Middle East Crisis: Thur. Notes

> A viewer writes: “On Hardball, Mark Potter in the Middle East was about to respond to Chris Matthews when an upbeat tune began to play. After about ten seconds and while responding, Potter reached down to his cell phone and turned it off.”

> NBC’s Andrea Mitchell anchored “World In Crisis” on MSNBC at noon.

> From my vantage point, it looked like FNC was first with word of an Israeli chopper crash. FNC had video by 5:10pm. At 5:24pm, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour said she was “trying to chase down a possible story about” a chopper crash.

> An e-mailer asks: “What is Tucker Carlson doing” in the Middle East? “Isn’t he a political pundit and not a journalist?” I don’t know the answer, but here’s my guess: He was a pundit on Crossfire, but he wants to expand his role. (He covered the London bombings and Katrina on the scene too.)

> Tomorrow on CNNI’s Your World Today: Becky Anderson will anchor from Beirut and Fionnuala Sweeney will anchor from Haifa.

> FNC is preparing special coverage on Saturday. Fox & Friends will start at 6am, and the business block will be live at 10am.