MSNBC apologized to Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus and announced Thursday that it canned a social media worker who angered conservatives for tweeting that they hated biracial families.

Since everyone gets to talk on TV for money these days, why not MTV's early-'90s token conservative, too?

According to the New York Times, Hurricane Irene boosted the Weather Channel to its best ratings in its 29-year-history. America sure does love rolling around in the sticky dread of natural disasters.

Sad news for people who fondly recall childhood nights spent attempting to watch "scrambled" pornography on high-numbered cable channels, a pastime which has afflicted them with a lifelong wavy-bar fetish: the television porn industry is slowly dying. Which is completely predictable and represents nothing more than the logical progress of technology, but still. We thought you'd like to know, what with your... certain predilections.

TLC, the cable home of the pageant, will no longer air the beauty competition. Now Miss America is even more like a hobo: homeless and outdated, but still capable of inspiring Halloween costumes when all other ideas are taken. [Getty]

With cable TV rerunning our favorite movies at a vicious rate, it is hard to determine whether or not one should give up two hours to the cable gods. Finally, we have a handy formula to help us decide.

How are you cutting back during the Great Recession? Well, if you're like most Americans, you're probably eating crappier food but still watching a lot of TV. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll suggests as much, at least.

The Mainstream Media is really hoping that the presidential election will be the ticket to higher TV ratings and more newspaper sales because, man, they could really use the help. But the results so far aren't too encouraging. Instead of an explosion of people rushing home after work to catch Brian Williams' reasoned analysis of election strategy, it turns out that those people are rushing to upstart internet sites, argumentative cable news programs, and trashy magazines for their campaign coverage. Which just goes to show that-barring a nip slip-not even Barack Obama's hallowed visage can save media platforms that are on their way down. Ratings for cable shows like Hardball and Countdown have "risen sharply" during the campaign. The Politico's website is blowing up, with more readers than "more than all but 13 American newspapers." Political ads are more popular on YouTube than political news broadcasts. Us Weekly saw a bigger bump with its Obama cover than actual political magazines did. And the nightly news broadcasts just keep sadly puttering along:

Because we live to serve: