What if Fox News, CNN or MSNBC had a Playboy model as part of the GOP debates?

That’s what Mexican voters were treated to last night at a presidential debate among four candidates running for office.

Julia Orayen, who posed for the Mexican edition of Playboy in 2008, was hired to work as an assistant. At the start of the debate — for a total of 24 seconds — Orayen walked across the stage and in front of the cameras in a tight-fitting, cleavage-bearing white dress, handing out cards to the candidates. Orayen’s appearance caused a social media stir and began trending on Twitter. But the stunt had elections officials apologizing, the debate’s producer explaining, and Mexican news anchors talking all day today.

Lorenzo Cordona, a counselor of the IFE, the Federal Electoral Institute apologized, saying, “it was lamentable that this stellar event was contaminated with an unfortunate stereotype.”

The president of the IFE blamed the independent producer they hired. The producer, Jesus Tapia, has “assumed all responsibility,” but says he was in the production truck “checking out the satellites” and not checking out Orayen. “We did not supervise her,” he says.

Mexico’s presidential election is July 1.

25-54 demographic (Live +SD)

• Total day: FNC: 294 | MSNBC: 129 | CNN: 87 | HLN: 90

• Primetime: FNC: 390 | MSNBC: 157 | CNN: 134 | HLN: 75

	5p:	6p:	7p:	8p:	9p:	10p:	11p:	12a:
FNC	TheFive:	Baier:	Shep:	O’Reilly:	Hannity:	Greta:	O’Reilly:	Hannity:
	328	351	397	501	436	227	239	177
MSNBC	Matthews:	Sharpton:	Matthews:	EdShow:	Maddow:	Lockup:	Lockup:	Lockup:
	102	106	131	132	209	130	239	234
CNN	Blitzer:	KingUSA:	Burnett:	Cooper:	Morgan:	Cooper:	Burnett:	Boxing:
	80	86	76	152	155	96	71	95
HLN	Special:	Prime:	VelezMitchell:	Grace:	VelezMitchell:	Grace:	Showbiz:	VelezMitchell:
	51	31	56	100	69	62	93	86

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On NBC’s “Today” this morning, Matt Lauer interviewed “General Aladeen,” the fictional dictator of the fictional country of Wadiya. Aladeen is actually actor Sacha Baron Cohen, and he was on the show to promote his upcoming movie, “The Dictator.”

Cohen had plenty of fun at Lauer’s expense, including a joke about Ann Curry:

“The billibino girl? what is her name?” Cohen said “You mean Japanese-American, Ann Curry,” Lauer replied. “I know that you are having an affair with her, so ask me good questions and I will not bring it up when we are on the air,” Cohen quipped.

He also brought up Ryan Seacrest:

“I know that Ryan had attempted a coup and take your job, well done for having him executed!”

• What has FBN’s Liz Claman learned from her experience interviewing Warren Buffet? “Learn how to communicate,” she tells Girls Just Wanna Have Funds. “This helps us not only in saving, but in all aspects of our lives!”
• “Fox & Friends” celebrated Brian Kilmeade‘s birthday with a cake on the show this morning. “We have no plans for my birthday,” Kilmeade told his co-hosts. “I just want to get through it.”
• The “Power Player of the Week” on “Fox News Sunday” yesterday was “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek. “Yes, I have been thinking about retiring,” he told Chris Wallace. “But I’m torn, because I enjoy doing the show so much.”

The White House Correspondents Insider has presented its awards following this year’s Correspondents’ Dinner weekend of festivities, including:

Greatest Act of Kindness: Lindsay Lohan delighting 10 year-old David Greenberg by telling him that she has Herbie (a Volkswagen Beetle aka “the Love Bug”) in her garage and he could drive it.

Also, Willie Geist wins for “Toughest Job” for “having to work closely with Elle Macpherson and Rosario Dawson presenting super-hot Jamboxes to CURE Epilepsy & The White Ribbon Alliance donors.”

In case you missed it, Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren found herself on the other side yesterday as she was a guest on the ABC “This Week” roundtable. “It is fun to get to answer questions instead of ask, but asking is easier,” Van Susteren tells TVNewser. “I have been a cable news anchor for almost 20 years and I miss being a guest.”

That’s how Van Susteren made her way in TV news, as a legal analyst on CNN, prior to hosting “Burden of Proof” with Roger Cossack in the late ’90s. “It always feels a bit odd being a new guest since you don’t want to be too pushy and you don’t want to be too meek,” says Van Susteren. “If you are a frequent guest you interact more naturally with the others.”

An unfortunate lower third appeared during a tease on MSNBC this morning. Thomas Roberts (did you hear, he has a cameo in the biggest movie opening ever?) was promoting two stories: French president Nicolas Sarkozy‘s loss at the French polls yesterday, and the Colombian prostitute at the center of the Secret Service scandal. And, this happened. It was on screen for about two seconds, before the proper “Au Revior Austerity” lower third appeared.

Tom Brokaw says there’s good reason why most Americans feel the national media is out of touch, most recently exemplified by the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner. Brokaw, a charter member of the organization, was part of the “Meet the Press” roundtable yesterday. He says, “It is time to rethink” the celebrity-studded nature of the event.

“If there’s ever an event that separates the press from the people that they’re supposed to serve, symbolically, it’s that one.”

Without mentioning the network by name, Brokaw called out MSNBC which had its after-party at the Italian Embassy.

“I think George Clooney is a great guy. I’d like to meet Charlize Theron. But I don’t think the big press event in Washington should be that kind of glittering event where all the talk is about Cristal champagne, taking over the Italian Embassy, who had the best party, and who met the most people. That’s another separation between what we’re supposed to be doing and what the people expect us to be doing.”

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Cesar Conde, president of Univision and Ben Sherwood, president of ABC News announce a new English-language news/lifestyle channel aimed at U.S. Hispanics

Announced earlier today, the joint venture will now look toward gaining commitments from cable carriers, hiring staff and finding a home, all while launching online this Summer. Univision president Cesar Conde tells TVNewser his team is “considering two or three options to house the joint venture” in South Florida. “We’re going to have a stand-alone team for the new entity using the resources of Univision and ABC News.”

Don’t expect the network to look anything like existing cable news channels, CNN, Fox News or MSNBC.

“This is not an ideological venture,” ABC News president Ben Sherwood tells us. “The vision here is a full-service operation providing culturally relevant programming in English.”

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The New York Times‘ Brian Stelter writes about the flagship CBS newsmagazine “60 Minutes,”: and notes that its share of young viewers has increased, even as its overall ratings remain flat. CBS attributes this to a new generation of correspondents, including Lara Logan and CNN’s Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

In the story, CBS executives note that Gupta will have more of a presence on the newsmagazine going forward, and that Cooper is very well-regarded at The Eye network.

Mr. Cooper and Dr. Gupta’s contributions are contractually limited since they work for CNN. But Dr. Gupta, who had his first story last season, had two more this season and Mr. Fager said, “He’ll be doing more with us next year.”

A CBS executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that were Mr. Cooper to become available to “60 Minutes” full time, he would be hired “in a heartbeat.” Mr. Cooper’s deal with CNN and with his daytime talk show extend through next year.