-By Warner Todd Huston
In 1982, CNN debuted a current affairs debate show titled Crossfire. The show starred Tom Braden from the left and Pat Buchanan from the right in a raucous debate on the issues of the day. The show continued until 2005 when it was canceled. But now, CNN is hinting that it is considering a re-launch of the show.
Alex Weprin reported that CNN has not made any firm announcements, but that the cable news network is considering the idea. CNN is in the midst of a wide-ranging re-working of its programming as newly minted President Jeff Zuckerman tries to reverse years of failing ratings. Dominic Patten, however, claims his source says that CNN will re-launch the show in June, though he had no other information on hosts, times, or format.
The series originated from a Braden/Buchanan radio show which began in 1978 and over its twenty-three-year history, Crossfire had over a dozen co-hosts. The show was often criticized for its hard-charging style.
In fact, Crossfire ended only months after Comedy Central comedian Jon Stewart criticized the show for “hurting America” with its “miserable” example of public discourse.
Even though then, as now, Stewart indulged in the same “partisan hackery,” he exempted himself from any blame for “hurting America” claiming he’s “just a comedian.”
Nonetheless, Crossfire was canceled in 2005 after final conservative co-host Tucker Carlson left the network for a stint at MSNBC.
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CNN Looking to Re-Launch ‘Crossfire’”
As President Obama is heard scolding Republicans on a near daily basis for forcing a sequester that is shutting down government and halting funding for things like White House tours, he and First Wife Michelle geared up Tuesday for a star-studded, soul music concert in the White House that featured such stars as Justin Timberlake, Queen Latifah, and the Reverend Al Green.
On April 2 on Fox News’ The Five, former George W. Bush press secretary Dana Perino criticized Doctor Ben Carson for appearing on too many conservative shows. This criticism sent talk show host Mark Levin into criticism of his own saying he was sick of these “preening, elitist, country club Republican(s).”
On Wednesday, April 3, President Obama announced he would be returning 5% of his paycheck to the federal treasury in a show of shared sacrifice with federal workers facing furloughs because of the sequester. The news came as he once again flew about the country pushing his anti-Second Amendment policies and only days after another lavish vacation indulged by the first family was in the news. 
MSNBC has been playing musical chairs with its on-air hosts and one move left talk show The Cycle without a steady co-host. Now that Salon senior political writer Steve Kornacki has been pegged to helm a new weekend morning show, MSNBC has announced that The Nation correspondent Ari Melber will take up Kornacki’s The Cycle co-hosting duties.
Marking its first high profile hire, Al Jazeera has announced that it has hired CNN’s chief business correspondent, Ali Velshi, for its new Al Jazeera America cable network.
A formal complaint has been filed with a New York lobbying board to investigate whether Yoko Ono, Robert De Niro and nearly 200 other celebrities have violated state laws with their Artists Against Fracking activist group.
An ebay user with user name astrobuzz is 
In the wake of the Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal, the British Broadcasting Service (BBC) is being hit with new allegations that behind the camera staffers–this time from the Doctor Who kiddy sci-fi show–sexually abused youngsters who visited the famed broadcasting studios.
Former NBA great Earvin “Magic” Johnson has seen Obamacare and has pronounced it good. According to Johnson, “a lot” of CEOs at hospitals have told him that Obamacare “is working.” 
The next episode of NBC’s Law & Order: SVU will feature another story “ripped from the headlines.” This time, the show that mines controversy will tackle “legitimate rape” ala former Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin.
Despite solid ratings and wide appeal to middle America, NBC is poised to replace Jay Leno with Jimmy Fallon as the host of the Tonight Show as Leno’s contract nears its end.
Another in a long line of left-wing radio stations is going dark. KJFK of Reno, Nevada, will cease broadcasting after 8 years as a progressive talk radio station.
Matt Lauer, co-host of NBC’s struggling morning news show, Today, may have a new job offer. Reports are the Lauer is being considered as a replacement for Alex Trebek as host of the long-running game show, Jeopardy!.
There is a new face on the pro-gun circuit. Mr. Colion Noir, a young African American who is conservative and pro-gun, is the National Rifle Association’s newest spokesman but apparently this has proven too much for rap and entertainment mogul Russell Simmons.
Joy Behar, one of the original couch members of ABC’s late morning gabfest, The View, has confirmed that she is leaving the long-running show.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s media group has apologized for its February 21 cover of Bloomberg Businessweek over complaints that it used racist imagery to illustrate the feature story on the housing market.
CNN recently canceled Soledad O’Brien’s short-lived morning show, Starting Point, but the anchor is now saying she’s not at all unhappy about it.
Despite some $430 million in tax breaks for Hollywood in last year’s “fiscal cliff” deal, DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg has announced that he is cutting 350 people by the end of the year.
There was once a day when particular media outlets were so dominant that they could essentially make the rules on who they permitted to appear with them whether in print, on the radio, or on TV. Those days are long gone, of course. So, why does CNBC still think it has the power to demand that guests appear solely on its network? And, in so doing is CNBC depriving its viewers of the vital financial information that they need to plan their business days?
On a February 17 broadcast of MSNBC Live, panelist Chris Smith thought it would be a great idea to have U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor replace retiring Pope Benedict as head of the Catholic Church.
The February 19 episode of CBS’ 
MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry must have thought she was getting “edgy” in a recent segment on her show when she turned to the topic of “race jokes.” But instead of Maury Povich or Jerry Springer she ended up with sanitized PCism and another prosaic, partisan attack on whites and conservatives–the latter the only subject MSNBC ever seems to discuss.
Left-wing comic Bill Maher has a new idea, something he feels will fix the mess the United States is in. Dump the possible two-term Presidency and replace it with a single, six-year term… just like the President of the Confederate States of America.