Washington Whispers
MSNBC, CNN Hop Democratic Wave
There's lots of buzz in the cable TV world that having Democrats running Congress will hurt Fox and help MSNBC and CNN. It certainly looked like that election night when CNN won the key viewership demographic of 25-to-54-year-olds. "We're clearly the place to go for information," CNN boss Jon Klein tells us. "Maybe the trick is that you have to actually cover politics. The public seems to be in the mood for facts and information-- not cheerleading." MSNBC, No. 3 but surging, also crowed: "MSNBC is the place for politics." So what about Fox? It simply turned to the numbers. And they show that Fox is still No. 1, with its audience growing. "We'll let the two cable news alsorans battle for second place, and we wish Jon and [MSNBC] well on their quest for relevancy," says an amused Foxie.
From Red Meat to Haute Couture
The conservative American Enterprise Institute has scrapped its magazine and replaced it with a new glossy, The American. Unlike the think tank's old political rag, the jazzy new one is all business and economics, six times per year. "Our perspective," says editor James Glassman, "is not partisan, but it is rooted in liberal, free-market economics." There are no editorials and foreign-policy manifestos. Instead, Reaganite Michael Ledeen writes about why Naples became the center of men's high fashion. It's an old model: The lively conservative American Spectator tried the same thing before finally switching back to politics.
The Ragin' Cajun, Frothing Over '08
While he doesn't plan to join up with any of the 2008 presidential candidates, Clinton political adviser James Carville is giddy with anticipation. "We'll have more run in 2008 than we've ever had," he says. Carville has the primaries mapped out and predicts "larger than life" candidates will emerge. His Democrats: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama, and former Vice President Al Gore. On the Republican side he sees Sen. John McCain, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and former Speaker Newt Gingrich fighting for the nomination. And there's a "real, real, real" chance of a third-party move.
Worse Than the White House Press
Former President Clinton is probably rethinking just how tough his White House press corps actually was. His office tells us that after he spoke in Mexico last week, reporters blocked his motorcade, then kicked and punched his security agents, prompting one to draw his weapon and order them out of the way. Clinton was fine. So what was the problema? Clinton's Jay Carson says, "Who knows?"
With Bernadine Healy M.D., Silla Brush and Angie C. Marek
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