Branding Run Amok: #1,012

CNN announced that it’s going to be airing fellow Time Warner channel HBO’s 24/7 series of the Maywather/Ortiz fight run up. I’m sure this helps HBO promote the upcoming pay-per-view. I’m less sure how this helps CNN’s news branding…

CNN Broadcasts HBO ® Reality Series 24/7 Mayweather/Ortiz

The Boxing Special Airs at Midnight ET/PT on CNN/U.S beginning Saturday, August 27

HBO’s Emmy-Award®-winning reality series ‘24/7’ is coming to CNN, which will air replays of the all-new four-part series 24/7 MAYWEATHER/ORTIZ, beginning Saturday, August 27 at midnight ET/PT.

In the lead-up to the blockbuster HBO Pay-Per-View® telecast on September 17 in Las Vegas when Floyd Mayweather and Victor Ortiz battle for Ortiz’s world welterweight title, CNN will present all four episodes of 24/7 MAYWEATHER/ORTIZ, the all-access, behind-the-scenes pass that allows viewers to step into the lives of the fighters before they step into the ring. Mayweather lives and trains in Las Vegas, NV, while Ortiz is based in his hometown of Ventura, CA.

July Numbers: CNBC Digital…

CNBC is noting its numbers for CNBC Digital in July…

CNBC DIGITAL SETS NEW JULY RECORDS

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J. – August 11, 2011 – CNBC.com, the online destination for global business news and expert analysis, had its best July ever in terms of uniques and page views. According to the latest data from comScore Media Metrix, the site was visited by 5.9 million unique users last month, a 6% increase compared to the same time period last year, and recorded 312 MM page views.

CNBC Mobile also scored records for July. CNBC Mobile Web recorded 73 MM page views which represents a 30% increase year-over-year (Source: Omniture). CNBC’s Real-Time iPhone App posted 57 MM page views, representing a 50% increase year-over-year and also saw unique visitors increase by 9% compared to the same time period as last year (Source: Omniture). CNBC’s Real-Time Android App saw a 142% increase in uniques compared to the same time period last year and a 181% increase in page views year-over-year (Source: Omniture).

Additional July 2011 highlights include:

Market Stress = Business Channel Gains

The LA Times’ Joe Flint writes about CNBC and FBN and how market turmoil is translating into ratings gains…

From Thursday through Tuesday, the daytime audience (9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.) for Fox Business grew 256% to 128,000 viewers, from 36,000 viewers for the same period last year. From 4 p.m. to 8 p.m, Fox’s audience was up 162% to 131,000 viewers from 50,000 a year earlier.

CNBC saw its daytime audience grow 68% to 438,000 viewers from 260,000 over the same period. In late afternoon and early evening, the gain was almost 111% to 340,000 viewers from 161,000.

Despite the distribution advantage for CNBC, Lou Dobbs’ show on Fox Business has performed exceptionally well.

MSNBC Iowa Straw Poll Coverage Plans

MSNBC just announced its Iowa Straw Poll coverage plans for this weekend. Yes, I know it’s too early for wall to wall and you know it’s too early for wall to wall but the networks are fighting to carve out their places for 2012 so no insignificant straw poll six months before the Iowa caucuses – an eternity in political campaigning – is going to be ignored.

PROGRAM NOTE: MSNBC’S ‘THE DAILY RUNDOWN’ AND ‘ANDREA MITCHELL REPORTS’ TO AIR LIVE FROM DES MOINES, IOWA

SPECIAL MSNBC COVERAGE OF THE AMES STRAW POLL

NEW YORK—August 10, 2011—MSNBC’s “The Daily Rundown” will have special live coverage of the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa on Thursday, Friday and Saturday of this week, hosted by NBC News Chief White House Correspondent and Political Director Chuck Todd. “The Daily Rundown” will broadcast live from Java Joe’s in Des Moines, Iowa, on Thursday, August 11 and Friday, August 12, at 9 a.m. ET. Guests on the Thursday show will include Iowa Governor Terry Branstad (R) and GOP Chairman Matt Strawn. On Friday, guests will include Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) among others.

MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” will broadcast live from Java Joe’s on Friday, August 12 at 1 p.m. ET. Guests of the show include Iowa pollster Ann Selzer, DNC Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), Christie Vilsack, U.S. Congressional Candidate, MSNBC Political Analyst Charlie Cook, Politico’s Mike Allen, Time’s Mark Halperin, MSNBC Contributor Chris Cillizza and NBC News’ and MSNBC’s Chuck Todd.

On Saturday, August 13, MSNBC will significantly expand its dayside live news coverage to monitor the Ames Straw Poll, extending MSNBC Live until 6 p.m. ET. MSNBC Anchor Alex Witt will host MSNBC Live from 7 a.m. ET until 1 p.m. ET, when Chris Jansing will pick up coverage until 4 p.m. ET. Andrea Mitchell will host a special edition of “Andrea Mitchell Reports” from 4-6 p.m. ET. Chuck Todd will then report and analyze the results of the straw poll on a special Primetime edition of “The Daily Rundown” from 6-8 p.m. ET.

CNBC Wednesday Programming Changes.

CNBC announced some changes for tonight’s programming…

Wednesday, August 10th:

8:00 PM CNBC SPECIAL REPORT: MARKETS IN TURMOIL
10:00 PM BMW: A DRIVING OBSESSION (REPLACES CRIME INC)
11:00 PM MAD MONEY
12:00 AM AMERICAN GREED 2 – THE IMPOSTER: DR. BARNES/INTERSTATE MART BANDIT
1:00 AM BMW: A DRIVING OBSESSION (REPLACES CRIME INC)

Update: Here we go again…

8:00 PM CNBC SPECIAL REPORT: MARKETS IN TURMOIL
10:00 PM MAD MONEY (REPLACES BMW: A DRIVING OBSESSION)
11:00 PM MAD MONEY
12:00 AM AMERICAN GREED 2 – THE IMPOSTER: DR. BARNES/INTERSTATE MART BANDIT
1:00 AM BMW: A DRIVING OBSESSION

Free for All: 08/10/11

WHat’s on your mind?

Tony Maddox Interview

Broadcasting & Cable’s George Winslow interviews CNNI President Tony Maddox…

What are some of your plans for deploying your talent and reporters for next few days for these international stories?

With stories like this, we’re constantly asking ourselves, who do we need to rotate in, who do we need to rotate out. It is like looking at chess board. Tuesday was another roller coaster ride for the financial markets, so we will probably stay with the finance story for another 24 hours and keep teams deployed throughout that period. The London riots are a tricky one. I am old enough to remember the earlier ones. What tends to happen is they blow-up quickly and they die down equally as quickly but you often don’t know how long it will take for them to die down. But we have to remain heavily committed on that story for the time being. The AC360 team is in Somalia for another 24 to 36 hours and then they start making the journey back to the U.S. We are still trying to get back into Syria but we haven’t made any progress on that yet.

CNBC Changes Tuesday Night Programming…

Continuing to react to all the world market trumoil, CNBC has again altered its prime time and late night programming. And this time there’s not even a Mad Money repeat.

CNBC PROGRAMMING CHANGE FOR TONIGHT, TUESDAY, AUGUST 9TH

“CNBC Special Report: Markets in Turmoil” will air live tonight, Tuesday, August 9th at 8pm ET anchored by CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo and Bill Griffeth.

Tuesday, August 9th:

8pm-10pm CNBC Special Report: Markets in Turmoil (Pre-empts “Marijuana USA” and “60 Minutes on CNBC #5″)

10pm-1am CNBC Asia (Pre-empts “CNBC Titans #5: Merv Griffin,” “Mad Money” and “60 Minutes on CNBC #5″)

1am-4am CNBC Europe (Pre-empts “CNBC Titans #5: Merv Griffin” and “Paid Programming”)

Update: So much for the all night live programming. CNBC changed its mind and decided to go back to tape after the 2 hour special…

Tuesday, August 9th:
8:00 PM CNBC SPECIAL REPORT: MARKETS IN TURMOIL
10:00 PM 60 MINUTES ON CNBC #5
11:00 PM MAD MONEY
12:00 AM BMW: A DRIVING OBSESSION
1:00 AM 60 MINUTES ON CNBC #5

Update 2: Ok all those changes were made and then got took off subsequently got put back on again. I give up…

10pm-11pm: CNBC Asia
11pm-12am: Mad Money
12am-1am: CNBC Asia
1am-4am: CNBC Europe

Monday Market Madness Drives CNBC Web Traffic…

CNBC announced that yesterday, as the market plunged, its digital platform set traffic records…

CNBC DIGITAL SHATTERS RECORDS

CNBC.COM & CNBC MOBILE POST NEW ALL-TIME SINGLE DAY HIGHS

All of CNBC’s digital platforms – CNBC.com, CNBC Mobile Web, CNBC Real-Time iPhone App, CNBC Real-Time iPad App & CNBC Real-Time Android App – had their best day ever in terms of both uniques and page views yesterday, August 8.

CNBC.com was visited by 2.3 MM daily unique visitors and recorded 35 MM page views. This represents a 119% jump in uniques and a 103% increase in page views compared to the daily average.

CNBC Mobile also shattered records yesterday. CNBC Mobile Web recorded over 6 MM page views, which represents a 111% increase in page views compared to the daily average and, for the first time ever, attracted more than 500,000 daily uniques. CNBC’s Real-Time iPhone App posted nearly 6 MM page views, representing a 162% increase versus the daily average and posted more than 200,000 uniques. CNBC’s Real-Time iPad App recorded more than 1 MM page views and recorded more than 100,000 uniques. CNBC’s Real-Time Android App saw a 106% increase in page views and a 65% increase in uniques compared to the daily average.

Free for All: 08/09/11

What’s on your mind?

Ken Jautz Interview…

Adweek’s D.M. Levine interviews CNN President Ken Jautz…

But your primetime slate features re-airs very prominently [for example, under the new lineup, Anderson Cooper 360 airs at 8 and again at 10]. Do you have plans to change that? It seems like an unusual primetime lineup.

I’m going to dispute the premise on several different fronts, actually. But before I do that, let me say that it is a lineup that we look forward to building. We’ll build it and attract a greater and greater following. That’s one.

Two, I would say that Anderson Cooper has long been at ten as a flagship show … in this day and age, the program that a news channel runs at 8 PM basically showcases what the network stands for. And you look at Anderson Cooper; it is quality journalism, reporting-based program. And you compare that to a more conversational talk show on offer at competitive news networks at 8 o’clock, you see a real difference. It makes sense for us to put it on at 8 o’clock. It also makes sense for us to continue Anderson Cooper—he’s been at 10 for many years he has a loyal following at 10 o’clock. Lastly, another reason I dispute the premise is, it suggests that [having re-airs in primetime] is unusual. I would say that it isn’t.

Actually, yeah it is…especially for CNN. It’s not like CNN is a business channel where viewers tend to get the short end in live programming during their primetime. Business channels have a good excuse…the markets are closed. It is unusual for a news channel. People railed at MSNBC for years for not having three hours of live/new programming in prime.

There are critics in the CNN diaspora who have said that CNN has given up on primetime.

That’s ridiculous. I would point out that Piers Morgan is fifty percent higher than the show we had on in that slot. Anderson Cooper is the highest rated show [on the network]. Why wouldn’t I put it on in the hour that’s emblematic? Why wouldn’t I create a lineup that provides for better flow from show to show?

I agree with Jautz that CNN hasn’t “given up” on primetime. The way I see it the 10pm repeat is merely a misguided programming decision, not a sign the network has “given up”. But that’s not why I highlighted this answer. I highlighted it because Jautz couldn’t bring himself to say Larry King’s name when he compared Morgan’s ratings to King’s.

Business Channel Wars Heat Up…

The AP’s David Bauder writes about biz channel mania with an emphasis on recent CNBC slip ups…

Bloomberg Television and Fox Business Network both extended live coverage on Friday night, when the Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services downgraded the United States’ debt rating for the first time. The scenario was similar the previous Sunday night, when President Barack Obama announced an agreement with legislative leaders to raise the nation’s debt ceiling.

CNBC noted that it ran a Sunday special featuring Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s first public comments on the debt downgrade and was pre-empting programming for a two-hour special Monday on the volatile economic markets.

Fox was quick to leap, however, running a full-page ad in Monday’s Wall Street Journal with onscreen pictures from July 31, contrasting its live debt ceiling coverage with the show CNBC was airing, “How I Made My Millions.”

“It shows that we are always looking out for the audience, always trying to find an inroad and, frankly, our competition isn’t working as hard as we are,” said Kevin Magee, executive vice president at Fox Business Network.

To drive this point home J$ reports that FBN will dump Imus all week in favor of wall to wall business coverage…

David Bohrman Interview…

The LA Times’ Joe Flint writes about David Bohrman joining Current TV. And Flint interviews Bohrman too. That in itself isn’t enough to get me to do a blog post on it. But this is…

In an interview, Bohrman said he thinks Current can “create a network that can enlighten the viewers and voters that are out there” without relying on the screaming matches that have become a staple of cable news.

“I think we can be a real tone changer,” Bohrman said. MSNBC and CNN, he said, constantly feature guests “sniping” at each other. “They think it is balance, but it is just noise…. I want to provide a forum for various opinions but I don’t want people shouting at each other every other sentence,” he said. “I think we’ll get viewers across the political spectrum.”

Wow…one day on the job and already taking a really big shot at your former employer with whom you were working up until last week!

Like I said…wow…

Update: Multichannel News’ John Eggerton has an interview with Bohrman and Current CEO Joel Hyatt

MCN: So, you are not looking to do breaking news on this channel.

Bohrman: No, breaking news is largely now a commodity, We will be aware of breaking news and continue to use Google News or Yahoo! news or maybe some of the other wires services or broadcast news services. But we are not going to employ 300 bureaus and people around the world to tell us what’s happening because that is already available to not just us but everybody else throughout the course of their day.

MCN: How should we measure the success of this “all in” play–innovative programming, higher ratings, a new brand.

Bohrman: All of the above.

Hyatt: I think you should measure us by our impact, influence, and success, and that success certainly has to do with ratings and out impact will have to do with providing that kind of insightful analysis that is helping audiences understand and contextualize the news and issues of the day. Those are big ambitions and that is what we want to be measured by.

Bloomberg TV in Action…

Business Insider’s Julia La Roche has a slideshow of Bloomberg TV’s newsroom as the market mess unfolded…

The S&P’s unprecedented downgrade of the U.S. government’s credit rating Friday night from AAA to AA-plus created a busy news weekend for the financial media.

What happened at Bloomberg?

Everyone worked late into the night on Sunday night, canceling a birthday celebration in order to cover the news and call sources. Today before the market crashed, you’ll see everyone looking calm and focused in the following photos.

If only things had stayed that way…

Weekend Coverage Wrap Up…

The Cutline’s Joe Pompeo writes about coverage of the financial mess over the weekend. But I’m going to zero in on one part in particular…

But this isn’t the time that CNBC has caught flak for staying in tape on a weekend when massive news was breaking on its beat. Two Sundays ago, it was likewise the only cable news network that didn’t go live to carry President Obama’s announcement that a debt deal had been reached.

“After this week CNBC should change its slogan . . . to ‘First in business when we feel like it,’ ” snarled the anonymous bloger of Inside Cable News. “Yes, CNBC your behavior has been that bad.”

The network dismisses such criticism, pointing to the scale and influential character of its viewership. “The most affluent and influential people in the world, from Wall Street to Main Street, rely on CNBC everyday to deliver fast, accurate, actionable and unbiased coverage,” Steel insisted.

Pfft. Yeah, that’s all perfectly true but it’s also completely irrelevant to the matter at hand. Everyone I’ve talked to, tweeted at, and read expressed shock that the network blew it like that.

Note to Pompeo: Kudos for taking on the ICN challenge. But I don’t snarl. I’m a pussycat. No really.

CNBC to Air Market Special Tonight

CNBC announced special Market coverage tonight at 8pm ET…

Update: CNBC has altered its programming significantly this evening and into the late late night. The one hour primetime special has been expanded to three hours followed by simulcasting CNBC World at 12am-4am. This is the kind of coverage we should have gotten Friday and last Sunday.

“CNBC Special Report: Markets in Turmoil” will air live tonight from 8pm-11pm anchored by CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla, David Faber and Melissa Lee.

Monday, August 8th:

8:00 PM CNBC SPECIAL REPORT: MARKETS IN TURMOIL (LIVE)
11:00 PM MAD MONEY
12:00 AM CAPITAL CONNECTION (ASIA) (LIVE)
1:00 AM SQUAWK BOX EUROPE (LIVE)
4:00 AM WORLDWIDE EXCHANGE (LIVE)

CNN’s John Defterios Problem…

Politico’s Keach Hagey writes about the ongoing FBC Media scandal and how its got CNN’s John Defterios in the hot seat.

Last week, CNN spokeswoman Lauren Cone told POLITICO: “CNN’s recent interview with the Malaysian prime minister was set up solely by CNN with the PM’s office. John Defterios became a full-time employee with CNN in March, at which time he severed his affiliation with FBC.”

Cone added that “there has never been a contract between CNN and FBC to carry any editorial content on CNN,” and “the only FBC content CNN has carried is FBC advertorial, clearly labeled, in commercial time.”

But as of last week, Defterios was still listed as a director and shareholder at FBC Media, according to company information filed with UK Companies House obtained by Kevin Coy at the British media site News on News. And up until FBC Media pulled down its website last month, Defterios was listed as president of the company. His wife, Manuela Mirkos, who once worked in The New York Times’s Rome bureau, was listed as an associate producer at FBC Media.

Moreover, before Defterios signed on full time with CNN in March, he worked part-time for CNN for several years. His Bloomberg Businessweek bio says he has been host of “Marketplace Middle East” since October 2007.

Read it all the way through. You haven’t heard the last of this, though CNN probably wishes you had…

Bloomberg To Air Crisis Special Tonight

Bloomberg has announced another economic crisis special for tonight at 9pm…

BLOOMBERG TELEVISION PRESENTS “DOWNGRADE: A SPECIAL REPORT” – AIRING TONIGHT, MONDAY AUGUST 8th at 9PM/ET

Tonight at 9pm/ET, Bloomberg Television will present a special live report, “Downgrade: A Special Report,” hosted by anchors Adam Johnson (@AJInsight) and Lisa Murphy (@LisaMurphyBTV).

On a day when stocks are sinking, Treasuries gained and gold reached a record high, Bloomberg Television will examine the market implications after Standard & Poor’s cut America’s credit rating and lowered credit ratings on Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other lenders with a “direct reliance on the U.S. government.”

Tune into Bloomberg TV tonight as well as throughout the day for in-depth coverage and reporting from Bloomberg TV’s markets team including Adam Johnson from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Press Releases: 08/08/11

CNN (1), HLN (1)

CNN

Starting Monday, August 8th, coinciding with its new 8 pm time slot, CNN’s Anderson Cooper will anchor Anderson Cooper 360 live from Africa. Coverage titled: Somalia: ON THE FRONTLINES OF FAMINE airs at 8pm ET and 10pm ET.

Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta spoke with Jill Biden on the Somalia/Kenya border as she traveled there to see the hunger crisis forcing refugees to flee to Somalia. Cooper will also report live from Mogadishu during the week, embedding with African Union troops who are fighting the Islamic insurgents who are denying aid to starving Somalis.

_________________________

HLN

HLN’s MORNING EXPRESS WITH ROBIN MEADE ‘RISE AND SHINE’ SONG CONTEST WRAPS WITH MORE THAN 1,600 SUBMISSIONS

Free for All: 08/08/11

What’s on your mind?

The Hazards of Live TV: #25,116

Come on CNBC, you can’t spell Tim Geithner’s name correctly during your big John Harwood interview? (image via J$)

Anjali Rao Interview…

CNN Observations landed an interview with former CNNI anchor Anjali Rao which explains why she left the network…

After 15 years on television, 5 of those at CNN, how hard was it to leave television news to pursue a new opportunity?

I am always so impressed by those who can make a lifetime’s career out of news. They’re providing a public service that I consider invaluable. However, news is not an easy game by any stretch and it can certainly take a toll. It did for me, because of the intrinsic subject matter which is mostly very serious and often extremely upsetting. The nature of what I was talking about every day was the polar opposite of my own nature. Perhaps viewers could tell where my heart truly lay through my work on Talk Asia.

So while leaving hard news behind (and the 3am starts!) was not a difficult decision for me, I was certainly trepidant about what would come next and whether that step would turn out as I had hoped.

David Bohrman to Current TV?

Tonight Brian Stelter dropped a bombshell on Twitter…

Prediction for Mon/Tues: Current TV will announce a big executive hire. Former CNN DC chief David Bohrman? My inquiries were ignored on Fri.

More re: Current’s big news hire: I called/emailed channel rep 5 times for comment. Silence. Sometimes silence is deafening. Other times…

Did Bohrman quit CNN to join up with Gore, Olbermann, and Co.? Guess we’ll find out soon enough…

What’s Hot/What’s Not: 08/07/11

What’s Hot:

Debt Crisis – It dominated the week.

Rachel Maddow Extends MSNBC Contract – MSNBC 1, Keith Olbermann and Current TV 0.

Chris Hayes – Hayes will be anchoring a weekend show on MSNBC

What’s Not:

MSNBC thinks small – Though Hayes’ show represents the first time in years that MSNBC has done something constructively new with weekends we must remember that this is MSNBC after all and there are two things to keep in mind. 1) The network never thinks big when it has the option of thinking small, and 2) Tape is just too lucrative for the network to ween itself off of, especially on weekends. Combine 1 and 2 and you get what we got: Hayes’ show doesn’t add any new live hours to the network’s weekend lineup. Instead MSNBC will now be airing five hours less news on the weekend and Alex Witt, who has been the bedrock for MSNBC’s news on the weekends, gets her hours almost halved. The fact that MSNBC is now going to brand Witt’s shift belies the truth: MSNBC took the weakest option available to it.

CNBC – Last Sunday every major news network was live covering the debt ceiling crisis except CNBC which inexplicably stayed in tape. Worse, the network sent out a press release telling viewers they could watch CNBC Asia’s coverage…if they went to CNBC.com.

CNBC – CNBC World has apparently cancelled World Business after reports emerged this week of a potential conflict of interest scenario involving FBC Media, the company which produced the show.

CNBC – Last Friday every major news network was covering the S&P downgrade except for CNBC. That made it two times in less than seven days that the network was in tape when a major business story of national importance was going down. “First in Business Worldwide”? How about “First in Business Worldwide When We Feel Like It”?

Al Sharpton – Sharpton is still not officially a permanent MSNBC host. Reports emerged this week that MSNBC is holding off on completing a deal with Sharpton because of the controversy that has erupted…a controversy which so far shows no signs of dying down.

Rachel Maddow – Maddow mistakenly claimed that a clip of Rush Limbaugh doing his birther shtick occurred this week. It didn’t. The clip was from a year ago but was posted on the internet by a conservative blogger and mistakenly labeled as being new. Limbaugh too to the airwaves to rip Maddow for “lying”. Maddow did apologize for the gaffe.

In Defense of The Five…

News on News’ Kevin Coy likes FNC’s Four on One The Five…

The round-the-table discussion format with five highly opinionated folks is definately something that I was at first skeptical about, but having watched, and found myself enjoying the show, there is definately a gap in broadcast television for a current affairs discussion show, that doesn’t include a prominent politician, lawmaker, high-flying businessman or sportsman.

The uniqueness of ‘The Five’ is the form of anyone’s view is valid, and the next person’s view is as valid as the person before. Discussion and debate on the day’s top story’s then ensues.

Note to Kevin: If everyone’s view is valid then nobody’s view is invalid. So where’s the fundamental truth? And if there’s no fundamental truth – if it’s all relative – then what’s the point except to generate a bunch of noise?

CNBC’s Sunday Special Expanded to Two Hours…

CNBC announced today that its one hour market turmoil special Sunday night has been expanded to two hours…

“CNBC SPECIAL REPORT: MARKETS IN TURMOIL” WILL NOW AIR LIVE FROM 8PM TO 10PM ON SUNDAY, AUGUST 7TH, PRE-EMPTING “THE FACEBOOK OBSESSION.”

“CNBC Special Report: Markets in Turmoil,” anchored by CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo and Bill Griffeth, will look to the week ahead with the best moves from the experts, live reports from Europe and the first trades from the Asian markets.

That’s nice, but it doesn’t make up for CNBC’s failure last Sunday nor it’s even bigger failure last night…

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…

S&P Downgrade Takes Center Stage

Tonight the S&P downgrade on the US debt took center stage on cable news with the nets going wall to wall on it. As of 10pm CNN, MSNBC, FNC, and FBN are still live covering it. Bloomberg was covering it live until 10pm. CNBC appears to have been caught flat footed according to what I’ve been seeing on Twitter. Post your reaction to the coverage here…

Update: Time to take CNBC to the woodshed again. A week after not being live to cover what was going on with the foreign markets on Sunday, while everyone else in cable news except HLN were, opting instead to send out a press release saying that we can watch CNBC Asia on CNBC.com, the network again stubs its toe in a huge way. FBN is hustling as I type this. Bloomberg was covering the story at 9pm. CNBC? Nada. After this week CNBC should change its slogan from “First in business worldwide” to “First in business when we feel like it” Yes, CNBC your behavior has been that bad.

Limbaugh vs. Maddow…

Rush Limbaugh went after Rachel Maddow for playing a clip of Limbaugh doing his birther thing a year ago…but saying that the clip came from this week. The Right Scoop has the video.

I don’t normally insert myself into ideological spats but this one is different because Limbaugh is accusing Maddow of deliberately using a clip from a year ago and lying about it by saying the clip is from this week. If that is the case, Maddow needs to explain on the air why a clip from a year ago was played this week and miscategorized as from this week when that was patently not the case.

Update: Ok, I’ll save Maddow the time and explain now what happened. Apparently someone from the right named Timothy Donovan, whom I’ve never heard of, ripped the year old clip in question from Mediaite and posted it mistakenly thinking that the clip was current (don’t get how he could assume that? watch the video). That apparently was the clip Maddow referenced on her show. The following video is from Donvoan trying to explain what happened.

What’s still not clear is why neither Maddow nor her staff verified that the clip they used was from something that occurred this week on Limbaugh’s show.

(thanks to J$ for forwarding me the link to the explanation video)

CNBC Weekend Programming Changes…

CNBC announced it will air a live one hour special on Sunday night at 9pm ET…

CNBC SPECIAL REPORT: MARKETS IN TURMOIL” WILL AIR LIVE ON SUNDAY, AUGUST 7TH AT 9PM ET

“CNBC Special Report: Markets in Turmoil” will air live on Sunday, August 7th at 9pm anchored by CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo and Bill Griffeth. The CNBC special will look to the week ahead with the best moves from the experts, live reports from Europe and the first trades from the Asian markets.