CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin, the newest anchor of “Squawk Box,” has a diverse media diet. Sorkin divulges it all — from The Wall Street Journal to Us Weekly, which he reads at the gym — in the Atlantic Wire this week. (He also reveals which websites he reads religiously, and one of them is — you guessed it — TVNewser. Thanks, Andrew!)

On TV at night, I DVR lots of programs – I use it more like a magazine rack flipping through shows than actually watching them in full. Charlie Rose, Meet the Press, 60 Minutes are musts for me. I also DVR NBC’s Nightly News and The Chris Matthews Show on Sunday. I often DVR the other morning shows, like Morning Joe and American Morning, to see how they covered the news while I’m on Squawk Box.

In our four-week Social Media 101 online conference and workshop starting January 19, you’ll get hands-on, basic training on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Foursquare, YouTube, and Flickr. Speakers include Jessica Bennett (Newsweek.com, The Daily Beast), Erica Swallow (Mashable), and Brian Stelter (The New York Times). Register today!

NBC’s veteran space correspondent Jay Barbree is celebrating his 78th birthday today with the launch of a Saturn V rocket carrying the Mars rover Curiosity. Barbree has been covering the space program for NBC for 50 years and has covered every manned space mission — and many unmanned, like today’s. This morning during a live report with MSNBC’s Alex Witt, Barbree stumbled over a couple words saying, “I’ll say it right. Give me a break, it’s my birthday. I’m 78 today!” Barbree called the Curiosity mission, “the greatest space science adventure we’ve had to date.”

Current TV has lined up its production team for its next primetime program, “The Young Turks.” Steve Lange has been named EP of the show, with Roland Woerner serving as senior producer and Genji Keen as director. Cenk Uygur is the primary host of the program, though he will be joined by his “TYT” colleagues Jesus Godoy, Ana Kasparian, Jayar Jackson and Dave Koller during the show.

Lange was previously a VP for the NBC O&O in Los Angeles, and has served as EP of the syndicated entertainment news show “Extra.”

“Steve, Roland and Genji all share Cenk’s passion for telling it like it is. This is a seasoned group of television veterans who bring years of expertise to the table and will be able to deliver a first-class, multi-platform production, live, each and every night,” said Current president David Bohrman in a statement. “We couldn’t be more pleased about having them join the Current TV family as we launch an ambitious roster of nightly programming that is sure to be a conversation starter in the coming election year.”

CNN has lined up a celebrity team for the fifth annual “CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute,” which will air on December 11 at 8pmET. Anderson Cooper will host the special, which will feature the top 10 CNN Heroes of 2011 as voted by the fans. Each will have their story told by a celebrity, including will.i.am, Christy Turlington Burns and Kurt Warner. A live pre-show red carpet will be hosted by  J.R. Martinez of “Dancing with the Stars.”

The full release is after the jump. Read more

Wow. Is it that time of year all ready?

Well, yes it is. When publishers come up with end of the year lists. Here’s one from the December GQ: the magazine’s list of “The 25 least Influential People Alive” MSNBC’s Ed Schultz comes in at #3. Ouch.

…Then there pundits like Ed Schultz. Do you watch “The Ed Show” on MSNBC? Of course you don’t. No one does. The only reason people watch “The Ed Show” is they’re working out in a hotel gym and they can’t find a staff member to change the channel to ESPN.

Also on the list: Tia and Tamera Mowry (#4). (Tamera married Fox News correspondent Adam Housley over the summer); also Tina Brown (#17), John Boehner (#24) and Pres. Obama (#25). Topping the list former GOP candidate Tim Pawlenty.

Steve Capus of NBC News and Martha Raddatz of ABC News will be honored with RTDNF First Amendment Awards in 2012.

Capus, the president of NBC News, will be presented with the First Amendment Leadership Award, which goes to a “business or government leader who has made sigificant contribution to protecting freedom of the press.”

Raddatz, the senior foreign affairs correspondent at ABC News, will receive the Leonard Zeidenberg First Amendment Award, which is named for the former senior Washington correspondent at Broadcasting & Cable.

The awards will be presented at a black-tie reception on March 15, 2012, in Washington, DC. Other 2012 winners are Marci Burdick, the senior vice president of Schurz Communications, and Jim Bohannon, an anchor at Dial Global Radio Networks.

 

NBC apologized to GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann Wednesday over the musical introduction during her appearance on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” Monday night. The show’s drummer Questlove had played the song “Lyin’ Ass Bitch.” Fallon apologized via Twitter on Tuesday but yesterday on Fox News, Bachmann demanded an apology from the network. And she got it. Via CNN:

Bachmann received a letter Wednesday from Doug Vaughan, NBC’s senior vice president for special programs and late night, that apologized for what happened, said Alice Stewart, the Republican presidential hopeful’s spokeswoman.

The issue was also a topic this morning on the “Today” show, with a story from Kristen Welker and this Q&A with John Harwood:

Updated Below

CNN has announced that Larry King‘s fourth special for the channel will be a bit different than the last few. Rather than featuring traditional interviews, the special, called “Larry King Special: A Dinner with Kings” features the host and his wife hosting a dinner party featuring some big Hollywood names. The special will air December 4th, with replays slated for the following weekend on CNN and CNN International.

The guests are Tyra Banks, Russell Brand, Twitter and Square founder Jack Dorsey, Quincy Jones, Seth MacFarlane, Conan O’Brien, and Shaquille O’Neal, with celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck preparing the meal:

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• On a day when many Americans are spending time enjoying a large meal with their families, ABC News is planning to focus on the plight of those less fortunate. The network will present reports from its ongoing “Hunger at Home” series on “Good Morning America,” “World News with Diane Sawyer” and other programs today and tomorrow. David Muir and Juju Chang will report on Americans that can’t afford to put food on the table, as well as communities that have come together to help those in need.

Former Arkansas governor and current Fox News Channel host Mike Huckabee will be hosting a GOP primary debate of his own December 3. Rather than being a proper “debate,” FNC is calling it a “forum,” and rightly so. The New York Times has the letter FNC sent to the candidates, and it assures them that “At no point will candidates have on-air interaction with each other,” and that there will be no studio audience.

So far Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul and former FNC contributors Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum have agreed to attend. Invitations are out to the other candidates.