NewsNight viewers missed The Whip last week, and in his daily e-mail to viewers today, Aaron Brown explained why (sorta): "Those of you with us the past few nights have probably figured out I am in a mood to experiment some. Three years into the program's life is a good time to do that. Not every experiment will work. The ones that don't will simply go away. It is only T.V. we are doing here. But, the program began with lots of experiments that now are routine to you and me, and that is something you long time viewers might keep in mind as we go. The WHIP is an example. It may stay, it may not. What will not change is the very nature of the program. At its core and at its best it is character driven. Individual stories that make large and important issues come to life. So, be patient during these next few weeks as we try some things, change some orders, experiment with some ideas and see where we end up. I would tell you your feedback is welcome but you'd send it anyway. It is one of the very best things about this audience."

> "Sounds like it's re-tool or die," an e-mailer remarks...

Slate takes CNN.com's "Your Command" ads and deconstructs them -- and doesn't like what it finds. "As a branding effort for the network, these ads just aren't distinct enough." And "in no way do they explain why CNN.com is any better than other news sites." Even worse: "These ads actually insult the CNN audience." The final grade: C+, for being "conflicted in conception, mediocre in execution." Check out the review. I still find them entertaining... (Thanks Johnny Dollar)

"News Corp.'s Fox News has reached an agreement to become the primary news provider to radio giant Clear Channel Communications Inc," the Wall Street Journal scooped today.

"Fox will provide a five-minute top-of-the-hour newscast, a nightly news broadcast, and around-the-clock dedicated national news coverage. In return, Fox News Radio will have access to news produced by San Antonio-based Clear Channel's news network," the AP reports.

> The deal "creates [a] direct competitor to ABC Radio and CBS Radio," the press release says. "ABC Radio will absorb the biggest blow from the Clear Channel-Fox News deal," the WSJ adds...

Ron Insana asks Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons about CNN in a USA Today interview:

"CNN's only real problems are two. One is created by Fox. I give Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes and all the Fox people credit for doing something that was very clever. They effectively brought a new format to television. It's like talk radio on TV. That's not the business CNN is in. Because this new format is drawing viewers, people think, 'Oh, CNN is losing.' CNN is still a very highly profitable and growing business. Do I mean CNN is perfect? No, it isn't perfect. And we think we can substantially improve the look and feel of it."

Improving the look and feel of it...That's something to watch for. "CNN's story is a lot better than is being portrayed in the popular press," Parsons added. "We have to get out and blow our own horn a little bit more." (Via NewsBlues)

She was released from her contract with CNN. Broadcasting & Cable follows up on Wednesday's TVNewser report that CNN Headline News anchor Rudi Bakhtiar met with Fox News to discuss a possible job at the network. She "has been anchoring the baby CNN's evening program for two years but isn't cutting it as CNN Group President Jim Walton plans yet another retooling of the channel," the trade pub says. "Bakhtiar (who didn't respond to our interview request) was offered a slot anchoring another daypart, but her contract says prime time, so the network is releasing her..."

So what will this "retooling" look like? At one point, insiders talked about three signature shows in prime time: A program featuring Court TV's Nancy Grace (whose contract calls for regular appearances on CNN), an entertainment show and a news program. Is that still the plan, or has Blue Sky changed? The changes are expected to premiere next month, so when will details leak out?...

> Update: 9am: Headline News staffers have been told to expect an announcement mid to late week regarding changes in schedules (layoffs?), according to one tipster...

"There's a lot of uncertainty," Steve Kroft says.

"There's this ominous sense of change for the worse, of impending doom," Andy Rooney says.

They're referring to the impending release of the report about CBS's handling of the National Guard story, and the shifting anchor chairs on the Evening News, respectively.

"There is plenty of talk around CBS News that the network will be making a big statement by whom it chooses to lead its flagship broadcast: famous or unknown journalist, someone from local or national news, cable or network," Peter Johnson writes in USA Today...

Completely unrelated to TV News, but you may enjoy reading these two stories I filed for today's paper: "Student soldier tells Iraq story" and "Family, friends mourn death of TU freshman." Writing them certainly reminded me how precious life is...

Bill Shine in Broadcasting & Cable: "It's 100 variables that make a good TV show. It's the emotion and the questions. It's the order of the questions. It's not just the temperament of the host."

As the EP for FNC's primetime schedule, B&C says Shine's top priority is "ensuring the bookings, pace and topics stay hot..."

Tom Shales writes about "Ol' Button Nose," anchor tension, lightning rods and flapping big blabbers in an entertaining TV Week piece today. He describes seeing the three anchors together in 1999: It "was like seeing three ex-presidents in a huddle; you only had to glimpse them in their welltailored splendor (well, except for Jennings) to know there was something extraordinary about them. They glowed. They didn't get their jobs just by lookin' good." More...

"To read much of the nation's press these past few weeks you would think you were reading about Jurassic Park," former NBC News president Reuven Frank writes in a TV Week commentary. "The network evening newscast is a dinosaur. Not a mastodon or a pterodactyl, but a dinosaur." He disagrees. "...As long as enough people watch to keep them profitable, as long as they make more money than any program that might replace them, they will be with us. Not forever, perhaps. But for a while."

"Rather is not losing his job over scandal or Internet calumny," Tim Rutten said in the LA Times over the weekend. His career is ending "because, at the end of the day, nobody was watching."

He explains it in more detail: Network news divisions are business units of sprawling corporate conglomerates. In CBS' case, that company is Viacom. When it comes to emotions and honor and reputations, these people are flat-liners. In fact, the only line they recognize is the one at the bottom of the balance sheet. In that context, the relevant things about Dan Rather are not words but numbers." And the numbers weren't good enough, Rutten says...

> More than 50 giant SpongeBobs have been snatched from Burger King rooftops across the country recently. MSNBC's Countdown took it a step further on Dec. 1 when one of the Bobs was stolen at the end of the show. Here's the hilarious video. "I saved him from two disreputable would-be kidnappers," Olbermann explained later. "Just part of my job." The local Burger King loaned MSNBC their Bob for the segment... (Update: The video link is now correct!)

> This has gotta be humiliating: "McEnroe may have had more people watch his tennis matches -- in person -- than watch his talk show some nights," the AP says. He averaged 75,000 viewers a night...

> A funny quote from Anderson Cooper on Friday's 360: "We like to examine all sides on this program, so tonight, two perspectives..."