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Fox News Reporter Wins Reprieve In Theater Shooting Source Case

Fox News reporter Jana Winter was facing six months in jail for refusing to testify about her sources. Instead, the judge ruled late today that he won’t decide Winter’s fate until it’s determined whether evidence she reported on will be introduced in the case.

Last July, Winter wrote a FoxNews.com story about Aurora, CO theater shooting suspect James Holmes mailing his psychiatrist a notebook filled with violent drawings. Winter cited law enforcement sources in her report. Holmes’ lawyers objected saying the sources violated a gag order. According to the Denver Post, Judge Carlos Samour Jr. agreed with Winter’s lawyers that the issue isn’t “ripe” for ruling.

“The Court is not comfortable proceeding on an incomplete record,” Samour writes in his order. “As soon as the record is adequate, the Court will move forward.”

Samour was to decide Wednesday whether to order Winter to testify.

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via TVNewser http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/fox-news-reporter-wins-reprieve-in-theater-shooting-source-case_b174288

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Current TV Already Removed from Time Warner Cable

At least one large cable system has removed Current TV from the lineup following Al Jazeera’s $500 million acquisition of the network. Late today NYT’s Brian Stelter spoke with reps from Time Warner Cable in New York City who said a clause in their contract allows them to remove the channel, adding, “We are removing the service as quickly as possible.” The plug was pulled following Eliot Spitzer‘s 8pm show. It was Spitzer who told our Diane Clehane a few weeks ago, “Nobody’s watching, but I’m having a great time.”

Stelter reports former VP Al Gore, a 20% owner of Current, stands to make $100 million on the deal. He and majority owner Joel Hyatt will sit on an advisory board as Al Jazeera launches a new channel for an American audience which is expected to include about 60% of coverage from Al Jazeera English, which is also in limited distribution in the U.S. Time Warner Cable is not planning to carry the new channel.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

via TVNewser http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/current-tv-already-removed-from-time-warner-cable_b160817

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Roger Ailes on Election Night: ‘Rove was wrong. He backed down. Our guys were right.’

On election night, Fox News co-founder and chairman Roger Ailes watched election coverage in the News Corp. Sports Suite, down the hall from his second floor office. When he saw how things were going, a likely re-election for Pres. Obama, he decided to call it a night.

“It only took 15 minutes to get home,” Ailes told TVNewser in a lengthy interview in his office Thursday. “I turn on the TV and the first thing I see is Rove saying something like ‘you called Ohio too early.’ And I thought, ‘What the? What is this?’”

Ailes watched as his highly-paid pundit was challenging his decision desk’s call which would give the election to Pres. Obama.

“So I quickly called [EVP of News] Michael Clemente and I said, ‘Michael whatever you do, don’t go to commercial. Don’t leave the screen.’”

Ailes instructed Clemente to have Megyn Kelly, “go confront the decision team. If you have to, make the decision team confront Rove.” Confrontation is Roger Ailes’ middle name. (Actually it’s Eugene)

Ailes says transparency was the key, telling Clemente, “‘We can’t do anything off camera.’ I didn’t want the public or our competitors to say we somehow panicked and didn’t confront the truth on camera.”

“As it turned out Rove was wrong. He backed down. Our guys were right. We stayed with it. Megyn did her famous walk down the hall. And it all worked out.”

Fox News and the Obama administration already have a chilly relationship. Last year in a news conference, the president remarked to FNC White House correspondent Ed Henry, “I didn’t know you where the spokesperson for Mitt Romney.”

So, how will the next four years play out?

“It’s day to day for us,” Ailes tell us. “We don’t — I know no one believes it — we have no agenda. If he runs into a burning building tomorrow and saves four kids, he’s gonna be the biggest goddamn hero Fox News ever saw. But if he leaves four guys behind on the battlefield but can’t explain it, then he’s gonna have a problem with Fox News.”

“I don’t mind praising the guy and I don’t mind questioning the guy,” says Ailes. “It’s day to day.”

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via TVNewser http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/roger-ailes-on-election-night-rove-was-wrong-he-backed-down-our-guys-were-right_b155209