Liz Claman Profile…

The Orange County Register’s Peter Larsen profiles FBN’s Liz Claman…

Her sense of humor – the ability to take and deliver a wisecrack or joke – seems to have caught the attention of Jon Stewart and the staff at Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” who twice this year have invited Claman to be part of that program.

“That happened in the most amazing way,” Claman says of her first appearance on “The Daily Show,” a prepared bit based on the joke that the hot new website ChatRoulette was mostly frequented by TV news reporters and, um, perverts.

“Out of the blue I got a call from ‘The Daily Show’ that Jon wanted me to be part of a skit on ChatRoulette,” Claman says. “I thought that was a thrill – I’ve always been a fan.

“So I said, ‘Well, who else is going to be on there?’ – I’m thinking a couple of local anchors – but they say Dianne Sawyer, Katie Couric, Brian Williams and Keith Olbermann. How cool is that!”

That one was just a cameo, a non-speaking part. A month or so later, though, Claman got the Full Jon Stewart – a sit-down interview at the anchor desk.

Free for All: 05/10/10

What’s on your mind?

In Depth: FBN’s Incredibly Shrinking Business News Coverage…

Last Friday ICN broke the news that FBN would be canceling several programs including Fox Business Morning; the latter being replaced by a Best of Imus hour. Part of me was hoping my sources were wrong. They weren’t. My DVR showed the Best of Imus when I played FBN’s 5am ET hour on my DVR this morning.

I would imagine the reason for the cancellation of Fox Business Morning boils down to ratings, as most of cancellations do. We can’t tell of course because FBN continues to hide behind that “we’re not officially rated by Nielsen” sieve of theirs – it’s a sieve and not a shield because ratings occasionally drip out when the network…or its competition…wants to try and emphasize a point – but it seems the likely reason.

What is more telling however is the decision to cancel the show outright and replace it with tape rather than change the format or the hosts. Apparently tinkering was not an option. When Imus came on board FBN ceded 6-9am to CNBC and Bloomberg for business news coverage; FBN’s cut-ins and internet broadcasts non-withstanding. But it still had 5-6am for business coverage of pre market open news. Now that’s gone too. CNBC and Bloomberg now essentially own the pre-market open news cycle.

Megyn Kelly Profile…

The Houston Chronicle’s David Barron profiles FNC’s Megyn Kelly…

Kelly, who turns 40 in November, is the most recent rising star among Fox News’ anchors. Since America Live launched on Feb. 1, Nielsen ratings for the two-hour block are up 12 percent from a year ago (8 percent in the key adults 25-54 demo) and outstrips CNN, Headline News and MSNBC combined in households.

Kelly’s steady rise through the ranks after joining Fox News in 2004, including regular appearances on Bill O’Reilly’s prime-time show and a two-year stint as co-anchor of the network’s morning news show, has prompted suggestions that the network is grooming her for a prime-time slot.

Michael Clemente, the network’s senior vice president, who first spotted Kelly when he was with ABC News and Kelly had just switched from practicing law to working as a reporter for a local station in Washington, D.C., said it’s too early to speculate on such a move.

“She has had a good, solid, fast move from the Washington bureau to co-hosting to (America Live),” Clemente said. “I think she has the world in front of her, but we’re trying to make the most of this time slot (noon to 2 p.m.) where she is now. ”

Morning Joe Profile…

The New York Times’ Liesl Schillinger profiles Morning Joe…

When you first turn on “Morning Joe,” for a moment you might think you’re still in the Stepford-ized zone of network breakfast television. Mika is so striking, poised and accommodating; Joe is so alpha. It’s easy to be misled. But once you start listening, you realize this is a new genre: morning-news-romcom-vérité. The hosts’ differences become plain as they riff on the headlines, arguing, flirting and jousting with an energy that can feel more Hot Lips Houlihan and Hawkeye Pierce than Meredith Vieira and Matt Lauer. A classic-rock soundtrack bookends each segment: Doobie Brothers, Bruce Springsteen, Steely Dan and Squeeze, a playlist curated by Joe, who has played in rock bands for decades.

In this parallel universe you’ll also find that the hosts and guests are genuinely, thoroughly, discussing the news, debating it and laughing over its absurdities, hour after hour. Joe is an opinionated conservative, and a former Republican congressman from Florida, while Mika is a (moderate) liberal, and the daughter of Zbigniew Brzezinski, the national security adviser during the Carter administration.

CNN’s Roberts/Phillips headache…

The the recently announced engagement of CNN’s John Roberts to CNN’s Kyra Phillips, a question is now presented for their network: can a married couple live and work in separate parts of the country? Roberts works in New York City, Phillips in Atlanta. CNN could afford to have things remain the status quo with the duo while they were dating. But marriage is another matter entirely. Something will probably have to give and one will probably have to move. The question is which one? A corollary question is will one lose their show as a result? There have been persistent rumors of an impending shake-up for American Morning involving the front line talent so maybe Roberts will move to Atlanta? Moving Phillips presents a problem because her shift immediately follows American Morning and that presents hand off issues for the New York studio/set. This could be overcome by moving her shift to another time period however. Time for a poll question…

More FBN Changes…

ICN has heard that there are more changes on the way for FBN.

- “Imus in the Evening” which I only just noticed yesterday and has had a very short run and was lightly promoted on the network, has been canceled.

- “Fox Business Morning” has been canceled. The 5am ET slot will be replaced with a “Best of Imus” hour starting Monday. This hour will feature live business news cut-ins.

- The biggest news is the four hour Saturday phone-in program “Your Questions, Your Money” with Dagen McDowell and Tracy Byrnes has been canceled and will end its run by the end of the month.

There are apparently other changes coming but I’m going to hold off on noting those until I hear more.

Free for All: 05/07/10

What’s on your mind?

Press Releases: 05/07/10

CNN (1), MSNBC (1)

CNN

CNN’s John King will spend Saturday, May 8 in Abilene, Kansas, where he will attend Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ commemoration of the 65th anniversary of World War II Victory in Europe Day. John then will sit down with Gates for a one-on-one interview about the occasion, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the recent terror plot and more.

The interview is scheduled to air Monday, May 10 on John King, USA. Tune in at 7pm ET/ 6pm CT/ 5pm MT / 4pm PT.

____________________________

MSNBC

MSNBC TO AIR MUN2’S 2010 NEWS SPECIAL “THE NEW AMERICA” THIS SUNDAY MAY 9TH AT 12PM ET

THE MUN2 PREMIERE OF THE CENSUS-DRIVEN SPECIAL GARNERED THE HIGHEST RATINGS FOR ANY OF THE NETWORK’S NEWS SPECIALS TO DATE

Style over substance?

The New York Daily News’ Richard Huff takes a dim view of the way CNN is operating its new Atlanta HD set…

CNN changed its onscreen look this week.

After watching for a few days, I’m certain that someone there must own stock in Dramamine.

That’s because it’s hard to watch CNN for any length of time without getting seasick.

Almost every segment starts with the camera taking a long shot of the anchor, then zooming in and occasionally swirling around the side and over the anchor’s shoulder. None of this is smooth, either.

Factor in the changing backdrops – the weather folks work the map, while the camera is moving in and out – and the result is like riding a Tilt-a-Whirl with a bad stomach.

Call this “we have a new set syndrome”. It’s a malady that sometimes infects TV news execs when presented with a new set to play with. Something similar happened with “The Situation Room” when it debuted and MSNBC when it moved to 30 Rock. Like the common cold, “we have a new set syndrome” is a temporary affliction which goes away after a while.

Covering Yesterday’s Market Fall…

The New York Times’ Brian Stelter writes about the business nets covering yesterday’s market mess…

The anchors on CNBC, Bloomberg and the Fox Business Network didn’t panic, but they did turn their collective attention to the Dow between 2:40 and 2:50 p.m. Eastern when the market nosedived. “I don’t mean to sound like a broken record here, but this thing just continues to break records,” the Fox Business anchor David Asman said of the Dow’s drop.

At times, the cable anchors were talking over one another, making it especially hard to make sense of what was being said. (Four minutes of CNBC’s coverage are up on YouTube, courtesy Business Insider.)

When the Dow was down more than 900 points and the CNBC anchor Erin Burnett observed that the Procter & Gamble stock had dropped 25 percent, Jim Cramer, the former hedge fund trader and the host of “Mad Money,” seemed to calm the conversation down a bit by basically saying “buy, buy, buy.”

Double Standard?

The New York Daily News’ S.E. Cupp writes about a perceived double standard between how Rush Limbaugh is treated by sports and how Keith Olbermann is…

So how is it that someone like Olbermann gets paid to partner up with Major League Baseball – and the National Football League, while he’s at it, as a member of NBC’s “Football Night in America” team – but a controversial conservative commentator like Rush Limbaugh can’t even buy his way into the NFL?

Is Olbermann’s baseball knowledge that unique, in a country full of nerds? Is it really that Limbaugh is “worser,” as Olbermann would say? Or is it that there’s a jarring double standard in sports and the media when it comes to political correctness?

Imus and FBN – Yes, there is a line…

Last year, after several early morning business news incidents where FBN didn’t dump out of Imus to cover the story, I posited the question regarding whether there would ever be a story big enough for FBN to consider abandoning Imus.

Well today we got an answer, sort of. FBN did dump out of Imus – when exactly I don’t know – to launch Varney and Company early in order to cover yesterday’s Stock Market calamity.

ICN says it’s about time and it should do so more often. Let’s be clear here, I’m not a fan of Imus taking up cable news real estate, whether it was on MSNBC for over a decade or now on FBN. It undermined MSNBC’s brand and now it’s undermining FBN’s. Whatever juice FBN gets out of Imus it sews seeds of confusion for business news junkies in the mornings, particularly since FBN has continued to beef up its on air talent with hires like Stossel and Gasparino. So it’s refreshing to see FBN act like a business network in the pre-market hours, if only for one day.

Times Square incident coverage: your reactions…

Obviously I wasn’t around to see it, and even if I wasn’t diving I only get FNC and not CNN domestic or MSNBC, but some of the things I’ve read suggested that MSNBC was firing on all cylinders tonight when the news broke of a bombing attempt in Times Square. I did catch FNC, hours after the incident went down, dipping in and out of coverage while CNN brought T.J. Holmes in early to do wall to wall coverage. Post your reactions to the coverage of this incident here…