The Ticker (p.m. edition): Leno, Rather, Dinnick…

> It has been speculated about before, but today brings fresh rumors — is Jay Leno headed to CNN? This one comes courtesy of the Chicago Sun-Times’ Bill Zwecker, who writes, “I’m hearing that Leno may be courted by CNN — perhaps being given a late-night chatfest that could morph into Leno replacing Larry King.”

> Former CBS Evening News, and current HDNet, anchor Dan Rather has talked “media reform” before. On Saturday, he’ll do it at the 2008 National Conference for Media Reform in Minneapolis. Rather will appear with Arianna Huffington and others as they present the 2008 inductees into the “Big Media Hall of Shame.”

> CNN correspondent Wilf Dinnick, currently on assignment in China, blogs about the experience of hiking up a mountain six hours in order to get a view of an area no foreign reporter had. Dinnick, who joined the network in December, gave his report yesterday. “None of us had ever been so exhausted for one story,” he writes.