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Television networks planning Jackson coverage NEW YORK (AP) -- NBC executives changed their minds Sunday and decided to join other networks that will televise Michael Jackson's memorial service live this week. NBC joins ABC, CNN, MSNBC and E! Entertainment in offering the ceremony live. It's set for 10 a.m. PDT at Los Angeles' Staples Center. NBC had initially planned only a one-hour prime-time special on Tuesday night, but said Sunday it would also cover the event live. It was not immediately clear who would anchor. Charles Gibson will anchor coverage for ABC, which is setting aside its typical daytime programming....

Eight days before the election, I spent 20 minutes alone with Sarah Palin on her campaign bus between rallies in Leesburg, Va., and Fredericksburg, George Washington's childhood home. Our encounter brought to mind a crusty Texas editor's description of politicians who didn't know what they didn't know: Delusions of adequacy. By then, John McCain's handlers were so spooked by the disastrous Katie Couric interview they'd hermetically sealed his running mate from media interrogators. But Tucker Eskew, the savvy Republican operative running her road show, graciously offered some "face time" - if our conversation was off the record. Reluctantly, I took...

Polls. I am not a big believer in them. One of the biggest problems with polls are the questions. Poll questions are often practically useless in relaying any real, usable facts. Let's take the first one asked by Charlie Gibson at the start of the Obama healthcare infomercial on ABC for example. He asked if everyone agreed with Obama that healthcare needed fixing. Naturally everyone said yes. But what does that question really mean? Think about it. What does "needs fixing" mean? What sort of "change" are we talking about? It means many things to many different people. Some may...

With the very first question of its prime time special, Questions for the President: Prescription for America, ABC set the tone that essentially confirmed for viewers that the president was right in his desire to radically remake America's healthcare system. As the infomercial began, "moderator" Charles Gibson asked a seminal question of the doctors and other participants that were about to hear the president speak: "How many of you agree with the president that we need to change our healthcare system?" Naturally they all raised their hands. Imagine that? This handpicked crowd all agreed with ABC and Obama that "change"...

In the wake of political sex scandals including South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and Nevada Sen. John Ensign, ABC's Cokie Roberts took the opportunity on June 25 to suggest that the fundamental flaw in each case was the male gender. "World News with Charles Gibson" anchor asked question of why such affairs ever begin. "It's an admission that can doom the most promising political career," Gibson said. "So, why do politicians tempt fate and cheat on their wives? Why do so many think they can get away it?" ...more (w/video)...

President Obama struggled to explain today whether his health care reform proposals would force normal Americans to make sacrifices that wealthier, more powerful people -- like the president himself -- wouldn't face. The probing questions came from two skeptical neurologists during ABC News' special on health care reform, "Questions for the President: Prescription for America," anchored from the White House by Diane Sawyer and Charles Gibson. Dr. Orrin Devinsky, a neurologist and researcher at the New York University Langone Medical Center, said that elites often propose health care solutions that limit options for the general public, secure in the knowledge...

[Snip] STURM:My question to you is, outside the medical criteria for prolonging life for somebody elderly, is there any consideration that can be given for a certain spirit, a certain joy of living, quality of life? Or is it just a medical cutoff at a certain age? [Snip] GIBSON: But the money may not have been there for her pacemaker or for your grandmother's hip replacement. [Snip] OBAMA: But what we can do is make sure that at least some of the waste that exists in the system that's not making anybody's mom better, that is loading up on additional...

Call this a teachable moment, but even with ABC’s best-laid plans to kickstart the debate about health care reform and not allow the “Prescription for America” special to become an “infomercial,” as many have complained - the president spent more than twice as much time as his questioners vaguely answering or not answering the questions asked of him. But the network consistently presented the event as part of the need to fix a “broken system.” When asked, every one of the 164 hand-picked audience members said they felt that health care needed to be changed.

Call this a teachable moment, but even with ABC’s best-laid plans to kickstart the debate about health care reform and not allow the “Prescription for America” special to become an “infomercial,” as many have complained - the president spent more than twice as much time as his questioners vaguely answering or not answering the questions asked of him. But the network consistently presented the event as part of the need to fix a “broken system.” When asked, every one of the 164 hand-picked audience members said they felt that health care needed to be changed.

What would Kate Couric ask Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin if she could interview her again? "I have no idea!" Couric told Usmagazine.com Tuesday at High Voltage's 60th birthday bash in NYC. "If I get the opportunity, I'd be thrilled to talk to her again." Last September, the CBS Evening News anchor conducted an awkward interview with the former vice presidential candidate, pressing Palin to explain why Alaska's proximity to Russia gives her foreign policy experience. She also asked Palin what newspapers and magazines she reads regularly. ("Um, all of them, any of them," an uncomfortable Palin replied.) Asked about her...

ABC will air the special from the White House during primetime on June 24. "Prescription for America," to be moderated by ABC News' Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer, will originate from the East Room and will feature the president explaining his plans for reforming the nation's healthcare system. Officials with the network claim they will air opposing views, that the audience that will offer up questions for the president during the program will be made up of Americans "who have divergent opinions" in the debate on national healthcare. However, critics think the network will basically be providing President Obama and...

Why did he stop on radio??Would love to read your thoughts...

Since the Bill O'Reilly Factor is going off the air after tommorrow. If you haven't already called let them know you would like them to add Mark Levin. He is great and doesn't put up with the liberals or Repubics nonsense.

Here’s the no-spin truth: Bill O’Reilly offers a fairer, more balanced version of the latest political headlines than MSNBC’s nighttime ideologues. Don’t get me wrong. The Fox News commentator remains the most combustible on-air personality since Morton Downey Jr. and his ideological tilt on some topics, like limited government and coerced interrogation, would still raise eyebrows from an in-his-prime Walter Cronkite. But quietly, and with little fanfare, O’Reilly has been doing his best to not only offer both sides of key partisan debates, but also treat President Barack Obama with respect. He recently told a reporter that second-guessing the new...

Conservative radio host Mark Levin fired back at Bill O’Reilly Thursday evening after O’Reilly delivered a blistering diatribe on his own radio program earlier in the day, attacking conservative talk radio hosts for opposing a $700 billion bailout for the financial industry and calling them “idiots,” “charlatans,” and “right-wing liars.” “What a buffoon,” Levin said of O’Reilly, host of Fox News’ "The O’Reilly Factor.” “He doesn’t want to talk about socialism. He doesn’t want to talk about the beginnings of this scandal. No. The same guy who claims to have led the boycott against France that forced France to do...

If the Los Angeles Times had a video of John McCain toasting a supporter of the old South African apartheid government, does anyone think they wouldn't release it without hesitation? However, because the Times has a video of Barack Obama toasting former PLO operative, Rashid Khalidi, at an Israel-bashing party that also included terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, they are now coming up with all sorts of absurd legalistic reasons as to why they can't release the video. Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs has posted the messages between a reader and the a Los Angeles Times representative about...

Dan Rather: 'I have read the report, I take it seriously, and I shall keep its lessons well in mind.' Tue Jan 11 2005 14:56:11 ET **Exclusive** The panel report is part of a process -- a necessary process to deal with a difficult issue -- at the end of which four good people have lost their jobs. My strongest reaction is one of sadness and concern for those individuals whom I know and with whom I have worked. It would be a shame if we let this matter, troubling as it is, obscure their dedication and good work over...

Report just issues, mapes finally fired

CBS was conducting an 'internal investigation' into the FORGED DOCUMENTS that Ted Baxter- I mean Dan Rather aired. HOWS IT GOING SeeBS?

NEW YORK (AP) - Why did it take so long for the Bush and Kerry campaigns to agree on a debate schedule? Sen. John Kerry had the answer for television's Regis Philbin, who has hosted the quiz show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" "The big hang-up was George Bush wanted to get life lines, you know, so he could call somebody," the Democratic candidate for president quipped Tuesday while appearing on "Live With Regis and Kelly." Contestants on the multiple-choice quiz show could contact a knowledgeable friend for help if they were unsure of an answer. Kerry has been...