Msnbc

By writing "Thousands" attended the Glenn Beck rally ("Thousands attend Beck rally," Aug. 29), rather than the hundreds of thousands ( I know it is only a few zeros to you liberals/progressives) as reported on even NBC TV, The Baltimore Sun now ranks right up there with the New York Times and MSNBC in the race for disingenuous reporting honors. Lyle Rescott, Marriottsville

It's Easter weekend and Passover week, so why not get in the proper mood by checking out how a radio host in the world's largest market used his show, which is simulcast on a national cable news network, to acknowledge Rutgers reaching the women's national championship game. You may already have heard or seen this. On Wednesday morning, Don Imus, host of Imus in the Morning on New York's WFAN-AM and on MSNBC, called the Rutgers players "nappy-headed hos." His producer referred to them as "hardcore hos" and described the national title game between Rutgers and Tennessee as "the jigaboos vs. the wannabes."

MSNBC might sound like something you don't want in your Chinese food, but NBC and Microsoft are betting $420 million that you will want it on your television screen.MSNBC is the 24-hour all-news cable channel that arrives today in 22.5 million homes. It has been called the future of network news by a number of analysts, and, given its resources and the fact that all four of the major television networks vowed to be in the 24-hour cable news business by the end of the year, that seemed like a fairly safe assessment until recently.

Siriano, Conrad to create gowns for Emmy night Project Runway winner Christian Siriano and The Hills star Lauren Conrad are creating gowns for the Emmy Awards on Sept. 21. Siriano's selection as designer for one of the so-called "trophy girls" who hand over Emmy statues to presenters was announced yesterday. The TV academy previously said that Conrad, who's started her own clothing line, will be dressing a trophy bearer. Siriano will have Project Runway company, with the show's Heidi Klum serving as one of five reality show hosts who are to emcee the awards.

New-kid-on-the-block MSNBC proved it can play with the big boys Wednesday night by matching, and at times bettering, rival CNN's live coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.The new cable network, launched with fanfare only two days earlier, benefited from the unflappability of anchor Brian Williams and the technological superiority of New York station WNBC, which used a specially equipped helicopter to produce live pictures of the crash scene that CNN...

We had a spirited discussion Sunday on CNN's  "Reliable Sources" about Keith Olbermann's suit against Al Gore's Current TV. The video is at the end of this post, and I urge you to take a look especially at what Sharon Waxman, founder of TheWrap, has to say about Olbermann having played his games maybe once too often. Here's something Olbermann should perhaps be even more worried about: the fact that to win his suit he is going to have to trash a liberal icon in Gore. And how are Olbermann's liberal fans (however many might be left)

Interest in the conflict in Kosovo has sent viewership of the all-news cable channels soaring, according to Nielsen statistics for the first seven days of the crisis.In prime time, CNN averaged 1,084,000 homes, a jump of 79 percent above the first three weeks of March, when it averaged 604,000 homes.MSNBC, which has been slumping in prime-time ratings since the Monica Lewinsky story subsided, averaged 348,000 homes, an increase of 107 percent from 168,000 in early March.The Fox News Channel averaged 269,000 homes, up 23 percent from the 219,000 homes it averaged in the first three weeks of the month.

NEW YORK - Earlier this month, executives at the MSNBC cable news network canceled Phil Donahue's 6-month-old talk show, a level-headed panel program that the pacifist host had hoped would "break through the noisy drums of war on cable." In its place, the network simply tacked an extra hour onto its popular Countdown: Iraq, a nightly report that breathlessly awaits the first Baghdad bombings. Once again, the lucrative business of war trumped the boring business of peace. MSNBC's cancellation of Mr. Donahue - and the simultaneous ascendancy of the man he was hired to beat, Fox News Channel's dyspeptic, conservative talk show host Bill O'Reilly - points to a fever that has finally spiked on the cable news dial.

Jay Monahan, 42, a lawyer and legal analyst for NBC News and the husband of "Today" show host Katie Couric, died of cancer yesterday in New York. Mr. Monahan -- who had worked for the network for two years, often appearing on MSNBC -- underwent surgery for colon cancer June 6. The couple married in 1989 and have two daughters, Elinor, 6 1/2 , and Caroline, 2.Maj. Gen. Ralph Corbett Smith, 104, the Army's oldest surviving general officer, died Wednesday in Palo Alto, Calif. General Smith -- who served under Gen. John J. Pershing in a punitive expedition against Mexican revolutionary Francisco "Pancho" Villa -- was a combat veteran of both world wars.

The most-watched presidential primary season in TV history ended yesterday with a wild roller-coaster ride of conflicting news reports, updates, "knockdowns" and delegate countdowns that left even veteran media executives scratching their heads. "It was exactly one year ago that we televised our first debate, and it's been an incredible ride straight through to today," CNN political director Sam Feist said last night. "And what a last day for the primary season! We had one development after another - and more breaking news banners today on CNN than during any other day in recent memory."