Eat The Press’ Rachel Sklar blogs that John Roberts Thanksgiving bike accident was a bit more serious than he realized…he broke his neck!

Roberts will be in a neck brace for the next 4-6 weeks, though “American Morning” publicist Christine Pietz confirmed that he won’t be wearing the brace on air during that time (don’t worry, the doctor said it was okay). Alas, that means we won’t be able to add to our John Roberts Pictoral Collection™ with some saucy neck-brace pin-ups, but we’ll be fine — we’re just glad he’s going to be fine. Here’s to a speedy recovery, John Roberts! And to the rest of you, for God’s sake, don’t forget your damn helmet! Even for walking. Honestly, those crowds around Fifth Avenue during the holidays can be vicious.

Joe Biden appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews tonight. Transcript follows (apologies for the bad formatting)

“HARDBALL” HOST CHRIS MATTHEWS: We`re going to have Joe Biden joining us right now. Here he is, the
chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. Senator Biden, I know you`ve
been the foreign affairs expert for the Democratic Party. Were you snowed?
Were you shocked to hear we do not face a weapons system under production
in Iran?

Sen. JOSEPH BIDEN (D-DE), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No. I never
believed we were. And I said it. I`ve been trying to engage Iran way back
five years ago with Dick Lugar and others, trying to engage them.
(more…)

As I noted yesterday, Brad Pitt will be Larry King’s guest for the full hour tomorrow night. Transcript highlights follow…

Brad Pitt on Make It Right: (a housing redevelopment in the lower 9th Ward of New Orleans, Louisiana, USA)

PITT: OK. This is what we are calling the adopt-a-house campaign. It is part art installation, it is part act of social disobedience, but it is really meant to work as a fundraising component. And we were looking for something that was loud and would get a lot of attention, that was also hopeful. So what you see here is, as you see these blocks scattered across this section of the Lower Ninth, to represent the houses that were destroyed, the homes that were destroyed. And what we are hoping to do is, as a house gets adopted, this is going to be up for five, six weeks, five-and-a-half weeks, as a home gets adopted, we will right that house and we will put it back on its foundation. So hopefully this will be an art installation that will be constantly evolving. And by the end of this — by the end of this five-and-a-half weeks, we hope to have a symbolic neighborhood put back together. And that is the goal.

Brad Pitt on practicing environmental conservation and sustainability in his own lifestyle:
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MSNBC re-introduced a new graphics setup for its bugs today. They first put it in last week but there was a technical glitch which forced them to revert. Today’s re-introduction was a different variation on last week’s implementation. The Live bug and clock bug are now located in the upper right corner of the screen. Maybe MSNBC thinks everyone is using a large TV now, but on my 19″ TV I find it hard to read the time and stock bugs now. (image via Reportercaps)

Update: The MSN MSNBC board pans the change…

Drudge is reporting that Citizens United is retaining counsel…

“Citizens United (CU), and its President David Bossie, have retained counsel to pursue claims against CNN for reporting in a November 28th CNN show called Broken Government — ‘Campaign Killers,’ hosted by Campbell Brown, that David Bossie and CU were part of a ‘fringe militia.’ CU through counsel will seek a formal apology and public retraction of those statements, and for calling Bossie a ‘dirty trickster.’ If no retraction is forthcoming, CU will then bring legal action to hold CNN accountable for these and other misrepresented facts. These baseless allegations were a disservice to CU and its 500,000 members, CNN and its audience, and to general principles of responsible, fact-based journalism.”

Update: This Political Mind’s Scott Fuller will be interviewing Bossie tonight at 9pm ET…

FBN’s Jenna Lee is being profiled in this month’s Young Money Magazine by Daniel Jimenez. TVNewser has the details…

Update: Article link…

The San Francisco native is the co-anchor of “FOX Business Morning.” The show explains what events to expect in the day ahead and how news from the overseas markets will translate for American businesses, investors and consumers. Anchoring a national television show does require sacrificing a few things–such as sleep. Lee arrives at the studio every weekday morning at 2:30 a.m. in order to prepare for the live broadcast at 5 a.m.

Lee says part of the network’s success will depend on whether it can educate its viewers about relevant money matters such as credit card rates and upcoming young entrepreneurs. She also hopes to offer some perspective on what makes Wall Street tick. The challenge is to present those stories in a way that connects with viewers rather than talks down to them.

Talking Biz News blogs about today’s Business Emmy Awards luncheon in NYC…

CNBC and PBS each won two Emmys Tuesday at the Fifth Annual Emmy Awards for Business & Financial Reporting at a luncheon in New York, while networks CNN, CBS and NBC each won one award. (Photos from the luncheon can be found here.)

Update: CNN put a release out noting Drew Griffin’s Emmy…

The National Television Academy of Television Arts & Sciences today awarded CNN investigative correspondent Drew Griffin with a Business and Financial Reporting Emmy, the third year in a row in which his reports have earned an Emmy and have been cited among the best in business reporting. The academy presented the awards during its fifth annual ceremony held today at the Rainbow Room in New York City.
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FTVLive breaks the news (and has been teasing about it before this) If you don’t know why this news is important, you’re not a cable news exec…

John Moody’s internal memo announcing Brian Knoblock’s departure from FNC and his Foreign Editor position and Anastasia Bard’s taking succeeding Knoblock as the new Foreign Editor…

To: All
From: John Moody
Subj: Knoblock/Bard
Dec. 4, 2007

For a while, Brian Knoblock had to raise his hand at meetings and remind us that there was such a thing as foreign news.

Then came 9/11, and the 94% of the world for which Brian was responsible suddenly had names: Mazaar-i-shariff, Tora-Bora, Tikrit, and so on. Brian was a breathing encyclopedia, capable of providing either in-depth knowledge - or, if handled improperly, paper cuts. At any rate, he never again had to put up his hand to be noticed.

After ten years as foreign editor, Brian let us know that he was ready to move on with his life and, typically, refused to consider the possibility he was making a mistake. For some reason, the prospect of spending the next 20 years sitting at a desk, fielding angry calls from vendors, competing demands from producers, and stupid questions from upstairs did not make him giddy.
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TVNewser has some details…

Update: Radio Equilizer has more, including the release. And then there’s this nice little P.S. which I just love…

Your Radio Equalizer isn’t doubting the clear fact that Dobbs has a lot of television fans, but he’s won them over mostly by taking conservative views on issues such as illegal immigration. Until he repositioned himself that way, Lou had never seemingly gained much traction with the audience.

More important is that Lou’s move means the celeb crowd still hasn’t learned from the failure of so many talk radio novices. Let’s call it Whoopi Syndrome.

Extreme Mortman notes yesterday’s bow tie de-focusing and offers his feelings on focus groups and how this ties into the old Larry Sanders Show…

Cable News Ratings December 1, 2007

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 634,000 viewers
CNN – 470,000 viewers
MSNBC – 302,000 viewers
CNBC – 215,000 viewers
HLN – 264,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 638,000 viewers
CNN – 532,000 viewers
MSNBC – 330,000 viewers
CNBC – 276,000 viewers
HLN – 191,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC – 176,000 viewers
CNN – 176,000 viewers
MSNBC – 144,000 viewers
CNBC – 105,000 viewers
HLN – 94,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 162,000 viewers
CNN – 186,000 viewers
MSNBC – 167,000 viewers
CNBC – 140,000 viewers
HLN – 56,000 viewers

Cable News Ratings for December 2, 2007
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Presidential Candidate John Edwards made an appearance on Morning Joe this morning. Transcript follows…

JOE SCARBOROUGH, MSNBC ANCHOR: Joining us from Des Moines, Iowa, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards.

Senator Edwards, I’m sorry to start with a tough question, but did you in kindergarten aspire to be president of the United States?

FORMER SEN. JOHN EDWARDS, D-N.C.: No, I have a confession to make that I’m sure is going to subject me to criticism and attacks. When I was in kindergarten, I wanted to be either a cowboy or Superman.

(LAUGHTER)

SCARBOROUGH: Shocking.
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C-Ville.com’s Alan Zimmerman writes about a letter sent by FNC’s Diane Brandi to the UVA Law School’s Dean regarding student, activist, and O’Reilly nemisis Mike Stark. Stark, if you recall, went to O’Reilly’s house…

According to the website Raw Story, Fox News VP Dianne Brandi recently wrote UVA law school Dean John Jeffries, saying Stark’s actions with respect to O’Reilly “may constitute criminal harassment” under New York law and that the school should investigate whether Stark violated the Code of Conduct.

Stark told Raw Story that Jeffries had shown him a copy of Brandi’s letter, but would not permit it to be distributed. Stark added that Jeffries told him he was taking no further action with respect to the letter.

Neither Brandi nor O’Reilly returned phone calls and e-mails.

Stark crossed a line and FNC has a right to be concerned. Hell, Stark’s actions had him wind up on Countdown’s WPITW list…

Stark’s account of the incident, posted within hours of the incident, set off a vigorous online debate over whether he crossed the line, including Stark being named the second worst person in the world that evening on MSNBC by O’Reilly nemesis Keith Olbermann (Olbermann named O’Reilly the worst).

The Baltimore Sun’s James Oliphant writes about FNC opting not to run an ad by an advocacy group. It’s certainly their prerogative, but what fascinates me is the reason being given…

We cannot approve the spot with it being Danny Glover’s opinion that the Bush Administration is destroying the Constitution. If you have documentation that it is indeed being destroyed, we can look at that.

Sorry about that,

I’m not convinced this was a serious response. The “sorry about that” is way too whimsical a quip for a serious letter.

Jossip is dishing about cuts at NBC News…

“There are going to be firings very soon — everybody is terrified.”

That’s the promise being made to us by a former NBC News network insider who maintains close ties with Mama Peacock’s news division. The axings, to be sure, will be part of a larger cost cutting move; “tens of millions is the figure being thrown around.”

There’s also some “behind the scenes dirt” which I don’t know if I really buy into…someone’s pushing an agenda.