As promised by senior executive producer Jim Murphy, the hyper-promoted 6-to-9amET broadcast – sorry, Soledad O’Brien — had tons o’ news and, at times, a “comfy and conversational tone,” but both were presented in wretched excess.

With gray-suited Chris Cuomo sandwiched between Christmas co-anchors Kate Bolduan (green dress) and Michaela Pereira (red dress), segments ran at a dizzying pace. That’s heavy voltage before breakfast.

Moreover, CNN dragged out practically its whole roster of correspondents for live talk backs. By my count, there were eight in the first eight packages alone. It was overkill, even for network boss Jeff Zucker.

The lead story was about a new CNN poll that showed Pres. Obama’s plummeting popularity. Cuomo chatted up John King. One story later, “New Day” went to that well again, this time with Dana Bash as Cuomo’s partner. Let’s hear it for moderation.

Lest we forget, HLN’s Nancy Grace popped up at about 8:20 to rant about two missing-child cases. She did not disappoint. In her usual high dudgeon, she acted like a “Saturday Night Live” parody of herself. I hope she never ups her meds.

As for the “comfy and conversational” aspect, that, too, was overdone. While Bolduan and Pereira gabbed like girlfriends around the glass table, the uber-intense Cuomo seemed uneasy and out of place. Face it, the guy can make a lost-kitten story sound like a mass murder.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Christiane Amanpour and John King filed reports, and Nancy Grace–who was for a long time a regular on ABC’s “Good Morning America–delivered some legal analysis. Actor James Earl Jones, who voices the “This is CNN” slogan, also welcomed viewers to the new program by saying “This is ‘New Day,’ with Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan and Michaela Pereira.”

Insiders tell us they cannot remember King or Amanpour appearing on the CNN morning show in recent years, at least on any regular basis, but that the new mandate is that the day now starts at 6 AM at CNN, and you can expect to see the network’s biggest guns, including Fareed Zakaria, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Wolf Blitzer, Jake Tapper and Rachel Nichols all appearing regularly.

In other words, CNN is making sure all hands are on deck to make sure the show is a success. CNN president Jeff Zucker described what he was looking for in a morning show last month:

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“I know it’s hard to have somebody with the energy and the passion that Michaela has leave. It’s hard,” Cuomo told Pereira’s KTLA co-anchors. “But I gotta tell you — guys, look at it this way: I really need her. I need her more than you need her. You guys are #1, you’re #1 forever, I need her!”

The KTLA co-anchors offered to swap Pereira for Wolf Blitzer or John King. “I’d have to go to [Jeff] Zucker, to see if maybe he would do both jobs, because he’s the only guy with enough star power,” Cuomo joked. Watch the video after the jump. continued…

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Obama kicked off his remarks by acknowledging Fox News senior White House correspondent Ed Henry, the White House Correspondents’ Association president. “Ed, you’re doing an outstanding job,” Obama said. “We are grateful for the great work you’ve done.”

In his remarks, Obama poked fun at CNN, MSNBC and Fox News. “I know CNN has taken some knocks lately, but I admire their commitment to cover all sides of the story, just in case one of them happens to be accurate,” he said. “David Axelrod now works for MSNBC, which is a nice change of pace considering MSNBC used to work for David Axelrod.” Obama joked that Fox News said it was “an insult to Satan” when an actor in the History Channel’s series “The Bible” was noticed for his resemblance to the President.

O’Brien also took aim at CNN and Fox News in his speech. “Speaking of dinner, tonight’s entrees were halibut and filet mignon. Or as John King reported it, lasagna and cous-cous,” he said. “If the President laughs, everyone laughs. And if the Fox News table laughs, a little girl just fell off her bike.”

O’Brien also made fun of NBC, saying the network has had a “rough go of it” of late. “The ‘Today’ show let go of Ann Curry. After being told, Ann Curry said, ‘let me get this straight: Al Roker tells the world that he crapped his pants at the White House, and I’m getting fired?’” O’Brien said.

Earlier in the day, Tammy Haddad hosted the 20th Annual Correspondents Garden Brunch. FishbowlDC has the details of the event, which was attended by Greta Van Susteren, Savannah Guthrie, Norah O’Donnell and Chris Matthews, among many others.

After the jump, watch the “House of Cards” spoof that opened the dinner, featuring Henry, Charlie Rose and Major Garrett. continued…

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So if you don’t have anything to do in the morning, tune into the “Today” show. Jenna’s a correspondent, thereby continuing the warm relations the Bush family has with the national press.

The national media has descended on Dallas for the event. Pres. Bush has conducted interviews with ABC’s Diane Sawyer, NBC’s Matt Lauer, CBS’s Charlie Rose, FNC’s Bret Baier and Dana Perino and CNN’s John King. Former First Lady Laura Bush has also been giving tours of the Library to several news outlets.

Matt Lauer got the biggest piece of news during a live interview with former First Ladies Laura and Barbara Bush as well as twins Jenna and Barbara Bush. When asked about Jeb Bush getting into the 2016 race, Barbara Bush said, “He’s the most qualified, but I don’t think he’ll run,” adding, “There are other people out there that are very qualified and we’ve had enough Bushes.” When Lauer followed up, “Have you expressed that to him?” Laura Bush, with a look of surprise, jumped in, “Just on the ‘Today’ show.”

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King, among other reporters at other outlets, reported that Boston police had a suspect in custody. A half hour later, as other outlets (notably NBC’s Pete Williams) contradicted that report, King and CNN contributor Fran Townsend began to walk it back.

In the WTOP interview, as transcribed by Politico’s Dylan Byers, King said the error was “embarrassing”:

“The bigger part, beyond being personally embarrassing, is it’s tough for your viewers, who you want to trust you,” he continued. “So the one thing you do have to do is look in the camera and say, ‘We were wrong,’ and try to explain why we were wrong. In this case we had two reputable sources — one of mine, one of a colleague’s of mine — who have been reliable in the past, who simply had bad information. We had two — you never do that with one — and we went with it, and we had to correct it.”

It was also personal:
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As his Presidential library prepares to open, the 43rd President of the United States is also speaking to Fox News, where he and former First Lady Laura Bush will be interviewed by “Special Report” anchor Bret Baier, and ‘The Five” co-host and his former press secretary Dana Perino.

Baier will anchor “Special Report” from Bush’s Presidential library in Texas Wednesday and Thursday, with the interview airing Thursday on the program. Clips from Perino’s discussion with the President and First Lady (which we hear will be more personal given her prior relationship as his press secretary) will air on “The Five” Thursday.

TVNewser hears that CNN’s John King will also speak to the Bush’s this week Wednesday and Thursday, while C-SPAN’s interview with the former President will air Thursday morning. We will let you know about any other cable news appearances. Update: CBS says that Charlie Rose has interviewed Bush (pictured right), and it will air on “CBS This Morning” Thursday.

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The AP’s media reporter David Bauder, in his story today: “Amid the confusion, the Columbia Journalism Review offered a one-word tweet: ‘Sigh.’”

The NABJ is not happy with John King‘s description of the individual as a “dark-skinned male.” Neither is MSNBC’s Al Sharpton.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution cartoonist Mike Luckovich couldn’t resist.

Not surprisingly, CNN’s reporting was the lead on “The Daily Show” last night. Jon Stewart: “Here’s the best part: John King exclusively reports that an arrest has been made and then caps it an hour later with the news that the FBI would prefer him to enjoy a hot cup of shut the fuck up.”

Watch:

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That didn’t slow the reporting on CNN and Fox News. By 1:50pm, Wolf Blitzer, along with King, was reporting an arrest had been made. Fox News, too, reported an arrest. NBC News went so far as to produce a network special report, anchored by Brian Williams — which aired on MSNBC — with Pete Williams again reporting, “No arrest has been made.”

• FishbowlNY: PBS’s Gwen Ifill Takes Offense to CNN Identifying Boston Bombing Suspect as “Dark-Skinned Male”

Williams added, “It’s rather confusing at this point. Partly because of the nomenclature here. One person’s item of interest is another person’s suspect. I would take a step back and say whatever is going on, it is a promising development.”

Stay tuned.

> Update: At 2:21 on Fox News, Megyn Kelly reported: “This is the situation we find ourselves in, folks. We got different law enforcement officers telling us different things. Two said to (Foxnews.com) that an arrest has been made. And now two are telling us no arrest has been made.”

> Update: At 2:28 on CNN, former FBI assistant director Tom Fuentes contradicted CNN’s reporting: “I have actually three separate sources, but two that are very highly placed and close to the investigation that have just told me that there has been no arrest, and, in fact, a suspect has not been identified by name yet, that they have — they’re looking for someone, but don’t have anybody in custody yet and don’t have an identification.”

> Update: John King on CNN at 2:46: “Part of this reflects on us, part of it also reflects on people you talk to, reliable sources, and Fran Townsend is one of our finest people, Boston law enforcement source saying we got it. When you have people who have been reliable sources if they’re ahead of themselves, we need to circle with them. We need to figure this out ourselves.”

> More: A CNN spokesperson tells HuffPost’s Michael Calderone: “CNN had three credible sources on both local and federal levels. Based on this information we reported our findings. As soon as our sources came to us with new information we adjusted our reporting.”

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Wednesday, the channel will present a number of special reports on background checks, including interviews and analysis on the issue (see all the reports after the jump). The reasoning behind the special report? “According to the latest polls, 9 out of 10 Americans support tougher background checks, so how is it that Congress can do nothing?” the channel says in a release.
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On the analysis side, former Fox News contributor Newt Gingrich and former Current TV anchor Jennifer Granholm will provide insider analysis, with Gloria Borger, David Gergen, Cornell Belcher, Donna Brazile, Alex Castellanos, Margaret Hoover, Van Jones and Ana Navarro also weighing in throughout the night.

One person who apparently will not be appearing on CNN’s SOTU coverage is the anchor of CNN’s “State of the Union,” Candy Crowley. Crowley hosted her weekend program from DC yesterday, and previewed the SOTU on “CNN Newsroom” yesterday afternoon.

Update: CNN says that Crowley is out of town, caring for her mother. Hence, she won’t be able to participate in the coverage.

More info, below.
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• FishbowlDC has more on the goings-on at CNN. It looks as though John King will be staying with the network, but will Candy Crowley? Read the rest at FishbowlDC.

• Former Bloomberg and CNN corespondent Lizzie O’Leary talks to Cosmopolitan about her battle with endometriosis, and how it affected her work and home life.

• It looks like Regis Philbin may be coming back to TV. SportsBusinessDaily reports that Philbin is in talks to host a panel show on Fox Sports 1 the yet-to-launch sports cable channel.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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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Jake Tapper has yet to start his new job at CNN, but he’s already got his setup in the Washington, D.C. bureau. TVNewser hears he’ll be moving into John King‘s office. King, a longtime CNN correspondent who hosted “John King USA” until last summer signed a short-term contract extension at the end of the year. King will be a part of Inauguration coverage this weekend. Tapper departed ABC News late last month and starts at CNN Tuesday. His early evening show will debut in a few months.

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Wolf Blitzer

On Monday, Blitzer will be live with Berman, Bolduan, O’Brien and Jessica Yellin from the U.S. Capitol West Front beginning at 9amET. Cooper will be live from the National Mall with Borger, King, Lemon, David Gergen and Brooke Baldwin.  Blitzer will  anchor “The Situation Room” from Lafayette Park, the location of the President’s viewing stands. Cooper, Morgan and Burnett will anchor from 7-1opmET. Cooper will be live from the Mall, with Morgan and Burnett from the inaugural balls.

More from CNN after the jump. continued…

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