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The reviews are in for DJ Cassidy’s 75-minute DJ set Tuesday night… and they’re coming from unusual quarters. Said conservative commentator Meghan McCain: “I’m sorry but this #DNC2024 roll call with DJ Cassidy, themed state music and party/club atmosphere is blowing the RNC’s roll call out of the water. It looks like a giant party and celebration and everyone in that room looks like they’re having a blast.”

Indeed, what is usually the low point for energy in any national political convention — the formal process in which delegates certify, state by state, what is already a foregone conclusion — became one of the most energizing and even thrilling moments of the 2024 Democratic National Convention. Politico columnist Jeff Greenfield agreed: “The convention managers deserve a Lifetime Achievement Emmy for turning what is usually the most boring part of a convention into an eye- and ear-catching spectacle.

This is it, finally, the end of the 2020 presidential election cycle. But we’still got Nov. 3 itself, and the final showdown between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, to get out of the way. PBS NewsHour will be there, as it always is, with a huge dedicated programming bloc on Tuesday’s Election Night that will be freely available to stream so long as you’ve got an internet connection and a device that can access it.

The PBS NewsHour Election Night special — which doesn’t have any kind of grandiose, catchy name — will begin at 6 p.m. Et/3 p.m. Pt, an hour before the first polls close on the East Coast and the results start to roll in. NewsHour managing editor Judy Woodruff will be running the show.

But she won’t be alone — far from it. We’ll also see Amna Nawaz, Lisa Desjardins and Amy Walter in...

In an era when consumers feel more empowered to avoid TV commercials, NBCUniversal is the latest media company to try to get them to bring ads back into their TV lives.

One of the key selling points of big streaming-video services like Netflix and Disney Plus is that subscribers don’t have to endure the commercial breaks and repeated pitches for Downy and Allstate that are so much a part of the traditional TV experience. But NBCU thinks commercial culture still has its place.

Peacock is designed to carry commercials. NBCU said it will make the service available in a free ad-supported version as well as in a “premium” variety – also ad supported – that is bundled for Comcast and Cox subscribers or for $4.99 per month for other customers.

“With more and more streaming choices and consumers feeling subscription fatigue, the $5 price point for a low-ad tier service is a viable...

The advent of festival season, with its raves and rebukes, usually prompts a cautious optimism in the indie world; there’s action out there, perhaps even at the box office. This would be welcome this year, following a 6% drop in overall box office and a 45% plummet in the specialty sector so far in 2019.

However, a very different kind of “indie” is stealing much of the fest spotlight this year. In signing deals with Martin Scorsese, Noah Baumbach, Ron Howard, Dee Rees, Steven Soderbergh and Guillermo del Toro, plus stars ranging from Meryl Streep to Adam Sandler, Netflix has ensured itself a major role in award season.

Buried in Netflix’s dizzying list of some 55 movies greenlit by Ted Sarandos and Scott Stuber are several films that already seem implanted on “must see” lists – The Irishman and Marriage Story, for example. Never before has a single production entity accounted for such a massive detonation of product.

White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway appeared on Fox News on the morning of October 29 and stirred up controversy by attributing the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre in part to late-night comedy hosts and comedians on television. Conway said these figures are partly to blame for the massacre since they freely make jokes about religion, which helps fuel anti-religion beliefs in America.

“The anti-religiosity in this country that is somehow in vogue and funny to make fun of anybody of faith, to constantly be making fun of people that express religion — the late-night comedians, the unfunny people on TV shows — it’s always anti-religious,” Conway said.

“These people were gunned down in their place of worship, as were the people in South Carolina several years ago,” Conway continued. “And they were there because they’re people of faith, and it’s that faith that needs to bring us together. This is no...

PBS political reporter and vice-presidential-debate moderator Gwen Ifill died Monday in hospice care after a battle with cancer. She was 61.

In April, Ifill took a leave from her position as the moderator and managing editor of Washington Week and co-anchor of PBS Newshour to address some health issues. At the time, a representative from the network said doctors were “encouraged with her progress, and she hopes to be back in the saddle as soon as possible.”

As late as early November, Ifill was at least in consideration for Election Night coverage: Political analyst Jeff Greenfield tweeted on Nov. 5 that he...

In the October 27, 1975 issue of New York, writer Jeff Greenfield discussed a hot new show called Saturday Night that had premiered a little over two weeks earlier. With the show celebrating its 40th anniversary this weekend, we are rerunning his review. In the midst of a fall TV season devoted to the sincerest form of flattery, NBC is trying something different. Not in prime time, of course; the dollars are too big to risk. But three weeks a month, at 11:30 on Saturday night NBC is presenting a 90-minute show which is the first attempt to program for, and with, the generation that grew up with television. Based on a first look, it is an uneven show, with all of the pitfalls and possibilities of something never tried before. But in intention, outlook, and personnel, NBC’s Saturday Night is surely the sharpest departure from the TV-comedy norm since...

Late-night comics feasted on the Brian Williams story in their first telecasts since NBC announced it was investigating its anchor and Williams temporarily stepped down from his nightly newscast.

“Finally someone is being held to account for misleading America about the Iraq War!” Jon Stewart marveled on The Daily Show. Stewart took Williams — a fave guest on the show — to task for inflating his claims about that helicopter flight in Iraq in 2003. But he savaged the press for misdirected fervor:

“Never again will Brian Williams mislead this great nation about being shot at in a war that we probably wouldn’t have ended up in if the media had applied this level of scrutiny to the actual f*cking war.”

Last week, Williams apologized on NBC Nightly News for claiming the helicopter in which he was embedded in the early period of the Iraq War was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade,...

Aaron Sorkin needs to be as satisfied with his work as anyone, confirmed by how he's launching Season 2 of "The Newsroom."

The Emmy-winning creator, producer and frequent writer of "The West Wing" and Oscar-winning writer of "The Social Network" literally went back to the drawing board after filming had started on his current HBO series' sophomore round, which begins Sunday, July 14.

He restructured the first two episodes -- which meant considerable reshooting and cost -- and rewrote the third, as many employees of the fictional Atlantis Cable News are deposed by a network lawyer (played by new cast member Marcia Gay Harden) over an aired report, a framing device that runs throughout the new stories.

"It was a very comfortable structure for me," Sorkin, whose play-turned-movie "A Few Good Men" is echoed by its use now, tells Zap2it. "With the courtroom dynamic, it's clear what the stakes are and...

Aaron Sorkin put out a call for help as he was devising Season 2 of "The Newsroom," and he ended up with something of an all-star team.

An Emmy winner for "The West Wing" and an Oscar winner for "The Social Network," the writer-producer launches Season 2 of his HBO drama series Sunday (July 14). Jeff Daniels returns to head the ensemble cast as opinionated cable news anchor Will McAvoy, but Sorkin assembled another ensemble for the sophomore season -- a group of consultants with expertise in news and world events.

Among those who answered his call: MSNBC's Chris Matthews, CNN's Ashleigh Banfield, media and politics commentator Jeff Greenfield, MSNBC personality Alex Wagner, political analyst S.E. Cupp (who recently left MSNBC for CNN's upcoming reboot of "Crossfire") and veteran network-news producer Rick Kaplan. 

"I kind of sent out the bat-signal that I was looking for an idea for a high-stakes lawsuit [story]," Sorkin tells Zap2it.

Tune in alert for "Need to Know," the 30-minute PBS weekly news magazine, as this week's anchor of will be Jeff Greenfield. The program airs January 25th on PBS at 8:30 p.m. (check local listings). Episode #304 On the second of two inauguration specials examining the advocacy group "Common Good's" proposals to end bureaucratic gridlock and get the United States moving forward, "Need to Know" anchor Jeff Greenfield explores how malpractice lawsuits contribute to rising healthcare costs. Correspondent William Brangham travels to Denmark, where medical disputes are settled by experts without ever going to court.

During an interview at New York City's 92nd Street Y over the weekend, former Gop presidential candidate Jon Huntsman told journalist and political commentator Jeff Greenfield that the current Republican party has at least one thing in common with communist China. He later appeared on Morning Joe to discuss his comments and the manner in which they've been covered by certain outlets.

This week's anchor of Need to Know, the 30-minute PBS weekly news magazine will be Jeff Greenfield. This week: While it's known for its high number of executions, Texas is taking the lead on an innovative treatment plan to keep former prisoners from committing new crimes. The goal is to build fewer prisons and, by some accounts, has already saved the state billions. Anchor Jeff Greenfield interviews Adam Gelb of the Pew Center on the States about how lawmakers in other states are embracing prison reform to reduce costs. On "American Voices,"' essayist Thomas Giovanni of the Brennan Center for Justice talks about the need for better legal representation for poor defendants. Greenfield comments on how...

Roger and I thank you for joining us as we talked about the movies each week this past year. We have enjoyed producing Ebert Presents At The Movies and hope to continue sometime in 2012. This week we produced our last show.

It is the Best and Worst Movies of 2011 and begins airing Friday night, December 30, at 8:30 pm on Wttw, Channel 11 in Chicago, and all during the weekend and next week on public television stations across the nation. (Check local listings to find out what time it comes on in your town.)

In January of this year we brought back the show that Thea Flaum and Roger and Gene Siskel started 35 years ago at Wttw. Roger made the decision to bring it back to public television after it had been broadcast successfully at Tribune Entertainment and Disney Buena Vista Television for years.

We were fortunate to find two smart and...

Episode Number: 7048 (April 7, 2011)

Guests: Jeff Greenfield

Segments: My Fair Colbert, The Koran’s Best Day Ever

Videos: Thursday, April 7, 2011

I cannot believe I waited this long to blog this. Wow, I’m behind on episode guides! I’ve always admired how Stephen pokes fun at Islam while making it amazingly crystal clear that it is a great and true religion, blessing and peace be upon them. That being said, “Mormons … ” was the best line of the whole Koran’s Best Day Ever segment. It amuses me that just mentioning a religion can be the punchline.

I cannot even begin to describe the adorableness of Stephen Colbert in the second and third segments of the “My Fair Colbert” series. The handshake montage just got funnier as Hugh Vickers got more frustrated. The way Stephen’s eyes got all shifty when he said “This one’s fresh out of the package” was...

Martha Plimpton, you lucky woman. This post may be handier than most of mine since it seems we temporarily can’t get past the first page. Hopefully the bugs will be fixed soon! Here’s All You Need To Know:

Episode Guides:

Fantasy Colbert League WeeklyEpisode 7045 – Guest Andrew ChaikinEpisode 7046 – Guest James FrancoEpisode 7047 – Guest David TangEpisode 7048 – Guest Jeff Greenfield [Coming Soon!]

The ‘Company’ he keeps

Eye Candy: More ‘Company’ rehearsal picsMore ‘Company’ goodies!Video: Stephen Colbert rehearses ‘Company’ with Martha PlimptonEye Candy: ‘Company’ Pics – April 7th performanceReview: Stephen Colbert in ‘Company’

Stephen Colbert in the Zeitgeist:

Stephen Colbert in the Zeitgeist – April 4, 2011Stephen Colbert to be featured on “Outside”magazine

To keep up with the latest news about Stephen Colbert and “The Colbert Report”, please subscribe to the RSS feed, via reader, e-mail, or your favorite social networking site:...

As I write this column (at 10:52am Eastern Time) the Us is on the verge of a government shut down. The last time this happened was in 1996 under Bill Clinton and I don't really remember it too well because I was in elementary school at the time. My biggest concern was whether or not the shut down meant the schools would close too. That answer was no, so I stopped caring immediately. This time I care a little more but I find that every time I start reading too much about what is essentially a giant pissing contest between the two parties I just get angry that it seems like none of the legislators are interested in acting in the best interests of Americans, they're just looking to score some talking points for their reelection campaign which never actually begins or ends, it's just a constant process. Anyway, with...

Hello, Everyone! It’s Monday, Monday…

Last week was amazing, what with the creation of Stephen’s Pac (love the wickedly mischievous look when he asked whether anyone had ever been prosecuted for misusing funds) and an extra day of Colbertian hijinks with Jimmy Fallon. Wasn’t that awesome fun? And all done for the good of kids everywhere. All I can say is: More! More!

The upcoming shows look fantastic—and one person I very much wanted to see a few weeks ago, who didn’t show up, is back on the schedule. Yea!

Monday, April 4th: Andrew Chaikin

This guest is thrilled to be on the show—just go to his website and the first thing you’ll see is a big image from The Colbert Report opening credits, with Stephen grasping the flag. And I’m pretty happy to have Andrew Chaikin on too, because Stephen always...

In his new book, Then Everything Changed: Stunning Alternate Histories of American Politics: JFK, Rfk, Carter, Ford, Reagan (G. P. Putnam’s Sons), senior political correspondent of CBS News Jeff Greenfield ponders highly plausible twists of fate—a slight hesitation, different route, or minor adjustment—that could have drastically altered the nation’s political trajectory. In a trio of riveting scenarios based on past accounts and fresh reporting, Greenfield plays the “what-if” game with John F. Kennedy in 1960, Robert Kennedy in 1968, and Gerald Ford in 1976. Below, Greenfield projects Rfk’s fortune (and possible presidential win) had his campaign manager Steve Smith diverted Sirhan Sirhan’s bullet in the pantry of Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel. Listen to the podcast after the jump.

Apologies for the lateness of this column, y'all. I had planned to write it on the second leg of my journey to SXSW but then my flight from Dallas to Austin was delayed. I was not totally sad about that because my flight from Miami to Dallas was Also delayed (but not until they'd loaded everyone onto the plane, obviously) and due to the efficiency of the Miami International Airport security screeners I barely made it onto that flight, so I arrived in Dallas about an hour and a half ago having eaten nothing all day. The flight delay gave me time to shove down a couple of overpriced tacos and I'm in a Far better mood that I would be otherwise. Really hope none of you had big TV dreams for tonight because for the second week in a row the NBC comedy block and the ABC medical drama...

Has everyone indulged in some Ben & Jerry’s this weekend? I’m still flying high from the deliciousness that was Thursday’s show, and the pure joy generated by Stephen, Jimmy, and Jon. Thank you guys for one of the happiest and funniest episodes ever. You looked like you were having loads of fun, and we did too. You are all definitely my sundae with the hot fudge and cherry on top.

Now let’s see what Stephen has in his ice cream dish for this week….

Monday, 3/7: Joshua Foer

“Memories…in the corner of my mind. Misty watercolor memories….” The name that goes with a face, the place you left your keys, the right question to a Jeopardy answer: all these are things you might forget—but Joshua Foer won’t. Foer has become what is known as a “memory athlete,” someone who tests his skills at total recall in competitions,...

Getty

In his new book, “Then Everything Changed,” Jeff Greenfield plays God, re-writing major historical events and speculating on the outcomes. The three intriguing scenarios: what if JFK was killed in 1960 by a suicide bomber; what if Bobby Kennedy wasn’t assassinated in 1968 and became president; and what if Gerald Ford didn’t make a critical gaffe while discussing communism in a 1976 debate and beat Jimmy Carter. Speakeasy talked to the noted political analyst.

The Wall Street Journal: How did the book come about?...

Chicago – The balcony is officially open and back in business at Wttw Chicago, the same network where Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel hosted “Sneak Previews” roughly 35 years ago. On Friday, Jan. 21 at 8:30pm Cst, public television stations nationwide will premiere “Roger Ebert Presents At the Movies,” the latest reinvention of the celebrated TV series championing the art of film criticism.

Christy Lemire of The Associated Press and Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of Mubi.com will serve as co-hosts of the program, which is executive produced by Ebert and his wife Chaz, and directed by “Siskel & Ebert” veteran Don Dupree. The hosts will be joined each week by an alternating group of contributing critics offering their own distinctive segments on cinema. Kim Morgan of Sunset Gun, Omar Moore of The Popcorn Reel, Kartina Richardson of Mirrorfilm.org, Jeff Greenfield of CBS, Nell Minow of Beliefnet.com, and David Poland of Movie City...

Christy Lemire of The Associated Press and Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of Mubi.com will be the co-hosts of "Ebert Presents at the Movies." The two experienced and respected critics will also introduce special segments featuring other contributors and the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Roger Ebert.

The new weekly program debuts Jan. 21 on public television stations in 48 of the top 50 markets, representing more than 90% national coverage. It will be produced in Chicago at Wttw, where Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert began taping "Sneak Previews" some 35 years ago.

"It was pretty emotional for me, walking down the same corridors, into the same studios, even meeting some of the same camera operators, editors and stagehands we worked with," Ebert said.

The executive producer of the program will be his wife, Chaz. The director will be Don Dupree, who logged 15 years as director of "Siskel & Ebert" and "Ebert & Roeper." Ebert will be a co-producer and host a weekly segment.

Veteran journos Michael Wolff and Jeffrey Toobin may want to pull an "Odd Couple" number and share an apartment. As we reported yesterday, the very married Wolff, 55, has clammed up over reports he's been having an affair with gorgeous Victoria Floethe, 28, who works at his newser.com blog. Now, CNN legal correspondent and New Yorker writer Toobin, 48, who's married, is staying mum about a report that he and sexy lawyer Casey Greenfield, 35, the Yale-educated daughter of CBS newsman Jeff Greenfield, have a relationship that "crossed the line." Gawker.com pushed that claim further,...

The Presidential Inauguration is just around the corner and the news stations are gearing up for non-stop coverage of the historic event. News anchor Katie Couric will anchor "The Inauguration Of The 44th President," CBS News' live, comprehensive broadcast and online coverage of Inauguration Day. CBS will cover all ceremonies, as well as key interviews and analysis from the CBS News Inauguration Team, on January 20 from Washington, D.C.

Celebrity News Service has learned that Couric will also anchor a live, one-hour primetime special, "Change And Challenge: The Inauguration of Barack Obama" at 9/8c and a live webcast on CBSNews.com and CNET.com at 10:00 Pm, Et.

Joining Couric in Washington, D.C. will be Chief Washington Correspondent Bob Schieffer, Senior Political Correspondent Jeff Greenfield, CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Chip Reid, CBS News Congressional Correspondent Nancy Cordes and CBS News Correspondents Sharyl Attkisson, Jim Axelrod, Jeff Glor,...

Here I was all set to go Elitist on the country singer Lee Greenwood, and I pulled the rug out from under myself. I shared Rachel Maddow's incredulity that the limping duck George W. Bush had appointed Greenwood to the National Council of the Arts. I even had my first two sentences written in my head: "Remember how the Bush takeover squad at the White House complained the Clintonites had unplugged all the PCs on their way out the door? As he steadfastly marches toward his own sunset, it is Bush himself who seems unplugged."

Zing! Totally unfair, but snappy, Bush had two vacancies to fill on the Nca, one for three years, one for six. Greenwood got the six-year term. He'll be the gift that keeps on giving every day during Obama's first term. The Council's job is to advise the National Endowment for the Arts on how to spend its money.

St. Paul, Minn. -- It's about 10 minutes after Sen. John McCain has finished his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.

Moments after the CBS News TV coverage ends, the cameras are still rolling on Katie Couric, Bob Schieffer and Jeff Greenfield. But this time it's for the Web, and they aren't immediately talking about McCain's historic speech. Earth, Wind and Fire is playing as the balloons drop behind them.

"This is the best song I've heard all week, I have to be honest with you," Couric tells them. "On the music front, not too good." Greenfield offers that he heard bluegrass standard "Rocky Top" outside and Schieffer, who leads a band himself, mentions Chuck Berry.

It's not exactly what you'd expect out of the box from the three veteran journalists on the "CBS Evening News." But this isn't that vaunted newscast. Instead, it's a bridge between that older-skewing telecast...

New York -- It was a busy Monday at the intersection of TV and politics.

The day began with the announcement that NBC News senior vp Mark Whitaker will take over duties as the network's Washington bureau chief in the post held by Tim Russert, who died in June.

Hours later, veteran conservative political commentator Robert Novak issued a statement revealing that he is being treated for a brain tumor and will suspend his journalistic duties.

And soon after that, CBS News became the first network unit to announce its coverage plans for the Republican and Democratic conventions.

CBS News will provide an hour of coverage on three of the four nights of each of the party nominating conventions, with plans to skip the opening nights. All the broadcast networks have gone back and forth with convention organizers in terms of how much coverage they would give. In recent years, the broadcast nets have carved out an hour a night, beginning with the second day of the convention.

That means the Democratic convention in Denver will have an hour of coverage from 10-11 p.m. Aug. 26-28. Barack Obama's acceptance speech will be in that 10 p.m. window on the final night.

The next week, CBS will televise an hour of Republican coverage from St. Paul, Minn., on Sept. 2-4, including John McCain's acceptance speech at 10 p.m. Sept. 4.

"CBS Evening News" anchor Katie Couric will anchor the coverage, assisted by "Face the Nation" moderator Bob Schieffer and political analyst Jeff Greenfield. Harry Smith will cover for "The Early Show" in Denver, and Maggie Rodriguez will do likewise in St. Paul.

News of Novak's diagnosis came in a statement released by his publisher, Eagle Publishing. Novak said he will begin treatment at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

"I will be suspending my journalistic work for an indefinite but, God willing, not too lengthy period," the statement said.

The editor of the Evans-Novak Political Report was a longtime co-host of CNN's "Crossfire" and after leaving that network began to work as a contributor at Fox News Channel. Novak last appeared on Fox News on July 23 on "Fox & Friends."

At NBC, Whitaker, who had been No. 2 to NBC News president Steve Capus, will continue to report to Capus and remain a senior vp when he takes over for Russert.

"Mark's got all of the components that will assure his success: a commitment to journalistic integrity, political savvy, a keen eye for the future and a management style that is inclusive and fair," Capus said. There was no word on who would take Whitaker's job in New York.

The chief job will include management of the D.C. bureau plus oversight of "Meet the Press" and election and political coverage. NBC News said Whitaker will work closely with political director Chuck Todd as well as Russert's deputies, Wendy Wilkinson and Brady Daniels. Whitaker was the editor of Newsweek from 1998-2006.

"I recognize how important it was to NBC. Tim was an incredible loss and this bureau is incredibly important to NBC, to everything we do on the network," said Whitaker, who already was overseeing political and election coverage from New York.

The other part of Russert's job, moderator of "Meet the Press," won't be filled permanently until after the November election. Tom Brokaw has been the moderator in the interim.

Robin 'gets' it

Headline News' Robin Meade had the first inter view yesterday with the three Americans held hostage in a Colom bian jungle for the past five years. Speak ing of Head line News, congrats to "Nancy Grace" Ep Dean Sicoli and wife Karin on the arrival of Wil liam Thomas.

* * *

Ch. 7's Bill Evans will spon sor a golf outing this fall to benefit Long Island's Breast Cancer Help, Inc., which needs funds to buy a mam mography unit they'll use to provide mammograms for anyone in need.

ASPEN, Colo. -- The unlikely duo of Stephen Colbert and CNN's Jeff Greenfield kept a huge crowd in stitches here Friday night at an event that was one of the highlights of this year's U.S. Comedy Arts Festival.

During the show, Colbert was honored with the first-ever USCAF Person of the Year award -- a tongue-in-cheek honor for a comedian who made an impact on the world.

"Thank you very much, Greenfield," Colbert said in his trademark Colbert Report character when he came out on stage to huge applause. "I'm not afraid of you -- you Washington elite press types."

The two had some particularly well-received exchanges.

Colbert, in character, at one point said: "You have no cult about your personality." To which Greenfield replied: I have no personality.

Later on, Colbert quipped that Greenfield must be trying to get his own TV show out of interviewing him on stage in front of a large industry crowd. We tried that, Greenfield shot back. I said, You know, why don't we treat the audience as more -- as really intelligent and thoughtful beings?"

Replied Colbert: Terrible idea.

Colbert received various video tributes, including from John Stewart, Steve Carell and John Edwards."...

Fox News chief Roger Ailes on Tuesday defended the top-rated cable news channel from an antiwar heckler while deflecting some good-natured ribbing from former Vice President Al Gore about a perceived rightward tilt at Fox. Ailes, during a discussion about the media's role in democracy at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, also endorsed the integrity of many bloggers, a sentiment shared by U.S. News and World Report publisher Mortimer Zuckerman, also onstage. CNN's Jeff Greenfield set the spirited exchange in motion by mentioning a Pew study that found that 52% of Fox News viewers are Republican and only 13% are Democrats.

Fox News chief Roger Ailes defended the top-rated cable news channel from a heckler while also deflecting some good-natured ribbing from former Vice President Al Gore on Tuesday night about a perceived rightward tilt at Fox. Ailes, during a discussion about the media's role in democracy at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, also endorsed the integrity of many Internet bloggers, a sentiment shared by U.S. News and World Report publisher Mortimer Zuckerman, also on stage. CNN's Jeff Greenfield set the spirited exchange in motion by mentioning a Pew study claiming that 52% of Fox News viewers are Republican while only 13% are Democrats. "I don't know the relevance of a Pew study," Ailes said. "I do know that 100% of the people who work there are liberals." Gore lamented, in hushed tones followed by thundering oratory, that the political dialogue is not in Congress as it has historically been, but instead in "30-second television commercials that are not the Federalist Papers." Gore's animated demeanor prompted Greenfield to wonder aloud how he earned a reputation for being a stiff and dispassionate public speaker. Quipped Gore, in a voice that mocked TV anchormen: "Al Gore distinguished himself tonight from the wooden podium behind him."...

TiVo or not TiVo? The effect that new digital devices like personal video recorders have on the television business was one of many issues batted around Thursday during the Hollywood Radio & Television Society's annual luncheon session with the entertainment chiefs of the six major broadcast networks. NBC Entertainment president Jeff Zucker argued that concerns among some in the industry about the commercial-zapping features on TiVo driving advertising dollars away from network TV are really much ado about nothing. "It's a wholly overblown premise," Zucker said during the roundtable discussion moderated by CNN's Jeff Greenfield at the Regent Beverly Wilshire hotel in Beverly Hills. "It's the people here in this room (who own TiVos), and that's not going to change in the next few years." ABC Entertainment president Susan Lyne noted that for many viewers, TiVo-like devices offer little that they can't already get from a VCR. "The VCR allowed you to watch movies at home -- that was of value to consumers," Lyne said, adding that "it will be a long time" before PVRs have the same impact as VCRs. But WB Network entertainment president Jordan Levin sounded a contrarian note. "We're actually very nervous about it. We talk about it all the time," Levin said.