FBN Changes…

The New York Times’ Brian Stelter writes about changes to FBN programming starting Monday. Stelter manages to throw an elbow in the opening paragraph…

Viewers of the Fox Business Network — and it remains unclear how many there are — may notice a number of changes on Monday.

Some anchors, like Alexis Glick, Stuart Varney and Liz Claman, will get better face-time. Some programs will be broken into one-hour segments to make them seem more focused. New programs will be introduced to punch up the hours surrounding the 4 p.m. market close.

“The nice thing about a start-up is that you get to make a lot of tweaks,” said Kevin Magee, an executive vice president at Fox Business Network.

What’s Hot/What’s Not: 5/11/08

What’s Hot:

Chuck Todd - Todd gets the full Howard Kurtz treatment. Someone at NBC wants to elevate Todd’s profile.

Alexis Glick - With Peter Barnes departing Money for Breakfrast Friday and a nice big Jon Friedman profile this week, Glick continues to solidify her presence on FBN’s Morning programming.

What’s Not:

Firing Jennifer Locke - It’s not so much that Locke got fired for voicing an opinion she shouldn’t have, but that Locke got fired while others have had arguably more serious gaffes…and didn’t get fired. This gives credence to the theory of a double standard; that you’ll get fired if you screw up and you’re expendable but not get fired if you’re not.

Peter Barnes - Washington Correspondent after only 7 months? Add in the fact that Money for Breakfast, which Barnes co-anchored, lost an hour earlier this year, which was filled with an hour of just Alexis Glick, and you’ll pardon me for thinking this smells more like exile rather than a promotion.

Chuck Todd Profile…

The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz profiles NBC/MSNBC Political Director Chuck Todd. This is a noteworthy interview because Todd isn’t one you would expect to get a full blown profile write up like this in The Post. Nothing against Todd himself, who knows his stuff, but he’s not a “name” that one would normally consider for a Kurtz NBC profile. If I said “NBC/MSNBC Politics”, one would logically think of Russert or Matthews or Mitchell or Gregory. But not Todd. Therefore because it is Todd it means NBC is looking to raise Todd’s profile more as the political season heats up. Which makes this a must read article…

On a cable channel packed with such opinionated personalities as Olbermann and Chris Matthews, Todd stands out by not being flamboyant. While others are getting punch-drunk on polls, New York Times critic Alessandra Stanley observed, Todd is “the designated driver of MSNBC’s political coverage.”

He is accustomed to the role. During his boyhood in Miami, Todd recalls, his conservative father and a liberal cousin often got sloshed and argued about politics.

Todd was 16 when his dad died. Strapped for cash, Todd was accepted by George Washington University on a music scholarship — he played the French horn — and pursued a double major in politics.

Longtime friend Andrew Flagel, now George Mason University’s dean of admissions, says Todd had phenomenal recall, “whether it had to do with every sports fact you could ever have at your fingertips or every congressional race. He was the Jimmy the Greek of politics. We’d be out at one of the bars in Georgetown or Foggy Bottom and he’d end up with 20 people around us, arguing about either politics or sports, and he’s emceeing the discussion.”

The Hazards of Live TV: #24,948…

That’s twice this week FNC has been the victim of test pattern bars in a split screen setup.

Actually it’s two screens that have nothing to do with the interview that was taking place. I couldn’t tell what the left side was since it was a still so I assumed it was the correct image. It wasn’t.

(via J$)

Olbermann Watch Busts Fake Countdown Facebook Page…

Olbermann Watch reported a fake Countdown Facebook page that had been set up…

So, I have helpfully reported the fake Countdown page to the Facebook Admins and look forward to their removing the fan page for violating the Terms of Use, much to the consternation of the 1,700+ people who “fanned” the page.

FNC Partners with Student Reporter Network…

Broadcasting & Cable’s Marissa Guthrie writes about FNC teaming up with The Palestra…

Palestra and Fox Business Network will partner on a Web destination dedicated to economic issues facing college students and recent graduates, said Joel Cheatwood, Fox News’ senior vice president of development.

And once there are two clear presidential nominees, youth-vote election forums will get underway, streamed on Palestra.net and FOXNews.com.

Last week, Peter Doocy, son of Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy, appeared on the morning show interviewing students from Villanova University in Philadelphia about the issues that are important to them in the upcoming election.

Peter Doocy is not the first son of a TV-news personality to get his shot to follow in a parent’s footsteps. Stephan Holt, son of NBC’s Lester Holt, contributed reporting from Pepperdine University during the Malibu wildfires.

Doocy’s F&F report, Cheatwood said, “is very much in line with what we’re hoping to do [with Palestra reporters]. He had a great cross-section of students who were equally divided in terms of their political leanings and they talked about what issues made a difference to them and what the focus was to that age group. It’s kind of an interesting perspective because it’s not always what you think it would be.”

What’s Hot/What’s Not: Submissions…

Post your suggestions for this week’s What’s hot/What’s not. I’ll post the finalists on Sunday…

FNC Fires Production Assistant Over Gaffe?

TVNewser reports that an FNC production assistant was fired after she told Presidential candidate John McCain she voted for him in the primary and she thought he was going to win…and it got caught on tape.

Insiders tell us the assistant, identified as Jennifer Locke, was on assignment with a camera crew to cover the entertainment angle of the event. When Sen. John McCain walked by, the assistant said, “I voted for you in the primary, you’re going to win.”

McCain was overheard saying to her, “You’re not supposed to reveal that.” Locke apparently continued to explain that she is the daughter of a Vietnam veteran.

Insiders who were at the event were surprised and shocked to hear the disclosure, which was recorded on videotape. A Fox News insider called it “journalistically unacceptable.” An FNC spokesperson would not comment on the personnel matter but did confirm Locke is no longer with the company, where she’d worked for a couple of years.

Do you think this was an appropriate response or not? And how is it that this incident was “journalisticaly unacceptable” and merited termination but Carl Cameron authoring a bogus story on John Kerry in the 2004 campaign which was never intended to get posted on the web, but did by accident, wasn’t? Was it because the former was expendable but the latter wasn’t?

Bill Hemmer interview…

TV Guide’s Stephen Battaglio interviews FNC’s Bill Hemmer…

TVGuide.com: As a veteran of cable news, you had a reputation as a guy who could put in long hours on the air. It doesn’t seem like you had the real estate to do that at Fox until now.

Hemmer: When I joined Fox there was no room at the inn. We were No. 1 across the board in households and demos. There was no wiggle room. I think we’ve seen now that opportunity to put all the resources of Fox News Channel together and to do it in that 5 o’clock program. It’s been a terrific outlet for us.

TVGuide.com: You felt you had to wait your turn?

Hemmer: Entirely. I think everyone has to. That does not mean the next time a story breaks somewhere that I don’t want to be the first one out the door.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Chickaboomer notices a change in Chris Matthews…

MSNBC blowhard Chris Matthews changed his hair color this week. Gone is the washed-out Lou Dobbs cornsilk yellow. The vainglorious one put some red in his head. Sort of caramel-y. Enquiring minds want to know if his carpet matches the drapes…

Criticizing David Shuster…

Philly Burb’s Eric Gargiulo takes a dump on David Shuster. Gargiulo is a Sports Editor so I’m left wondering why he’s blogging about cable news talent…(via OCN)

I didn’t think it was possible for MSNBC’s David Shuster to get more obnoxious. Well, that was before I watched Morning Joe today. MSNBC correspondent David Shuster was playing the role of analyst and spent the entire morning whining like a little girl about the Clintons.

FBN’s Peter Barnes Gets a New Assignment…

Today on FBN’s Money for Breakfast it was announced that Peter Barnes would be leaving the anchor chair on that program to be FBN’s “Senior Washington Correspondent”. No replacement was named for Barnes. What’s interesting to me isn’t that Barnes got “elevated” (if you choose to consider this move a promotion) so soon, which is noteworthy, but that there’s a need for FBN to have its own Washington Correspondent. Why not instead have someone from FNC who’s already established there cover Washington for FBN? Or more than one. FNC has plenty of Washington people (Cameron, Goler, Wright, etc. You’d think News Corp. would want to synergize the two networks as much as possible but apparently they either can’t or don’t want to share resources in this instance.

Free for All - 5/9/08

What’s on your mind?

Alexis Glick Profile…

Marketwatch’s Jon Friedman profiles FBN’s Alexis Glick…

One of my colleagues suggested I write a story for this series titled “A Day in the Life of Alexis Glick.” The angle presented a problem, however, because I’d need a Herculean supply of human growth hormones, just to keep up with this force of nature.

Her energy level never abates, whether she’s conducting an interview, assessing economic data or analyzing the big deal du jour. No news is mundane to her.

“She has more energy than anyone should be allowed to have, especially given the fact that she is up and running before dawn,” said Kevin Magee, executive vice president at Fox News. “It’s all we can do to keep up with her.”

Recently, returning home after a weekend in London with her husband of nine years, the mother of three boys age 6 and under wrote tongue-in-cheek in her blog on the Fox Business site (at http://glickreport.blogs.foxbusiness.com): “If I’m pregnant, you’ll be the first to know.”

Glick’s high-octane approach is exactly what the 7-month-old Fox Business Network, now available in 35 million homes, needs right now. That’s why Fox Business assigned her to cover widely followed events as different as the Davos conference in Switzerland and the Super Bowl.

Things to Dislike About CNBC?

Seeking Alpha’s Kevin Price adds to his list of things he dislikes about CNBC…(via Talking Biz News)

CNBC’s Sue Herrera, speaking of class clown Dennis Kneale* a few minutes ago:

And by the way, thanks for that oil-can’t-move-to-$150 call yesterday, Dennis. And we had it set a new record high. So, he’s a contrary indicator, folks, that’s all we can tell ya.

Indeed.

And while we’re on the subject, we’ll add a new item to our list of Things We Don’t Like About CNBC.

New Item

Bob Pisani’s crutch-like reliance on the word “here.” If you haven’t noticed this before, and get annoyed by verbal tics like this, we apologize for bringing it to your attention. If you have noticed it, we feel your pain.

Cory Bergman joins MSNBC.com

Lost Remote’s Cory Bergman writes about his new job at MSNBC.com…

After seven terrific years at KING-TV and KING5.com in Seattle, I’m excited to announce I’ve accepted a job as director of business development at MSNBC.com. I’ve always admired the innovation mindset at MSNBC.com, and the opportunity was simply too good to pass up.

Oliver North Interview…

The San Diego Union-Tribune’s Pat Sherman interviews FNC’s Oliver North…(via J$)

A commentator on the “Hannity and Colmes” show and host of “War Stories With Oliver North,” North has visited Iraq nine times to report on the war.

In his recent book, he writes that the average American underestimates the threat radical Islam poses to the United States.

“I’ve probably seen, I would guess, six or seven instances of people blowing themselves up,” said North, 64. “I’ve seen a guy step off a curb and blow himself up against the side of a Humvee.”

North said he sees Iran’s leadership as a threat to the United States, Israel and the stability of the Middle East – though he said he does not believe war is inevitable.

North said he believes Iranian citizens will “finally have enough of theocracy.”

“There’s a lot of discontent, particularly among the young people,” North said. “My ultimate prayer is that they do not acquire a nuclear weapon, or weapons. I have no doubt where they would use the first one. The current regime in Tehran is wedded to the idea of … wiping Israel off the face of the Earth.”

The Hazards of Live TV: #24,947…

B-Roll Blues…

Blackout on Pentagon/Military Analyst Connections Story?

The Politico’s Michael Calderone and Avi Zenilman write about the lack of coverage by the TV News networks on the New York Times’ Pentagon/TV Military Analyst story.

Even with countless media outlets available these days, a Sunday New York Times cover story could always be counted on to send a jolt through the television news cycle.

But apparently that’s no longer the case. Indeed, reporter David Barstow’s 7,600-word investigation of the Pentagon’s military analyst program — whereby ex-military talking heads, often with direct ties to contractors, parroted Defense Department talking points on the air — has been noticeably absent from television airwaves since the story broke on April 20.

While bloggers have kept the story simmering, Democratic congressional leaders also are speaking out, calling for investigations that could provoke the networks to finally cover the Times story — and, in effect, themselves.

On Tuesday, Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and John Dingell (D-Mich.) sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin J. Martin “urging an investigation of the Pentagon’s propaganda program” to determine if the networks or analysts violated federal law.

David Gregory Attack #4

Jossip again…

Some background on Tuesday night’s primary coverage dust up between MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and David Gregory:

The twosome “have never” gotten along, says a reputable source. A year ago, Gregory bad mouthed Scarborough to somebody who, unbeknownst to Gregory, was a Scarborough friend/fan. It can be assumed the dis made its way back to Scarborough, who found reason to battle against his fellow newsie.

Free For All - 5/8/2008

What’s on your mind?

MSNBC.com pulls Courtney Hazlett article?

The New York Observer’s Leon Neyfakh writes about an article MSNBC’s Courtney Hazlett wrote on MSNBC.com which was apparently retracted and then yanked from the MSNBC website.

Editors at MSNBC.com removed and retracted a story about James Frey last Thursday afternoon after receiving some angry phone calls from members of Mr. Frey’s publicity team. In the story “Frey Still Having Trouble Keeping Facts Straight,” which ran in the Scoop gossip column, reporter Courtney Hazlett suggested that Mr. Frey, the disgraced memoirist whose debut novel will be published by HarperCollins next Tuesday, had been caught in a fresh tangle of lies.

(snip)

If her hunches had been right, Ms. Hazlett would have had a huge story—especially because the Vanity Fair piece, which offered an unequivocally positive take on Mr. Frey, had come out just a few days earlier. Readers still angry with Mr. Frey wanted some justice, and Ms. Hazlett was apparently eager to provide them with some ammunition.

I’ve read this over, and the correction notice on MSNBC.com, several times and it still seems rather nebulous to me as to what was wrong with Hazlett’s article. But it must have been really bad for this problem to get elevated to the level of Charlie Tillinghast and for MSNBC.com to pull it without a trace instead of leaving it up in a corrected manner; which suggests that the article was so inaccurate that it couldn’t be salvaged by making a correction or two.

The obvious question is how much damage this does to Hazlett’s career at MSNBC? I suspect the answer will depend on how big the story gets. If it stays in the background, where it currently resides, I suspect the damage will likely be minimal. But I’ve been wrong before.

Mixed Signals?

The speculation that Ryan Secrest is in negotiations to take over for Larry King has been buzzing the internet today. What makes this so interesting is that King signed a contract extension recently but apparently without a 9pm guarantee.

Scarborough Walks off set Again?

I may have to come up with a new blog post category: “MSNBC leaks to Jossip” to hold all these entries. Today’s victim, Joe Scarborough (though David Gregory and Phil Griffin receive a little collateral damage in the process). This one, however, doesn’t seem up to the level of the previous leaks…

We told you MSNBC chief Phil Griffin has made David Gregory his trophy boy. That’s why the 6pm anchor was lavished with airtime during yesterday’s North Carolina and Indiana primary coverage. Which meant morning boy Joe Scarborough, accustomed to ankling this type of coverage with Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews, grew furious when Gregory hogged the cameras — so much so, Jossip hears, that he stormed off the set and never returned for the rest of the evening’s coverage.

Here’s an alternate explanation. Scarborough had to get some sleep since he had to anchor his own show in a few hours…

Re-examining the “FNC boycott”…

The National Ledger’s Mike Bates makes a couple of interesting points about the sudden appearances of Clinton and Obama on FNC programs…(via J$)

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.

If I were O’Reilly, I wouldn’t have given Mrs. Clinton the publicity. I’d have told her, “Look, you refused to debate on this network. You’ve consistently refused to appear on our programming and you and your campaign have frozen our reporters out as much as possible.

“Now you need Fox more than we need you. Down on advertising dollars and engaged in crucial contests in some relatively conservative states, you want free air time to convey your message to a large audience. Get lost. And have a nice day.”

Mr. Obama broke his own boycott by appearing on “Fox News Sunday” recently. More than two years ago, he promised host Chris Wallace he’d appear on the program. 772 days later, he finally did. Again, I would have told the senator to hit the bricks.

FBN Profile…

Haute Living’s Stephanie Wilson profiles FBN. This is the second time that I’m aware of where FBN has signed off on stories in what basically constitutes the upper class niche (see this Stratos interview for the other). Which is somewhat puzzing since FBN was billed pre-launch as the channel for Main Street and not Wall St. Even this article mentions this strategy. But main streeters aren’t going to be reading this. They’ve probably never even heard of Haute Living. Or Stratos. So this is the disconnect. If FBN was intent on targeting main street, shouldn’t we be reading articles in Newsweek? Or Time? Or Business Week? Or (insert mainstream magazine read by Main Street here)?

It’s midnight. One day has ended while another has just begun. But the world has fully embraced the 24-hour news cycle, and many members of the newest business channel to hit the cable lineup are getting their last few moments of rest. At 2:30 a.m. in various homes across the city, buzzers start buzzing, signaling the start of the workday for an unstoppable news force. Jenna Lee’s feet are first to hit the floor; at 5 a.m., she and Nicole Petallides will be the fresh faces that greet some business aficionados as they tune in to FOX Business Morning, which brings viewers information on the world’s markets. By the time the U.S. broadcast day begins, the Asian markets have been open and churning for quite some time. Eric Bolling rises at 3 a.m., but V.P. of FOX Business News, Alexis Glick, is already on her way to the studio at that point. Cody Willard, who jolts awake at 6 a.m., is considered the late sleeper of the bunch. By that time, many members of the FOX Business Network team have been at the station for hours, diligently working to ensure that when America wipes the sleep out of their eyes and tunes in, they are greeted by an informed staff, just as they were on the day FOX Business launched, when Petallides’ voice echoed out over the airwaves with the network’s first words: “Good morning, and welcome to the new FOX Business Network.”

More and more, people are waking up with Lee and Petallides, who are joined at 7 a.m. by Glick, who talks Money for Breakfast along with anchor Peter Barnes. Similar to other news networks, like the more familiar CNBC, FOX Business Network, which went live in October, reports on the effects of Wall Street, but with a twist that interprets the information for the residents of mainstream America. “We try to break things down so that it is not geared towards someone in a particular money bracket,” Lee explains. “There is more than 300 million people in the U.S., and everyone-all ages, colors, and income brackets-are influencing the economy every single day.” Glick emphasizes that the goal of the network is to appeal to both Wall Street and Main Street, not one or the other. She offers a segment on CEO Kenneth Camp of Hillenbrand, a funeral service business that split into two the morning of the interview, as an example of their innovative tactics. The interview centers around how some are having trouble retiring because of the decline of the value of their 401K. “We took a topic with a CEO and turned it into a conversation about the way baby boomers are not able to retire as aggressively because of the turn in the economy. So we had a Wall Street story and took it to Main Street.”

The Hazards of Live TV: #24,946…

Is Brit thinking a bit too much about the competition?

Press Releases: 4/7/08

CNN:

Sen. Barack Obama to Appear on The Situation Room on Thursday

Blitzer Scores First National Television Interview with Obama Since Indiana, North Carolina Primaries

CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer will conduct a one-on-one interview with Sen. Barack Obama on Thursday, May 8, the Democratic presidential candidate’s first national television interview since the North Carolina and Indiana primaries.

An Apology…

ICN wishes to apologize for the previous entry. It’s not ICN’s style to go for cheap laughs. And it won’t happen again…

Reboot…

After a three hour flight delay I’m back (and very tired). Blogging resumes later today. Sometime.