Willie Geist Profile…

The Daily Beast’s Lloyd Grove profiles MSNBC’s Willie Geist…

Tell me about the genesis of your new MSNBC show.

We thought Morning Joe started to get this cachet, so why not extend the brand a little bit? People knew Dylan Ratigan from CNBC, but when he started coming on our show during the financial crisis, people at the news division really started to recognize and like him. Dylan Ratigan’s show is sort of an outgrowth on what he did on Morning Joe, so his show airs from 9 to 11 a.m. I thought there was something I could do if they gave me time to deliver the news but do it in a little edgier, more fun way. So I said: “Which way can I grow out of this?” They said: “You can’t grow after 9. Dylan is doing that. You want to grow backward.” It is every kid’s dream to host a show at 5:30 in the morning—2:30 in the morning on the West Coast.

On the West Coast, when it runs at 2:30 a.m., how can it be distinguished from that portion of Red Eye [the sometimes raunchy, politically incorrect Fox News panel show]?

We are live, Lloyd, not taped. That is our advantage. Jeff Zucker doesn’t know this yet, but I am going to spin this as part of the larger NBC late-night rebranding. It’s Jay Leno at 10 p.m., Conan O’Brien at 11:30, Jimmy Fallon at 12:30, Carson Daly at 1:30, and Willie Geist at 2:30 on the West Coast. It is my own personal fantasy that it is a late-night show, so I will account on the show for those sad souls who are still awake at 2:30 on the West Coast.

Free for All: 07/22/09

Late start to the day for ICN. So what’s on your mind?

eClipse News Network…

World Business News writes about CNN International being all over the Solar eclipse in Asia…

Dennis Kneale Profile…

The New York Observer’s Felix Gillette profiles CNBC’s Dennis Kneale…

Finding your rhythm as a rookie anchor in cable news, circa 2009, is in large part about learning to tap your inner outrage. On the night of Tuesday, June 30, Dennis Kneale found his. At the time, the 51-year-old business reporter was several weeks into a tryout, anchoring CNBC’s 8 p.m. hour. He stared at the camera in a TV studio in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., and lambasted the anonymous bloggers who were making fun of him on the Internet for, among other things, his recent and repeated claim that the recession was over. Mr. Kneale called the “digital dickweeds” cowardly and cynical.

“I say dickweed because apparently it is indeed a plant akin to pond scum,” said Mr. Kneale, “and name-calling seems to be the lingua franca of the blogosphere.”

Afterward, Mr. Kneale’s producer told him that his outburst was poetry, the best thing he’d done on the show. The next night, Mr. Kneale returned to the subject. He called the blogosphere the “bitterest realm on earth,” and noted that he didn’t spend much time reading “the vitriol spewing out of these miscreants and these digital imbeciles,” but that, apparently, they were watching him. “Nanny-nanny boo-boo,” said Mr. Kneale.

Morning Meeting Review…

Marketwatch’s Jon Friedman reviews MSNBC’s Morning Meeting…

Ratigan had a legion of both followers and critics when he anchored shows for CNBC, which he left after his contract expired in March. Understandably, Ratigan’s detractors dismiss him as a poster child for the breed of in-your-face cable news stars, who are always “on” and can distract viewers by inevitably talking too fast, too loud and too much.

But there is a notable asterisk here: Ratigan actually knows what he is talking about. Plus, he is at his best when he is moving at a breakneck speed. What impresses me the most about him is that he is so comfortable improvising.

And that is my biggest gripe with this new show. By locking Ratigan into a typical talk-show format, MSNBC isn’t totally utilizing Ratigan’s ability to speak his mind effectively without a script.

Ratigan isn’t a cookie-cutter news anchor — even on MSNBC, which sometimes has all the discipline of John Belushi’s fraternity in “Animal House.” It would go a long way if Ratigan opened the show by standing up and moving around the studio, not simply sitting at a desk.

Yes, Ratigan is smart and charismatic enough to make “Morning Meeting” a success just the way it is. My point is that the show could be much more riveting.

O’Reilly vs. Perlstein…

Newsweek’s Rick Perlstein responds to Bill O’Reilly over an article Perlstein wrote…

Were I a conservative, and a fan of Sarah Palin, and a viewer of Bill O’Reilly—but not a particularly conscientious reader of Newsweek—I would have been mad at me, too.
What had I written, and what had Newsweek attempted to get away with? Here’s how one friendly blogger summarized “Beyond the Palin”: “Perlstein’s entire article is … a chronicle of the division within Republican ranks between the party’s elites … and its far more strident base.” Any contempt present in the piece, he pointed out, came not in my own voice but those of the elite Republicans I quoted, who “treat part of the base with a certain amount of disdain, courting them with a wink and a nod when necessary, dissociating from them … when they fail to deliver the electoral goods…. Indeed, Perlstein’s article is not so much a liberal elitist sneer at the lumpen proletariat in fly-over country as much as it is a careful examination of conservative elites toward those they regard as such.”

In truth the article was a little more than that. I also quoted author and former Bush speechwriter David Frum asking worriedly, “What’s happening to Fox News?”, and suggested that, in an era of occasional violence from the right-wing fringe, all responsible conservatives should all be asking that question. My friend David Neiwert, a Seattle-based journalist and author of the recent book The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right, explained to me the problem thus: “I’m hearing now, from supposedly mainstream conservative pundits”—he singled out Fox’s Glenn Beck, who has been entertaining the notion that Obama might not be a natural-born American citizen—”the kind of extreme rhetorical appeals that I used to hear from militia movement leaders in the early 1990s, talk about how the evil liberal president literally intends to destroy our country.”

Quote of the Day…

“You’re pulling an O’Reilly on me here I think..” – Neil Cavuto to Dick Morris regarding some numbers and figures Morris tossed out to the skeptical Your World host who disputed them and said he’s going to double check them…

Free for All: 07/21/09

What’s on your mind?

Charlie Gasparino Profile…

Well this slipped past everyone until TVNewser spotted it. The Financial Times’ John Gapper profiles CNBC’s Charles Gasparino…

The network also encouraged staff to express their opinions onscreen and even to contradict one another. Where tussles over markets and investments used to be left to guests, with anchors as referees, now CNBC journalists are in the ring themselves. “We think the viewer welcomes the intellectual tussle and the engagement of our team with each other,” says Tyler Mathisen, CNBC’s managing editor. “That is part of the magic sauce.” That sauce has also brought in viewers and profits and, with ratings further boosted by the financial ­crisis, helped it to crush Fox Business News, launched by Rupert Murdoch in October 2007. Fox had its eye on CNBC’s viewers, who have among the highest incomes of any US cable channel – a fact not lost on advertisers.. . .

Gasparino embodies this change of tone. Not only has he broken many stories about Wall Street’s troubles live on air during the financial crisis, but he picks fights with other CNBC figures with enthusiasm, sometimes venom. During one heated on-air confrontation about Citigroup with Dennis Kneale, a CNBC anchor, Gasparino said: “I’m doing what maybe you should do, Dennis, which is be a reporter and talk to people.” Kneale responded indignantly: “You know, it’s really bad for the CNBC brand to impugn the reporting skills of your colleagues.” On another occasion, Gasparino seemed openly contemptuous of a group of CNBC anchors, who asked him, television-style: “What have you got?” Instead of answering, he mused: “What have you got? Now that is almost Zen-like … I have many things in my arsenal, but what I have is not what I got.” After some tense sparring, they cut away in confusion.

Gasparino thrives on being awkward, even on being disliked, within CNBC. It burnishes his image as a tough outsider willing to go to battle with anyone – colleague or contact – in pursuit of the story. “People at CNBC will tell you that I’m a pain in the ass, hard to manage, that kind of thing, but they benefit from me being that way,” he says.

CNBC.com Launches Chinese Language Site…

World Business News has the details…

Took you long enough…

Mediaite’s Steve Krakauer notes that Fox and Friends’ Brian Kilmeade issued an apology today for some poorly chosen commentary regarding “race purity” and Finland.

HLN to go HD…

Back in the beginning of June, CNN Observations spotted an HLN HD logo. But that was all that was found to indicate HLN had HD plans. However today, buried in a Multichannel News report by Kent Gibbons regarding Time Warner Cable in NYC shuffling its channels around and adding new channels, which some focused in on the part about CNN being bumped down the channel numbers, we see that HLN HD is definitely launching…

HD channels being added on Aug. 19 are: Big Ten HD On Demand on 471, Outdoor Channel HD on 480, Investigation Discovery HD on 723, Headline News HD on 758, Lifetime HD on 762, TCM HD on 782 and Smithsonian HD On Demand on 794.

Clearing the Air regarding Mediate’s Power Grid and me…

Editors Weblog’s Gida Hammami writes about Mediate’s “Office Hours” call in show from last week. Normally that wouldn’t merit a mention here except for…um…one tiny detail…

After a plethora of calls for callers, Krakauer specifically mentioned the name “Jarvis” with the hopes that a certain person with the same last name would call in. For the next 40 minutes of the gabfest, the group discussed their plans for Mediaite’s future. Being able to add links to the live discussion chat so that it would appear on participants’ screens, for example when referring to a specific article that has been published, is on their agenda. Apologies were issued for having neglected to include certain media figures (names were not mentioned). They promised to resolve that issue, if they had not already done so. The accusation that Mediaite may be meddling with the algorithm for the site’s Power Grid was addressed. Sklar, who is a prime target for such accusations, claimed that neither she nor any of the Mediaite staffers have the authority to fiddle with the grid’s algorithm in order to increase or decrease the ranking of individuals.

Speaking of the Power Grid, a caller named Spud called in during the last ten minutes to talk about what Mediaite hopes to accomplish with it. His only problem with the algorithm is the subjectivity of ranking individuals by the number of Twitter followers a person has. Just because a person has an x amount of followers, does not mean that all of them are actively reading their every tweet, he claims. To that commentary, Sklar’s defense was that a person who subscribes to the Washington Post, for example, may not necessarily be reading each issue cover to cover.

Yes, I did crash the Office Party call-in. Yes, I did want to talk about the Power Grid. But this summary is not accurately describing what I had to say. At the time I had spent quite a while looking the Power Grid over and trying to understand it and how it works. Being a Software Quality Assurance Engineer, it’s my habit dig deep down into the bowels of something to figure out if it’s doing what it’s supposed to. My problem with the Power Grid (and its whet your appetite for information FAQ) was the more digging I did the more questions I had because there were a lot of parameters and metrics that go into it and some of them have built in data flaws that need to be factored out if they are to become useful. But I couldn’t tell if they were being factored out since Mediaite, with some justification, doesn’t provide that level of insight into its proprietary algorithm.

Press Releases: 07/20/09

CNBC (1)

CNBC PRESENTS “MEETING OF THE MINDS: THE FUTURE OF HEALTHCARE” ON MONDAY, JULY 27TH AT 9PM ET

CNBC Addresses One of America’s Biggest Concerns – Healthcare – With Some of the Biggest Names in the Industry and Government

Broadcast to Precede Critical Congressional Vote

Maria Bartiromo to Lead Unprecedented One-Hour CNBC Special Event

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J. – July 20, 2009 – America’s healthcare system is on the verge of a massive transformation, fueling a debate that has pitted neighbor against neighbor, patients against insurers, and the haves against the have-nots. We’ve demanded reform, but now THAT reform is raising more questions than answers.

In a CNBC Special, “Meeting of the Minds: The Future of Healthcare,” hosted by CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo, CNBC assembles some of the biggest names in the industry and government to advance the conversation and propose solutions to America’s healthcare crisis. Will universal access lead to lower quality of care? Will our efforts to healthcare for all stifle business and put America at a disadvantage in the global arena? And what will American healthcare look like for the next generation?

Free for All: 07/20/09

What’s on your mind?

What’s Hot/What’s Not: 07/19/09

What’s Hot:

Sotomayor – The confirmation hearings dominated the first half of the week, even though confirmation was all but assured…

Walter Cronkite – It wasn’t and won’t be 1/10th as bad a MJ but it was/will still be too much coverage with everyone in the world trotting out their Cronkite annecdotes. Be thankful that CBS has no cable news channel…

What’s Not:

Fuzzy Numbers – This week saw CNN once again embroiled in yet another embarrassing story about ratings and attribution with both MSNBC and FNC publicly calling them out for it. Does the network realize it’s getting a really bad reputation in the industry for these incidents? Well, “bad” may not be the right word here…”notorious” may be more appropriate.

Susan Roesgen – Accurate or not, the conventional wisdom will be that her mouth cost her her job…

Low Res Factor – It’s FNC’s highest show. One would think it would deserve the best look. Apparently that is not the case as O’Reilly still lags behind his primetime compatriots in the HD department.

Suckup – More emails regarding people trying to get in touch with/get reaction from then-missing Mark Sanford emerged this week and a lot of people came across looking pathetically desperate…

Abrams vs. The MSM over Cronkite…

Dan Abrams writes on Mediaite about coverage of Walter Cronkite’s death…

Actions speak louder than words. Even in reporting on his death many journalists have violated one of Cronkite’s basic tenets: report the news don’t become it. How many times this weekend have we heard top journalists memorializing Cronkite with sentences beginning with the word I. “I met Cronkite in. . .” or “I remember seeing him. . .”

Let’s be honest, the Cronkite era passed long before his death. Financial pressures, the demand of ratings, the changing tastes of the American public all led to new decisions in newsrooms about what to cover and how. Having reported on many of the most notorious trials of the past two decades (including that of Michael Jackson) I have no claim to Cronkiteian journalistic purity.

The same applies, however, to some of my colleagues now attempting to tether themselves to Cronkite’s legacy. I am confident Cronkite would have frowned on that too.

What’s Hot/What’s Not: Submissions…

Post your nominations for this week’s What’s Hot/What’s Not. I’ll post the finalists on Sunday night…

Cody Willard Profile..

The New York Times’ Brian Stelter profiles FBN’s Cody Willard, who I would never consider a ping-pong kinda guy…

His evenings on the town with friends like James Altucher, a hedge fund manager and author, and Paul Boni, an executive at a research corporation, can easily resemble segments on “Happy Hour.” First there are predictions about stocks going up or down, followed by good-natured arguments about stimulus spending.

A typical Willard line: “I’m sick to death of the government punishing me for following the rules.” Another: “I hate the Republicans as much as I hate the Democrats.”

“I can be vicious,” he admits.

More Emails to Sanford Regarding his Status…

Talking Points Memo’s Zachary Roth finds a few more emails of desperate Producers trying find out what’s going on with Mark Sanford’s disappearance and some trying to pitch Sanford to come on their air…

•Ann Edelberg, a producer at MSNBC, wrote to Sanford press secretary Joel Sawyer to say: “Of course the Gov has an open invite to a friendly place here at MJ, if he would like to speak out.” MJ refers to Morning Joe, the MSNBC show hosted by former GOP congressman Joe Scarborough, and also frequently featuring hardcore right-winger Pat Buchanan.

• A woman named Jessica Gibadlo — this seems like her — wrote in an email to Sawyer that MSNBC anchor Contessa Brewer was suggesting Sanford could come on her network to spin the story favorably. Wrote Gibadlo:

As you know I’m close to Contessa who has been in my ear on this. She said that the tone in the news room is that Mark could spin this favorably if he talks it up as the outdoors man in the woods etc. For all we know he’s contemplating the last year of his term and thinking through his priorities before he goes on his family vacation.

As you know, she’s close to Contessa.

• A barely literate Fox News producer and Sanford fan wrote: “Where is he…we LOVE to governor he is okay right?” Hey, who doesn’t love to governor?

Update: Mediate’s Steve Krakauer has his own list…

Rush to Judgement…

The New York Observer’s Felix Gillette prematurely rains on the Morning Meeting/Dr. Nancy parade…

According to The Observer’s analysis of Nielsen data, so far this month, Mr. Ratigan’s show is averaging 93,000 viewers aged 25-54 during the 9 a.m. hour: a 1 percent drop versus the same time period last year for the time slot. At 10 a.m., his program is pulling in 95,000 in the key demo, a 7 percent drop from 2008.

Ms. Snyderman’s struggles in the key demographic are far worse. So far this month, her show is averaging only 54,000 viewers aged 25-54, a significant 34 percent drop versus the same time period last year.

One sign of hope for MSNBC executives is that both Mr. Ratigan and Ms. Snyderman are attracting more total viewers than last year’s programming over the same stretch. Mr. Ratigan is up 25 percent in total viewers at 9 a.m. and up 23 percent at 10 a.m. For her part, Ms. Synderman has enjoyed an 8 percent increase in total viewers.

Look, everyone knows I proclaimed Snyderman’s show DOA the day it was announced but even I would say it’s too soon to be throwing dirt on either program (wish Gillette hand included the Carlos Watson hour in his ratings leak since that hour isn’t exactly a news hour anymore). It’s only been what? Three weeks…one of which was dominated by Michael Jackson…and another dominated by Sotomayor.

Press Releases: 07/17/09

CNN (1)

AT 4 P.M. ON MONDAY, JULY 20, CNN’S WOLF BLITZER WILL HOST AN HOUR-LONG SPECIAL COMMEMORATING THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST TIME MAN LANDED ON THE MOON.

BLITZER WILL GUIDE VIEWERS THROUGH THE HISTORIC MOMENTS LEADING UP TO THE LUNAR LANDING. AT 4:17 P.M., THE TIME OF LANDING, BLITZER WILL SPEAK LIVE WITH ONE OF THE ASTRONAUTS HIMSELF, BUZZ ALDRIN.

ADDITIONALLY, THIS SPECIAL EDITION OF THE SITUATION ROOM WITH WOLF BLITZER WILL EXPLORE THE FUTURE OF NASA, PROVIDE VIEWERS WITH RARELY-BEFORE-SEEN FOOTAGE FROM WEEKS BEFORE THE LAUNCH AND EXPLAIN A NEW WAY TO GRAB AN UP-CLOSE VIEW OF THE MOON.

TUNE INTO THE SITUATION ROOM WITH WOLF BLITZER ON MONDAY AT 4 P.M. FOR THIS SPECIAL LUNAR EXPERIENCE.

Free for All: 07/17/09

What’s on your mind?

Bad Bluff?

World Business News takes a shot at CNBC Europe for running three hours of poker instead of covering the Asia financials…

Something I’ve talked about a few times in the past, and is now causing me more concern than ever is the fact that I’m in the UK, sat watching the TV, and trying to follow the latest business news in the Asia-Pacific region to see how the markets there react to the previous trading in the US and Europe. Indeed, the European markets in the morning will be paying close attention to the Asian trade tonight for direction when they open up. So, I tune to CNBC Europe, and I find that there is a three hour block of poker. No Asian market coverage. I tune to Bloomberg, and there I find LIVE asian market coverage. So, anyone wanting to watch whats happening will obviously be tuning to Bloomberg over CNBC in Europe!

Oh dear…

FTVLive is reporting that NBC News New York Bureau reporters are having to take turns working at NBC’s New York flagship station WNBC…

Today it’s Mike Taibbi’s turn. Next week, Ron Allen, Peter Alexander and Rehema Ellis will also take shifts at WNBC.

The source says that “this is being viewed as an embarrassment for outgoing news director Vickie Burns, who, in her zeal to win the approval of the cost-cutting network suits, appears to have cut too many people in her news department.”

Needless to say, this has not gone over well at the bureau.

I could say something about this that puts this in a somewhat ironic context. But I won’t…

Bartiromo vs. Burnett

Marketwatch’s Jon Friedman is in full sh*t disturber mode as he tries to rekindle a somewhat fizzling-in-the-press rivalry between Erin Burnett and Maria Bartiromo and tries to pitch this as something of a Hobson’s Choice for Jeremy Pink…

CNBC has to find a way to keep both stars, Bartiromo and Burnett, happy or risk losing one or both of them at some point.

CNBC, under pressure from the recession, has had to hold the line in salary offers to employees. But the strategy may have misfired when the popular CNBC anchor Dylan Ratigan bolted to GE’s MSNBC unit after his pact ran out. Ratigan now hosts the “Morning Meeting” show.

It will be fascinating to watch Pink’s impact on CNBC. He has to make some tough decisions, and the most compelling of all could prove to be this one:

Does Burnett’s youth now count for more than Bartiromo’s legacy?

The Hazards of Live TV: #25,008

Well this looks bad…wonder if FBN will make hay of this if Google stock suddenly fell off a cliff in after hours trading…

Susan Roesgen “not renewed” at CNN…

TVNewser has the details…

Ad Wars…

The LA Times’ Joe Flint writes about a pissing match between MSNBC and CNN over a CNN ad…

MSNBC is calling the ad fiction and has asked ratings service Nielsen to weigh in. While Nielsen approves all print ads based on its data, it does not require such approval for TV spots. But if questions about an ad are raised, Nielsen can step in and request that claims be substantiated on screen. Nielsen has sent a request to CNN to discuss the spot.

“If we see it is misleading, we will advise them to change it,” a Nielsen spokeswoman said.

Said MSNBC spokeswoman Alana Russo: “MSNBC beat CNN in prime time last quarter. It seems to have driven our competitor from news to fiction writing.”

CNN spokeswoman Carolyn Disbrow countered that the promo is “based on fact” and added that “MSNBC is just anxious because they are not only behind CNN in the total number of individuals watching television each month, but they are trailing CNN on the Web and among the Web and television combined audience as well.”

Free for All: 07/16/09

What’s on your mind?