The pervasive brutality of the Egyptian police after the fall of leader Hosni Mubarak has been in the headlines since the Tahrir Square revolts of last spring and has shown little chance of stopping anytime soon. This week, the police assaulted Egyptian-American journalist Mona Eltahawy, who immediately took to the airwaves after being freed to describe in detail how the police broke her arms and allegedly sexually assaulted her.

TVNewser‘s Chris Ariens wrote a piece in September suggesting that American Morning would soon be shuttered and replaced with two shows — one from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m and another from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. Ashleigh Banfield — who has been working as a correspondent with ABC — would host the first block; Soledad O’Brien — who had been leading CNN’s documentaries — would anchor the second.

Maricopa Country Sheriff Joe Arpaio appeared on CNN’s American Morning, and spoke with Christine Roman about immigration and his planned meeting today with GOP frontrunner Herman Cain. Roman noted that Cain had told David Gregory that his suggestion that the US should electrify the border fence was a joke. “Oh, I’m sure he was joking,” Arpaio said. “But it probably means that he’s taking it serious to do something at the border and stop the illegal immigrations.”

CNN’s Matthew Chance, who has been tweeting from inside the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli, delivered a live report on developments at the hotel where journalists are reportedly being held against their will. Chance told American Morning‘s hosts of some alarming developments, describing how five more journalists had sought refuge from gun battles in the hotel, and are now unable to leave. According to Chance, that brings the total of journalists at the Rixos to about forty. Update – they have been freed from captivity.

On CNN’s American Morning, St. Louis Tea Party founder Dana Loesch broke down the emerging matchup between Gov. Rick Perry and Rep. Michele Bachmann, noting that for grassroots Republican voters, “I think we’ve had one president in the last one hundred years who’s come from the House of Representatives,” and argued that “our best bets” are usually governors. Loesch said “I think that makes a really huge difference, and I think that’s something that grassroots voters are going to be paying special attention to.”

One of the few people who knew ahead of time that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords would appear in Congress Monday to cast her vote on the debt deal, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Shultz described the moment–and the planning that went into it–on CNN’s American Morning Tuesday, telling Ali Velshi the sight of Giffords–who was nearly killed in a shooting spree in Tucson in January–had an instant effect on the divided House, filling it with electricity. “Gabby melted our hearts.”

Noting that nobody’s “doing a happy dance” this morning over the Sunday night debt deal struck by President Obama and Congressional leaders, CNN’s Carol Costello challenged presidential adviser Gene Sperling on whether Obama “caved” by giving up on tax increases while agreeing to significant spending cuts. “He did not give up anything in that goal of shared sacrifice in this package.” Costello noted that a Paul Krugman op-ed in The New York Times shared the view that “Mr. Obama keeps folding in the face of (Republican) threats. He surrendered last December, extending all the Bush tax cuts. He surrendered in the spring when they threatened to shut down the government; and he has not surrendered on a grand scale to raw extortion over the debt ceiling.”

In an interview with CNN’s Kiran Chetry on American Morning, GOP candidate Michele Bachmann dismissed the idea that President Obama could simply move to raise the debt ceiling by invoking the 14th Amendment, saying to do so would make him effectively “a dictator.” Bachmann described any move to unilaterally end the immediate debt crisis unconstitutional. “Congress has the power to lay and collect taxes,” Bachmann said. “It’s Congress that does the spending. The President is prohibited to do that. If he had the power to do that he would effectively be a dictator.”

Maybe Florida Governor Rick Scott should’ve been better prepared for a debt ceiling discussion with two morning news anchors–who both happen to be business correspondents. But on CNN’s American Morning Wednesday, Scott deflected a series of pointed questions from Christine Romans, and when co-host Ali Velshi jumped in, tag-team style, Scott stuck to his talking points. It was a refreshingly tense and entertaining interview, even if the anchors couldn’t get any of their direct questions answered.

A photographer for KXTV-TV in California was going through the relatively routine matters of setting up for a liveshot, when he sees a bright red car speeding by–with a man hanging off the side. The quick-thinking photog jumped into action and got it on tape. And while the exact reasons behind the man’s road surfing incident remain somewhat vague (he was either trying recover a purse–his or a friend’s–from the car, which may have been stolen–or perhaps not–and which may have been his, or possibly not), the video is quite entertaining.

The New York Post is reporting tonight that American Morning co-host Kiran Chetry is leaving the morning show–and CNN. According to the story–citing “sources”–Chetry “was seen packing up her desk today” and plans to leave the network at the end of the month. In recent weeks, Chetry, who previously co-hosted AM with John Roberts (who himself left CNN for Fox News) has been part of a morning trio including Ali Velshi and Christine Romans.

Okay, I know we’ll find out in a day or so it was all a hoax, but for right now, can we all just enjoy this awesome clip? Here’s your setup: filmmaker in Cannes (where they have some sort of talking movie festival) has a small video camera on the ground and rolling. The guy chuckles as a seagull walks up to check out the camera, but–TWIST!–he’s a camera-snatching gull! The bird grabs the guy’s camera and flies off, capturing some amazing aerial shots of France as he powers his way through the sky and makes a fine landing on a rooftop, squawking at his successful heist.

Rep. Michele Bachmann has made the conscious decision to bring her education to the forefront of her campaign. Perhaps in response to the “insulting” question Chris Wallace posed to the Congresswoman last Sunday (“Are you a flake?”), Rep. Bachmann has taken with zeal to calling herself a “serious” person, and on CNN this morning, added, “I have a strong academic scholarly background.” But as the head of a movement that routinely excoriates education, is this a wise campaign move?

In an interview on CNN’s American Morning, Andrew Breitbart said he didn’t know exactly what to expect when he decided to appear at the hotel ballroom where Rep. Anthony Weiner would ultimately confess to lying and a series of inappropriate relationships with women. Breitbart said he “didn’t know that (Weiner) was going to fess up,” and was prepared to “grill him” if the Congressman continued to suggest that Breitbart had somehow fabricated the photos released on Breitbart’s BigGovernment website.

After rolling out his campaign infrastructure with an elaborate video and a gaffe or two, Tim Pawlenty is going negative, mildly, and with polls showing almost anyone but Pawlenty is a viable Republican candidate, it may not be a terrible idea. Pawlenty ended the week attacking President Obama for his European trip on Twitter and even turning on potential candidate Sarah Palin.

Potential Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has dominated the airwaves as of late, as he grants interviews to anyone with a camera for him to appear in front of or a telephone for him to call. Much like the four stages of grief, it seems like Trump’s various interviewers are each at various stages along the path of the “Four Stages of a Trump Interview.”

A few weeks ago, I discovered that CNN’s American Morning co-anchor Kiran Chetry has an unusually devoted fan base, who had a little panic attack when she took a couple of days off. Such intense loyalty deserves closer examination, so I visited the set of American Morning Friday morning, and later interviewed Kiran about her news-heavy morning show, journalism in general, and that John Roberts clip.

Apparently, CNN’s American Morning anchor Kiran Chetry has a loyal fan base, and they were a little bit worried about her after a two-day absence. Upon seeing weekend CNN Newsroom anchor TJ Holmes filling in for Chetry Tuesday morning, a bunch of them rushed to the internet to find out “What happened to Kiran Chetry?”

We’re happy to report that Chetry was just enjoying a long weekend off, and will be back on the air Wednesday morning.

On CNN’s American Morning Friday, Ron Barber, an aide to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, described the moments when a gunman attacked his boss at a January 9 constituent meeting outside a Tucson grocery store.

“There was no time to react,” he said. “I wish there had been.”

Barber, who was shot twice and is recovering at home, recounted the horror of what happened:

Ex-CNN anchor John Roberts has made his first appearance as a senior national correspondent for Fox, appearing Monday afternoon on Studio B with Shepard Smith.

Roberts, who CNN’s American Morning in December after three years on the morning shift, has relocated to Atlanta, where his fiancee CNN Kyra Phillips are preparing for the birth of twins.

The anticipated changes at CNN’s poorly-rated American Morning–including the departure of co-host John Roberts–were confirmed in a memo to staff from CNN boss Ken Jautz.

According to Jautz, Roberts will leave the show in the next few weeks and he’s expected to land in Atlanta in a reporting role. But the morning memo reveals more changes at AM, including the departure of executive producer Jamie Kraft, who’s headed to NBC Nightly News, and format changes designed to make the morning show “better suited to the morning and to better reflect the way people view news as they’re getting going with their day.”

Will the new year bring a slew of shakeups at CNN, now under new Ken Jautz-led management? The New York Post thinks so.

The Murdoch-owned tab says the head-rolling and chair-shifting will being in January, with American Morning co-host John Roberts first on the list to pick up a new gig, at least according to the Post‘s “insiders:

As CBS unveils yet another new team of bright and shiny faces for its cellar-dwelling Early Show, the wake-up star who’s been performing under the radar and racking up huge ratings is HLN’s Robin Meade, who hosts Morning Express.

While CNN’s flagship morning show American Morning struggles with a potpourri of problems–including low ratings and repeated stories of anchors who barely tolerate each other and sometimes seem to let their squabbles slip into the show–the Meade show is a bit of a powerhouse. And CNN has certainly noticed.

The story retired teacher Thomas Sawyer tells of his experience at the hands of a TSA officer at Detroit’s airport makes you want to scream at the TSA agent and give Mr. Sawyer a hug–and now TSA Chief John Pistole has called to apologize.

Sawyer, a cancer survivor, lost his bladder and has a urostomy bag attached to his body under his clothing. When a body scanner picked up the bag, Sawyer was pulled out for an enhanced pat down. As Sawyer recounted the story Monday on CNN’s American Morning, what happened next was avoidable–and humiliating:

So the TSA says if you don’t want to step into the we-can-see-you-naked x-ray machine, you’ve got to let a gloved TSA employee run a hand over your lady or gentleman parts, all in the name of airport security.

But wait! In steps every American’s favorite pilot, the Hudson splash-landing hero of Flight 1549 fame, Sully Sullenberger, to say, you know what? Keep your hands to yourselves. “I can tell you from my perspective as an airline pilot for three decades, this just isn’t an effective use of our resources.”