Richard A. Clarke, the former special adviser on cybersecurity to President Bush, appeared on last night's 'Rachel Maddow Show' (weekdays, 9PM ET on MSNBC), sounding the alarm that the United States government currently does not have the capability or authority to defend the public and private sector from cyber attacks by hostile nations. Clarke warned that such attacks could be devastating, wreaking havoc on America's banking systems, e-mail providers and transportation.

Tuesday's 'Rachel Maddow Show' (weekdays, 9PM ET on MSNBC) turned the spotlight on a strange connection between Kentucky Republican Senator Jim Bunning and candy-flavored cigarettes. Maddow reports on Senator Bunning's outrage that a new law passed by the Canadian Parliament has banned candy-flavored cigarettes in Canada on the grounds that they encourage children to pick up smoking. Yes, you read that correctly -- Bunning, who represents a tobacco-growing state, is actively protesting against another country's efforts to curb smoking among young people.

Walter Cronkite's passing didn't mark the end of an era in the TV news business. The era he helped produce and prolong died long before he did.

It's hard for me to ever imagine a time when people considered a major network news anchor as America's most trusted source for anything. Claims of bias and political persuasion being injected into every story with a meat syringe created a thick fog that made it very hard to cover anything with a modicum of honesty.

Cronkite, however, was the man people turned to when something blew up, exploded, imploded, launched, landed or any other number of descriptive verbs, because his goal wasn't to make news every time he stepped in front of a camera. His goal was just to report it.

While NBC is committing all its ten o'clock hours next fall to Jay Leno, MSNBC is looking for a ten o'clock star. They want a show to secure stronger foothold on prime time by filling that hour with a new show.

Right now, it presents a rerun of Countdown with Keith Olbermann, but that's not how it's going to remain. Phil Griffin, MSNBC prez, would like to develop a new hour to go along with Countdown and The Rachel Maddow Show, and presumably build on the audience Olbermann and Maddow are generating.