Washingtonienne Tops The Countdown // Wonkette, A Cable Pundit?
Washingtonienne was the #1 story on Keith's Countdown tonight. The show's newsletter asked: Is Jessica Cutler "scraping for her 15 minutes?" Richard Leiby appeared from the 15th St. newsroom. (Keith called him the "chronicler of the Cutler phenomenon.") "We don't know anything except that it's great reading," Leiby said. (Gosh, that sounds like Wonkette!) "When do we expect the book deal?," Keith asked. "I fielded a call today from a top literary agency that wanted her phone number," Leiby responded, and said he fielded a call from Playboy tonight. Leiby noted that "this kind of behavior among young women in Washington isn't unknown." Wow, that's a clever way of saying...
Also: Ana Marie Cox appeared on Scarborough Country tonight. She was "crying funny," The National Debate says. (She was on FOX yesterday.) Cable's hottest new pundit?...

Bill Battles Bob: "There really isn't any off the record any more"
Remember when former Senator Bob Kerrey called FOX "occasionally fair and balanced" and said they "violated a serious trust" when they aired an audio tape of Richard Clarke conducting a background briefing? Well Kerrey entered the 'no-spin zone' on Monday night, and the conversation was compelling.
"All I'm saying is that it's a very big chill," Kerrey said. "I would, if I was still in the public eye, the next time someone comes and says, 'This is background. Don't worry about it,' I would look up and make sure there wasn't somebody above me." "There really isn't any off the record any more in the press business," O'Reilly responded. "...I think that was a very good service that we at Fox News did."
Here is the full Lexis Nexis transcript.

"Dems invisible in FOX News Channel Bush speech coverage"
...That's the headline on a Media Matters report today. The site says that Chris Matthews interviewed a Democratic Senator, and Paula Zahn talked to Madeleine Albright and Joe Lieberman. But FOX "was strikingly different; no Democrats were heard from," the bias-trackers note...
> Leigh writes in: "Why is it news when FOX doesn't have a single Dem on their Bush coverage, but not news when CNN and MSNBC don't have a conservative voice on?"

NewsStream Live: Story Repeated By CBS, Public Radio
CableNewser's exclusive report revealing CNN NewsStream Live was picked up by a number of media organizations today.
> CBS Marketwatch repeated the news this morning.
> Public radio's Marketplace discussed CNN's project on the radio this evening, citing "reports published today." (Hmm, what reports could those be?) Here is the audio feed.
> PaidContent repeated the story, and compares it to ABC's attempt: "ABC News has tried a similar thing: its premium ABC News Live service, which has not got the reception it aimed for, mainly due to lack of editorial interest and control."
> LostRemote has some comments about it: "I'm sure the ISP business model will be watched by many," Cory Bergman comments. "The ISP model is wonderful - if you can get them to sign on," Steve Safran adds.
> "It sounds logical," E-Media Tidbits says.

NewsStream Live: Large Marketplace For Channel, Merrill Brown Says
Marketplace's report on CNN's broadband channel project included comments from several industry experts. "The marketplace for these services is plausible, and certainly large," former MSNBC.com EIC Merrill Brown said. TVBarn's Aaron Barnhart was interviewed, as well: "The CNN brand is in trouble," he said. "They need to be willing to try new thngs, even when there is no immediate gaurantee of return on investment." The radio show said that a CNN spokesperson was "cagey" about the report...

Presidential Speech Ratings: FOX Beats CNN/MSNBC Combined
Or: MSNBC Scores Almost A Million Viewers -- 500,000 Less Than CNN
So that I'm not accused of bias, here are the raw figures for Monday night. You decide:

All numbers are for # of viewers.
8:00 to 8:37pm: FOX -- 3,541,000 CNN -- 1,499,000 MSNBC -- 934,000 (8 to 8:45)	8 to 9pm: FOX -- 3,341,000 CNN -- 1,399,000 MSNBC -- 942,000	8 to 11pm: FOX -- 2,292,000 CNN -- 1,323,000 MSNBC -- 649,000

(1st column is for the actual speech. MSNBC didn't calculate its #'s precisely.)

Media Notes: Brokaw on King Tonight; Shales 'Shallow?'
> "Anthony Zinni goes one-on-one with Chris Matthews tonight" (P.R.) UPDATE: Here's how Dominic described it in the Briefing: "You think we'd miss an opportunity to interview him? Heck, that's like waiving candy in front of a child! We're all over it tonight...In fact Zinni is half the show."
> Henry IMs at noon: "Why is FOX seemingly paying more attention to the fire in Conyers, Ga. than CNN out of Atlanta?" UPDATE: "CNN has been on the story!," an anonymous IMer says. They point out that CNN had a reporter on the scene since 9am.
> Tom Brokaw will talk to Larry King tonight, a media advisory says
> Cori Dauber calls the Shales critique "shallow and useless"
> Page Six picks up on Ashleigh's Savage accusations

Heidi Collins: Moving On Up
It's official: Heidi Collins is well on her way to stardom in the CNN universe. Today's press release doesn't say that, of course -- it says that Heidi will be American Morning's news anchor, beginning today, and that she will sub in when Soledad is on maternity leave in late August. Princell Hair says that "Heidi has great chemistry with the existing American Morning team" and that "we are thrilled that she will now be a permanent fixture on the show." Yeah, yeah...

CNN's Headquarters Are Hip, But Not The Hippest
UK Media Week describes the "coolest, hippest places to work" in media. (Is "hippest" still a hip word?) "A trip to [CNN's] headquarters did not disappoint," the author says, but: "One problem – it’s based above a shopping mall in Atlanta. Actually that’s a bit unfair, as the CNN Center in downtown Atlanta is to normal shopping malls what the Queen Mary 2 is to regular cruise ships. The CNN offices are located on a mezzanine floor above a vast hall lined with bookstores, souvenir shops and restaurants." But he concludes that MTV Is the hippest. (Hat tip: IWantMedia)

EXCLUSIVE: CNN Developing Broadband Channel
"NewsStream Live" Set For Q1 2005 Launch; ISP Subscription Model Planned

Only on CableNewser: CNN is in the early stages of development on a 24-hour broadband news channel for Internet users, CableNewser has learned.
The channel, called CNN NewsStream Live, is targeted for a first quarter 2005 launch. "It's just entering development," the source says. "It will not suck as much as ABC News Live," they joked.
It is being planned as part of a broadband redesign of CNN.com. The channel format is nowhere near finalized. "I think it will be a wheel format," the source says.
The channel will target users at work without a TV nearby, the source says. Users will subscribe to the channel via their ISP.
"Your ISP will pay for your subscription just like your cable operator pays to carry CNN," the source says.
Some CNN executives have floated the notion that the content model will shift to online subscriptions -- in essence, an Internet version of cable TV's business model.
CNN's television feeds cannot be simulcasted online, due to cable licensing restrictions. The network will be able to estimate the number of viewers by measuring the number of simultaneous feeds.
A CNN spokesperson declined to confirm the project, but said: "CNN.com has a very active product development group, and we are considering many ways to enhance our online offerings."

MSNBC Hires Weather Anchor; McLaughlin Starts In July
Arizona meterologist Sean McLaughlin will become a weather anchor for MSNBC in early July. He will provide "coverage of national weather events weekdays" between 9am and 4pm, and serve as weather anchor for the Sunday 'Today' show, the 12 News web site says.
"Sean is multi-talented, and that's what we look for at MSNBC," Mark Effron says. "He can communicate important and potentially life-impacting weather news, and will report from the scene of major weather stories. He has a way about him that connects with all kinds of viewers." Looks like MSNBC's focus on weather is expanding...

Kurtz Should Write A Book About The FOX Effect
Howard Kurtz was pitched a lot of media bias questions in his WP online chat Monday, and swung at several of them:
> "Democratic officials told me a few weeks ago that they find Fox's chief political correspondent, Carl Cameron, to be extremely fair"
> "The rise of Fox News, and the continued popularity of such radio talkers as Rush and Hannity, has created the impression that conservatives are really shaping the media agenda. And I happen to think such diversity is a good thing."
> "Hillary Clinton went on Fox News Sunday yesterday, and Howard Dean was recently on Hannity & Colmes, so they, at least, must have thought they'd get an even shake."

World War II, Through The Cable News Prism
Robert Cox writes: "After too much Abu Ghraib, I turned off the cable news and switched over to The History Channel the other day which got me to wondering how some of the major events of World War II would have been reported by the cable news networks if Bush had been in charge."

Hardball Teams Up With Posties
The lower-thirds had The Washington Post logo smack dab next to Hardball's. The show exclusively played an audio tape the Post obtained of a military hearing. Chris said the newspaper would have more details tomorrow, and urged viewers to log onto the web site "for more photos and documents." The graphic on-screen had the Post URL. WP's Dana Priest narrated a package about historical interrogation tactics. (It's about time that MSNBC/WP/Newsweek collaboration was evident on TV!)

Tom Shales Critiques The Speech
Tom Shales with an odd TV review of Bush's performance: "Over on CNN, blank-faced correspondent John King told anchor Paula Zahn that the speech contained "no new policies...at all," thus inadvertently helping to explain why only cable networks and not the big four broadcast networks bothered to carry it."