Fox News Channel

Fox News Channel has selected White House correspondent Bret Baier to replace Brit Hume as anchor of its weekday 3 p.m. newscast. Hume is cutting back to part-time work at Fox and was anchoring his last newscast Tuesday. Baier will start his new job Jan. 5. Baier is familiar to viewers of the show as Hume's occasional substitute and from his work as Fox's top person in the White House. He said he plans "on continuing to maintain the prestige of the program in every way I know how."

SERIES Tom Reed's For Members Only: This new episode looks at the founding of Los Angeles in 1781, and the Native Americans and people of African and Spanish descent who helped define the city (11 a.m. KSCI). The Revolution: This new lifestyle series encourages viewers to make changes in their lives for the better, with health advice from Dr. Jennifer Ashton, fitness tips from Harley Pasternak and relationship expertise from Dr. Tiffanie Davis. Ty Pennington and Tim Gunn also contribute (1 p.m. ABC)

If the battle between Fox News Channel and the Obama administration is still going on, it has moved behind closed doors. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was saying little Thursday about his meeting this week with Fox news executive Michael Clemente. Asked whether the tiff was over, Gibbs said, "I have nothing to add to that." The White House meeting Wednesday, first disclosed by the website FishbowlDC and confirmed by an aide to Gibbs, comes after the administration said publicly that the network operates more like a wing of the Republican Party than a news organization.

Greg Gutfeld, 47, is the host of Fox News Channel's late-night news and humor chatfest, "Red Eye w/Greg Gutfeld. " In July, the New York-based TV personality began helming "The Five," a daily round table that replaced departed host Glenn Beck's show. Let's start with your surprising career arc from men's magazine editor to Fox News personality. I was a magazine guy. I worked at Men's Health, where I like to think I wrote all the great ab lines, like "Lose your gut. " I think that was me. And "Six-pack abs in six minutes.

RUPERT MURDOCH and Roger Ailes had just announced their intention to create a 24-hour cable news channel from scratch, vowing to launch within a year and take on industry leader CNN. As they walked out of the news conference in the fledging network's Sixth Avenue headquarters in January 1996, Ailes turned to the News Corp. chairman. "I said, 'Rupert, they're laughing at us,' " the Fox News chairman and chief executive recalled in a recent interview.

You might have seen the promo. "So Thrilling. So Explosive. So Brash. So Bold. So Fresh. So Fox." And now it must be said of the Fox News affiliate in Los Angeles: So diminished. So wretched. So . . . so. Executives at Channel 11 announced the layoff of roughly one-quarter of the news staff a couple of weeks ago, a "Black Friday" bloodletting that had veteran reporter John Schwada regretting the loss of "a lot of good young people, with energy and dreams."

When Sarah Palin abruptly stepped down as Alaska governor in July before the end of her first term, many questioned how she could maintain a national presence without the platform of elected office. That hasn't proven a problem for the onetime Republican vice presidential nominee, who has kept herself at the center of political debate with a bestselling book, an appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and controversial Facebook postings. Now Palin has found another way to stay in the spotlight: by signing on as a contributor for the top-rated Fox News Channel.

Re "Fox News' Patriotic Fervor Sets It Apart in Ratings Race," April 11: Fox News Channel fails to show an accurate picture. During the last three weeks, hundred of civilians were killed in Baghdad, Basra and other Iraqi cities. Hospitals stopped counting their wounded and dead. Many had their limbs cut off by U.S weaponry and bombs. Families were buried in mass graves. Fox only shows a couple hundred Iraqis cheering for the Marines. It does not show those who were crying in despair and having their homes accidentally bombed by American missiles.

CNN was born in 1980 amid concern in some circles that Ted Turner, then a maverick conservative, would use his pioneering 24-hour-a-day news network to boost his political views. A similar buzz greeted Monday's arrival of right-wing media baron Rupert Murdoch's round-the-clock Fox News Channel (FNC). One difference: Turner isn't doing it, Murdoch is. Or so it seemed from watching FNC most of Wednesday.

NEW YORK -- Fox News Channel has fired the host of its weekly "Fox News Watch" show that discusses the performance of the news media. Eric Burns, the show's host, said Monday that he was told in a phone call last week that his contract would not be renewed. He said he was not given a reason. The show airs Saturday evenings and, along with CNN's "Reliable Sources," is one of two cable news programs that focus on the media.

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch survived calls for his removal as News Corp. chairman in the wake of a damaging phone hacking scandal at his British tabloid that critics said revealed lax oversight. After a contentious shareholders meeting in Los Angeles on Friday, News Corp. said a majority of shareholders supported his reelection to the company's board, as well as the reelection of his sons, James and Lachlan, and the rest of the directors. News Corp. did not disclose the vote tallies, saying it would do so early next week.

After 31 years in the business and 15 albums, R.E.M., the Southern rock band hailing from Athens, Ga., announced on its website Wednesday that it is calling it quits. "As R.E.M., and as lifelong friends and co-conspirators, we have decided to call it a day as a band," R.E.M. members Mike Mills, Peter Buck, Michael Stipe and Bill Rieflin said. "We walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality, and of astonishment at all we have accomplished. To anyone who ever felt touched by our music, our deepest thanks for listening.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who won several Republican primaries in the 2008 presidential race, said Saturday night that he would not make a run for the White House in 2012. Huckabee's decision was a secret to all but his close family until he revealed it on his weekly Fox News Channel program. Since losing the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, Huckabee has fashioned a lucrative post-political career as an author, speaker and contributor for Fox News, where he makes about $500,000 a year in a contract that goes through 2012.

Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, will announce Saturday whether he will run for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination. "Gov. Huckabee will announce tomorrow night on his program whether or not he intends to explore a presidential bid," said Woody Fraser, executive producer of Huckabee's weekly show on Fox News Channel. "He has not told anyone at Fox News Channel his decision," Fraser said. The show airs at 8 p.m. EDT. Huckabee, who polls show would likely be a strong contender if he runs, also mounted a bid in 2008.

The heartburn that a prospective Donald Trump presidential bid gives to other Republican candidates will now be delivered on a weekly basis. The bombastic real estate mogul will now be joining the morning show "Fox and Friends" every Monday, the program announced. "The Donald now makes his voice loud and clear every Monday on Fox," asserts a promo, which was first reported by Mediaite, a news media website. Lately, Trump has been loud and clear on the you-can't-kill-it-no-matter-how-hard-you-try matter of President Obama's origins, producing his own birth certificate and daring the president to do the same.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. has reached a deal to buy Shine Group, a television production company founded by the business magnate's daughter Elisabeth, for 415 million pounds ($673.3 million). The company said Monday it signed a non-binding letter of intent and will proceed with the necessary regulatory filings to acquire Shine, the producer of popular British shows like "Masterchef" and "Merlin. " In a joint statement, Rupert Murdoch praised Shine's "outstanding creative team" and said he expects his daughter to join News Corp.

Fox News Channel likes to call itself "fair and balanced" in the face of critics who rail about its conservative bent, but its viewers have shown a marked preference for watching the channel's take on Republicans over Democrats. During the Republican National Convention two weeks ago, even NBC's Tom Brokaw didn't prove a draw, as Fox trounced the better-funded, more widely distributed MSNBC. Fox also beat CNN at a few key times, even though CNN is available in millions more homes.

News Corp. said Tuesday that it will file a lawsuit today against Time Warner Inc. over its refusal to carry the Fox News Channel on its New York City cable system, turning the heat up a notch in a long-simmering brawl. News Corp. said it will charge Time Warner, Turner Broadcasting Systems Inc. and Ted Turner with an antitrust conspiracy. The suit will be filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Rupert Murdoch is close to bringing his daughter Elisabeth back into the family business. In recent weeks, negotiations have accelerated for Murdoch's media empire News Corp. to acquire Elisabeth Murdoch's London-based television production company, Shine Group, for about $700 million, according to people familiar with the situation. The move would hand one of Europe's fastest-growing TV companies, with operations in nearly a dozen countries, to News Corp., which owns the Fox TV network, Fox News Channel, regional sports networks, the 20th Century Fox movie studio, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.