In Depth: Todd/Guthrie/Ratigan/Snyderman: Where’s this going?

Let’s take a closer look at some of the finer points in the just announced changes to MSNBC dayside. Some of these things were spelled out but nobody picked up on them and some were left unanswered. To wit:

1) “The Daily Rundown” with Chuck Todd and Savannah Guthrie – Lost in the announcement of this program are two things. According to information Howard Kurtz’s reporting and the MSNBC release on the announcement, there are a couple of things that immediately leap out.

First, though the show has not yet debuted so we don’t know exactly how the format of the show will work, it appears on its face like The Daily Rundown will be a kissing cousin to Andrea Mitchell’s 1pm program. This raises the question “What differentiates Todd and Guthrie’s show from Mitchell’s?” aside from the obvious difference of the talent anchoring their respective shows. What’s makes The Daily Rundown unique? If the show is going to be about politics, with a likely emphasis on the 2010 campaign season, how does MSNBC make the two shows different enough to make them not appear to be carbon copies of each other?

If there is a lot of overlap, one might then wonder whether Mitchell’s show might be in jeopardy down the road. Her program is part of the “old dayside” which has been under-performing in the ratings.

Second, and this is a finer point which nobody has so far picked up on, concerns this little tidbit from Howard Kurtz:

Nikhil Deogun to CNBC…

The New York Times’ Brian Stelter scoops that Wall Street Journal Editor Nikhil Deogun will be joining CNBC as Managing Editor…

Early next year Nikhil Deogun, one of the top editors at The Wall Street Journal, will become CNBC’s new managing editor.

Mr. Deogun is the Journal’s international editor and a deputy managing editor. He was a well-respected mergers and acquisitions reporter before becoming an editor, first for the media and marketing pages and later for the money and investing section. He also served as deputy bureau chief in Washington, D.C.

The hiring of Mr. Deogun is something of a coup for CNBC, as executives at the News Corporation, the owner of the Journal, had tied to persuade him not to depart the company, people close to the parties involved said. News Corporation operates a fledgling competitor to CNBC, the Fox Business Network.

Free for All: 12/14/09

What’s on your mind?

Todd/Guthrie/Ratigan: The Release…

MSNBC’s release on the news of Chuck Todd and Savannah Guthrie hosting a new show at 9am and Dylan Ratigan moving to 4pm…

“THE DAILY RUNDOWN” ANCHORED BY NBC NEWS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS CHUCK TODD AND SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, PREMIERES MONDAY, JAN. 11

Anchor Dylan Ratigan Moves to 4 p.m. as Host of “The Dylan Ratigan Show”

NEW YORK – Dec. 14, 2009 – NBC News Chief White House Correspondent and Political Director Chuck Todd and NBC News White House Correspondent Savannah Guthrie will anchor “The Daily Rundown,” weekdays 9-10 a.m. ET on MSNBC, premiering Jan. 11, 2010.

“The Daily Rundown” will showcase the depth and experience of the NBC News Washington bureau, led by Todd and Guthrie. The show will focus on the top political stories of the day, with reporting and analysis from Washington’s strongest White House team. “We want this show to be a resource for viewers looking for political news and discussion, without the noise,” said Todd. “It will be the place for viewers to get everything they need to know about what’s making news and what will make news.”

CNBC’s Profitability…

The Hollywood Reporter’s Georg Szalai writes about a profitable CNBC…(via News on News)

CNBC is in its fourth year of double digital profit growth, president Mark Hoffman said here Wednesday, highlighting that the network’s coverage of the financial crisis elevated its viewership abroad and reach in digital media to new heights.

Speaking at the annual UBS Global Media and Communications Conference, Hoffman also said he is excited about CNBC’s outlook under the likely future ownership by Comcast, which is looking to acquire a 51% in parent company NBC Universal.

Todd and Guthrie to host 9am MSNBC program…

The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz writes that Chuck Todd and Savannah Guthrie will be alternating hosts for a new 9am hour program on MSNBC once Dylan Ratigan’s program completes the move to afternoons.

As if they didn’t have enough to do covering the White House, Chuck Todd and Savannah Guthrie are launching a 9 a.m. program for MSNBC.

“It fits the rhythm of our day,” says Todd, who also blogs, tweets, reports for NBC and serves as its political director. He sees the “Daily Rundown” as “something that has the feel of a signature Washington show for us” heading into 2010. “We’re not going to ignore the water-cooler story of the day, but we’re not going to dwell on it, either.”

We’ll just see about that…

Beck and Gold: Round 2…

The New York Times’ Bill Carter writes again about Glenn Beck and Gold and Carter has news regarding FNC’s position regarding the matter…

Joel Cheatwood, the senior vice president of development for Fox News, said the network’s legal department had recently sent a letter to Mr. Beck’s representatives “seeking clarification” about his work for Goldline.

“They sent back word that he is not a paid spokesman,” Mr. Cheatwood said, adding that it would be “problematic without question” if Mr. Beck did have a position as a paid spokesman for a product.

Fox News released a statement outlining its official policy about such issues: “Fox News prohibits any on-air talent from endorsing products or serving as a product spokesperson.”

Fox News stressed that it was not aware that Mr. Beck was listed on the Internet as a paid spokesman. But he definitely was, until very recently. On cached editions of the Goldline Web site over the last week to 10 days, a photograph of Mr. Beck was accompanied by an asterisk which led to a line at the bottom of the site that read: “paid spokesman.”

What’s Hot/What’s Not: 12/6/09 and 12/13/09

What’s Hot

Eric Burns vs. Glenn Beck – Burns voiced an opinion regarding Glenn Beck and FNC. Too bad I was away so I don’t know what the blowback was, if any.

Glenn Beck and Gold – This was the story that didn’t go away enough for FNC’s tastes. Bill Carter’s interview with Joel Cheatwood regarding the subject apparently wasn’t enough (and it really wasn’t since Cheatwood danced around the issue in his answers) and so Cheatwood gave a more detailed response to Daily Finance’s Jeff Bercovici. It was more detailed but it still raised questions as to why FNC would put itself in this position of an apparent conflict of interest. There may not be much substance to this issue but appearances matter and it’s appearances that are the problem here.

Comcast completes deal with GE to gain control of NBC Universal – Though it still has to clear regulatory hurdles, it looks like in a year’s time Comcast will be running NBCU.

Jeff Zucker re-ups with NBCU for three more years – The general reaction to this was one of flabbergasted skepticism. Fair or not, Zucker is widely believed by many in the industry to have failed upwards in his rise to the top of NBCU and the news that Comcast will have Zucker on board when it gets control of NBCU had these people shaking their heads in amazement. Zucker will have to prove his detractors wrong to make the skepticism go away. But he needs some successes with NBC in order to do that.

John Stossel debuts on FBN – I missed it so I’ll have to give my reaction at a later date when I can actually watch the show.

What’s Not

CNN’s 4th place primetime finish – And the downward trend for CNN in the primetime Demo continues. But that’s not as bad as…

MSNBC’s 5th place Total Viewer and Demo dayside finish – MSNBC came in 5th in total viewers and the demo for its dayside programming. Behind CNBC. But you’d be hard pressed to find mention of that almost anywhere but here. Indeed it was ICN which discovered that MSNBC fell behind CNBC not just in demo viewers during dayside but in total viewers as well. The first manifestation of a reaction to this was the news that Morning Meeting had been split in two temporarily with an hour at 9am and an hour at 4pm, with a permanent move to the afternoons planned in the start of 2010. But almost no one picked up what ICN wrote. Which leads me to…

The media beat writers and bloggers – With a couple of exceptions, the Huffington Post’s Danny Shea and Mediaite’s Steve Krakauer being two, the usual suspects were totally asleep on the MSNBC 5th place finish in dayside story. Even MSNBC falling behind CNBC wasn’t enough to prod them into noting it. TVNewser ignored it, which makes me wonder what exactly they’re in business for.

Open mouth, insert foot – Chris Matthews’ shoot from the hip style came back to bite him once again when he made a reference to West Point being the “enemy camp”

Branding run-amock – The Weather Channel’s recent foray into non weather news territory shows all the imprints of 30 Rock tinkering. And not in a good way.

Death in the family – I got my snorkel back in Hawaii but it got destroyed under the north shore’s pounding surf during day 1 of the Billabong Pipe Masters. Spud’s Snorkel (January 10, 2008 – December 9, 2009) is survived by Spud. Funeral services are pending. A memorial fund has been established to care for Spud’s Snorkel’s family in their time of need. Donations may be made through PayPal.

Press Releases: 12/13/09

MSNBC (1)

PROGRAM NOTE: VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN LIVE ON MSNBC’S ‘MORNING JOE’- TUESDAY, DEC. 15

NEW YORK – December 13, 2009 – Vice President Joe Biden will be interviewed live on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Tuesday, December 15. Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski will talk exclusively with the Vice President on set from Washington. Photography will be available following the interview on www.nbcumv.com.

What’s Hot/What’s Not: Submissions…

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

Bragging Rights…

Normally I wouldn’t waste vacation time dealing with this but when a PR department decides to use a third party to take a small shot at me, well that’s such a rare occurrance, in fact I can’t recall it ever happening to me before, it’s important enough to deal with, mega surf or no mega surf…

So, we are talking about the Anti-Anchor label. As Danny Shea of the Huffington Post was fed writes

Interesting note: this isn’t the first time Shep Smith has been described as the “anti-anchor.” In fact, that moniker goes back as far as 2000, when the Orange County Register labeled him as such. It was not, as has been speculated, first used by CNN president Jon Klein to describe Anderson Cooper in 2006:

Well, facts are facts and clearly Smith was called anti-anchor first. But the point I was trying, maybe too subtly, to make is that Klein was trying to turn the “anti-anchor” thing into something of a brand when he was using it to describe Cooper. The Orange County Register may have used the term first but nobody remembered it, except FNC’s PR dept. None of the blogs, except FTVLive and NewsBlues even existed back then and Brian Stelter probably wasn’t even in High School yet. Anderson Cooper was still with ABC. It was a different era.

So yes, The Orange County Register used it first. But not as a brand. Klein was using it as a brand. That’s the point I was trying to make…that Klein tried to establish Cooper with the anti-anchor brand but it didn’t take and as evidence that it didn’t take we get the headline in the AJR. Ok. So hopefully that clears all this up.

Update: Fixed the name of the paper to the correct name. Hey the Eddie went today and so did I and I only had so many minutes to deal with this this morning.

The Weather Channel: Your source for sex scandal news?

First it was crime news. Thursday, The Weather Channel was getting into the meteorological world of Tiger Woods’ sex life.

And the erosion of a previously flawless brand continues…

In Depth: Conflicts of Interest and Disclosures…

Typical. I’m trying to pack and something pops up which I just have to comment on. In this case it’s Bill Carter’s article in the New York Times about various disclosure issues which cropped up this week.

There are three disclosure incidents that occurred this week; the Salahi interview on Today and the about as clear as mud connections between Bravo, an NBCU netowrk and the Salahis, Glenn Beck’s golden connections, and Gretchen Carlson’s Derek Jeter interview. Carter writes of the Salahi mess…

The section was intended to show Mr.Lauer pressing the Salahis to acknowledge that neither “Today” nor NBC had paid them anything for the interview. Mr. Lauer said: “Are you appearing here today in any way because of any financial deal that you have made with this network? Are we paying you for this appearance in any way?”

But in specifically citing “this network” Mr. Lauer left open the question of whether another network — in this case Bravo — could have some financial arrangement with the Salahis.

Ms. Kapp said the president of NBC News, Steve Capus, was not available for comment. She offered a statement: “We stand by Matt’s interview of the Salahis. Matt asked all of the questions that were of interest when this interview was conducted.”

I give Carter credit for spotting the nuance in Lauer’s question as I immediately thought the same thing when I heard it. This smells fishy and NBC’s pivoting response does not assuage suspicion. If there’s dirt to be found here, it won’t stay buried. It will get out eventually. NBC should consider this going forward.

Free for All: 12/04/09-12/12/09

Behave yourselves…

Snorkelus Interruptus…

After flying to New York in October to pry my snorkel away from Mediaite’s clutches, I headed home only to have my baggage, with said repatriated snorkel, get lost by the airline. I’ve been hounding them ever since but they couldn’t seem to track my bag down. First they thought it was in Denver. Then they thought it was in Los Angeles. Then they thought it still might be in New York. At one point they thought it might be in Frankfurt, Germany. Finally they found it.

Press Releases: 12/04/09

MSNBC (1)

MSNBC TO PREMIERE “FUTURE EARTH 2025,” THE THIRD INSTALLMENT IN ITS FOUR-PART “GREEN” SERIES

SPECIAL TO AIR SUNDAY, DECEMBER 20th, 2009, AT 10 P.M. ET

NEW YORK – December 4, 2009 –MSNBC will premiere the third episode in its four-part environmental series, “Future Earth 2025,” on Sunday, December 20th, at 10 P.M. ET. The one-hour program will focus on the most desperate—but rarely discussed—crisis currently facing our global landscape: the severe threat to our water supply due to global warming and vast population growth.

“Future Earth 2025” seeks to investigate the unsure future of our water supply, taking viewers 15 years down the road to 2025. The special includes five case studies of natural disasters that leading environmental experts warn might result from our growing water crisis, including dust bowls, severe flooding, raging wildfires, plagues of locusts and even political wars. To bring these catastrophes to life, the documentary features state-of-the-art computer animation to make real what our planet could experience as soon as 2025.

Jeff Zucker on Squawk Box…

Jeff Zucker appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box this morning to discuss the GE/Comcast deal. Transcript follows…

KERNEN: COMCAST MAKING A DEAL WITH GE TO BUY CONTROLLING STAKE IN OUR PARENT COMPANY NBC UNIVERSAL. JOINING US NBC UNIVERSAL PRESIDENT AND CEO JEFF ZUCKER, WHO WE’RE VERY GLAD TO SEE ON THE SET.

ZUCKER: IT’S NOT THAT FAR.

KERNEN: NO.

ZUCKER: AND JOE, THE OPPORTUNITY TO COME OUT AND SEE BECKY THIS EARLY IS GREAT.

KERNEN: I FULLY EXPECTED THAT. I AM READY FOR YOU. LET’S FIND OUT WHAT IT BRINGS TO NBC AND WHAT IT BRINGS TO COMCAST. WHICH WAY DO YOU WANT TO START?

ZUCKER: LOOK, THIS OBVIOUSLY IS AN EXCITING DAY FOR EVERYBODY INVOLVED. FOR NBC UNIVERSAL, IT’S THE NEXT TRANSFORMATION, NEXT EVOLUTION OF THE COMPANY. YOU GO BACK SEVEN YEARS, WE WERE DOMESTICALLY FOCUSED BROADCAST NETWORK WITH TWO CABLE NEWS NETWORKS. THEN THE MERGER WITH UNIVERSAL TRANSFORMED THE COMPANY. HERE WE ARE AGAIN SIX YEARS LATER ANOTHER EVOLUTION AND TRANSFORMATION OF THE COMPANY. YOU WOULDN’T RECOGNIZE NBC UNIVERSAL FROM WHAT IT WAS SEVEN YEARS AGO. IT’S AN INCREDIBLY DIFFERENT COMPANY. AND I THINK THAT’S WHAT IT DOES FOR US IN THIS DAY AND AGE YOU HAVE TO KEEP TRANSFORMING YOURSELF.THIS BRINGS ASSETS, SOME GREAT CABLE NETWORKS, DIGITAL ASSETS, TEN REGIONAL SPORTS NETWORKS. NBC UNIVERSAL IS VASTLY DIFFERENT COMPANY. THAT’S VERY EXCITING FOR US.

Shepard Smith Profile…

American Journalism Review’s Sherri Ricchiardi profiles FNC’s Shepard Smith with a headline that’s going to drive Jonathan Klein batty…seeing as he first used the term to describe Anderson Cooper.

Smith loses patience with the notion that he is somehow tainted by what goes on during the 22 hours a day when he’s not on the air. “We make a conscious effort, every day, every moment, to separate straight news from opinion shows. I deliver straight news, that’s it. They do their thing, I do mine,” Smith says, irritated that the subject even came up.

“There is a perception from outside that we are just one thing, that this thing is soup. It’s not soup. If it were soup it would not work, we couldn’t have a newscast.”

On a segment of his newscast earlier this year, he appeared to be mocking Glenn Beck over a new Friday program being heavily promoted by Fox. It was all in good fun, he says. “Glenn came in and hugged me after and thanked me for the publicity,” Smith says. He compares the two main dimensions of Fox–news and punditry–to a family. It can be dysfunctional at times, “but at the end of the day we all love each other.”

For eight years, the voluble host of Fox’s “The O’Reilly Factor” has occupied an office next to Smith’s. “I’m trying to get him booted out. I’d like to put a Jacuzzi in there,” Bill O’Reilly quipped during a telephone interview in October. On a more serious note, he says there is no sharing of information or collaboration between Smith and pundits like himself. Asked about Shep’s takedown of Joe the Plumber during the presidential campaign, O’Reilly says, “It wouldn’t be something we would discuss.”

O’Reilly describes Smith as “a Southern guy who doesn’t take himself all that seriously. There’s a twinkle in his eye. He gets upset sometimes when he sees injustice. I like that. I think that’s needed… Basically, he is very accessible to the folks. The folks believe he’s one of them, not some anchorman from Mount Olympus.”

Free for All: 12/03/09

What’s on your mind?

November Numbers: CNBC…

The Pragmatic Capitalist got its hands on numbers for CNBC in November.

Earnings and the real economy aren’t the only facets of the economy that are experiencing a tepid if not false recovery. Ratings at business juggernaut CNBC continue to plummet. The latest Nielsen data shows a 40% decline in daytime viewers versus last year. Of course, it’s important to note that the financial crisis makes for very difficult comps (much like the easy comps earnings and the economy are currently experiencing). What is interesting to note, however, is that CNBC’s viewership declined 19% versus 2007. If you think consumers aren’t sick and tired of hearing about how well Wall Street is doing and how well the stock market is doing look no further than this data. The real economy remains incredibly fragile/weak and consumers are tired of logging onto Monster to look for jobs while Wall Street reports record bonuses and “better than expected” everything else.

This is just one more sign of the real state of the consumer’s frustration with the current state of affairs. CNBC, which just so happens to represent the apologist for everything Wall Street, is bearing the brunt of it.

Eric Bolling Interview…

Wall St. Cheat Sheet’s Damian Hoffman interviews FBN’s Eric Bolling…(via Talking Biz News)

Eric Bolling has had an exciting career. He has been a professional trader, he helped launch Fast Money, and now he is a star on FOX Business. Despite all these intense jobs, Eric has managed to create a special relationship with his son. I caught up with Eric before Happy Hour to hear more about his career path and his advice for the younger generation …

Comcast/GE: The Release…

Here’s GE’s release on the Comcast deal for NBCU…

COMCAST AND GE TO CREATE LEADING ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY

Positions Comcast and NBCU to Lead the Next Phase of Media Industry’s Evolution

Builds on Diverse Cable Portfolio, Accelerates Digital Offerings and Expands Customer Choice

Entity Will Deliver Strong Cash Flow With Conservative Capital Structure

NBCU Businesses Valued at $30 Billion, Comcast to Contribute Businesses Valued at $7.25 Billion

Comcast To Own 51%, GE 49% Interest in NBCU

Jeff Zucker to Lead New York-based Venture

PHILADELPHIA, PA and FAIRFIELD, CT – Dec. 3, 2009 – Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA, CMCSK) and General Electric (NYSE: GE) announced today that they have signed a definitive agreement to form a joint venture that will be 51 percent owned by Comcast, 49 percent owned by GE and managed by Comcast. The joint venture, which will consist of the NBC Universal (NBCU) businesses and Comcast’s cable networks, regional sports networks and certain digital properties and certain unconsolidated investments, will be well positioned to compete in an increasingly dynamic and competitive media and digital environment.

Press Releases: 12/03/09

CNN (1), HLN (1)

CNN

John Roberts, anchor of CNN’s American Morning, will sit down with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Brussels, Belgium, on Friday morning, local time, in her first interview after making the case to NATO for more troops in Afghanistan. Roberts will co-anchor American Morning live from Brussels tomorrow with the full interview beginning at 6 a.m. ET.

In addition, CNN’s Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr will be filing reports from Afghanistan for American Morning and The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer beginning Monday, December 7th. Starr will be on the ground with troops as they prepare for the influx of 30,000 additional troops. She will take an in-depth look at the U.S. troops already there, the challenges they face, and whether they think the increase in troops is going to help win the war.

HLN

HLN Teams Up with Turner Sports for With All Due Respect — A Roundtable Discussion on the Biggest Stories of 2009

Comcast/GE: CNBC’s Faber Gets Immelt and Roberts First…

CNBCs David Faber was the first to interview GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt and Comcast CEO Brian Roberts this morning. Video here. Transcript follows…

JOE KERNEN reporting: It finally happened. General Electric and Comcast striking their long anticipated deal giving Comcast a 51 percent stake in the parent company of CNBC, NBC Universal. And David Faber is in New York with the architects of the deal. David:

DAVID FABER reporting: Thanks, Joe. That’s right. we’re here at 30 Rockefeller Center with Jeff Immelt, chairman and CEO of General Electric, and Brian Roberts, chairman and CEO of Comcast. Gentlemen, nice to see you both.

Mr. JEFF IMMELT: David.

FABER: Jeff, let me start with you. Why is General Electric selling control of NBC Universal?

Mr. IMMELT: You know, David, first thing I want to ask you, did we get the deal right? You’ve been reporting it for so long I just want to make sure that Brian and I–Brian and I got it right.

FABER: I really appreciate you guys listening and actually sort of getting the numbers right.

Two MSNBCs?

The Huffington Post’s Danny Shea follows in my footsteps by writing about the problems with MSNBC dayside…compared to the more positive story that is MSNBC primetime.

During the day, however — when MSNBC is airing its straight news programming — it’s an entirely different story.

The network’s two new dayside programs, “Morning Meeting with Dylan Ratigan” and “Dr. Nancy” have struggled in the ratings.

“Morning Meeting” averaged 75,000 A25-54 viewers in the 9AM hour, and just 65,000 A25-54 viewers in the 10AM hour, coming in fifth place behind Fox News, CNN, HLN, and CNBC (in that order). “Dr. Nancy” averaged just 55,000 A25-54 viewers at 12PM, again fifth place behind Fox News, CNN, HLN, and CNBC (in that order).

At 11 AM, “MSNBC Live” averaged 55,000 demo viewers; for comparison, Fox News’ “Happening Now,” which airs from 11AM-1PM, averaged 262,000 demo viewers, and CNN averaged 129,000 demo viewers at 11AM.

It’s not much better in the afternoon, when MSNBC averaged 63,000 A25-54 viewers for “Andrea Mitchell Reports” at 1PM and 64,000 A25-54 viewers at 2PM. Compare that to Fox News’ 255,000 A25-54 viewers for “The Live Desk,” which airs from 1-3PM, and CNN’s 127,000 A25-54 viewers at 1PM and 122,000 A25-54 viewers at 2PM.

GE/Comcast: How it happened…

In a must read, The New York Times’ Andrew Ross Sorkin and Tim Arango write about how the GE/Comcast deal for NBCU came about…

The prospect of a deal with G.E. began in earnest in the late afternoon on March 3 on the 48th floor of JPMorgan, when Mr. Roberts and Mr. Burke came to meet with that firm’s chief executive, Jamie Dimon, at the behest of Mr. Lee.

The meeting began with a general discussion of Comcast’s finances, but Mr. Roberts said the company did not need a bank to raise money. Instead, he changed direction by saying he had been pursuing Mr. Immelt about NBC but felt like he was getting nowhere. He felt that G.E. was in a vulnerable position and highlighted the fact that when NBC acquired the Weather Channel earlier in the year, it partnered with private equity instead of buying the network on its own. It was a sign, Mr. Roberts believed, that Mr. Immelt might not be fully committed to the television business. Mr. Lee said he was having breakfast the next morning with Mr. Immelt and agreed to mention Comcast’s interest.

A day later, Mr. Roberts was standing in the lobby of a Marriott hotel in Baltimore, where his daughter was playing in a squash tournament, when Mr. Immelt called his cellphone.

“I want you to know that I’m going to study this,” Mr. Immelt told Mr. Roberts. The two agreed that measures should be taken to ensure secrecy and that only a handful of executives should be informed. Mr. Roberts, who had the failed hostile takeover bid for Disney behind him, had one requirement: he said he would not participate in an auction.

November Numbers: A Closer Look…

Here’s a bigger breakdown of the November ratings period vs November of last year. Most of the day’s hours are broken out here except for the 9am-3pm time period. Just about everyone save select parts of FNC’s schedule is off their numbers from last year, which was an election year.

Matthews Apologizes for West Point Remark..

Chris Matthews apologized at the top of his Hardball program for his West Point comment last night…

November Numbers: FNC…

The Orlando Sentinel’s Hal Boedeker has the numbers for FNC in November…

Fox News Channel has done it again: cleaned up in the monthly ratings.

Here’s how big the victory is for November: Fox News beat MSNBC, CNN and HLN combined in total viewers in prime time, according to Nielsen Media Research. Oh, and Fox News also beat those three channels combined for the total day.

In all of cable, Fox News ranked third in prime time — behind only ESPN and USA. Maybe Fox News should consider a wrestling match between Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity to get more of those ESPN viewers.

For the total day, Fox News places fifth in all of cable. It runs behind Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, USA and ESPN.

Fox News has the 13 most popular programs in cable news, led by “The O’Reilly Factor,” “Glenn Beck,” “Hannity,” “Special Report With Bret Baier” and “The Fox Report With Shepard Smith.”

David Gregory covers Afghanistan on MSNBC at 3pm…

David Gregory will be anchoring a one hour special on Afghanistan today at 3pm on MSNBC…