Fox News’s Oliver North gave the keynote address at the first ever gala of USA Cares, a group founded five years ago to serve U.S. military families.

Tonight’s event at the Seelbach hotel in Louisville raised more than $100,000 from sponsorships, donations and pledges. The money is used to aid families with quality of life issues caused by a loved one’s service.

The president of USA Cares, Maj. Gen. John Tindall commented, “since we don’t send people to Disney World, we don’t always get the glamorous press that some other organizations get”. Well, Maj. Gen. Tindall, I hope we’ll do.

Fortune Magazine’s Jessi Hempel writes a 2,500-word article about CNBC and its impact on viewers as the market fluctuates.

Hempel quotes CNBC President Mark Hoffman, who says, “We’re always looking for qualitative combat on the air. Most of these conversations live somewhere between fear on one end and greed on the other. One person wants to unload something, and another person wants to pick it up.”

A major focus of the article is also on the new competition for CNBC, Fox Business. GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt said in the article, “They’ll continue to get better, and we have to get better as well.”

The piece also delved deep into the numbers.

Read more

The Huffington Post caught a Lou Dobbs slip-up from Friday’s Situation Room, when the CNN anchor almost used the term “cotton-picker” when referring to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.

Dobbs was commenting on what Rice had said regarding the “birth defect” of race in America. Dobbs disagreed with Rice, and brought in Sen. Barack Obama as well. “The reality is, this is the most socially, ethnically, religiously, racially diverse society on the face of the earth,” he said.

Then, he began another thought. “Not a single one of these cotton…these just ridiculous politicians should be the moderator on the issue of race,” he said toward the end of the soundbite.

Click continued to see the video (via Veracifier)…

Read more

A special edition of MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann aired last night on the mothership at NBC. The hour-long network special, broadcast at 7pm, finished fourth in the time period in Total Viewers according to fast-national ratings.

Olbermann’s first network special in August finished third in Total Viewers, but last night’s special eclipsed the rating figure by about 10%.

Olbermann competed with the end of the Kansas-Davidson NCAA Tournament game and the beginning of 60 Minutes on CBS (14,730,000 viewers), America’s Funniest Home Videos on ABC (8,270,000) and King of the Hill and American Dad on FOX (3,770,000). Countdown finished with 3,370,000 viewers.

Also, compared to Dateline last week at 7pmET, NBC was down 43%. Still, the program brought in more than triple what Countdown averages in Total Viewers on MSNBC, which is averaging 1,038,000 viewers in the first quarter of 2008.

An NBC insider tells TVNewser, “We’re thrilled with the additional exposure Countdown has received on the network.”

25-54 demographic: (L +SD)

Total day: FNC: 190 | CNN: 152 | MSNBC: 100 | HLN: 100

Prime: FNC: 272 | CNN: 234 | MSNBC: 160 | HLN: 88

	5p:	6p:	7p:	8p:	9p:	10p:	11p:
FNC	ElectionHQ:	Hume:	Shep:	O’Reilly:	H&C:	Greta:	O’Reilly:
	201	284	244	318	282	215	276
CNN	Blitzer:	Blitzer:	Dobbs:	Spec.Invest.:	King:	Cooper:	Cooper:
	144	154	248	287	226	188	226
MSNBC	Hardball:	Gregory:	Hardball:	Countdown:	Verdict:	Countdown:	Investig.:
	117	113	129	224	146	112	154
HLN	Prime:	Prime:	Beck:	Grace:	Beck:	Grace:	Showbiz:
	118	103	98	148	50	75	117

Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data.

Read more

Broadcasting & Cable’s Marisa Guthrie writes a profile today of CNBC’s Charlie Gasparino. Gasparino has been quiet lately after some recent outburts (vacation will do that).

He talked with Guthrie about one of those “verbal scuffles,” with CNBC media and technology editor Dennis Kneale, a couple weeks ago.

“When you do live TV, sparks fly. That’s what’s good about it. It’s impromptu and we’re both big enough boys to forget about it when it happens,” he said.

Gasparino also said he was recently hired by HarperCollins to write his third book, “The Sellout,” about the collapse of Bear Stearns. “They want me to do it tomorrow but Ive got a day job, so I’m going to do it in a year,” he said.

As she ended her interview with FNC’s newest bride, correspondent Molly Henneberg announced some breaking news: she’s engaged. Following a rundown of how the possible 2008 presidential match-ups, America’s Newsroom co-anchor Megyn Kelly said, “You have some breaking news on a personal match-up, I understand.”

“I do. I got engaged over the weekend. I’m so excited,” said Henneberg, as she flashed the bling.

Henneberg announced that, “The lucky, lucky man,” as Kelly described him, is Chris Nagle. Will it be a summer wedding? “Party to continue in July,” said Kelly at the end of the conversation.

“And we’ve got a new lead story!” said co-anchor Bill Hemmer.

Uh oh. Lou Dobbs fight club might have a new member, or three. A trailer for the Fox Searchlight film Under the Same Moon includes quotes from three reviewers who all reference Lou Dobbs’s anti-illegal immigrant stance, even one from a fellow Time-Warner property.

A Fox Searchlight spokesperson confirms the quotes are authentic and that all three publications (Time, CSM, and Entertainment Weekly) cited Dobbs.

Pennsylvania governor and former DNC chairman Ed Rendell appeared this morning on Fox & Friends, and complimented the network for its “very balanced” coverage.

“Fox has done the fairest job, has remained most objective of all the cable networks — you hate both our candidates,” Rendell said. “No, I’m only kidding, but you actually have done a very balanced job of reporting the news.”

Rendell, who is a supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton, also mentioned how FNC has not gotten “caught up with Senator Obama” (maybe he didn’t mind those “two hours of Obama bashing” a couple weeks ago).

F&F co-anchor Steve Doocy was so excited by the compliment, apparently things reached a Chris Matthews level.

Click continued to see the clip of the segment…

Read more

Robin Meade getting some batting tips from Indians outfielder Dave Dellucci.


Cleveland Indians fan and HLN anchor Robin Meade isn’t playing around. The Morning Express anchor got some on-the-field time during the Braves-Indians exhibition game Saturday at Turner field. She even kept Indians pitching coach Carl Willis running. “[A]fter throwing to all the guys to try to let off a little bit, I lost it. She’s an intimidating figure at the plate.”

She also got some tips from Dave Dellucci. “David was a really great coach,” Meade said. “I don’t do any sports, so I thought I was going to make a complete fool of myself doing this. But I connected on a lot of them.”

The visit to the ballpark will be featured in an upcoming Morning Express podcast.