The Ticker: Dobbs, Zirinsky, Meade…

> Read these: The New Yorker and New York critique Lou Dobbs…

> A cool story in TV Week: “When CBS Entertainment wanted to use fact to enhance the fiction of post-nuclear hit Jericho, it solicited ideas for an online element from veteran CBS News producer Susan Zirinsky. The result was ‘Countdown,’ a ‘webumentary’ serving up real information that parallels the plotline from that week’s episode of Jericho…

> “Talk show host Tavis Smiley and CNN news anchor Fredricka Whitfield are very, very serious,” insiders tell the Sun-Times… Update: 1:39am: The newspaper has issued a correction; Whitfield has been happily married for seven years…

> CBS News is starting a week-long series, “Overweight in America: The Science, The Solutions,” tonight on the CBS Evening News and tomorrow on The Early Show…

> HLN’s “Robin & Company” is “specifically going after business travelers during the competitive morning show time slot,” the Atlanta Business Chronicle notes (via ICN)…

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.