"In the Papers," as you know unless you have the grave misfortune to live somewhere where you are unable to enjoy Pat Kiernan's calm visage and dulcet tones in the morning, is a segment where Pat leafs through the morning papers, pointing out the stories that are interesting to Pat Kiernan. Now Pat's going to "expand his personal brand" by taking the segment online, so readers across the nation can allow Pat Kiernan to "'cut through the clutter' and compile the most relevant articles for readers each day."

What's that you say—this is just a half-ass news roundup of the sort that countless blogs have been doing for more than a decade now? Shut up. This involves Pat Kiernan. End of discussion.

Plus Pat has a blog where he addresses the question of "whether I might enjoy the fish tacos."
[NYT, Pat's Papers]

Monday we heard that WNBC's Chuck Scarborough and KNBC's Paul Moyer, the Kent Brockman and Ron Burgundy of New York, were both potential buyout targets. And now loooooooongtime WNBC sports guy Len Berman—the guy who shows the bloopers!—is getting bought out:

Len Berman, a New York television sports fixture since 1979, including for the past nearly quarter century at WNBC-TV, will leave the station sometime in the next 30 to 60 days.

The station and Berman, 61, had been discussing for months a settlement of his contract - believed to be the most lucrative among his anchor peers with an annual salary one TV industry source estimated at $1 million.

He says he's ready for the "next phase" in his career or something, which presumably involves sitting in a rocking chair counting the staggering pile of money that he was paid over the course of his career, for some reason. You were good at what you did, Len, but it's a new era now. The only media people who deserve that kind of money these days are bloggers. [Newsday]

On average, only some 630,000 viewers a night tune in to Anderson Cooper 360, to watch Anderson Cooper do his professional duties....

Many nights, Mr. Cooper doesn't even do as well as his predecessor Aaron Brown, the ice to his fire, the old-fashioned, bespectacled anchor who was booted in 2005 to make room for Mr. Cooper....

[I]n June, Mr. Cooper has occasionally been outperformed by his own substitute host, John Roberts, the salt-and-pepper CNN national correspondent who was dumped by CBS News this year. He loses 20 to 40 percent of his lead-in from Larry King Live.

And he is routinely trounced by his head-to-head Fox competitors, Greta van Susteren and a rebroadcast of Bill O'Reilly.

And yet somehow Greta hasn't ended up on the cover of Vanity Fair. Can't imagine why.

NYTV: The Cooper Enigman [NYO]

Anderson Cooper Will Be Here Thursday [92Y.org]

But here's the thing. The Daily Show juggernaut has recently placed itself as strong advocates of gay rights and gay marriage. Recall Jon's extended attack on Bill Bennett two weeks ago over the gambling moralist's opposition to gay marriage. And consider Stephen Colbert's mockery last night of Wall Street Journal deputy editorial-page editor Dan Henninger's comment that, "A woman in India last week married a snake. I would like to ask the proponents of gay marriage—which violates, after all, traditions going back through all of human history—to now absolutely, positively guarantee that the next movement is not going to be allowing people to marry their pet horse, dog or cat." And then wonder: So how many questions do you think do you think Jon will ask about Julio?

Anderson Cooper Pays a Visit to Jon Stewart [The Book Standard]
Related:
Jon Stewart Tears Open Bill Bennett On Gay Marriage [Boing Boing]
Wall Street Journal Opinion Editor Says Gay Marriage Could Lead to Marrying Snakes [Raw Story]

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Dan Rather Signs Off [CBSNews.com]
Rather Leaves CBS News [Public Eye]
Earlier: Will Today Be Dan Rather's Last at CBS?

mole: it's going to be a big afternoon at CBS News
gawker: what's the cbs goss?
mole: i can't tell you
mole: but you could figure it out

Is Katie about to wemple? Nah, our guess is that it's the announcement of Dan Rather's final, formal departure from the network.

And, because it now seems obligatory: You're a better man than we are, Gunga Dan.

Literally, this is what they call the mancage. It's attached to a giant crane. I'm actually going to get inside it and go over the 17th Street Canal.

A little bit later on we're going to take you up in that mancage.

I've got to put on this equipment, because we're going to go into what's called a mancage right here.

The mancage is used to take people everyday, to take the workers.

Welcome back. We've just gotten out of the mancage.

Sigh. He's always out of the mancage by the time we get there.

Anderson Cooper Enters the Mancage [Reference Tone]

Anderson Cooper Almost Comes Out on Top [Book Standard]

I'd like to thank Julio for his support and calm counsel without which this book would not have been possible.

Acknowledgements, indeed.

Dispatches From the Edge [Amazon]

Anderson talks about his brother's suicide. Anderson comes from a fancy family. Gratuitous emoter Oprah admits her fondness for the gratuitous emotion of Anderson. Yada yada yada. It doesn't sound like Anderson says anything he hasn't said before — you know, whatever that might be — nor does it sound like Oprah pushes him to break any new ground. Well, except for this: "My brother and I used to wear costumes all the time.... We were obsessed."

Yes, "obsessed" is one word for it.

Laughing and Crying With Anderson Cooper and Oprah [Jossip]