President Obama and Turkish Prime Minster Erdogan are taking questions from reporters at a joint press conference at the White House this afternoon. NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, CNN and Fox News are all carrying the presser, which started 48 minutes late. The sun in the Rose Garden turned to light rain while the press corps was waiting.

“This will be incentive for the press to ask concise questions and us to give concise answers,” Obama said.

The first question went to Julianna Goldman of Bloomberg TV, who asked Obama about the IRS scandal and Erdogan about Turkish relations with Israel.

Second question goes to a Turkish reporter, who asked both the President and Prime Minister about Syria.

Third question goes to Jeff Mason of Reuters, who asked about the DOJ seizing AP phone records.

Last question goes to a Turkish TV reporter, who asked about a timeline for Syrian President Assad’s removal.

President Obama began the final press conference of his first term at 11:40 AM ET this morning, and the news of the day was focused on the looming (again!) debt ceiling and deficit fight. The broadcasters carried the presser, as did the cable news channels.

Julie Pace of the AP gets the first question (and a shoutout from the President), asked about gun violence on the one-month anniversary of the Newtown shooting.

Chuck Todd from NBC gets question two, and asks about executive action on the debt ceiling.

Major Garrett from CBS News gets question three, and also asks about the process of raising the debt ceiling.

Jon Karl from ABC News gets question four, and asks about the President using executive action on guns, as well as about long lines for gun shops across the country.

Julianna Goldman from Bloomberg TV gets question five, and asks whether the President is serious about negotiating with House Republicans.

Matt Spetalnik of Reuters gets question six, and asks whether the President is willing to accept a government shutdown.

Jackie Calmes from the New York Times gets the last question, and asks about criticisms of the White House, including asking about having a more diverse cabinet.

President Obama will give his first post-election one on one interview to Bloomberg TV. Bloomberg White House correspondent Julianna Goldman will interview the President, and it will air on BTV at 12:30 PM. The big topic of discussion will be the fiscal cliff, but other topics are on the table as well.

The decision to go with Bloomberg is meant to send a message to Wall Street. Bloomberg TV is not rated by Nielsen, but is believed to have far fewer fewer than both CNBC and Fox Business Network. That said, the network has an audience comprised almost exclusively of high-value Wall Street executives and traders, exactly the sort of people the President is trying to reach about his economic policies right now. Even more importantly, the interview will almost certainly be transmitted to all of the Bloomberg Terminals that occupy desks in the big banks and Wall Street firms. The Terminals are a far more effective way to reach those people than any TV network.

After his re-election, President Bush gave his first interview to Univision’s Jorge Ramos.

Bloomberg TV’s election night coverage kicks off at 7pmET Tuesday with a special edition of “Bloomberg Surveillance,” hosted by Tom Keene. Keene will be joined by Sara Eisen and Scarlet Fu  in New York.

Trish Regan will anchor the network’s main election coverage beginning at 8pmET. Regan will be joined by Washington editor Al Hunt and political analyst Matthew Dowd. Bloomberg’s White House correspondent Julianna Goldman will be live at the Obama campaign headquarters in Chicago. Megan Hughes will be in New York and national correspondent Carol Massar will be in Hamilton County, Ohio.

More in Bloomberg’s release, after the jump. Read more

Tonight is the third and final Presidential debate of this election cycle. CBS’ Bob Schieffer moderates at Lynn University in Boca Raton. Here’s a round up of what the cable and broadcast networks have planned…

Scott Pelley anchors on CBS from 9-11pmET. With Schieffer moderating, certain CBS programs — including yesterday’s “Face the Nation” and today’s “CBS This Morning” — originate from Florida. Pelley will be joined by Major Garrett of National Journal and Julianna Goldman of Bloomberg, among others.

ABC’s coverage kicks off at 9pmET with Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos anchoring. They will be joined during the two-hour broadcast by VP debate moderator Martha Raddatz, Christiane Amanpour, Jake Tapper, David Muir and Jonathan Karl.

Brian Williams anchors on NBC from 9pm-11pmET. Williams will be joined by David Gregory, Savannah Guthrie, Tom Brokaw, Chuck Todd, Andrea Mitchell and Richard Haass.

PBS’ coverage runs from 9-11pmET, with Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff anchoring and political editor Christina Bellantoni contributing.

Plans for the cable networks after after the jump. Read more

CBS News has slated its 2012 Presidential and Vice Presidential debate coverage plans. “CBS Evening News” anchor Scott Pelley will be anchoring CBS’ coverage from the debate cities.

Bob Schieffer will be moderating the October 22 debate in Boca Raton, FL, so “Face the Nation” will originate from there the Sunday before the debate. “CBS This Morning” will also originate from Florida that week, with Charlie Rose and Norah O’Donnell in Florida, and Gayle King in New York.

Contributors to CBS News coverage will include former Fox News correspondent an current National Journal writer Major Garrett, Bloomberg TV’s Julianna Goldman, Rana Foroohar of Time magazine, Rajiv Chandrasekaran of the Washington Post, CBS News Senior National Security Analyst Juan Zarate, and Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal.

More information below.
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Bloomberg TV is the latest network to slate 2012 convention coverage. Not surprisingly, its coverage will focus on economic issues, and will originate from the “Bloomberg Link” event space being set up in both Tampa and Charlotte.

Trish Regan will be the channel’s lead anchor for the conventions, while Charlie Rose will host his eponymous PBS and Bloomberg TV program nightly, in addition to his duties on “CBS This Morning.” Regan will anchor “Street Smart” every weekday from 3-5 PM, with nightly specials running from 9-10 PM each night, except the last night of each convention when it will run from 8-11 PM. The channel will also livestream its coverage online as well as events being held at the Bloomberg Link.

Bloomberg Washington editor Al Hunt, Bloomberg TV political analyst Matthew Dowd, Bloomberg View columnist Margaret Carlson, White House correspondents Hans Nichols and Julianna Goldman, along with chief Washington correspondent Peter Cook and Washington correspondent Meghan Hughes will all contribute to the channel’s coverage.

More information, after the jump.

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A small contingent of reporters accompanied President Obama on his surprise trip to Afghanistan yesterday. The trip’s pool report, filed Josh Gerstein of Politico, says that pool members were briefed on the trip Sunday “on an off-the-record basis with the customary tell-only-one-editor rule.”

Pool reporters were assembled at Andrews Air Force Base late Monday evening. “It was a scene from a spy novel,” pool producer Richard Coolidge of ABC News writes:

A little after 9:30 p.m. ET, I arrived at a back gate of Joint Base Andrews.  No guard or intercom, I just drove up and it opened. I was in. The security guards verified my identity and I made my way to the rendezvous point. Typically, I would meet traveling White House press aides at the base passenger terminal, but not tonight. Very few people knew what we were doing there, so we met in a dimly lit parking lot.

Our bags were screened and we gave up all our electronics — laptops, mobile phones, cameras, anything that might have tracking software — and put them into bins. Read more

All four major broadcast networks, along with the cable news channels and the business networks, are planning special coverage for President Obama’s third State of the Union address.

The broadcast networks will kick off special coverage beginning at 9pmET — anchored by Scott Pelley on CBS, Brian Williams on NBC and Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos on ABC. Fox News anchor Shepard Smith will anchor coverage for the Fox Broadcast Network.

On the cable networks:

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Bloomberg TV joins the debate fray tonight, hosting its first-ever presidential debate. Charlie Rose will moderate the GOP debate at Dartmouth which will be at a Rose-esque roundtable (actually more oval); no podiums. Bloomberg TV’s Julianna Goldman and The Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty will join Rose and the candidates at the table.

The two-hour debate starts at 8pmET. Because Bloomberg is not a Nielsen client, the network tells us there won’t be television ratings for tonight’s event.

The GOP candidates are back at it next week when CNN’s Anderson Cooper moderates the CNN Western Republican presidential debate in Las Vegas next Tuesday at 8pmET.

> Update: An emailer asks: “Where is Bloomberg TV shown?” Here’s the answer.

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