MSNBC is still not comfortable with the idea that it is the liberal counterweight to Fox News. Executives at the cable news network bristle at the comparison, claiming that while individual "point of view" shows like Keith Olbermann's Countdown skew leftward, the network as a whole has no unifying ideology, as at Fox. But demographics may be making such a bias inevitable. The Times points out today that, amid heightened political activity among young, mostly liberal voters, MSNBC has added nearly 40,000 18-to-34-year-old viewers during prime time, far more than either Fox News or CNN. It is now number one among the young in those hours, while Fox News is dead last. That makes sense politically: Republicans are, as a group, significantly older the Democrats. Perhaps most revealing are the news nets' seemingly bizarre choices of internet partners.

CNN press release: "CNN Recruits Key Political Experts for Campaign Coverage." Exciting! "Building upon its winning coverage of the U.S. presidential campaign and other political contests, CNN has added five more top political reporters and commentators to its deep bench of political contributors and analysts." Great! So who exactly are these five new additions to the best political team on whatever? One Dem strategist, one Washington Post columnist, and these three:

So remember how Gawker became obsessed with the Montauk Monster, and everyone was like, "Ho ho ho, isn't that funny and delightful, let's laugh at the 'monster' all summer until it kills us all in our sleep, LOL'?" And then CNN did a story but even Wolf Blitzer had trouble maintaing his usual humorless melodrama because he was about to bust out laughing? Well, no one's laughing now because monsters are eating the Main Stream Media alive. The terrified reports keep coming: Newsweek, as we just reported, launched a panicked, desperate effort to claim the Montauk Monster is a Photoshop hoax. CNN aired video of a Chupacabra in Texas. And now multiple cable news networks have picked up on a Bigfoot discovery that even we laughed off initially. BUT NO ONE IS SCOFFING NOW OH NO NOT ANYMORE.

Richard Quest, the CNN correspondent arrested in Central Park last April with crystal meth in his pocket and a rope on his genitals, is back to loudly telling you business travelers everything you need to know! And his time off has made him no less, uh, vivacious. Click to watch him scream through the intro to his latest travel segment, including valuable info on people's loss of "Priv-uh-see." Something Quest knows all too well.

For some reason, the official John Edwards YouTube channel still includes a speech Edwards made in 2007 accepting a "Father Of The Year" award, even though it contains various comments that sound funny/awful now that the former presidential candidate has admitted to cheating on his wife. Edwards' people might have been expected to remove the video Friday, when it was discovered and linked by producers for delicate CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, a crew no doubt highly attuned to subtle irony delivered in front of a camera (though Deceiver beat them to it —Update). Of course, the Edwards camp was busy dealing with Nightline late last week, and maybe they also figured removing the speech would lend credence to charges Edwards fathered a love child, which he still denies. Plus, at six minutes long, the YouTube video is a slog most haters will never get through. So here are the best 23 seconds, courtesy CNN. Click the video icon to watch.

Did you catch Anderson Cooper on Live! With Regis And Kelly this morning? If you did, you got something of look inside the CNN heartthrob's conflicted soul. First Cooper said his favorite Project Runway contestant is the one who's really into leather — heh. Then came a long stretch where Cooper really couldn't stop himself from revealing more and more of his involuntary obsession with the with the "atrocious... trainwreck" of a reality show Living Lohan. Cooper said actress Lindsay Lohan's mother Dina and sister Ali are "horrific people," with Ali set to become a "striptease person" (well, of course). But he can't look away — Cooper even makes time for the show while reporting in a warzone. And don't we all sorta feel that way about reality television? This is why Anderson Cooper is America's Secret Boyfriend. Fall in love with him all over again after the jump.

• That story in the Journal about Barack Obama being too skinny to be president? The reporter pulled the quotes from a message board thread she started herself. The WSJ prints a correction, Slate deconstructs. [Slate, WSJ]

It's a pattern if not a rule in politics: the more populist the politician, the more lavish the personal lifestyle. John Edwards-son of a millworker and champion of the other, forgotten America-has the most valuable home in the North Carolina county in which he lives. Since cable news has become an extension of politics, it should be no surprise that a news anchor can maintain a double life. CNN's puffy-faced Poujadist, Lou Dobbs, saved his TV career by channeling the anger of America's redundant middle-aged white men. And yet Idaho-bred Dobbs' lavish home outside New York qualifies him as a member of the overclass against which he rails. It's one thing to wade through the property documents; but here are satellite photographs which show the driveway leading up to Dobbs' country house on Wantage's Quarry Road, the swimming pool and tennis court, and the vast hatched lawn that surrounds the compound. The image isn't detailed enough to show the cars in the driveway, but it's safe to assume that one of them is Dobbs' un-American Aston Martin.

Chez Pazienza, fired from CNN six months ago for his blogging, would "really like to let the subject of my untimely dismissal from CNN go once and for all." But! He just got hold of a juicy memo, CNN's brand-new guide for blogging. "You know, the policy they didn't have in place when they made the decision to fire me and a few others like me, and the one that I've openly criticized them for neglecting to enact and clarify?" Yeah, that one. The missive, regarding all the questions you may have about "personal writings online," chat rooming, and (snort) Second Life:

It's a late-breaking story, and CNN's American Morning clearly thought it had a big "get" — a live interview with the brother of Bruce Ivins, a federal biodefense researcher who killed himself as the government prepared to charge him in the anthrax mailings of late 2001. Host John Roberts was prepared, no doubt, to delicately question a grieving sibling — not for the increasingly surly conversation that ensued. Of course, it's hard to fault him for not having a followup question ready for statements like, "I'm a paratrooper." The logical reply is a bit insensitive: "Are you entirely sober?" Click the video icon to watch a distinctly bitter sort of grieving.

Click to viewThe mysterious Young Manhattanite writes: For months now I have been looking for a classic clip of Larry King drunk on his radio show that I heard way back in the dawn of the public Internet when my friend downloaded it from a newsgroup. It's NOWHERE online now. My friend finally found the cassette tape he transfered it to back then (yes, a cassette tape!) and redigitized it. After some digging, it appears this recording was made between 1987 and 1994 when his radio and tv shows overlapped. This witching hour call-in segment was called Open Phone America. According to Wikipedia, the phones would open up at 3 a.m. for callers to discuss any topic they pleased with Larry. Give it a good listen. Really picks up halfway through. Update: Transcript below!

Men are suddenly wearing shorts to work, with ties and dress shoes and everything! And also muscle shirts and panama hats! Judging by the pictures in the Times style piece on the matter, they tend to look quite awkward. Who should we blame for this degenerate flaunting of the irresistible hairy male leg? The media in general and, in particular, Vogue's Sean Avery and CNN's Anderson Cooper. They made it cool to flash some skin, along with that ultimate arbiter of cool, Barack Obama:

CNN's American Morning has a thing for cheesy rock-and-roll intros, and the Daily Show tonight showcased the most embarrassing among them, including Scorpion's "Rock You Like A Hurricane" for a story on Tropical Storm Bertha or "Changes" by David Bowie for everything from credit cards to reform in China. But the best part comes at the end, when host Jon Stewart reveals how American Morning host John Roberts, once considered heir apparent to Dan Rather at the CBS Evening News, learned to pair pop hits with headlines. Hint: Think Adam Curry. Click the icon for video. UPDATE:

The Anderson Cooper rumor mill most recently had the flirty CNN anchor dating an assistant to Barry Diller beard Diane Von Furstenberg in the wake of a breakup from 22-year-old JD Ordonez, a marine mammal trainer in California. Now we're told the silver-haired newsman is trying to settle down, albeit with a 24-ish guy, even as he trots the globe to film his upcoming Planet In Peril special. A tipster heard from the supposed boyfriend's associates that Cooper asked him to move in and that the boyfriend accepted. Is this boyfriend one and the same as Von Furstenberg's assistant? Who knows? (No, really — who knows?) The less friendly gossip is after the jump.

Richard Quest, the most British man currently allowed on US television (he's a regular contributor to CNN and CNN International) has laid pretty low since he was arrested in Central Park with meth, sex toys, and rope. But now he's finished rehab and snuck back on television! Jossip has the most important screen grab of the week: Richard Quest exploring the shower of the new Airbus A380. Soon to be a familiar sight to wealthy international travelers, no doubt.

CNN thought it found the perfect human face to put on MySpace statistics and voter registration numbers it tried to use, in an American Morning segment, to prove that the popularity of Barack Obama had campus conservatives on the run at American colleges. USC's Eric Perlmutter, identified as a member of the College Republicans, was quoted saying "we try to get people out to our college Republican meetings... but we can't seem to get the same amount of support" as Obama. After the president of the USC College Republicans spoke up to say he had never met this guy, CNN issued a fairly damning correction:

When dreamboat CNN anchor Anderson Cooper found footage of an adorable younger bear for his show in April, he couldn't get enough of the "cute" and "cuddly" creature. But tonight, after AC360 co-host Erica Hill narrated footage of an older, larger bear, Cooper seemed to get a little grizzly, asking "What is with this program and bears?" Why, only your bread and butter and honey, Anderson! The bedrock of your credibility! What happened to being the "most trusted name in bears?" It's summertime, these guys will be out in force, and there's no going back now. Besides, Hill has a killer merchandising idea, click the thumbnail at left for details. It's only a few more months, that shouldn't be too much to b... well, ya, you get the idea.

In response to a Times column about Fox News uglifying a picture of reporter Jacques Steinberg and viciously smearing Tim Arango and other journalists, the cable network's chief rageaholic, Bill O'Reilly, is pretending to be pissed at the Times for caricaturing him in the illustration for a 2007 book review. The caricature, he said during his Fox show last night, even included some kind of devil horn (clip after the jump). But O'Reilly's screaming on-air hatefest is the worst sort of act, because if you actually examine the illustration, reproduced after the jump, you notice two things.

As a member of two vindictive cults - Fox News and Scientology - cable news anchor Greta Van Susteren is an absolute pro at channeling rage. Witness the blog post she typed up on the 4th of July holiday. The executive producer of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 last week called Susteren's On The Record "not a news program. It's missing-person of the day." Hoo-boy. Susteren's 1000-word response swiftly pinned blame for the comments on Cooper, since he should be able to control his producer, then basically called the silver-haired anchor a coddled, commercialized, Katrina-exploiting, polygamy-obsessed pretty boy. Susteren, meanwhile, has a magical law degree that obviates the need for a teleprompter, ever. A breakdown (and partial refutation) of her rant, after the jump.

Anderson Cooper was talking last night about fundamentalist Christian attacks on Barack Obama with minister Al Sharpton, author Roland Martin and Family Research Council President Tony Perkins. The talk turned toward religious tolerance, and suddenly Sharpton was outing CNN's prettiest anchor as, gosh, some kind of sinner? "I might think what you do, Anderson, is going to put you in hell, but I'm going to defend your right to get there," Sharpton said. Then everyone laughed, either because Sharpton made some kind of innocuous joke outing Cooper as a typical shouting-head TV news sinner, or because virulent, institutionalized homophobia is hilarious. Anderson blushed and managed to say something dignified, while maybe secretly wishing he was officially gay so he could let loose a verbal spanking that would make Keith Olbermann's "Special Comments" sound like bedtime stories The End. Clip after the jump. UPDATE: Changed a sentence to make it clear Sharpton might not have been alluding to Cooper's sexuality.