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Televangelist: I lost my show over Muslim remarks ST. PETERSBURG -- Televangelist Bill Keller may have finally met an opponent he can't out-talk. The controversial late-night Christian talk show host, known for his biting criticism of religious, political and pop culture figures, is going off the air. Keller, 49, says he ran afoul of the Tampa Chapter of the Council of American Islamic Relations. The group calls Live Prayer with Bill Keller a hate-filled broadcast that damages Muslims and Islam. Earlier this month, CAIR asked CBS executives to remove Keller's nightly talk show from WTOG-TV Ch. 44, a CBS-owned station...

ST. PETERSBURG - For the first time in nearly five years, controversial Christian televangelist Bill Keller is going off the air. Keller - known for his vitriolic criticism of religious, political and pop culture figures - said Thursday his program was yanked in response to pressure from local Muslims. Earlier this month, officials from the Council on American Islamic Relations wrote to executives at CBS asking them to investigate Live Prayer with Bill Keller, an hourlong nightly program. In a May 2 broadcast, the televangelist said Islam was a "1,400-year-old lie from the pits of hell" and called the Prophet...

Red Sox sultan Tom Werner broke Katie Couric’s heart when he dumped her via e-mail - a blow the CBS anchorgal “never fully recovered from,” according to a new book. “Katie was upset that Tom didn’t have the nerve to break up with her in person - or even over the phone,” a “close source” told Edward Klein, the author of “Katie: The Real Story.” “It was embarrassing and humiliating for her.” Klein, who has written a series of sensational bios of prominent celebs including Hillary Clinton, the Kennedys and Jackie O. - and who writes Parade maggie’s popular “Personality...

<--snip--> More surprisingly though comes news now about why Imus suddenly turned up on Rev. Al Sharpton’s radio show so quickly after his firing — and did a lot of press that some people feel harmed him and fed the controversy. Some feel all those media appearances led to Imus’ dismissal. Now I’m told that Imus was coaxed into doing them by NBC senior vice president Phil Griffin. Imus, sources say, wanted to just to apologize to the Rutgers women’s basketball team he offended and leave it at that. In fact, they say, he apologized to the team several times...

As Karl Rove embraced President Bush today following an emotional farewell announcement on the South Lawn, the solemnity of the moment was shattered by Bill Plante of CBS, who bellowed to Bush: "If he's so smart, how come you lost Congress?"

Word came Sunday that entertainment industry titan Merv Griffin passed away at age 82. Back in October of 2003, when CBS planned to air a derogatory mini-series about Ronald and Nancy Reagan, The Reagans, Griffin went onto MSNBC to denounce CBS as “cowardly” for belittling Ronald Reagan and distorting his record when the former President (who would die eight months later) was on his deathbed. Thanks to controversy over the movie, fueled in part by a letter from the MRC to all advertisers urging them to review the movie before placing ads and to consider what their customers would think...

Members of the Jewish and Lebanese Christian communities in Windsor are outraged by the appearance of a billboard that appears to promote Hezbollah -- an organization the Canadian government considers terrorist. "That organization is banned in Canada," said Harvey Kessler, executive director of the Windsor Jewish Community Centre. "How can that billboard be up in Windsor when it represents a terrorist organization which is banned under the laws of Canada?" Located at the southwest corner of Marion Avenue and Wyandotte Street East, the billboard does not mention Hezbollah by name, but features a central image of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader...

CBS: No good news Posted Jul 31st 2007 10:05AM by Douglas McIntyre Filed under: Earnings reports, Bad news, Press releases, CBS Corp 'B' (CBS) CBS (NYSE:CBS) today announced results for the second quarter that were dreadful. Net income plunged 48% to $404 million, or 55 cents per share, versus $781.7 million, or $1.02 per share, a year earlier. Revenue fell 3% to $3.4 billion. Operating income before depreciation and amortization ("OIBDA") of $859.4 million and operating income of $749.9 million for the second quarter of 2007 remained flat with $858.9 million and $750.3 million, respectively, for the same prior-year period....

CBS 2nd-Quarter Earnings Down Sharply As Radio Unit Continues Struggles NEW YORK (AP) -- Media conglomerate CBS Corp. said Tuesday second-quarter net earnings fell sharply, as advertising fell at both television and radio stations. CBS, which owns the namesake television network that produces "60 Minutes" and the "CSI" franchise, said net income plunged to $404 million, or 55 cents per share, from $781.7 million, or $1.02 per share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted to exclude tax benefits and gains from the sale of assets, earnings from businesses operated in both periods rose 9 percent to $393.1 million, or 54 cents...

The Skinny: Team Of Computer Security Consultants Says They Can Take Control of Your iPhone It didn't take long. The iPhone has been hacked, according to the New York Times. A team of computer security consultants said they could take control of a person's iPhone through a WiFi connection or by tricking users into going to a Web site that contains malicious code. Although Apple built considerable security measures into the device, according to Charles Miller, the main analyst for the firm, "Once you did manage to find the hole, you were in complete control." So far, there's no evidence...

TET was Westmoreland's Gettysburg in a sense (Gettysburg was the highwater mark of the Confederacy. TET was the highwater mark of American forces in Vietnam). Though unlike Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee — who lost his great battle in 1863, yet retained command of his army — Westmoreland won his battle and lost his command: He was instead "kicked upstairs" to the post of Army chief of staff.. . Americans neither understood nor appreciated our actual battlefield successes in TET (to include how severely we mauled the enemy). All most Americans knew was that Americans by-and-large were sick of the...

Two years ago CBS News anchor Dan Rather used falsified documents in his ill-fated Texas National Guard story. For that miscue they ran him out of Dodge and took away his six-shooter. A mere 10 months after she took over, Katie Couric now faces a similar fate. When Katie made her debut on September 5, over 13 million people tuned in. Now, she's lucky if she can pull in 6 million on a given night, leaving CBS News a distant third behind ABC's Charles Gibson and NBC's Brian Williams. "I've gone through a bit of a feeding frenzy and there's...

The latest name to surface in the ongoing Katie Couric saga at CBS News is that of Scott Pelley, a Washington-based 60 Minutes correspondent since 2004. According to a scenario being heard in whispers at CBS News, Pelly is being positioned to possibly replace Couric at some future date, should her numbers not improve. Pelley, CBS's former chief White House correspondent, is in the process of moving with his family from the Washington area to New York, where 60 Minutes is produced. In confirming the move, a CBS spokesperson tells TVNewser: "Scott is an integral part of 60 Minutes. The...

CBS encamped 40 kids in an abandoned New Mexico ghost town for more than a month. The kids performed on camera for more than 14 hours at a stretch, seven days a week, making their own meals. They were filming during the school year, yet no studio teachers were present. They were working on a major television production, yet no parents were on the set. The show is CBS’ upcoming reality series "Kid Nation." When rivals first got wind of the concept, they declared the production an impossible endeavor: From a legal, labor, public relations and logistical standpoint, this show...

Ahh, the vintage whines of summer—so fun to sample—so easy to appreciate. First, there was Katie Couric and her pals in New York magazine complaining about everything from critics taking potshots during her rookie season as anchor of the CBS Evening News, to the network's over-selling of her arrival, to having to fight with “the old-boys club” to get her stories on the air, to the news division's relatively scarce resources compared with her old NBC home. There was even a knock on the filthy bathrooms in the news division's notoriously shabby Broadcast Center. No doubt some of what was...

Despite earlier reports that Rosie O’Donnell declined the opportunity to host the Price Is Right because she didn’t want to uproot her family from New York City to L.A., the truth is that CBS turned her down. “They thought I was too controversial to host the game show,” O’Donnell said on her R Family Vacations cruise from New York to the Bahamas. “I just wanted to ‘gay it up.’” So what did O’Donnell propose? For starters, she wanted to get rid of Barker’s beauties in favor of a chorus line of Broadway hunks, confetti, musical bumpers and a much-needed set...

From outside the sleek glass chamber of the CBS Evening News set, you can see her: alone in a prim black pantsuit and pearls, shuffling a stack of papers at the wide, half-moon desk. Sitting stiff and still, she looks dwarfed under the stage lights and high studio ceilings, the cameras barely visible in the shadows. “Hello, everyone,” Katie Couric says into the camera, mouth turned down, eyes narrowed seriously. She introduces the lead story of the day, and a news segment rolls while she sits and waits at the desk. When it ends, the camera returns. She peers gravely...

I hate what’s happening to Katie Couric. If, for instance, you’ve been in a supermarket checkout line recently, you’ve seen her face plastered on the cover of the National Enquirer, next to a headline that declares that bad ratings and backstabbing have demoralized her so much she wants out. True or not, such Enquirer stories are indicators in their own way (of someone’s wish fulfillment, if not necessarily hers). You can’t call Couric blameless for the rain of ill-will she’s now enduring. She’s been in media all her adult life and she knows full well that few worlds fulminate with...

This report is based on an unnamed official within the television news industry. Now that we’re past the completely unconfirmed headline and introduction, let’s examine the actions last Wednesday by most major news outlets including the AP and CBS News. CBS News online website ran the following headline and story excerpts: ~Excerpt~ 20 Bodies Found, Iraq Blast Kills 22 More Beheaded Men Found On Banks Of Tigris, Car Bomb Tears Through Crowded Baghdad Bus Station BAGHDAD, June 28, 2007 (CBS/AP) A parked car bomb exploded in one of Baghdad's busy outdoor bus stations at rush hour Thursday, killing at least...

Richard Jefferson, a former CBS News producer who was brutally attacked while vacationing in St. Martin last year in a gay-bashing incident, is set to file a $50 million sexual-orientation discrimination lawsuit against CBS News, FishbowlNY has learned. Jefferson alleges that senior vice president Linda Mason tried to control his public comments in the wake of the attack, and wound up terminating him. CBS plans to "vigorously and aggressively" defend itself, according to a statement obtained by FishbowlNY late Sunday. "I thought I was in the Twilight Zone," Jefferson told blogger Kenneth Walsh recently. "I was back at work and...