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This Just In: Kinsley watch

Coming soon to a computer near you?

By Dan Kennedy

Former CNN/PBS talking head Michael Kinsley may be returning to television soon -- this time with his own brand name backing him up.

MSNBC.com's chief Washington correspondent, Brock Meeks, reported Tuesday that corporate cousin Microsoft had quietly registered the Web domain names SlateTV.com, SlateTV.net, and SlateTV.org on August 16. When Meeks asked Slate publisher Scott Moore what was up, Moore confirmed that he was looking into a possible TV deal -- and that any such deal would involve Kinsley, Slate's celebrity editor.

Meeks reported that it wasn't clear what form the venture would take. But since Microsoft went to the trouble of registering Web addresses, it's logical to speculate that the show might appear on a cable news outlet (MSNBC would obviously be a natural) and also on the Web, where viewers could watch it at a time convenient to them.

Kinsley was asked by Meeks about a recent interview he gave to the Boston Phoenix ("Lone Rangers," News and Features, June 11) in which he said, "One of the things I'm determined to resist is turning Slate into TV by other means. We are going to cling to the print metaphor." Kinsley responded to Meeks: "Of course we hope the TV show will be different in ways that reflect our online experience, and we hope to learn things doing the TV show that may prove useful online. But basically they're two separate projects."