• MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski opens up in MORE magazine about her struggles with an eating disorder: “Food was the thing I could count on. Food always loved me back.”

• Tonight, Scott Pelley will be presented an Overseas Press Club Award for his “60 Minutes” interview with a Navy SEAL who was in the room when Osama Bin Laden was killed.

• Politico reports CNN is in discussions with former GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter as the network plans the revival of “Crossfire.” TVNewser first reported news of the show’s return.

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GINGRICH: Roger is a big boy. He’s said lots of things about lots of people in his career. I’ve been around a long time. I’ve had lots of different people say things about me.

BLITZER: You haven’t spoken to him… since those quotes came out?

GINGRICH: No, I talked to him a couple of weeks ago. We’re — we’re fine. It’s not — we don’t have any personality fight.

BLITZER: That’s that. You’re a big boy. He’s a big boy. And we move on.

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Vanity Fair

The relationship between Ailes and Rupert Murdoch is one of respect, and money:

Ailes and Rupert Murdoch are very respectful of each other. Ailes credits Murdoch with realizing that there was a niche audience (“half the country,” as Charles Krauthammer, a Fox contributor, drily put it) for a cable news network with a conservative perspective. Murdoch, for his part, assured me that he doesn’t dictate editorial decisions. “I defer to Roger,” he said. “I have ideas that Roger can accept or not. As long as things are going well … ”

FBN is building out a large studio space on the ground floor of 47th street and sixth avenue. At the Fox Sports upfront (more on that later), executives indicated that they may take advantage of the studio space too. Regardless of what shows are being produced, they are ready for anything:
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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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TVNewser to Eric Bolling: What is the one ingredient of the show that is making it click with viewers?

Eric Bolling: I think the secret ingredient is that we all get along extremely well. That’s real, not forced and I suspect the audience can sense that. Mr. Ailes came up with a unique show idea and that was impressive. Then he found a group of people who get along and enjoy each other’s perspective and input. For that Ailes is a genius!

TVNewser to Kimberly Guilfoyle: After your role as prosecutor in a San Francisco dog mauling case, you started getting TV offers from CourtTV, CNN, MSNBC before joining Fox in 2006. What do you miss most about your life as a prosecutor and how often do you find yourself using those skills on The Five?

Kimberly Guilfoyle: I think what I like the most about my change in profession from a prosecutor is that I am able to be an advocate for families, victims of major crimes, or individuals who do not normally have a voice or someone to speak for them and get the story out to the public. As a prosecutor, you are always arriving at an issue or case after the injustice has occurred. As a host and journalist on The Five and a legal and political analyst at Fox News I am able to tackle issues and stories and bring them to the public’s attention especially when the mainstream isn’t covering a story.

TVNewser to Greg Gutfeld: Since the show is live at 5pm (not taped and airing at 3am) how often to you have to check yourself before saying something that might not go over well with the audience or your co-hosts?

Greg Gutfeld: I never do. The whole point of doing something live is the risk. And I figure if you run something by someone, you ruin the spontaneity of the moment.  But If I think that what I might say might hurt their feelings, then I won’t do it.  Like yesterday,  I was going to bring up something that happened before the show. There was a group of school kids in studio for a tour. One of the children had asked Dana if he could take her picture. Dana said, “Do I go to your school and ask to take a picture of you?” Dana had a point, but that didn’t stop the child from crying. I was going to bring that up on the show, but I didn’t want to embarrass Dana, despite her obvious insensitivity towards America’s youth.

TVNewser to Dana Perino: Which do you like better: being a member of the media or keeping the press in check, which was part of your job as White House press secretary?

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As we noted, CNN secured the first TV interview with Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng, who told Anderson Cooper “I didn’t see much hope” while being detained by Chinese authorities:

On MSNBC, Chris Matthews had a sometimes contentious, often funny interview with former GOP Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich. Among the revelations: his favorite snake is a python:

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That’s Greta’s husband John P. Coale sitting between Lohan and Kardashian. Our spies tell us Lohan did eat, but did not drink.

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Baier and his team did the math and found out, in terms of airtime on Fox News, Gingrich nearly doubled Romney. Of course that’s just one measurement, and more appearances, at least in Gingrich’s mind, doesn’t add up to balanced coverage. WATCH:

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On Wednesday Gingrich told a Tea Party group in Delaware that, “CNN is less biased than Fox this year,” adding, “We are more likely to get neutral coverage out of CNN than we are of FOX, and we’re more likely to get distortion out of FOX. That’s just a fact.”

A Fox News spokeswoman tells Yahoo! News‘s Dylan Stableford, “This is nothing other than Newt auditioning for a windfall of a gig at CNN — that’s the kind of man he is.”

“Not to mention, he’s still bitter about the fact that we terminated his contributor contract.”

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“I think FOX has been for Romney all the way through,” said Gingrich, adding, “Callista and I both believe CNN is less biased than FOX this year. We are more likely to get neutral coverage out of CNN than we are of FOX, and we’re more likely to get distortion out of FOX. That’s just a fact.”

Gingrich revealed he’s been invited by CNN to one of their tables at an upcoming political correspondents dinner. “The only press events I go to are interesting dinners when the wife insists on it, so we’re going to go to the White House Correspondents’ dinner because she wants to. And we’re actually going to go to CNN’s table, not FOX.”

Fox News terminated its contracts with Gingrich and with Rick Santorum last May when both missed a deadline to inform Fox News if they were entering the GOP race. Both eventually did get in. Just yesterday we reported on Santorum’s future since bowing out, and how it will likely not include a return to Fox News.

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• Dr. Sanjay Gupta will begin recording daily features about medical issues through Cumulus Media Networks. Starting in May, Cumulus will offer four daily features exploring topics relating to health and wellness. Two features are designed for news/talk stations with two features geared to a younger audience on music and entertainment stations.

• Three of the four remaining GOP candidates will be on with Wolf Blitzer this afternoon on “The Situation Room.” Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich will appear for separate interviews. The candidates are campaigning ahead of the next three primaries in Wisconsin, Maryland and DC next Tuesday.

• Kyra Phillips talked with producer/correspondent Lowell Bergman about his upcoming “Frontline” documentary on Rupert Murdoch and the phone hacking scandal. Bergman says he’s gotten no response from News Corp. “No one will talk — period. The only communication that we had was, off-the-record I thought, with Geraldo Rivera that he blogged about.”

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“It’s not the greatest name around,” says Lamb, 70, who steps down Sunday as CEO. “Three people know what it stands for. I don’t even know what it stands for. One of our board members asked me. We rarely ever spell it out.”

Drum roll, please.

Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network launched on March 19, 1979, with four employees (including Lamb) and a reach of 3.5 million homes. It now includes three networks, a staff of 280 and a universe of 100 million homes.

Most Americans assume the ‘C’ in C-SPAN stands for Congress, since covering Congress’ proceedings – live, unfiltered, gavel-to-gavel – is its raison d’etre. But in 1979, with cable in its infancy, Lamb felt it more important to brand C-SPAN as a non-broadcast enterprise.

“Otherwise, people wouldn’t have known what it was,” says Lamb, newly-named executive chairman. “At that point, we were only the sixth cable network.”

These days, C-SPAN suffers no such identity crisis, though Lamb does, often being mistaken for Sen. John McCain, Ed Harris or John Glenn. According to C-SPAN’s most recent survey, 75 percent of respondents recognize the non-profit network’s name, Lamb says. Since C-SPAN does not have ratings, however, he has no hard numbers on viewership.

ABC’s Cokie Roberts, who was, in her own words, “very involved in the birth” of C-SPAN, sees the network’s identity issue differently.

“I don’t think people are aware of the brand, but they’re very aware of the product,” Roberts, 68, says. As an NPR reporter in the late ‘70s, she and her colleagues in Congress’ Radio-TV gallery joined Lamb in lobbying the House of Representatives to allow TV cameras on the floor.

Despite C-SPAN’s noble mission, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and ‘Saturday Night Live,’ among others, parody the network’s frequently-static content as a perfect sleep aid.

In real life, C-SPAN fan Ed Rendell, former Democratic National Committee Chairman, swears by the network for his nightly zzzz’s.

“I have a hyperactive mind, so I watch TV in my living room and fall asleep for about 90

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Matt Lauer and Steve Capus at the NBC News/MSNBC upfront.

NBC Newsers always like to say they are part of one big family. But in a family that big, with several making millions of dollars a year — even a select few in the double-digit millions — there is bound to be sibling rivalry. And so it was on display Thursday as NBC News held an upfront presentation at the event space 583 Park Avenue. Matt Lauer tweaked Brian Williams for his run-on questions; Williams took a shot at Willie Geist: “I just found out he had a show;” who had fired first: “Brian is the caregiver for our parents and grandparents at 6:30 every night.”

Kidding aside, the event was all business: a gathering of sales teams, planners and agencies in an effort to get advertisers excited by what NBC News — the #1 news network — and MSNBC have to offer. At one point, Williams mentioned “the elephant in the room.” While some may have thought he was talking about his primetime newsmagazine’s ratings — “Rock Center” hit a new viewership low drawing just 2.6 million viewers Wednesday — the newsman-comedian was actually taking a jab Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford.

“Hods and Kathie Lee are just baked. Permanently hammered,” said Williams of the fourth hour “Today” team. He referred to Ed Schultz as “a big bowl of humanity. His head alone is bigger than my first apartment in New York.” And after Al Roker revealed he and Williams “spooned” in a tent

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MSNBC covered the testimony that Thursday morning, including talking to Sandra Fluke. They reported on it throughout the day. The following Tuesday, Megyn Kelly reported the story on Fox News: “It hasn’t seen a lot of media coverage so far,” said Kelly, “but there was a congressional hearing late last week that’s now getting some attention.” The next day, on his radio show it got a lot more attention courtesy of Rush Limbaugh. On his radio show, he called Fluke “a slut” and “a prostitute.”

The following day, on MSNBC’s “Ed Show” Ed Schultz , had the first interview with Fluke reacting to Limbaugh’s comments. (Schultz, you’ll recall, served a suspension for calling Laura Ingraham a slut, twice, on his radio show last May.) On Friday, Fluke was interviewed by Matt Lauer on the “Today” show, and returned to MSNBC, on Andrea Mitchell‘s show. Just before her interview with Mitchell, Fluke had taken a call of support from Pres. Obama.

By then Limbaugh doubled, then tripled down, for the next two days talking about the amount of sex Fluke must be having. By Saturday, he’d apologized. But by then, the Fluke story was factoring into the GOP primary and it certainly would come up on the Sunday morning public affairs shows.

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This will be Huckabee’s third presidential forum. So far three candidates, Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, have committed. Ron Paul has still not decided, the New York Times reports.

The forum, from 8-10pmET, will originate from Ohio, the biggest of the Super Tuesday states. Huckabee announced on his show last Spring, that he would not be running this time around. He has yet to endorse any of the current GOP candidates.

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