Quote of the day
I couldn't resist snipping this one on Britney Spears, from a PlanetOut opinion column: "It's no wonder half the country is blind and deaf to politics when political discourse is so removed from the concerns of the people. The media continues to fail as well. For example, CNN's news crawl reported Britney's marriage directly before a story about multiple soldiers dying from a grenade in Iraq...Something is wrong with American priorities."

Shouldn't They Be Watching SpongeBob?
Forget that a big percentage of cable news net viewers are grandparents. Among children ages 6 to 11, Fox News viewership was up 100% in 2003, and CNN viewership was up 20%, Media Life reports. "Despite the growth, neither Fox News nor CNN could compete with Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network for a slot at the top of the ratings." Shocking. But the article rightly points out how adults influence children's TV habits. (Hat tip: Lost Remote)

CNN Election Express in Iowa
CNN's "Election Express" campaign bus is making its first swing through Iowa, broadcasting Inside Politics and Crossfire from across the state. "The Election Express will film live from Des Moines today through Monday and travels to Ames on Tuesday," the Iowa City Press-Citizen reports. "After [University of Iowa on Wednesday], the bus travels Thursday to Cedar Rapids, followed by a Friday trip to Davenport." (Also: This DM Register story points out one problem with ABC's bus: no bathroom!)

Weekend Media Show Previews
On Fox News Watch, the topics include Pete Rose's gamble, Maria Shriver's activism, Howard Dean's anointment, and Britney Spears's stupidity... On Reliable Sources, a panel of newspaper writers weigh in on the upcoming Iowa caucuses.

Pissed at Paula:
Dean Supporters Denounce 'Clark News Network'
Dean supporters are pissed off at Paula Zahn for a dust-up during her interview with Joe Trippi Friday; 261 (and counting) comments in the campaign blog are a long, compelling read. "For students studying journalism or wanting to study journalism -- Paula Zahn is a study of how to not to conduct and interview and be caught with your pants down." Talk about devotion to Dean. (Also: 326 comments to a thread on Judy Woodruff's Dean interview earlier in the day.) The best comment after the Zahn interview?: "I'm sending more money to the campaign." The power of the blog...

"Meager Estimation of the Fourth Estate"
Under the headline "Trashing the media," LA Times staffer Reed Johnson examines the state of the press in Saturday's Los Angeles Times. The lede: "Veteran journalists are coming to some grim conclusions about their industry. Are they raising red flags or merely grinding axes?"