Rare Good News on Iraq from CBS: Malaki Says Surge is Working --5/30/2007

1. Rare Good News on Iraq from CBS: Maliki Says Surge is Working
Although Katie Couric began Tuesday's CBS Evening News coverage of Iraq on a downbeat note, pointing out how May has become the "deadliest month" of 2007, with "at least 114" U.S. servicemen killed so far, she moved on to how "in an exclusive interview, Iraq's Prime Minister tells CBS News the security crackdown is working." From Baghdad, Lara Logan offered more of a glass is half full spin as she relayed how, "in his first American television interview since the U.S. troop surge began in February, Iraq's Prime Minister told CBS News today the additional forces here have prevented an even greater catastrophe." Logan challenged Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's premise: "When we talk to Iraqi people on the streets of Baghdad, they say security is worse. Murders went down, but they're coming up back up again. There are still bombs every day. What is your sense of the quality of life to Iraqi people?" Logan, however, also passed along how "despite this month's deadly toll on U.S. forces, Maliki said there have been many victories in breaking up al Qaeda and other militant cells. Although he cautioned it was too soon to do a complete evaluation of the surge, he said he has great hopes for more progress in the next two or three months."

2. Jonathan Alter: Bush 'Signing the Death Warrants' of US Troops
On Friday's Countdown on MSNBC, Newsweek Senior Editor/MSNBC political analyst Jonathan Alter charged that, in signing the compromise bill on Iraq war funding, President Bush is "signing the death warrants of young men and women." After host Keith Olbermann covered the news that Bush had signed the bill, he brought aboard Alter for further discussion. Olbermann started by asking why the President did the signing "out of the public eye." Alter began his response with an inflammatory choice of words: "Well, on some level, I think he knows that he's signing the death warrants of young men and women."

3. Newsweek Celebrates 'Ecosavant' Gore as Hot Sensitive 'Beta Male'
News magazines love to float above the real news and focus on nebulous trends, and perhaps none are more nebulous than the sudden popularity of the "beta male," as represented by Al Gore. The "cultural dispatch" by writer Jennie Yabroff, in the June 4 issue, celebrated Gore as "the proto beta male" who's "having the last laugh as a movie star, an ecosavant, a best-selling author, and a potential dark-horse presidential candidate." Yabroff's article was headlined "Betas Rule: What do Jim from 'The Office,' Shrek and Al Gore have in common? They're beta males'€"losers who are winning. Look out, alpha dogs." While the grasping, ambitious "alphas" are out, Gore and Bill Clinton are singled out as the hottest political embodiments of sensitively surrendering men, as if they have no ambitions at all.

4. NBC's Today Show Sells Left-Winger Al Franken as 'Harvard Smart'
If there was one thing the Today show wanted its viewers to know about comedian, turned Air America radio host, turned Senate candidate, Al Franken, it's that he's really "smart." Profiling his Minnesota Senate seat run, the Today show cast on Tuesday went out of their way to prove the Saturday Night Live alum's candidacy was serious by emphasizing Franken was, indeed, "smart." Not once, not twice, but three times Today tagged Franken with the "smart" label. First up, Today co-host Meredith Vieira, in her tease of the upcoming Franken piece proclaimed of the creator of Stuart Smalley: "He's a smart guy!" Then later, Franken impressed Today's national correspondent Jamie Gangel with his smartness as he doodled a map of the U.S. from memory: "What some people may not know, Franken is smart, Harvard smart. A math whiz who aced the SATs and it turns out not bad at geography, either." Then, to further punctuate the point, Vieira concluded the segment by reminding viewers, yet again, Franken was "smart" enough to win.

5. PBS Demotes 'Islam vs. Islamists' Film To The Wee-Hours Circuit
Frank Gaffney's film "Islam vs. Islamists" -- ripped out of PBS's post-9/11 film series "America at the Crossroads" like unsightly hair off PBS's back -- has now found a distributor in Oregon Public Broadcasting. Is that good news? It might be good that more of the public might have a chance to see it. But its new distribution deal with OPB means it's completely optional for PBS stations to air it, and whenever they want -- like 3AM on a Monday morning. That's a far cry from the prime-time national PBS feed, with all the public-relations weight that the "Crossroads" series managed.

6. ABC Investigates Why O'Donnell 'Really' Left; Skip 9/11 Theories
On Tuesday's Good Morning America, the ABC program promised to investigate the "final straw" that pushed Rosie O'Donnell to leave The View. Yet somehow, neither anchor Chris Cuomo, nor reporter John Berman managed to mention the comedienne's obsessive promotion of bizarre 9/11 conspiracy theories. The segment also sympathetically portrayed O'Donnell. Co-anchor Cuomo even blurted out that O'Donnell "has to come here," meaning GMA. But first, reporter Berman tenderly noted that a video blog on her Web site features a picture of Elisabeth Hasselbeck, the show's token conservative and frequent brunt of O'Donnell's aggression. John Berman: "As for Rosie O'Donnell, it does seem like she has at least a touch of nostalgia. On her blog, a new music video montage, pictures of her time at The View, including one of Elisabeth Hasselbeck."

Rare Good News on Iraq from CBS: Maliki
Says Surge is Working

Although Katie Couric began Tuesday's CBS Evening News coverage of Iraq on a downbeat note, pointing out how May has become the "deadliest month" of 2007, with "at least 114" U.S. servicemen killed so far, she moved on to how "in an exclusive interview, Iraq's Prime Minister tells CBS News the security crackdown is working." From Baghdad, Lara Logan offered more of a glass is half full spin as she relayed how, "in his first American television interview since the U.S. troop surge began in February, Iraq's Prime Minister told CBS News today the additional forces here have prevented an even greater catastrophe." Logan challenged Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's premise: "When we talk to Iraqi people on the streets of Baghdad, they say security is worse. Murders went down, but they're coming up back up again. There are still bombs every day. What is your sense of the quality of life to Iraqi people?"

Logan, however, also passed along how "despite this month's deadly toll on U.S. forces, Maliki said there have been many victories in breaking up al Qaeda and other militant cells. Although he cautioned it was too soon to do a complete evaluation of the surge, he said he has great hopes for more progress in the next two or three months."

[This item was posted Tuesday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

A partial transcript of Logan's story, on the May 29 CBS Evening News, picking up after she recounted the ambush deaths of soldiers who came to the assistance of a downed helicopter, the first helicopter shot down since February:

LARA LOGAN: "As American soldiers trying to secure Baghdad already know, those kinds of strategic gains are often temporary because their enemy is able to re-generate extremely fast. In his first American television interview since the U.S. troop surge began in February, Iraq's Prime Minister told CBS News today the additional forces here have prevented an even greater catastrophe."
PRIME MINISTER NOURI AL-MALIKI, THROUGH TRANSLATOR: "If the Baghdad security plan had not been implemented, we would have a true civil war in Iraq."
LOGAN TO MALAKI: "When we talk to Iraqi people on the streets of Baghdad, they say security is worse. Murders went down, but they're coming up back up again. There are still bombs every day. What is your sense of the quality of life to Iraqi people?"
MALAKI ANSWERED: "There are great shortages in Baghdad because it's the capital and it faces the greatest terrorist threat."
LOGAN: "Despite this month's deadly toll on U.S. forces, Maliki said there have been many victories in breaking up al Qaeda and other militant cells. Although he cautioned it was too soon to do a complete evaluation of the surge, he said he has great hopes for more progress in the next two or three months -- just in time for America's top commander here to report to Congress."

The CBSNews.com online version of Logan's story: www.cbsnews.com

Jonathan Alter: Bush 'Signing the Death
Warrants' of US Troops

On Friday's Countdown on MSNBC, Newsweek Senior Editor/MSNBC political analyst Jonathan Alter charged that, in signing the compromise bill on Iraq war funding, President Bush is "signing the death warrants of young men and women." After host Keith Olbermann covered the news that Bush had signed the bill, he brought aboard Alter for further discussion. Olbermann started by asking why the President did the signing "out of the public eye." Alter began his response with an inflammatory choice of words: "Well, on some level, I think he knows that he's signing the death warrants of young men and women."

[This item, by Brad Wilmouth, was posted Saturday on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

The exchange from the Friday, May 25 Countdown show:

Keith Olbermann: "Why such secrecy -- or, at least, out of the public eye -- for the signing of this war funding bill? One would think maybe Mr. Bush would have held a parade for it."
Jonathan Alter: "Well, on some level, I think he knows that he's signing the death warrants of young men and women. This war is going to continue, the policy has failed, he knows it's failing, he's taking one last stab at it with this surge, and he's doubling down, and I think he recognizes that it's deeply unpopular with the American people."

Newsweek Celebrates 'Ecosavant' Gore
as Hot Sensitive 'Beta Male'

News magazines love to float above the real news and focus on nebulous trends, and perhaps none are more nebulous than the sudden popularity of the "beta male," as represented by Al Gore. The "cultural dispatch" by writer Jennie Yabroff, in the June 4 issue, celebrated Gore as "the proto beta male" who's "having the last laugh as a movie star, an ecosavant, a best-selling author, and a potential dark-horse presidential candidate."

Yabroff's article was headlined "Betas Rule: What do Jim from 'The Office,' Shrek and Al Gore have in common? They're beta males'€"losers who are winning. Look out, alpha dogs." While the grasping, ambitious "alphas" are out, Gore and Bill Clinton are singled out as the hottest political embodiments of sensitively surrendering men, as if they have no ambitions at all:
"Then there's Al Gore. During the 2000 election, the press seized on the conceit that Gore was too eager to please, too deferential, too indecisive. Today Gore is still the proto beta male -- the on-again-off-again beard, the belly, the deference to Tipper -- but he's also having the last laugh as a movie star, an ecosavant, a best-selling author and a potential dark-horse presidential contender. You could even argue that his former boss is following his lead. Bill Clinton is remaking himself as a soft-spoken, waistline-watching humanitarian who's happy to cede the spotlight to his wife, Hillary. If she wins, he'll make history -- as the country's first First Gentleman. You can't get much more beta than that."

[This item, by Tim Graham, was posted Tuesday on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

It's doubtful that Bill Clinton would appreciate Yabroff putting him in the category of "mojo-free man," but that's just what she does:
"It makes sense that our culture is embracing the mojo-free man right now. As America comes to terms with our diminished omnipotence in the wake of 9/11, the Iraq War and President Bush's international unpopularity, we're growing weary of Teflon-coated John Wayne stereotypes of masculinity. Donald Rumsfeld, Ken Lay, Mel Gibson, Don Imus -- all chest-beating, leader-of-the-pack men, and look what happened to them. The alpha dog doesn't hunt anymore. The new role model is a beta male."

The oddity in all of this analysis is that liberals like the Newsweek staff never believed in American "omnipotence" and haven't liked the "John Wayne stereotypes of masculinity" going way back to the beta-male Sixties. This is just a celebration that liberalism as the hot new zeitgeist, dressed up as a "cultural dispatch." Yabroff even strikes a feminist note, so feminist that those supposedly hot beta males end up being dissed:
"Still, alphas aren't totally over. Women still have to prove their alphaness -- look at Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice and Nancy Pelosi -- even though the guys have given it a bad name. Former Seventeen magazine editor Atoosa Rubenstein is planning a Web site for 'alpha kitties' like herself, whom she defines as 'girls who are powerful and not afraid to be girly,' not unlike Alison in [the new movie] Knocked Up. It makes sense that as we grow tired and distrustful of the all-powerful male figures, we still crave models of strength and competence. After all, someone needs to tell those feckless betas to tuck in their shirts."

It's a little odd to see Bill as the "beta male" and Hillary as the "alpha kitty" when you consider that he cheated on her inside the White House and she played herself up as "gasping for breath" at the discovery. But the "Office" watchers at MRC are shaking their heads at the Al Gore comparisons that Newsweek makes:
"The Emmy-winning 'The Office' presents a microcosm of this cultural shift. The show's star is the preening, hilariously un-self-aware boss Michael (Steve Carell), who is constantly shadowed by his sycophantic No. 2, Dwight (Rainn Wilson). Both of them are hopelessly deluded wanna-be alphas....The soul of 'The Office,' and its stealth heartthrob, is actually easygoing, soft-spoken Jim (John Krasinski), who, in true beta fashion, turned down a promotion to management in the season finale."

How is Al Gore the man who "turned down a promotion to management" and not the man who is "preening," or a "sycophantic No. 2"? This "Dwight" quote graces the August page of this year's "Office" calendar: "Superior genes....and superior brain-power. Through concentration I can raise and lower my cholesterol at will." That sounds a lot more like Al Gore than the soulful "stealth heartthrob."

For the article in the June 4 Newsweek: www.msnbc.msn.com

NBC's Today Show Sells Left-Winger Al
Franken as 'Harvard Smart'

If there was one thing the Today show wanted its viewers to know about comedian, turned Air America radio host, turned Senate candidate, Al Franken, it's that he's really "smart." Profiling his Minnesota Senate seat run, the Today show cast on Tuesday went out of their way to prove the Saturday Night Live alum's candidacy was serious by emphasizing Franken was, indeed, "smart."

Not once, not twice, but three times Today tagged Franken with the "smart" label. First up, Today co-host Meredith Vieira, in her tease of the upcoming Franken piece proclaimed of the creator of Stuart Smalley: "He's a smart guy!" Then later, Franken impressed Today's national correspondent Jamie Gangel with his smartness as he doodled a map of the U.S. from memory:

Jamie Gangel: "What some people may not know, Franken is smart, Harvard smart. A math whiz who aced the SATs and it turns out not bad at geography, either."
Al Franken doodling: "It's a circus trick. I can draw all 48 contiguous states from memory in about two minutes."

Then, to further punctuate the point, Vieira concluded the segment by reminding viewers, yet again, Franken was 'smart,' enough to win.

Gangel: "A lot of people think Franken can win this race. Meredith."
Vieira: "He's definitely smart enough. Jamie, thank you so much."

[This item, by Geoffrey Dickens, was posted Tuesday on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

The following is the tease and then full segment as it occurred on the May 29th Today show:

Ann Curry: "Also coming up we'll be talking about Al Franken. Al Franken has made, of course, millions of people laugh on Saturday Night Live and he's, he's an unabashed liberal. He's become a political author and a radio talk show host. So guess what, now he's running for the Senate. The question is will people take him seriously? We're gonna get his first campaign interview coming up."
Meredith Vieira: "I think they will. He's a smart guy."
Natalie Morales: "Has got a lot to say. Yeah."
Curry: "Strong opinions."

...

Meredith Vieira: "Al Franken is running for Senate and it is not a joke. The 'Saturday Night Live' alum has raised a lot of money and is moving up in the polls in his home state of Minnesota and has hit the campaign trail like a veteran politician. Our national correspondent Jamie Gangel sat down with Franken and his wife for their very first campaign interview. Jamie, good morning to you."
[On screen headline: "Senator Al Franken? From Comedy to Politics."]
Jamie Gangel: "Good morning, Meredith. What we wanted to know is why would a successful comedian want to become a U.S. senator and then, of course, will the citizens of Minnesota take him seriously. After all, when you say the name Al Franken most people laugh and think of this. It may not be what he wants these days but this is how most people know the 56-year-old comedian. From roving reporter-"
[Clips from Saturday Night Live]
Gangel: "To self-help guru-"
[clip]
Gangel: "And while he played a senator on TV-"
[clip]
Gangel: "-now he wants to be one. Why do this?"
Al Franken: "I've really gotten tired of what's been going on last six years. You know I've been a comedian but I transitioned to being someone who writes about politics. It's a privilege. We consider it a privilege."
Franny Franken: "Yeah."
Franken: "And I can do it."
Gangel: "A liberal's liberal, Franken first turned to politics with satire and a series of best-selling books, then a radio show and now he's returned to his home state of Minnesota, putting himself on the line. How do you like campaigning?"
Franken: "The best part is, is, is just the meeting people and going around the state."
Gangel: "He even claims not to mind fundraising."
Franken: "I actually don't mind it because I believe in what I'm doing."
[Franken speaking to voters: "They didn't believe Bush could pronounce angioplasty-"
Gangel: "Franken is funny but his stump speech quickly turns to issues."
Franken speaking to voters: "-corruptly passed legislation."
Franny Franken: "Al's biggest hurdle is people taking him seriously and that has turned out to be not true. Nobody is asking Al about his comedy."
Gangel: "But many people think of Franken like this."
[Begin clip]
Bill O'Reilly: "Five minutes! Shut up! This is what this guy does!"
Franken: "This isn't your show, Bill!"
[End clip]
Gangel: "And even he admits his style and personality are a challenge."
Franken: "There's a thing about suffering fools, that I would say isn't, isn't necessarily my strongest point. And, and I've had to work on it."
Gangel: "If I think Al Franken, I think funny. I also think acerbic and edgy. Yes? Franny's nodding. Yeah. Does that play in politics, in Minnesota?"
Al Franken: "Not as well as it plays in comedy and I-"
Franny Franken: "But people understand irony, you know?"
Al Franken: "Well, I've, I'm less acerbic. It's not appropriate."
Gangel: "And even though he lacks political experience, Franken is confident. You have run for political office before."
Franken: "In junior high."
Gangel: "Did you win?"
Franken: "I won once, I lost once."
Gangel: "What is your-"
Franken: "So I know what each are like."
Gangel: "But when you are going for the U.S. Senate, is that not a big leap?"
Franken: "I suppose so but I, I'm certain I can do this and I'm certain I can do a better job than, than the guys there now."
Gangel: "What some people may not know, Franken is smart, Harvard smart. A math whiz who aced the SATs and it turns out not bad at geography, either."
Franken: "It's a circus trick. I can draw all 48 contiguous states from memory in about two minutes."
Gangel: "But Franken knows in the end he'll need substance to win over Minnesota voters. Gimme your top three priorities. First three things you'd do in the U.S. Senate."
Franken: "Three? Universal health care, whole different energy policy, work to restore our standing in the world. Work to restore the American standing in the world."
Gangel: "The question now, can he win? He gives himself better than even odds. And if you don't win?"
Franken: "I'll sue. No, if I don't win, I don't win."
Gangel: "Meredith this is just the primary but Franken has raised more than $1.3 million. Remember this is the state that elected professional wrestler Jesse Ventura governor. Stranger things have happened. A lot of people think Franken can win this race. Meredith."
Vieira: "He's definitely smart enough. Jamie, thank you so much."

PBS Demotes 'Islam vs. Islamists' Film
To The Wee-Hours Circuit

Frank Gaffney's film "Islam vs. Islamists" -- ripped out of PBS's post-9/11 film series "America at the Crossroads" like unsightly hair off PBS's back -- has now found a distributor in Oregon Public Broadcasting. Is that good news? It might be good that more of the public might have a chance to see it. But its new distribution deal with OPB means it's completely optional for PBS stations to air it, and whenever they want -- like 3AM on a Monday morning. That's a far cry from the prime-time national PBS feed, with all the public-relations weight that the "Crossroads" series managed.

[This item, by Tim Graham, was posted Saturday on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

In The Washington Post on Friday, Paul Farhi framed the tale with a narrative of bald-faced intervention by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is supposed to just hand over the money to PBS and shut up, like a kid who gets his lunch money stolen daily. The PBS elite talks a phony game of artistic integrity and independence, but it's a liberal sandbox, and if you don't have something liberal to say, your ball gets taken away. We might offer some kudos to the Post for noting the deal, and letting Gaffney speak:
"'I am a person they regard as a conservative, and they regard the airwaves as a liberal domain,' said Gaffney, a former Reagan administration defense official who now runs the Center for Security Policy.
"WETA and PBS officials denied this yesterday. 'We had no problem with the concept or ideology,' said WETA spokeswoman Mary Stewart. 'It was about filmmaking and documentary standards. We had no problem with the argument laid out in the film.'"

But Farhi could have reported a lot more on how WETA and PBS had all kinds of problems with Gaffney's ideology, telling filmmaker Martyn Burke to remove Gaffney from the film because he had a day job as an advocate. See the Weekly Standard article for more: www.weeklystandard.com

The worst part of Farhi's article was the end, where the liberal theory is unspooled, but the liberal unspoolers are not described as the advocates that they are:

CPB's actions raised suspicions that it was protecting a project favored by Republicans. The agency in 2005 faced complaints that it was politicizing public broadcasting after its former chairman, Kenneth Tomlinson, repeatedly criticized PBS and National Public Radio programs for an allegedly liberal tilt. Tomlinson helped appoint CPB's current president, Patricia Harrison, a former co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee.

"It appears that CPB's leaders -- prominent Republicans -- are engaged in a behind-the-scenes effort to secure an air date for a program appealing to their own conservative constituencies," said Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a nonprofit watchdog group. "Congress needs to investigate the corporation's own problems with fairness and balance."

END of Excerpt

For the May 25 Washington Post story in full: www.washingtonpost.com

It would be nice that if we're going to accurately describe Gaffney as a Reagan conservative, let's describe Chester as a leftist -- a man whose own biography advertises his role as a "frequent contributor to The Nation" magazine, not just a representative of a "nonprofit watchdog group." See: www.democraticmedia.org

Let's not forget that saying PBS and NPR programs -- like the Bill Moyers shows -- have an "allegedly liberal tilt" is comparable to saying Ronald Reagan had an "allegedly conservative tilt" as President.

ABC Investigates Why O'Donnell 'Really'
Left; Skip 9/11 Theories

On Tuesday's Good Morning America, the ABC program promised to investigate the "final straw" that pushed Rosie O'Donnell to leave The View. Yet somehow, neither anchor Chris Cuomo, nor reporter John Berman managed to mention the comedienne's obsessive promotion of bizarre 9/11 conspiracy theories.

The segment also sympathetically portrayed O'Donnell. Co-anchor Cuomo even blurted out that O'Donnell "has to come here," meaning GMA. But first, reporter Berman tenderly noted that a video blog on her Web site features a picture of Elisabeth Hasselbeck, the show's token conservative and frequent brunt of O'Donnell's aggression. John Berman: "As for Rosie O'Donnell, it does seem like she has at least a touch of nostalgia. On her blog, a new music video montage, pictures of her time at The View, including one of Elisabeth Hasselbeck."

[This item, by Scott Whitlock, was posted Tuesday on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

Cuomo began the segment, which aired at 7:32am on May 29, by asking what "really happened behind the scenes?" Berman echoed the same theme and frequently featured O'Donnell for the answers: "For the last year, The View has been one part soap opera and one part professional wrestling, but no more. Today is the first day without Rosie. But the question remains, what was the final show that pushed her over the edge and can the show survive without her? You will never see a View quite like this again. So, when did Rosie O'Donnell know it was over?"
Clip from Rosie's video blog: "When I saw the split-screen, that's when I knew it was over. Seriously."
Berman: "This is from O'Donnell's own video blog, seen here with a friend. She's talking about how she was depicted in the famous face-off with co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck, a moment she calls Nuclear Wednesday."

Again, the piece made no mention of the underlying issue: O'Donnell's active promotion of convoluted 9/11 conspiracy theories. YouTube even featured a clip of the comedienne warming up the View audience by discussing "bombs" placed at the World Trade Center: www.youtube.com

The MRC has comprehensively covered Rosie's insinuations about 9/11 and equating the U.S. with terrorism. For the MRC's compilation of quotes, many with video clips, "The Full Rosie: Daytime Host's Long Record of Mean-Spirited Left-Wing Ravings," go to: www.mrc.org

For a transcript and video of the now infamous May 23 O'Donnell-Hasselbeck showdown: www.mediaresearch.org

Berman ignored these multiple elephants in the room. (Although he did mention that the comedienne's writer had to be escorted from the building after drawing on a picture of Hasselbeck.) Instead, he focused on other, unspecified "strains" that Ms. O'Donnell felt: "O'Donnell says there were other strains on the show too."

O'Donnell: "I was really just like the foster kid for a year. I came and, you know, we considered adoption, but I really didn't fit into the family and now it was time for the foster kid to go back home."

The ABC reporter closed his report by sympathetically noting O'Donnell's nostalgia for the show she just quit: "In a statement, Barbara Walters said, 'Rosie contributed to one of our most exciting and successful years at The View. I am most appreciative. Our close and affectionate relationship will not change.' As for Rosie O'Donnell, it does seem like she has at least a touch of nostalgia. On her blog, a new music video montage, pictures of her time at The View, including one of Elisabeth Hasselbeck. So, what's next for Rosie? Rosie says if she comes back to television, she wants it to be in a more peaceful setting. More peaceful than The View. Chris?"
Cuomo: "She has to come here. That's, that's the only answer, John."

Rosie O'Donnell on Good Morning America? Her extreme liberalism would certainly be a good fit with co-host Diane Sawyer and weatherman Sam Champion.

-- Brent Baker