The NBA playoffs propelled TNT to an overwhelming lead in last week;’s cable network ranker, but the slow bubbling of political scandal kept Fox News in the top five, even as CNN and MSNBC dipped.

Read more

• ABC “Good Morning America” senior EP Tom Cibrowski is the only TV news representative on Fast Company‘s list of the “100 Most Creative People in Business 2013.” Cibrowski places in at number 61. The full list is here.

• CNBC has named former WNYW New York reporter Andrea Day to the crime and punishment beat, according to Tuned In’s Jerry Barmash

• The Huffington Post’s Michael Calderone talks to a number of White House correspondents, who say that while they are troubled by the actions of the Administration with regard to journalists, they won’t be staging a protest or walkout anytime soon.

As she departs ITV News in London for NBC News in New York, chief news editor Deborah Turness has an appalling exclusive on her network today.

ITV received video of a man with bloodied hands and weapons who claims to have just killed a British soldier in broad daylight in the London neighborhood of Woolwich. “We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you,” the man says to a passerby recording it all.

London police arrived on the scene and shot the butcher knife-wielding man, and a presumed accomplice. Here’s ITV’s chilling report.

“It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen up close.”

That’s Willie Geist‘s assessment of a day of reporting on the aftermath of Monday’s EF5 tornado in Moore, OK. “I think what you can’t convey is the scope of the damage.” Which is why people like Geist go to places like this — to try and describe it for us all.

Late Tuesday, Geist caught a flight to Chicago, where TVNewser caught up with him and his third hour co-host Natalie Morales. With Matt Lauer and Al Roker remaining in Oklahoma, and Savannah Guthrie back in New York, the Chicago remote was a remnant of an interrupted, week-long cross-country trip which began Monday in Hawaii.

Today will close out the week with a live broadcast from the Jersey shore where residents there continue to recover from Hurricane Sandy.

Morales surveyed the Oklahoma devastation via helicopter Tuesday. “It was like a bowling ball, that was a mile-and-a-half wide, rolled through and completely devastated neighborhoods,” she says. “It sort of ties it all together, to talk about the Jersey Shore rebuilding.”

Along with special co-host, Gov. Chris Christie, Lauer, Guthrie, Roker, Morales, and Geist will all be on hand. Morales says the group is feeling “new energy” after a turbulent year in the morning show wars.

“We’re a much stronger team now for that. That’s where our true grit and our character have come through,” she says.

“I’m hoping that the past is the past. We just want to carry on and continue to do what we want to do best, which is, when a big story is breaking, like you saw in Oklahoma, we rally. We’re all there. We’re all about making sure people are getting the stories they want to hear and see.”

This week, CNBC is hiring an associate producer for The Suze Orman Show, and Bloomberg needs a freelance field production coordinator. Meanwhile, The Weather Channel is seeking a senior director, and Fusion is on the hunt for a culture editor. Get the scoop on these openings below, and find additional just-posted gigs on Mediabistro.

• Associate Producer – The Suze Orman Show CNBC (Englewood Cliffs, NJ)
• Freelance Field Production Coordinator Bloomberg (New York, NY)
• Senior Director The Weather Channel (Atlanta, GA)
• Culture Editor Fusion (Miami, FL)
• On-Air Designer The Food Network (New York, NY)

Find more great TV jobs on the TVNewser job board. Looking to hire? Tap into our network of talented TVNewser pros and post a risk-free job listing. For real-time openings and employment news, follow @MBJobPost.

With the Jodi Arias trial almost wrapped up, HLN will try to capitalize on its ratings success with programming devoted to the upcoming trial of George Zimmerman.

Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Trayvon Martin. HLN plans to present continuous coverage of the trial proceedings, which begin June 10. “After Dark,” which is getting a permanent place in the primetime lineup, will also be devoted to the Zimmerman trial beginning in June. The network has also slated a preview special, “Zimmerman Police Tapes,” for Memorial Day.

In other programming changes: HLN will premiere “Secret Lives with Jane Velez-Mitchell,” a weekly program devoted to the scandals of public figures like Lance Armstrong and Tiger Woods, in July. Velez-Mitchell will host a preview of the new show on May 30 at 7pmET.

The network will also devote the first week in June to “America Behind Bars,” featuring reports about people who are in jail. Nancy Grace will host a two-night special on June 5 and 6 devoted to the Estrella women’s jail in Phoenix, where Arias has been incarcerated.

More from HLN after the jump. Read more

CNN anchor Piers Morgan has inked a book deal with Gallery books for a new memoir, to be released in October. The book, Shooting Straight: Guns, Gays, God, and George Clooney, will focus on Morgan’s tenure at CNN.

The AP has details:

Morgan, in a statement issued by Gallery, promised a “warts and all” account of life at CNN and said the book would be like “‘The Newsroom’ on steroids,” referring to the HBO series.

The book will be centered around real-world news events, written in a diary format a la his last memoir, The Insider. The announcement comes the same day it was announced that ABC’s Robin Roberts is writing a memoir.

Diane Sawyer and Greta Van Susteren have made Forbes’ 2013 list of the World’s Most Powerful Women. Sawyer comes in at #73 and Van Susteren is #97. Forbes features Van Susteren for being “the most-watched woman on cable news” while Sawyer is singled out for being “a trailblazer for female journalists and one of the most recognized and respected faces in news.” Greta has nice words for Sawyer on her blog: “She has stayed on top of the news business for a long time and she continues to set goals for the rest of us to try to meet.”

And while it’s nice to see a couple TV news names on the list, it seems to us Forbes overlooked one female tvnewser: ABC’s Robin Roberts. Not only is she the most-watched woman in morning news but during her highly-publicized battle with MDS she was able to muster more than 50,000 people to sign up for a bone marrow registry. Seems pretty powerful to us. But, then, getting a Peabody is a far higher honor than making a Forbes list.

Other notable TV names on the list: Oprah Winfrey is #13, Disney/ABC TV group president Anne Sweeney is #24, and NBCU Cable Entertainment chairwoman Bonnie Hammer is #61.

The Department of Justice didn’t just examine Fox News correspondent James Rosen‘s email records, they acquired his home and cell phone records, as well a number of phone records from Fox News Channel offices. The New Yorker‘s Ryan Lizza has those records.

In addition, Bret Baier revealed that the phone records of Rosen’s parents were also acquired by the FBI in the investigation.

The news of the full extent of the investigation comes as editorials take aim squarely at the Obama Administration for valuing secrecy over freedom of the press.

The New York Times editorial page writes that “the administration has gone overboard in its zeal to find and muzzle insiders.”

Obama administration officials often talk about the balance between protecting secrets and protecting the constitutional rights of a free press. Accusing a reporter of being a “co-conspirator,” on top of other zealous and secretive investigations, shows a heavy tilt toward secrecy and insufficient concern about a free press.

The Washington Post‘s Dana Milbank writes that the investigations are “as flagrant an assault on civil liberties as anything done by George W. Bush’s administration, and it uses technology to silence critics in a way Richard Nixon could only have dreamed of.”
Read more

ABC “Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts is writing a memoir, to be published by Grand Central Publishing in April 2014.

The memoir will tell “the amazing story of her courageous battle against a life-threatening illness, the life lessons she continues to learn, and her inspiring return to the GMA anchor desk,” according to the publisher.

It will be Roberts’ second book. Her first, From the Heart, 7 Rules to Live By, was published by Hyperion in 2007.

“I am humbled that many have an interest, and draw strength from my on-going journey,” said Roberts in a statement. “I’m grateful for the prayers and well wishes of so many people. I’m thrilled that Jamie Raab and Grand Central Publishing will help me tell my story.”

More information below.

Read more