CNBC’s Erin Burnett tried a new beat today — pirates.

Reporting live from Cairo, Egypt all day for CNBC and MSNBC after spending a night on an oil tanker, Burnett delivered several “Dangerous Waters: Pirates and Power” segments.

“We literally took a trawler boat to get there in 10 foot seas,” she said during Street Signs, which she anchored at 2pmET. “We wanted to try to do it the way a pirate would.”

Taped reports will continue to air tonight on CNBC.

• HuffPost’s Jason Linkins gave his tongue-in-cheek take on the pirate reporting: “Last week, MSNBC didn’t have Erin Burnett ON A BOAT. AND NOW THEY DO. So, here’s a video of Erin Burnett, straight ridin’ around on a boat. How you like us now, Poseidon?”

Click continued to see her report this morning on Morning Joe…

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With his 15 minutes of fame extending beyond the 20,000-minute mark, Joe the Plummer appeared on Fox News’ Studio B with Shepard Smith Tuesday to explain his feeling that “a vote for Obama is a vote for the death of Israel.”

But the bigger story today on the cablers is an off-shoot of that campaign theme — about a videotape of Barack Obama at a get-together for Palestinian activist Rashid Khalidi. The Los Angeles Times has a copy of the tape. FishbowlLA reports the Times agreed not to release the tape (for air on television news), but has explained its contents, including in this article last April.

The McCain campaign is pushing for the tape’s release. The story has been covered throughout the day.

Which brings us back to Joe.

The Huffington Post’s Jason Linkins writes about yesterday’s exchange with Smith, in which the Fox News anchor presses the plumber. “Listen, you don’t want my opinion on foreign policy. I know just enough about foreign policy to probably be dangerous,” Wurzelbacher said.

Smith agreed, issuing a disclaimer following the interview about Obama’s pro-Israel position. “It gets frightening sometimes,” said Smith while throwing to break.

Click continued to see yesterday’s interview…

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