For the fifth year, Forbes has issued its 'The World's 100 Most Powerful Women' list. And, as she was last year, Meredith Vieira ranks highest among women in television news, coming in at #61 (she was #55 in 2007).

Right behind is her Today predecessor, Katie Couric (#62), followed by Barbara Walters (#63). Diane Sawyer is #65, with Christiane Amanpour at #91. Last year's rankings had Sawyer at #62, Couric #63, and Amanpour #74. Walters was not ranked in 2007.

Also on the list again is Disney-ABC TV Group President Anne Sweeney, who, at #30, jumped quite a bit from last year's #77 ranking.

At the very top of the list? German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Meredith Vieira is the highest-ranking woman in television news on Forbes' 2007 "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women".

The magazine bequeaths the very top spot on the list to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Vieira comes in at #55, with Diane Sawyer #62, Katie Couric #63, and Christiane Amanpour #74. Anne Sweeney, President of the Disney-ABC Television Group, is #77.

In an interview on Forbes.com, Forbes Senior Editor Elizabeth MacDonald says the women on the list were chosen on the basis of "their title, their sphere of influence, their career accomplishments, (and) the amount of money they have sway over", as well as "what changes they've brought, and what influence they have around the world."

Variety columnist Brian Lowry writes about the cable news coverage of DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff's "gut feeling."

"The news channels unwittingly reward nebulous plots with the sort of overwhelming response normally reserved for Paris Hilton." Lowry writes. "More troubling, however, isn't so much the news media's tendency toward groupthink as nonthink -- or 'Televise now, think later...'"

The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press is out with a report about "What Americans Know." Here's the AP recap.

"There are substantial differences in the knowledge levels of the audiences for different news outlets. However, there is no clear connection between news formats and what audiences know," the report states. "Well-informed audiences come from cable (Daily Show/Colbert Report, O'Reilly Factor), the internet (especially major newspaper websites), broadcast TV (NewsHour with Jim Lehrer) and radio (NPR, Rush Limbaugh's program). The less informed audiences also frequent a mix of formats: broadcast television (network morning news shows, local news), cable (Fox News Channel), and the internet (online blogs where people discuss news events)."

Here's the rest...

Congratulations, ABC's Dan Harris: You're the most visible network correspondent in 2006, according to the Center for Media and Public Affairs.

NBC's David Gregory placed second. CBS's Jim Axelrod and ABC's Martha Raddatz tied for third.

In fifth and sixth places were anchors Katie Couric and Brian Williams. (Couric reported 103 stories from September to December!)

Here's the list of the top 50...

In 2006, "racial and gender diversity among reporters on the broadcast network evening newscasts matched its highest level since 1990," the Center for Media and Public Affairs finds. Here's the summary. Highlights:

> "In 2006, 15 percent of all network stories were reported by minority correspondents and 28 percent were reported by women." (In 1990, seven percent were reported by minorities and 13 percent were reported by women.)

> "For the second straight year, female correspondents saw an increase in story assignments, rising from 25 percent in 2004 to 26 percent in 2005 to 28 percent last year."

> CBS was #1 in both minority and female reporters.

(Image via Public Eye)

This month, the Project for Excellence in Journalism is starting "an ambitious weekly study of what stories almost three dozen media sources are reporting, what news they view as important and how reporting differs among outlets," USAT's Peter Johnson reports.

Each Tuesday, PEJ "will issue a report on its website (journalism.org.) about the media agenda -- what was covered and what wasn't." Here are the TV broadcasts they'll be monitoring:

Network TV (Monday-Friday)

-- ABC: Good Morning America, World News With Charles Gibson

-- CBS: Early Show, Evening News With Katie Couric

-- NBC: Today, Nightly News With Brian Williams

-- PBS: NewsHour With Jim Lehrer

Cable TV (Monday-Friday)

-- Daytime (1–1:30 p.m.), 1 out of 3: CNN, Fox News, MSNBC

-- CNN (prime time), 3 out of 4: Lou Dobbs Tonight, Situation Room (7 p.m.), Paula Zahn Now, Anderson Cooper 360

-- Fox News, 3 out of 4: Special Report With Brit Hume, Fox Report With Shepard Smith, O'Reilly Factor, Hannity & Colmes

-- MSNBC, 2 out of 4: Tucker Carlson (6 p.m.), Hardball With Chris Matthews (7 p.m.), Countdown With Keith Olbermann, Scarborough Country

What news programs do "opinion leaders" watch? The Erdos and Morgan Opinion Leaders Survey asked individuals from workers "across the public and private sector, including members of executive and congressional branches of government, and representatives from the media, science and business industries," according to Media Bulletin.

The top four programs were evening newscasts, followed by NBC's Meet the Press, BBC World News, The O'Reilly Factor, and Larry King Live. Digital Spy says the BBC is touting the results...

Bob Schieffer "scores much higher" than Katie Couric in this new Gallup poll of "television news and talk personalities." Among respondents with opinions of each person, Schieffer has a 87 percent favorable and 13 percent unfavorable rating. His successor on the CBS Evening News has a 72 percent favorable and 28 percent unfavorable rating.

There's a catch, of course: Only 17 percent of respondents had no opinion or knowledge of Couric, while 41 percent had no comment on Schieffer. Couric is clearly more well-known. But in the full sample, Schieffer's unfavorable rating is just 9 percent, while Couric's is 23 percent.

There's also a 17 point net difference between Republican and Democratic opinions of Couric. CBS is well aware of all this, but the data is interesting nonetheless...

Meredith Vieira "is unknown to many Americans," according to this new Gallup poll, "so it is difficult to measure her potential once she is in place" on the Today Show. But the respondents who do recognize her "give her a very high net positive rating." That could be good news for NBC.

As noted below, Diane Sawyer is the most favorable of all the news and talk personalities tested by Gallup. It begs the question: If she's the most well-liked, why isn't her show the most-watched?

Gallup's analysis notes that Sawyer's popularity "has not translated into dominant ratings" for Good Morning America, but "she remains a formidable competitor."