14 years ago this week, a little website called The Drudge Report posted a story claiming that Newsweek had killed a story about President Clinton having an inappropriate affair with an intern.

This evening, Drudge has a similar–albeit less explosive–scoop. Drudge is reporting that ABC News’ Brian Ross has interviewed one of Newt Gingrich’s ex-wives (believed to be Marianne Gingrich) and is debating whether it should air before the South Carolina primary on Saturday. Earlier Drudge says there is a “Civil War” at the network as to when the interview should air.

Update: The AP says the interview will likely air tomorrow on “Nightline.” In addition, TPM has a letter sent by Gingrich’s daughters to ABC regarding the interview.

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25-54 demographic (Live +SD)

• Total day: FNC: 477 | MSNBC: 105 | CNN: 128 | HLN: 77

• Primetime: FNC: 1.294 | MSNBC: 147 | CNN: 181 | HLN: 114

	5p:	6p:	7p:	8p:	9p:	10p:	11p:	12a:
FNC	TheFive:	Baier:	Shep:	O’Reilly:	Debate:	Cont.:	Hannity:	Debate:
	357	454	447	731	1.573	–	940	399
MSNBC	Matthews:	Sharpton:	Matthews:	EdShow:	Maddow:	O’Donnell:	EdShow:	Maddow:
	150	148	189	137	180	124	105	78
CNN	Blitzer:	KingUSA:	Burnett:	Cooper:	Morgan:	Cooper:	Burnett:	Morgan:
	126	131	150	181	167	194	99	96
HLN	Special:	Prime:	Issues:	Grace:	DrDrew:	Grace:	Showbiz:	DrDrew:
	45	58	78	149	117	83	64	73

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Esquire speaks to former President Bill Clinton, and wouldn’t you know it, he has some thoughts on the state of cable news and the media. In particular, he has some thoughts on MSNBC:

I was just watching MSNBC, and they had a woman that used to work for me and a couple of other people on there, and they were talking about the Republican primary. And I was laughing. I said, “Boy, it really has become our version of Fox.” And I say that because think of the economics of running cable channels. Suppose you and I bought a cable channel, and he [pointing] bought another. You know that to make a living out of it, you’ve got to get about eight hundred thousand viewers for all your major programs. So you can get eight hundred thousand, and you won’t be as wealthy as Fox, but you’ll do okay. And now if you get a slice that’s that small and still viable — and you know it’s not like when we just had NBC, CBS, and ABC. That’s all there was.

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Today a number of high-profile websites, including Wikipedia, Reddit and Google, are either going dark or changing their sites to protest the SOPA and PIPA acts currently working through Congress. The bills are ostensibly meant to protect content piracy, but the web companies, along with others such as Facebook, argue that it goes too far, and is too ambiguous in its wording.

TV news has, until today, largely not covered the story, which led some conspiracy theorists to speculate that was because of orders from the corporate side of the companies (all of the major media companies, including NBCUniversal, News Corp., Disney and Time Warner, are in favor of SOPA). Today however, with the blackouts, SOPA and PIPA have been in the news hourly.

As Brian Stelter notes in the New York Times however, disclosures have not always been accompanying the coverage:
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With another GOP debate set for tomorrow night on CNN, we have the ratings for Monday night’s face-off on Fox News. And as the candidates drop out, the viewership is dropping off. Monday’s debate drew 5.48 million viewers, under-performing FNC’s two previous GOP debates in December and September. Still, from 9-11pmET FNC more than quadrupled the combined Total Viewership of MSNBC and CNN. ABC’s Dec. 10 outing is still the #1 debate in Total Viewers and younger viewers, while FNC’s debate 5 days later stands as the most-watched debate on cable news.

Debate	Network	Total Viewers	A25-54
Jan. 16	Fox News	5,475,000	1,573,000
Jan. 8	NBC/MSNBC	4,715,000	1,649,000
Jan. 7	ABC	6,250,000	1,730,000
Dec. 15	Fox News	6,713,000	1,865,000
Dec. 10	ABC	7,630,000	2,100,000
Nov. 22	CNN	3,599,000	1,041,000
Nov. 12	CBS	5,480,000	1,520,000
Nov. 9	CNBC	3,332,000	993,000
Oct. 18	CNN	5,468,000	1,651,000
Oct. 11	Bloomberg	NA	NA
Sept. 22	Fox News	6,107,000	1,701,000
Sept. 12	CNN	3,600,000	1,100,000
Sept. 7	MSNBC	5,411,000	1,728,000
Aug. 11	Fox News	5,053,000	1,430,000
June 13	CNN	3,162,000	918,000
May 5	Fox News	3,258,000	854,000

• Former ABC News correspondent Betsy Stark has joined Ogilvy Public Relations, PRNewser reports. A Peabody Award-winner, Stark spent 12 years at ABC News on the business beat. In a note to colleagues when she left ABC Stark wrote, “Second acts are possible and it is exciting to consider the possibilities beyond this job that I have loved and which I have worked hard to do well.”

Following up on a story from yesterday, CNBC’s Eamon Javers has filed an update to his reporting on whether or not Bain & Company advised Obama administration officials on the U.S. automaker bailout in 2009. The result: they did.

We’ll try to break it down:

• Thursday: On CNBC.com Javers reports Bain & Company advised admin officials working on the auto bailout; Bain & Company spokesman calls story “factually incorrect” and demands an “immediate retraction”

• Friday: CNBC.com issues correction, contacts Inspector General’s office

• Monday: Federal holiday, nothing happens.

• Tuesday: Spokesman for Bain & Company confirms the discussion occurred

• Wednesday: CNBC.com updates story

And why, you ask, does any of this matter? I suppose it’s because presidential candidate Mitt Romney is a former CEO of Bain & Company, where he worked both before and after founding Bain Capital. He left Bain & Co. in 1992, when, incidentally, U.S automakers were also not doing so hot, but nowhere near a government bailout. (All research done without Wikipedia).

Shock talk TV host Jerry Springer wore out his welcome a few minutes into his segment on Fox News this morning. Springer was part of a political panel on “Fox & Friends” discussing, among other things, this week’s controversial Newsweek cover. An essay by Andrew Sullivan asks “Why are Obama’s Critics So Dumb?”

Springer, who said he’s politically to the left of Obama, used the discussion to make a point about his perception of the coverage of Obama on “Fox & Friends.”

Springer: We’re here on Fox News. Every single day in fairness, you guys, every single day, bash President Obama.

Gretchen Carlson: I’m going to take to you task on that because on this panel right here, we have a fair and balanced panel right here. I’m the independent.

Springer: But, what’s the rest of the show? Every single morning you guys are slamming Obama. You know you are. I’m not saying you don’t have a right to. But every single conversation is something bad about Obama.

Wrapping the segment, Carlson added, “By the way, Jerry, you obviously don’t watch our show because you do not understand there is a reason — I’ll speak for myself as the independent on the panel — quite frankly we present both sides of the story and leave it up to our viewers to decide where they fall.”

Marketwatch.com’s Jon Friedman wonders if a spate of recent CNBC departures is creating “a brain drain” at the #1 business network. Friedman points out that while several have left, the network has held on to the likes of Maria Bartiromo, Jim Cramer and Joe Kernen, among others.

Notably, CNBC announced in late 2009 the hiring of Wall Street Journal news executive Nik Deogun to be its managing editor. Before Deogun arrived, CNBC on-air journalists seemed to preen first and try to break news second. Deogun has helped dial down the noise.

And while CNBC exists as brand first, self second, Friedman says too much outflow can cause a drought:

Broadcast journalism is littered with the stories of networks that believed their press clippings. They lost top-flight employees and eventually deteriorated. CNBC shouldn’t get too cocky.

According to Page Six:

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer busted his best moves on the dance floor at the BET Honors after-party in Washington, DC, on Saturday. The Wolfman was spotted dancing with wife Lynn Greenfield and schmoozing at the National Portrait Gallery fete with Spike Lee and Common. BET anchor T.J. Holmes chilled in the Hennessy Lounge, and, a spy says, Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin, “breezed through stopping for no one” and “left five minutes later.”