Former Congressman Allen West (R-FL) has joined Fox News as a contributor, the channel announced. West was known for his outspoken views in Congress, views which often became fodder for cable news. He will appear across all FNC shows and platforms.

“Representative West’s congressional and military experience along with his fearless approach to voicing key issues will provide a valuable point of view to the FOX News lineup,” said executive VP of programming Bill Shine in a statement.

At the moment, West is director of next generation TV programming at PJ Media. More information, after the jump.
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President Obama and Turkish Prime Minster Erdogan are taking questions from reporters at a joint press conference at the White House this afternoon. NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, CNN and Fox News are all carrying the presser, which started 48 minutes late. The sun in the Rose Garden turned to light rain while the press corps was waiting.

“This will be incentive for the press to ask concise questions and us to give concise answers,” Obama said.

The first question went to Julianna Goldman of Bloomberg TV, who asked Obama about the IRS scandal and Erdogan about Turkish relations with Israel.

Second question goes to a Turkish reporter, who asked both the President and Prime Minister about Syria.

Third question goes to Jeff Mason of Reuters, who asked about the DOJ seizing AP phone records.

Last question goes to a Turkish TV reporter, who asked about a timeline for Syrian President Assad’s removal.

As they promised they would, activists took aim at MSNBC at the Comcast shareholders meeting, forcing CEO Brian Roberts to respond.

The Hollywood Reporter‘s Paul Bond has some of the details:

“If you sit back and think about it,” said Borelli, “why would a conservative person in any state want their money to go pay for Al Sharpton’s salary? Have you contemplated the damage that MSNBC and its biased coverage is doing to the overall Comcast business?”

Roberts didn’t buy the premise, given all of the distributors – Time Warner Cable, Dish Network, DirecTV, Verizon, AT&T – that carry MSNBC.

“Ultimately, I think, giving diversity of voices has been what cable has stood for all these years, whether it’s one side or another, so I don’t think in the long run it will change the trajectory of Comcast cable,” Roberts said.

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White House Press Secretary Jay Carney has had a rough few days of daily briefings… what with Benghazi, the IRS and AP phone taps on the minds of that pesky press corps. So today, Carney, who used to be “one of them,” opened today’s briefing with the many faces of Jay Carney (via Washington Post), from troubled, to stern, to grim, to bemused.

Via @JonKarl:

Meanwhile, Politico has put together a video of Carney appreciating, endlessly, the press corps’ questions.

CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson has been one of the more aggressive reporters covering the aftermath of the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi last September. But the veteran CBS News reporter feels the story’s she’s pitched lately are getting picked up on the TV network. Attkisson tells CBN‘s David Brody, “I’ve received a lot of encouragement from the top executives… Jeff Fager, who is our CEO and David Rhodes who is our president who have certainly never said anything to try and interfere with the coverage. They’ve complimented a lot of my work and strongly supported it. On the other hand … there hasn’t been an appetite for the stories that I’ve offered on Benghazi so I’ve published a lot online because there’s unlimited content space and I’ve done a lot of my reporting there.”

WATCH:

Benghazi, the AP phone taps and the IRS scandal. It’s been quite a few days for the Obama administration and the journalists who cover it.

• On Benghazi: while the president believes “there’s no there, there,” CNN’s Jake Tapper got his hands on an email yesterday from then-Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes (brother of CBS News president David Rhodes) written three days after the attack. It was a version of an email that Tapper’s former ABC News colleague Jonathan Karl reported on last Friday.

• The Associated Press is not satisfied with Attorney General Eric Holder‘s statement on the breadth of phone tapping the news agency’s reporters were subjected to. Neither, for one, is the New York Times editorial board as well as dozens of other publishers, broadcasters and trade groups.

• But the biggest scandal appears to be the IRS’s selective targeting of conservative organizations. It was the lead on the evening newscasts last night and two of the three morning shows today (“Good Morning America” and “CBS This Morning”) and continues to be a hot topic on the cable news networks.

In a Behind the Curtain column, Politico’s Mike Allen and Jim VandHei write, “(T)he press, after years of being accused of being soft on Obama while being berated by West Wing aides on matters big and small, now has every incentive to be as ruthless as can be.”

Will they?

When a media outlet becomes the news, it’s interesting to watch how other media outlets cover the story. At issue today, the Justice Department admitting it secretly recorded phone conversations of five AP reporters and an editor. It was a big story on all the morning shows. (We already told you about the reaction on “Morning Joe” from the AP’s executive editor.) On “CBS This Morning” Bob Orr called it “a very aggressive investigation.” On the “Today” show Pete Williams called it “an unusually broad government effort.” But on “Good Morning America,” Fox News host Bill O’Reilly said this may be the least of Pres. Obama’s worries.

“I don’t think that’s going to amount to much,” O’Reilly said of the phone taps. “It looks like they went through the warrant process and they had authorization to look at these records — the Justice Department did. But president Obama, he’s got some problems now. He better start to get control of the situation because there’s a lot of stuff going on.”

Pres. Obama held a joint news conference late this morning with British Prime Minister David Cameron in the East Room.

The opening remarks were about the relationship between the two nations, issues of trade and security, but reporters wanted to know more about the IRS targeting scandal and the flawed talking points following the deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya last September.

The AP’s Julie Pace asked about both. “If in fact IRS personnel engaged in the kind of practices that have been reported on and were intentionally targeting conservative groups, then that’s outrageous,” said the president.

As for Benghazi, Obama was more vigorous in his response that the current storyline is politically motivated. “The whole issue of talking points, frankly throughout this process, has been a sideshow,” said the president. “Suddenly three days ago this gets spun up as if there’s something new to the story. There’s no ‘there’ there,” said the president.

“The fact this keeps on getting churned out frankly has a lot to do with political motivations.”

The BBC’s James Landale got the second and last question and asked about an EU trade deal and Syria.

The cable news networks all carried the news conference between the British P.M and President Obama. NBC was the only broadcaster to carry the newser on the TV network. The soon-to-be NBC News president is herself a British broadcaster.

Believe it or not there was a Congressional race last night. The race–largely inconsequential in terms of affecting legislation–nonetheless became national news, as the Democratic candidate, Elizabeth Colbert Busch, is the sister of comedian Stephen Colbert, while the Republican candidate was disgraced former Governor Mark Sanford.

It was a close race, but Sanford topped Colbert Busch to take the seat.

According to TVEyes CNN projected the race for Sanford at 8:31, MSNBC called it for Sanford citing the AP at 8:35, while Fox News cited the AP right at 9 PM, as “Hannity” began. Update: FNC did note the victory in a ticker text update at 8:39, citing the AP.

“Hannity” didn’t dwell on the race until midway through the show (when Karl Rove appeared to talk about), only saying at the top that Sanford “easily” topped Colbert, adding later on that she might have had a shot if not for her “goofy, liberal” brother. MSNBC announced the news by referring to Sanford as “scandal-plagued,” and that Colbert Busch faced an “uphill climb” against the former Governor.

Anderson Cooper ended up correcting something he said when he first announced Sanford’s win:

“Earlier I said he resigned as Governor after news broke of his extramarital affair,” Cooper said. “I want to correct that, he did serve out his term.”

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Photo: NBC News

TVNewser hears that the interview has been on the schedule for some time, before news of the surgery was revealed by the New York Post this morning. The full interview–which will highlight the rebuilding of the Jersey Shore–will air next week on “Rock Center.”

Christie has been pretty close with the team from MSNBC and NBC News recently, with a number of appearances on programs for both the cable channel and broadcast network.

He appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” last Monday, and will be the guest co-host of the 8 AM hour of “Today” on may 24, live from the Jersey Shore.