The midterms took up 35% of the newshole on the cable news channels, with the Tea Party movement occupying a solid chunk of that airtime. On the “ideological” radio and cable news programs, the midterms took up a whopping 51% of the newshole.

The second most covered story was the economy, which took up 13% of the overall newshole. That was followed by coverage of the proposed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal with 4%, with education in America and the war in Afghanistan rounding out the top five.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Among the guests is ABC’s Barbara Walters, who will be appearing Tuesday in what CNN is billing as her “final interview” for “Larry King Live.”

Tonight, King will welcome former President Jimmy Carter, who has been making the rounds this week.

Wednesday, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who will be in New York for the annual UN confab, will sit down with King.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Excerpts:
• On Diane Sawyer becoming World News anchor: “I think it’s great. First of all, I have a lot of respect for her…She’s very accomplished and has done a lot of extraordinary work. I think it’s great because the idea that men are outnumbered on the big three evening newscasts is really very unusual and extraordinary…”

• On what she misses about the Today show: “I…of course miss Matt. I was watching the other day and Ann had some funny story about a kid bowling. I sort of got the tail end, she said, ‘Obviously it must not be up his alley.’ And…then Al says something like, ‘Spare me.’ And Meredith said, ‘I’m not going to be involved.’ I’m like, ‘No, you should say, ‘Al, your mind is in the gutter!’…So I miss sort of having fun and joking around with them…”

• On her ‘dream interview’ list: “Fidel Castro, I would love to interview him…Kim Jong Il would be fascinating…Hugo Chavez would be interesting…Mahmoud Ahmadinejad…I’d love to interview Harper Lee, who has never done an interview, who wrote To Kill A Mockingbird.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

We checked Lufthansa.com and there was a Flight 400 that arrived at JFK tonight. Flight 600 is the Frankfurt-Tehran flight Curry was on earlier this week.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Over the weekend, CNN covered the story more than the American cable news network, with 172 mentions of Iran, compared to 100 on FNC and 57 for MSNBC. But it was the Twitterverse that had a hand in pushing the storyline of a lack of coverage on CNN.

Through the weekend and into this morning, media blogs and mainstream publications including to The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times wrote about the #CNNFail trending topic on Twitter. BayNewser notes CNN’s own Twitter feed “failed” in reporting the story.

“This is an incredibly important story that CNN, across all of our platforms, has covered thoroughly every day for a week with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in Tehran, among others,” CNN spokesperson Bridget Leininger told the WSJ. “We share people’s expectations of CNN and have delivered far more coverage of the Iranian election and aftermath than any other network.”

In fact, CNN had 101 mentions of Iran up until 1pmET on Sunday — then a 70% increase in mentions over the next nine hours. As of 1pmET yesterday, FNC had 75 mentions and MSNBC 53.

With Amanpour’s reporting from the ground and Fareed Zakaria‘s heavy focus on the story during “GPS,” the Iran crisis was a major topic on air for the network. Still, as the New York Times notes, “It did not provide the kind of wall-to-wall coverage that some had expected.”

And as the story made waves on Twitter, many wanted it to break mainstream. Journalism professor Jay Rosen implored Washington Post media columnist Howard Kurtz to write about #CNNFail in his Monday media column — he didn’t.

As for the TV coverage, click continued to see Amanpour’s question, and follow-up, to newly-re-elected Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during a news conference…

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

“In many academic circles, being attacked by Bill O’Reilly might be a badge of honor,” writes Inside Higher Ed. “A Syracuse University professor, however, charges that he was denied tenure last week in part because of the fallout over his on-air disputes with the Fox television star.”

Boyce Watkins appeared on CNN, among other outlets, several times after O’Reilly’s comments about lunching at Sylvia’s in Harlem.

Throughout those discussion, Watkins called Fox News contributor Juan Williams an “eternal happy negro” and compared O’Reilly to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (video after the jump). If you search “Boyce Watkins Bill O’Reilly” on YouTube, there are more than 1,000 results, many of which contain links to BoyceWatkins.com.

Last May, Syracuse chancellor Nancy Cantor got an O’Reilly ambush interview about the professor, and later caused the University to release a statement about Watkins.

Watkins is “vowing to sue the university,” saying it proves Syracuse University doesn’t “tenure black people like me.”

Click continued to see one of the Watkins interviews on CNN…

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

“After the ‘This Week’ show on Sunday — and after five years of requests — I received word from the Iranian interests section that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had agreed to an interview with me,” he wrote. “But there was a catch: I had to be there by Wednesday at the latest.”

Stephanopoulos made it, and what transpired were “some spirited exchanges, as you might imagine, on the nuclear talks, the Holocaust, and who’s really to blame for the breakdown in U.S.-Iran relations.”

He also asked to see jailed journalist Roxana Saberi. Said Ahmadinejad: “Let’s see if our judiciary allows for that, sure. But if they do not allow for that, no. I am afraid not.”

The ABC anchor was not allowed, but he did visit Saberi’s parents, who told him she will begin a hunger strike tomorrow.

A clip of the interview aired during GMA this morning — the full interview airs Sunday on This Week. Click continued to see Stephanopoulos’ appearance on GMA…

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

“Yesterday the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, challenged John McCain to a debate. McCain says if he wanted to be attacked by an extremist in an unfair environment, he’d appear on MSNBC.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

King interviewed Ahmadinejad earlier today in New York, and it airs in full tonight at 9pmET.

The discussion touches on the U.S. elections and Iran’s place in the international community.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Back in Washington, MSNBC has spent the most time covering the Senate Banking Committee hearing. Right now, CNN, FNC, FBN, CNBC and MSNBC are taking the event live as Treasury Secy. Hank Paulson delivers his opening remarks.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Last Monday saw Williams’ interview with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from Tehran, while World News concluded its month-long series Small World, a single sponsor broadcast. NBC and ABC were up week-to-week in Total Viewers while Katie Couric‘s debut in HD did not appear to help the CBS Evening News in overall viewing. The broadcast had its lowest Total Viewer draw since its all-time low of 5.33M the week of May 19.

Total Viewers: NBC: 7,460,000 / ABC: 7,290,000 / CBS: 5,480,000

25-54 demo: NBC: 2,200,000 / ABC: 2,290,000 / CBS: 1,630,000

25-54 rating: NBC: 1.8/8 / ABC: 1.9/8 / CBS: 1.3/6

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

And it was apparently a night for NBCU on-air talent to make the late night rounds. Dan Abrams was on Jimmy Kimmel and Dylan Ratigan was on Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Williams will also anchor Nightly News from Tehran.

(photo: Subrata De/NBC News)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Williams last interviewed Ahmadinejad in Sept. 2006 when the Iranian leader was in the U.S. as a guest of the U.N.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.