Shep Wonders: What If Fox Had Been Duped?

Quoting Shep Smith today, while talking to an analyst on Studio B today: "I saw an analyst on CNN a little while ago say, you know, we need to just, we need to take a deep breath and relax and realize that people get duped. You know the first thing I wondered, Matthew, when I saw that is what if this, with all that we know about this, had happened to Brit Hume and Fox News, had it been the John Kerry camp. I don't think we'd have been hearing that sort of thing from analysts." (Thanks Mark!)

Paula Presents "Prime Time Politics"

Paula Zahn is trying her hand at a new format for her 8pm CNN program. "Prime Time Politics" premiered last Monday, and it's being billed as the "the only news show bringing you nothing but politics in prime time." Her quick vote has turned into a "Voting Booth." Here are the transcripts. Viewers are noticing the change, but will a ratings boost result?...

Hardball Collaborates With Newsweek For Special Report

MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews is cooperating with Newsweek on a special report titled "Under God: Bush, Kerry and the Faith Factor." Newsweek managing editor Jon Meacham will report on the history of religion in politics in America. Andrea Mitchell and David Shuster will also contribute to the show. Here's the press release.

CBS Does Not Admit Memos Were Forgeries

Quoting an AP story on CBSNews.com: "CBS News on Monday said it regretted broadcasting a story about President Bush's military service based on documents whose authenticity is in doubt, saying the source of the material had misled the network..." CBS "did not say the memoranda -- purportedly written by one of Mr. Bush's National Guard commanders -- were forgeries. But the network did say it could not authenticate the documents and that it should not have reported them."

CBS To Commission An "Independent Review"

Quoting the press release: "CBS News and CBS management are commissioning an independent review of the process by which the report was prepared and broadcast to help determine what actions need to be taken. The names of the people conducting the review will be announced shortly, and their findings will be made public."

Dan Rather: "We Made A Mistake"

Quoting Dan Rather: "I no longer have the confidence in these documents that would allow us to continue vouching for them journalistically. I find we have been misled on the key question of how our source for the documents came into possession of these papers...We made a mistake in judgment, and for that I am sorry."

Dan Rather's Gonna Have A Tough Week

By the time you read this, you'll have seen today's New York Times headline: "CBS News Concludes It Was Misled on National Guard Memos, Network Officials Say." As Jim Rutenberg says on deadline, "the developments last night marked a dramatic turn for CBS News," and more importantly: "In the coming days CBS News officials plan to focus on how the network moved ahead with the report when there were warning signs that the memorandums were not genuine."

> Insta-reaction from RatherBiased: "Of course, had the folks at CBS been reading FreeRepublic.com, INDCJournal, Little Green Footballs, RatherBiased.com, Hugh Hewitt, Powerline, AllahPundit, InstaPundit, and CNS News, they could have saved themselves a whole lot of embarrassment."

> Also: Boston Globe columnist Cathy Young explores the "old vs. new media war."

Questions Looking For Answers

Know the answers to these questions? E-mail tvnewser@mediabistro.com.

> CNN Friday night: "Any idea why Paula Zahn's show went into the 9:00 p.m. hour?," a viewer asks. "I flipped on CNN around 9:07 and Paula was still interviewing two guests."

> MSNBC is losing its NatGeo Explorer franchise, so on Saturday night it premiered "Adventurer." Why'd MSNBC decide to stick with nature programming on weekend evenings?

> FNC CEO Roger Ailes was paid $7.1 million for the 2004 fiscal year, down from nearly $8.6 million a year ago, TV Week notes. Why the decrease?

The Challenge Of Covering A Competitor's Defect

Broadcasting & Cable quotes a memo from ABC News president David Westin that cautions their reporters to be fair as they report on a competitors' possible misteps. "We need to stick as close to the facts and what we know about them as possible," he wrote, noting that ABC could be in CBS's position next time. "If CBS News is wrong, we owe it to everyone to make the point; if they’re right, we owe it to everyone to make that point as well." ABC has been "hot on the story," John Higgins notes...

Kelley/Lauer: Keep The Skepticism Coming

Eric Deggans' conclusion about Matt Lauer's Kitty Kelley interview: "In part, it was Standard Operating Procedure for the Today show, which sometimes counters furor over controversial interview subjects by getting tough with them when they finally do appear. But Lauer's grilling of Kelley is also an example of the skepticism the media should apply to incendiary charges aired just before an election."

> Howard Kurtz says Kelley screamed at a fellow author who challenged some of her claims: "You may not slander me! You may not slander my book!"

A Good Thought To Start The Week With...

Rantingprofs notices a "superb piece" on ABC's World News Tonight, and paraphrases it: "We live thousands of miles away from the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, but we know far more about what's going on in that part of Sudan than the average Sudanese citizen. Why? In a country that isn't exactly wired in, and with a controlled press, the people know what the government finds it convenient for them to know. And the government of Sudan finds it convenient that the people not know about its crimes in Darfur. For all our criticism of the press, they can say whatever they want -- and we can say whatever we want about them."