And there was always Aaron Barnhart of the Kansas City Star. His TVBarn column would often include an interesting angle about cable news we hadn’t covered or an interview with a TV news personality worth picking up.

It turns out Barnhart has gone off the grid apparently for health reasons. So when a local blogger began asking questions about his whereabouts, it touched a nerve and today Jim Romenesko asks if it’s “anybody’s business” where he is and why?

[Star "watchdog" John] Landsberg tells me that reaction to his Barnhart column “has been mixed” and that “some people think it is a fair question to ask about a prominent columnist who simply virtually disappears for several months. Others consider it a private matter.”

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• On Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes: “He’s changed media. Everybody does news differently because Roger’s changed the world…Roger early on figured it out and was brilliant.”

• On CNN: “I don’t go along with this idea that CNN has, that somehow they are doing the Lord’s work and we are simply regurgitating what people think.”

• On whether MSNBC could “put on a hard-right show? No. It wouldn’t fit…I want flow.”

• He calls FNC “a big force. You have to be aware of what they’re saying…That’s our goal…I don’t think we have quite the passionate support that Fox does. Some shows do, but as a network we don’t. Our prime time is getting there. But that’s what we want to get.”

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• On viewers distinguishing between objective reporting and opinion programming: “People who watch news are pretty smart. Most of them don’t just go to one channel for all their news anyway…[the majority of viewers] will select the place that’s the most comfortable, and they will retain the information they’re the most comfortable with. But undecideds, people who are smart, tend to float around, look, listen…They’re very perceptive.”

• On the White House agreeing to make the President available for an interview with Bret Baier last week: “Look, they understand the game…They did the right thing, and we respect them for it.”

• On former New York Times editor Howell Raines‘s recent assertion in the Washington Post: “Why haven’t America’s old-school news organizations blown the whistle on Roger Ailes, chief of Fox News, for using the network to conduct a propaganda campaign against the Obama administration”?

“That’s hysterical,” Ailes tells Rosenthal. “Fox has taken more incoming; we have a bigger bull’s-eye on us than anybody. What he’s upset about is we haven’t been hit.”

• About the possibility of Fox signing Conan O’Brien, and the potential price tag: “We all like Conan…It’s an arithmetic problem.”

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• “The fact that we’re getting (almost) 2 million people a night to watch a strictly news (program),” Smith tells Rosenthal, “says a lot about how much people are interested in ‘just the facts’ news. I think you’re better able to digest the opinions if you have that.”

• Asked about Smith, NBC’s David Gregory says, “Shepard Smith is a first-rate journalist and broadcaster. I’ve thought that for a long time, with his reporting on Katrina and other matters. He’s worked hard to set himself apart in the landscape of Fox News.”

• After interviewing Fox News SVP Michael Clemente, who previously worked at ABC News, Rosenthal writes, “Clemente noted that ABC, like so many news outfits of late, has downsized the organization it accumulated over decades, while Fox News…continues to build and is uniquely positioned to benefit from upping its straight-news capabilities in this era of seemingly ubiquitous headlines.”

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Anchor Bob Sirott, who’s been filling in on WMAQ-TV’s 10pm newscast after the retirement of longtime local newsman Warner Saunders, was widely expected to get the formal promotion to lead anchor.

But after a contract dispute, Sirott is now out — he’s leaving the station. Rosenthal reports that among the contenders for the main gig is Stafford, “seen as having the inside track.”

Stafford currently is a weekend anchor and general assignment reporter for the station.

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Cameron tells Chicago Tribune columnist Phil Rosenthal, “The people who put this out, and it’s senior McCain staff, are now in the cross hairs themselves for attacking the running mate, which by proxy means attacking the ticket they were trying to elect.”

Meanwhile, last night on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Sen. John McCain seemed to downplay any gossip-turned-news that may have emanated from his senior advisers: “I think I have at least a thousand, quote, top advisers.” he said. “People I’ve never even heard of, much less a, quote, top adviser or a high-ranking Republican official.”

Which brings us to the man who says he was Cameron’s source. A man who also says he was an adviser to the McCain campaign: Martin Eisenstadt. Yesterday, we asked “Who Is Martin Eisenstadt?” Last night, we heard from him again.

continued…

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The Chicago Tribune’s Phil Rosenthal reports on a new advertising campaign from FBN, set to take place on CNBC beginning this afternoon.

The ads, featuring former CNBC anchor Claman talking directly to the viewers just before the network switches to Olympics coverage, which it will from 5-8pmET every weekday for the next two weeks.

As Rosenthal reports: “Hey, Chicago, I’m Liz Claman. When it comes to business, this city doesn’t play games, and neither do you. But in just a couple of minutes, CNBC is going to drop their business news programming. Switch to the Fox Business Network.”

The above image is from the ad. We’ll have the video after 4pmET today.

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