TVSquad

Obviously, this is in the "rumor" category, but Elizabeth Hasselbeck might be leaving The View for Fox News. It's probably just a stunt anyway to get a higher salary. It's not likely there aren't other women of conservative ideologies in the world who couldn't replace her. If it does end up being true, it would be a mistake for her to leave.

Even if you don't agree with her views, the mainstream publicity of her on-air feuds (such as the one with Rosie O'Donnell that made Rosie leave the show and start her own variety show. Let's blame Hasselbeck for that one) make for great ratings. Actually, she represents a demographic of woman that could stop watching the show if she leaves.

Naturally, I'm not what you would call an avid fan of The View. Quite the opposite. In fact, if I go to Hell when I die, I'd likely end up in the audience of The View. But even I recognize a bad career move when I see one. At Fox, Hasselbeck would be one conservative voice among many. On The View, she is unique.

Pew Research Center's biannual survey on how Americans get their news revealed significant shifts underway from print to new media, and even from television to the internet. But it looks like that idiot box remains our number one source for just what's going on in the world around us. The article shows the demographics to be pretty much where you'd expect them to be as far as who goes where for their news. The younger, more affluent and/or more educated you are the more likely you are to go online for your news. The older, poorer and less educated you are the more likely you are to rely on the TV.

I live in a pretty small town that's chock full of poor, uneducated people and I can assure you that most of those citizens still think of computers as that fancy technology they use in them colleges and whatnot. And the Internets, well that's where you go for sin! But the young people, who have grown up with computers and the web are more savvy than their parents and if they can afford a computer, then they're online. Most are playing World of Warcraft, but they're still on there.

I caught up to Keith Olbermann at NBC's all star party last night, and talked to him a little bit about the election, the origin of his "Special Comments," and getting back to doing highlights with Dan Patrick. More on that in a few days. But the first thing on my mind was if he read the comments uttered by Fox News' Chris Wallace earlier in the tour, notably that MSNBC's election coverage was biased because commentators like Olbermann are used as anchors.

"Oh yeah, I thought they were disingenuous and ill-informed," he told me, "because during the primaries as I'm sitting there, and we have the other monitors on, and a couple of weeks at least I saw O'Reilly on in the middle of the primaries, one week Laura Ingrahm filling in for O'Reilly, and Hannity and Colmes at 9:00. It's the same thing, whether you officially say, 'Well, this is not our election coverage between 8 and 10, but between 6 and 7 was, and 10 to 12 was ... ' It's a game being played that's pretty silly."

Now that the Democratic party has decided to present the final night of their convention from Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium in Denver before as many as 80,000 enthusiastic voters -- a venue that will underscore Senator Barack Obama's skill as a speaker -- the networks are deciding how they want to cover the event. Will the big three give the Democrats the entire night? One hour, two hours?

Will ABC and CBS be compelled to cover the night, when NBC and Fox have the option of using their cable outlets and keep entertainment on the broadcast side?

There's another Bill in Hillary Clinton's life now. Talk show pundit Bill O'Reilly, who interviewed Clinton on his Fox News show, The O'Reilly Factor this week. The interview covered a lot of territory, including the economy, high gas prices, illegal immigrants, the war on terror, and foreign policy.

All the presidential candidates have their strengths and weaknesses, but Clinton made a smart move towards unifying her platform by agreeing to the O'Reilly interview. Although they're on opposite ends of the spectrum politically, O'Reilly and Clinton showed that two diverse personalities can sit down together and have an intelligent debate about the issues without resorting to a screaming match.

A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.

• Max Hodge: He was a writer who worked on several TV shows over the years, including Mission: Impossible, Wild Wild West, CHiPs, Ironside, Alias Smith and Jones, The Waltons, Eight is Enough, The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan, Cannon, Marcus Welby, M.D., and many others. He was also a writer for Batman and created the Mr. Freeze character. He died at age 91 in Woodland Hills, CA.

Sheesh.

So here's what happened: FoxNews was doing a story on the indictment of Rep. William J. Jefferson, who was charged with bribery. Unfortunately, the network ran footage of House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers of Michigan, instead. Both Jefferson and Conyers are black.

I searched for footage of this mistake, preferably one without political commentary on the mistake itself, but all I could find was the video below from Talking Points Memo. Nevertheless, you're all big boys and girls and should be able to make up your own mind about what transpired.

Hey, Brigitte here with TV Squad Daily. I'll be covering the TV stories I find interesting each day, Monday through Friday, in this video blog.

Today on TV Squad Daily:

• is Jordin Sparks severely overweight? MeMe Roth says yes, but Jordin's fans say no... and threaten to kill Roth for saying such a thing.
  
• Paris Hilton is finally in jail, and (gasp) with only one picture to prove it.
  
• Stephen Baldwin is Ty Murray's Celebrity Bullriding Challenge's first victim.
  

The video's embedded below (we'll have the downloadable files soon). You can also subscribe to this podcast via our feed.

Despite the efforts of ColorOfChange.org and other black activists online, Fox News and the Congressional Black Caucus Political Education and Leadership Institute will be co-sponsoring primary debates this fall. The CBC Institute, which includes members of the Congressional Black Caucus, decided that the reach of Fox News was worth it, despite allegations of the channel's "marginalization" of blacks, allegations I don't fully comprehend. I'm not sure how Fox News would benefit from making a conscious decision to show black politicians and pundits in a negative light, unless one's perspective is based on the dubious theory that all black people are liberal.

I couldn't care less about whatever bias guides Fox News, or any other news outlet for that matter, but it seems that any political party would be remiss if it didn't take advantage of this kind of exposure.

Back in the day when dinosaurs roamed the earth TV news seemed much simpler. You had your normal noon, 6:00 and 11:00 pm newscasts (sometimes 5:00 pm as well, if you were lucky). If something major happened, like an airline crash, the local or national news would interrupt Match Game with a 'BREAKING NEWS' bulletin, say what needed to be said, and then return you back to normal programming to watch Richard Dawson say something randy.

That's not the way it happens anymore in this 24 by 7 world of information saturation. Now, the 'Breaking News' banner is thrown onto any type of news story that crops up, from a winter storm on the East Coast to the continuing battle over Anna Nicole Smith's body. Not only that, but they now throw in banners like 'Developing Story' and 'Just In' on these stories, which just confuses the hell out of me. Frankly, stories that feature these headers all seem like 'Breaking News' stories to me.

A few years ago, Fox News anchor Shepard Smith got in trouble for flubbing a report and using a phrase meaning oral sex. He didn't hear the end of it from people, and now the clip lives on forever online. But now he has someone who can identify with what happened to him, fellow Fox News anchor Jane Skinner (of "Skinnerville," as Shep likes to say every day).

Skinner was reporting recently on the war in Afghanistan, and she meant to say "top cop," but for some reason she couldn't get the word "cop" out, and said another word not once but twice. Shep was pretty funny about it, not only saying "South Carolina Gamecocks, she's a big fan!" and "We'll look for you on YouTube Jane!" And, as you can see from the video below, she has indeed made it to YouTube.

[via TV Newser]

To quote Homer Simpson, it's funny because it's true.

Bill O'Reilly tells The New York Post that David Letterman calls the FOX talk show host a "bonehead" on tomorrow night's show (Letterman tapes his Friday night shows earlier in the week). And this isn't the first time that the two have butted heads. The same thing happened the last time O'Reilly was on the show, when Letterman said that he thought 60% of everything O'Reilly says is "crap."

And it's not really a joke or something they planned ahead of time. O'Reilly says that he believes that Letterman "sincerely doesn't like me."

[via TV Tattle]

Dennis Miller's gonna be with Fox News this fall, joining Hannity & Colmes, and will also be content provider and commentator for the network's website. Does this mean we will see Norm MacDonald one day pop up as a correspondent on Nightline? Or how about Tina Fey joining Anderson Cooper 360? Nah, just kiddin'; Dennis Miller has long ago moved over from the funny side into stone-cold punditry. Fox News is exactly where he belongs. I'd like to say "Dennis, Dennis we hardly knew you," but between his first talk show, his MSNBC CNBC show, his previous Hannity & Colmes guest stints and his two-season NFL tryout at ABC, we know him pretty well.

In her daily Greatwire blog, Fox News host Greta Van Susteren reveals that she has resisted heading out to Los Angeles to cover the Michael Jackson trial (no flights after her show and Fox doesn't have a private jet - she has to eat lousy airline food...she's just like us! Except for the whole "making 6 figures a year and having her own TV show" thing), but now she's hitting the road! She's leaving for L.A. today (um, shouldn't she have gone to the trial when, you know, it was still going on?), because, for some reason, she feels that the team of reporters that Fox has out there already covering the trial simply isn't enough.