General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker were interviewed by Brit Hume exclusively on FNC earlier tonight. Transcript highlight follows…

HUME: Do the rules of engagement that you’re operating under allow you to do what you think needs to be done to suppress this activity on the part of Iran? Or perhaps do you need assistance from military not under your command to do this?

PETRAEUS: Well, they allow us to do what we need to do with inside Iraq.

HUME: Right.

PETRAEUS: Beyond that…

HUME: Is that enough, in your view?

PETRAEUS: Well, that’s what I’m responsible for. And, again, when I have concerns about something beyond that, I take them, of course, to my boss, Admiral Fallon, who is the regional commander. And, in fact, we have shared our concerns with him and with the chain of command. And there’s a pretty hard look ongoing at that particular situation.
(more…)

Nielsen issued a release announcing a new commercial tracking service. Read it all the way to the bottom. That last sentence doesn’t further the cause of using time-shifted ratings as a sales guide…

The Nielsen Company announced today the launch of a new web-based commercial tracking system, KeepingTrac, which for the first time, enables clients to know whether their commercials ran the previous day according to their media plans. Until now, clients typically had to wait weeks for a report on commercial airings.

Carat is the first client to sign-up for this new system, thereby giving Carat the opportunity to track commercial airings on a daily or weekly basis, see if Gross Ratings Point (GRP) commitments have been achieved, determine whether buying guidelines (including demographic targets) have been met, and modify advertising campaigns in real time as necessary.

KeepingTrac is the only service that provides clients with up-to-date data on television commercial airings and GRP delivery as compared to the media buy schedule. By automating this process, KeepingTrac provides next-day reporting and offers a complete view of the advertising campaign’s performance while still in progress.
(more…)

Cable News Daily Live Ratings for September 7, 2007

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 810,000 viewers
CNN – 549,000 viewers
MSNBC – 322,000 viewers
CNBC – 240,000 viewers
HLN – 233,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 1,418,000 viewers
CNN – 823,000 viewers
MSNBC – 624,000 viewers
CNBC – 194,000 viewers
HLN – 450,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC – 187,000 viewers
CNN – 188,000 viewers
MSNBC – 133,000 viewers
CNBC – 88,000 viewers
HLN – 96,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 284,000 viewers
CNN – 253,000 viewers
MSNBC – 221,000 viewers
CNBC – 60,000 viewers
HLN – 157,000 viewers

Morning programs P2+ (25-54)
FOX & Friends – 854,000 viewers (269,000)
American Morning – 472,000 viewers (178,000)
MSNBC Live (7-9am) – 180,500 viewers (a scratch with 42,500)
Robin & Co. – 256,000 viewers (112,000)
(more…)

Good Grief. Is this a joke?

The above preview is from Eric J. Kuhn’s interview with Mad Money’s Jim Cramer for USC’s Take 5 program. Cramer was out at USC last week for his Mad Money College Tour. The interview airs on September 21st at 5 and 8 pm PST. It will also be streamed on Trojan Vision.

Is William Arkin off of NBC News’ Military analysts roster? That’s the rumor I’ve heard but so far have not been able to get a confirmation out of anyone I have asked. My questions have been met with silence. If it was done, it was done ultra-quietly because you just know Bill O’Reilly would be all over that faster than you can blink. And O’Reilly hasn’t done anything on it as far as I know.

Willie Nelson was interviewed by CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield regarding Farm Aid 2007. Transcript follows…

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Familiar faith and sound he’s been at it for decades and shows no signs of letting up. Singer Willie Nelson is fighting for the little guy, trying to save America’s family farms and he’s at it again this year with Farm Aid 2007. The benefit concert is shaping up to be as informal and star packed as ever. But the venue is not America’s heartland this year. Big time, it’s the big apple.

Earlier I had a chance to talk with Willie Nelson. Despite all his hard work he says family farms are still being squeezed financially. That’s why he is still at it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIE NELSON: We’ve been doing Farm Aid many years, and our hope was we would only have to do one and then the powers that be, so to speak, would pass a good farm bill where a farmer could take 200 acres and make a living like they used to. That hasn’t happened, and that’s why we’re still having Farm Aids these 20-something years later. It’s not a good sign when we have to do this.
(more…)

CNN’s release on Anderson Cooper 360 broadcasting from Iraq this week..

Amid the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, and an impending progress report from Gen. David Petraeus about the war in Iraq, CNN’s Anderson Cooper and a team of CNN’s top correspondents travel to Afghanistan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia to take full stock of the war on terrorism. As part of the coverage, Cooper will be embedded with U.S. troops as he reports from the front line in an area near Baghdad known as the “Triangle of Death.”

Cooper, who returns to the region for his fourth time, will anchor Anderson Cooper 360° live from Iraq from Monday, Sept. 10, to Friday, Sept. 14, from 10 p.m. to midnight (ET).
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The Huffington Post’s Jason Linkins writes about what each of the cable nets was saying before Petraeus came to Capitol Hill…

So, today’s the big day that grizzled folk-hero and friend to woodland creatures General David Petraeus goes to Washington to deliver all the positive spin that the actual news from Iraq seems unable to provide. How is this landmark visit being set up?

BigHeadDC explains what happens when someone doesn’t BCC everyone he knows…

It was supposed to be funny. But what was even funnier happened after Beckerman proudly sent an e-mail out to his pals and colleagues pointing to the piece. Instead of including his contact list in the TO: box, he just CC’d everyone he knew, explaining that when he BCC’s people using his Yahoo e-mail address, his messages tend to go directly to spam.

And then debauchery of the sort one might see at a Star Trek convention began.

“No problem,” Mike Jasper, a writer based in Texas, quickly wrote back. “Only a total asshole would hit ‘reply to all’ anyway.” A few more “replies to all” trickled in, with one even suggesting that Beckerman had once touched the sender inappropriately.

Enter FOX News’ Lindsay Carlton, a booker for the net’s morning Red Eye program. “Can you please take me off this list??” she asked with urgency.

Soon, a Klingon-like war began.

The Politico’s Mike Allen blogs about tonight’s FNC exclusive…

General Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker are scheduled to testify from 12:30 p.m. to roughly 6:30 p.m. today, with two breaks, at a joint House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs hearing. Then they head down the Hill to the Fox Washington bureau for a live, one-hour joint sit-down with Washington Managing Editor Brit Hume at 9 p.m. The “Fox News Special” preempts “Hannity & Colmes.” (Sorry, Larry. Consolation: They’re up against a “Monday Night Football” double-header, starting with Ravens at Bengals. You can bet Kevin Madden will TiVo the General.)

The New York Times’ Brian Stelter writes about the CNN/Reuters/Bin Laden mess from Friday…

A CNN correspondent did obtain a transcript of bin Laden’s message and used archival footage to report on it. But television relies on fresh visuals; without them, CNN, which is owned by Time Warner, continued its regular news coverage while Fox News Channel and MSNBC covered the bin Laden tape as breaking news.

In explaining the decision to cancel the Reuters contract the week before, Tony Maddox, a CNN International executive, had said that the company would make significant investments in its own news-gathering capabilities and reduce its reliance on outside agencies.

Without the wire service, CNN was put in an unpleasant position. Through an arrangement with the Arabic news network Al Jazeera, it was able to show the new video half an hour after its competitors. Al Jazeera, too, was broadcasting the Reuters video.

The Jewish Daily Forward’s Nathan Guttman writes about allegations of innacuracies in CNN’s “God’s Warriors” series…(via TVNewser)

“This was not an average show,” said Jennifer Laszlo-Mizrahi, founder of The Israel Project. “CNN bought full-page ads promoting the show and ran it on prime time. The perspective the show left the viewers with is that Israel doesn’t want peace and that Israel’s friends in the United States don’t want peace.” The Israel Project, a group focused on providing information to the press and the public about Israel, broke a five-year tradition of not reacting to media reports on Israel and put out a press release about the Amanpour show, detailing Israel’s efforts to promote peace in the region.

“The program definitely has a great damage potential because of the people who watch CNN,” Laszlo-Mizrahi added, pointing to the fact that foreign officials and decision makers tend to view CNN as an important news source.

Relations between Jewish organizations and American media outlets were rocky during the first years of the intifada when Jewish activists protested outside almost every major media outlet and threatened to embark on reader boycotts. As violence on the ground died down, though, so did the tensions over media coverage. Now, “God’s Warriors” has the potential of drawing the Jewish community into the media debate once again.

Eat The Press’ Rachel Sklar just loves Chris Matthews in pink…

Chris Matthews thinks pink brings out his tan, especially on consecutive days! We approve, we think wearing pink sends a strong signal of confidence in your masculinity. Also, it’s pretty.

Al Qaeda really hurt us, but not as much as Rupert Murdoch has hurt us, particularly in the case of Fox News. Fox News is worse than Al Qaeda — worse for our society. It’s as dangerous as the Ku Klux Klan ever was.

- Keith Olbermann in the October 2007 issue of Playboy…

BigHeadDC reports that Mika Brzezinski called Joe Scarbough fat this morning…

“Your mother is going to appreciate I brought this up,” Mika said. “She probably feels the same way about your health as I do.” The former GOP Congressman became obviously defensive, mentioning the dis frequently throughout his 3-hour program–in the midst of taking frequent jabs at Spears, even once calling her a “pork chop.”

FTVLive is reporting that business radio host Dave Ramsey will be joining Fox Business Network when it launches…

The New York Daily News’ Rush and Molloy gleefully stick it to The New York Post over its Maria Bartiromo obsession…

Even in straightforward stories about things like the Brooklyn-born beauty’s purchase of a $6.5 million apartment with wealthy husband Jonathan Steinberg, reporters stick on one of two disses like a vestigial tail. They either claim she’s jealous of fellow CNBC anchor Erin Burnett, which Bartiromo denies, or dredge up the private jet flights she took at the invitation of former Citigroup exec Todd Thomson. (Bartiromo always got CNBC approval and paid first-class rates to Citigroup for the flights, which she said gave her face time with sources.)

Thestreet.com reported that Fox execs were trying to lure Bartiromo to the network, which launches Oct. 15 on Ch. 43, with a multiyear, multimillion-dollar contract. But even if Bartiromo wants to go, she can’t burn up her parchment with CNBC till 2009.

Bartiromo’s spokesman wouldn’t comment, but a source close to her said, “If they are looking to woo Maria, they sure could be a little smarter about it.”

Fox News spokesman Brian Lewis told us: “[Fox News chieftain] Roger Ailes was the one who first put Maria on the floor of the Exchange in 1994. We’re always interested in talented reporters. And Maria is a talented reporter.”

Gawker notes that FNC’s Bill Hemmer made US Weekly’s upcoming list of 25 most fashionable New Yorkers. (via TVNewser)

Note to Gawker: Juliet Huddy has been off of Fox and Friends for months. She’s now on the syndicated Fox program The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet. One would think that a mega-blog dedicated to “daily Manhattan media news and gossip.” would be on top of little details like that.