viewers
CNN – 771,000 viewers
MSNBC – 551,000 viewers
CNBC – 158,000 viewers
HLN – 481,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC – 239,000 viewers
CNN – 180,000 viewers
MSNBC – 116,000 viewers
CNBC – 64,000 viewers
HLN – 95,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 378,000 viewers
CNN – 246,000 viewers
MSNBC – 209,000 viewers
CNBC – 46,000 viewers
HLN – 174,000 viewers

Morning programs P2+ (25-54)
FOX & Friends – 843,000 viewers (285,000)
American Morning – 419,000 viewers (156,000)
MSNBC Live (7-9am) – 214,500 viewers (68,000)
Robin & Co. – 180,000 viewers (73,000)
(more…)

The Los Angeles Times Tom Petruno has an interview with Mad Money’s Jim Cramer…

How’d you get invited to USC?

This is one where the trustees and the alum played a major role. Typically it has been the [student] stock club that has gotten it started. This was much more from a level that told us we had buy-in, so to speak.

You’ve found that you aren’t welcome at every campus you’d like to take the show?

We are a disruptive influence. But USC is a school where they’ve had so much experience with filming.

We were supposed to go to Notre Dame during football season. At the last minute they pulled it. Stanford said no. We got a direct turn-down from them a year and a half ago.

Johny Dollar has the audio from today’s Brian and The Judge radio show where Chris Wallace phones in to talk about the debate…

The Street.com’s John Fout writes about the FNC New Hampshire Debate…

The fifth debate sponsored by the New Hampshire State Republican Party and Fox News was by far the liveliest yet. Fox News looked for every hot button and pushed them fast and furiously.

The opening push was aimed at the candidate not present: Thompson. The lumbering Tennessee politico/actor chose to skip the debate to announce his candidacy on NBC’s Tonight Show With Jay Leno, but that didn’t stop his fellow candidates from ripping into him. Indeed, Fox, apparently miffed at being upstaged, dangled the Thompson candidacy before them like a bagful of kittens before a pit bull. “Maybe we’re up past his bedtime,” sniped Sen. John McCain.

It seems Fox News read about Mitt Romney skewering Rudy Giuliani on immigration. Chris Wallace asked Giuliani about his sanctuary policy, and Giuliani was prepared. He dodged the sanctuary issue, but he did point out that the Immigration and Naturalization Service refused to respond to law enforcement requests when he was mayor. What could Giuliani do but create policies to deal with a problem he didn’t invent that was perpetuated by the federal government?

Ads for CNN’s Larry King Live have been airing during MSNBC Live with Dan Abrams in the New York market. These sorts of things are usually screw ups at the local cable level and I don’t for one second believe that CNN had anything to do with this ad buy placement. Still it’s rather humorous to see CNN appearing to advertise on Abrams considering how he has been taking on the network very publicly the past couple of weeks.

It’s Giuliani, not Guiliani. (via My Two Sense)

The Bin Laden tape was released to the media this afternoon after Reuters obtained the tape from a web trawler in Europe, and fed it to clients at about 3:15 PM this afternoon. FNC and MSNBC, both Reuters clients, used the video and transcript and reported the news from the Bin Laden video.

In a case of really bad timing, CNN dropped Reuters from its newsgathering roster last week. The network had to rely on a transcript that everyone had and then scramble to get footage, which didn’t make it on air until 30 minutes following MSNBC and FNC reporting the latest developments.

MSNBC, in what its advertisement is billing as a “living history event”, will be rebroadcasting NBC’s coverage of 9/11 starting at 9 am ET on 9/11. They did this last year for the 5th anniversary of 9/11 so I’m somewhat at a loss as to why it’s being repeated this year.

GretaWire blogs about the behind the scenes of a recently taped interview with Nikki Sixx. With video…

I particularly liked the second clip posted since I never get to see this - it is behind the scenes video inside our control room during the interview. Obviously I am on the set during the interview…so even I get to see something new!

CNN’s release on adding mini campaign bureaus in several key primary states…

CNN strengthens its political coverage with the establishment of three campaign “mini” bureaus in key 2008 early election states—Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. This commitment of resources adds to CNN’s unparalleled access into each state’s political happenings and insights into the candidates’ relationships with voters there.

The mini bureaus, already operational, are staffed by CNN producers and will increase their resources as the primaries and caucuses approach. They will be located at three CNN Newsource affiliate stations: Hearst-Argyle Television’s KCCI-TV in Des Moines, Iowa, and WMUR-TV in Manchester, N.H.; and Raycom’s WIS-TV in Columbia, S.C. All CNN material produced in these mini bureaus will be available to each of the more than 800 CNN Newsource affiliates, augmenting the comprehensive content available to them each day.

“Our daily presence through these mini bureaus offers a local perspective to a national story that you cannot get from reporting only within the Beltway or following individual campaigns,” said CNN political director Sam Feist. “Thanks to the strong relationships with all of our CNN Newsource affiliates, we are able to extend the resources of the best political team on television even further, offering the best coverage anywhere of the 2008 presidential election.”
(more…)

CNN’s Suzanne Malveux, travelling with the President, reported on American Morning regarding a terse exchange between President Bush and South Korea’s President. Transcript follows…

CHETRY: Also new this morning, a major development out of North Korea. The State Department says that experts from the U.S. are going to be traveling to North Korea next week. They’re going to be surveying nuclear sites ahead of the planned shutdown.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTOPHER HILL, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: So I think it’s a good step. We have to see what the results are of the visit. Our hope is that they can agree on some disabling measures that are, first of all, meet the definition of disabling, which is to make it very difficult to bring a facility back online.
(more…)

Wired.com’s Adario Strange writes a follow up to a piece on the channel switch where Strange argued it was a less desirable location. Today Strange has reaction from MSNBC’s VP of Communications Jeremy Gaines…

Jeremy Gaines, MSNBC’s VP of Communications said, “The best channel positions in cable are the lower ones, not the higher ones. Our new channel position is fantastic.” This struck as an odd position considering that 1) one of the most successful cable news outlets (Fox News) is on channel 46 (on TimeWarner cable New York), and 2) MSNBC seemed to have no problem with it’s channel 43 location for the last ten years.

TMZ.com reports that Larry King was visiting the Central Park Zoo yesterday. King is in NYC this week taping shows.

The Hill’s Betsy Rothstein profiles On The Record’s Greta Van Susteren’s penchant for tech gadgets.

Inside the Apple Store, one of the young men in green T-shirts asks, “Can I help you?”

“No, but I can probably help you, though,” Van Susteren replies. She asks about new iPhone products, ear buds, a wireless scanner and the third-party Bluetooth headset.

She knows her gadgets; she has three cell phones, two iPods, six Apple laptops and piles of power cords that she carries with her around the world.

Van Susteren’s quip to the shop assistant comes off more funny than obnoxious. “I’m teasing you!” she says, and the frightened look fades from the young man’s face. The truth is, her offer is dead-on. She knows her Apple products.

Wilshire & Washington’s Ted Johnson blogs about the FNC debate ratings…

The GOP debate last night in New Hampshire — which many news outlets declared the liveliest yet — drew more than 3.14 million viewers, according to Nielsen, making it the highest rated debate so far in this election cycle.

It topped CNN’s Democratic presidential debate from New Hampshire on June 3, which drew some 2.7 million viewers.

There has been some speculation that viewers would get debate-weary, given the sheer number of forums on the schedule. But an entirely different school of thought suggests that viewership would get bigger as the primaries get closer.

Variety’s Michael Learmonth writes about what was also on my mind as I was reading CNBC’s release on the Debate announcement yesterday…

CNBC hasn’t faced any direct competition other than Bloomberg TV since CNNfn closed down in 2004. The network has been eager to strengthen its lineup before Fox goes online, and a presidential debate is the kind of halo event that could bring additional attention to the network.

It also gives CNBC the opportunity to flaunt its ongoing relationship with the Wall Street Journal, even as Dow Jones passes into News Corp. ownership.

News Corp.’s acquisition of Dow Jones is considered a coup for the nascent Fox Business Network, but it’s locked in a content deal with CNBC until 2012.

Marketwatch’s Jon Friedman writes about rivalry between CNBC’s two biggest star female talents…

It’s always compelling when an established star has to contend with a charismatic up-and-comer. This happens all the time, in sports, movies, rock ‘n’ roll, politics — you name it.

Today, the media biz’s juiciest smackdown is taking place inside the hallowed halls of CNBC. Maria Bartiromo is fending off Erin Burnett, who is about nine years her junior. When I checked IMDB.com, it said Bartiromo will turn 40 on Tuesday (which is the sixth anniversary of 9/11, no less). Happy Birthday, Money Honey!

Lately, the blogosphere and the tabloids have been captivated by the melodrama unfolding at CNBC headquarters in suburban New Jersey. For its part, CNBC officials play down the chatter as silly gossip and say the two popular anchors can work and play well together.

FTVLive rips TVNewser for ripping it off without attribution…

Yesterday FTVLive reported FIRST that “CNBC lawyers were planning on filing papers with New York Supreme Court Today (Yesterday) to try an obtain an emergency injunction in order to keep Eric Bolling from appearing on Fox News Channel.”

Six hours after FTVLive posted that story, TVNewser writes “We hear the case of former CNBC Fast Money contributor Eric Bolling is back in court today.”

Gee Chris….Where did you hear that from? FTVLive maybe? Tisk tisk…

The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz writes about Wednesday’s debate…

As for the debate, Fox’s innovation was not YouTube but ChowDown: Carl Cameron in a New Hampshire diner, letting a couple of residents sound off and asking the candidates to respond. All the candidates talked tough on immigration and terror, and all but Ron Paul pronounced the Iraq surge a success. Most interesting moment: Mike Huckabee and Paul going at it over Iraq. Why don’t more debate moderators let the candidates argue?

The Street.com’s Doug Kass blogs about the latest chatter in the talent war between FBN and CNBC…

The planning for the Fox Business Network and the acquisition of former CNBC reporters continues apace. The Oct. 15 debut will be positioned on Time Warner Cable Channel 43, at which time, Fox News will move to Channel 44. The launch appears on target, and Director of Business News Alexis Glick (who will also be on air) is expected to bag CNBC’s Liz Claman and Eric Bolling.

Also being “courted” are David Faber and Mark Haines and a well-known CNBC political commentator. Attempts to engage Maria “Money Honey” Bartiromo in a multiyear, multimillion dollar deal were squashed, owing to her contractual obligations. (Her CNBC deal expires in 2009.) A half-hour show, “The Bear Cave,” will be introduced in early 2008, featuring a well-known Kodiak. On a separate note, CNBC will be making some important after-market programming changes later this month.