This week, NBC Universal is hiring an associate producer for Maury, and MacNeil/Lehrer Productions is hiring a news operations manager for PBS Newshour. Viacom needs a digital marketing manager for Comedy Central, and USA Network is on the hunt for a manager of mobile and emerging media. Get the scoop on these openings below, and find additional just-posted gigs on Mediabistro.

• Associate Producer NBC Universal (Stamford, CT)
• Digital Marketing Manager Viacom (New York, NY)
• Manager, Mobile & Emerging Media USA Network (New York, NY)
• Director, Digital Production – Music & Celebrity Viacom (New York, NY)
• News Operations Manager MacNeil/Lehrer Productions (Arlington, VA)

Find more great TV jobs on the TVNewser job board. Looking to hire? Tap into our network of talented TVNewser pros and post a risk-free job listing. For real-time openings and employment news, follow @MBJobPost.

ABC News and several on air staffers filed a motion today to dismiss claims brought by two companies over the network’s coverage of  finely textured beef, referred to as “pink slime.”

Beef Products Inc. is seeking $1.2 billion in damages for roughly 200 “false and misleading and defamatory” statements.

In a 257-page lawsuit filed last month the company cites 11 TV reports and 14 online reports between March 7 and April 3, 2012. Diane Sawyer,  Jim Avila and David Kerley were all named as defendants. Today, all three were named in the motion to dismiss:

NBC News and ABC News both had one-hour specials at 10 PM last night following the latest Superstorm Sandy news. NBC’s special handily topped ABC’s “20/20″ special, though NBC had a much stronger lead-in than ABC did, almost certainly boosting the numbers.

10PM Tuesday:

NBC: 8.29M total viewers, 4.13M adults 25-54.
ABC: 4.82M total viewers, 2.06M adults 25-54.

NBC’s lead-in was singing competition show “The Voice,” which averaged over 12 million viewers from 8-10PM, while ABC’s lead-in was “Don’t Trust The B in Apartment 23,” which drew over 3.3 million viewers.

It is worth noting that power outages, along with pre-emptions, likely had an impact on the ratings. In New York City, the number one TV market, the news programs, “The Voice” and “Apartment 23″ all aired without being pre-empted.

25-54 demographic (Live +SD)

• Total day: FNC: 584 | MSNBC: 310 | CNN: 462 | HLN: 154

• Primetime: FNC: 740 | MSNBC: 560 | CNN: 521 | HLN: 167

	5p:	6p:	7p:	8p:	9p:	10p:	11p:	12a:
FNC	TheFive:	Baier:	Shep:	O’Reilly:	Hannity:	Greta:	Greta:	Hannity:
	657	688	716	845	791	580	541	470
MSNBC	Matthews:	Sharpton:	Matthews:	EdShow:	Maddow:	O’Donnell:	EdShow:	Maddow:
	371	499	481	497	670	512	282	310
CNN	Blitzer:	Blitzer:	Burnett:	Cooper:	Morgan:	Cooper:	Burnett:	Morgan:
	448	383	435	551	553	460	341	381
HLN	Sandy:	Sandy:	VelezMitch:	Grace:	DrDrew:	Sandy:	Sandy:	DrDrew:
	146	173	204	220	141	140	90	74

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• Former New York Governor and CNN host Eliot Spitzer will be on Christiane Amanpour’s CNN International program today. He’ll talk about Sandy recovery and the election. “Amanpour” airs at 4pmET on CNNI.
• “Rock Center with Brian Williams” will dedicate its entire hour to the super storm tomorrow night. Harry Smith, Tom Brokaw, Ann Curry, Richard Engel and Natalie Morales report. Thursday at 10pmET/PT.
• CNN’s Ali Velshi, in Ohio, and Christine Romans, in New York, will co-anchor “CNN Newsroom” Friday morning at 9amET with Sandy’s clean-up underway, unemployment numbers due, and the election just four days away.

Politico writes about the coverage of the election through the lens of the horse race. The short version: pundits are reluctant to make predictions as to who is going to win, because who knows!

“I think more than any other race I’ve covered this is one where both sides genuinely seem to believe they’re going to win. That’s different,” ABC News correspondent Jon Karl said. “Given that, it’s hard for somebody covering the race to make a call. I’m completely confused. I have no idea who’s going to win. And I usually have a sense of who’s going to win.”

The article notes that pundits may be reluctant to make predictions because no one wants to look like a fool come the day after election day. Some students from Hamilton College, however, showed that it doesn’t really matter. The students examined the predictions made by pundits in newspapers and on the Sunday public affairs shows, and looked at who was right most of the time, and who was wrong most of the time:

Read more

CNN’s Piers Morgan gives an interview to The Hollywood Reporter‘s Marisa Guthrie. He talks about his favorite interview (Robert Blake) his move toward voicing his opinion more on his show, his thoughts on Donald Trump (he’s a fan and a friend) and many other topics.

When asked if he watches other cable news channels, Morgan replied:

I love Bill O’Reilly, even though a lot of it drives me bonkers. I think it’s great television. I think he’s a class act. I think it’s just like a comfortable pair of angry slippers. I think Rachel Maddow is very good at what she does. It’s not my kind of thing; it’s a very kind of a cerebral, left-wing rant, but it’s good TV. She’s smart, and she’s been great for MSNBC.

Morgan also thinks that former NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker would be a fine fit at CNN:
Read more

CNN’s Howard Kurtz writes about Hurricane Sandy, and argues that not only did the storm live up to the hype, but that it showed the value of non-stop news, even when the information presented is fragmented, incomplete or incorrect.

And that, even in this age of media fragmentation, may be cable TV’s greatest service. We watch and experience the highs and lows together, even those in parts of the country that are unaffected. It is the polar opposite of a presidential campaign, with its relentless hyper-partisanship. In fact, by upending the final week of the campaign, the hurricane and the media attention surrounding it provided a uniquely unifying moment.

Lower Manhattan is currently something out of an apocalypse movie. With no power or cell service, I saw people bartering on the streets for food and supplies, and wandering northbound to try and find a plug to charge their phone into. I was one of those people marching uptown, past downed trees and pitch black shops, restaurants and offices.

One of the few things with plenty of power in southern Manhattan? TV satellite trucks, as CNN’s Rob Marciano saw firsthand:

Crowd charging cell phones via our satellite truck. #CNN gaining new viewers one plug at a time.twitpic.com/b924ng

— Rob Marciano (@robmarcianoCNN) October 31, 2012

The New York Stock Exchange opened at 9:30am, after being closed for two days due to Hurricane Sandy. With power out to most of downtown Manhattan — including mediabistro HQ, we’re all working from home, or other’s homes — some of the data is not displaying as normal. CNBC’s Melissa Lee assuring viewers, “There’s nothing wrong with the trading on the Dow. It’s just the data feed coming into this one screen on the exchange. Most of the others ones are black because we’re running on generator power.” FBN aired an opening bell special report with Neil Cavuto, Liz Claman and Charlie Gasparino.

The last time the NYSE closed for two days due to weather was in 1888.