Outside Cable News

Via Hollywood Reporter
Democratic contenders boost Fox News
Clinton, Obama interviews do big numbers
By Paul J. Gough

Long shunned by Democrats and shut out of their high-rated primary debates, Fox News Channel scored last week with a little help from Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

The two made high-profile appearances on the news channel, Clinton in a two-part interview for “The O’Reilly Factor” and Obama in a long-awaited interview for “Fox News Sunday” with Chris Wallace.

Fox News vaulted into third place among all cable networks in primetime for the week ending Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research. Although Fox is no stranger to the top 10, this week’s performance was due in large part to the two-part interview that trounced the cable-news competition Wednesday and Thursday.

Fox News averaged 1.8 million viewers in primetime, behind only TNT (2.8 million) and USA (2.3 million). By comparison, CNN was 19th and MSNBC was 27th. Fox News also was seventh in total day with 992,000 viewers, while CNN was 22nd and MSNBC came in 29th.
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Via RealClearPolitics
Matthews Ready to Play Hardball in PA
By G. Terry Madonna and Michael Young

Now no longer the center ring for the traveling Democratic presidential nomination circus, Pennsylvania’s inventive political community has discovered a new favorite political parlor game to while away the brisk springtime evenings: will Chris Matthews, the irrepressible host of MSNBC’s Hardball, step down from his pundits perch to run for the US Senate against Arlen Specter in 2010? To a remarkable degree, speculation abounds over this possibility in the Keystone State.

The indications that Matthews will run are abundant. His MSNBC contract runs out next summer, and both he and the network show signs they might be ready for a break from each other. In addition, journalists are reporting that Matthews has been seeking advice privately from key Democrats across the state about his chances against Specter. Reportedly these contacts have included discussion with Governor Rendell concerning campaign resources.

Publicly Matthews has done little to disguise his interest in the race. Asked if he was running on a recent Colbert cable show, Matthews said this: “Did you ever want to be something your whole life…? When you grow up, some kids want to be a fireman. I want to be a Senator….There’s a difference between being a celebrity and working for the people. And it’s a greater thing to work for the people than being on television.”

If Matthews does run he will not be a stranger either to Pennsylvania or to politics. Born and raised in Philadelphia, he ran and lost a quixotic bid for Congress in 1974. This led him to staffer jobs on Capitol Hill and in the White House, ending his Washington career as a key aide to Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill during the Reagan years.
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Via Orlando Sentinel
Keith Olbermann series to offer glimpse into his super-collection of baseball cards
By Chris Olds

In hobby circles, television personality Keith Olbermann is known as a supercollector.

But many people familiar with his work might not know that long before he was on MSNBC or ESPN, he occasionally wrote about baseball cards for hobby publications.

And this summer Olbermann will have a series of pieces in Sports Collectors Digest, a weekly hobby newspaper. The series will showcase his collection of rare Topps proof cards and offer the stories behind some of the cards that were made for in-house work at the company in the past but never saw the light of day.

That is, until Topps opened its Vault to collectors.

(And, for the record, as a Topps consultant, he’s appeared on a few trading cards of his own like the Bowman Heritage certified autograph at right.)

The first piece comes later this month. Until then, here’s a video preview of the series from SCD:

>Video and a KO “baseball card” at the Orlando Sentinel.

Via The Hill
Redefining Tucker
By Betsy Rothstein

Tucker Carlson isn’t much of a dancer.

He admits as much and points out that he gained weight when he trained for ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” while others carved out chiseled bodies. “I gained about eight pounds of doughnuts,” he says. “What do I know about dancing? They put me up at a hotel in L.A. with great room service. I had never danced sober before. I had only danced at bar mitzvahs and weddings.”

It comes as no surprise, then, that Carlson, who doesn’t like to comb his hair, was voted off the show first. He didn’t want to do it and said no before he said yes. His wife, Susan, whom he married at 22, convinced him.

“What are you afraid of?” she had asked, goading him into it.

The former host of MSNBC’s “Tucker” is out of a job, at least as political talk show host. The network canceled his three-year-old show in March and replaced him with David Gregory’s “Road to the White House.” Carlson remains under contract with MSNBC as a campaign correspondent through the election.

He had suspected for months that his show was going to get killed. “It’s my job not to be in the dark,” he says. “I argued against it. Unfortunately, I’m not in control. They have been really fair. Very fair. I’m still employed by MSNBC and happy to be.”

Still, he considers himself jobless. “Tommy, I don’t have a job,” he says with a big, wide, laughing grin as he chats good-naturedly with The Palm’s maitre d’, Tommy Jacomo, on a crisp sunny afternoon last week.
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Via The Harvard Crimson
Matthews Engages at IOP
“Hardball” host, praising Obama, calls for a more international president
By LINDSAY P. TANNE

Political pundit and cable news host Chris Matthews opened his speech at the Institute of Politics Forum last night by making an admission.

“I am here to make something of a confession,” Matthews said. “Television is limited in the way it can tell the political story of our time.”

The host of MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews” went on to “confess” the media’s propensity to focus only on the hot story of the day—the “ring of fire”—as well as his views on the current administration and the upcoming presidential race.

Matthews spoke about the American people’s desire for change and the impact that it has had on election politics.

“Americans generally don’t say this is as good as it gets,” Matthews said. “We’re not European. We don’t just accept the way things are. We always try something new.”

He described the U.S. as a “dynamic, sometimes charismatic country,” citing historical examples—such as the transition from Hoover to Roosevelt in 1932 and Carter to Reagan in 1980—as times when the country underwent “great change.”

Looking toward this fall’s election, Matthews spoke of the need for the next president to be more curious about the international community.

“We need to elect a president who has been a student of the world and is a student of the world,” Matthews said.

Praising Barack Obama throughout his speech, Matthews said the Illinois Democrat is a symbol of the positive change that he believe the country needs.
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Via EarthTimes
FOX News Channel’s Brit Hume to Emcee Bradley Prize Gala in Washington, D.C.
Respected Journalist to Preside at Prestigious Ceremony

MILWAUKEE, May 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation announced today that renowned journalist Brit Hume will serve as Master of Ceremonies for the 2008 Bradley Prizes. The fifth annual awards gala ceremony will be held at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Wednesday, June 4, 2008.

The 2008 Bradley Prize recipients are: Gary S. Becker, Professor of Economics, University of Chicago; Victor Davis Hanson, Martin and Illie Anderson Fellow, The Hoover Institution; Alan Charles Kors, Professor of History, the University of Pennsylvania; and Robert L. Woodson, Sr., President, Center for Neighborhood Enterprise. Each award carries a stipend of $250,000.

“Brit Hume is one of the country’s top journalists,” said Michael W. Grebe, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Bradley Foundation. “Having Mr. Hume as the Master of Ceremonies for the 2008 Bradley Prizes will add another level of excitement to what will already be a memorable evening.”

Host of the highly rated FOX News Channel program “Special Report with Brit Hume,” he also serves as Managing Editor for FOX’s Washington bureau where he oversees news content in the bureau. Mr. Hume joined FOX News Channel in 1996. Prior to that, he was with ABC News for twenty-three years, serving as its White House correspondent from 1989-1996. He won a 1991 Emmy Award for his coverage of the Gulf War.
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Via BroadcastBuyer
VDS Provides Financial Graphics Suite To Fox Business Network

VDS has provided a suite of Financial Graphics software applications for the automated generation of financial graphics at the Fox Business Network.

The cornerstone of the application suite is a custom-developed system which provides the 24x7 FBN ticker and “HD Wing.” All graphics are generated by graphics engines provided by Vizrt.

The VDS HotBoards module provides for the template-driven display of live financial data in either a full page numeric display (board) or a live chart (line graph). Using the suite of template management tools, live data feeds from financial data sources are mapped to pre-defined Vizrt templates. Pages created from these templates can be built into stacks by production personnel and stored/recalled at any time for playout. Once a board or chart is aired, its data values are continuously updated live, ensuring that the most recent data is always displayed.

The Fox Business Network ticker, which includes a graphics ‘wing’ for HD viewers provides for 24x7x365 operation, with full support for live insertion of content, as well as scheduled/unattended playout of pre-defined playlists.
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Via NY Daily News
CNN vet Jonathan Klein helps PS 71 create new kind of media center
BY TANYANIKA SAMUELS

At Public School 71, they’re ready for their closeup.

The Pelham Bay school has launched the student-run Preparatory Broadcast Network, which airs student-produced news live to outfitted classrooms.

“It’s just amazing,” said Principal Lance Cooper.

The broadcasting project, two years in the making, stemmed from the Principal for a Day program by the nonprofit PENCIL (Public Education Needs Civic Involvement in Learning).

The group had recruited CNN/US President Jonathan Klein for the program. Klein chose to spend the day at PS 71, his elementary school alma mater, and was inspired by what he saw there.

“I saw a lot of kids serious about learning. The school was filled with strivers when I went there 40 years ago, and it still is today,” he said. “It was very motivating.”

He wanted to do more, and soon the idea for the media broadcast center was born. Two CNN volunteers - Rob Frihse and Rob Fox - have been sharing their expertise and helping students and school officials put it all together.
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Via TechCrunch
CNN.com Adds Mixx To Its Mix Of Bookmarking Buttons
By Erick Schonfeld

Digg competitor Mixx landed another big distribution deal. CNN.com will be adding a “Mixx It” button after every article on the site. This will be right next to the “e-mail” and “share” buttons. Last March, the Mixx bookmark button was adopted by the New York Times, but only as one of many options. Similarly, when CNN.com readers click on the “share” button, they have the option to send the story to Digg, Facebook, del.icio.us, Reddit, and StumbleUpon. But Mixx will be highlighted as a separate button, apart from the regular share options.

The deal with CNN could give a huge boost to Mixx’s small-but-growing membership base of 500,000 registered users (and between 70,000 and 180,000 monthly unique visitors, depending on which measurement service you look at). CNN.com has 22 million monthly uniques in the U.S., according to comScore (and 30 million worldwide). CNN.com readers who decide to Mixx their stories will be able to bypass Mixx’s registration process when they get taken to the site so that they can browse immediately. They will still have to register, however, to save a story or set up a personal Mixx page.

>Read the rest at TechCruch.

Via TVDecoder
Jeanine Pirro’s Next Act: TV Judge
By The New York Times

“A former district attorney is parlaying her experience as a legal commentator on television into becoming a judge on a TV show,” the Associated Press reports.

“The CW network announced Monday that Jeanine Pirro will be the presiding jurist on ‘Judge Jeanine Pirro,’ weekday afternoons beginning Sept. 22. Pirro has ‘a powerful and dynamic television presence with a distinctive point of view, and depth of professional and life experience,’ said Hilary Estey McLoughlin, president of Telepictures Productions, which is making the show.”

>Read the rest at TVDecoder.