Hardball Wins June Demo? Not so Fast…

Multichannel News’ Linda Moss writes about MSNBC making an error in its June ratings calculations for Hardball…

But the announcement immediately drew fire from CNN and Fox News, who charged that MSNBC was using straight 5 p.m. time slot data for June, not data solely for Hardball.

By using the 5 p.m. info, rather than program data, MSNBC was including in its tally special coverage it had aired on Meet the Press moderator Russert’s death and memorial.

Without that special coverage, MSNBC’s numbers drop. Instead, CNN’s Situation Room at 5 p.m. ranked No. 1 in June in the 25-to-54 age group, averaging 186,000 of those watchers, while Fox News’s American’s Election HQ was second with 179,000. MSNBC’s Hardball was third with 171,000.

An MSNBC spokesman conceded that the network had made an error in including the Russert coverage along with that for Hardball at 5 p.m.

“We used time-period data to calculate our ratings, like we always do. However, had we realized that Hardball wouldn’t have finished No. 1 for the month with the special coverage excluded, we wouldn’t have issued the press release as written,” the MSNBC spokesman said. “It was an error on our part.”