TV Correspondents Dinner: Sightings

At Wednesday night’s Radio & Television Correspondents Association Dinner, CNN had 29 tables — almost as many as FNC, which had 34. Some of my sightings and scuttlebutt:

> Al Franken and Bob Franken chatting in the long metal detector line. (They’re distant cousins.)

> FNC’s Roger Ailes sitting next to Joe Lieberman. Many Senators were also guests of the network.

> CNN congressional correspondent Joe Johns searching for a parking spot west of Connecticut Avenue. (He found one before I did.)

> NBC’s Chip Reid talking to wounded soldiers in wheelchairs.

> CNN chief Jon Klein suggesting to me that March was the first month his efforts were evident in the ratings. Whenever CNN produces a great product, the ratings follow, he said.

> MSNBC ‘Connected’ host Monica Crowley looking great, sitting next to daytime VP Mark Effron in the front of the room.

> Ron Silver mingling at FNC’s pre-party. Law & Order’s Fred Thompson was also with Fox folks. And did I see Paul Wolfowitz?

> ABC’s George Stephanopoulos flanked by Karl Rove on one side and Howard Dean on the other.

> FNC’s Geraldo Rivera sporting his tinted glasses at table 100.

> CNN stalwart Wolf Blitzer saying he reads TVNewser all the time.

> CNN boss Jim Walton told me he has been pleased with the recent ratings successes of CNN/U.S.

> FNC’s Laurie Dhue looking incredible amid a sea of tuxedos.

> I forgot to ask CNN’s Daryn Kagan about her recent engagement to Rush!

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