Just when the Cable News Network had actually gained ground in its ratings by picking up 555,000 viewers -- a rise of two percent -- in the third quarter of 2014, CNN has become one of the seven victims of a contract dispute between its parent company, Atlanta-based Turner Broadcasting, and the Dish Network, which has 14 million subscribers.

Another news-related casualty of the dispute is HLN, which lost 352,000 viewers from July through September. Formerly known as Headline News, the network's viewership fell four percent during that period.

The family of Steven Sotloff, the second American journalist beheaded in the past two weeks by members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria -- or ISIS -- is reportedly “outraged” at President Barack Obama and his staff for making “deliberate leaks,” which the relatives interpret as “an attempt to absolve the administration of inaction.”

While this might seem to be the basis of an extensive news article investigating that angle of the conflict between the terrorist group and America, the New York Times reported on it -- in the final three paragraphs of a lengthy article in its Tuesday edition.

Our friends at Breitbart.com caught how liberal Politico writer Glenn Thrush dutifully set about as gaffe goalie for prospective Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, defending her "Medgar Evans" gaffe as a mere "verbal typo." "Gaffe is accidental truth. Verbal typo is [a] brain fart," Thrush helpfully explained via Twitter.

In and of itself, it's no big deal, Breitbart's John Nolte admits, but for the obvious liberal media double standard in what passes for political reporting these days. "[T]oday's mainstream media is merciless at using slips of the tongue to undermine the competency of Republicans. Democrats, however, always get a pass. Even if the gaffe is noted by the media, it is never used to define or undermine the pol," Nolte concluded. Thrush's eagerness to rush to Hillary's rescue illustrates that it's not just bias by omission conservatives have to contend with, but an actual positive attempt by liberal journalists to act as Democratic gaffe goalies. Expect more Glenn Thrushes to come out of the weeds as the campaign season heats up and conservative bloggers and Twitter users make sport of their verbal faux pas.

When Jeff Zucker became president of CNN earlier this month, some people in the mainstream media feared that this might be the end of “the last bastion of television journalism” since the former head of NBC Universal was expected to make many significant changes in the network personnel and schedule.

Those changes took off on Tuesday, when ABC's Chris Cuomo, who had served as the news anchor on “Good Morning America” from 2006 to 2009 and then moved on to the "20/20" prime-time program, was reported to “have a major role in a new CNN morning show and across the network, anchoring and reporting on major events.”

Our friend John Nolte at Big Journalism points out that Politico is back to its old tricks, defending Barack Obama from criticism by digging up dirt on a private citizen who supports his Republican opponent. In 2008, it was Joe the Plumber who was vetted by the Politico. This time around, it's an Iowa man who appears in a Romney Web ad.

"Right now Politico is doing oppo-research on private citizens to aid Obama. Seems to me that makes journalist's private lives fair game, no?" Nolte asked this morning in a tweet, noting in another tweet that "Politico's Maggie Haberman is a public figure in a position of power. Why is her private life any less newsworthy than a private citizen?"