The AP’s David Bauder writes about this afternoon’s cable news coverage, or lack of coverage, of the first of three Pres. Obama town hall meetings this week as he continues to sell healthcare reform.

Fox News Channel cut away from President Barack Obama’s town hall meeting on health care reform Tuesday as he faced
a far more polite crowd than has attended many meetings hosted by
members of Congress recently. CNN and MSNBC carried the session in
full. The loud public debates have been a tonic for cable news
networks during normally quiet August.

When FNC cut away, anchors Trace Gallagher and Juliet Huddy interviewed guests and showed soundbites from Sen. Arlen Specter‘s town hall earlier in the day.

“Any contentious questions, anybody yelling, we will bring it to you here,” Gallagher said. Fox never returned to live coverage. Obama seemed to invite tougher questions toward the end of the town hall. “I don’t want people thinking I just have a bunch of
plants in here,” he said. At the event’s end, MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell noted the questions were “not too challenging.”

• Earlier on TVNewser: Bill O’Reilly on Why Fox News Ratings are Soaring: “A Major Reason is the Healthcare Debate…”

Fox News Channel is sticking with regular programming on Tuesday for the Jackson memorial which starts at 1pmET/10amPT. Adam Housley and Casey Stegall will be on-site in Los Angeles for live reports. Trace Gallagher and Martha MacCallum will be in New York anchoring Live Desk during the service.

Greta Van Susteren will also be in LA on Tuesday, and will host her show from there Tuesday night.

> Update, 1:11pmET Sunday: Shepard Smith will now anchor live coverage of the memorial service on Fox News starting at 1pmET. Megyn Kelly will anchor live coverage of the memorial on FOX broadcast also beginning at 1pmET.

> Earlier: CBS News Plans for Michael Jackson Memorial

Audio problems in one of Fox News Channel’s new control rooms kept FNC’s Trace Gallagher and Martha MacCallum on the air an extra 15 minutes this afternoon, delaying the start of “Studio B” with Shepard Smith.

Smith explained it when he finally went on the air around 3:16pmET.

“We have 8 or 9 of these brand new control rooms they’re HD ready they’re the most beautiful things in town, and we’re really proud of them. But today for some reason, they weren’t sending the audio to master control. So you could see us, but not hear us. And as a result the Live Desk had to take over the first 16-17 minutes. But our crack technical team got it all fixed. Best in the business.”

> With Obama headed for the White House, Bill Ayers is ready for some Hardball. Chris Matthews interviews him live tonight at 5pmET.

> CNN’s Betty Nguyen conducted an exclusive interview with First Lady Laura Bush this morning about the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Portions air throughout th eday, with the full interview airing on CNN Saturday Morning.

> The Live Desk is going new media. This week the Martha MacCallum and Trace Gallagher anchored FNC afternoon program added a Twitter account and blog, which are incorporated on the air.

Fox News promoted their redesigned Facebook page throughout The Live Desk this afternoon which now includes several new features, including a series of Fun Facts about some of their high profile anchors.

Some tidbits of info revealed on the site:

• Alan Colmes is “a gym rat” and “a former comedian”

• Sean Hannity “never wears suitpants on Hannity & Colmes”

• Greta Van Susteren “got a ‘D’ in anthropology 1st semester of college”

Also featured are links to ‘friend’ FNC talent and the RSS feed of all Foxnews.com blogs. During The Live Desk, Martha MacCallum and Trace Gallagher said they plan to interact with viewers through messages on the wall.

FNC first began redesigning their Facebook page in August.

Fox News Channel’s coverage of Hurricane Gustav will continue live throughout the night. At 7pmET, Shepard Smith anchors live from New Orleans. Brit Hume will take over an hour later from St. Paul, with discussion of the impact of Gustav on the RNC. From 10pm-MidnightET, Geraldo Rivera anchors from New Orleans.

Gregg Jarrett, Julie Banderas, Todd Connor and Uma Pemmaraju anchor from Midnight-5amET, with Fox & Friends picking up coverage an hour early.

Besides Smith and Rivera, FNC has a full slate of correspondents in the area, with Steve Harrigan (just back from Georgia/Russia coverage), Trace Gallagher, Jon Scott and correspondents from regional bureaus (Kris Gutierrez, Casey Stegall, Johnathan Serrie, Marianne Silber, Phil Keating and Adam Housley). Of course the “Weather Machine” Janice Dean has worked all day today from the Fox Extreme Weather Center.

As mentioned earlier, FBN will be live from at least 7am-7pmET.

> Related: FNC’s VP of news editorial Jay Wallace tells Politico that Gustav/RNC coverage, “Almost feels like having a two-front war.”