Shortly after 2:30pmET, President Obama and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the podium for a joint press conference from Jerusalem. Fox News, CNN and MSNBC took the press conference live. NBC News was the only broadcast network to offer a special report, anchored by Brian Williams in New York.

Obama and Netanyahu took three questions: one from the Israeli press, one from Matt Spetalnick of Reuters, and one from NBC’s Chuck Todd, who asked about the peace process. Todd asked several follow up questions, which led to an exchange with the President and Prime Minister.

“Do you guys do this in this Israeli press? You say you get one question, and then you add like five?” Obama asked jokingly. “Did you see how the young lady from Channel One — she had one question, and she was very well-behaved, Chuck.”

“I thought I had four questions,” Todd responded. “Passover starts in a couple days. I get four questions.”

“This is not a kosher question, but don’t hog it,” Netanyahu said.

Obama went on to his answer, calling Todd “incorrigible.”

David Gregory joked to Williams afterward, “That Chuck Todd included dietary law and Passover in his question is, I think, news and significant. Something they’ll be talking about in Jersusalem.”

A breathless Dana Bash chased after Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann Tuesday trying to get her to respond to comments she made about Pres. Obama’s “lavish lifestyle” at CPAC last weekend. Determined though she was, Bash was not successful, and on top of it all, she probably has shin splints.

Last night on AC360, Bash and Anderson Cooper talked about the chase for answers, and came to the conclusion that just by covering this story, they end up helpping Rep. Bachmann.

“We do struggle in situations like this,” said Cooper, “because we want to call out politicians when they say things that are flat out untrue. With with congresswoman Bachmann it’s a double edged sword. She fund raises off this stuff.”

“We can be transparent with viewers,” said Bash. “We had a real discussion about this today because we know the more oxygen we give this, the more Bachmann will raise money off of this.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if she uses this program, this report and another one tomorrow or beyond,” said Bash, adding, “But we’re doing our job.”

Following the release of a biography about his life and career by Zev Chafets, Fox News CEO Roger Ailes talks to Howard Kurtz in The Daily Beast about some of the things mentioned in the book. In particular, Ailes talked about the departures of contributors Sarah Palin and Dick Morris.

“I like Sarah Palin,” Ailes says. “I think she got pounded harder by the media. The only people who got it worse were Richard Nixon and George W. Bush, and that was over a longer period of time. Sarah would say she probably was responsible for some of the bad press she got and made some mistakes along the way.”

So why did he cut her loose?

“Nothing’s forever. We purposely took a general cooling-off after the election. Everyone was exhausted from it.”

As for Morris:
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Within Pew’s State of the News Media 2013 report, the topic of opinion versus reporting on cable news came up. As we noted earlier, since 2007 opinion programming has risen dramatically while reporting has declined, but it is worth breaking it down by network.

According to Pew’s analysis, MSNBC had by far the most opinion programming of the “big three” cable news channels, with 85% of segments opinion, versus 15% reporting. By comparison Fox News had 55% of segments opinion to 45% reporting, with CNN the only channel to offer more reporting than opinion, with 54% reporting and 46% opinion. Opinion is not just hosts sharing their views, but also pundits spouting on about their thoughts on matters.

On the whole, 63% of all segments on cable news feature opinion, compared to 37% for reporting.

Not surprisingly, primetime skewed heavily toward opinion, with a broader mix during the day, and a slight skew toward opinion in the morning hours.
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This week marks a milestone anniversary in politics and journalism: the 100th anniversary of the Presidential press conference, which was held on March 15, 1913. On “CBS This Morning” Friday, veteran senior White House correspondent Bill Plante took a look back at the Presidential tradition:

TVNewser hears that new Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is going to be giving his first TV interviews since assuming the post to CNBC, Fox Business Network and Bloomberg TV. All of the interviews are being pre-taped, and will air on all three networks at 4:15 PM, after the markets close.

Steve Liesman will talk to Lew for CNBC, Peter Barnes for Fox Business and Peter Cook for Bloomberg.

The interviews can be seen as an effort to speak to the Wall Street and business communities. Obviously each interview will be slightly different, but the financial focus of the networks means that the questions will likely be focused on fiscal policy.

A Florida bartender who secretly recorded GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney is going to reveal his identity to Ed Schultz on MSNBC’s “The Ed Show” tonight, the channel says.

The video went public in September, with the general press noting Romney’s comments about “the 47%,” while we noted Romney’s analysis of the media. It dominated cable news for days, forcing Romney to speak out publicly about the matter on Fox News.

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The bartender spoke to The Huffington Post, but declined to reveal his name. He will appear on HuffPost Live tomorrow, after his “Ed Show” appearance.

President Obama will give an exclusive interview to ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, the network says.

Stephanopoulos will speak to Obama tomorrow, with the first excerpts to air on “ABC World News” tomorrow evening. The full interview will air Wednesday morning on “Good Morning America” and in the wee hours of Thursday on “Nightline.” Other excerpts will air on ABCNews.com, Yahoo! and the other ABC platforms.

The President is trying to woo congressional leaders in an effort to avoid yet another budget showdown, and end the sequester. Obama was last interviewed by ABC in December, and by Stephanopoulos two years ago, in April 2011.

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush appeared on “Meet the Press” (and “This Week,” and “Al Punto,” and “Face the Nation,” and “State of the Union,” and “Fox News Sunday”) today, and of course one of the topics was his possible plans for 2016.

Bush, perhaps perturbed after doing what seems like every other TV show that day, laughed when David Gregory asked about a potential Rubio-Bush faceoff in three years. Because in political TV, the campaign is always king.

“Man you guys are crack addicts, you are obsessed with all this politics,” Bush said.

“I have been called many things…” Gregory replied.

“OK, heroin addict,” Bush said. “Put aside the politics for a moment, we have big challenges and Marco Rubio, to his credit is working on those.”

He added, “I dont want to begin the prcoes to think about it until it is the proper time to do so.”

WATCH:

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On “Good Morning America” today, Brian Ross explained why the network held off for months in reporting the sex allegations against New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez even as as other news outlets went ahead with the sordid details.

Ross reports Menendez “appears to be the victim of a very dirty trick” after one woman in the Dominican Republic now says she was paid to make up a story that she’d had sex with the Senator. Ross’ story this morning showed Skype interviews done with that woman and two others, months ago. Ross and his producer Rhonda Schwartz wrote on ABCNews.com Tuesday:

Last fall, Republican operatives, who insisted on anonymity, helped arrange the woman’s appearance, along with two additional women, in back-to-back, on-line interviews with ABC News and a conservative news website, the Daily Caller. ABC News did not broadcast or initially report on the claims because of doubts about the women’s veracity and identity.

Both the Columbia Journalism Review and the Washington Post are heaping praise on ABC for their restraint. From Erik Wemple‘s blog:

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