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CBS sending Couric to Iraq 'Evening News' anchor sets Mideast trip By MICHAEL LEARMONTH Get ready for Katie Couric -- Phase II. One year after Couric jumped from NBC's "Today" to CBS in a big-money talent deal, the "Evening News" anchor is embarking on a high-risk tour of Iraq and Syria to revive the broadcast. Announcement comes just days after an Iraqi translator working for CBS was killed in Baghdad. CBS said Monday the translator had been found dead following his abduction just hours after leaving work at CBS News' Baghdad bureau. Couric has never been to Iraq, and she...

On Tuesday's Countdown show, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann fretted about an Oval Office meeting of President Bush and several conservative talk radio hosts -- verbally tagged by Olbermann as "right-wing radio yackers" and labelled on-screen as the "Legion of Doom" -- as the Countdown host contended that Bush was devoting "90 minutes worth of your taxpayer dollars" to the meeting. And in an amusing faux pas, Olbermann's staff, for the second time in less than a year, accidentally displayed a photograph of former liberal Democratic Senator Max Cleland instead of conservative talk radio host Neal Boortz. During the show's opening...

CRAWFORD, Texas - President Bush is taking time to explain himself, open up to the public in new ways and court Congress as he tries to breathe life into a presidency beset by sagging ratings and influence. With a job approval rating under 40 percent, Bush, who went to his Crawford ranch for a quiet weekend, has a long way to go. Aides acknowledge it will take a while to rebuild his image, and much will depend on the outcome of the Iraq war. White House staffers, who have long limited the president’s appearances to speeches and photo opportunities with...

'Hardball' host Chris Matthews discussed the latest in the Plame leak case with MSNBC's Amy Robach on Wednesday morning. Here's an excerpt of what he had to say: ...............If there are indictments, they're going to be probably in the vice president's office, they're probably going to come next week and they are going to blow this White House apart. It's going to be unbelievable. I think the people watching right now who are voters better start paying attention to this issue. It's not just about whether somebody's name was leaked, it's about whether we went to war under false pretenses...

A high-ranking executive siphons off government money intended for inner-city children. The company tries to wash its hands of the problem. Where is the New York Times to cover the story? Where are Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton to demand money and an apology? We're talking about Air America's emerging charity scandal. Liberals wish it would go away. It won't, not least because over the weekend it emerged that New York state attorney general Eliot Spitzer has opened an investigation. Like the New York City Department of Investigation, his office wants to find out what happened to the more than...

WHAT DID AL FRANKEN KNOW, and when did he know it? When Air America launched last year, it was the beneficiary of more free publicity than any radio show or network launch had ever received. So desperate was the mainstream media to find some left-leaning response to the Limbaugh-led revolution in talk radio that the many and obvious flaws in the network's offerings went largely unreported. Those of us who have been around radio studios for a few years know, though, that launch hype and selective reading of Arbitron results can never mask the key question: Is a show profitable?...

Tuesday, August 2 Michelle Malkin and Hugh Hewitt pulling Air Ameriscam threadsOnce again doing the job of mainstream media, these two biggies of the blogosphere, Michelle Malkin and Hugh Hewitt, spent a couple of segments earlier this afternoon comparing notes on the Gloria Wise/Air America scandal, which appears to have the liberal radio network getting their startup financing literally out of the hands of a boys and girls club in the Bronx. Here's the interview:HH: Michelle, welcome back to the Hugh Hewitt show.MM: Thanks for having me back, Hugh, and thanks for helping force this story into the mainstream....

The New York Sun takes on the Air America story today and advances it by leaps and bounds, talking with the president of the non-profit which had its money taken by Air America founder Evan Cohen. It turns out that Cohen didn't just get money for the netlet, but also managed to get plenty for his own pockets as well while sitting on the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club board: Initially, members of the executive committee viewed Mr. Cohen fondly because he had thrown a tremendously successful fund-raising affair for Gloria Wise in Manhattan last year. They recalled being...

Where are they? Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are the supermen of the civil rights establishment — able to leap tall buildings in a single bound to get in front of a picket line. When victim politics calls, the demagogic duo leap into patented action: March. Boycott. Shakedown. Repeat. But the raging reverends are nowhere to be found as a scandal involving the liberal radio network Air America and a Bronx, N.Y.-based inner city charity for poor children brews. Why the silence?

AIR ENRON By Michelle Malkin   ·   August 02, 2005 05:57 AM David Lombino of The New York Sun continues to move the Air America story forward. According to Lombino's latest article, Al Franken revealed that Air America's current owners have known about the loan from Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club for some time: Mr. Franken said he has learned details of the story only in the last week. He said Piquant LLC, current owner and operator of the radio network, found a record of the transfers while conducting a "forensic" investigation into the finances of the previous owner, Progress...

LOS ANGELES - The boxing saga "Million Dollar Baby" was the Academy Awards (news - web sites) heavyweight Sunday, claiming best picture and three other trophies, including honors for director Clint Eastwood (news), lead-actress Hilary Swank and supporting-actor Morgan Freeman (news). Martin Scorsese's "The Aviator" came away with the most Oscars (news - web sites), its five awards including the supporting-actress prize for Cate Blanchett (news). Eastwood, who at 74 became the oldest directing winner ever, noted his mother was with him when his Western "Unforgiven" won the 1992 best-picture and directing Oscar. "She's here with me again tonight, so...

Magazine takes shot at Laredo By Adriana Arce Times staff writer Laredo took a blow last year when it was rated the worst city to live in. This year its being called one of the dumbest. "Mens Health" magazine recently released an article, "Is Your City Stupid?" ranking cities based on the number of bachelor degrees per capita, number of universities and inhabitants SAT scores. The researchers also considered state creativity scores assessed by the Catalytix and the Richard Florida Creativity Group and the number of Nobel Prize winners for physics and medicine born within city limits. Among 101 cities...

<p>Amanpour: CNN practiced self-censorship CNN's top war correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, says that the press muzzled itself during the Iraq war. And, she says CNN "was intimidated" by the Bush administration and Fox News, which "put a climate of fear and self-censorship." As criticism of the war and its aftermath intensifies, Amanpour joins a chorus of journalists and pundits who charge that the media largely toed the Bush administrationline in covering the war and, by doing so, failed to aggressively question the motives behind the invasion.</p>

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