Outside Cable News

Via Multichannel News
Mojo HD, Dos Equis Look For Series ‘Assistant’
Show Plays Off Beer Marketer’s ‘Most Interesting Man’ Campaign
By Mike Reynolds

Mojo HD and Dos Equis have poured the precepts for an original series scheduled to bow on the network this fall.

Inspired by Dos Equis’ “Most Interesting Man in the World” campaign, Mojo HD has begun production on five episodes of MIA: The Most Interesting Assistant to premiere in September.

Hosted by media personality Shanon Cook (CNN), the show will engage the wanna-be assistants in a number of entertaining challenges, testing their intelligence, physical endurance, patience, social graces and good humor. Only then will viewers find whether the “late” Steve can ever truly be replaced.

>Read the rest at Multichannel News.

Via TVDecoder
Coldplay Lyrics Take a Swipe at Bill O’Reilly
By Brian Stelter

Coldplay’s new album comes out today, and one of the songs on it was inspired by an unusual source: Bill O’Reilly, the Fox News Channel host. Not surprisingly — given the source — the tune isn’t exactly an endorsement of the conservative commentator.

It is, however, the first single on the new album, “Viva La Vida,” and thus will soon be in heavy radio rotation. Some of the lyrics go like this: “When the future’s architectured by a carnival of idiots on show, you’d better lie low.” (The gist of the song, however, is love, not punditry; singer urges his beloved, “If you love me, won’t you let me know?”)

>Read the rest at TVDecoder.

Via TVDecoder
CNN And The Weather Channel: Complementary Channels?
By Brian Stelter

Casual cable viewers could occasionally be forgiven for confusing CNN with The Weather Channel.

CNN, the cable news network owned by Time Warner, promotes itself as a “Severe Weather Headquarters,” complete with a spiffy new weather center set and a row of respected meteorologists. More than its cable news competitors, it has tried to brand itself as an esteemed weather source.

So what would happen if Time Warner acquired The Weather Channel? It is known to be a bidder. Landmark Communications, the current owner, had hoped to fetch $5 billion for the channel and its popular Web site Weather.com, but recent media reports say that $3.5 billion is a more likely sales price.

Last week John Martin, the chief financial officer of Time Warner, said that a combination of CNN and The Weather Channel “would give us a very, very interesting cross-platform play,” though he emphasized the need for “price discipline” in the bidding. He said of a potential deal: “At a certain level it might make sense,” according to Reuters.

A group led by NBC Universal is also bidding; TV Decoder wrote last week about what an NBC/Weather combination could look like.

But what about this potential marriage?

>Read the rest at TVDecoder.

>Earlier: NBCU And Partners Bid $3.5 Billion For Weather Channel: Report

Via Baltimore Sun
Fox News: ‘Obama’s baby mama’
By Katie Fretland

A Fox News anchor faced backlash recently for characterizing Barack and Michelle Obama’s fist bump as possibly a “terrorist fist jab.” Now during a segment the network has displayed a screen referring to the wife of the presumptive democratic nominee as his “baby mama.”

The screen was displayed beneath a segment in which anchor Megyn Kelly interviewed Michelle Malkin, a conservative blogger. The segment discussed a conservative group’s planned anti-Obama documentary.

“Outraged liberals: Stop picking on Obama’s baby mama!” the screen read.

For more about Michelle Obama, see this article in The Swamp.

For more about Michelle Obama and Fox News, see this article by Salon’s Alex Koppelman.

>Check out the video at Baltimore Sun.

>Related: Was It a Slur?

>Update: Fox addresses baby mama drama: Producer used ‘poor judgment’

Via Observer
Michelle Malkin: Slate? Salon? Whatever.
by Matt Haber

Yesterday on Fox News—America’s Election HQ!—Megyn Kelly interviewed Fox News contributor and New Yorker profile rejecter Michelle Malkin about potential First Lady Michelle Obama. During the course of her echo chamber-like criticism of Ms. Obama (that’s not a metaphor: someone should’ve checked Ms. Malkin’s mic before putting her on air), Ms. Malkin said, “it’s not just Republicans who are criticizing some of her comments, but also statements have been made in the left-leaning blog Salon about her comments.”

That darn Salon!

Not so fast, Ms. Malkin. Alex Koppelman, Salon’s War Room blogger, searched his site and couldn’t turn up “anything like what Malkin is talking about.” After posting a clip of her appearance and emailing Ms. Malkin, he solved the mystery:

Malkin responded to my e-mail; she says she misspoke and that she meant to refer to Slate, not Salon.

Let’s call it the narcissism of minor differences.

Via Newsday
CNN’s Lou Dobbs won’t comment on run for NJ governor

NEWARK, N.J. - CNN’s Lou Dobbs isn’t talking about rumors that he’s thinking about running for governor of New Jersey.

Dobbs lives on a 300-acre farm in Sussex County.

Dobbs told The Star-Ledger of Newark he’s “not going to comment.”

State Republican chairman Tom Wilson tells the newspaper the Dobbs’ buzz is circulating among GOP officials and fundraisers in New York City and Washington.

>Read the rest at Newsday.

>Update: Dobbs not running for NJ governor

Via NYT
Networks Firm Up Convention Lineups
By JACQUES STEINBERG

The cable news channels expect to offer many more hours than that, perhaps none more so than MSNBC, which is seeking to swamp the efforts of its principal competitors, CNN and Fox News, by showing 20 hours of live convention programming each of the four days that the conventions are in session. To put that figure in perspective, consider that much of the official party business is conducted over the course of about four hours a night.

For MSNBC, which has scheduled its marathon coverage from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. Eastern time, the challenge of having enough for Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews and Joe Scarborough, among others, to discuss during all those hours would seem to be especially formidable. As television programs, conventions long ago made the transition from smoke-filled gatherings with more suspense than a “C.S.I.” episode to gleaming, ready-made infomercials where the audience knows the ending from the beginning.

(Among those to be featured on MSNBC is John Harwood, a CNBC correspondent who also reports for The New York Times, which pools some political newsgathering efforts with NBC.)
(more…)

Via Boston Herald
Reporters seek R&R after long campaign
By Jessica Heslam

The 2008 campaign bus has finally careened to a rest stop in the wild ride for reporters covering the Obama-Clinton fight to the finish, and the press - like never before - is pooped.

Taking a breather after one of the longest primary seasons in modern history, CNN senior political correspondent Candy Crowley says her Washington, D.C., area home looks like an abandoned post office.

She’s been flying around the country, traveling to nearly every state over the past 17 months.

“It was tremendously grueling,” said Crowley, who would look at Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-New York) and Barack Obama (D-Illinois) at times and think, “How can you do this?”

But the adrenaline kept her moving. “It was just exciting,” Crowley said. “It wasn’t just that it was a close race. It was that no matter what happened it was a historic race.”

While on the road, the sleep-deprived Crowley would appear on Anderson Cooper at 10 p.m., and rise and shine for early-morning live shots.
(more…)