NewsNight On The West Coast Next Week

Quoting this afternoon's press release: "CNN anchor Aaron Brown will host NewsNight with Aaron Brown live from five major West Coast cities beginning Monday, Sept. 27, to examine the social, economic and political issues influencing Seattle, Portland, Ore., San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas and how they affect the election climate nationwide."

Reactions To Paula Zahn's Political Hour

Paula Zahn's Prime Time Politics show is in its second week. Last night MSNBC beat CNN in the 25-54 demo: Countdown earned a 0.2 and 157,000 viewers in the demo, while CNN earned a 0.1 and 120,000. One e-mailer calls Zahn "the woman CNN didn't trust to go near the two largest political events of the year, the RNC and the DNC." Another e-mailer wondered what Zahn will do after Nov 2.
> WH comm-dir Dan Bartlett will appear on the show tonight...

Wrestlers To Sponsor ABC News Debate

ABC News' Jake Tapper will moderate a "World Wrestling Entertainment Smackdown Your Vote Youth Debate" next week in Miami. According to Noted Now, it will be broadcast Thursday, Sept. 30 at 10pm on ABC News Now. The first-ever debate will include Rep. Kendrick Meek, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, Florida State Sen. Dave Aronberg, and Florida State Rep. David Rivera, and wrestlers John "Bradshaw" Layfield " and Mick Foley.

Harrigan: Blogs, Docs Are Pushing The Envelope

FNC's Steve Harrigan says broadcasters need to "stick [hellish images] in people's faces:" "Things like blogs and documentaries are pushing the boundaries of what should or should not be in a news piece. I hope they keep on getting pushed, because to me the most important things often get left out." Here's why...

Rather: "Do I Believe They're Forged? No"

An interesting nugget in the Chicago Tribune today: "In an interview Monday evening, a repentant Rather conceded it had been a mistake to broadcast the documents. But even though he could not vouch for their authenticity, he said he still did not believe that they were fakes. 'Do I think they're forged? No,' Rather said. 'But it's not good enough to use the documents on the air if we can't vouch for them, and we can't vouch for them.'"

Hannity, Hume In Entertainment Weekly

Entertainment Weekly includes a feature on Fox News in their Sept. 24 issue. Some of the highlights, as summarized in the Hotline:

> "FNC's Sean Hannity, on allegations of bias against his network: 'Where does the criticism come from? The Clinton News Network? I don't pay much attention to that.'"

> At the RNC, "Brit Hume could be seen 'burying his head in his hands' during the Bush twins convo address, before privately describing Gov. George Pataki's (R-NY) speech as 'horrible.' During Pres. Bush's speech, Hume 'listens for a while,' before returning to a game of solitaire on his computer." (Of course, he had seen the speech texts in advance.)

"I Admire [Rather] For Taking The Fall"

Michael Dobbs made a great point in a WP online chat today: "[Rather] could have adopted the Peter Arnett defense in the CNN Tailwind scandal. If you remember, that was another tarnished story that Arnett presented. When it fell apart, he said in his defense that he contributed "not a comma" to the story. While I have been critical of Dan Rather and the way he has handled this, I admire him for taking the fall personally, and not trying to shove responsibility off on subordinates."

Answers To Yesterday's Questions

Yesterday's questions looking for answers provoked some interesting responses -- particularly about Roger Ailes' salary. "Have you ever heard of deferred payments, stock options and signing bonuses?," a source with knowledge of the deal said. "Trust me, he did not take a pay cut." One Atlanta source joked that the person who deserves a cut is Jim Walton...
> Here are the other questions.

WTTG's Brian Bolter Auditions At MSNBC?

Quoting DCRTV in D.C.: "We hear that Fox 5 news anchor Brian Bolter was recently spotted [at MSNBC], glad-handing with the bigwigs. Word from the management types there is that his audition was 'one of the best' they've had." Bolter seems like a rising star, but he's under contract at WTTG until sometime next year.

CBS & The Memos: Tuesday Morning Update

> "Now it's certain that [Mary] Mapes will be fired," RatherBiased concludes based on this revelation.

> Must-see TV: Dan Rather will sit down with Larry King on CNN Tuesday night.

> The Washington Post continues to hammer away at the story; it's on page A1 and A3 in this morning's editions. E&P's Greg Mitchell says that newspapers have "responded with coverage that was appropriately harsh, while not often admitting that many of them, the day after the show was aired, accepted the network's claims about the documents."

> The Associated Press put together a 'helpful' look at "how network news divisions have dealt with charges of faulty reporting" in the past.

> FNC's 10:30pm news update titled the story: "The Eye Blinks."

Nets Plan "Roadblock" For Prez. Debates

So it looks like there will be three presidential debates. Will the nets all air them? Yes, according to Broadcasting & Cable. "When an agreement has been announced, CBS tells B&C it will definitely commit to carrying all of them. An ABC spokeswoman says it plans to do so as well. Ditto for NBC, according to a news spokeswoman there, though she was double checking; and a Fox source thought that network might broadcast them all as well, but definitely the first debate."