Clinton supporter Terry McAuliffe appeared last Sunday on Meet the Press, and as he spun the tale of Sen. Hillary Clinton's future in the Democratic race, he let a major error slip — describing anchor Tim Russert's father as, "in heaven right now, Tim, probably having a scotch."

It turns out "Big Russ," is very much alive — Russert followed up McAuliffe's answer, saying, "Big Russ is in the Barcalounger still watching this, God bless him."

Politico's Ben Smith reports McAuliffe sent a bottle of scotch this week to Russert's father as an apology, with a note wishing him, "many more years of scotch-drinking on the Barcalounger."

If you haven't seen the awkward moment, check it out:

The 60 Minutes report, "Evidence of Injustice," will be awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Journalism Award on May 27 for Domestic Television.

It will be the second award for the 60 Minutes-Washington Post joint investigation, by Steve Kroft, Ira Rosen and John Solomon. The first was the Sigma Delta Chi award from the Society of Professional Journalists.

The RFK Television judges gave CBS the award because the, "work exemplified an increasingly rare quality in journalism today: courage in reporting."

Winning the International Television award — "Uganda's Silent War" by Kira Kay and Jason Maloney of PBS News Hour and HDNet World Report.

PRNewser reports on the death of Warren Cowan, who served as PR agent for stars like Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman and Frank Sinatra.

Cowan is also the father of Fox News Channel correspondent, Claudia Cowan.

The Los Angeles Times writes, "You have Cowan to thank (or blame) for helping pioneer such popular publicity tools as celebrity sporting events, top 10 lists (the "most watchable man" or "most hypnotic eyes"), and product placement."

...Alright, maybe it wasn't that Kevin James.

On Hardball last night, Chris Matthews moderated a heated debate, which turned into a history pop quiz, between Air America president Mark Green and talk radio host Kevin James.

James was getting worked up (Matthews even asked James, "Why are you screaming?") over the Bush-Obama back-and-forth, but later, the MSNBC anchor turned his attention to James' understanding of the historical analogy.

Throughout the next five minutes, Matthews asks, "What did Neville Chamberlain do?" and James uses variations of the term "appeasement" about a dozen times each. Eventually, James says he doesn't know. "This is pathetic," Matthews concludes. "We're talking to people with blank slates in terms of history."

Click continued to see the video, with the history session beginning around 2:15...

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Today wins the week again, by more than 1.1 million viewers over #2 GMA. The Early Show was the only network morning broadcast up week-to-week in Total Viewers.

For the week of April 28:

Total Viewers: NBC: 5,617,000 / ABC: 4,496,000 / CBS: 2,859,000

Households: NBC: 4.3/16 / ABC: 3.5/12 / CBS: 2.2/8

A25-54 rating: NBC: 2.2 / ABC: 1.6 / CBS: 1.1

It appears the crew behind The Early Show's week-long series "Eye on the Road" didn't keep an eye on the building behind their Louisville live shot yesterday. Over Nancy Cordes' shoulder was a huge billboard featuring GMA's Diane Sawyer.

The billboard is part of a city of Louisville campaign called "Louisville's Own..." Sawyer is featured as well as Muhammad Ali and other famous Louisvillians.

(via Newsblues)

When the news broke that the California Supreme Court struck down state laws against same-sex marriage, CNN was on top of the story. Unfortunately, for several minutes after the story broke, they got it wrong. Legal Pad writes, "I guess that's what happens when you only read the first few pages of a ginormous ruling."

While the CBS Evening News faces the uncertain future of its anchor, one thing is for sure: Katie Couric's broadcast is going HiDef. TVNewser was given inside access to the new CBS Broadcast Center control room Wednesday.

The state of the art facility is "years in the making," said CBS news VP of operations Frank Governale. After the relocation of several departments to accommodate the new control room, construction finally began last July. A month of rehearsals begins next week. The Evening News will debut in HD by "late June/early July," said Governale. The roll-out of field crews shooting in HD will begin with Washington and continue from there. The commitment to HD will expand later this year with 60 Minutes broadcasting in HiDef for its 41st season premiere in September. All CBS News broadcasts will be in HD "by the end of '09," said Governale.

The new control room comes complete with a conference room for use during continuous coverage, a translation booth for foreign news coverage, enough workstations to allow for a live broadcast of one program as well as the planning of two others, and the ubiquitous red phone. "Something I got from Roone Arledge," CBS News & Sports president Sean McManus told us, referring to his mentor. The red phone is the division president's direct line from his office to the executive producer for...let's just say...instant feedback. "Let's make sure the ring is on loud," McManus reminded Governale.

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> CBS News Sunday Morning is heading to Berlin. Charles Osgood will anchor the broadcast's annual "Design Issue" this Sunday. Osgood will visit the Berlin Zoo, Brandenburg Gate and many other sites as a part of the program which celebrates design.

> Next week Matt becomes a rodeo clown, Meredith drives a big rig, Al becomes a stuntman and Ann carves a landmark, live on TV. The Today team is leaving the safety of Studio 1A to tackle some of the world's most dangerous jobs. Watch, if you dare.

> CNBC wraps up their week tomorrow, away from Englewood Cliffs. Squawk Box originates from Atlanta, Erin Burnett remains in India for Street Signs and the Fast Money guys are in Chicago. (TVNewser's Alissa Krinsky will be on hand for Ratigan and Co.)

Jossip writes about a blow-up Tuesday night between MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and David Gregory during primary coverage. An MSNBC insider tells us the story is off base. "As usual, Jossip is trying to create conflict where there is none," the insider said.

Just before 10pmET, as Gregory's Race for the White House panel discussed the Clinton win, Olbermann could be heard pounding his fist on the anchor desk (loud enough that Pat Buchanan turned around, mid-sentence). Gregory then quickly tossed back to Olbermann.

A source who was in the control room Tuesday night tells us Olbermann was actually trying to get the attention of the floor director, so he could get to a commercial break, and be back with live coverage at the top of the hour:

• Related: On the 7pmET edition of Hardball last night, Pat Buchanan, Chris Matthews and Andrea Mitchell had a heated discussion regarding Buchanan's claim that the tone of the Tuesday primary coverage on MSNBC made West Virginians out to be poor and racist. Click continued for a clip from last night's Hardball...

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If there are still two candidates in the Democratic election by May 30, and they both agree, the cable networks may be headed for another primary election debate broadcast.

TVNewser has learned the FOX stations in Montana are offering to host a live Democratic Debate on May 30 at 10pmET, four days ahead of the Montana primary.

The debate would have limited commercial interruption and would be hosted by Gary Lee Robbins of "Unreliable Sources," (what does CNN think of that name?) and aired with limited commercial interruption.

The debate feed would be made available at no charge to any media outlet, available for either live or tape delayed simulcast, much like the Iowa debates in December.

	5p:	6p:	7p:	8p:	9p:	10p:	11p:
FNC	ElectionHQ:	Hume:	Shep.:	O'Reilly:	H&C:	Greta:	O'Reilly:
	182	275	333	507	332	321	330
CNN	Blitzer:	Blitzer:	Dobbs:	Brown:	King:	Cooper:	Cooper:
	194	297	385	279	297	380	206
MSNBC	Hardball:	Gregory/Spec.:	Hardball:	Countdown:	Abrams:	Countdown:	Special:
	155	295	365	507	259	155	211
HLN	Prime:	Prime:	Beck:	Grace:	Beck:	Grace:	Showbiz:
	68	65	159	193	150	168	143

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This is the scene outside 30 Rock today, as fans of New Kids on the Block line-up in anticipation of tomorrow morning's performance. As of this afternoon, there were over 100 in line — beginning yesterday morning. This will be the first New Kids on the Block performance in more than 15 years. We hear they'll perform some "greatest hits" and some new tracks, beginning at 8:30am. One thing's for sure — FishbowlNY managing editor Rebecca Fox is pumped...

Two weeks ago, when Daryn Kagan visited her former desk at CNN HQ in Atlanta, anchor Don Lemon used an odd, inner monologue sketch comedy route to introduce Kagan as a guest.

Today, another strange introduction took place, as anchor Tony Harris interviewed Tommy Lee and bandmate Johnny Colt about their new show on Planet Green. Besides CNN kicking off the interview by identifying the show in the lower third as the John Travolta smash hit, "Battlefield Earth," (the title is "Battleground Earth") the interview takes a surprising turn after the first couple minutes.

As Harris asks, "who is this walking on our set?" Chris "Ludacris" Bridges (another star of the Planet Green show) strolls over to the interview area, as the other three feign surprise. And the interview continues...as planned.

Click continued to see Ludacris' "surprise" entrance...

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The Daily News chatted with Sue Simmons about her droppage of the F bomb during a live, prime time tease Monday night on WNBC.

First of all, Simmons thought it was taped (okay, we get it. After 30 years of doing 2 or 3 promos a night, you forget which are live and which are taped.) Second: Simmons says she was joking with co-anchor Chuck Scarborough when she said to him, "What the Fuck are you doing?" (emphasis not added, because she really emphasized the word). Simmons emailed Richard Huff that she "went numb" adding, "NBC has been very supportive."

SoupCans has the clip from last night's Conan where Brian Williams (yes, shocker, he was on Late Night last night) talked about l'affaire de Sue. Williams said he doesn't "talk that way or have a potty mouth" and while he "occasionally...will use some salty language" he "can never say it won't happen."