TVSquad

Because I tend to hang out with mostly hobos and philosophy majors, about 90% of my conversations wind up in hypotheticals about the kind of superpower I would most want. While I don't yet have an answer to that worked out, I have figured out the superpower I would least want: mind reading.

Think about just how awful it would be to read another person's thoughts:

You would know for certain that your wife fantasizes about other people in bed (probably your friends). You would know for sure that your father doesn't brag to his friends about the $110 a month you make as a semi-professional blogger. You would know just exactly what websites your husband is looking at with the "private browsing" function turned on in Safari (and you would be blinded by them).

It would be horrible. And that's just the kind of world TV is making for us.

All this talk about Katie Couric's low ratings, how people don't like her, her New York interview, etc, etc. But did you know that she's actually the highest paid of the three nightly network news anchors?

Couric makes around $15 million a year. Over at NBC, Brian Williams is making around $10 million a year. Charlie...sorry, Charles Gibson? He has the most buzz right now but he actually makes the least, around $8 million a year. He didn't get a raise (nor did he want one) when he made the jump from Good Morning America to ABC World News (though I assume he'll get one when his contract is renewed in two years). He says the money thing is "irrelevent." Well, it would be to me too if I was getting $8 million a year.

So here we go again: yet more ammunition for the "Katie is bad, Charles is good" crowd.

[via TV Newser]

I'm not exactly sure what they mean by "powerful" whenever these lists come out. Does it mean influence? Does it mean the most-watched? Probably a mish-mash of both, since the list includes anchors and network executives. Here's the list, according to TV Week. Last year's rank is in parentheses.

1. Roger Ailes - Chairman and CEO of FOX News (1)

Both CNN and Fox News were fighting to get a seat in the front row of the new White House press briefing room, and CNN has won.

The White House Correspondents Association decided to give the front row seat to CNN "based on CNN's 27 years of covering The White House, as well as the resources it brings to the in-town and travel pool, and its daily prescence at the briefings."

CNN wasn't the only winner. Veteran journalist Helen Thomas, who was knocked back to the second row to make way for the cable news outlets recently, will get back her front row seat. The association has decided to honor a commitment they made to Thomas years ago. She has been covering The White House since the early 60s.

The new White House briefing room will be ready in June. (And if anyone isn't sure what that headline means, I'm referring to an old commercial with Bob Uecker.)

[via TV Newser]

First they introduced that "Doc-Bloc" at 10pm every night (oh boy, more shows about prisons and teachers who rape kids!), then they changed their on-screen graphics, and now they've made it very easy for me to watch CNN in the afternoon.

Rita Cosby is anchoring at 1pm.

Now, nothing against Cosby personally. I'm sure she's a nice woman and newsperson. But...her voice. I'm sorry, but there's no possible way that I can listen to her Brenda Vacarro-meets-Grover-from-Sesame-Street voice for two, three, four hours a day. I don't know if this is a permanent move or if she's filling in for someone, but if she's on, I'm watching CNN.

It's getting more and more clear that the only reason to watch MSNBC at all is for Countdown With Keith Olbermann, which has quickly become Must-See television.