Outside Cable News

Via Edwardsville Journal
Bill O’Reilly inspires strong views
By Bill Nunes

OK! I admit it! Mea culpa! I’m guilty! I regularly watch Bill O’Reilly on the Fox cable news network. I must have plenty of company out there because his show draws more viewers than all the other cable network news programs combined in the prime time slot. Yet, to many liberals, he is one of five conservative “devils” out there. The greatest, of course, is President George W. Bush, closely followed by Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter. I remember watching one of the Democratic presidential debates and was astounded by one of the comments. John Edwards was ruminating on a question asked by the moderator and all of a sudden he blurted, “It’s time somebody out there stood up to Bill O’Reilly.” The partisan audience cheered wildly. I thought to myself, “What was that all about?” I can see where the Dems might believe Limbaugh and Coulter are Lucifer reincarnated, but O’Reilly. Oh, please!
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Via B&C
KING’s Bergman to MSNBC
KING Seattle Digital-Media Director Cory Bergman Named Director of Business Development at MSNBC.com
By Michael Malone

KING Seattle digital-media director Cory Bergman is heading to MSNBC.com, where he’ll be director of business development.

Bergman is one of the nation’s more progressive digital-media minds: KING5.com took the 2007 Peabody Award for best broadcast Web site; Bergman launched Seattle blog aggregator Citizen Rain; and he manages new-media blog LostRemote.com. His insights at Radio-Television News Directors Association conference panels over the years pushed many station managers to rethink their roles on the Web.

“I’ve always admired the innovation mindset at MSNBC.com, and the opportunity was simply too good to pass up,” Bergman posted on LostRemote.com. “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time at KING. I’ve told my family and friends over the years that it’s the best TV station in America, on TV and the Web. I can’t thank everyone enough.”

He continued, “I’ve come to believe that the media industry needs business innovation as much or more than it needs content innovation. As a geek journalist with an MBA, that’s why I’ve decided to make the shift to the business side of the online-media world.”

Bergman will remain in Seattle and work from MSNBC’s space on the Microsoft campus.

Via Observer
New MSNBC-New York Times Show Limps Out of the Gate
by Felix Gillette

On Monday, MSNBC kicked off The New York Times Special Primary Edition, a new irregularly recurring daytime political show hosted by John Harwood in which Times scribes chew over news from the campaign trail.

So how did the show’s premier do?

Not great!

According to Nielsen data, “The New York Times Special Primary Edition,” finished fourth among cable news networks in the 2 P.M. time slot.

Here are the numbers in terms of total viewers:
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Via phillyBurbs
By Eric Gargiulo
Democratic smackdown on CNN

CNN has an interesting panel of what they like to call “The best political team on television.” The team consists of two Superdelegates, Paul Begala and Donna Brazile. The funniest thing about Donna is that while she hasn’t officially declared who she is endorsing, every other word out of her mouth is about Barack Obama. Begala wears his support for Hillary Clinton on his sleeve and is proud of it.

The tension between Brazile and Begala got ugly for a few minutes as a cranky Donna Brazile lost her cool. Check out this interesting exchange between the two and then tell me that this race isn’t splitting the party apart.

By the way, how “super” of a delegate is Donna Brazile who still can’t figure out who she wants to officially endorse after analyzing the campaign daily for the last year.

>Video at phillyBurbs.

Via CFP
Fox News Channel is still a breath of fresh air
I just love Fox News
By Michael Bates

In fact, I don’t really love Fox News. I do, however, love saying that I just love Fox News. Simply expressing that view is enough to drive many liberals to rabid, foaming at the mouth frenzy. I mean, even more than their typical rabid, foaming at the mouth frenzy, which is not inconsiderable.

That’s because Fox News has a reputation, primarily among people who’ve dwelled too long on college campuses, for being dreadfully, unashamedly, intolerably conservative. Or, as they are wont to label anything deviating one iota from the prescribed liberal line, fascist.

Which is mildly amusing as a Fox News mainstay, Bill O’Reilly, is deemed by at least a few conservatives as not very conservative. In her book Slander, Ann Coulter – she of the long blond hair and short skirts – takes O’Reilly to task for his opposition to the death penalty and support for gun control. Add to that his all too eager acceptance of the global warming hysteria and his belief that poor little Elian Gonzalez deserved dispatch to the Castro Brothers’ prison known as Cuba, and you’ve got a guy Jeremiah Wright might find adequate.

My own beef with O’Reilly and the Fox News Channel is of more recent vintage. Last year, Fox intended to carry a debate of the Democratic presidential candidates. Co-sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus Political Education and Leadership Institute, the event was abandoned when Senators Clinton and Obama, along with John Edwards, declared they wouldn’t show up. The tone was set by a statement Edwards issued: “We believe there’s just no reason for Democrats to give Fox a platform to advance the right-wing agenda while pretending they’re objective.”

Newsday columnist and occasional Fox contributor Ellis Henican, a liberal, thought the candidates’ decision was wrong. “If you can’t handle the people at Fox News Channel, it makes people wonder if you can handle the Iranians, the North Koreans, the Chinese, the Russians and maybe even the Canadians,” he observed.

Yet the two remaining Democratic contenders have shunned the Fox News Channel all this time. Hillary Clinton generously agreed to an interview on O’Reilly’s program last week. You’d have thought he struck gold. Clips of the interview were made available to other news outlets. The interview or parts of it were repeatedly shown on Fox. Quite a coup, obviously.
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Via Bleacher Report
Cal Girls: Brianna Keilar
by Avinash Kunnath

To ease the pain of watching the Bataan Death March that is the Democratic nomination race, I am offering up one of Cal’s finest to soothe the eyes. Brianna belongs in the upper elite with Erin Andrews as one of those journalists that break the scales on both beauty and brains.

Here’s Brianna at the 2005 NFL Draft, covering Aaron Rogers and his historic first round slide.

Brianna Keilar - Class of 2001, Double Major MassCom/Psyc, Phi Beta Kappa

Brianna is currently CNN’s daytime Washington D.C. correspondent covering the Obama/Clinton race and other top stories. She made it to CNN via CBS Local in Oakland. She also worked for MTV’s campus network and covered the John Kerry race. Brianna was born in Australia but grew up in LA and was the homecoming queen at Mission Viejo High School (perhaps she can help with recruiting?). She also was on the Men’s Golf team there.

Click below for some screen shots.

She must be saying something important because there’s quite a bit of discussion about her on this board. Well, about 8,000 lines worth of discussion.

Here’s a biopic made by her high-school TV network.
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Via SignOnSanDiego
Iran-Contra figure Oliver North will sign his new books on Saturday
By Pat Sherman

When Oliver North travels to Iraq, the majority of U.S. servicemen and women encountered by the Fox News war correspondent probably don’t remember when or why he first became a household name.

Most have probably never heard President Reagan’s March 4, 1987, admission that, despite his public denial a few months earlier, the United States did trade arms to Iran in exchange for the release of hostages, a covert operation in which North played a key role.

Working for the National Security Agency, Lt. Col. Oliver “Ollie” North was at the center of the so-called Iran-Contra Affair. He was convicted of three felony offenses, including the destruction of documents by his secretary, Fawn Hall. (Charges against North were later dismissed, and Hall was granted immunity for her testimony.)

“All they know is that I was a Marine who served in the Vietnam War and I’ve got a TV show on Fox,” said North during a phone interview last week.
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Via Multichannel News
CNN Primary Coverage Outdraws Rivals
Network’s Coverage Of Indiana, N.C. Primaries Tops Fox News, MSNBC
By Larry Barrett

CNN’s coverage of the key North Carolina and Indiana primaries attracted an average of more than 2.65 million viewers in primetime Tuesday, outpacing competitors Fox News and MSNBC by a considerable margin.

During primetime coverage (8 p.m.-11 p.m. ET) of the key Democratic primaries, Fox News came in second place with an average of 2.14 million viewers and MSNBC checked in with roughly 1.68 million viewers.

The network said among viewers between 25 and 54 years of age, CNN averaged just over 1 million viewers, well ahead of MSNBC and FNC at 678,000 and 583,000, respectively.

CNN’s viewership peaked at 3.1 million viewers during the 10 p.m. ET hour, the highest hourly delivery on any cable news network.

CNN.com’s election coverage garnered 74.5 million page views and more than 10.3 million unique visitors, network officials said.