The Ticker: Hartman, Rice/King, Hill…

> Hollywood Reporter quotes Rome Hartman on the new CBS tune for Katie Couric: “It’s memorable when you hear it, and it feels like it fits us…”

> O’Reilly’s Most Ridiculous Item of the Day: “In July, Fox News was the fifth-highest rated cable network in the country. CNN was 24th, MSNBC 36th, right behind the Japanese movie channel. Somebody please tell all of that to Buffalo News TV critic Alan Pergament , who continues to bash FNC, which of course, is ridiculous but very common…”

> Tom Dorsey: “A documentary producer recently told me that when he pitched a story about a Baghdad field hospital to a network morning news show, he was told the show was passing because the producers felt that viewers click the program off when war news comes on…”

> P.R.: “Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will appear on CNN’s Larry King Live tonight at 9 p.m. (ET). She will discuss the conflict in the Middle East…”

> This is a message from someone at Fox: “Today, E.D. Hill laughed at a professor who believes the government was behind the 9/11 attacks during an interview this morning. I personally don’t buy that theory but we live in America and people are allowed to believe in what they want, freely. Hill was extremely unprofessional in mocking this professor…”