Debate: Scenes From St. Louis

> CNN's crowd in St. Louis for Crossfire was enormous. From an e-mailer: "Never before seen on Cable TV: two program hosts 'crowd surfing.' At the end of Crossfire, Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson fell back into the crowd and were carried off like rock stars as they said goodbye on the air. Definitely the picture of the day." (Transcript)

> At 6:58pm tonight -- 2 minutes to air -- MSNBC's Chris Matthews had no teleprompter -- and according to one insider standing near his set, he was "completely wigging out." "We have to fix this -- this has to be better!!," he screamed...

> An MSNBC viewer noticed an "I Love Fox News" sign in the Hardball crowd...

Sadler Compares Iraq Travel To "Russian Roulette"

After the rocket attacks today, CNN's Brent Sadler told Miles O'Brien about working conditions in Baghdad. From the transcript: "In terms of our ability to get out, sure, yes, we can get in our armored vehicles and we can drive to wherever we want. The chances of getting there in one piece, getting back in one piece, well, that's a game [of] Russian roulette, if you like. When you get out there, you never know what you're going to come across."

More: "Yes, it's difficult for us to do our jobs. It is unsafe for us to go to the places we would like to go to. But on the broader perspective, it's the unknown, it's the uncertainty of leaving home, going to work and not knowing what you're going to come across..."

MoveOn, R&M Offer Carl Cameron Job Security

Carl Cameron is the happiest person at Fox News today -- and it has nothing to do with the network's 8th anniversary, sources say. According to a Fox News DC insider, he may have dodged another bullet when the left-wingers at MoveOn.org called for his resignation yesterday, reasoning, "Even if Ailes was thinking of benching Carl, he would never do it now thanks to MoveOn's typical misreading of the situation." Another Fox insider confirmed that notion, adding: "MoveOn.org could've gotten away with it if the loyal lapdogs at the Daily News' Rush & Molloy hadn't run the item, because no one else wrote it. But considering Rush & Molloy is practically a newsletter for MoveOn nowadays, it was pretty much expected -- they've become more predictable than the sunrise."

Journalists Witness Baghdad Rocket Attacks

Western journalists didn't have to go far to cover this afternoon's top story: "Look at CNN NOW!," an e-mailer said at 12:07pm. "Brent Sadler in crossfire. Unbelievable!" Here's how Brent described the scene to Wolf Blitzer ten minutes later:

"I was in front of camera when I saw the first of two rockets, low trajectory, coming from about 500 yards, 600 meters, 700 meters from our position, our live shot position on our hotel here...We ducked down in case there were more missiles flying our way or to the next-door building."

CNN's cameras were rolling as the gunfire ensued. "That's not Fallujah, not Samarra, but the Baghdad Sheraton," Kyra Phillips said when she replayed the tape.

"The lower level of the Sheraton, which houses Western journalists and foreign contractors, was damaged," CNN.com reports.

Fox News Channel works out of the fourth floor of the Sheraton. "It was a shattering explosion — a crack and then a massive, massive thud," he said. "The whole room shook, the tables shook, dust blew into the corridor outside." One Fox crew member suffered a minor head wound, but everyone else is safe.

On Martha-Stewart-To-Prison Watch...

"So here we sit, on the free side of the gate to [Federal Prison Camp] Alderson," FNC's Rick Leventhal wrote earlier this week. He describes the media campsite, and mentions the competition: "CNN hired a huge flatbed tractor trailer that got dropped off in a dirt field adjacent to the road and gate...Apparently their correspondents will set up on top of the flatbed." More...

The Ticker: Commentators...Cameron...Poison

> "The unanimity of CNN's early commentators strikes me as suspicious," Slate's Jack Shafer says. "The CNN commentators leaned ever so slightly in John Kerry's favor after the first presidential debate. Perhaps they feared they'd be accused of political bias if they picked another Democrat in the veep battle."

> CNN received a suspicious letter that contained "a small amount of snail poison, an insecticide that isn’t harmful to people in small amounts," the Detroit News says. At least six newspapers have received similar letters...

> "MoveOn.org today called on FOX News CEO Roger Ailes to fire political reporter Carl Cameron for fabricating phony quotes from presidential candidate John Kerry and posting them on the network’s Web site," a press release yesterday said.

Props To The Beltway Boys

I have to admit: I didn't realize the Beltway Boys were so popular! The Fox News tag team of Mort Kondracke and Fred Barnes earned more viewers than any other cable news program on Saturday, October 2 -- 1,356,000 from 6 to 6:30pm. Other shows get more promotion, but two D.C. vets comparing notes pulls in the viewers...

Debate: "Greater-Than-Usual Public Interest"

> "Tuesday night's debate rated 34% higher than Cheney's debate with his challenger in 2000, Sen. Joe Lieberman," Paul Gough reports.

> "It's the biggest TV audience for a vice presidential debate since 1992," Cox News reports.

> Fox's first postseason baseball broadcast, competing with the vice presidential debate, drew national television ratings 21 percent lower than last year's prime-time playoff opener," the Free Press notes.

> The Note says "boffo TV ratings for the veep debate" are another indication of "greater-than-usual public interest."

CNN Avoids Daryn's Conflict Of Interest

"Breaking news from Florida," CNN anchor Daryn Kagan announced yesterday morning. "For more on that, let's go to my colleague, Kyra Phillips." That's because the news was about Kagan's boyfriend, Rush Limbaugh. Lloyd Grove has a statement from CNN spokesman Matt Furman: "CNN reported the story in a way that avoided even the appearance of a conflict of interest. Daryn Kagan handed off to another anchor, Kyra Phillips, who reported the story fully along with CNN's legal analyst Jeff Toobin and reporters John Zarrella and Susan Candiotti. When the Limbaugh report ended, Kyra tossed it back to Daryn."