A new Gallup study finds that television remains the leading source of news for most Americans
and that Fox News tops all
of its competitors. 

“Super PACs may be bad for America, but they’re very good for CBS.”

— CBS CEO Leslie Moonves, quoted by the New York Times.

Rupert Murdoch has admitted that his journalists paid British police for news tips ”from the day I first bought the News of the World,” The Age reports.

“In an ironic twist, it appears that Mr Murdoch has been entrapped by one of his own journalists, who secretly taped a meeting that took place in the boardroom of his company’s Wapping headquarters in London in March this year.”

Frank Rich: “Is David Gregory a journalist? As a thought experiment, name one piece of news he has broken, one beat he’s covered with distinction, and any memorable interviews he’s conducted that were not with John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Dick Durbin, or Chuck Schumer… The new, incoming leadership of NBC News has a golden opportunity to revamp Sunday morning chat by making a change at Meet the Press. I propose that Gregory be full-time on Today, where he can speak truth to power by grilling Paula Deen.”

CNN has made it official: “Crossfire” will be returning to the channel this Fall, TV Newser reports.

“CNN is poaching S.E. Cupp from MSNBC’s The Cycle to represent the right side of the table, alongside former House Speaker and Fox News contributor Newt Gingrich. Obama campaign consultant Stephanie Cutter and former White House advisor Van Jones will represent the left side of the table.”

The Faquier Times-Democrat announced in an editorial that it would no longer use the word “Democrat” in its name.

“In an age which is, perhaps, more shaped and informed by political identity than any other in our history, having a word in our banner that is so associated with a political party is no longer a very astute business decision. The same could be said if, for the last 24-plus years, we had been the Fauquier Times-Republican.”

The New Republic has a fascinating interview with the editors of Politico, John Harris and Jim VandeHei.

Nate Silver: “It’s striking how preoccupied Harris and VandeHei are with the perception that Politico is too ‘insidery’. My personal critique of their work cuts a little deeper than that, however. It’s not that they are too ‘insidery’ per se, but that the perceptions of Beltway insiders, which Politico echoes and embraces, are not always very insightful or accurate. In other words, the conventional wisdom is often wrong, especially in Washington.”

Andrew Sullivan: “The distortive effect of Politico actually corrodes democracy, in my view, because it constantly prioritizes the 6-hour news cycle and the higher inside-bullshit to tell us allegedly what is happening in Washington… We’d be better off if they disappeared into the ether. But, of course, they will continue to thrive.”

Sarah Palin is rejoining Fox News, the Washington Post reports.

“The network said Thursday that the former Republican vice presidential candidate has signed on as a contributor to Fox and the Fox Business Network. Her first appearance is scheduled for Monday on the ‘Fox & Friends’ morning show — on the same day CNN is premiering a morning show to great fanfare.”

If you haven’t finished watching House of Cards yet, you should hurry because another online-only TV show set in Washington is on the way.

The Washington Post reports that Alpha House, “a political satire about four Republican senators who live together in a rowhouse on Capitol Hill, has been ordered to series by Amazon Studios… 13 episodes will air this year and early next year.”

The show will be free to Amazon Prime subscribers. If you’re a student, join Amazon Student.

After a Pew Research report found that mothers were the sole breadwinners in 40% of American households with children, Erick Erickson said on Fox Business that it is “anti-science” to suggest that’s acceptable.

Said Erickson: “I’m so used to liberals telling conservatives that they’re anti-science. But liberals who defend this and say it is not a bad thing are very anti-science. When you look at biology — when you look at the natural world — the roles of a male and a female in society and in other animals, the male typically is the dominant role. The female, it’s not antithesis, or it’s not competing, it’s a complementary role.”

[Read more…]

Rob Lowe will play President John F. Kennedy in National Geographic’s telepic Killing Kennedy, Variety reports.

“Based on a book by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard, Killing Kennedy centers on the assassination of JFK and will debut later this year, timed with the 50th anniversary of the prez’s death.”

A press release for a new romance book, Fires of Siberia, notes the story of the female protagonist — “full of firebrand pluck and red state sex appeal” — was “inspired by the life of Tea Party leader and Republican congresswoman Michele Bachmann.”

“Scarlett Johansson and Reese Witherspoon are among actresses being considered to portray the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,” The Independent reports.

“Rodham — about the younger years of the former First Lady and senator — is due out some time around the 2016 presidential election, in which Clinton might be a candidate. It will focus on 1974, when she was a Washington lawyer.”

Fox News chief Roger Ailes sent a memo to all employees at Fox News urging them to fight the intimidation of the Obama administration, the Washington Post reports.

Wrote Ailes: ”The administration’s attempt to intimidate Fox News and its employees will not succeed and their excuses will stand neither the test of law, the test of decency, nor the test of time. We will not allow a climate of press intimidation, unseen since the McCarthy era, to frighten any of us away from the truth.”

If there’s one publication you should subscribe to during this election cycle, it’s the Cook Political Report. You’ll get overviews of the national political landscape from Charlie Cook and Amy Walter and timely ratings and analysis of every single House and Senate race from Jennifer Duffy and David Wasserman. I’ve been read a reader for more than a decade and have never been disappointed.

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“When the Justice Department began investigating possible leaks of classified information about North Korea in 2009, investigators did more than obtain telephone records of a working journalist suspected of receiving the secret material,” the Washington Post reports.

“They used security badge access records to track the reporter’s comings and goings from the State Department, according to a newly obtained court affidavit. They traced the timing of his calls with a State Department security adviser suspected of sharing the classified report. They obtained a search warrant for the reporter’s personal e-mails.”

Gawker is trying to raise $200,000 to buy the video of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine so they can publish it online.

Roll Call: “A video posted on the Politico website featuring Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s chief of staff has been taken down after the Kentucky Republican’s office objected to its placement on a page designed to solicit advertisers.”

The video features McConnell chief of staff Josh Holmes explaining why he reads the Washington publication and ends with him saying, “I’m Josh Holmes and I’m a Politico.”