The New York Times profiles liberal Fox News contributor Sally Kohn, who FNC executive Michael Clemente compares to former Vice Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro.

“Sally is like Gerry: she says whatever’s on her mind,” Mr. Clemente said in a telephone interview. “She has some fresh thoughts,” he said, adding, “She’s not part of the pack.”

Kohn, a lawyer by training, was introduced to television by another Geraldine, Geraldine Laybourne, a TV executive involved in the creation of Nickelodeon and Oxygen. She hopes to eventually get her own cable show.

Fox News Channel’s two media shows, “Fox News Watch” and the “Journal Editorial Report,” have been expanded to an hour each this weekend. “Journal Editorial Report” airs at 2pmET today and again at 11pmET, while “Fox News Watch” airs at 3pmET and Midnight. The shows, typically a half hour run back-to-back on Saturday afternoon at 2pm and again at 11pm. On the daily Bias Bash segment on FoxNews.com, panelist Jim Pinkerton had to correct Jonathan Hunt who promoted Fox News Watch as starting at 2:30: “No, 2 O’Clock (actually 3 O’Clock). And an hour,” said Pinkerton. To which panelist Sally Kohn joked, “Oh. So much bias. So little time.”

Actual news got in the way of last night’s annual New York fundraiser for the journalism group NLGJA. Soledad O’Brien, who was to co-host with her HLN colleague Jane Velez-Mitchell, couldn’t as she moderated CNN’s Trayvon Martin town hall which airs tonight.

• Related: Behind the Scenes at CNN’s Trayvon Martin Town Hall

Don Lemon jetted up from Atlanta to co-host with Velez-Mitchell, who mixed and mingled before making a beeline for Time Warner Center herself to participate in the town hall.

Velez-Mitchell made the biggest splash of the night when, during her welcome remarks to the crowd, she pulled her girlfriend on stage and planted a big kiss on her. “I won’t be doing that!” Lemon joked. “Ben doesn’t like that kind of thing,” he said glancing over to his partner, Ben Tinker, who is a producer in CNN’s medical unit.

CNN managing editor Mark Whitaker talked about his network’s commitment to diversity in the ranks and on the air. CNN was the lead sponsor for the event which was held at the Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams showroom in SoHo.

Also spotted in the crowd: NBC News VP Alex Wallace, former “Today” show co-anchor Meredith Vieira, “CBS This Morning” co-host Erica Hill, MSNBC’s Willie Geist, former MSNBC anchor Contessa Brewer and Fox News meteorologist Rick Reichmuth.

We chatted with FBN’s Gerri Willis who told us she has a new appreciation for the work of the Supreme Court after anchoring her show from Washington during oral arguments on the health care law. We also caught up with Fox News’s Alisyn Camerota and new Fox News political analyst Sally Kohn, who is settling in to her role as progressive pundit both on air and online, which

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Politico’s Keach Hagey took the temperature of conservative Americans at CPAC last week, asking them if their favorite channel had changed.

“I’ve gone from all Fox to no Fox, and replaced it with CNN, which I think right now is giving me a much fairer analysis of what’s going on,” says Virginia radio talk show host John Fredericks. “I feel they’ve lost that independent conservative mantra that had drove people like me to them.”

Since Fox News founder Roger Ailes announced a “course correction” last Fall, the network has hired liberal activist Sally Kohn and may be testing the waters for a Web show fronted by liberal commentator Jehmu Greene. And these loyal viewers have complained it’s not a course they like. From Politico:

“Something is happening at Fox News,” wrote one Red State blogger last month. “More often these days I hear the language of the Left entering their news programs. Conservative points of view are becoming more rare on Fox and/or treated with scorn…it may not be admitted, but I believe the left’s boycott of Fox is having an effect.”

But Fordham University media professor Paul Levinson says at the end of the day it’s about ratings. While Fox News still has more viewers combined than its competitors, ratings were down in 2011, while MSNBC and CNN were up. “It’s a smart move to get slightly less conservative and draw in some people in the middle and slightly to the left. If they just stuck to their staunch conservative guns, they wouldn’t go anywhere.” So we’re putting it to you:

There’s a new face on the roster of Fox News contributors: Sally Kohn, an openly gay liberal activist. Kohn, who talked to Megyn Kelly on “America Live” this afternoon, tells Role/Reboot that she chose Fox News because she thought she could “make a difference there”:

Look, Fox News makes no bones about its opinion programming being center right-leaning. I actually think that’s refreshing—you know where they stand. But they certainly don’t put me on air and tell me what to say and tie my hands. They want a good fight on the issues and they want good progressives who are standing up for our side.

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