Gawker’s “Fox News Mole” Joe Muto has posted another dispatch, this time an anecdote about a visit to “The O’Reilly factor” from 80′s sitcom star–and puppet–ALF.

The story itself is actually pretty funny, particularly the anecdote about Dick Morris at the end, but if it was meant to be embarrassing to Fox News or Bill O’Reilly, it didn’t really hit the mark.

Why? Because TV news has a long and illustrious history of having fictional characters on as guests while pretending they are actually real.

Below is a curated selection of some of our favorite moments.

Kermit the Frog on CNN’s “The Situation Room” arguing for inter-species relationships:

Kermit’s other half Miss Piggy on NBC’s “Today” talking about her “career”:

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It was a year of change for the broadcast news organizations, as noted by the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism 2012 State of the News Media report. Focusing on the broadcast networks, Pew noted that ABC News had its first full year under president Ben Sherwood, CBS News saw new leadership in Jeff Fager and David Rhodes, and NBC News got new owners in Comcast.

In addition, essentially every network evening and morning newscast saw at least one major change, whether it was a new anchor, or a new EP running the show. The result: higher ratings for the evening and morning newscasts. It was a trend we first reported in September, when the annual ratings came in.

For the first time since 2001, all of the evening newscasts saw an improvement in ratings, albeit slight. Likewise, the morning shows also saw a slight increase in viewership compared to 2010. Newsmagazines–with the exception of NBC’s “Dateline” and ABC’s “Nightline”–were down compared to last year.

Long-term, broadcast news continues to see declines in viewership, as a proliferation of news alternatives on cable and online makes it easier for viewers to find programming that appeals directly to their interests:

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It was a strong year for cable news in 2011, even as threats to its very existence begin to appear on the periphery, according to Pew’s Project for Excellence in Journalism 2012 report. The report notes that overall, ratings and revenues were up among all of the cable news channels last year, though it gets a little murky once you start digging into the data.

CNN and MSNBC saw their viewership rise last year, while Fox News and HLN were down a bit. That said, all of the networks saw healthy increases in revenue, thanks to increased ad revenue as well as higher subscriber fees:

Pew also notes the ever-increasing threat of “cord-cutting.” While it is yet to become widespread, the incessant push to increase fees from cable operators results in cable bills that rise every year, often well above the rate of inflation. As online alternatives become more robust, the threat of cord-cutting becomes more problematic for all cable channels, including cable news:
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Diane Sawyer tops the latest Harris poll of favorite current affairs personalities. Of 26 names, respondents were asked which three are their favorites. Almost a quarter (23%) said ABC’s Diane Sawyer, while one in five each say CNN’s Anderson Cooper (19%) and NBC’s Brian Williams (19%). Bill O’Reilly (15%) and Barbara Walters (15%) rounded out the top 5. The next 5 include ABC’s George Stephanopoulos (14%), NBC’s Matt Lauer (13%), ABC’s Katie Couric (13%), talk radio king Rush Limbaugh (9%) and Fox News’s Sean Hannity (9%).

When asked which three of the personalities are the  least favorite, almost half say Limbaugh (46%). Three in ten say O’Reilly (31%) and almost one-quarter say their least favorite is Nancy Grace (23%).

After the jump, a look at the numbers including the political breakdown of the favorites and where these personalities stood in this poll four years ago:

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Sometimes when the TV is left on after the news goes off, you pick up a piece of information that can become a story. That’s what happened this morning when the doctors from “The Doctors,” a syndicated show seen in New York on WCBS at 9am, made a bold declaration that the broadcasting of 9-1-1 calls should not be allowed.

“We’re gonna take a stand here on our show and say that, unequivocally, we do not feel as physicians that 9-1-1 calls should be sent out to be broadcast,” said lead “Doctors” Dr. Travis Stork.

That is heresy to TV news producers and reporters who will tell you their stories are made much better and more whole, not to mention more dramatic, with the urgency a 9-1-1 call provides.

“The Doctors” were discussing the case of Demi Moore and the 9-1-1 call that resulted in her being rushed to the hospital last month. Dr. Stork argues that as soon as someone calls 9-1-1, they are a patient and that doctor-patient confidentiality should kick in. “We are going to urge that congress takes this up,” said Stork.

What was not discussed was how the broadcasting of 9-1-1 calls can be a wake-up call for operators who don’t heed a caller’s warning soon enough. The most recent example of that made national headlines last week.

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The Project for Excellence in Journalism released its annual report looking back on the year in media. Among the findings: while Fox News and MSNBC spent a good deal of time covering politics and domestic issues, CNN spent far more time than its competitors covering international news… and some domestic stories as well.

Fox News and MSNBC both spent a plurality of their time covering two stories: the economy, and the 2012 election. MSNBC spent nearly 30% of its newshole covering the economy, and 17% covering the election, while FNC spent 21% of its newshole on the economy and 16% on the election.

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The Project for Excellence in Journalism released its annual report looking back at the year in media. Among the findings: the “CBS Evening News” and the “PBS NewsHour” differentiated themselves from the other evening newscasts in significant ways, while CBS has also been slowly adding more hard news to its morning show in advance of its January format change.

The top five stories on the network evening newscasts were the economy, unrest in the Middle East, the 2012 election, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the shooting in Tucson that included Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

“Traditionally, the three broadcast networks have not had marked variations in their selection of news,” the PEJ writes in its report. “That appears to be changing. In 2011, one network appears to differentiating itself with a more hard news orientation.”

That network is CBS, which spent more time on the economy than either of its competitors, and less airtime on lifestyle, celebrity or sports stories than its competition.

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The PEJ has found coverage of the 2012 presidential race reached its second highest level of the year last week. Coverage of the primaries accounted for 27% of the newshole on 52 different media outlets from the print, online, radio, network and cable TV sectors. The Iraq War which officially came to an end last Thursday with the final troops out of the country by Sunday, accounted for just 8% of coverage.

Mediabistro.com is partnering up with Poll Position, the new polling company founded by former CNN executive Eason Jordan. On occasion, TVNewser and our other blogs will share results from Poll Position polls having to do with news media consumption and coverage. Each Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday night, Poll Position conducts national telephone polling, asking more than 1,000 Americans 10 hot topic questions in addition to demographic questions – gender, race, age, political affiliation. Among the Poll Position questions over the weekend was the following, as suggested by TVNewser:

When it comes to media coverage of the Occupy Wall Street protests, do you believe the protests have received the right amount of TV news coverage, not enough TV news coverage, or too much TV news coverage?

Just Right	Too Much	Too Little	N/O
24.6	42.3	24.3	8.8

National Telephone Poll of 1,066 Registered Voters / 10.30.11 / Margin of Error +/- 3%

Among the overall population, the opinion seems to be that the protests are receiving too much coverage, unless you added “Just Right” and “Too Little” together and counted them as one. Those results mostly hold up among the individual demographic groups… with a few notable exceptions:

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Mediabistro.com is partnering up with Poll Position, the new polling company founded by former CNN executive Eason Jordan. On occasion, TVNewser and our other blogs will share results from Poll Position polls having to do with news media consumption and coverage. Each Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday night, Poll Position conducts national telephone polling, asking more than 1,000 Americans 10 hot topic questions in addition to demographic questions – gender, race, age, political affiliation. Among Poll Position’s questions last night was this:

When there is a major news event, do you turn to news radio stations, news websites, social media or television news networks for breaking news reporting?

TV News Networks	News Websites	News Radio	Social Media
57.5	16.6	13.8	7.7

National Telephone Poll of 1,110 Registered Voters / 10.23.11 / Margin of Error +/- 3%

TV news networks is highest among 65+ with 70% saying they get breaking news from TV. Perhaps most surprising: the highest percentage saying Social Media — at 9% — is among 45-64 year-olds. Slightly less, 8.1% of 18-29 year-olds, say they turn to Social Media for breaking news.

The full poll will be released tomorrow on Poll Position.