The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz writes about the return of Don Imus…

A source familiar with the situation, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the negotiations, said the contractual details would likely be finalized within a week. Although the deal, which would pay Imus millions of dollars, might hit a last-minute snag, the Imus team is confident that he will be back on the air around Dec. 1.

Citadel Broadcasting, which owns 243 radio stations, including ABC Radio Networks, plans to put the I-Man in the morning slot on the powerhouse New York station WABC, the source said. The program would be offered in syndication to other stations around the country.

Imus is also seeking a television outlet to simulcast the show, but that is less definite. Imus has discussed the possibility that Fox Business Network, a new channel that Fox News is launching next week, would carry the radio show. The informal talks with Imus came at a lunch with Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes, according to a Fox executive, but there have been no serious negotiations.

The New York Times’ Jacques Steinberg has the story too…
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Post your nomiations for this week’s What’s hot/What’s not. I’ll post the finalists Sunday night…

The overnight updates on FNC last night came from the D.C. bureau. This is also related to last night’s problems with The O’Reilly Factor, Hannity & Colmes, and Red Eye tape runs. FNC is doing a lot of technical work this weekend in preparation for the FBN launch which is why the D.C. bureau was used last night. This sort of work is something of a crapshoot. You hope it doesn’t affect what goes out over the air while you’re doing the work but sometimes it does.

The New York Post has an editorial questioning the appropriateness of Chris Matthews as debate moderator…

Now, “Hardball” is an opinion show, and Matthews is certainly entitled to his opinions - however offensively he chooses to express them.

But why should any Republican candidate expect fairness from Matthews now?

More to the point, why should potential voters expect Matthews to treat the candidates’ views fairly?

By engaging in this sort of intemperate rhetoric, Matthews has effectively disqualified himself as an “honest broker” for this coming debate.

NBC needs to replace him as a debate moderator immediately. The job - by definition - requires an attempt to display objectivity going into an event.

Yes, the distinction between “objective journalist” and “opinion-maker” in recent years has been blurred to the point where they’re nearly indistinguishable. But Matthews’ comments obliterated any possible distinction.

Johnny Dollar has the audio from the John Gibson radio program where Gibson talks about Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews moderating debates…

…having your Control Room go haywire. From an emailer who was watching the 11pm O’Reilly Factor repeat…

First, the ticker stopped completely. It stayed on screen for a while. Then the sound effects they use when the lower thirds appear on screen started popping up here and there. Then, the Fox News Live music started playing, stopped, played again, stopped. They went to break, then the tape looked like it was being rewound. They came back from tape, the ticker came back - still static text (but they removed it this time after about 5 seconds).

As Bill was closing the factor, the FNC logo completely disappeared off screen.

Update: Here’s another video later on in the broadcast. It also includes another glitch that led off Hannity & Colmes which followed O’Reilly at Midnight. The capper told me the freeze of O’Reilly was his error and not part of the broadcast.
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