On “Meet the Press” this morning, David Gregory cornered Arnold Schwarzenegger about an interview Matt Lauer conducted with Schwarzenegger in 2003, when he was running for Governor of California. Now, out of office and writing his memoir, the actor admits he put on a performance during that “Today” show interview, blaming poor audio for his unpreparedness to answer Lauer’s question. Today, Schwarzenegger told Gregory, “Maria (Shriver) was really mad about it.” Shriver, Schwarzenegger’s wife at the time, was a TV journalist for most of her life.

Watch the “Meet the Press” clip after the jump…

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Late Night with Jimmy Fallon‘s head blogger Cory Cavin (left) and co-producer Gavin Purcell will share their secrets on building a loyal fanbase in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp online conference and workshop starting October 18. Other speakers include Brian Ries (Newsweek), Jennifer Rubio (Warby Parker), and Frank Eliason (Citibank).  Register today.

Was it a mock debate? A mockable debate? A debatable mock?

Whatever it was, Jon Stewart’s and Bill O’Reilly’s ‘Rumble in the Air-Conditioned Auditorium’ Saturday night was a lot more fun to watch than was last week’s presidential debate.

In fact, President Obama and Mitt Romney would do well to consider bringing in Stewart and O’Reilly to prep the candidates for their next showdown, Oct. 16 at Hofstra. They could do a lot worse, and probably have.

Held at George Washington University’s sold-out Lisner Auditorium and streamed live online for $4.95, ‘Rumble’ featured equal parts polemics and poppycock about the country’s most pressing political issues. Lincoln-Douglas, it was not.

Both hosts were outside their natural habitats. O’Reilly is no standup comedian, and Stewart can bray when he overplays the righteous indignation card. Also, the two were used to going mano a mano in short segments on each other’s shows, but this event was 90 minutes. Untelevised minutes, to boot.

Still, as befits their unlikely bromance, the Lilliputian Stewart – he’s 5-foot-7 – and 6-foot-4 O’Reilly were obviously enjoying themselves at the sparring session. It wasn’t as funny as ‘The Daily Show’ or as fiery as ‘The Factor.’ It wasn’t even a rumble. But it had its moments.

Raising and lowering himself on an electric riser behind the podium, Stewart began his opening remarks with: “My friend Bill O’Reilly is completely full of shit.” He riffed about Fox

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Rachel Maddow, S.E. Cupp, Rev. Al Sharpton and Chris Matthews all got the SNL treatment last for MSNBC’s post-debate coverage Wednesday night. “I feel bad for whoever had to move the podium afterwards because Obama took a giant dump behind it,” said the Jason Sudeikis version of Matthews.

Chris Parnell was back as Jim Lehrer in another sketch about the debate itself (after the jump).

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Fox News Channel White House correspondent Ed Henry is interviewed by Fast Company. Henry, who is very active on social media (particularly Twitter), talks about the benefits and trade offs that accompany being so public:

There are plenty of days when you have people clobbering you because they read into something you said and they think it means you “like” the President or they think you’re too negative toward the President. But I think it opens us up in a more transparent way. As journalists, we’ve been pushing for more transparency in government and at all levels of the people we cover, and I think the public is now demanding similar transparency from us in terms of how we do our reporting.

You can read the full interview here.

On NBC’s “Late Night,” CNN anchor Anderson Cooper revealed his guilty pleasure of a TV show. Spoiler: it rhymes with Beer Stuns Money Hoo Hoo.

he also once again took issue with Wolf Blitzer‘s blatant attempt to copy his style. “Next thing you know he is going to say he is gay,” Cooper quipped.

WATCH:

Politics breeds creative parody, and the response to this week’s Presidential debate is no exception. Some of the prime examples:

The Gregory Brothers did their thing, and autotuned the debate:

The debate gets the Taiwanese animation treatment:
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It is no secret that CNN’s Wolf Blitzer is a huge DC sports fan. So huge a fan is he, that after the Washington Nationals clinched their first ever National League East division title this week, he was invited onto the field into the clubhouse to celebrate!

The @nationals locker room celebration! #Natitude yfrog.com/es414kyj

— Wolf Blitzer (@wolfblitzer) October 2, 2012

 

The DCist put together a pretty epic Storify of Blitzer’s “Natitude.”

A month before the election, CNN anchor and special correspondent Soledad O’Brien reports on how Democrats and Republicans are reaching out to the swing voter demographic of Latinos, in her latest special, Latino in America: Courting Their Vote.

O’Brien travels to Nevada, which has the nation’s fastest-growing Latino community and a state that  has voted for 24 of the last 25 U.S. presidents.

Latino in America: Courting Their Vote debuts on CNN/U.S. tomorrow at 8pmET/PT and will re-air next Saturday at 8pmET/PT.

25-54 demographic (Live +SD)

• Total day: FNC: 488 | MSNBC: 244 | CNN: 161 | HLN: 69

• Primetime: FNC: 830 | MSNBC: 421 | CNN: 206| HLN: 78

	5p:	6p:	7p:	8p:	9p:	10p:	11p:	12a:
FNC	TheFive:	Baier:	Shep:	O’Reilly:	Hannity:	Greta:	O’Reilly:	Hannity:
	538	537	492	911	851	723	496	390
MSNBC	Matthews:	Sharpton:	Matthews:	EdShow:	Maddow:	O’Donnell:	EdShow:	Maddow:
	323	306	335	354	518	389	253	272
CNN	Blitzer:	Blitzer:	Burnett:	Cooper:	Morgan:	Cooper:	Burnett:	Morgan:
	181	141	191	223	165	229	150	135
HLN	Express:	Express:	VelezMitchell:	Grace:	DrDrew:	Grace:	Showbiz:	DrDrew:
	50	47	78	78	90	65	44	34

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The Wall Street Journal has a gossipy item this afternoon, reporting that Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes and Fox News CEO Roger Ailes grabbed lunch earlier this year.

Bewkes is looking for a successor to Jim Walton at CNN, who will be stepping aside at the end of this year. Ailes meanwhile has a contract of his own coming up for renewal next year.

The WSJ notes that the lunch was purely social, and that Bewkes has no plans to hire Ailes. But that didn’t stop the News Corp. newspaper from writing the item.