Open Mouth, Insert Foot (or in this case click on keys, create a firestorm)

CNBC.com’s Darren Rovell apologizes for making some not at all PC remarks about the men’s winner of the New York City Marathon…(via TVNewser)

I said that Keflezighi’s win, the first by an American since 1982, wasn’t as big as it was being made out to be because there was a difference between being an American-born product and being an American citizen. Frankly I didn’t account for the fact that virtually all of Keflezighi’s running experience came as a US citizen. I never said he didn’t deserve to be called American.

Election (over) Coverage: Your Reactions…

Post your comments of tonight’s mega super-duper you-really-must-watch-because-we-say-this-is-a-defining-moment (even though it really isn’t) coverage of a handful of election races, and the coverage thereof, here…

Press Releases: 11/03/09

CNN (1)

Special Four-Part Investigative Series Killings At The Canal: The Army Tapes to air on Anderson Cooper 360° beginning Nov 10th

Anderson Cooper 360° reports Killings At The Canal: The Army Tapes, a powerful and provocative four-part series about U.S. soldiers who were convicted of murder on the battlefield. The series runs over four nights beginning Tuesday, November 10th, and concludes Friday night, November 13th.

Three sergeants used their service pistols to execute four Iraqi men they had in custody who they believed were insurgents. Questions have emerged: On the battlefield, is murder a crime? And is the Army’s policy on detainees realistic for its soldiers in the battlefield?

Free for All: 11/03/09

What’s on your mind?

Your Weekly Business Channel Ratings Leak…

…comes from Talking Biz News which notes all the scratching Squawk Box has been doing…

For the past month, the show has “scratched” 10 times — or 50 percent of the time — in the key demographic of viewers between the ages of 25 to 54. That means that it has failed to reach at least 52,000 viewers in the demographic in any of those 10 days. For the month, the show averaged 56,000 in the demographic, down 50 percent from the 112,000 it averaged in October 2008.

For comparison’s sake, “Squawk Box” has “scratched” a total of 36 times so far this year, or about 3.6 times each month and 17 percent of the shows.

NBCU in a Comcast World: No NBC?

Broadcasting & Cable’s Claire Atkinson writes about some rumor mongering regarding aspects of a GE Comcast deal for NBCU…

The dealing, however, may not be done. One Wall Street player confirmed market rumors that bankers have already descended on the MSO’s Philadelphia headquarters to work with management on selling the NBC Network and stations to a third party. Comcast had no immediate comment on that still-hypothetical possibility.

Sell NBC? How would that work exactly? You can’t really sell NBC without doing something about MSNBC and CNBC as well since there’s bleedover between the three networks. I don’t see how one could sell NBC without partially damaging CNBC and positively crippling MSNBC.

Imus Strikes Again (and not in a good way)…et

Today the news that Berkshire Hatthaway was going to make the biggest acquisition in its history with the planned purchase of Burlington Northern showed a striking difference in how FBN and CNBC cover the story in the mornings in a new Imus world. CNBC had Becky Quick interview Warren Buffett live on Squawk Box. Meanwhile, FBN has only been able to deal with the story within the confines of the Imus in the Morning framework. That means business updates and, right now, Dagan McDowell, talking with Imus about it. Neil Cavuto apparently phoned in earlier to the Imus program to talk about the deal. But where’s the obligatory Buffett interview? Delayed apparently. Liz Claman will interview Buffett at 3pm today. That’s nearly seven hours after CNBC had him. Seven hours. In business news terms that’s an eternity.

FBN has been locked in a Buffett war with CNBC since it debuted. I have to believe that if Imus wasn’t on the air right now, FBN would have handled this story differently. All the FBN talent that have talked about this story have used the same superlatives to describe the deal that their CNBC competition have used. But the difference is the appearance, or lack thereof so far in FBN’s case, of Buffett himself. Setting aside the question of whether Buffett would even agree to appear on Imus, if it was me running things, I would have dumped out of Imus for however long it would take Claman to interview Buffett and then return to Imus. Putting a Buffett interview on at some point once Imus is off the air, nearly seven hours after CNBC had him, puts the network in an un-necessary disadvantage. Anyone watching the two networks this morning will see the difference in coverage and see which network had all its thrusters firing and which network didn’t because it couldn’t.

Update: At around 8:50 am, Alexis Glick was on with a Biz update and mentioned the Buffett news. For the first time, some quotes from Buffett were used. I guess FBN thinks that’s enough to tide business viewers over until 3pm…nearly 7 hours after CNBC had Buffett. Sigh…

CNN Debuts Abu Dhabi Studios…

CNN Observations notes that CNN will debut its new Abu Dhabi operation on Tuesday…

Press Releases: 11/02/09

Bloomberg (1), MSNBC (1)

Bloomberg

Tonight at 9PM ET – BLOOMBERG TELEVISION will air the Intelligence Squared Debate:

GOOD RIDDANCE TO MAINSTREAM MEDIA

Intelligence Squared US (IQ2US), the Oxford-style debate series, hosted a lively debate about the viability of the mainstream media. At a time when newspapers are experiencing dwindling circulation, magazines are fighting to survive and network television ratings are in serious decline, the audience ultimately decided that tradition media was worth saving and they voted down the proposition “Good Riddance to the Mainstream Media.” The debate will air on Bloomberg TV on Monday (11/2), Tuesday (11/3) and Wednesday (11/4) at 9PM ET.

MSNBC

MSNBC TO PREMIERE ALL NEW EPISODES OF “LOCKUP” IN LATE NOVEMBER

“LOCKUP: EXTENDED STAY-COLORADO,” ON SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21st, 10 PM ET

“LOCKUP: WORLD TOUR,” ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26TH, 10 PM ET

NEW YORK—NOVEMBER 2, 2009—MSNBC will premiere all new episodes of its popular “Lockup” franchise, “Lockup: Extended Stay—Colorado,” on Saturday, November 21st, at 10 PM ET, and “Lockup: World Tour,” on Thursday, November 26th, at 10 PM ET. “Lockup” will also celebrate its 100th episode during the “Lockup: Extended Stay—Colorado” series.

In Depth: Off-Kilter Off-Year Election Plans…

TVNewser wraps up who’s covering what with tomorrow night’s election plans. I cite TVN because then I don’t have to. I find what’s going on tomorrow to be a largely manufactured story. This is overkill. A handful of elections and the nets are devoting this level of detail to it? Where’s the proportionality? Where’s the good news judgement?

This is nothing more than giving the nets’ political departments a chance to flex their muscles and show what they can do. But is it really necessary under the circumstances? A handful of races? The balance of power in the Senate and House not up for grabs? Most of the country sitting out the election? Look at what’s being planned for tomorrow night. This is too much coverage for too little news. What say you?

Cavuto vs. Smith?

Johnny Dollar has video of Neil Cavuto explaining why having one candidate on the air for an interview when the other won’t come on is ok. Sounds like a thinly veiled rebuke of what Shepard Smith said last week…

The Fox Report Gets Solo Sponsor/Limited Commercials…

The Fox Report tonight featured a solo sponsor and limited commercial interruptions. Shepard Smith explains…

CNBC Asia to Move Studios to Singapore Exchange…

World Television and Business News notes that CNBC Asia will be moving its studios to the Singapore exchange…

CNBC, and Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX) today jointly announced the launch of a strategic collaboration to relocate CNBC Asia Pacific’s primary studio facility to the SGX building. The new studio facility being built is scheduled to be operational in Q2 2010.

Partisan Watch…

The New York Times’ John Harwood writes that FNC isn’t alone in the partisan department…

The evolution of political news on television, in print and on the Internet has a certain back-to-the-future feel. As the American Revolution approached in the 18th century, wrote William David Sloan and Julie Hedgepeth Williams in the book “The Early American Press, 1690-1783,” journalists “were expected to be partisan — intensely partisan.”

Mr. Feltus charted the rising partisanship of television news audiences using data from Scarborough Research, a partnership of the Nielsen Company and Arbitron Inc.

In audience surveys from August 2000 to March 2001, Fox News viewers tilted Republican by 44.6 percent to 36.1 percent. More narrowly — 41.4 percent to 39.4 percent — so did the audience for MSNBC. The audiences of CNN, Headline News, CNBC and Comedy Central leaned Democratic.

Four years later, amid the Iraq war and President George W. Bush’s re-election campaign, the audience data had shifted. Fox News viewers had become 51 percent Republican and just 30.8 percent Democratic, while MSNBC viewers leaned Democratic by 41.7 percent to 40.4 percent. Viewers of CNN, Headline News, CNBC and Comedy Central grew slightly more Democratic.

By 2008-9, the network audiences tilted decisively, like Fox’s. CNN viewers were more Democratic by 50.4 percent to 28.7 percent; MSNBC viewers were 53.6 percent to 27.3 percent Democratic; Headline News’ 47.3 percent to 31.4 percent Democratic; CNBC’s 46.9 percent to 32.5 percent Democratic; and Comedy Central’s 47.1 to 28.8 percent Democratic.

Scarborough vs. Olbermann?

NewsBusters’ Mike Sargent has video of Joe Scarborough allegedly lampooning Keith Olbermann, or at least Sargent seems to think it’s an Olbermann impersonation. The rhetoric is there to be sure but that gravely voice ain’t an Olbermann characteristic. Sounds more like Andy Rooney to me…

Update: Actually it kinda sounds like Ed Schultz…

Free for All: 11/02/09

What’s on your mind?

Jim Cramer Interview…

The Oklahoman’s Don Mecoy interviews CNBC’s Jim Cramer as he tapes his show at the University of Oklahoma…(via Talking Biz News)

With CNBC playing in his dressing room — “sheesh, the Dow’s down 260” — Cramer talked to The Oklahoman about his current job, which comes after careers as a journalist, hedge fund manager, money manager, Web start-up entrepreneur and television personality.

“I’m an entertainer about business — a business entertainer,” he said a few hours before taping his show while at OU. “I’m a televangelist for money. I do a one-man sports show about business.”

When asked about his regrets, Cramer immediately recalls some bad recent market calls.

“I try to do a good show every night, but I’m very critical of myself,” he said.

What’s Hot/What’s Not: 11/01/09

Another all Not Hot list this week…

What’s Not:

White House war with FNC ends with a whimper – Reports of a truce with FNC and the White House signal an apparent end to a war which really didn’t accomplish anything, unless you believe this was all to distract FNC from talking about Health Care reform…

My opinion is opinion is a bad thing – Campbell Brown’s opinion piece on why FNC and MSNBC’s opinion slants are a bad thing looked like something out of the Twillight Zone. A reporter giving her opinion that networks shouldn’t be doing opinion is itself…well…opinion.

CNN in 4th in the Primetime Demo – CNN can spin this all it wants about Total Day and combined presence but coming in 4th in the primetime Demo stings…

MSNBC behind CNN in Total Day Demo – Despite CNN’s 4th place primetime demo finish CNN still came out on top of MSNBC in the Total Day Demo.

No new MSNBC program at 10pm – This winds up being not hot because there’s no new show but because it was already stated back in March that there was no new show coming. All this story did was remind people who may have forgotten that there’s no new show coming.

Leak wars – Lots of ratings leaks going to the blogosphere this week about CNBC’s and FBN’s ratings.