24 Hour News Networks

(Newser) - Barack Obama's apparent choice for surgeon general, Sanjay Gupta, is drawing fire from within his own party, ABC News reports. John Conyers of Michigan, the House Judiciary Committee chair, sent a letter to his fellow legislators today encouraging them to join him in protesting the nomination of the CNN fixture as "not in the best interests of the nation"—and spelling the celebrity neurosurgeon's first name "Sunjay." More »

(Newser) - MSNBC Morning Joe co-anchor Mika Brzezinski “was very scared” when she was mugged early this morning outside a Washington hotel, the Post reports. As she waited for a car, a man approached her and said, “Give me your money and you won’t get hurt.” Brzezinski gave him the only money she had: $6—though he asked for $20. More »

(Newser) - After 12 years as co-host of Hannity & Colmes, the liberal half of the Fox News standby, Alan Colmes, will leave the show at the end of the year. He's working on a weekend show for the network, which will keep him on as a commentator, Broadcasting & Cable reports. "I’ll genuinely miss sparring with such a skillful debate partner," Sean Hannity said. More »

(Newser) - Conservatives are beating their war drums with warnings that the Obama administration will torpedo them by reinstituting the so-called fairness doctrine. If he does—the policy calls for broadcasters to air opposing viewpoints—it could be big trouble for Rush Limbaugh and another denizens of the right-wing talk circuit. But Marin Cogan of the New Republic finds little or no evidence that Obama will do so. More »

(Newser) - ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption , a show in which two sports writers “make fun of each other’s male pattern baldness and argue about sports,” often at high volume, is on many fans’ watch list, including political scientist Christopher A. Cooper. Unfortunately, PTI “has ruined American politics,” Cooper writes in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution , as cable news shows have applied the formula far too broadly. More »

(Newser) - MSNBC is putting a 7-second muzzle on Joe Scarborough, after the Morning Joe host accidentally uttered the F-word during Monday’s show. Though cable networks are immune from FCC decency rules, MSNBC confirmed that it was instituting the delay to prevent a repeat incident and noted it had done the same thing for Don Imus when his gums flapped a little to wide. More »

(Newser) - Thank you, Roger Ailes. Sure, your Fox News Channel still specializes in misinformation, distortion, and right-wing fairy tales, but “I’m no longer sure this is a bad thing,” writes Harold Meyerson in the Washington Post. The GOP needs to move in a new direction and cast off its pet obsessions, and thanks to Fox, it can’t do either—pet obsessions are Fox’s bread-and-butter. More »