Fox News “had its worst ratings since 2001 in January,” Politico reports.

“The network had a 12-year low in the coveted 25-54 demographic in primetime and fell to its lowest total day ratings since 2008.”

James Carville and Mary Matalin will not be continuing their contracts with CNN, according to FishbowlDC.

A Smart Politics review of the more than 150 Fox News broadcasts in which Sarah Palin appeared as a paid commentator from 2010 through 2012 finds that she spoke 189,221 words on air during this span, for an average pay rate of $15.85 per word.

The Wrap: Sarah Palin and Fox News split.

Although Sarah Palin just lost her platform at Fox News, she tells Breitbart News that she’s been able to “free up opportunities” to “share more broadly” her message.

Said Palin: “I was raised to never retreat and to pick battles wisely, and all in due season. When it comes to defending our republic, we haven’t begun to fight! But we delight in those who underestimate us.”

Sarah Palin’s contract with Fox News has ended and it is not being renewed, the New York Times reports.

“A Fox spokeswoman confirmed Friday that Fox had parted ways with the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee, effectively reducing her exposure to the channel’s millions of loyal viewers. It was unclear whether the parting was Ms. Palin’s choice, but it was described as amicable.”

A source close to Palin tells Real Clear Politics that Fox News offered Palin a contract but she turned it down.

Former Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) has signed on as a regular contributor to Fox News, the AP reports.

Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes said he’s “always been impressed with Kucinich’s fearlessness and thoughtfulness on the issues.”

Shortly after announcing that he was reinventing The Blaze as a global libertarian news network, the Dallas Observer reports Glenn Beck announced “the next stage of his full-bodied embrace of libertarianism, which seems to be a massive commune inspired by ‘Galt’s Gulch,’ Ayn Rand’s utopian community in Atlas Shrugged.”

The host of Meet the Press, David Gregory, will not be arrested or charged with a crime for waving what he claimed was a high-capacity ammunition gun clip on national television last month, the Washington Post reports.

Out in April: This Town by Mark Leibovich.

The book is described as “a blistering, penetrating, controversial — and often hysterical — look at Washington’s incestuous ‘media industrial complex.'”

An exciting announcement.

Interesting tidbit from the New York Times on the sale of Current TV:

“Mr. Gore and his partners were eager to complete the deal by Dec. 31, lest it be subject to higher tax rates that took effect on Jan. 1… But the deal was not signed until Wednesday.”

New York Daily News: “In a fitting coda to 2012, we’ve learned that the ratings for rock-ribbed conservative Sean Hannity cratered after Barack Obama won his second term, with viewers tuning out the Fox News Channel talk-show host in droves.”

“According to Nielsen numbers, Hannity lost around half of his audience in the weeks after the election, while his Fox News colleague Bill O’Reilly — who steadfastly refuses to identify himself politically as a conservative — retained around 70% of his audience.”

Former New York Gov. Eilot Spitzer (D) talked to Fishbowl DC about his gig as host of a Current TV show.

Said Spitzer: “Nobody’s watching, but I’m having a great time. I don’t mean to be facetious, but I am really enjoying myself. It’s like having a cocktail party with friends every night.”

He added: “Somebody needs to buy the network.”

Gabriel Sherman: “According to sources, David Clark, the executive producer in
charge of Fox’s weekend coverage, gave producers instructions not to
talk about gun-control policy on air… The directive created a rift inside the
network…  During the weekend, one frustrated producer went around
Clark to lobby Michael Clemente, Fox’s executive vice-president for
news editorial, but Clemente upheld the mandate.”

Peggy Noonan: “I find both Mr. Ryan’s and Mr. Rubio’s media expertise mildly harrowing–look at the prompter here, shake your head here, lower your voice there, raise it here, pick up your pace in this section. An entire generation of politicians in both parties has been too trained in media, and to their detriment. They are very smooth but it doesn’t make them seem more convincing, it makes them seem phonier. My old boss [Mr. Reagan] had actually been an actor, but he didn’t seem like a phony. He talked like a normal person at a podium, with a nice voice, and occasionally stumbling. It’s not bad to be human when you’re trying to appeal to humans.”

Brad Phillips lists the 10 worst media disasters for 2012 and eight are about politics.

Meanwhile, Stu Rothenberg has the best and worst of the 2012 campaigns.

The company that made Bristol Palin’s reality TV show about raising her child has collected a $354,348 subsidy from the state of California, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports.

Michael Grunwald: “I realize that the GOP’s up-is-downism puts news reporters in an awkward position. It would seem tendentious to point out Republican hypocrisy on deficits and Medicare and stimulus every time it comes up, because these days it comes up almost every time a Republican leader opens his mouth. But we’re not supposed to be stenographers. As long as the media let an entire political party invent a new reality every day, it will keep on doing it. Every day.”