Glenn Beck may not have thought much of his interview with former Rep. Eric Massa yesterday -- he apologized to his viewers saying, "I think this is the first time I have wasted an hour of your time."

But the interview, which was Massa's first national TV interview since his resignation from office Monday, was a ratings hit for Beck. The hour drew 3.41M Total Viewers at 5pmET, and 860,000 in the A25-54 demo. That's just shy of network-leading Bill O'Reilly who pulled 3.5M at 8pmET (925K in the demo.)

But Massa did not have the same pull for CNN. His second interview, with Larry King at 9pmET, drew just 669K Total Viewers (169K in the demo) -- fourth place for the hour among the cable news nets after Sean Hannity on FNC, Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, and Joy Behar on HLN.

	5p:	6p:	7p:	8p:	9p:	10p:	11p:
FNC	Beck:	Baier:	Shep:	O'Reilly:	Hannity:	Greta:	O'Reilly:
	860	501	541	925	733	477	434
CNN	Blitzer:	Blitzer:	Blitzer:	Brown:	King:	Cooper:	Cooper:
	116	109	139	157	169	182	134
MSNBC	Matthews:	EdShow:	Matthews:	Olbermann:	Maddow:	Olbermann:	Maddow:
	97	135	142	257	251	248	132
HLN	Prime:	Prime:	Issues:	Grace:	Behar:	Grace:	Showbiz:
	95	83	148	199	193	156	128

continued...

This morning at BusinessWeek's annual media summit, CNN/U.S. President Jon Klein spoke about the Web 2.0 challenges that face his network. "If we can be the pipeline for reliable, accurate information, that's a pretty essential function in the world of these social networks," he said. FishbowlNY's Mike Taylor was there and has the details.

It's been four months since Lou Dobbs announced his resignation from CNN and vacated the 7pmET time slot. In two weeks, the hour will finally have a new show and new anchor when John King's "John King, USA" launches.

TVNewser spoke with the EP of "John King, USA" Michelle Jaconi, who was previously EP of CNN's "State of the Union," about the new show. Jaconi also spent a number of years producing NBC's "Meet the Press," and won multiple Emmys with NBC News. For the first time, Jaconi will be working on a program that airs weekdays.

First things first, why the wait?

I think because we're trying to do things differently and I'm new to [daily programming] as is John King, there was a lot to learn and a lot of ducks to put in a row. We actually got a really new team. In this job market, there were so many people applying that I wanted to make sure I had the best team, so what took the most time honestly was staffing. The amount of people applying for jobs right now is staggering. There kept being layoffs in the industry. More and more qualified people were applying for each spot, so that honestly took the longest time, putting the staff together.

continued...

TVNewser has learned Mike Straka, the VP of Fox News Digital, has departed the network. We hear Straka is headed to HDNet where he is going to host a mixed martial arts program.

A Fox News spokesperson confirms Straka's last day was yesterday.

A source tells tells us Straka accepted the HDNet job while still working as a Fox News VP, likely a conflict of interest. His HDNet show premieres March 26.

At FoxNews.com, Straka oversaw production and content distribution for the website and served as EP of "The Strategy Room," the daily live streaming program. Straka had been with FNC since its launch in 1996.

Prior to FOX, Straka worked on the assignment desk at CBS News Radio. He began his career as a CBS page.

WebNewser is covering the We Media conference in Miami where author and media critic Michael Wolff took part in a Q&A on the current state and future of media, including the role of cable news.

"No one has ever successfully been able to compete with FOX," said Wolff. "CNN just lied down and said 'They're bad people, we're good people.' That's a bad way to build an audience."

• WebNewser has more on Wolff's colorful comments, including his tear into the family that owns The New York Times calling them, "The stupidest people who have ever walked the Earth'

You've seen Charlie Brooker's "How to Report the News." Now, the Onion News Network presents their own take on how a generic cable news story gets covered. (via Daily Dish)

(WARNING: Contains profanity.)

"Now let's see if we can drag this out a little longer by showing emails written by some of our viewers."

This morning was birthday-wisher Willard Scott's 30th anniversary with the "Today" show, and this month he marks 60 years at NBC. "Today" put together a special segment with a retrospective of his time at the show.

Scott worked in the control room when "Today" first started. "They paid me six dollars a day," he said. "I made six dollars for Saturday and six dollars for Sunday, and about a week ago, GE cut half the six dollars."

	5p:	6p:	7p:	8p:	9p:	10p:	11p:
FNC	NewsHQ:	FNSunday:	Report:	Huckabee:	Hannity:	Geraldo:	Huckabee:
	181	272	307	190	258	250	163
CNN	Amanpour:	Newsroom:	Showbiz:	SOTU:	King:	Newsroom:	SOTU:
	103	94	105	66	77	92	65
MSNBC	Special:	Special:	Special:	Special:	Special:	Special:	Special:
	308	279	303	288	249	226	252
HLN	HLN:	Prime:	Issues:	Grace:	Behar:	Grace:	Showbiz:
	79	95	86	114	81	91	83

continued...

	5p:	6p:	7p:	8p:	9p:	10p:	11p:
FNC	NewsHQ:	NewsHQ:	Report:	Huckabee:	Beck:	Geraldo:	Jrnl/FNW::
	236	238	336	292	303	207	145
CNN	Newsroom:	SitRoom:	Newsroom:	Special:	Special:	Newsroom:	Special:
	141	124	112	141	162	123	99
MSNBC	Special:	Special:	Special:	Special:	Special:	Special:	Special:
	205	250	278	271	283	387	287
HLN	HLN:	Prime:	Issues:	Grace:	Behar:	Grace:	Showbiz:
	69	80	90	86	82	84	106

continued...

In a blog post this morning, Dan Rather explained his comments from the weekend's "Chris Matthews Show" and the controversy that surrounded them. On Sunday, Rather used the expression "he couldn't sell watermelons if you gave him the state troopers to flag down the traffic" in explaining the position of President Obama's opponents.

Rather, known for his "folksy" sayings, writes at The Huffington Post, "It's an expression that stretches to my boyhood roots in Southeast Texas, when country highways were lined with stands manned by sellers of all races. Now of course watermelons have become a stereotype for African Americans and so my analogy entered a charged environment." He adds, "I'm sorry people took offense."

Perhaps even more interesting is Rather's take on how the news spread in the new media landscape:

But what has caused this comment to "go viral" is the trumpeting of an online and cable echo chamber that claims the banner of news but trades in gossip, gotcha, and innuendo. Furthermore, even for those who brook no prejudice, when everything is condensed to 140 characters or a small YouTube clip, many people who got this "news" did so without any context, just a headline that popped up on their phone or inbox.

"What saddens me is what this experience has made all too clear," Rather writes. "Much of what we call news, isn't."

More: TVNewser sat down with Dan Rather for a Media Beat discussion about the changes happening in journalism.

Following his Top 10 list last night, David Letterman talked about yesterday's guilty plea from former CBS News producer Joe Halderman.

"I need to talk to you about a segment of my life here that began six months ago," said Letterman. "I found myself in some legal trouble... I had never been involved in anything like this in my life. I was concerned and full of anxiety and nervous and worried."

"The people in the district attorney's office said this will be handled professionally, this will be handled skillfully, and appropriately. Well, the matter was resolved today."

Letterman thanked the DA's office, the special prosecutions bureau and the NYPD.

As for Halderman, he'll serve six months after pleading guilty to blackmail. The award-winning producer on "48 Hours" is no longer employed by the network. A CBS News spokesperson could not confirm when his employment with the company came to an end, or how.