Here were three things that made last night's "Topic A" worth watching: Tina's pronunciation of "authenticity," "scheduled," and "bias." It was better than your typical Americish, as she might say. Henry the Intern watches without (for once) covering his ears and finds himself strangely, if not perversely, satisfied.

Tina talked to "media wise man" Ken Auletta about the media's "nervous breakdown." Auletta said the credibility of CBS News is damaged because they mishandled the response to questions about their sourcing, "instead of being humble, which is what we are supposed to be as journalists." Tina asked, "Why weren't they ready?" Auletta responded, "Why wasn't Kerry ready for the [Swift Boat Veterans for Truth] campaign in August?. . . They were stupid in either case."

Auletta threw in anecdotes from his recent New Yorker profile of Bob Shrum, top advisor to Kerry-Edwards. Tina was "shocked" to learn Shrum can't type and doesn't understand cable news. Auletta referenced that Bush-Cheney officials read Drudge and ABC's The Note and derided Kerry's decision to avoid negativity (until recently) as "a great strategic error."

Auletta articulated that Roger Ailes and conservative bloggers should be blamed for the media's "overly defensive" posture about their presumed liberal bias. "The Fox effect," as Tina said, "has made it harder for Democrats to get their message out." She cited a "cautious preamble" by CNN's Aaron Brown before an interview with Democratic Senator Joe Biden.

Next, Tina spoke to the new president of ABC primetime entertainment, Stephen McPherson. He hyped "Wife Swap" as "an emotional look" at families —unlike Fox's cheap knock-off— while explaining his network is searching "proactively" for talent.

Tina then welcomed Seymour "Sy" Hersh, investigative reporter for The New Yorker. His new book about prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib details how the "bureaucracy didn't care enough to stop it." Hersh said, "Nobody protected the people at Abu Ghraib from the dumb things kids will do... If [leaders] make it clear that you will not tolerate [abuses], the command will obey." Hersh said while the Senate ignores the issue, "the only people who might do something about it are the military." It "turns out [military officers] are really mad."

Hersh complained his sources and administration officials took the President's "with us or against us" line personally after 9/11 and shunned him. "It's hard not to like [Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld," said Hersh, recalling Rummy's "great imitation" of former national security advisor Samuel Berger, but he "turned cold very quickly. . . and his door is shut." Worse still, he told Tina, officials are scared to even vet his stories.

The editor's desk roundtable toppled the Kerry-Edwards campaign (again). James "look him up under fearless" Cramer recommended Kerry should visit veterans' hospitals and Wal-Marts, two places suffering. Cramer pumped up Senator Biden "instead of all these gnomes" Kerry uses as surrogates. David Carr, media and cultural reporter for The New York Times was back in all his glory proclaiming the Democrats have "been told they're weenies long enough they've come to believe it." He said Kerry should tour small towns hit hardest by the war: "He's failed to connect with all those people, who, by the way, live in swing states and could decide this election." Nancy Collins, of Harper's Bazaar and Architectural Digest dubbed the Republicans "a SWAT team in suits." Tina, "astonished at how Democrats have thrown in the towel," pleaded for some swing-state level attention: "I want someone to campaign for me, please."

Scott Donaton, from Advertising Age, joined the roundtable to analyze advertisers' "desperate, scared reaction" to "losing control" to consumers. He said because consumers skip ads, marketers "have to become part of the entertainment they're already enjoying," such as successful product placements on "Oprah" and "The Apprentice." Cramer remarked, "Last's years Trump show was Mickey Mouse... you get legitimacy by having Mattel on and no one really cares how much Mattel paid." Tina recalled the Oscars as "a giant freebie bag" and joked she'd do the hot picks wearing Versace and Harry Winston. We were honestly disappointed. Where's the glam?

Hot picks
Cramer: Memoirs of General William T. Sherman
Donaton: Woot.com
Collins: Koba the Dread by Martin Amis (Agreed)
Carr: Sony's new notebook computers
Tina: "Bush's Lost Year" by James Fallows in The Atlantic Monthly's October issue (Agreed as well)

Email from a "Captain Nimrod": "Tina, do you know what the word bias means?" Play nice: topicawithtinabrown@nbc.com

As the credits rolled, Tina professed, "I love Dan Rather."

Closing quote by Robert Frost: "A liberal is a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel."

Minus the charisma-less interview with the ABC executive, last night's show was relatively satisfying. And to think, if Tina were still at The New Yorker, it would be a synergy in motion.

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