ICN Policy re: Coverage of Countdown on Current
ICN shall not be doing coverage of Current TV just because Keith Olbermann is now on it. Current TV is not a news channel…at least in as much as it has a format that shares little in common with CNN, FNC, MSNBC, and (though not nearly as much as it once was) HLN (not to mention CNBC, FBN, and Bloomberg).
Current has ambitions. Current wants to be a player. Good for them. But they don’t get a free pass to coverage on this blog just because Keith Olbermann is now the face of the channel. Current has to earn that coverage by proving itself as a news channel. It’s not there today. It won’t be there tomorrow. It won’t be there next month. It won’t be there by the end of the year. It may eventually get there one day but it will take significant time.
Obviously Current is gambling on the “build it and they will come” approach vis a vis Olbermann. Well it takes more than that for ICN to pay attention. Current can’t just be the channel with an hour of Olbermann, an hour of Vanguard, and 22 hours of “WTF?” and still expect me to follow it on the blog. Sorry. It takes more than that. Get where you need to get Current and then I’ll come around.
Obviously I will have to monitor Olbermann to some extent. He is a former MSNBC employee with the propensity to drop little nuggets of information that pertain to his former network. And that’s one area ICN does monitor regardless of the channel. But that shall be the extent of my coverage until Current fixes the other 22 hours of its schedule.
Of course Current need not worry about little old me. Plenty of media writers will be following tonight’s launch and subsequent episodes. One website in particular will probably be putting up lots of Olbermann articles in the future because they know Olbermann stories are great “water cooler” material and should generate lots of hit counts. That’s their prerogative. But it’s not ICN’s cup of tea and I just wanted to be clear on the outset where I draw the line regarding cable news coverage.
June 20, 2011 at 1:48 pm
I’m glad you’re not… I rely on your blog for media news, and I wouldn’t want to hear what Olbermann does or says. He just talks trash. I’m not a fan of him anymore and consider him irrelevant.
I’ll probably never watch him anyway, so it’s all for the better. I will be watching tonight just to see how it is, though.
June 20, 2011 at 1:49 pm
always rely*
June 20, 2011 at 2:06 pm
Way to go, Spud.
And, that’s not a commentary on Olby or on whether I think he/Current should be covered here but a general “atta boy” on putting principle above everything else.
June 20, 2011 at 2:10 pm
– He just talks trash –
A rare moment of agreement. If his visit to Jimmy Kimmel or whoever is any indication, he’s just gonna be spewing any rumor or lie that he can come-up with.
June 20, 2011 at 2:23 pm
Laura, I think you mean Jimmy Fallon.
June 20, 2011 at 2:26 pm
Jimmy or Jimmy, Rachel or Katrina, apparently they all look alike to me.
June 20, 2011 at 3:01 pm
I commend you for your decision, Spud. And I’m glad Cablevision hasn’t bowed to pressure from Olbermann’s loony fans and added Current TV to its lineup…yet.
June 20, 2011 at 3:51 pm
Current TV is listed on my Comcast directory under the “Lifestyle” genre. Doesn’t appear to be available in HD, either, so I won’t even check it by accident.
June 20, 2011 at 3:54 pm
I think you are taking yourself much too seriously. You are not the Columbia School of Journalism. You are a friggin’ blog. You just embarrass yourself with that kinda snobbery.
It’s your blog and you have every right to set your own rules, but you make it sound so righteous. Really sad to see such in print.
Too bad you couldn’t report and let us decide.
June 20, 2011 at 3:58 pm
– Of course Current need not worry about little old me. Plenty of media writers will be following tonight’s launch and subsequent episodes. –
Yes, Spud is such a self-righteous snob.
June 20, 2011 at 4:06 pm
Countdown is liberal opinion about the news on a non-news network. The Daily Show is comedy about the news on a non-news network. Neither qualifies as “cable news”, which this blog purports to be “inside” of, so Spud has no reason to report any more on the former than the latter.
June 20, 2011 at 4:49 pm
Just like Spud won’t be blogging about GBTV.
June 20, 2011 at 5:05 pm
KO started with ‘As I was saying..”. You’ll need to Google Jack Paar for that reference.
June 20, 2011 at 5:10 pm
Annnnd the first guest is Michael Moore. I was planning on getting through the first show, then dropping it. “Dropping” may come early..
June 20, 2011 at 5:13 pm
I think you are taking yourself much too seriously. You are not the Columbia School of Journalism. You are a friggin’ blog. You just embarrass yourself with that kinda snobbery.
Nope. I’m just heading off the “Why aren’t your writing about Keith’s new show?” questions that would have come my way. Already fielded one on Twitter today.
I had to make a decision: does the mere fact that Current now has Olbermann on it justify covering the channel? When I look at the channels and topics I do cover, the answer is it does not. When only 2 out of 22 hours of programming…or I should say 2 hours and something like 10 hours of Countdown reruns throughout the day (no joke…Olbermann tweeted the times the show will air and it has a zillion reruns)…make Current a cable news channel? It clearly doesn’t.
Current says it wants to be a news channel. Olbermann says he wants to turn it into a news channel. But it’s not there yet. When it is I’ll revisit the issue.
June 20, 2011 at 6:04 pm
I notice the line up on Current and surrounding KO constant repeats are shows about Illegal drugs…which makes sense you would have to be on something to watch KO.
Plus anyone want to take bets KO will combined the ratings of all the repeats to claim a ratings victory?…he tried to o that on his MSNBC show.