Only two weeks ago, Sue Simmons, the veteran WNBC/4 anchor, uttered an F -word that was heard around the world. And today her penalty has shocked the world of TV journalism even more.

Instead of being fired, suspended, hung by the thumbs, forced to wash her mouth...

Washington pundits are being denounced for having an undue influence on the Democratic Presidential primary. They are being cited for premature ejaculations of support for one candidate or another, ignoring the first law of political science, as enunciated by Yogi Berra, that it ain't over until it's over.

NBC, especially,...

Wall Street is baffled by Cablevision's apparent purchase of Newsday, beating out two passionate newspaper proprietors, both of whom lusted for the Long island newspaper. Mort Zuckerman of the New York Daily News and Rupert Murdoch of the New York Post were willing to pay a cheesy $580 million for...

I know the pundits are saying it's over.
As the oracle-in-chief, Tim Russert said after midnight Tuesday night on MSNBC, "We now know who the nominee is going to be, and no one's going to dispute it."
And they didn't. As Tim goes, so goes the...

Some may have thought the major battle in politics is in Indiana tomorrow, but it really was the head-to-head battle between Tim Russert's Meet the Press and This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Each show had gotten a full-hour exclusive interview with the two Democratic challengers. And NBC and ABC News...

TV journalism history was made this week when Hillary Clinton sat down for an interview with Bill O'Reilly on the Fox News Channel. Not once, but twice, on Wednesday and Thursday nights. The first part of the hour-long interview set a ratings record for "The O'Reilly Factor," with 3.6 million...

The news that Rupert Murdoch is buying Newsday did not surprise me.

Whenever he is depressed, my studies over the years as a media pathologist find, he has what he calls "an expansionist lunge."

It was this "expansionist lunge" which allowed him to already own 175 newspapers,...

While Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos are being burned in effigy for their performance in the Philadelphia TV debate last week -- for the crime of putting Obama on the defensive with relentless questioning about recent gaffes, incendiary remarks by his pastor, and association with a Weatherperson -- the subsequent...

Who will replace Katie Couric? is a question perplexing the best minds money can buy at CBS these days.

The same minds who stole Couric away from NBC for only $15 million a year until 2011.

The same minds who set Katie up for the fall. CBS...

A quintessential commentary on the state of historical literacy in the nation today was heard the other morning on the show that replaced Don Imus, "Boomer and Carton In the Morning" on Sports Radio 66 WFAN. The episode on the station, which through syndication spread Imus across the nation, featured...

If Ben Franklin was alive today he would say only three things in life are predictable, death, taxes and Petraeus-Crocker hearings on TV telling us how well we are doing in Iraq.

I was thinking about old Ben, while watching the Senate Armed Services Committee hearings starring Gen....

Okay, so you didn't like my first two scenarios about how this election is going to play out.

Scenario number one said Hillary was going to win with the superdelegates, who were going to be reminded of past indiscretions by Harold Ickes throwing the file on their...

While the candidates are racing back and forth across the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania appealing for votes in the pivotal primary -- being grilled by the media until well-done -- I am surprised the reporters have not yet raised the question: if elected, will you be inviting Barry Bonds to...

We Americans are so naïve. Every time one of our respected public officials is revealed to be a man who played around, we are shocked and dismayed. The higher the office the more amazement and disbelief.

Not you, of course, I mean the average idealist in the street. It's...

While all the polls had eggs on their faces after this real head-scratcher on Tuesday -- Zogby, for example, seemed to be giving it to Obama by a nose in Texas and Clinton by a nose in Ohio, or it may have been vice versa, so many conflicting predictions...

I don't know Arianna Huffington. I mean, I never dated the woman. In fact, I've never even met her.

But I do know Bill O'Reilly. Having had 26 interviews one-on-one with the man researching my book, The Man Who Would Not Shut Up, I am not only the world's...

As I was saying in this cyberspace the other day, it doesn't matter what happens on Tuesday in Ohio or Texas. Hillary could lose them both. Whatever the pundits are saying, she's not out until the last superdelegate refuses to cooperate or is found in the river or is...

What a race, huh?

It's hard to believe that after, what, 35 debates Kucinich is starting to look good. At least with Dennis you knew what he believed in. A bit naïve in analysis maybe, but if any of the remaining candidates had that kind of clear picture...

If we can't impeach President Bush apparently despite the multiple impeachable misdoings of his administration -- and why we can't is never quite clear to me, given the enormity of his multiple impeachment-worthy crimes, compared to Bill Clinton, who at least could claim he suffered from a medical condition...

Today (Feb. 22) is George Washington's birthday, the 276th anniversary of his birth, and a major holiday in my house. It's also the day when I usually get furious at the way it is largely ignored by media.

Why should they get excited about it? Isn't that what we have...