Matt Drudge is reporting unconfirmed, single-source news that commentator Ann Coulter was disinvited from the NBC "Today" show, where she was to appear this week to promote her new book. Supposedly, Coulter -- whose idea of heaven seems to include a plate-glass window where she can spend all day looking out at people being tormented in Hell -- has also been Banned For Life from NBC.

I don't know about the banning part, but here's my question: Why do MSM news organizations keep covering Ann Coulter? Why do they keep letting her leave flaming turd bags on their front steps? Instead of banning her, NBC and all the rest of the MSM should be ignoring her. Just let her wail away on the non-MSM fringe. She seems happier there anyway, although in Coulter's case "happy" is a highly relative term.

Hey, kill your HBO -- "Nip/Tuck" (9 pm CT Tuesday) and "Damages" (9pm CT Wednesday) are back on FX, after being off for more than a year! And they won't cost you an extra $10 on top of the $100 you're already shoveling at the cable company.

No offense to "Big Love" (which is returning to HBO Jan. 18), but it sure seems like FX is making a bigger effort than certain pay-cable channels I know -- and without that icky "pay" part involved.

And Chip Franklin and I got around to talking about these shows -- just as soon as we had exhausted all football possibilities.

Sign up to get a weekly e-mail every time TV Barn Radio updates with a new compilation of my latest radio chats.

KMBC-TV's most chiseled anchor-reporter just signed off on tonight's 10 p.m. newscast. I always like it when they let you say goodbye.

"I'm taking an anchor job back in Pennsylvania," Jere Gish announced, saying it will allow him to raise his family near his extended family. Call it an educated guess, but I'd say he's going back to WGAL in Lancaster, the station (owned by Hearst, which also owns KMBC) where he worked before coming to Kansas City, where a morning anchor has just retired and where, I notice, a number of his stories are still online -- including the time he covered the red-hot "Amish in the City" controversy.

Speaking of goners, an update on the Pitch situation, where I'm told reliably that Charles Ferruzza has brokered what is becoming an increasingly common deal in our industry. He's staying on as a freelancer. Good to know he's still in print ... and on the market.

For sentimental reasons I will remember this card from the "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" gang, their last after 16 Christmases in NYC. For friendship reasons I will hang onto my annual card from Brian Hall, who sends out pictures of himself with Hollywood beauties to everyone from David Letterman to ... well, me.

But the prize goes to this beaut from the forever hip promo department at Comedy Central:

Everybody is on the Gaza situation. Even MSNBC has interrupted its weekend of rerun filler to cover it.

But if you'd like a decidedly non-American-centric take, Al Jazeera English appears to have reporters all over the place. And the Doha correspondent just had one of those exchanges with a spokesman for the Israeli PM that you just don't see on American TV. And if you do, it's usually followed by someone throwing a temper tantrum - remember the McCain campaign blackballing Larry King, the softest of all softballs, after Campbell Brown beat up a McCain flack earlier in the day? Those Israelis put their suits on with five-inch nails -- they're tough. Watch as the spokesflack gives as good as he gets. And they'll get right back on AJE and do it again in a couple of hours, if not sooner. And beam it into Israel, where AJE has (last I heard) replaced BBC World on the largest Israeli cable systems.

Remember, Al Jazeera English is streaming live on Livestation.

UPDATE: It's official -- CW's off the air in Lawrence. So is KMBC. Patrick Knorr of Sunflower Cable says, "We have asked them to extend our current agreement while we continue to negotiate and they have refused. They did not communicate this refusal until New Years Eve, while allowed for minimal notice to our customers."

Tom Campo, who handles corporate relations for Hearst, said, "We are working actively to give Sunflower subscribers the programming they want with a mutually satisfying conclusion." So talks are still ongoing, but Hearst seems willing to play a little hardball -- if you call denying viewers that outstanding CW weekend programming "hardball."

If this thing is still going on by Monday, I'll elaborate some more on the state of the cable business right now, and tie in some of the industry reaction to the Viacom-Time Warner deal.

While the rest of America had to deal with a War of the Worlds scenario Wednesday night, with Viacom ginning up its battle with Time Warner and blanketing the country with dire warnings of the end of Dora the Explorer and "South Park" -- ads that didn't apply to 85 percent of the country but spooked non-Time Warner viewers anyway, causing them to tie up unaffected cable operators' phone lines from coast to coast -- other systems actually were dropping channels.

Across this land, Dec. 31 -- it turns out -- is the deadline for many cable operators to renew their agreements with local broadcasters. Without these retransmission agreements, they can't legally carry the NBC, ABC, Fox and other network affiliates on their systems.

So, as you'll see below, the CEO of Time Warner Cable is apologizing for Viacom and its idiotic decision to blanket the airwaves with panicky "SOUTH PARK IS GOING AWAY" messages to the entire country on Wednesday. But now all's better and "the companies expect to finalize the details of the agreement over the next several days," promises the press release.

OK. So does that mean Viacom is getting the huge rate hike it asked for in order to cover the advertising losses that it (and every other media company) suffered last year?

And if so, what of the concerns -- expressed by representatives of two of the other companies that are among Viacom's five largest clients -- that Viacom will pull the same stunt with the rest of the industry? And that Fox, NBC, Disney, Discovery and all the other big cable operators, all equally squeezed by the ad pinch, won't be right behind them?

You think the NFL Network was asking for a lot of money? Try adding up all those cable companies' demands (hypothetical for now). And then, ask yourself if you can really afford that in 2009.

The year-in-review issue of The Pitch is out and the cover is ... well, stunning. I'm not going to bogart TKC's photo since he was kind enough to post it online before the Pitch did ... go see it and read his writeup, too.

Unfortunately, there's bad news over at 17th and Walnut, too. Charles Ferruzza, the Pitch's best writer, has been shown the door along with Jen Chen, Chris Packham and Lorna Perry, according to BlogKC.

It could be worse -- the Pitch could be ceasing print publication entirely, like the Kansan next week. But no matter how you look at it, I'm not getting that tingly leaf-turning-over feeling I normally associate with Jan. 1. (I see Packham agrees.)

Jonathan Handel lines up the Screen Actors Guild's reasons for bringing Hollywood to a screeching halt for the second time in two years ... and knocks them all down.

Zap2It's reporting turmoil on the SAG board ... OK, that's not news, but the current round of turmoil could affect a strike vote.

I just got a card from the magazine subscription service that handles Radar magazine, which just shut down apparently for good this time. If ever there was a guilty pleasure, it was Radar -- the dinner with O.J., America's worst colleges, 100 things not to say at a job interview, Illeana Douglas ... not to mention great reporting by Friend of TVB John Cook....I'm missing it already!

But look at the three replacements the magazine service has offered me as compensation for the unused portion of my Radar sub (click to enlarge).

Yikes!

I think this calls for a poll.

When I first started doing Late Show News almost 15 years ago, I got a nice note from Andy Richter at "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," and thus began a friendly relationship with that show that has never abated. A big reason for that is the host, of course, who keeps putting out a show that I want to watch, but another reason has been the people behind the scenes.

The gap in total viewers in late night between (number one) CBS and (number four) NBC is (perhaps inevitably) closing to just 50,000 souls watching Conan as opposed to watching Craig. That is not a one-week anamoly, that is a season-to-date number.

Note, as you reading the duelling press releases, that NBC thinks total audience is so 1994.

My main man Charlie has updated his Interesting Pile blog once again with a listing of all the upcoming New Year's TV marathons. Which reminds me I need to post my MSNBC piece that's running tomorrow. Yes, they did it again -- MSNBC told all their top talent to take the week off and are filling the evening hours with ridiculous lookback/lockup fodder because, as we all know, there is no news going on right now. So I finally decided to write about it.

Anyway, here's Charlie's list. My picks: Wednesday, "Spectacle" or if you don't have digicable, "Earth: The Biography" on Nat Geo. Thursday: "American Greed" on CNBC -- say so long to its documentary division!

Kris Ketz of KMBC-9 is filling in for Chris Stigall this morning and booked me as a guest. Guess who slept in.

Well, it made for a pretty entertaining segment, even if the topics were old hat for TVB readers. So listen up and hear what I sound two minutes after Mrs. TVB has woken me with the words, "Aaron? It's KCMO Radio calling?"

I've got the rest of the day off ... well, except for WBAL but then I've got the day off! ...

(download MP3)

Time Warner Cable still won't play ball with the NFL -- and believe you me, there is enough blame to go around with that mess -- but it will be a charter member when Major League Baseball's MLB Network signs on Thursday.

Best of all, MLB Net will be standard digital and won't require subscription to a sports tier. Great for us baseball fans....not so great for football fans still out in the cold.

Here are the channel assignments:

Standard Definition--Channel 199

High Definition—Channel 1199

The Chicago Tribune has a story today taking note of all the British actors currently using American accents to gain access into the U.S. television and film markets.

I liked the story. And I liked it even more 18 months ago when we all wrote about it at press tour.

Speaking of Joely Richardson, it's time to stop asking when "Nip/Tuck" is coming back and time to start checking your Tivo season pass (Jan. 6).

.... then today's podcast with San Diego professional talk show host Chip Franklin may not be your cuppa joe:

or download

Hey, speaking of pigskin, did you hear that tonight's Alamo Bowl, which is dubbed the "Journalism Bowl" because it pits Northwestern against Missouri, is nowhere near selling out the stadium? Hm, I wonder whyyyyy.