Felix Gillette

ABC News announced today that Ian Cameron, formerly a producer for World News with Charles Gibson, will be the new executive producer of This Week with George Stephanopoulos.

Mr. Cameron replaces Kathy O'Hearn. In July, ABC announced that Ms. O'Hearn would be leaving the show to become a producer on the network's special events political team.

The move comes at a critical time for This Week. With the future of NBC's Meet the Press, still somewhat up in the air, This Week now has an opportunity to try and recapture its long lost status as the top-rated Sunday morning public affairs show.

More from the release after the jump:  read more »

On Thursday night, Fox News' telecast of the Vice Presidential debate attracted more viewers than either MSNBC's or CNN's. The event also ranked as Fox News' highest telecast in the network's 12-year history.

From a Fox News release:  read more »

Today, Sarah Palin sat down for an interview with Carl Cameron, the chief political correspondent for Fox News. In one portion of the interview, Mr. Cameron asked the Alaska governor about her recent stumbles in interviews. Governor Palin took the opportunity to take a shot at Katie Couric of CBS News. (This comes via Politico's Michael Calderone.)

Here's what Governor Palin said:  read more »

This morning, on the heels of the high-stakes vice presidential debate in St. Louis, Fox News' chief political correspondent Carl Cameron nabbed an interview with the elusive Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, reports Alissa Krinsky of TV Newser.

More from the post:  read more »

With Katie Couric's stash of amazing Sarah Palin footage running perilously low, we thought we'd check back in with the CBS News anchor's personal YouTube channel.

Lucky us!

Turns out that yesterday, Ms. Couric posted her latest candid camera video, which was shot last week at the University of Mississippi on the eve of the first presidential debate.

There, Ms. Couric catches wind of a banner bearing her name hanging outside the university's Delta, Delta, Delta sorority.  read more »

Yesterday, a broad range of conservative Web sites questioned whether Gwen Ifill could do a fair job of moderating tonight's vice presidential debate, given that the veteran PBS broadcaster is about to publish a book in January called The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.

Ms. Ifill responded to the criticism in an interview with David Bauder of the Associated Press.

From the article:  read more »

In case you missed it last night on the CBS Evening News, there was another jaw-dropping moment between Katie Couric and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

As part of the ongoing series called Vice Presidential Questions, Ms. Couric had just finished asking Ms. Palin why she disagreed with Roe v. Wade (she had asked the same question to vice presidential candidate Joe Biden earlier).

Here's what happenend next.  read more »

The third quarter numbers for the cable news networks are officially out today. Overall, the stretch from June 30 to Sept. 28 proved to be yet another strong period for the cable news networks, especially compared to the gloomy news coming from newspapers and broadcast television networks.

Today, each of the major cable news networks fired off press releases touting their achievements.

Releases after the jump.  read more »

In the early morning hours of Wednesday, Sept. 24, The New York Times was printing its morning editions, including a front-page story reporting that Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign manager, Rick Davis, is a principal in a lobbying firm that had been receiving $15,000 a month since 2005 from embattled mortgage giant Freddie Mac.

But before those papers hit doorsteps, the McCain campaign had responded, via its Web site. Much of the morning news cycle was spent recycling the dispute: Had McCain lied? Had his campaign manager lied to him? Was the Times story flawed? And if it wasn’t, was it an example of ‘gotcha’ journalism both Mr.  read more »

On TVNewser, Alissa Krinsky breaks the news that Gwen Ifill broke her ankle Monday night falling down the stairs in her home while carrying "research related to her moderating duties at Thursday's Vice Presidential debate in St. Louis."

According to TV Newser, despite the injury, Ms. Ifill will still moderate Thursday's debate.

Odd coincidence: According to Wasilla legend, when Sarah Palin was in high school she prevailed in a pivotal basketball game despite having to play on a broken ankle.

Tonight's CBS Evening News will feature more of the interview Katie Couric conducted yesterday in Ohio with Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

Over the past week, the ongoing series of Couric-Palin interviews has developed into one of the most fascinating, must-see sub-narratives of the 2008 campaign. Tonight's episode promises not to disappoint.

Courtesy of CBS News, the transcript:

Gov. Palin at Monday’s event in Columbus, OH: I do look forward to Thursday night and debating Senator Joe Biden. We are going to talk about those new ideas, new energy for America. I'm looking forward to meet him too. I've never met him before.  read more »

In an article by Jacques Steinberg in today's The New York Times about Tom Brokaw's current role at NBC News (which apparently involves a fair amount of peacekeeping with the McCain camp), the president of the news division Steve Capus hints about the future of Meet the Press.

From the article:

Mr. Capus refused to characterize the network’s intentions. But it is leaning toward an ensemble of hosts that would be led by Chuck Todd, NBC's political director, and include David Gregory, a correspondent and MSNBC anchor, according to a person who had been briefed on the proposal but was not authorized to comment, partly because the plans were not set. Like the turnover of anchors at all three network newscasts, the process of choosing a successor for Mr. Russert has been closely watched in media and political circles.

Earlier today, Katie Couric caught up with Senator John McCain and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who were campaigning in Ohio.

At one point during the interview, Ms. Couric asked about an apparent difference in positions between the two politicians on the same ticket.

"Over the weekend, Gov. Palin, you said the U.S. should absolutely launch cross-border attacks from Afghanistan into Pakistan to, quote, 'stop the terrorists from coming any further in," said Ms. Couric. "Now, that's almost the exact position that Barack Obama has taken and that you, Sen. McCain, have criticized as something you do not say out loud. So, Gov. Palin, are you two on the same page on this?"  read more »

Tonight Jim Lehrer, host of PBS's The News Hour, will moderate the first presidential debate of the general election, which will take place at University of Mississippi in Oxford.

PBS will be one of nine networks broadcasting the debate tonight. With Mr. Lehrer in the moderator's chair, Ray Suarez will anchor PBS's pre- and post-debate coverage.

According to the network's release:

Jim Lehrer, Executive Editor and Anchor of The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS, moderates a debate that will focus on foreign policy and national security, at the University of Mississippi in Oxford Mississippi. Analysis by Shields & Brooks; reports from NPR reporters covering the respective campaigns - Don Gagne reports from the Obama campaign; Scott Horsley covering McCain; and perspective from presidential historian Michael Beschloss; Jeanne Cummings, senior correspondent at Politico; Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune

Earlier this week, the Media Mob asked Lester Crystal, the president of MacNeil/Lehrer Productions and the former executive producer of The News Hour, why viewers, given all the choices tonight, should tune into PBS.  read more »

Senator John McCain's staff has just announced that the Republican presidential nominee will participate in tonight's much anticipated debate with Senator Barack Obama in Oxford, Mississippi.

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has announced on his Web site that his weekend variety show "Huckabee," will be airing for the first time on Fox News this Saturday and Sunday night.

From Mr. Huckabee's post:

All of us have been talking about the show I will be doing for Fox News. I wanted to bring you up to date on what is going on.

The show will be called "Huckabee." I'm sure the name will make it easy for all of you to find it. "Huckabee" will air this Saturday and Sunday at 8 PM Eastern time on Fox News Channel.

So has Fox News actually picked up the show for an extended run? Or is Saturday night's program merely a pilot?

We called Fox News to find out. A spokesperson referred questions to Mr. Huckabee's agent.

We'll update once we hear back.

While standing outside a fire station nearby Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan today, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin finally made herself available for questions to reporters on the trail. Somewhere Campbell "Free Sarah Palin" Brown is smiling.

ABC News has the video.

On Monday, TV Newser looked at the success that Rachel Maddow's new show on MSNBC has enjoyed over its first two weeks:

Last week the program was #2 in cable news in both the A25-54 demo and in Total Viewers at 9pmET, beating CNN's Larry King Live. FNC's Hannity & Colmes was the top-rated broadcast at 9pmET. On Friday, Maddow's was the #1 show in the demo at 9pmET topping a Hannity-less H&C.

In the two weeks since Maddow took over the 9pmET slot, the program's nine shows have averaged 556,000 demo viewers and 1.6M Total Viewers. Maddow's averages are more than double the final two weeks (eight shows) of Verdict with Dan Abrams (225,000 demo / 601,000 Total Viewers.

Will the ratings success continue? Who knows. But the media's interest in Ms. Maddow shows no sign of flagging.  read more »

In the forthcoming October/November issue of Radar magazine, Lauren Sandler profiles Lara Logan, CBS News' alluring, aggressive war correspondent.

Over the course of several thousand words, Ms. Sandler chronicles Ms. Logan's blazing ascent from casual South African swimsuit model to swashbuckling war correspondent to tabloid sensation for her involvement in a series of war zone affairs, including with CNN's war correspondent Michael Ware.

"Ware and Logan became legendary for their blowout arguments," reports Ms. Sandler. "Some members of Iraq's press pack referred to them as 'the Sid and Nancy of Baghdad.'"

In short: It's a good read. (Though, as of this writing, not yet online.  read more »

So what happens if Senator John McCain actually skips tomorrow night's highly anticipated first presidential debate?

Marisa Guthrie of Broadcasting & Cable posed the question to a number of TV executives.

"If McCain does decide to forgo the debate, it will not be easy to reschedule," writes Ms. Guthrie. "The planning and security make it all but impossible to relocate the debate to a different date or venue. Television time is negotiated months in advance. And with the broadcast networks in the thick of fall premieres, finding an acceptable alternative to roadblock hours of TV time would be very difficult."  read more »

Today, Katie Couric sat down with Alaska Governor Sarah Palin for the third on-air interview with the elusive VP candidate since the Republican convention.

The interview will air tonight on the CBS Evening News. In the meantime, CBS producers have posted a brief clip from the interview on their Web Site.

First impressions: no scenic Alaskan backdrop (like with ABC's Charlie Gibson). And no letting down of her hair (like with Fox News' Sean Hannity). Also: much more pink clothing and increased chatter about another Great Depression.

Senator John McCain announced today that he and his staff are working behind the scenes to try and postpone Friday's debate with Senator Barack Obama due to the ongoing crisis in the financial markets.

The highly anticipated first showdown between the candidates is scheduled to take place at the University of Mississippi on 9 p.m. Friday night and will focus on national security and foreign policy issues. PBS's Jim Lehrer is scheduled to moderate.

From the Associated Press's article:

In a statement, McCain says he will stop campaigning after addressing former President Bill Clinton's Global Initiative session on Thursday and return to Washington to focus on the nation's financial problems.

McCain also said he wants President Bush to convene a leadership meeting in Washington. Both he and Obama would attend the session.

This morning, Luke Russert appeared on The Today Show to talk about his most recent dispatch on young people in politics. After airing the piece, which focused on young politically-engaged students at the University of Virginia, Today's Matt Lauer asked Mr. Russert some follow up questions about the demographics at the school.

At which point Mr. Russert said this: "You have to remember, the smartest kids in the state go there, so it's leaning a little bit towards Obama."

Conservative media watchdogs at Newsbusters were not amused.

And Mr. Russert promptly apologized on MSNBC's Web site:

Earlier this morning on the Today Show I misspoke and made what is without a doubt, quite simply a dumb comment.

 read more »

“I am writing in frustration over the tenor of the general coverage on McCain this past week,” Douglas Holtz-Eakin, top economic adviser to the Republican presidential candidate, Senator John McCain, wrote in a blast e-mail to financial reporters over the weekend.

One could be forgiven for thinking he was talking about the events of Tuesday, Sept. 16, when he was briefing reporters in Miami on his candidate’s prescriptions for solving the Wall Street crisis, and burnishing his candidate’s credentials as former chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee.

What, one reporter asked, had he done on commerce that gave him expertise on the present financial meltdown?

“He didn’t have jurisdiction over financial markets, first and foremost,’’ Mr.  read more »

On the afternoon of Monday, Sept. 22, Dan Rather and lawyers for CBS returned yet again to a court in Lower Manhattan for the latest ruling in Mr. Rather's ongoing $70 million civil lawsuit against his former employers.

There, New York Supreme Court Justice Ira Gammerman announced his ruling on CBS's motion to dismiss Mr. Rather's amended complaint against them.

In a decision that is giving the Media Mob a case of déjà vu, the Justice decided to allow the lawsuit to proceed, while also knocking down a portion of the amended complaint.

Afterward, both sides claimed victory.  read more »

Today Dan Rather will return to a courtroom in Lower Manhattan.

There, Justice Ira Gammerman is scheduled to make a ruling this afternoon on CBS's motion to dismiss Mr. Rather's amended complaint in his $70 million civil lawsuit against his former employers.

Expect updates as more news breaks.

On Sunday morning, Mayor Michael Bloomberg appeared on NBC News' Meet the Press to talk about the financial crisis on Wall Street.

At one point, interim moderator Tom Brokaw asked Mr. Bloomberg about the possibility of running for a third term in New York. With a slight smile on his face, Mr. Bloomberg tried to turn the tables on his interviewer.

"I have 466 days left to go on my job," said Mr. Bloomberg."I was sort of thinking of maybe to be host of this program. That would be a nice job for me. Probably pays a little bit better than the dollar-a-year I get now.  read more »

Thanks to some newly minted contracts with television channels across the planet, audiences from India to Indonesia to Hong Kong to South Africa will now get to watch MSNBC's never-boring political coverage, reports Paul Gough of the The Hollywood Reporter.

"MSNBC is expanding its international portfolio with a series of deals with channels around the world tied to the cable network's coverage of politics and the November presidential election," writes Mr. Gough. "The arrangements call for the channels to carry, either live or on tape delay, MSNBC's coverage of the presidential debates and Nov. 4 general election."

As we noted last week, seemingly every journalist in America knows exactly what needs to be asked of Sarah Palin. Yesterday, Fox News' Sean Hannity became the second journalist, post-convention, to sit down with the governor of Alaska for an extended on-air interview.

Would Mr. Hannity, given his conservative beliefs, ask Ms. Palin tough questions?

Herein the abridged transcript (from Lexis Nexis) of the first part of the interview, which aired last night on Hannity & Colmes, edited down to just Mr. Hannity's questions:

Governor, thank you for being with us. All right. You said when you were asked to be Senator McCain's running mate that you didn't hesitate, you didn't blink.

 read more »

Yesterday, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin sat down for her second post-convention interview. This one took place in Ohio. Sean Hannity of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes asked the questions.

At one point, Mr. Hannity asked Ms. Palin (who let her hair down for the interview) what she thought of Tina Fey's recent impression of her on Saturday Night Live. "I watched with the volume all the way down," said Ms. Palin. "I thought it was hilarious. I thought she was spot on. ... It was hilarious. Again, didn’t hear a word she said, but the visual, spot on."

"Did anyone ever say that before that there was a similarity in terms of looks?" Mr. Hannity asked.

"They’ve been saying that for years up in Alaska," Ms. Palin responded. "In fact, I dressed up as Tina Fey once for Halloween. So we’ve been doing that before Tina Fey has been doing that!"  read more »

This coming Sunday, CBS News' 60 Minutes will be celebrating its 40th Anniversary on the air. For the occassion, Steve Kroft will be interviewing Senator Barack Obama, and Scott Pelley will be interviewing Senator John McCain.

From today's release:

America's most-watched news program takes a hard look at the presidential candidates on its 40th anniversary broadcast much as it did when its very first edition on Sept. 24, 1968, featured Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey. Forty years later, however, 60 MINUTES will debut a vivid, new look thanks to digital technology that would have been science fiction in 1968.

 read more »

On Saturday, Sept. 6, Drew Griffin, a correspondent for CNN, arrived with his camera crew at the home of Chuck Heath, the father of Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin.

Mr. Griffin was there for an interview. He had landed in Wasilla, Alaska, three days earlier, fresh off the Hurricane Gustav story, and was now charged with reporting on the life of the charismatic Alaska governor for a CNN documentary to be called Sarah Palin Revealed. There, alongside the driveway of Alaska’s first dad, Mr. Griffin saw something he’d never seen before: A 15-foot tower of stacked moose antlers. Holy Alaska!

 read more »

It's official: CBS News has announced that Katie Couric will get a shot at interviewing Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

From the release:

Katie Couric will spend two days traveling on the campaign trail with Governor Sarah Palin on Sunday, September 28 and Monday, September 29, conducting an exclusive interview to be broadcast on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric beginning Monday (29). Coverage will continue on Tuesday, September 30 on The Early Show and CBSNews.com. Coverage of Couric's travels and interview with the Republican Vice Presidential nominee will include behind-the-scenes access and Palin with Senator McCain as they campaign in battleground states.

Sean Hannity of Fox News has landed the first cable news interview with Sarah Palin. According to a release, the interview will air in two parts on Tuesday, Sept. 16, and Wednesday, Sept. 17, on Fox News' 9 p.m. show Hannity & Colmes.

"When I asked John McCain about your national security credentials, he cited the fact that you have command of the Alaskan National Guard and that Alaska is close to Russia. Are those sufficient credentials?" asked Charlie Gibson.

Mr. Gibson was just a few short minutes into his high-stakes interview with Sarah Palin, and he was already hitting his stride. He gazed toward the vice presidential candidate through a pair of gravitas-amplifying reading glasses and waited for the answer. He did not smile.

About a week earlier, in a clip heard round the political world, CNN's Campbell Brown had asked McCain campaign spokesperon Tucker Bounds a similar question, sending the surrogate into a frenzy of petulant defensiveness, and later inspiring the campaign to cancel a subsequent CNN interview as payback for the audacity of questioning Ms.  read more »

What questions will Charlie Gibson of ABC News ask Sarah Palin? Nobody knows. What questions should Mr. Gibson ask the Alaskan Governor turned vice presidential nominee?

Everybody knows!

Herein, a sampling of what other journalists would like Mr. Gibson to ask Ms. Palin.

Jack Shafer of Slate has 10 questions, including, "How are you like Hillary Clinton?"

Over at Foreign Policy, Rebecca Frankel has 20 questions, including "What is your preferred plan for peace between Israel and Palestine? A two state solution? What about Jerusalem?"

Portfolio's Jeff Bercovici: "You're on record as favoring abstinence-only sex education. Has your teenage daughter's pregnancy caused you to reconsider that stance?"

In the meantime, The Washington Post's E.  read more »

The Observer just spoke with Tom Brokaw who felt that our recent characterization of his role at NBC and stance towards MSBNC were inaccurate. At no point, said Mr. Brokaw, has he ever complained about the broad editorial environment of MSNBC to General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt, NBC Universal's president and CEO, Jeff Zucker, or NBC News' president, Steve Capus. Furthermore, Mr. Brokaw said he had in no way appointed himself as "the custodian of the Russert legend," as our source suggested.

Back in August, McCain campaign manager Rick Davis sent a letter to NBC News' Capus, complaining about NBC News' coverage of Mr.  read more »

According to reports on Politico and TVNewser, the McCain campaign's new "lipstick on a pig" web ad has been removed from YouTube after CBS's lawyers objected to its use of a quote by CBS News' Katie Couric, which the ad took out of context.

Steve Krakauer of TVNewser has the story:

The clip is from one of Couric's Reporter's Notebooks back in June when she criticized the media for some of the coverage of Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign. The McCain ad, which was hastily produced for the Web, implies Couric is being critical of the Obama campaign. A more complete quote from Couric's June Notebook: "Like her or not, one of the great lessons of that campaign is the continued and accepted role of sexism in American life, particularly in the media."

On Tuesday afternoon, Phil Griffin, the president of cable-news network MSNBC, had had enough of the interviews and was getting angry.

Roughly 48 hours earlier, Mr. Griffin had announced his decision to remove Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews from anchoring big political nights for his network. Henceforth, according to Mr. Griffin’s dictum, NBC News’ chief White House correspondent, David Gregory, would handle the news duties for MSNBC. Mr. Matthews and Mr. Olbermann would shift into purely revved-up pundit mode.

This morning, Mr. Griffin was batting back a report from the New York Post that Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of NBC’s parent company General Electric, had facilitated the change after “a lot, maybe thousands” of shareholders had called up to complain about Mr.  read more »

The Associated Press broke the news over the weekend that Charlie Gibson of ABC News has landed the covetted first post-convention on-air interview with Alaska Governor and Vice Presidential Nominee Sarah Palin.

ABC News has since confirmed the news. No details yet about when the interview will take place or when it will air. Although, according to the AP, the interview will be conducted in Ms. Palin's home state of Alaska.

Whether the Sarah Palin VP-pick ultimately pays off for John McCain remains to be seen. But for one group of Americans, Gov. Palin's sudden arrival on the national scene promises to be an instant boon: comics!

Judging from what's already made its way to YouTube  (haven't you seen this, this or this?), the moose-hunting hockey mom is in for a ribbing. So who will Saturday Night Live pick to play the small screen version of Sarah Barracuda?

We checked in this afternoon with Mr. Michaels' office in New York to get some answers, and according to Marc Liepis, a spokesperson for the show, the cast is still working on it.

They won't have to crash anything too fast either: the first new episode is slated for a week from Saturday. Here's hoping they have an easier time than they did with Barack Obama .