A Philadelphia jury has found former abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell guilty of three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of three babies born alive. He was found not guilty on a fourth count.

Fox News was the first to report the verdict at 3:18pmET. Shannon Bream was outside the courthouse discussing how the judge was threatening to hold anyone in contempt for using cellphones in court as a means to deliver the verdict when her producer Kristin Brown ran to the live position with the news. Rehema Ellis, from the NBC newsroom, reported the guilty verdicts during MSNBC’s “The Cycle” at 3:19pmET. CNN’s Sunny Hostin reported the verdicts from outside the courthouse at 3:22.

Compared to this month’s other high-profile trial, the Gosnell case has seen relatively little coverage. Unlike Arizona, Pennsylvania does not allow cameras in the courtroom; additionally, the judge in the trial issued a gag order banning prosecution and defense lawyers from talking to reporters. And as Howard Kurtz said on “Reliable Sources” last month: “This is a gruesome case that journalists on both sides of the abortion question have told me is hard to stomach. That is especially true on television.”

Meanwhile, HLN, which has ramped up its trial coverage, reported the Gosnell verdict, while keeping cameras trained on another courtroom where another high-profile defendant was in front of a judge: OJ Simpson was in a Las Vegas courtroom today seeking a new trial in his 2008 robbery conviction.

CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker has been mostly quiet on his plans for CNN. Save for a few public appearances, and a press call when he was first announced, he has not given any interviews to the media that covers the media.

“This is the only time I have talked,” Zucker said to a handful of reporters gathered around him at the Landmarc restaurant in Time Warner Center including the AP’s David Bauder, Washington Post‘s Erik Wemple, The NY Post’s Claire Atkinson, THR’s Marisa Guthrie, the Los Angeles Times’ Joe Flint and us. The back room at Landmarc had been the setting for the formal reveal of CNN’s new morning show “New Day,” (a clip of which you can see here on Vine) with the anchors and producers answering our questions.

The CNN president was asked how quickly he thinks CNN can become the number one cable news channel.

“Come back to me in three years,” Zucker says. “We have been here for four months, there is no way that anyone would have thought that we would be in the position that we are in, and we have miles and miles to go.

“We have to maintain where we are today. Fox is number one, they are incredibly strong and incredibly dominant,” he added.

Zucker’s vision for CNN is right in line with what he said it would be on that first conference call, where he said he wanted the channel to cover more than just politics and war.

“What I want CNN to be is to be aggressive in news, coupled with programming like Anthony Bourdain, ” Zucker said, noting that when you broaden the definition of “news,” there will always be something to cover, but that doesn’t mean ordinary people will tune in. “We need a number of programs that you would not normally find on cable news networks but on places like Discovery, A&E, Nat Geo, we want to compete in that arena as well as the traditional cable news arena that CNN has traditionally been grouped into.”

This is not to say the traditional anchor-led programs will be going away. Zucker cited “New Day,” “The Lead,” “The Situation Room” and “AC360″ as some of CNN’s signature programs, although that doesn’t mean they can’t change. “AC360″ tested out a new panel format a few weeks ago, which Zucker champions.

“We were very pleased with that program, very pleased,” Zucker said, adding that the 8 PM edition of “AC360″ won’t be changing.

Then there is “Reliable Sources,” the long-running media criticism show hosted by Howard Kurtz.

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• CBS News is beefing up its medical unit with the addition of Dr. David Agus as a contributor. Agus joins Dr. Jon LaPook and Dr. Holly Phillips, and he will report on a wide range of medical issues for the CBS news broadcasts. More info below.

• “COPS,” the long-running Fox police docu-series, has found a new home after being canceled by the broadcaster. The program will be going to Spike TV in the Fall, according to TV Guide‘s Michael Schneider.

• FNC’s Greta Van Susteren writes that people should stop criticizing Howard Kurtz. “Not one of us is perfect. We all make mistakes.”

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Howard Kurtz’ mea culpa on his own “Reliable Sources” yesterday made for an extraordinary 15 minutes of live television. (Full disclosure: I am an occasional guest on the show.)

Kurtz’ apology for his most recent journalistic transgression – his “inexcusable” erroneous report last week about openly-gay NBA player Jason Collins — extended from his personal statement of contrition to a bracing interrogation by two excellent media reporters.

NPR’s David Folkenflik and Politico’s Dylan Byers grilled Kurtz about Collins as well as other mistakes from the past that Kurtz admitted he had sometimes waited too long to correct. It was riveting, powerful, and frequently uncomfortable to watch.

The backstory: In a Sports Illustrated piece that broke April 29, Collins became the first active male pro athlete from a major U.S. sport to come out. Kurtz wrote in his Daily Beast blog that Collins had not disclosed he had been engaged to a woman, and chastised him for it. He repeated the assertions in a video on The Daily Download, where he is a paid contributor.

In fact, Collins had written of the engagement. Kurtz had missed it, he said yesterday, because he had read the piece “too fast” and “carelessly.” On May 2, Kurtz left the Daily Beast. He said it was by mutual agreement; HuffingtonPost, among others, said he was fired.

The live interrogation on CNN was not Kurtz’ idea. He made that clear in his opening statement when he said the network had invited the questioners.

Folkenflik confirmed this in an interview with TVNewser. (Byers declined an interview because he said he was writing his own blog about the show). Folkenflik was pitched by a CNN executive “who doesn’t directly oversee the show,” he said, not naming names. “He’s a respected figure within CNN.”

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The tables were turned on today’s edition of “Reliable Sources” on CNN, as Howard Kurtz was interviewed by NPR’s David Folkenflik and Politico’s Dylan Byers about his Jason Collins story, his departure from The Daily Beast and his relationship with The Daily Download. Disclosure: TVNewser columnist Gail Shister often appears as a guest on the program.

“The mistake I made was sloppy and inexcusable,” Kurtz acknowledged, as Byers and Folkeflik pressed him on his errors over the last few years. As for his departure from The Daily Beast:

“Because of the unfortunate timing, some people have the impression that is the reason I am leaving The Daily Beast. In fact this was already in the works. We were moving in different directions after the closing of Newsweek’s print edition. There were a lot of personnel changes. There was downsizing. Both sides came to feel it was no longer a good fit. Then this columnist mistake happened, which I take full responsibility. But the amicable divorce was already in the works.”

WATCH:

Part two, after the jump.
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CNN “Reliable Sources” host Howard Kurtz may not have a job at The Daily Beast anymore, but he still has his CNN hosting gig… for now. A CNN spokesperson tells THR:

“There has been no status change with Howard Kurtz, he remains the host of Reliable Sources,” said a network spokesperson on Friday. “He will address this issue on the program this weekend.”

We heard from a CNN source yesterday that Kurtz’s future at the network is up in the air. Since then, we have heard from others, who say that Kurtz is on a week-to-week contract with the channel.

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The Daily Beast has “parted company” with Washington bureau chief Howard Kurtz. Kurtz of course also hosts “Reliable Sources” on CNN every Sunday.

The move comes just a day after Kurtz wrote an embarrassing story based on the idea that NBA player Jason Collins never mentioned that he was previously engaged to a women in his Sports Illustrated article. He did mention it. The corrected article didn’t make much sense without that hook, and was subsequently retracted by The Daily Beast.

A source at CNN tells TVNewser that Kurtz’s current deal with the cable channel will likely be his last. New CNN president Jeff Zucker has made no secret of his desire to rid the channel of long-time contributors that are more closely tied to the channel’s past than its future. It is not clear exactly when his current deal with CNN expires.

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The trial of abortion provider Dr. Kermit Gosnell continues in Philadelphia today, and so too does increased coverage of it. Fox News host and attorney Kimberly Guilfoyle is in the courtroom and will provide coverage on “The Five” this afternoon. “CBS This Morning” had a story on it this morning and it was discussed several times on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” today.

Late last week, there was much discussion about the lack of coverage. CNN’s Howard Kurtz talked about it at the close of his “Reliable Sources” yesterday. CNN, Fox News and MSNBC have done “a few stories,” Kurtz said, with CBS and ABC airing segments in January. Kurtz:

But there hasn’t been nearly enough on the trial. Perhaps the mainstream press is less attuned to a story that casts a shadow on abortion but the conservative media didn’t do much either. And it’s not like the staunchest pro-choice advocate would defend what Gosnell is alleged to have done. This is a gruesome case that journalists on both sides of the abortion question have told me is hard to stomach. That is especially true on television.

Kurtz also pointed out that coverage “is quickly picking up” after Fox News’s Kirsten Powers wrote this op-ed in the USA Today.

On CNN’s “Reliable Sources” this morning, Howard Kurtz was joined by Erin McPike, Roger Simon and Matt Lewis to talk about cable news’ favorite politician: Hillary Clinton. It may only be 2013, but in the politics-obsessed world of TV journalism, 2016 is already top of mind.

Related: “Reliable” also dedicated a segment to the life of Roger Ebert. Check it out below.
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Nine months after Ann Curry left NBC’s “Today” with tears in her eyes, the show is back in the news, and not in a positive way. At the heart of the last few weeks of coverage has been “Today” co-anchor Matt Lauer, who–rightly or not–has taken the brunt of the blame for Curry’s ignominious exit from the program.

This week’s wrench: Deadline’s report that NBC reached out to Anderson Cooper about possibly replacing Lauer, then a TMZ follow-up that Lauer is actually fine with the idea, and a THR story in which NBC shoots it down. Verne Gay at Newsday speculates on what all the coverage means.

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