The Ticker: 9/11, Greta, SitRoom, MSNBC…

> On Sept. 11, 2001, “TV was our salvation, our unifying town forum,” Scott Collins writes in today’s LAT. “But now, in struggling to make sense of the attacks, television is slipping back to its all-too-frequent caricature, the eyeball with no brain attached. In the space of five short years, the medium that rose to one of its finest hours bringing home the nightmare of the attacks to viewers everywhere is leaving some of the most important questions unasked…”

> Greta Van Susteren, “the No. 1 woman on cable TV by a mile,” is a techie, Washington Whispers says. The FNC host “lugs around a BlackBerry, a Motorola Q cellphone, a Sony camera and camcorder, and two laptops” (via ICN)…

> BTW, another notable Whispers item: “The real Situation Room — the war council office in the White House basement — is getting a face-lift, and even though he has a show called the Situation Room, we hear that CNN’s Wolf Blitzer isn’t on the bank of TVs in the design mock-up. Surprise, surprise — they all feature Fox…”

> An e-mailer asks: “What is up with these MSNBC commercials with the slogan ‘Keeping it Real?’ Are they trying to go urban? So embarrassing…”

> By the way: A tipster says MSNBC’s Sunday morning business show launches on August 13. No confirmation yet. Also: Is the channel premiering an all-new graphics “look” on August 14?…

> TV Week: Tucker’s “Beat the Press,” meet WGBH’s “Beat the Press…”