"Shouting bullshit at the screen"
Aaron Brown is a turn-off, a Buzzmachine commenter says. "I now find myself watching FoxNews more than I would have thought. I find myself shouting "BULLSHIT" at the screen more often, but it at least keeps [me] awake." I know several people who have expressed the same. I wonder how many more there are? (Are you listening, Mr. Walton?)

FOX Fans' "Say What?!"
Looking for a laugh? Check out the "FOX Fan Exclusive" 2003 Rewound, especially the "Say What?!" video clips from FNC coverage. Notable moment: An Alert for Bush cabinet video, cut in midsentence to Wendell Goler. "Okay. Shut up," he says, then cut to Brigitte Quinn, who responds: "Okay, uh, Wendell, uh, just, ah, um." (Login: weblogs@weblogs.com; Password weblogs)

MSNBC.com Year In Pics TV-Worthy
MSNBC.com's Flash "Year in Pictures" is compelling, to say the least. Apparently the TV side of the org was impressed -- they broadcast a portion of it on air this morning. Convergence!

Why FOX Is #1?
Reese Schonfeld praises FNC's news coverage on December 25/26, while "...CNN and MSNBC weren’t ready to do news. They had prepared their ordinary Christmas day programming and most of their first-string anchors were off." He even suggests their coverage of the Karbala bombing could improve their market share. Makes you think about why they are winning the ratings war. 1pm New Years Day: FOX live in Baghdad, CNN in a Zahn tape, and MSNBC repeating Headliners.

Inside Politics Expands to Sundays
Commercials on CNN this week: "Inside Politics Sunday" begins this weekend at 10am (advance of a 3pm Democratic debate; CNN and FNC live). Will apparently run through election year.

2003: FNC #8 on Basic Cable
Daily Variety reports: "For the year, Fox News remained the only all-news outlet to crack the basic-cable top 10, moving to eighth from ninth a year ago."

2004 Resolutions for the Cablers
The Arizona Republic offers resolutions for the news nets: "Fox News - To be fair and balanced. No, really...CNN - To remember that news used to be your real star...MSNBC - To find a show - any show - that someone - anyone - will watch."

The Cable News Net of Record
Kudos to CNN for Anderson Cooper's 90 minutes live from Times Square, despite hiccups. Memorable: Cooper described Hugh Hefner as a 'true playa;' later, he turned around and said he heard Beyonce. Reporter Jason Carroll laid a kiss on the cheek of a random crowd member during one of those "who are going to kiss at midnight" segments. But hey, it beats a repeat of O'Reilly on FOX or a repeat Countdown on MS. Choice quote? Cooper teasing a live report: "What do you think's going on at the Playboy mansion? A game of Scrabble maybe?"

9PM MSNBC 2004: Deborah Norville
Lisa De Moraes in the the Washington Post broke the story on C7 Wed: "Deborah Norville has been signed to host a weekday show in MSNBC's unclaimed 9 p.m. time slot." The announcement will come next week. Bruce Perlmutter producing -- not a stranger to notable female anchors -- Connie Chung Tonight and The Point w/Greta Van Susteren to his credit. TVWeek tidbit: "A source familiar with Ms. Norville's new deal said King World insisted that the MSNBC show look nothing like "Inside Edition," so her new format is not expected to include any of the packages that appear on other shows on the news network. Instead, it is expected to be built on interviews and talk."

The Norville Hire: Net Thoughts
MSNBC's Sorenson has set his sights on second place, beating CNN in the ratings game, according to recent reports. "I don't want to go out on a limb, but I think CNN's hold on second place is safe," one blogger writes. Then again, with Larry King's penchant for half-dead celebrity interviews, perhaps there's a demographic hole there to be exploited. TV Spy Watercooler thoughts were mixed. "I have a feeling her new show will be well scripted," one member chimed in. (Send some of your own thoughts)

Tonight's Terror Scare
And the scare tonight? A British Airways flight detained at Dulles Airport. CNN first reported the news at 10:34pm, with a report from Atlanta's newsreader on duty. They cut into a taped Newsnight focusing on the embedding experiment. Ten minutes later, FNC was reporting the news via an Alert on the bottom, with a taped On The Record boxed into a corner (subject: Playboy Turns 50).

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