Is CNN on Crack? The Huffington Post reports, you decide

Many critics have slapped around the cable newsers for allegedly over-covering the Anna Nicole Smith story. Personally, TCG has never had a problem with the coverage: It's news dammit, and her life and death--tragic, or pathetic, or both--is a compelling window into the larger world of celebrity culture.

But in any case, I have noticed Fox News, in particular, getting smacked. I think that a lot of the smacking is from those who are jealous of such talented diggers as Greta Van Susteren. And let's be honest: If Fox covers a story, plenty of liberals in the "smart set" will just hate it, no matter what.

So TCG was amused to see blogger Erin Kotecki Vest, writing in The Huffington Post, let CNN have it for ITS coverage of the ANS story. Under the headline, "CNN is smoking crack," she wrote, using all CAPS, Vest wrote, "FOX IS DOING A BETTER JOB AT NEWS TODAY THAN YOU ARE." No doubt it pained Ms. Vest to write those words, but she did.

And also, speaking of liberal miz-es, let's give credit to Arianna Huffington, proprietrix of The Huffington Post. She has put together one of the most interesting sites on the web. It leans left, that's for sure, but she has a commitment to free speech, free expression--and free venting of spleening!--that's much to be admired.

John Ferriter update--more evidence of agent malpractice?

Remember John Ferriter? He's the William Morris agent who handled--I would say mishandled--Kiran Chetry's career. As reported here at TCG (and other places, including Media Bistro and The New York Post) last month, Ferriter attempted to hotbox Fox News over Chetry--and evidently got himself and his client badly burned instead.

You might recall that Ferriter apparently sought to push the delightful Gretchen Carlson out of her morning spot on "Fox & Friends," all to make room for Chetry to move over, from her weekend "F&F" gig to Carlson's plummier assignment on the weekday "F&F." Fox responded by doing the right thing: it canned Chetry and shunned future dealings with Ferriter.

Now, a TCG reader writes with hot some hot, but unverified, dish: "No wonder Mr. Ferriter has lost clients such as Jeff Probst, Carson Daily, Jimmy Kimmel, Adam Carolla and Dr. Drew Pinsky."

Ouch! TCG can't verify these allegations, but she finds them interesting, and worth looking into further.

Moreover, the reader continues: "And just ask Rick Dees how he feels about Mr. Ferriter. Ferriter got him canned from KIIS FM so that Ryan Seacrest could have his job. He convinced KISS that Rick was too old and out of style."

TCG can't verify this, either, but I post it, because at least some of it checks out, and so let's see about the rest. It is absolutely true, for example, that Dees left KIIS in 2004, after 22 years there, to be replaced by... Ryan Seacrest. So the only real question left is what role Ferriter played in this dj shuffle.

Since TCG is just one blogger, she will ask the web, with its Wiki powers of addition and subtraction, to help flesh out an accurate portrait of John Ferriter.

We know what he did "for" poor Kiran Chetry, who always seemed more sinned against than sinning. But what about the rest of Ferriter's career? Has he ever done anybody any good? He must have helped some clients, right--I mean how else did he climb so high in the 10 percent biz? Or, alternatively, is he just another Sammy Glick?

Curtains for Cramer? BUT (BOOYAH!) WHAT ABOUT CNBC?

Henry Blodget of Slate.com considers what remains of Jim Cramer in the wake of his seeming confession to stock-price manipulation--and the big question, which is, What about his employer, CNBC? Does the biz channel have any burden to keep itself clean? Can Cramer really give investment advice to small investors after admitting--make that proclaiming-- how the likes of him go about ripping off those same small investors?

"So far, CNBC, Cramer's biggest platform, has remained quiet on the topic. (A spokesman has not returned my call). This is probably because 1) they are hoping the whole thing will just blow over, and/or 2) they don't know what to say. It is certainly possible that the whole thing will pass: Cramer has been very effective at stifling or weathering critics. It is also possible, however, that Jim Cramer has committed professional suicide."

The network that keeps Maria Bartiromo as a star might not be expected to clean up its act, but one would think that the government would have to step in and clean it up for them.

Megyn Kelly looks hot--in hot colors

Megyn Kelly, who is smart as well as beautiful, tells us some of her secrets, in the pages of The Hill, a Congress-oriented newspaper. The secret, one of them, anyway, is to be bright and shiny--literally.

Here's part of The Hill's report:

"Dressing for TV is not easy. The camera adds 10 pounds, and colors must be chosen with care.

"The key, says Megyn Kelly, co-anchor of Fox News’s 'America’s Newsroom,' is bright colors. She and other Fox correspondents have a style department that oversees their ensembles. 'I was a corporate lawyer and my entire wardrobe was black, brown, navy and gray,' Kelly recalls. That might be acceptable in a courtroom, she says, but for TV, 'it’s dull and not interesting to look at.'

"Now her wardrobe is bursting with 'reds, yellows, purples, pinks and oranges.'"

The Cable Gamer realizes that the big news today is the News Corp-NBC-AOL-MSN deal, and I'll get to that, but give a girl a little fun first.

"CNN Anchor Lauds Liberal Senator’s Attack on GOP"

But you knew that--CNN does it all the time.

Hats off, as so often, to the collective blog Newsbusters, for catching this all-too-typical-for-CNN item under the headline, "CNN Anchor Lauds Liberal Senator’s Attack on GOP Member: ‘Good For Her’"

CNN anchors Dan Lemon and Brianna Keiler ought to be ashamed of themselves, for showing their bias, but then, of course, in their defense, they have to do something to keep from getting laid off in Atlanta.

Here's the exact passage, in reaction to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Ca.) sticking it to Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Ok.):

Keiller: "She really got a stinger in there, I will say."

Lemon: "Good for her."

Cramer Tele-Hubris Update--and what's scandal-plagued CNBC going to do about it?

Reuters follows up on the news from Jim Cramer--heck, the bragging from Jim Cramer--that he manipulated stock prices.

But don't take my word for it-- watch it yourself.

But here's the verdict of one expert queried by Reuters: "Hedge fund lawyer Ron Geffner of Sadis & Goldberg called the interview a 'somewhat surprising confession to make publicly, which definitely invites supicion by regulators. Whether he violated the law is unclear,' added Geffner. 'That is dependent on his trading records. But it's clear that he seems to be challenging regulators to come and examine him.'"

The Securities and Exchange Commission is not commenting, although presumably it is at least looking. Meanwhile, the question for Cable Gamers is what will CNBC do? Short answer: Nothing. The business cabler got away with Maria Bartiromo making whoopie with an advertiser, so maybe the net thinks it can get away with this, too.

Fox News Curse? Or Payback for Bad Judgment? The voters decide on John Edwards

I'll happily yield my my space over to Anne Schroeder, proprietrix of the ace blog, "Shenanigans" over at The Politico.com, for her new item, which appears under the headline, "Fox News Curse?" The cursed one seems to be John Edwards, who thought he was being smart by knuckling under to Daily Kos and MyDD, only to discover, like Led Lamont last year, that the real clout in American politics is among voters and viewers, not bloggers.

As noted in the past, TCG thinks that Roger Ailes was absolutely right when he warned the Democrats not to seek to blacklist Fox, or any other news outlet--cuz if they tried it, he warned, they would be hurt with fair-minded voters. And that's what has happened to Edwards, according to Schroeder:

"Looks like John Edwards' recent crusade against Fox News -- designed to placate his liberal voters -- might not have paid off the way the former North Carolina senator would have liked.

"In both CNN and Time magazine polls in January and February, asking whom folks would vote for in '08 -- before his headline-making pullout from a debate that was co-sponsored by Fox News -- Edwards clocked in at 15 percent and 11 percent, respectively.

"Ah, but earlier this month, polls by those same media outlets indicated that his numbers have begun to slip, to 12 percent and 10 percent, respectively."

Schroeder reports, you decide.

Damned if you do, and Damned if you're Fox

Fox News' Chris Wallace is, by almost everyone's account, a fair-minded reporter who happpens to work at Fox, after many decades at NBC and ABC. So only Newshounds could get itself worked up over the fact that Wallace chose Alyssa Mastromonaco as his DC "power player of the week." She's the chief of scheduling and advance for the Obama for President campaign, and let's face it, everything, and everyone, associated with the Obama campaign is a power player these days. But Newshounds, the lefty media watchdog group, has chosen to get itself all hot and bothered by the notion that Fox is "sucking up" to Obama & Co.

Well, please. Imagine if Wallace had chosen, the chief scheduler for, say, the McCain campaign. Then Newshounds would've said, "There goes Fox again, showering its love on Republicans only." But Fox highlights a Democrat, and still gets zapped.

With some folks, there's no making them happy.

Myspace enters The Cable Game

Myspace.com, the hot social networking site owned by the News Corp., which also owns Fox News, is joining the '08 presidential campaign. One way or another, coverage will never be the same, after it goes fully interactive.

According to Grant Gross of IDG News Service, candidates represented include Democratic Senators Hillary Clinton of New York; Barack Obama of Illinois; Joe Biden of Delaware; plus Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio; John Edwards, former North Carolina senator and 2004 vice presidential candidate, along with Republicans Senator John McCain of Arizona; former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani; and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas also has a page.

In the Converging World to come, in which video on the Net becomes indistinguishable from video on TV, this initiative by Myspace will prove to be a big deal--a watershed, even.

Cramer and Tele-Hubris

The Cable Gamer doesn't pretend to be a lawyer or fiscal savant. However, it does appear to this untrained eye that CNBC's Jim Cramer confessed to a crime last night on a streaming video show that's now, of course, on You Tube.

As reported by The New York Post's Roddy Boyd, Cramer bragged about manipulating prices. "No one else in the world would ever admit that, but I don't care." Well, yes, because perhaps no one else in the world is as egomaniacal and hungry for publicity as Cramer.

But should Cramer worry about a sharp practice that is a violation of the law? He doesn't seem to think that he needs to worry, because, he says, "The Securities and Exchange Commission never understands this."

Sounds like a case of tele-hubris to me.

Fight at Fox, Inside Fox

Johnny Dollar, who always gets the best stuff for his blog, records John Gibson on Fox Radio trashing Neal Gabler, the panelist on "Fox News Watch," who regularly trashes Fox. Gibson calls Gabler a "moron" and a "hypocrite."

And Gibbie even adds that he is "disappointed" that Cal Thomas and Jim Pinkerton don't stand up to Gabler more--"because they like him," Gibson concludes. And Gibson is no doubt right: there is a good chemistry on "FNW," and that probably means that Gabler gets to say more than he could.

But here's TCG point: Viewers can survive 5 minutes of Gabler's leftism every week. Thomas and Pinkerton let him have his say, and then they have their say.

But in the meantime, Fox management lets the chips fall wherever they might. Gabler trashed Fox, Gibson trashes Gabler, and everyone else takes lumps, too. That's the way news commentary oughtta be: Let the viewers decide for themselves.

Is it Google News, or Google vs. the news?

Google is now "a significant consumer media company." Those words are found in an
intriguing and revealing story in Fortune about Google and the even larger struggle for control of media, West Coast vs. East Coast. Google, of course, is on the West Coast, while Viacom is on the East.

In the words of Philippe Dauman, CEO of Viacom, which, of course, is suing Google and its subsidiary, YouTube: "This is the first time in my experience of a couple decades that I've seen a significant consumer media company not feel they have to obtain rights before they utilize content." In other words, Google doesn't want to play by the rules, according to Dauman.

But of course, Google has the trendy lefty mystique going for it: It's progressive and politically correct to love Google. And so the legalities, or illegalities, ofw what Google is doing don't seem to bother Fortune writer David Kirkpatrick--maybe he figures that after Time-Warner goes under, he can get a job with Google news. Maybe not, David--Google may be cool, but there's no indication that they are willing to float such unprofitable ventures as magazine publishing.

The Cable Gamer likes Google well enough, but she can't help but notice that Google seems to be making a lot of enemies these days, including Comcast.

And yet in the meantime, Google continues to expand, into new areas, including in-game advertising--now there's a category that didn't exist not so long ago.

So what's the future? Will Google News contribute to the news, will it kill the news, or will it be the news?

Don't Miss!

Greta interviewing Anna Nicole Smith's father. Tonight at 10 pm ET, and re-run, and on the website, of course.

Fox News Watch on the Fox Debate Controversy

You gotta hand it to the Fox News Channel for keeping "News Watch" on the air for more than a decade now. Don't get me wrong, it's a great show. But in every episode, Jane Hall gently criticizes Fox in her moderate Texas-liberal way, and in every episode, Neal Gabler not-so-gently criticizes Fox--he's a genuine New York lefty. Cal Thomas is a pretty much down-the-line conservative, in the familiar Fox mold, but Jim Pinkerton is a quirky libertarian and semi-conservative, not a reliable "vote," as it were, for the conservative worldview. And Eric Burns, the Emmy-winning host, pictured above, has no discernable ideology--he's no Bill O'Reilly, in terms of holding sway over guests.

Which is to say, the show is genuinely fair-and-balanced. Fox trusts its panel to go each in his or her own way, and it trusts the viewers to absorb and decide for themselves.

And so it goes with the continuing controversy over the Nevada Democratic debate. On Saturday night's show, Hall said that the Democrats were making a mistake in abandoning the "50 State" strategy, which had served them so well in 2006, when they won elections in every state, even "red" Fox-watching states. But she couldn't resist jibing Fox as being pro-Republican and pro-conservative.

Gabler quipped that he didn't want to "bite the hand that feeds me my kool-aid"--but then he did bite it, hard. He even falsely accused Burns of using the word "extreme" twice to describe Democratic lefty bloggers--when in fact, Burns used the word extreme only once. And TCG knows this, because she watched the video on Johnny Dollar's always cool site!

But Gabler and Pinkerton did agree that the now-famous joke that Roger Ailes told on March 8 was at the expense of George W. Bush, not Barack Obama. Which is to say, two of the more interesting voices on Fox--the lefty Gabler and the independent Pinkerton--both agreed that Ailes was not dissing a Democrat, but rather, a Republican. And so, of course the effort by the Nevada Democrats, and now the national Democrats, to spin their way out of the Fox-sponsored debate--the Dems would rather kowtow to the blue bloggers than make friends with red state voters--is a lie.

But you knew that.

Obama went to a madrasah--Fox was right! But don't hold your breath for a retraction from the Fox-bashers

Remember the kerfluffle a couple of months ago, when Fox News got pounded for reporting that Barack Obama had attended a Muslim madrasah school in Indonesia? Liberal outfits such as Media Matters blasted Fox for alleged inaccuracy. (Even as those same "watchdogs" of ethics were curiously uncurious about Hillary Clinton's role in all this anti-Obama material finding its way into the mediastream.)

Well, now Paul Watson of The Los Angeles Times has
something remarkable: He has traveled to Jakarta, Indonesia, and tracked down many of "Barry" Obama's friends and teachers from the 60s, and found documents and photographs as well. All of which "say Obama was registered by his family as a Muslim at both of the schools he attended."

And what does that mean? "That registration meant that during the third and fourth grades, Obama learned about Islam for two hours each week in religion class." In other words, according to the Times, Fox was right--Obama attended a madrasah.

A few reporters, such as Philip Weiss in The New York Observer, have already gotten the Obama-madrasah story right, and noted that Fox got it right, but now, finally, we see more confirmation.

But TCG doesn't expect Media Matters and the Center for American Progress and all the rest to apologize to Fox. The Cable Criticism Game just doesn't work that way.

Anderson Cooper IS the Paris Hilton of Cable News

Or at least the Regis Philbin--literally. Whether Anderson is Paris or Regis, either way, it's a joke. And it's a joke he is determined to play on himself. Fox News can compare AC to Paris, but only AC could agree to be the next Regis.

Broadcasting & Cable's Ben Grossman reports that Anderson Cooper is going to be filling in for Philbin on "Live with Regis & Kelly" as Philbin goes in for open-heart surgery. The Cable Gamer wishes Regis the best, even though she is sure that Anderson Cooper will make a fabulous guest-host.

But TCG is equally sure that a real newsperson wouldn't consider himself or herself to be interchangeable with the likes of other Philbin-filler-inners, who include Howie Mandel and Martin Short. Those guys are comedians and showmen, not serious news men.

And Anderson Cooper doesn't belong in their camp. Oh wait--yes he does.

Rick Kaplan--Here's why your friendship with the Clintons matters...

...Because, Rick, you actively help them in their political campaigns.

Kaplan told The Philadelphia Inquirer's ace TV columnist, Gail Shister, that he finds it "astounding" that critics would express concern about his friendship with the Clintons, and how it might affect his editorial choices as the new exeuctive producer of the CBS Evening News.

As Kaplan explained to the Inky, "They're definitely my friends, but I'm friends with John McCain, too. If you're around long enough, you get to know everybody." Well maybe, but some friends are more equal than others--and Kaplan didn't mention, say, his friendship with Newt Gingrich or Tom DeLay.

In fact, as Lowell Ponte has documented, Kaplan has been a liberal Democratic political partisan all his career, culminating in his help to the Clintons. That it took Ponte to document all this, as opposed to Kaplan admitting everything, is an indicator that Kaplan knows that he's been something wrong, that his sleazy liberal deals are best kept secret. If possible. But fortunately for the free flow of information, such secrecy is not possible.

That's why people are concerned, Rick. And that's why people continue to stream away from the MSM.

The Journalist Most Admired by Young People Is...

You might think that the most popular journo among young people is Stephen Colbert. But in fact, he's nowhere in the top rankings, according to the Pew Center for the People and the Press.

So who does win the youth-stakes? What about Jon Stewart? Well, he's up there, of course, but interestingly enough, Stewart is exactly tied with Bill O'Reilly. Bill O'Reilly! Imagine that!!

And in the overall rankings, among the population over all, O'Reilly is way ahead.

Interesting!

Broadcasting & Cable on the Fox Debate Debate

"Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Fox/When Roger Ailes is right, he's right. And he's right."

B&C's John Eggerton adds his voice to the debate over debates:

"The Fox News Chairman/CEO warned political candidates Thursday night not to get pressured into bypassing his news operation by groups that don't like the way it reports the news, saying it would be a "terrible mistake."

"I might not have phrased it that way, but I can understand his unhappiness. He was receiving a First Amendment award and boycotts of news organizations are anathema to the free flow of information.

"The Fox News Channel is the top-rated cable news channel, watched by millions of people. Fox TV station newscasts are on when a lot of people who have to get up early and go to work for a living can see them and still function at 6. a.m.

"Whatever you think of its news coverage--and apparently a lot of people think a lot of it--it is an important voice in TV news.

"Presidential candidates are adults and can refuse to answer a question if it seems over the top, or perhaps if they are smart enough, turn such questions to their advantage."

That's strong stuff.

And then Eggerton concludes, "Shame on John Edwards for pulling out of that Nevada debate under pressure from moveon.org. It looks like a cave, or a wilt, or a knee-jerk, or a turn-tail or something. But whatever it is, it was the wrong move."

And of course, since this powerful piece was published, the whole Democratic Party has followed Edwards ' lead. So shame on all of them.

Democrats to Half of America: Drop Dead

So the Democrats have decided to back out of the planned Nevada debate, hosted by Fox News. It's a free country, of course, and so the donky party is free to bow down to pressure from the lefty blogosphere. But of course, regular middle-of-the-road Americans are free, also, to draw their own conclusions about the Democrats, and who they listen to.

David Rhodes, a Fox VP, told The Las Vegas Review-Journal, "News organizations will want to think twice before getting involved in the Nevada Democratic Caucus which appears to be controlled by radical fringe out-of-state interest groups, not the Nevada Democratic Party." Pow!

Interestingly, the editorial page of the same paper, the Review-Journal, made the same point as Rhodes. Under the headline, "Meltdown Over Fox," wise heads
wrote, "Liberals' aversion to Fox News has finally gone over the top."

The edit page observed that the goal of the Nevada Democratic Party was to get moire attention to the Silver State's January presidential caucus--now the second the nation. Given that Nevada is a solidly red state at the presidential level, the Review-Journal asked, "What better way for the party to reach conservative and 'values' voters who might consider changing allegiances?"

But, the paper continued, "The socialist, Web-addicted wing of the Democratic Party was apoplectic. The prospect of having to watch Fox News to see their own candidates would have been torture in itself. So they set the blogosphere aflame with efforts to kill the broadcast arrangement, or at least have all the candidates pull out of the event." And that's what happened. The lefty blogospheroids prevailed. First they peeled away John Edwards, and then the entire Nevada Democratic party.

Goodbye, Throaty McHusky

The Cable Gamer doesn't know who slapped the name "Throaty McHusky" on poor Rita Cosby, but it fits--a very large size. Rita managed to find a good place for herself on Fox News, but she quit, in a nasty way, to jump to MSNBC. And of course, MSNBC mishandled her. She is a natural niche player on TV, as opposed to a primetime five-nights-a-week anchor. And so she failed at MSNBC--what doesn't fail there?--and was soon removed from her gig.

She's reportedly had work done on her vocal chords, to get rid of the "Throaty" part, but there's still the "McHusky" part--TCG is a close student of such things, but can't rally judge how she's doing on the weight front. And now Page Six reports that she is about to be let go.

Too bad.

Lies, Damn Lies, and the Blogosphere

"Roger Ailes Jokes About Obama as Terrorist" -- that's the thoroughly dishonest headline atop MyDD.

This is b.s. folks, as the transcript reveals. Ailes was joking about George W. Bush, not Barack Obama. MyDD, and the Huffington Post, and any number of other liberal sites and blogs, are obviously hoping that gullible readers will just read the headline not actually read, or think, for themselves.

Roger Ailes Reminds the RTNDA that the First Amendment, Like Freedom, Isn't Free

The annual award dinner of the Radio Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) is normally a high-minded but staid affair, full of self-congratulation, that gets duller and drowzier as the evening wears on.

But not on Thursday, according to Cable Game sources who were there at the black-tie ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Washington DC's West End section. Tonight, there was also emotion and passion--people kept awake, because Roger Ailes woke 'em up.

Yes, there was some self-congratulation, in the form of an award to Phil Balboni, the founder of New England Cable News Network. He seemed like a nice enough guy, and for those who wanted to know where he went to college, the names of his children, and what he had for breakfast that day. Balboni was King for a Day, or at least Honoree for the Evening, and he and his minions, including NECN alumnae Martha Raddatz and Julianne Malveaux, made the most of it for him at the podium. Happily, the resume-reading award to Balboni filled up the evening's quota of self-congratulation.

Next for the evening was emotion, in the form of Kimberly Dozier of CBS and Bob Woodruff of ABC, both of whom were terribly wounded in Iraq, and both of whom have made remarkable recoveries. The two are brave journalists, and they deserved the warm intros they received from Bob Schieffer and George Stephanopoulos, respectively, as well as repeated standing ovations they received from the 1000 or so media machers in the audience. Dozier's legs were badly banged up, which probably explains the long dress she wore. Woodruff was more seriously hurt in the head, he nearly died, in fact. And one can see that he his still-handsome face has scars and that he has a slightly halting delivery. Still, he's lucky, of course, and he is the first to say that he owes the fact that he is alive at all to Fate and to the medical care of the US military as well as private providers back home. (Yet human nature is still human nature: There was a strange and perhaps revealing moment when Stephanopoulos, knowing full well that everyone, including TV cameras were watching, made a sort of quip to Woodruff reminding him to "stop hitting on my wife." Who knows what the full story there is, but one imagines that all gossip will eventually float to the top!)

OK, back to serious stuff. There was nothing gossipy about Roger Ailes, who won the coveted First Amendment Award of the RTNDA. First off, Ailes was intro'd by Fox News' Steve Centanni, who reminded the audience that he and Olaf Wiig, his cameraman, probably wouldn't be alive today were it not for the efforts of Ailes and Rupert Murdoch, who worked tirelessly to save Steve's and Olaf's lives after they was kidnaped by Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip last summer.

And so soon Ailes himself spoke. He started out light, telling jokes about Britney Spears, George W. Bush, France, and Hillary & Bill Clinton.

Then he got serious.

Alluding to the decision of former Sen. John Edwards to back out of a Fox News-sponsored debate among Democrats in Nevada--but not mentioning Edwards by name--Ailes made a larger point about the First Amendment: "If you are afraid of journalists, how will you face other situations?" Pow! Would a hypothetical President Edwards "blacklist," Ailes asked, a news organization?

And then Ailes made a good electoral point: "Those who can't answer questions run the risk of losing votes." Indeed, one would assume that if Edwards does manage to win the Democratic nomination, he will need to win some red states--by definition he will, lest he repeat John Kerry's losing performance in '04. And yet instead, Edwards has, in Ailes' telling, "bowed down to pressure groups." What sort of President could he be then? Could he really be credible as the President of all the people?

Ailes closed in a way that nobody was expecting--at least nobody who doesn't know Ailes was expecting. He said, "Freedom of the press did not invent democracy, democracy invented freedom of the press." That's a crucial distinction, the point being that a free press, and free speech in general, are artifacts of the power of a country to protect its borders, and thereby protect the rule of law, due process, and all the other rights that we rightly celebrate.

And then Ailes said that true freedom, true freedom of the press, includes the right to think for oneself, and thus the right to see a diverse range of points of view in the media. That, of course, has been Fox's great strength, its secret weapon against the MSM-monopoly. As Ailes put it, "Diversity isn't just gender or skin color, it's also diversity of thought." And he warned, "One way to cause a newsroom to implode" is to let everyone have the same idea, and thus make the same mistake. That's where diversity of opinion, like biodiversity, can be vital.

Finally Ailes, said, "Freedom will be protected as long as there is an America." Period. And then he sat down, leaving the crowd to think about how long freedom would last without America--and not just the ACLU, but the 82nd Airborne.

Everyone applauded, and not just at the Fox tables, which included Brit Hume, Brian Wilson, Catherine Herridge, John Scott, and Bill O'Reilly. But only time--and, of course, the blogosphere--will tell whether or not Ailes' deep message got across to its target audience, in the room, and in the country as a whole.

Freedom of the press doesn't come just from the ACLU, or even the RTNDA and other watchdog and advocacy groups. It comes from a strong America, confident about its work at home, and its mission in the world. That's the true source of freedom, as well as free speech, and it was dyn-o-mite that Ailes reminded everyone in DC of that reality.

UPDATE: Here's most of Ailes' speech on YouTube.

And here's the tribute video to RA.

So why can't I get hired to produce CBS News?

So CBS, in its desperation, is picking Rick Kaplan to take over the floundering "CBS Evening News with Katie Kouric."

The Cable Gamer would like to know why she was passed over for the post. OK, I have no track record of success, but neither does Kaplan, at least not in the last decade, since he left ABC News. Since then, he failed at both CNN and MSNBC.

So with that background, what makes anyone think that Kaplan can help CBS in this new/newer post-MSM media environment? The only answer I can think of: pure desperation.

And oh, of course, CBS chiefs might be thinking that the Clintons will be coming back to power, and that a notorious Clinton-lover such as Kaplan might get them invitations to the Lincoln Bedroom, if not ratings.

FNC #3 On Cable In Prime Last Week

That's the headline at MediaBistro this afternoon. And that's among all cable channels, not just news channels. Here's more:

"Fox News Channel was the #3 network on all of basic cable last week in primetime. FNC averaged 1,646,000 total viewers, behind only USA and TNT.

"CNN was #23 and MSNBC wasn't in the top 30. This is the eight consecutive week in 2007 that FNC has ranked within the top five networks in prime on basic cable..."

The YouTube Political Universe

Last year, the infamous "makaka" video, endlessly played on YouTube, was enough to finish off the career of Sen. George Allen. And everyone else made YouTube videos, too, for their campaign.

And now, of course, looking toward '08, it's started again. The best video that TCG has seen is this takeoff on the Apple "1984" commercial, which was done, supposedly, by someone friendly to the Obama presidential campaign. In any case, it's quite good and is certainly a nasty sledgehammer-in-the-face to Hillary Clinton.

And so how will this affect The Cable Game? Unclear. The only thing for sure is that cable will have to make room for this sort of video content. As well they should, since this video is darn entertaining.

The First Amendment, a Free Press, and the RTNDA

The Radio-Television News Directors Association and Foundation does important work. The RTNDA is always involved in issues concerning the First Amendment, as well as general concerns about the quality of electronic journalism.

And while no group like that will be free of controversy, what RTNDA is doing this coming Thursday night, March 8th, is worthy of note: It is honoring four individuals for their contributions to electronic journalism.

First on the RTNDA list is Fox News chief Roger Ailes, who is honored for "First Amendment Leadership." TCG thinks that that's entirely appropriate, since FNC has so expanded the universe of news, and gotten so many people to think about greater possiblities for a diversity of coverage and commentary.

Second and third on the list of honorees are Bob Woodruff and Kimberly Dozier, two TV reporters, of ABC and CBS respectively, who were injured while covering the story of Iraq. While Dozier's injuries were serious--and her two crew were killed--Woodruff nearly died when he was bombed in Iraq, and his recovery has been slow and torturous ever since. His special, on last week, was a must-see.

Fourth on the list is Philip Balboni, the head of the New England Cable News network--who ranks as a significant player in bringing The Cable Game down to the regional level.

This is a wonderful dinner and all who are involved deserve our admiration and/or congratulation.

The "Half Hour News Hour" is on again tonight!

TCG had high hopes for this Fox News show, on the theory that "The Daily Show" and "Colbert" needed the competition. And those hopes have been realized. The Cable Game continues to expand and get more interesting, with the regular inclusion, it would seem, of Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter.

But hey, I report, you decide. See for yourself at 10 pm et on Sunday.