The John Edwards endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama occurred just as the evening news broadcasts went live on the east coast on Wednesday. TVNewser reported how the broadcast networks handled the coverage.

The Huffington Post's Danny Shea has the other story from Wednesday night — how the network's handled their pre-taped interviews with Sen. Hillary Clinton, in the context of some major new information in the race.

ABC, the only network to take live video from the Edwards announcement during the east coast feed of the broadcast, was also the only network to completely bump their Clinton interview from the broadcast (only for the east coast). A portion aired in the later broadcasts.

Meanwhile, Brian Williams told MSNBC how NBC had the first third interview Wednesday afternoon with Clinton, with ABC and CBS following shortly after before. "In between the Senator was checking her Blackberry. And I'm not trying to engage in any dime-store psychology, or go between the facts, but it was as if she was learning things between interviews," he said.

A lot of publicity goes a long way. Barbara Walters' memoir Audition debuts at #1 on the New York Times Best Sellers list.

Before you head to the Circus (and...you should), come meet the mb bloggers!

Monday night, before the Mediabistro Circus kicks off, the mediabistro.com bloggers will be at Corio from 6:30-8:30pm. Come talk media and everything else, and meet the editors (and fellow readers) behind the blogs that occupy this space.

We'll be there, as will the GalleyCat team, the Fishbowl-ers from NY, LA and DC, the PRNewser guys and the teams from UnBeige and MobileContentToday.

We hope to see you there...

Normally, you would have seen Howard Fineman on MSNBC last night, but the 2008 primary season has been far from normal. So last night, the Newsweek columnist/senior Washington correspondent/deputy D.C. Bureau Chief and NBC News analyst added another title: author. Fineman was feted by his TV and magazine colleagues for his new book The Thirteen American Arguments. No argument from Brian Williams and his wife Jane and Newsweek editor Jon Meacham and his wife Keith. They threw the bash.

Williams arrived after anchoring West Virginia primary updates, while Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann and Tim Russert were 40 blocks away dissecting the Clinton win. Fineman thanked all four by name, describing himself as the "adjunct professor" at NBC, his "home away from home."

Fineman heaped praise on his boss, Meacham, saying he was like a wiser, younger brother while Matthews was "the annoying older brother who never lets you speak."

Also in attendance, ABC News president David Westin, Nightly News EP Alex Wallace, Dateline EP David Corvo, the NYTimes' David Brooks, former Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker, now SVP at NBC News and Newsweekers Dan Klaidman and Jonathan Alter.

Some pictures after the jump...

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Remember the 7,500-word New York Times "examination" of military television analysts and their involvement with the Pentagon? The Huffington Post's Rachel Sklar spends 3,000 words examining the NYT's examination.

Her findings — "They proved their case against the Pentagon, hands down. But they did not prove their case against the generals and other military men whom they name-dropped in that story. Which means they did not necessarily prove their case against the networks."

• The Pentagon case was proven by, "forcing the Pentagon to (finally) release the 8,000 pages of transcript."

• The case against the military men themselves was not, because, "he painted with way too broad a brush."

• The network argument was not proven either, Sklar writes, because, even though the, "networks fumbled this ball by not addressing the story head on," the story made, "sweeping statements about network culpability."

That's the crux of the argument — check the full piece for far more detail.

• Related: Media Matters breaks down the 4,500 appearances by the military analyst's named.

Gail Shister
TVNewser Columnist

Hannah Storm's new job at ESPN comes with a bonus — 20 minutes' extra Z-time.

But at 4 a.m., who's counting?

As co-anchor of ESPN's new morning "SportsCenter," Storm says she'll get up at 4:30 a.m. instead of 4:10, as she did for the past five years on CBS's "Early Show."

Then it's a 1 hour, 20-minute commute from "the far reaches of Connecticut" to ESPN HQ in Bristol for the 9 a.m.-to-noon "SC," to launch in August. Like any good jock, Storm labels her co-host "a player to be named later."

After five years of vampire hours — and bloodletting, for that matter — at CBS, why would any sane mortal choose the same shift somewhere else?

"I want to be home when my kids get off the bus," says Storm, 45, in an interview a few hours after yesterday's announcement. "I won't compromise on not being there when the kids are home. I take my family life first, then work backwards from there."

Storm and her husband, NBC golf announcer Dan Hicks, have three daughters, ages 7, 9 and 11.

During her previous sports career, at NBC and CNN, Storm worked all hours and was constantly on the road. In '02, when her eldest was about to start kindergarten, Storm promised her she would take a day job.

The day job ended suddenly in December, when CBS told her she was out. She says the network offered her another post "anchoring and reporting," but she passed. No details, except it wasn't Katie Couric's "CBS Evening News," Storm says.

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We've held off posting this story today, mostly because we don't usually report on the news of local news. But we've heard from you today, so here goes. If you haven't heard about it, Sue Simmons a 28-year veteran anchor at WNBC dropped the F bomb last night during a prime time promo for News4 New York at 11 (might be NSFW, unless your boss uses the F word a lot, in that case, it's entirely SFW):



At the end of the first block of the broadcast, Simmons said, "We need to acknowledge an unfortunate mistake that I made in one of the teases we bring to you before this program. While we were live just after 10 O'Clock, I said a word that many people find offensive. I'm truly sorry, it was a mistake on my part and I sincerely apologize."

This has been a week of natural disaster news for the networks, first the cyclone in Myanmar, then tornadoes in the central and southeastern U.S., yesterday's earthquake in China and now brush fires in Florida. The toughest story to cover, however, has been the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis because Myanmar's military junta government is not granting visas for foreign journalists.

But that hasn't stopped some networks from sending in reporters. An ABC reporter managed to reach the Irrawaddy Delta area yesterday. ABC obscured her face to keep her from being kicked out of the country, or worse, jailed. Her reporting was included in a Terry McCarthy story on the World News Webcast, and she had a standalone story on the broadcast.

Meanwhile, after Dan Rivers' great escape from Myanmar late last week, CNN sent in another reporter, but is keeping their identity secret. A network spokesperson tells TVNewser, "This is an important story that CNN will continue to cover from Myanmar. The decision was taken for security reasons, which we do not discuss. We will review the situation as the story develops."

FNC's Shepard Smith returned to Ole Miss yesterday to deliver the commencement address. The focus of his speech "10 seconds"

Smith said, "On a normal day, 10 seconds later, a loved one can drop to a knee and say those words you so wanted to hear, but now you can't believe it's happening. On a normal day, 10 seconds later, the phone can ring and that job is there halfway across the country. Ten seconds later, Tyree can catch a pass between his hand and his helmet — the great escape can happen, and our guy can be the Super Bowl MVP."

Smith majored in journalism at the Oxford, MS university but left a few credits short of graduation requirements.

Also giving commencement addresses this weekend, Hoda Kotb at Virginia Tech, Chris Matthews at Old Dominion, John Quinones at St. Mary's (San Antonio), Cokie Robin Roberts at Miami of Ohio, and Bob Woodruff at Syracuse.

As you head out for the weekend, we leave you with this (from here):