On 'Morning Joe' (weekdays, 6AM ET on MSNBC), Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski got into a heated debate about the reason Fox News Channel president Roger Ailes told his on-air personalities to "tone it down" in the wake of the tragedy in Arizona.

Scarborough praised Ailes as "brilliant politically" for rising above the fray, while Brzezinski dismissed Ailes' memo as "business" and later said Ailes was just being "politically correct."

Brzezinski also said that Ailes' call for a change of tone doesn't make up for a "a lot of the stuff that has happened on (Fox News)."

"Do you really want to go there?" Scarborough angrily responded, suggesting that their own network, MSNBC, hasn't exactly been a saint when it comes to the "heated rhetoric" that is now under fire.

Ultimately, Scarborough agreed that Ailes' edict was a business decision, but still worthy of recognition. However, one can't help but think that any time Scarborough, a self-described conservative, praises Ailes, he's doing so because he hopes Ailes will make the business decision to hire Scarborough -- giving him a much bigger audience than he could ever enjoy on MSNBC.

George Stephanopulous had planned to continue hosting This Week when he took over for Diane Sawyer on Good Morning, America (still haven't gotten used to him there), but he gave up the position a couple of weeks ago. So who is going to replace him on the Sunday morning new show? No one knows yet, though reporter Jake Tapper's name has often been mentioned. In the meantime, they're getting people to fill in for him, and this Sunday it will be Barbara Walters.

As a lot of you know, Walters was actually a newswoman before she started refereeing fights between Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck on The View, so it will be good to see her in that role again (no, her celebrity interview specials don't count and she's not on 20/20 much anymore). Her guests will be FOX News head Roger Ailes and Arianna Huffington, former Republican and head of The Huffington Post.

If you thought CNN's ratings could not sink any lower, here comes a gaping hole in the ocean floor.

CNN's one man Minuteman force, Lou Dobbs, announced he's leaving CNN as of tonight. He's stepping away from his contract with the news network two years early and leaving television...for now.

He hasn't announced if he's leaving for another network or even another job in or outside of television, even though he was seen getting cozy with Fox's Roger Ailes two months ago. But neither Dobbs nor the network have confirmed if he's going to be hired by the Fox News Channel. Translation? He's going to be hired by the Fox News Channel.

The "duh" in the title is because it has always seemed to me like CNN Headline News host Glenn Beck belonged on Fox News all along, because it seems to be more in line with his way of thinking and his viewpoints.

Beck has signed a deal with Fox News Channel to host a daily show at 5pm (and a weekend show in the future). The deal has been described as "multi-year" and "multimillion-dollar." There have been rumors that Beck was going to eventually move to the network ever since he was seen eating with FNC head Roger Ailes. No word yet on when Beck will leave Headline News.

This will give Keith Olbermann more fodder for his frequent rants against Beck. Sure, he could do them if Beck was still at CNN, but it's probably going to be more convenient to have all of his targets (Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity) all in one easy-to-find place.

Personally, I'd rather see Nancy Grace leave Headline News than Beck. She annoys the hell out of me for so many reasons.

I'm not exactly sure what they mean by "powerful" whenever these lists come out. Does it mean influence? Does it mean the most-watched? Probably a mish-mash of both, since the list includes anchors and network executives. Here's the list, according to TV Week. Last year's rank is in parentheses.

1. Roger Ailes - Chairman and CEO of FOX News (1)

According to New York mag anyway. Their list of The Most Influential People In Media includes Daily Show host Jon Stewart, Colbert Report host Stephen Colbert (along with Daily Show producer/writer Ben Karlin), and FOX News Channel Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes. Katie Couric is on the list too, as she prepares to take over the CBS Evening News in September.

So, who's missing from this list? There's no one from TV Squad on the list, which I'm sure is just a typo.

[via TV Newser]

When The CW launches in the fall, there will be a bunch of UPN affiliates out there that lose all their programming. At least ten of those affiliates are owned by FOX, which announced that it will launch its own mini-network on those stations and call it My Network TV. To begin with, FOX will provide two original dramas, called Desire and Secrets,  that will air six nights a week for 13 weeks (like the telenovelas on Univision). The new network launches in major U.S. cities including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas, on September 5th. The mini-network is going to be run by Roger Ailes, the man responsible for Fox News Channel.