Brokering Peace in the Northeast

Obama's "Beer Summit" pales in comparison to what ales MSNBC and FOX.

Unlike Obama's very public pimping of what he billed as a "teachable moment" on an alabaster wrought iron table and chairs in the White House Rose Beer Garden, FOX boss Rupert Murdoch and GE's Jeff Immelt held their summit under the table.

How hard is it to strap muzzles on MSNBC head trip Keith Olbermann and  FOX headliner Bill O'Reilly?   Model it after the 1994 Jordan-Israel peace treaty normalizing relations between the two countries. 

Personal attacks are not acceptable in ANY forum.  Period.  Why the Olbermann-instigated on-air war had to get to Murdoch's and Immelt's level is beyond me.  Suits at both cable networks should've been willing and capable of pulling the plug on both egos.

Who leaked this to the LA Times and why?

LA Times:  The on-screen and behind-the-scenes feuding between cable news rivals MSNBC, owned by General Electric Co., and News Corp.'s Fox News has become so ugly that the chief executives of their respective parent companies recently held a hush-hush meeting to try to broker a peace treaty.

News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch and General Electric chief Jeffrey Immelt met up at -- appropriately enough -- the Microsoft CEO summit in Redmond, Wash., to figure out how to defuse tensions between the two channels, Company Town has learned. The primary focus of the chit-chat was the back-and-forth sniping between MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and Fox's Bill O'Reilly. The two often exchange insults, Olbermann by name, O'Reilly by insinuation.

If Immelt and Murdoch took their message of peace and love back to their respective news channels, it doesn't seem to have taken. Olbermann, who generally is the aggressor, has been attacking Fox News and O'Reilly on a regular basis. O'Reilly still takes occasional shots at MSNBC, NBC and General Electric.

Are news executives spineless pussies terrorized by egomaniacal - and in one case, clearly pathological - on-air talent earning multimillion dollar salaries?

Grow some balls guys and drag the combatants out of the sandbox for the "greater good" of both cable networks and the drama-weary viewers.

Rudy to Obama: Teach This!

Rudy Guiliani to Obama: "Shut up!" Had he not been on TV w/Sean Hannity, I'm confident Brooklyn-born Rudy woulda said "Shut the fuck up!"

Conan: Doomed to Tomb?

Why it's way too early to write Conan's epitaph.

Obama FCC Czar: No Fairness Doctrine

B&C interview with Obama FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski:   Q: Diversity of voices and opinion was part of the president's overarching communications policy position. Can you draw a distinction between the Fairness Doctrine, which you oppose, and promoting diversity of voices?

A:  That's a good question. I would ask those who think they are related to explain to me how they are. The Fairness Doctrine ultimately has the huge risk of getting the government involved in censoring speech on the basis of political views and opinion. And that is not acceptable to me. Chilling speech was the core reason that the Fairness Doctrine was repealed. The commission, as long as I am here, won't have any interest in reinstating it and doing anything to censor speech based on political views and opinions.

The interest in diversity goes back to the beginnings of the Communications Act. It goes back to core principles underlying the First Amendment. We benefit as a society when we have a vibrant marketplace of ideas representing different points of view. And that is a proposition that I don't think has been disputed.

Picnic Table Beer Summit

Vinney, Chickaboomer's head joke writer, notes Bill Clinton's Thursday Beer Summit got zero press.

Chris Matthews on Officer Crowley: "We've got another Susan Boyle here."

The Daily Beast's Lloyd Grove: CNN couldn’t resist offering up “The Audacity of Hops” and “The Coalition of the Swilling.” MSNBC weakly supplied “Ale to the Chief."

Me: Later Keith Olbermann's "Countdown" absconded with CNN's "Audacity of Hops" in an on-screen graphic.

Lloyd: CNN, it has to be said, owned this story—but not always in a good way. In its pre-game coverage, Wolf Blitzer presided earnestly in front of a multi-screen display showing live shots of various locations on the White House grounds—including a bunch of photographers doing nothing in the “Briefing Room,” an inert structure labeled “Fence,” and an otherwise unidentifiable wall labeled “West Wing. “ The reductio ad absurdum of CNN’s coverage was Tom Foreman’s pointlessly detailed demonstration, complete with high-tech video pullouts, of how White House officials changed the venue of the beerfest from the picnic table by the playground equipment on the South Lawn to the smaller table in the Rose Garden.

Lloyd: "I’m pretty unimpressed, Wendell,” Fox News anchor Bret Baier complained to White House correspondent Wendell Goler.

“I’m pretty unimpressed, too,” Goler said. Compared to its two rivals, Fox’s coverage was succinct and predictably sour. “Patronizing, condescending, insufferable,” Fox talking head Charles Krauthammer said of Obama. “Otherwise, I’m sure he’s a nice guy.” Bill Kristol snickered about Biden’s surprise appearance: “I give President Obama a huge amount of credit for caring about Vice President Biden.”

Me: Lloyd (email GROVEL), the sourness had nothing to do with politics. FOX simply saw the event for what it was.

But MSNBC was impressed with Sgt. Crowley's post-brew press conference.

Lloyd: The never-restrained Chris Matthews—who devoted much of his 5 p.m. Hardball show on MSNBC to the impending meeting—did a live opening segment for the usual 7 p.m. repeat, replete with assessments of body language and facial expressions, and found it impossible not to compare the meeting to Bill Clinton’s historic White House ceremony between Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin.

Shortly after 7:30 p.m. Matthews broke in for Sgt. Crowley’s televised news conference at AFL-CIO headquarters, which was also carried live on Fox and CNN. The shock of the night: This supposedly media-innocent cop was thoughtful, relaxed, and even humorous before the cameras as he announced that he and the professor were planning to meet again.

Afterward on CNN, Lou Dobbs marveled: “He sounded at points like a politician.”

On Hardball, Politico columnist Roger Simon agreed: “He was like a head of state. He was very glib.” NBC Washington bureau chief Mark Whitaker chimed in: “A star is born.”

But it was Matthews who came up with a metaphor befitting the strange excess of the night: “We’ve got another Susan Boyle here.”

Dana Milbank Wash Post "It Wasn't One For The Guinness Book": The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza solicited suggestions for a name. The results: "Yes, Three Cans." "Ménage à Stella Artois." "Beerastroika." "A Thousand Points of Bud Light." And "The Audacity of Hops."

Milbank - a talking head on Olbermann's MSNBC show until he crossed Olbermann - failed to get on CNN, so now he and Cillizza stroke their egos on "Mouthpiece Theater."

Suds Dud

OSLO, NORWAY (AP) -- President Barack Obama has been nominated for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize after Lou Dobbs proved Obama is the reincarnation of King Solomon and has a birth certificate to prove it.

Some fool on MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan show just opined that Joe Biden was there because they "needed another white guy."

Apparently Joe was receiving his weekly Botox injection and missed the toast.

Maybe it was the same MSNBC talking head fool marveling that Sgt. Joe Crowley was so glib, poised and articulate after his post-brew presser that there's talk of a political future.

Idiots.

Prof. Gates put out a statement "An Accident of of Time and Place." Call him the Accidental White House Tourist. Obama loftily proclaimed the moment "a positive lesson."

Obama's promoting alcoholism.

The media are poring over the two-minute "Beer Summit" jiggly silent video frame by frame much like historians analyzing the Zapruder film.

Related: NYP Wash Post Poll: Obama mishandled Gates NYT: "They came, they met, they drank, they didn't apologize." TIME: The Beer Heard Around The World

Houston, We Have A Problem

MSNBC and CNN space cadets put up countdown clocks to Obama's "beer summit." 

Now who is behaving "stupidly?"  T Minus fucking fatuous. 

h/t TVNewser screengrabs.

Obama's Shot and A Beer

I thought the media-created "Beer Summit" was a) at Obama's picnic table, and b) as Obama downplayed  just "three folks having a drink at the end of the day."

Where did Joe Biden come from and what about those matching black pants and white shirts?  Obama and Biden look like waiters, although in the raw video I did see a gray suit-clad WH waiter scurry with a frosted beer mug on a tray. 

Foetogs were stationed so far away they had to use telephoto lenses to get the shot of the four in the Rose Garden.

The staged shot reminds me of TV sitcom family dinners with Donna Reed/Bill Cosby/Archie Bunker - name your show - crowded around the kitchen table with no backs to the camera.

A Obama-crafted lofty Hallmark "teachable moment" my ass brought to you by the crafty Professor Obama.

Earlier today Obama thrilled to the moment.  "I'm fascinated about the fascination with this evening."

Conan: This Dud's For You

Letterman lopes past Conan for the third week in a row. First time since July 1995.

Baier Essentials

Simple. They watch Glenn at 5p and then head to the White House for beers with Obama at 6...

Source:  TVByTheNumbers

CNBC: Kneale and Pray

That ratings improve. Dennis Kneale's assault on bloggers didn't translate into ratings. Down 28% from last July.

Obama: Tonight, 'Lo 'Bro

This is how Obama hopes it'll go down. Party like it's 1979!



h/t Vinney, Chickaboomer's head joke writer

Henry Gates: " Be polite... You wouldn't have gotten your ass kicked..."

To Harvard Professor Henry "Skip" Gates: Watch this before you cork off to some hard ass Capitol Hill Police officer or Secret Service Agent on your way for some brewski with Obama at the WH tonight:



Or DC cop. This was years ago. I made a left turn on a red light. DC police officer pulls me over. I'd just had a manicure and my nails were still wet. I gingerly attempt to pull out my driver's license. It slips between the seat and the door. I ask the cop to get it because my nails were wet. He refused. I ruined my manicure. Had I went batshit I'd probably still be in the slammer...

No Clear Channel for Sarah Palin

Permit me to offer my opinion on the real reason giant radio syndicator Clear Channel turned up its nose at a Sarah Palin talk show: Politics.

Inside Radio reported Tuesday that Palin's people are fishing for radio gigs. The speculation is Clear Channel which owns Premiere Radio Networks (syndicators of Rush, Glenn Beck, Dr. Laura and others) doesn't think Palin can hack a three-hour show.

I don't think that's it. CC wants to steer clear of pissing off the White House and the new Democratic FCC chairman and FCC commissioners. Not to mention California Congressman and Fairness Doctine advocate Henry Waxman - now powerful chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee overseeing the Telecommunications Subcommittee.

And I'd make book a Premiere-syndicated Sarah Palin radio talk show would cause a tsunami of troubles for CC. Mark, Randall, and CC founder Lowry Mays are shrewd businessmen and political pragmatists.

Prediction: No Radio Palin. Anywhere syndicated.

Don Ho Imus: "Lou Dobbs is a grassy knoll nut."

And that's what Imus says about his FRIEND Lou. The crusty radio host came up with the line and not FOX's Chris Wallace as reported by Media Matters.  Imus said it; Wallace agreed; Huff Po got it right.

Campbell's Ratings Not Mmm' Mmm' Good

Tuesday July 28, 2009 Nielsens:
P2+ Total Day

FNC – 1,290,000 viewers
CNN – 627,000 viewers
MSNBC –355,000 viewers
CNBC – 154,000 viewers
HLN – 259,000 viewers

Poor Campbell Brown.  All of 2009 in fourth place ratings soup with letters spelling "YOU SUCK."

Let's cut through the bull, shall we?  CNN realizes Brown has done nothing with that doomed time slot.  Time for CNN's musical chairs.

Who's next? 

Joy Behar's HLN show kicks off in September.  Is CNN grooming Joy for prime time?

How about CNN chucking it all and going Celebrity News Network?

What's Wrong With This Picture?

Inside Cable News

Conan Plugs The Dyke

Conan O'Brien: "The host of the very popular Rachel Maddow Show..."

"Popular" among whom? Rachel's ratings are dropping like a muff diver on a mission.

Rachel appeared on Conan's ratings-challenged NBC "Tonight" show Wednesday night and admitted she had her Obama jeans on that the prez told her he liked. You can actually see the outline of Rachel's balls in her tighter than Obama's Mom jeans.

Anderson Cooper's Forked Tongue

Anderson Cooper: "I kissed ten guys but only four with tongue in cheek." 

Frozen Pleas

"Let He With $00.00 In His Freezer Cast The First Stone" Dana Milbank Wash Post: As defense attorney for the congressman who stashed the bribe money in his freezer, Robert Trout had an unenviable task. So in his closing arguments Wednesday, Trout adopted a different client: He acted as if all of Washington were on trial.

"We all occupy the gray area -- it's just part of human nature," Trout explained, as if former congressman William Jefferson's proposal to bribe the vice president of Nigeria were an everyday occurrence.

"We're going to make mistakes . . . we may do reckless things," the lawyer continued, as if having $90,000 of the FBI's money in Pillsbury pie crusts in the Louisiana Democrat's house was tantamount to exceeding the speed limit.

To illustrate this curious analogy, Trout displayed a graphic for jurors. On one side of a yellow line, in bold red letters, was the word "CRIME." On the other side of the yellow line were the words "recklessness," "negligence" and "mistakes" -- and a headless man in jacket and tie raising his hands in a shrug.

"The point here is what members of Congress are expected to do in their jobs," Trout told the jurors. "If seeking political help was a crime, you could lock up half of metropolitan Washington, D.C."

It was a bit of a stretch to suggest that Jefferson -- caught on tape demanding financial payouts and caught on film taking $100,000 from an FBI informant -- was just doing what other lawmakers do. But it may test just how cynical Americans are about their government. If jurors assume the whole lot of politicians are bought and paid for, then it may indeed seem unfair that prosecutors are singling out this one.

It's a slim reed on which to base a defense, but it's about all Jefferson has. He was offered a plea deal of six years in prison, according to the law enforcement news Web site Ticklethewire.com, but he rejected that out of hand. Now he's facing up to 235 years for the various counts prosecutors have thrown at him.

Trout was perfectly happy to admit many times that his client had done "something stupid." He even acknowledged that Jefferson was guilty of "what amounts to ethics violations and the appearance of impropriety." But he said that doesn't mean the congressman did anything illegal -- and that Jefferson had paid a heavy enough price by losing his seat and becoming "the object of a national joke about money in the freezer."

In fact, Trout held up Jefferson as a better man than many of his former colleagues on Capitol Hill. Jefferson "never offered or promised any earmark," he said, reminding jurors of former senator Ted Stevens's "Bridge to Nowhere." Neither, he said, did Jefferson propose any legislation to aid his business interests. "That's how Jack Abramoff got himself into trouble -- they're not doing that," he said.

No, the money laundering alleged against Jefferson was "a completely legitimate business transaction," and the payouts to him were "a recognition of his success in raising capital." Papers showing his requests for financial stakes for family members? "These are business agendas -- that's what this was all about. It was business."

At the end, he returned to the all-Washington-is-a-cesspool theme.

Related:  Dana Milbank "Clarence Darrow Meets Clarence Birdseye" June 17, 2009

Glenn Beck: Justify or Vilify?

The New York Daily News poll on whether FOX News blowhard Glenn Beck's a racist? So far 48 percent think he's calling it like he sees it. 41 percent racist. 11 percent believe he's just being a pundit.

On his radio show Wednesday Beck defended branding Obama a racist.

Why do I think Beck is correct?  Obama pays lip service to whites.  He manipulates and uses them when it is convenient.  How could the anti-white invective of Reverend Jeremiah Wright not rub off on Obama after 20 years in Wright's Chicago church?  I empathize with black anger and resentment toward whites' subhuman treatment and I understand how these attitudes evolved.

The good racist reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are masters at exploiting white guilt and blackmail to pressure and pry money out of offending corporations. Both have advanced degrees in milking and bilking the system.  Both men affect righteousness and ignore hypocrisy when it suits their missions.

During the presidential campaign Obama invoked his white mother and grandmother to white audiences.  Politics as usual (Hillary put on a fake Southern accent before black audiences) - but more. Just this week Obama - polls plummeting -  brought up his white mother in a health care appearance before a skeptical AARP.

MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan kicks off his 9a show this a.m. talking "Race 3.0"  with Jesse Jackson  "A person of color is more likely to have his limb amputated... the issue of race profiling is so painful."

Executive summary: "systemic flaws."

Maybe Obama's beer diplomacy will work.  What's required is that whites and blacks universally wipe the slate clean.  Forgive and let go of the anger, resentment, fear-driven hatred, name-calling, stereotyping.  For that matter extend this to the entire warring planet.  Muslims, Jews,  Shi'ites, Sunnis, Chechens, Russians - you get the drift.

How much has REALLY changed for urban blacks since the seminal "Tally's Corner" study (which I read as a sociology minor) on streetcorner existence was published in 1967?

Pack the planet into H.G. Wells's Time Machine to an idyllic peaceful world that's evolved far beyond base behavior. 

I often wish for an Earth existence AFTER the planet's warring savages of all stripes disappear from the planet like dinosaurs...

Idol Gossip

NYDN Gatecrasher snipes: Dan Abrams apparently wants to turn the tables on those who gossiped about his brief fling with Renee Zellweger: The NBC legal correspondent launched his own gossip Web site, Gossip Cop, yesterday. The first item on the site, which seems sort of like TMZ meets The Huffington Post: A brilliant exposé on Angelina Jolie not moving to Washington. How’s that for investigative journalism?

Dan Abrams: Whores With No Shame

Is former MSNBC show host and NBC legal analyst Dan Abrams on drugs? He's got that undereye heroin look. And behavior as he attacks another talking head for diverting him from his fix. Or maybe it's crack cocaine. Telltale sign: Dan's irritable.

Dan was on MSNBC Wednesday a.m. pimping yet another website he's launched -two in the last month - Mediaite and now Gossip Cop.

Inside Cable News: "Has anyone bothered to ask NBC why it allowed Dan to go on the air to pitch the Gossip Cop site when it launched but not Mediaite? What’s the difference in pitching one but not the other? Apparently NBC thought there was but I have no idea why. Is it because NBC had the exclusive but when Mediaite launched the print press had the scoop first the day the site launched?"

Dear ICN: Dan's got his hooks into NBC through Abrams Research which culls his new website Mediaite - an incubator for Abrams Research reports for paying clients? Conflict of interest if a business relationship is exposed? Dan promised to reveal the names of Abrams Research clients, but like the British government promising UFO transparency, it hasn't happened.

And why didn't Dan trumpet Gossip Cop's top debut story in his MSNBC TV appearance Wednesday a.m.? That photo of Madonna's stringy arms is a FAKE?

Christiane Amanpour's Psychogenic Fugue

CNN's Christiane Amanpour's makeover for her September CNN show debut extends to her memory.  Here she is on Craig Ferguson bloviating how she doesn't wear politics on her "sleeve" - Armani - and waxing unconvincingly about her objective journalism role model, the late Walter Cronkite, after Ferguson inexplicably compared her work to Uncle Walter's brand of broadcasting:



h/t NewsBusters

Glenn Livid

MSNBC "Morning Joe" host and former Repub Congressman Joe Scarborough reax to FOX's Glenn Beck branding Obama "a racist."

Joe's Twitter:  "Conservatives attacked the Dixie Chicks for saying much less about President Bush than what Beck said about President Obama."

FOX's programming SVP Bill Shine claims Glenn is just like all cable news commentators expressing opinion.

FOX & Friends host Brian Kilmeade challenged Beck by arguing (with the clueless reverse of "Some of my best friends are black") that Obama's staff is mostly white and ticked off a few names.

David Shuster: Bald Ego

MSNBC's David Shuster emails Huff Po's Danny Shea denying the NYP Page Six item that he went batshit when, while filling in for Keith Olbermann, the camera dudes shot his head from the back exposing his balding pate.

Let me tell you where I think this came from whether it is true or false.  I didn't have time to dick around with the leak before.  The vacationing Olbermann Himself.  Olbermann hates Shuster and I suspect wasn't happy about Shuster warming his seat on "Countdown."

Vindictive Olbermann's engaged in bizarre behavior before - from leaks, to weirdo on-air paranoid fantasies about someone taking him out on an outside set (during the Dem prez convention in Denver).

Related:  MSNBC's Hair Flub for Men

Separated At Birth: FOX's Mika Straka and Eddie Munster

Mike Straka.  Producer of FOX's "Strategy Room" on FOXnews.com. VP FOX Digital. Martial arts.  "Fight Club" host. Hungarian.  Monster ego.  39.

Eddie Munster.  Werewolf/vampire.  Transylvanian. Directs Spot the Dragon. Dodges Igor the Bat. Superpowers. Monster.  739.

Mike Straka first caught my attention in a February 2009 NYT piece on FOX's "Strategy Room."  Straka: “As long as we don’t make it look like TV, I’ll be happy.”

Straka appears to be using his position to make his part of the FOX website look like his own personal fiefdom promoting martial arts sites where he's an active participant (ranking committee)  pimping his FOX News chops in his bio.  Like a non sequitur.  Site disconnect. WTF?  Why is he all over FOX's website? 

His on-air stuff is dull and egoiastic.  Straka's so full of himself his FOX bio stands alone in design from the other talent.  It took my computer 25 seconds to load up Straka's self-serving banner, photo, links.

How Straka broke through the dickhead glass ceiling at FOX is beyond me.  Who hired him in 1996?  Who promoted him?  Who's protecting him?  His benefactor.

Straka used his position at FOX to pimp his sole book (on Amazon.com with boffo reviews probably planted by Straka) in a 2006 lame ass column on FOX's website.

Is he double-dipping? Collecting a presumed six-figure paycheck at FOX - and grateful martial arts organizations' under-the-table payments for the Straka-placed links driving FOX's website traffic?

Straka oozes over the hot FOX babes, fantasizing  footsie under the anchor desk with one of his targets.  His on-air performances are so bad CNN's Campbell Brown's Q ratings go off the charts.  His on-air performances are so bad that Eddie Munster looks positively lively sleeping in his coffin.

I hope FOX doesn't put this stiff on the air.  CNN and MSNBC already have resident idiots in Rick Sanchez and Dylan Ratigan.  FOX shouldn't be persuaded to grant a trial membership to "The Light Club." 

Erin Andrews Investigation A Bust?

The NYP reports the ESPN Erin Andrews nude hotel video investigation strangely isn't, lending creedence to speculation that the booby babe was in on it.

Lou Dobbs: Still Birth

CNN's Lou Dobbs losing it Tuesday on his radio show dubbing FOX's Geraldo Rivera "severly intellectually challenged." MSNBC's Rachel Maddow the "teabagging queen" for claiming Lou's a "birther" which he now denies now that his boss Jon Klein is forced to answer questions over CNN's sanctioning Lou's birther rumor rants. 

A puzzled Rachel on her show Tuesday night found it "deeply confusing" to be called a "teabagging queen."  Especially since she and her long time live-in girlfriend have no balls.

CNN: Reporting Rumors as Fact "A Dead Issue."

Maybe it was the three-hour time difference between LA and the East Coast. It wasn't long after CNN czar Krazy Jon Klein uttered those words to the salivating TV critics about rumor and conspiracy buff Lou Dobbs and his Obama foreigner fixation that Dobbs went on the air with the same one-note samba with a couple of Klein-mandated corrections.

CNN's ratings only thrive on death so the way I interpret Klein's remark is that CNN's going full tilt boogie on birthers.

Lisa de Moraes Wash Post TV critic: "Summer TV Press Tour 2009 kicked off Tuesday with CNN showing up to plug a new Christiane Amanpour documentary, a Soledad O'Brien series and John King's "State of the Union."

Sadly, TV critics mostly wanted to talk about Lou Dobbs, host of the news network's "I'm Lou Dobbs and You're Not," and his ongoing gasbagging about President Obama not coughing up his birth certificate.

Dobbs thinks that Obama should produce it to put to rest rantings and rumors that he's not actually a natural-born U.S. citizen and therefore not eligible to be president. Not producing the birth certificate looks pretty fishy, Dobbs has insinuated.

"There are two strands to this story," CNN/U.S. President Jon Klein began to explain patiently to the critics. "There are the facts and then there is the flap. What Lou, and everybody else at CNN, has done is very clearly report and run down the facts."

There is no doubt, Klein acknowledged, that Obama was born in Hawaii. "And Lou Dobbs has reported that over and over again."

Separate from that, Klein said, is the issue of people who believe it anyway. Dobbs, Klein explained, is merely "exploring those flaps."

"But it's a dead issue," he added.

Why give so much airtime to a dead issue? Glad you asked. TV critics did, too. More accurately, one asked: Why is so much airtime being devoted to "giving voice to this sort of idiocy on your network?"

Klein argued that CNN had spent a lot more time on health care, Afghanistan and Iraq, "but the spirit of your question is, why we devote any time," Klein said. (These news-network chiefs can be pretty patronizing.)

CNN viewers expect it to "do the reporting, present the facts and present a range of points of views" and then "viewers want to make up their own minds," Klein explained.

Which explains their upcoming documentary: "The World: Flat. We Report -- You Decide." Okay, we made that one up.

Anyway, seeing that this was not playing well with the critics, King jumped in and likened the birth-certificate kerfuffle to the people who still thought Obama was Muslim, even after CNN itself did a report debunking that story.

Obama's campaign, King said, had to spend time, energy and "hard-earned money" educating people to the fact that Obama was not Muslim right up until the election.

"If we ignore conversations happening out there, just because we've already said it's not true -- we often don't get to decide what's relevant," King said.

"People sometimes make that decision."

Related: TIME mag's James Poniewozik "CNN's Klein on Dobbs and Birthers"

Peace de Resistance

The last major figure to sit at Obama's picnic table? Hillary. What does that tell you?

Obama's minimizing the targets and controversies by forcing them to slide in at close contact in a Mickey Mouse environment surrounded by an expensive swing set and slide.

The media-branded Picnic Table Summit, my bony ass, and if I were sitting there seemingly forever for the cheesy photo op, it would be.

Like the Camp David Accords of yore that went nowhere and ended up with PLO terrorist Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, and Yitzhak Rabin absurdly sharing the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize, and Jimmy Carter in 2002,  the Picnic Table Summit is merely all show and no go. 

Cue Cat Stevens (now Yusuf Islam and a Greek birthname before Cat) and "Peace Train."



That was 1976. Twenty years later Cat/Yusuf performs the same tune at the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize concert in Oslo.

CNN's Death Bump. FOX Soars. Olbermann Tanks.

Death pushes CNN back to second place in the cable news race.   Unless some other high value celebrity target kicks off, it's a temporary bump.  Don't believe me?  Look at how the Michael Jackson-bereft syndicated entertainment shows' numbers plummeted.

The Wise Media Men predicted that an Obama White House would mean the death knell for FOX but the opposite has happened with in-the-Obama-tank MSNBC's numbers dropping like Blue Dog Democrats. But is CNN's July "fluke" Jackson or Obama?

FOX has enjoyed a 70% prime time increase from last July.  What can you say about  FOX's numbers other than FOX ranks third to TNT and USA Network, leaving the other chumps in the dust.  FOX owns nine of the ten top cable shows.  To wit:  Monday July 27th Nielsen numbers.

As for MSNBC psychoblowhard Keith Olbermann, "the ratings trend is not his friend." 

Neither is the Rorschach test which, contrary to reports Olbermann's on vacation  obsessing on baseball in Cooperstown, the MSNBC "Countdown" host is in a rubber room surreptitiously studying Wikipedia's Rorshach inkblot cheat sheet.

What do YOU see?

The Cable Guy

Bill Carter NYT: The deal maker is gone. Now it’s the cable guy’s turn.

Ben Silverman, who called himself a “rock-star television executive” and tried to turn aroundNBC’s struggling prime-time schedule with reality shows and advertising-driven programs like “The Celebrity Apprentice” and “Knight Rider,” announced on Monday that he would leave as co-chairman of NBC Universal Entertainment to start a new venture with the media and Internet mogul Barry Diller.

At the same time, NBC said that it would promote Jeff Gaspin [left], a longtime executive who oversees NBC’s lineup of cable channels, like USA, Bravo, CNBC and MSNBC; its syndication business; and the Spanish-language network Telemundo, to chairman of NBC Universal Television Entertainment. Mr. Gaspin will run the entertainment operation of the NBC network, including its prime-time schedule.

By awarding Mr. Gaspin supervision of the flagship broadcast channel as well as the cable channels, NBC Universal is acknowledging a shift that viewers and advertisers already recognize: that the distinction between broadcast and cable is evaporating.

“The distinction is definitely waning,” said David Joyce, an analyst with Miller Tabak & Company. “It makes NBC seem more like a cable network company.”

Making Amends

The arresting Henry Gates reax to Web of Deception Joseph Culligan's outing of Gates's home-based non-profit that has awarded phony "research grants" to his bride to be, and a female employee.  Gates is minimizing it as an "accounting error" requiring a routine amendment to his tax forms.

Joe:  "He [Gates] gave a total of $27,000 out in grants and $6,000 was to fiancee and $10,000 to his secretary. They will now have to pay income tax on the money because it is now compensation and not a research grant. They will have to pay Social Security tax, Federal and state income, etc."

Contrary to what the Boston Globe reported, Joe got the Gates smoking gun first.

Sarah Palin: Baked Alaska?

A new FOX News poll indicates only six percent think Sarah should be president.   CNN's Wolf Blitzer had comedian Bill Maher on Monday's "Situation Room" and Maher bluntly bellowed "I'd never put anything past this stupid country."

h/t Mediaite screengrab

Lou Dobbs Birther Defects

Should CNN fire tinny Ted Baxter Lou Dobbs for on-air obsessing over the Obama not an American rumors? FOX's Bill O'Reilly gets in a few shots at Lou and CNN in his "bogus" birthers bit: "He's just using this to stir the pot and get viewers... It's an absurd story... All he's doing is bloviating... Lou Dobbs's ratings aren't very good... CNN's never going to fire him..."

Vagina Monologue

Former Madison Avenue adman now MSNBC ditz Donny Deutch "The reason we have a fascination with Sarah Palin - men and women: This is the first woman in power that has sexual appeal and people don't know what to do with it. That's why people are fascinated with her. Everything else is secondary. OK, beat me off up."

Bud Wiser

WH Press Secretary Robert Gibbs taps FOX's Wendell Goler for Thursday's beer run.

The media are brewing trite "Beer Diplomacy" as Obama holds peace talks at 6p Thursday with warring parties Henry Gates and the arresting Sgt. Crowley.   For whatever ales... Obama's drinking Bud. Crowley Blue Moon.  Gates prefers Beck's or Red Stripe. 

MSNBC's Willie Is Up

I can't take credit for that line.  It's Jim Bohannon's "Your Willie Is Up."  Not only is Willie up, but over on the Big Network's Weather Channel, Al Roker is up Oh Dark Early with a 6a show.

NYT's TV critic Alessandra Stanley:  The sun never sets on the NBC empire, and the test pattern never rises.

Me:  NBC's moving toward pulling a 24-hour train.

Alessandra:  Mr. Geist brings a touch of “Daily Show” irreverence to the pomposity of cable news, which is one reason he does so well as a foil to Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski on “Morning Joe”; his rapport with younger viewers is what led MSNBC to give him his own platform. Mr. Geist joked that “Way Too Early” is “brewed by Sanka,” a poke at “Morning Joe,” which recently took some heat from Jon Stewart and others for openly plugging the coffee of its sponsor, Starbucks.

But the atomization of cable news shows, which are themselves small-bore spinoffs of network news programs, can at times seem alarmingly forced. And MSNBC, which recently introduced a “Morning Joe” chaser, “Morning Meeting” with Dylan Ratigan, is particularly ruthless about stretching its talent pool. There are fewer and fewer hours of straight news, and more and more one-rant programs like “The Ed Show,” a soapbox for the opinions of Ed Schultz, a popular radio host, or niche-seeking missiles like “Dr. Nancy,” a health show hosted by Dr. Nancy Snyderman, the chief medical editor of NBC News.

Niches have their place, of course. “Morning Joe,” which developed a cult following during the 2008 presidential election, remains a lifeline for viewers who want a “Today” show stripped of cooking lessons, bridal showers, makeovers, dieting tips and the occasional wrenching interview with the grieving parents of a missing child.

“Wake Up With Al” offers a “Today” show stripped of everything but Mr. Roker.

MSNBC Eats Its Young

Alessandra Stanley "The TV Watch" NYT:  "It’s a narrowing gyre: as soon as regular contributors or co-hosts begin to develop marketable personas, they get their own show. And sometimes, as is the case with Rachel Maddow, who was fun to watch at first but lately has run out of steam, too much is worse than too little."

"MSNBC brings news and spirited political opinion to viewers who don’t rely on the Internet for their information and entertainment, but it also eats its young."

Rachel has been unable to plug the hole in her ratings dike.

Unilateral Disarmament

Arms control.

Bang a Bong: NBC's Golden Boy Silverman Gone

No shocker. Ben Silverman segues from Jeff Zucker to Barry Diller. The NBC program co-head dope head's co-head Marc Graboff stays but reports to new NBCUNI entertainment chairman Jeff Gaspin.  Wash Post's Lisa de Moraes

I would've fired him for his obnoxious laugh. 

NBC press release quoting Zucker:  "Ben Silverman has many exciting things he wants to accomplish and we applaud him as he sets off on his new endeavors."

NYP Peter Lauria "Silver into Gold":  Only Ben Silverman could parlay a two-year hitless streak as NBC's chief programmer into a new gig that gives him total control and $100 million in development money.

That's the amount of cash that Barry Diller's IAC plans to use to seed Silverman's unnamed new venture, according to two sources with knowledge of the funding plans. And more money may be on the way as Silverman -- one of the entertainment industry's slickest talkers -- tries to persuade Wall Street banks and private-equity firms, many of which offered to back Silverman before he teamed up with IAC, to invest in the new company.

Silverman's former employer, NBC Universal, is already considering an investment in the new enterprise, and sources said Diller is likely to call on deep-pocketed friends like former Viacom CEO Tom Freston or former Yahoo! boss Terry Semel to invest as well.

Taken together, Silverman... could have as much as $200 million in funding when he officially leaves NBC in a few weeks.

Related: Variety "Gaspin's NBC Universal Rise"

MSNBC's Hair Flub for Men

Page Six:  David Shuster is a little sensitive about his thinning hair. Although daytime cameramen at MSNBC have been instructed never to shoot the anchor from behind, the prime-time crew never got the memo. "David went crazy when he filled in for Keith Olbermann last week and was shot from behind, exposing his bald spot," said a source close to production. "He went crazy and is so upset about it, he's thinking about getting a rug." MSNBC had no comment.

Shuster banned his wedding photog from snapping any pictures from behind as he stood under the chuppa.

Filling in for Olbermann tonight:  Howard Dean. 

CNN: Fade To Black

Not even Barack Obama or Henry Gates could save "Black In America 2."   [Above, hostess Soledad O'Brien and actress Cicely Tyson.}  If Cicely or the other star interviewee Tyler Perry had dropped dead, CNN would've gone into DEFCON 1 death mode and nuked rival cable networks.

Willie Geist: Good To The Last Drop?

It's Way Too Early to review Willie Geist's new 5:30a MSNBC show. But review they did hours after Willie debuted Monday a.m.

Someone named Rick Ellis: The show ended way too quickly, and my hunch is that once Geist is more comfortable in the role, the show will expand to an hour. There are still a few rough spots, but nothing that won't go away after a few shows. The person most confused by the new show seemed to be “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski, who seemed to be unsure just how to start “Joe” without Geist’s help.

Hey, Rick, Mika doesn't need any push out the starting gate.

Mediaite's Steve Krakauer: "It was a good start, but will it have it get the chance to have it’s own identity? It’s way too early to tell right now."

Okay. I'll haul my ass in front of the Tee Vee Friday at 5:30 a.m. and tear Willie a new one.

h/t Mediaite screengrab

The "Vamp's" Ire

How "vamp" Shep Smith carved his niche at FOX News.

Eat Drink Man Woman

Janitors found a discarded script Sunday monring with FOX's Ainsley Earhardt's handwriting on the back. "Mrs. Uri Man" and "Ainsley Man" Sharpied in romantic flourishes.



Uri: Single. 34. Lotsa bucks. Boca Raton. Appeared on the TV show "Millionaire Matchmaker."

MSNBC: Send In The Clowns

MSNBC's "Morning Joe" wag Willie Geist's "Way Too Early" kicked off Monday a.m. at 5:30.  Naturally I wasn't up.  It was waaaaay too early. 

Willie's new half-hour show is a lead-in to Joe Scarborough's three-hour media and political romp.  MSNBC czar Phil Griffin's vision of WTE's target viewer:  "An aggressive businessperson who is on the treadmill, who wants a download of information.”

Who the fuck's on a treadmill at 5:30 a?

Griffin denies he's grooming Willie to take over, say, the 10p prime time slot.  The engaging and entertaining Willie probably won't like the headline of Brian Stelter's NYT piece:  Clown of "Morning Joe" Gets His Own Show

Willie may be a clown but, unlike some of his colleagues, he's not an evil clown.  He comes from journalistic genes.  Chicago Dad Bill Geist was a columnist at the New York Times for seven years before joining CBS News in the late 1980s. (Stelter's piece mentioned dad's CBS but not NYT employment.) 

MSNBC is famous for its stable of political and media John Wayne Gacys luring  unsuspecting victims into their TV lairs under the guise of broadcast journalism: