Cnn

I promised myself I was going to give CNN's new weeknight host Erin Burnett a full week of shows before I reviewed her. It was hard keeping that promise Monday night when I saw her pay a visit to the Occupy Wall Street encampment so she could look down her nose and mock the folks there. I thought it downright cruel the way she and her producer cut one kid from the herd and then tried to make him look like a fool. This was cool kids mocking outsiders on the playground, and it made me angry.

Outside of CNN's performance on the night of Iowa caucuses, no one's election-related TV coverage excited me as much as that provided by Politico last week on Super Tuesday. I heard and saw it on C-SPAN radio and TV. Politico had been streaming such coverage, but Super Tuesday was the first time it was carried nationally by C-SPAN. The good news, Politico will be back on C-SPAN tonight with Campaign 2012 coverage starting at 7 p.m. Politico's HD livestream coverage starts at 6:30.

On Monday night, CNN, the New Hampshire Union Leader and other sponsors will hold a debate in New Hampshire -- and Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Herman Cain, Tim Pawlenty, Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum will all be attending.  That's virtually every major declared Republican candidate. Except one. And that exclusion -- and the reasoning behind it -- is downright puzzling.  Meet Gary Johnson. He's a two-term governor of New Mexico. (That's one more term than Mitt Romeny and almost two terms more than Sarah Palin.)

Dr. Sanjay Gupta , the Atlanta neurosurgeon who has developed a high profile as CNN's chief medical correspondent, has penned a novel in his spare time. But in true multi-tasker fashion, Gupta has made sure that "Monday Mornings" is more than a book -- it's being turned into a TV pilot. Gupta and TV writer David E. Kelley ("Ally McBeal" and "Boston Legal") are executive producers of the show, "Chelsea General," which focuses on five doctors as they face the realities of having made mistakes, CNN reports.

It would be hard to find a better lineup of celebrity performers or a bigger TV event tonight than the second annual CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute that honors ordinary people who have achieved extraordinary accomplishments in their communities and beyond. The program, which is hosted by CNN anchor Anderson Cooper from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, will be broadcast to a global audience starting tonight at 9. Alicia Keys and John Legend headline the performers. During the show, CNN will honor 10 heroes and reveal the CNN Hero of the Year, who will receive an additional $100,000.

Veteran journalist Walter Isaacson said yesterday that he will step down as chairman and CEO of the CNN networks to head the prestigious Aspen Institute, a nonprofit group dedicated to the study of global problems. He will be replaced by Jim Walton, a 22-year veteran of CNN who has served as Isaacson's top deputy. Isaacson's departure came at a surprising time: Stephen M. Case, the chairman of parent company AOL Time Warner, announced his resignation over the weekend. "This opportunity was unexpected and unsolicited, and the timing is not perfect, but it is exactly the type of job I have long wanted," Isaacson wrote in a memo to CNN staffers.

Now that the Persian Gulf war is over, CNN has released a video on how it began."Desert Storm: The War Begins," which explores the background of the conflict and ends with the first day of actual fighting, should be in video stores and supermarkets shortly if it's not there already. Turner Home Entertainment began distributing about 300,000 copies of the 1-hour, 17-minute tape about a week ago.Anchored by Cable News Network's Bernard Shaw, the tape includes footage of war leaders such as Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, excerpts of an interview with Saddam Hussein and reporting by CNN correspondents -- including that of Mr. Shaw, Peter Arnett and John Holliman in Baghdad the first night that it was bombed.

In November, I advanced one of CNN's  debates with a piece hoping aloud that Wolf Blitzer would not let Newt Gingrich bully him as the the former Speaker of the House had been doing to other debate moderators. Here's a bit of what I wrote: And so it is that I will come to TV tonight hoping to see one of the few anchors who has the stature and the credibility to call out Gingrich take the candidate of bluster on for his phony game of pounding the press by telling moderators how "stupid" (one of his favorite words)

With a caucus vote so close that the cable channels had to wait until all the votes were finally tallied at 2:34 a.m. Wednesday to declare a winner, Iowa was no place to be Tuesday night for media amateurs and ideologues. Which is to say there was only one TV place to be: CNN. Forget all the technological razzle-dazzle of "the flick" and a new and improved Magic Wall. Ignore the utterly confusing social-media map and the silliness of virtual "Weebles" to try and explain how caucuses work.

I'm coming back to work after a much-needed week away, and I am starting with a busy day Sunday that opens in Washington at CNN's "Reliable Sources. " Host Howard Kurtz has a very strong lineup this week. Here's his description from the CNN website: Another week and another debate hit our TV screens with just over two weeks to go until the Iowa caucus. We'll have “The Press Pool” host Julie Mason, National Review senior editor Ramesh Ponnuru, and Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank to talk about the latest political headlines.

After three pieces, it seems like I have been writing about HBO's 'Game Change" all week. But I am really looking forward to discussing it Sunday morning on CNN's"Reliable Sources" with host Howard Kurtz and TVNewser columnist Gail Shister. We'll also be talking about Bill Maher's $1 million donation to a President Barack Obama PAC. Other topics include campaign coverage, Rick Santorum's attack on the press and reporting in Syria. Here's Kurtz's description of the show, which airs at 11 a.m. (EST)

Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley played surrogate for the Obama administration Sunday morning, appearing on CNN's State of the Union to offer his views on the GOP presidential nomination fight, the president's chances for re-election and the economy. O'Malley was paired with Republican Gov. Robert McDonnell of Virginia for the roughly 10 minute piece. Each chairs his respective party's governors association. O'Malley had the in-studio advantage, sitting across the table from CNN host Candy Crowley.

Yessssssss. God is in his heaven, and for a couple of minutes Thursday night during CNN's  GOP debate, the relationship between the press and grandstanding TV politicians was finally back in balance. When moderator Wolf Blitzer asked Newt Gingrich if he would like to repeat a criticism he had made earlier this week of Mitt Romney for not being transparent enough about his finances, Gingrich put on his best headmaster face and told the veteran journalist in his most condescending tone, "... This is a nonsense question.

In November, I advanced one of CNN's  debates with a piece hoping aloud that Wolf Blitzer would not let Newt Gingrich bully him as the the former Speaker of the House had been doing to other debate moderators. Here's a bit of what I wrote: And so it is that I will come to TV tonight hoping to see one of the few anchors who has the stature and the credibility to call out Gingrich take the candidate of bluster on for his phony game of pounding the press by telling moderators how "stupid" (one of his favorite words)

With a caucus vote so close that the cable channels had to wait until all the votes were finally tallied at 2:34 a.m. Wednesday to declare a winner, Iowa was no place to be Tuesday night for media amateurs and ideologues. Which is to say there was only one TV place to be: CNN. Forget all the technological razzle-dazzle of "the flick" and a new and improved Magic Wall. Ignore the utterly confusing social-media map and the silliness of virtual "Weebles" to try and explain how caucuses work.

CNN received a lot of praise for its "Magic Wall" technology during its 2008 coverage. And John King, who worked the touch-screen electoral maps, like no one else was rightfully celebrated in connection with it by me and many others. So, none of this is exactly new -- except the degree to which I was newly impressed watching King and Ralph Reed Monday night at one of the electronic maps explaining the evangelical road that might lie ahead for GOP candidate Rick Santorum after tonight's Iowa caucuses.

CARLISLE, Pa -- CBS News anchor Dan Rather says CNN i primarily an "electronic wire service" for an elite audience that provides too little perspective for breaking news.Mr. Rather said all national TV news broadcasts -- including his "CBS Evening News" -- are "not very good as far as depth is concerned." But he contended that the major over-the-air TV broadcasts do a better job of filling in the background than does CNN."Among broadcasters, I think, Cable News is lagging at the moment in terms of analysis and background, context and perspective on stories," Mr. Rather remarked as a lecture on press coverage at the Army War College on Monday.

SAN DIEGO -- CNN cable news has become "the publicist for an enemy propaganda film" by broadcasting a tape showing an insurgent sniper apparently killing an American soldier, the chairman of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee said yesterday. Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California Republican, called for the Pentagon to oust immediately any CNN reporter embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq. "I think Americans like to think we're all in this together," Hunter said. "The average American Marine or soldier has concluded after seeing that film that CNN is not on their side."

I'm coming back to work after a much-needed week away, and I am starting with a busy day Sunday that opens in Washington at CNN's "Reliable Sources. " Host Howard Kurtz has a very strong lineup this week. Here's his description from the CNN website: Another week and another debate hit our TV screens with just over two weeks to go until the Iowa caucus. We'll have “The Press Pool” host Julie Mason, National Review senior editor Ramesh Ponnuru, and Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank to talk about the latest political headlines.

Based on the number of televised GOP candidate debates in 2008, we are just about halfway through the process with tonight's CNN-hosted debate on foreign policy. I am encouraged by the big audiences of up to 6 million tuning in for some of the debates. But I am dismayed by some of the show biz priorities the cable channels are surrendering themselves to in hopes of getting a piece of that tasty Nielsen pie. I am thinking here of CNBC using Jim Cramer as a moderator, and him sounding like Gilbert Gottfried in his first screaming, squawking question to the candidate.