Today on the media- bistro.com Morning Media Menu podcast, hosts Jason Boog of GalleyCat and AgencySpy‘s Matt Van Hoven welcome the latest editor of TVNewser Kevin Allocca to talk about the daily media headlines.

They discussed the recent news about e-mails sent by reporters to Gov. Mark Sanford during his disappearance and affair scandal, MTV‘s new web ads and ABC‘s interview with Joe Jackson and it’s low ratings.

“I think it shows how quickly the public reaches a saturation point,” host Jason Boog said. “Back when Princess Diana died in that tragic car accident, I think a traditional piece like this looking at old footage would have been gangbusters back then. But now people reach a saturation point so much faster because it just bombards you for a week straight after Michael’s death.”

Also discussed: Kevin’s interview with Al Roker about his new morning show on The Weather Channel, why ratings are so low for Sonia Sotomayor‘s confirmation hearings and “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” shattering the midnight screening ticket sales record set last summer by “The Dark Knight.”

You can listen to all the past podcasts at BlogTalkRadio.com/mediabistro and call in at 646-929-0321.

WebNewser: Time Inc. has relaunched the companion Web site for All You magazine. With the recession in mind, the site now features a “Coupons and Deals” channel powered by Coupons.com and the “All You Daily Savings” blog.

TVNewser: Guess Al Roker is really a morning person. Today he started promoting his new morning show on The Weather Channel that he’ll host with Stephanie Abrams. The new show will cover weather, news, and entertainment and will air from 6 to 7 a.m. EST, so Roker can then trek over to his regular gig at “Today.”

AOL DailyFinance: Could Rupert Murdoch be eyeing the New York Daily News?

Wall Street Journal: We are hearing more stories every day about freelancers who are owed payment. Here’s some helpful advice to help you get paid on time.

MarketWatch: A new study shows that consumers may be more willing to purchase video content online than was previously believed.

FishbowlDC: The LA Times, Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun (Tribune’s Washington Bureau) might all be moving to the Scripps bureau office.

FishbowlLA: A good use for all of those empty newspaper boxes: planters for pretty flowers.

WebNewser: Al Roker Tweeted himself into a corner when he posted pictures from his trip to jury duty on his Twitter feed yesterday.

Forbes: New York Times “is leading a charge among big newspapers and magazines to create gripping digital ads that interweave marketing images with editorial content and respected journalism brands,” like those annoying ads that take over the whole homepage.

Reuters: Private equity firm ZelnickMedia Corp. is reportedly no longer interested buying Austin newspaper the American-Statesman. But current owner Cox Enterprises said it had found a buyer for two other Texas papers, The Lufkin Daily News and The Daily Sentinel in Nacogdoches.

— DIANE CLEHANE

Bill Clinton isn’t the only one who is getting a little testy about the endlessly long and increasingly tabloid-y battle for the democratic nomination. At today’s lunch, politics were on the menu as supporters of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama took sides over their Cobb Salads. Our unofficial dining room poll finds Obama holding a commanding lead. Producer Joan Gelman — between commuting from Canada where her show Triple Sensation is going great guns — has taken to handing out her very own campaign buttons. “I do one for every election,” she told us. Her latest creation got lots of attention at a party at Tina Brown‘s recently when ‘Mayor’ Joe Armstrong arrived wearing one. It boasts a picture of President George Bush and John McCain in an embrace and is emblazoned with the words — Four More Years. Here’s the punch line: There’s a question mark at the end of the phrase. Joan was handing them out today (thanks!) and people were gobbling them up like mad. A few tables down, the exchange at David Patrick Columbia ‘s regular perch between David (a Hillary booster — “I just don’t know why she is the subject of so much hate”), Charlie Scheips and Terry Allen Kramer (decidedly not a fan) rivaled the dust ups on Sunday morning on The McLaughlin Group. But it was all in good fun. Isn’t it always?

Here’s the rundown on today’s crowd:

1. One big happy family: Michael’s wife Kim McCarty and kids Clancy and Chas with Martin von Haselberg and daughter Sophie. The families’ friendship goes back 30 years, says Michael. To wit: a painting of Martin (done by Kim) hangs in the reception area of the restaurant. There was plenty to celebrate all around: Clancy just graduated from NYU last week, Chas is starting his first year at Bard and Sophie is at Yale. Impressive! We were hoping that Martin’s wife — none other than Bette Midler — would join the party but, said Michael, she was rehearsing for her eagerly anticipated Las Vegas show (the family leaves for the desert tomorrow). Knock ‘em dead, Bette!

2. Peter Brown.

3. ‘Mayor’ Joe Armstrong and yours truly. The Mayor was the subject of a glowing New York Times piece last week which bore more than a passing resemblance to this column. But imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, isn’t it?

4. Phil Smith and agent extraordinaire Ron Konecky.

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On the menu today: a tasty stew of media moguls and television titans with a dash of talking heads to spice things up. After making the rounds and checking in with some of our favorite regulars, we were thrilled to chat with our good pals Today’s Meredith Vieira and Al Roker. The always affable Ms. Vieira (who we’ve not seen at Michael’s before) and Mr. Roker told lunchtime chronicler Diane Clehane that plans are in the works for the show to travel to China this summer to do some segments as a walk up to next year’s blowout Olympic coverage in Beijing. “Meredith is going to be skateboarding on the Great Wall,” joked Al. Somehow, we wouldn’t put it past Today.

Here’s the rundown on the rest of the crowd:

1. The Early shift: Charlie Rose and Neal Shapiro; late shift: Cheri Kaufman of Kaufman Astoria Studios.

2. Nightline‘s Cynthia McFadden (sporting a great tan), Silda Wall Spitzer (wife of Governor Spitzer) and her director of Children for Children Margo Jones.

3. Mayor Joe Armstrong (who was happy to show us that Jimmy Buffett signed his “boot” — which doubles as a vase — on his last visit while Joe was away). Joe was dining with two lovely ladies: Dr. Sarah Simms Rosenthal and Jane Hartley. When we complimented Dr. Simms Rosenthal, an Ali McGraw lookalike, on her stunning summer ensemble, she told us she’s actually turned last year’s dress into a fabulous white embroidered skirt which she was wearing with a classic black T-shirt. Tres chic!

4. Time Inc.’s John Huey.

5. Gerald Schoenfeld, chairman of the Schubert Organization.

6. Fashion central: Cece Cord, Cameron Silver, owner of Decades, the haute Los Angeles boutique, Becca Cason Thrash and IMG’s The Daily Jim Shi. (Thanks for filling us in, Jim!)

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After the last few relatively uneventful Wednesdays, we were thrilled to see the dining buzzing with excitement when we arrived this afternoon. Our favorite Cosmo gal Kate White was celebrating the publication of her latest book, Lethally Blonde, with a ladies lunch at Table One comprised of an intriguing mix of flaxen-haired gals. The festivities spilled out into the main dining room causing quite the hubbub until Steve Millington corralled the crowd and the gals settled down to tuck into their salads. White’s power peroxide set: Kim Cattrall (who was overheard telling a reporter she “hasn’t heard anything new” about a possible Sex And The City movie), Hilary (Mrs. Bryant) Gumbel, Cecile Richards (president of Planned Parenthood and daughter of the late Texas governor, Ann), Linda Fairstein, Sarah Greenberg of Lionsgate Films and Joan Carl, president of D. Porthault (which would explain the lovely little packages at each place setting).

The View‘s Elizabeth Hasselbeck, who looked glowing in her 15th week of pregnancy (“It’s the self-tanner”) told lunchtime chronicler Diane Clehane that she was there because she was “in awe” of Ms. White, adding, “Cosmo and The View have a lot in common. They both cover all the things women really care about. Both have also been subject to others trying to duplicate their successful formulas but they’re both true originals!” Fresh off yet another dust-up on this morning’s show with Rosie O’Donnell, Hasselbeck professed to know nothing about plans to replace her departing co-host. “I never know anything.” But, she admitted, “I’m sure there’s some master plan.” When asked to characterize her contentious relationship with O’Donnell, Hasselbeck gamely replied: “We’re friends. We’re in different places philosophically. When you feel deeply about issues, things get heated. Some times I wish I didn’t care as much as I do.”

Also in attendance: Lesley Stahl (who slipped in after things had settled down) and the one true head-scratcher of the group: Carolyn Kepcher, who, you might recall, served as Donald Trump‘s hatchet woman on The Apprentice until he banished her from the boardroom. We’re guessing Ms. Kepcher enjoyed the news that the once popular reality show was left off NBC’s new fall schedule.

Here’s the rundown on the rest of today’s crowd:

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Perhaps it was the nice weather. Or maybe a hangover from the Time 100 party last night. Today’s media lunch at 55th & Fifth was relatively full, but lacked the star power of lunches past (no heads of state nor Penelope Cruzes to report). There was, however, some excitement near our perch at the bar, as a bottle of Pellegrino spontaneously exploded, bloodying the bartender’s hand. After returning from a brief trip to the DL, a lawyer at the bar quipped, “Michael, say hello to your new owner.”

The lineup card:

Table 1. Peter Brown and four guests, including a stunner of a blonde.

2. John Tisch.

3. Webby Award chairman Gerry Byrne in a Webby-ready casual suit, and Katherine Oliver.

4. Allen & Co. fortune heit Terry Kramer and Margo McNabb. Stilettos!

5. Bob Friedman and Stanley Jaffe.

6. Steve Cohen and CBS weather dude Dave Price, who wore sunglasses (hopefully prescription) for the majority of the meal and dropped a purple pen that was quickly returned by Michael’s staff. Sitting at the adjacent table? Al Roker, Price’s nemesis.

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NBC News correspondent Ron Allen on his public campaign to get Imus off MSNBC’s air, via CNN’s Reliable Sources this weekend:

HOWARD KURTZ: You and Al Roker of the “Today” show were probably the two most visible NBC staffers who were making that case, both externally — both publicly and internally. Why did you feel so strongly? I mean, after all, Imus had been on the air for years, and this is hardly the first time that he said something that’s might be called racially insensitive.

RON ALLEN: Well, again, I think the nature of these comments, these words, were so harsh and so painful. They just brought back a lot of memories, they evoked a lot of images that were particularly upsetting for me.

And again, this was on MSNBC, on NBC News. This was not on some obscure radio station somewhere.

I don’t listen to Imus and I don’t listen to shock-jocks a lot. I’m well aware of what they are saying, but, again, this hit home because it was somewhere where I do business, where I work,. And I felt that NBC News should not be associated with this.

I felt that — and many of us said that, you know, we can do better. We should do better. We believe in principles, we believe in ideals, and the network should be above and better than this kind of — kind of stuff.

Nonetheless, a solid majority of you don’t agree with the outcome of this whole thing:

When he’s not busy blogging about and urging executives at NBC to fire Don Imus, Al Roker is answering our questions:

You had a very long interview with Star Jones the morning after she left The View. What do you think of her incredible physical transformation?

Roker: She looks spectacular. This is a great opportunity for her — I think people forgot that this is a highly intelligent, very smart lawyer. She is a brilliant legal mind. A lot of that got lost in the frivolity of The View. I think people will get to see what attracted the networks to her in the beginning.

Recapping the latest movement in the Imus imbroglio

Yesterday, Imus said he would “make every effort” to book and hire blacks for his embattled radio show. Meanwhile, the mounting boycott among advertisers and cautiousness by frequent guests didn’t stop Sopranos actor Steven Schirripa [above], a regular on Imus, from appearing on the show this morning to talk about the season premiere.

Three of the show’s major advertisers — Proctor & Gamble, Bigelow Teas and Staples — announced that they were dropping their sponsorship of the radio show.

Imus also denounced NBC’s Nightly News coverage of the controversy on Monday night’s broadcast as “disgraceful.”

Other notes: