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The "revolving door" is a term reporters often cynically use to talk about the close relationships that political and lobbying people have with each other. It's certainly true that in American politics, many people do move readily between working in government posts to lobbying positions. But what many journos won't tell you is that there's another revolving door that politicos use, from politics to media. They also won't tell you that only Democrats seem to have the key. The number of Republicans moving into positions of influence inside the media is small enough you can almost count it on one...

<p>Is Harry Smith's goal at every stage of every war to stop it? If he had been around on June 6, 1941, would he have been asking what could be done to stop D-Day? The question arises in light of Smith's questions on this morning's Early Show to Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution.</p>

NEW YORK — Less than a year after the chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was forced to resign amid charges that he injected partisanship into the agency, President Bush has nominated a television sitcom producer who has described himself as "thoroughly conservative in ways that strike horror into the hearts of my Hollywood colleagues" to the nonprofit's board. The nomination of Warren Bell, executive producer of ABC's "According to Jim" and a contributor to the online edition of the conservative National Review magazine, has raised fears he could revive the sharp political debate that engulfed the system last...

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather says he has considered filing a lawsuit against the network where he had worked for 44 years. Appearing Wednesday night on CNN's "Larry King Live," Rather paused after a question from King and then said he wouldn't talk about whether he would file a lawsuit against CBS. But he acknowledged, "I can't say that I've never thought about it." It wasn't clear from the interview what Rather considered to be possible grounds for a lawsuit. A CBS spokesman commented late Wednesday after the interview, saying, "CBS believes that it...

LOS ANGELES — What happens when two Supernovas collide? Lawsuit. A Southern California rock band called Supernova has filed a complaint against Mark Burnett's CBS reality show Rock Star: Supernova, saying it had the name first. The complaint, filed June 27 in U.S. District Court, claiming unfair competition and trademark infringement, seeks to bar the show and its participants from using the Supernova name. It is also asks for compensatory and punitive damages. "Our clients believe they have the superior right on the mark Supernova," the band's attorney, John Mizhir, told the Associated Press Tuesday, adding that the band "has...

by Mark Finkelstein July 13, 2006 - 08:03 Let's imagine an American World Cup team member 'of pallor' had head-butted, oh, an Arab or African player. Would the MSM be quick to excuse, even make the incident the object of humor? Or would we have been treated to mind-numbing disquisitions on racism in sport as a microcosm of society at large? But when a French player of Arab ancestry head-butts an Italian? Well, CBS tells us, boys will be boys. CBS's Elizabeth Palmer, who narrated a segment on the incident on this morning's Early Show, informed us that "it's a...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- CBS Corp. has eliminated 115 positions in its CBS Radio division, cutting its workforce by about 1% to reduce costs and restructure. The cuts became effective Wednesday, and hit jobs such as receptionists and mail clerks, as well as marketers and managers. "This is an altogether necessary step, one designed to ensure our competitiveness and position us for future growth in a changing business," according to an internal memo from Joel Hollander, CBS Radio's chairman and chief executive. Hollander, who was named chairman and CEO in January 2005, added that he doesn't "anticipate additional plans along...

He may deny it, but Dan Rather is still hotter than a Laredo parking lot about CBS. Sharp-eyed viewers may have noticed that Rather was not identified on screen with his network of 44 years when he appeared on Anderson Cooper's 360 Wednesday to discuss his recent trip to North Korea. CNN didn't drop the ball, graphically speaking. Rather, ol' Dan didn't want CBS in the picture. Literally. In an in-house memo sent from a 360 staffer Thursday to CNN producers, they were told to "please feel free" to use taped snippets from Cooper's interview with Rather the previous night,...

Former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather, who recently left the network after heavy criticism for standing by a story based on forged documents, is being considered for a teaching position at Harvard University. Published reports in Philadelphia and Boston indicate Rather might become a fellow at Harvard's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, which is run by Alex Jones. "I'd love to have him come here for a semester or full year on campus," Jones told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "Dan Rather has all the credentials, as far as I'm concerned." Jones told the Boston Herald, "I...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A U.S. military report into the killings of up to 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha last year found that senior Marine officers failed to investigate conflicting and false reports of the killings, CBS News reported on Friday. <snip>

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq completed a review today of an investigation into a possible cover-up of the alleged Marine killings of 24 Iraqi civilians in the western town of Haditha. Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli forwarded his findings and recommendations to Gen. George W. Casey, the top commander in Iraq, according to a statement.The investigation was separate from an inquiry still under way into whether a small number of Marines from the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment murdered the 24 civilians — including unarmed women and children — on Nov. 19 after a roadside bomb...

President Bush, calling the alleged rape of an Iraqi girl and the murder of her and her family by a U.S. soldier "a despicable crime, if true," said Thursday that Iraqis will learn about the openness of American justice. Steven D. Green, a former Army private with the 101st Airborne Division, pleaded not guilty to charges Thursday. Green and other soldiers were accused of targeting the girl after seeing her near the Iraqi town of Mahmoudiya earlier this year. "These are very serious charges and what the Iraqis must understand is that we will deal with these in a very...

Advance sales for the season that begins in September are wrapping up below last year's tally... Television advertising executives are biting their nails this year as advance ad sales fall short of last year's tally... The frenzied "upfront" period, which typically accounts for about 75 percent of total prime-time ad sales... That's down about 3.4 percent from last year... "Buyers are in control," John Moore, group media director of MediaHub... "The competitive landscape is much, much different" from previous years. Networks even tried to sweeten deals this year by offering tie-ins with their online arms or product placements in the...

NEW YORK -- Desks, computers and chairs have been stripped from the newsroom that was Dan Rather's backdrop on the "CBS Evening News," with workers in the first stage of a makeover that will welcome Katie Couric when she starts in September. It also offers an easy metaphor for what Sean McManus has been doing in the seven months since assuming the presidency of CBS News. He's in the first stages of rebuilding a legendary news organization beaten down by years of scandal and failure. They involve steps both large and small: from ending Rather's CBS career and getting Mike...

Sunday, July 2, 2006 ELIAN – Elian Gonzalez has never spoken before about the battle between the U.S. and Cuba that he was in the middle of five years ago when he was just 6. He does now in an interview with Bob Simon. Draggan Mihailovich is the producer. AL QAEDA’S TOWN – When terrorist insurgents led by Al Qaeda took over the Iraqi town of Tal Afar, the U.S. military had to devise a way of retaking it. Their methods have become a blueprint for the war on terror. Lara Logan reports. Josh Yager is the producer. FIRST...

I'VE never quite understood all the fuss over Dan Rather, who was always a solid reporter but an embarrassing anchorman who never should have been. After almost 25 years in the anchor chair at CBS News, he still looked every night as though he had just taken over the job the day before — or had been forced into it, staring into the camera like a terrified weekend news rookie. He never seemed at ease, unlike his silky rivals Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw. snip The fumbled story that finally did him in — about President George W. Bush's National...

by Mark Finkelstein June 27, 2006 Given NewsBusters' goal of exposing outrageous liberal media bias, perhaps I should switch focus from the Katie-less Today to Harry Smith & Co. at the Early Show. I rarely check in on the show, which has languished seemingly forever in last place. But, happening upon it this morning, Smith's bald-faced bias left me breathless. Smith's guest was Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report. Talk was first of the proposed flag-burning amendment. Disdain dripping, Smith observed "I'm just curious about this. Because somewhere I read in the last couple of days in the entire...

CBS Corp. Chief Executive Leslie Moonves said on Wednesday he was sorry about the bitter departure of newsman Dan Rather, who left the broadcaster after protracted talks to renew his contract fell apart. ..media watchers said Rather appeared to have been slowly pushed off the air... "I'm sorry it ended the way it did," Moonves told executives at a PricewaterhouseCoopers media event. "There was no bigger role for him to play anymore," ...

But let's have a show of hands: How many knew he was still there? It is a classic case of karma. For years he held a power that Presidents couldn't match. He could go home after the interview and edit remarks, leak themes, and shape expectations so thoroughly that viewers would see what they were told they would see -- and only that. He could raise questions, balance or imbalance carefully weighted views, cast doubts, editorialize while claiming merely to report, meet politicians personally, get to know them, carry grudges, foist off partisan schemes as if they were news, critique...

I wish it could have been sooner. But now is better than never for people who have been suffering the biased reporting of this “reporter’s reporter” for way too many years. Rather’s endless love affair with the tyrant-for-life of Cuba made him infamous among Cubans as he not only nauseated, ulcerated and may have caused high blood pressure, heart burn and heart attacks in Cuban Americans in the U.S. With the false image of Castro that Rather promoted, he caused a lot of pain and suffering for the Cuban’s surviving under Castro’s boots. How many more people died in the...