When ABC chose CNN’s Christiane Amanpour for ‘This Week’ in 2010, “obviously I had a degree of disappointment, “ Tapper says, “but it wasn’t as though they were putting Mario Lopez in there. Christiane’s a legend.”

Less than 18 months later, when George Stephanopoulos returned to ‘This Week’– again, no hard feelings, Tapper insists. “It’s George’s show. It was logical for him to want to do it. He’s also a journalistic legend.”

What did it for Tapper was his own weekday show at CNN, most likely to launch in March or April, in addition to being named Chief Washington Correspondent. New CNN Worldwide boss Jeff Zucker made the offer over breakfast last month at a secret undisclosed location in New York.

Tapper, in Philadelphia Thursday to promote his new book, ‘The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor,’ says he expects to take over the 4 p.m. hour currently occupied by Wolf Blitzer’s ‘Situation Room.’ Blitzer will be cut back to 5 to 7 p.m.

If all goes well, could this be a prelude to Tapper breaking into the prime-time lineup?

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Longtime anchors Charlie Gibson and Joan Lunden (left) were in attendance representing all anchors of the show. ABC News president Ben Sherwood accepted the award and dedicated it to Robin Roberts, who is still recovering from bone marrow transplant surgery. Senior EP Tom Cibrowski and ABC SVPs James Goldston and Barbara Fedida attended.

In an email to his staff, obtained by TVNewser, Cibrowski writes the award comes, “After 37 glorious years on the air! More than 20,000 hours of broadcasting, a distinguished group of wonderful journalists and hosts, and thousands of us behind the scenes working every day to get on the air with one of America’s top brands.”

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They gathered at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library for a panel discussion on the life of Tip O’Neill, the legendary former Speaker of the House who passed away in 1994. Sunday marked 100 years since O’Neill’s birth.

Charlie Gibson – who covered O’Neill in the eighties for ABC News – moderated the forum, which featured reminiscing and story-telling among those who also shared the Tip beat back in the day: Bloomberg’s Al Hunt, ABC’s Cokie Roberts and her husband, writer-broadcaster Steve Roberts, and columnist turned “Morning Joe” contributor Mike Barnicle.

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, once a top aide to O’Neill, told the audience he was “overwhelmed to have the chance” to be on the Speaker’s staff.

Gibson called O’Neill “an American original” and the “most fascinating” person he ever covered.

The panel discussion was recorded for broadcast January 1 on C-SPAN3.

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The picture below, Tweeted by Martin Finn, the coordinating producer for “Fox Report with Shepard Smith,” sums up how many anchors and producers are packing their bags: to cover both the RNC in Tampa and soon-to-be Hurricane Isaac. The Republican National Committee announced Saturday it would open the convention tomorrow, then adjourn until Tuesday when Isaac is projected to be a category 1 hurricane churning in the Gulf, off the coast of Tampa/St. Pete headed for the Florida Panhandle, or the Mississippi, Alabama or Louisiana coasts. Many of you will recall the same situation four years ago when Hurricane Gustav pushed back the start of the 2008 convention in St. Paul. Smith, as well Brian Williams, Katie Couric, Charlie Gibson and Anderson Cooper all reported from Lousiana on the eve of the 2008 RNC.

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ABC’s Martha Raddatz is presented the Fred Friendly First Amendment Award in New York City

Martha Raddatz has been in worse rooms, in worse countries, on military bases and battlefields.

Today, ABC’s senior foreign affairs correspondent graced the gilded dining room at the 19th century Metropolitan Club on New York’s 5th Avenue and was presented with the Fred Friendly First Amendment Award by Quinnipiac University.

Ruth Friendly, the widow of the legendary CBS newsman for whom the award is named, described Raddatz as “fearless.” The impossibly humble Raddatz said, in fact, she was “filled with fear” as she took the stage.

“The courageous ones are the people I have covered during my career,” said Raddatz accepting the award before a crowd of more than 100 guests, including her ABC News colleagues Diane Sawyer, Barbara Walters, previous Friendly recipient Charlie Gibson, George Stephanopoulos, Bob Woodruff, Terry Moran, David Kerley and Jim Avila.

Raddatz talked about the courage of Staff Sgt. Sal Guinta, the first living Medal of Honor recipient since the Vietnam War. “Sal Guinta does not think he is courageous or a hero. He does not think he did anything that others wouldn’t do in the same situation.”

And the bravery of her own colleagues, “far too many of whom have lost their lives or been badly wounded doing so,” as Raddatz looked toward table four. “And I still can’t be in the same room with

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“Thank you all, but most importantly thank you at home for allowing me to say ‘Good Morning America’ for ten years,” an emotional Roberts said this morning. “What a blessing. Charlie and Diane, to have learned from the absolute best like that. They taught me what family is and that’s what I have here. I’ll be forever gratefully to them and to everyone.”

ABCNews.com has put together this slideshow. And here’s the video including remarks from Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer.

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Wallace accepted the award at the NPF’s annual dinner last night in Washington, DC. In his speech, he named his father Mike Wallace, his stepfather Bill Leonard, and Fox News CEO Roger Ailes as the greatest influences on his journalism career, according to Broadcasting & Cable.

Wallace also spoke with Boston.com about the honor. “’60 Minutes’ has won it — and Ted Koppel, Charlie Gibson, Brit Hume,” he said. “Quite frankly, some of the people I admire most in the business. To be invited to stand with those heavyweights means a lot. It really means a lot to me.”

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What “Game Change” is, at its essence, is a wildly-entertaining cautionary tale about presidential politics. Moral of the story: Be careful what you wish for.

“Game Change,” which debuts on HBO Saturday, follows Sen. John McCain‘s disastrous decision to name then-unknown Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his Republican running mate in 2008. It’s based on the best seller of the same title by reporters Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, both of whom served as consultants.

McCain and Palin, among others in their respective camps, have made so much noise about the alleged inaccuracies of “Game Change” (sight unseen) that HBO included a letter in its media kit, defending Danny Strong’s script. For HBO, that is not an everyday occurrence.

This much is beyond dispute – Julianne Moore and Ed Harris give remarkable performances as Palin and McCain.

Moore, a four-time Oscar nominee, perfectly mimics Palin’s speech in its distinctive rhythm, pitch, and scrappin’ of consonants. She doesn’t go too far, however, allowing her to avoid the level of parody by Tina Fey on “Saturday Night Live.” (In a nice touch, Moore is shown watching the “SNL” clips.)

Harris is equally impressive in his McCain incarnation. The actors’ eyes alone speak volumes, particularly in the scene where his Alpha-dog chief strategist, Steve Schmidt (played to the

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“Great to be back with you on Sunday mornings,” said Stephanopoulos.

First up: the democratic response to the ABC and NBC debates with Obama adviser David Axelrod followed by a conversation with 2008 GOP presidential candidate and now Fox News host Mike Huckabee.

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At one point during his run, Schieffer brought the newscast to #2 behind NBC “Nightly News,” in the days before Charlie Gibson began his run on ABC’s “World News Tonight.” Schieffer was the interim anchor between Dan Rather and Katie Couric.

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There was, however, one more review we wanted to highlight.

Former “Good Morning America” and “Early Show” executive producer Shelley Ross reviewed the film for Newsweek, and it is a great read.

I more than humbly acknowledge that I bear no resemblance to the stunning McAdams or her fictional character. Harrison Ford and Diane Keaton, however, are, hauntingly at times, dead ringers for Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer, whom I produced for more than five years in the morning.

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He was being summoned to serve as a questioner in the first-ever televised presidential debate. The face-off between Nixon and John F. Kennedy would end up being watched by an estimated 70 million viewers.

TVNewser met up with Vanocur on Sunday in Chicago, where he participated in a panel discussion to mark the 50th anniversary of the debate.

Vanocur began his broadcast career in London with CBS News. After a stint with the New York Times, he returned to TV in 1957, joining NBC News and covering politics and the White House. Vanocur moved to PBS in 1971 before joining ABC News in 1977, where he spent 14 years.

Today, at 82, Vanocur lives in Santa Barbara, California and runs a consultancy, Old Owl Communications. He’s also developing television programming for seniors. “We’re living longer,” Vanocur says. Such viewers “ought to be appealed to.”

TVNewser: Were the 1960’s the golden age for television news?

Vanocur: No, I don’t think they were the golden age. They were just a wonderful time. You see, there weren’t any rules in those days. So we more or less made things up as we went along. And there were no people who could say, ‘You can’t do this’ or ‘You can’t do that’, because nobody knew what you could do or couldn’t do.

TVNewser: What network newscasts do you watch today? And what cable newscasts?

Vanocur: Since Charlie Gibson’s not on ABC anymore, I’m entirely devoted to Brian Williams on NBC, because it’s my alma mater.

I watch Fox [News Channel], and I watch MSNBC – Keith Olbermann – and I watch CNN.

TVNewser: You once said that “the media claims to be reflecting our discontents, but I have come to believe that they are inciting our discontent”. Can you explain what you meant by that, and are there any broadcasters in particular who come to mind in this regard?

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Even as the oil continues to gush from the sea floor, and the networks shuttle their anchors to points along the Gulf coast, NBC Nightly News, ABC World News and the CBS Evening News continue to lose viewers. All three broadcasts were down in Q2 2010 compared to the same period last year.

In numbers released today, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams lost -440,000 viewers (-140k in A25-54 demo) compared to Q2 2009. ABC’s World News with Diane Sawyer lost -260,000 viewers (-80k demo) (Charlie Gibson was anchor in 2009). The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric lost the most, based on a percentage, losing -340,000 viewers (30k demo) compared to Q2 2009. ABC and CBS were also down when Q2 2008 is compared to Q2 2009.

Numbers for Q2 2010:

Numbers for Q2 2009

Q1 2010 was not kind to the evening newscasts either. World News and Evening News saw their lowest averages ever for the first three months of 2010. And it was ’round about this time last year those two broadcasts hit all-time ratings lows. It should be noted the anchors, CBS’ Couric and ABC’s Gibson, were off that week.

We’ll have last week’s Evening News ratings later this afternoon…

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CNN investigative correspondent Abbie Boudreau received a Livingston Award today, bestowed for excellence in reporting by journalists under the age of 35. Boudreau won for last fall’s Killings at the Canal: The Army Tapes. Via Twitter, Boudreau reports that the award was presented by a former CNN colleague, ABC’s Christiane Amanpour, and that NBC’s Tom Brokaw and former ABCer Charlie Gibson were in attendance at today’s ceremony.

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