The NYT’s Alessandra Stanley analyzes the network during coverage of the RNC.

MSNBC offers counterprogramming, not coverage. All that arch sarcasm and partisan brio may rev up the cable channel’s fans, but it constrains — and stains — NBC News, its corporate sibling, which is still the country’s No. 1 source in the evening…

NBC’s chief anchor, Brian Williams, has conspicuously avoided the most fractious MSNBC discussion panels. Those anchors who do make dutiful appearances, like David Gregory and Tom Brokaw, are badly needed but don’t stay long or join the fray — like piano players in a brothel, they don’t go upstairs.

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“The Newsroom” debuts Sunday evening on HBO, and reviews are in for the latest TV series from Aaron Sorkin (Read TVNewser columnist Gail Shister‘s review here). What do the other critics say?

ABC’s Jake Tapper, for The New Republic:

I wanted this show to be great. When asked to participate in a conference call, gratis, where I shared some of my reporting experiences with the writers, I eagerly did so. But I won’t further bury the lede: “The Newsroom,” which debuts June 24 on HBO, is sadly disappointing. There’s much to criticize in the media—and TV news in particular. But though “The Newsroom” intends to lecture its viewers on the higher virtues of capital-J journalism, Professor Sorkin soon reveals he isn’t much of an expert on the subject.

Alessandra Stanley, for the New York Times:

Yet oddly enough “The Newsroom” suffers from the same flaw that it decries on real cable shows on MSNBC or Fox News. Cable television would be a lot better if anchors pontificated less and went back to reporting. “The Newsroom” would be a lot better if the main characters preached less and went back to reporting.

Hank Stuever, for The Washington Post:

The word pile that once seemed so melodious in Sorkin’s other projects — especially that millennial anti-anxiety medication known as the “The West Wing” — now has the effect of tinnitus. The men talk like Sorkin writes; the women talk that way, too; the 28-year-olds talk like that, as do the 41-year-olds, as do the cast’s septuagenarians, who include Sam Waterston as the head of the network news division and, later on, Jane Fonda as the network owner who puts the arch in matriarch. (In other words, Jane Fonda as Ted Turner.)

Emily Nussbaum, for The New Yorker:
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Mr. Geist’s first show got off to a promising start, partly helped by the departing Alaska governor, Sarah Palin, and her acid farewell to the news media on Sunday, in which she exhorted, “So how about, in honor of the American soldier, you quit making things up?” Mr. Geist said with deadpan gravity: “Quit making things up? I can’t agree to that deal.”

But overall, Stanley responds to the pair of new shows with a generous helping of skepticism:

There is an audience for these spinoffs, and Mr. Roker and, to a cable-size extent, Mr. Geist have loyal fans. But both are television personalities who do their best work playing off and even sending up their co-hosts. Neither has surrendered his day job yet, but the danger is that their energy and best efforts will be siphoned to their new gigs.

It’s a narrowing gyre: as soon as regular contributors or co-hosts begin to develop marketable personas, they get their own show. And sometimes, as is the case with Rachel Maddow, who was fun to watch at first but lately has run out of steam, too much is worse than too little.

Speaking of the New York Times, op-ed columnist Maureen Dowd is set to appear in a phone interview tomorrow morning on “Way Too Early” during Geist’s “Morning Buzz” segment.

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Last Friday night, Stanley wrote this piece on the death of Walter Cronkite. By the time editors got through with the already-published piece there were, as Couric puts it, “not one, not two but seven errors about [Cronkite's] life and career.”

And here’s where it gets good. There is no love lost between the anchor and the columnist. The most memorable Stanley story on Couric may be this 2005 take-down of the then-Today show anchor: “At the first sound of her peremptory voice and clickety stiletto heels, people dart behind doors and douse the lights,” Stanley wrote about Couric.

Well, this might be Couric’s payback. And just look at the smile on her face during the segment…

After the jump, see the long list of corrections on Stanley’s story…

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• The New York Times’ Alessandra Stanley thought it didn’t feel like a news or entertainment interview. “Mr. Stewart treated his guest like a C.E.O. subpoenaed to testify before Congress — his point was not to hear Mr. Cramer out, but to act out a cathartic ritual of indignation and castigation,” she writes of the “Democratic Senator from Comedy Central.”

• Variety’s Brian Lowry called it a “foolish appearance” by Cramer. “How this will play out is yet to be determined, but my gut says the whole ‘feud’ will likely fade away fairly soon,” he writes. “Nevertheless, given the pain the economy continues to inflict on the public, ‘The Daily Show’ has delivered a reminder of the need for independent-minded journalism.”

• For more on the interview, check out the 1,000+ stories.

And Joe Scarborough tweeted last night that Cramer would appear exclusively on Morning Joe today to talk about the interview. But this morning he wrote: “No Cramer. Perhaps another example of oversleeping. Guess he had a late night. That is too bad. Producers told he was only talking to us.”

Despite what Erin Burnett had said the day before, Cramer wasn’t mentioned on NBC’s Today show either.

Click continued to see the unedited, uncensored (so, potentially NSFW) interview last night…

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NBC keeps testing the limits between news and entertainment in pursuit of cross-promotional synergy.

Ms. Burnett, whose day job is to report on the teetering economy, was shown last Sunday night shilling for Mr. Trump. It’s one thing for NBC to promote the reputation of a business tycoon who makes money for the network; there’s no synergy in denting the credibility of one of its most visible business reporters.

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• Paul J. Gough of The Hollywood Reporter writes about the CNN control room yesterday. “Fifty pool cameras are taking in everything at the Capitol, along with 46 high-definition cameras that CNN have set up on their own, as well as feeds from all over the country as the nation tunes in to watch Obama’s inauguration,” he writes. As for the Roberts/Obama oath flub, CNN correspondent Jeffrey Toobin said, “I almost fell out of my chair. It’s only a 35-word oath.”

• The Los Angeles Times‘ Scott Collins writes “Fox News was the only major national TV outlet that carried a live telecast of former President Bush’s homecoming speech to cheering supporters in Midland, Texas.” While it is true FNC took the majority of the 20-minute speech, MSNBC also was live as Bush approached the podium. After he began his speech, Chris Matthews said they would monitor the feed and returned to the parade.

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This MSNBC early-morning political klatch is oddly addictive, even though its hosts at times come off like a cable news version of ‘American Idol.’ Joe Scarborough is Simon Cowell, the Randy Jackson role is divided between Pat Buchanan and Mike Barnicle, and Mika Brzezinski is Paula Abdul, always seeking to say something nice about politicians the others mock. Willie Geist is their Ryan Seacrest, only much funnier.

Discuss.

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Mr. Gibson, who sat back in his chair and wriggled his foot impatiently, had the skeptical, annoyed tone of a university president who agrees to interview the daughter of a trustee, but doesn’t believe she merits admission.

But his attitude was at times supercilious: He asked if a nuclear Iran posed an “existential threat” to Israel, as if it were the land of Sartre, not Sabras.

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The other three parts of the interview air Monday-Wednesday next week.

But with the full interview in the can, the New York Post reports, “Despite talk of bad blood between the Democratic nominee and the broadcaster, Obama seemed positively upbeat after Thursday’s sitdown with O’Reilly.”

“It was great,” said Obama about the interview.

The New York Times’ Alessandra Stanley writes about the short interview as well. “Their tone was civil, but thankfully not too civil,” she writes.

She also groups O’Reilly in with a group of interviewers who are, “best at goading subjects into unplanned sincerity.” Included in her list — Katie Couric and Chris Wallace.

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• The Hollywood Reporter’s Paul J. Gough focuses on two of the “network stars,” at the forefront of the coverage, NBC’s Brian Williams and FNC’s Shepard Smith. Both described “polar opposite” response between Katrina and Gustav. “Smith, who drew praise for his coverage of Katrina in 2005, agreed that it was a different New Orleans and Gulf Coast that dealt with Hurricane Gustav,” wrote Gough.

• The Washington Post’s Paul Farhi explains the weather coverage creed: “participation is mandatory.” He describes some of the stand-out live shots from yesterday, including CNN’s Rob Marciano getting, “nearly blown off a New Orleans rooftop,” and “champion weather-interacter,” Geraldo Rivera.

• Alessandra Stanley writes in the New York Times about the more subdued coverage as compared to Katrina. “Conceding on the evening news that the storm was not as bad as expected, Mr. Williams, his shirt dry, his hair only gently ruffled by wind, downscaled Gustav to ‘a sizable weather event,’” she wrote.

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