Inside Cable News

The Ed Show Incites Violence?

icn2 — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 01:38:01 +0000

NewsBusters’ Jack Coleman writes about The Ed Show posting a questionable tweet on its crawl…

Here’s a tweet that appeared while Schultz was talking with Dionne –

Next time Jan Brewer sticks her finger in President’s face, the Secret Service should break it & drop her. #edshow #p2

The tweet came from a Twitter user named “chaplinlives” who resides in Massachusetts — or as we happy few conservatives with domiciles here call it, the People’s Republic of Taxachusetts. Consider yourself warned — “chaplinlives” uses a photo of a lion for a Twitter avatar (No, not the one in “The Wizard of Oz”), so he or she is not to be trifled with.

MSNBC should not have run that tweet. There have to be some standards in what is allowable from viewer commentary. This one crosses a line that The Ed Show shouldn’t have crossed.

Filed under: MSNBC

The Hazards of Live TV: #25,142

icn2 — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:17:42 +0000

If Obama’s numbers were that low I think we’d be hearing a lot more about it…

Filed under: Hazards of Live TV

What’s Hot/What’s Not: Submissions…

icn2 — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 16:50:09 +0000

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

Filed under: What's Hot/What's Not

CNN Wants to Trademark WHAT?!?!?

icn2 — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 23:12:02 +0000

TVNewser’s Alex Weprin reports that CNN is looking to trademark the term “Magic Wall”. I hope they fail. Spectacularly.

Now, however, it appears that the channel wants to make sure that the “Magic Wall” is for CNN use only. Earlier this month the channel applied for a trademark on the term “Magic Wall” with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, according to filings obtained by TVNewser.

If CNN was really serious about trademarking Magic Wall they would have done so four years ago when they first rolled it out. Doing it now is just silly and probably opens the network up to all sorts of generic use arguments. I hope all the other networks fight them over it and CNN winds up losing.

I’m no lawyer but it seems to me that should CNN win this it would establish a bad precedent where a network introduces a concept and a name, it takes hold across the industry and is used all over, and then years after the fact the network tries to regain control of it by applying for a trademark; in effect trying to put the genie back into the bottle it itself opened.

Out here in the tech world we don’t wait around four years to apply for a trademark on an idea we came up with. We apply for it before we even announce the product or concept.

Filed under: CNN

CNN Florida GOP Debate Ratings…

icn2 — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 22:51:14 +0000

CNN is noting its ratings from the GOP Debate in Florida last night but also of note is the network is breaking out social media stats in a big way which is a break from past debate releases…

CNN’S GOP FLORIDA DEBATE WAS #1 LAST NIGHT; POSTS BEST CNN DELIVERY YET IN THE KEY DEMO 25-54

DRAWS 5.4 MILLION TOTAL VIEWERS AND 1.7 MILLION IN KEY DEMO 25-54

ALSO DRAWS AN ADDITIONAL 1.2 MILLION TOTAL VIEWERS AND 562K IN THE DEMO DURING WEST COAST PRIMETIME

ANDERSON COOPER 360 TOPS THE COMPETITION AT 10P

CNN.com page views & video highest of last five CNN debates

According to Nielsen Fast National data, CNN’s Florida debate (8-10p, ET), moderated by Wolf Blitzer delivered 5.4 million total viewers and 1.7 million in the key target demographic 25-54 last night, Thursday, January 26. This represents CNN’s best debate yet this election cycle in the key demo and second best among total viewers (behind the Las Vegas GOP debate on 10/18). Last night’s debate ranked fourth among all primary debates so far this cycle in the key demo (including broadcast) and second among cable-only debates (behind only FNC’s 12/15 debate).

CNN was, by far, top rated during the 8-10p, ET time period last night among the cable news networks in both total viewers and the key demo. CNN topped FNC among total viewers by 160% (5.4m vs. 2.1m) and MSNBC by 444% (5.4m vs. 985k). In the target demo CNN topped FNC by 330% (1.7m vs. 405k) and MSNBC by 702% (1.7m vs. 217k).

During the west coast primetime airing (8-10p, PT/11p-1a, ET replay), CNN had an additional 1.2 million total viewers and 562k in the key demographic 25-54.

With post-debate analysis, Anderson Cooper 360 easily outperformed its cable news competition at 10p. AC360 topped FNC’s On the Record among total viewers by 30% (2.5m vs. 1.9m) and MSNBC’s Last Word by 130% (2.5m vs. 1.1m). In the target demo AC360 topped FNC by 88% (895k vs. 477k) and MSNBC by 261% (895k vs. 248k).

CNN Digital:

During last night’s CNN debate, CNN.com page views & video higher than previous five CNN debates. Stats include:

CNN.com page views were up 37% over the previous 4-Thursdays and up 5% over the average of the prior five CNN debates with 3.7 million page views. CNN.com page views for the day hit 46.8 million, up 6% over the past five CNN debates.

Video starts on CNN.com were also up 71% over the prior 4 Thursdays and 45% over the prior debates with 4.9 million.

Mobile page views were up 6% during the debate. In total, CNN Mobile had 6.1 million page views for the day.

(Source: Omniture SiteCatalyst Prior 4-Thursday average based on 12/22, 12/29, 1/5, 1/12. Prior debate dates include 6/13, 9/12, 10/18, 11/22, 1/19.)

(Source: Bango. Prior 4-Thursday average based on 12/22, 12/29, 1/5, 1/12. Prior debate dates include 6/13, 9/12, 10/18, 11/22, 1/19. Note: International mobile site does not contain video.)

Users also interacted with CNN across social media.

Facebook

· For last night’s Florida Republican debate there were 3 postings on the main CNN Facebook fanpage which generated 3,000 likes and comments.

Source: Facebook fan pages CNN 6/13/11, 9/12/11, 10/18/11, 11/22/11, 1/19/12 & 1/26/12; CNN Politics 9/12/11, 10/18/11, 11/22/11, 1/19/12 & 1/26/12

Twitter

· The CNNbrk account had 13 posts surrounding the debate which were retweeted 2,100 times.
· The hashtag #CNNDebate was a trending topic throughout the evening, ranking as high as #1 in the US and Worldwide throughout portions of the broadcast.

· Wolf Blitzer and Erin Burnett were also trending topics during last night’s debate coverage, with Wolf Blitzer ranking as high as #3 and Erin Burnett ranked #8 in US throughout the broadcast.

Source: Twitter Analytics 6/13/11, 10/18/11, 11/22/11, 1/19/12 & 1/26/12

GetGlue

· The CNN Florida Republican Debate had over 5,700 GetGlue check-ins and generated an estimated 1.3 million impressions across Facebook and Twitter.

Source: GetGlue 9/12, 10/18, 11/22, 1/19 & 1/26

Filed under: CNN

O’Reilly Looks at MSNBC’s Pat Buchanan Fiasco…

icn2 — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:53:59 +0000

(via J$)

It was kind of a missed opportunity. Sandy Rios doesn’t help herself any by bringing out the “1st Amendment” shield in her first breath. Sorry Sandy, the First Amendment primarily covers government intrusion, not what a private enterprise allows. And the Progressive crank didn’t fare much better. O’Reilly actually came out looking rather sane and smart by comparison, despite his silly assertion that everyone at MSNBC is ~~progressive~~ extreme. And it’s too bad that the segment veered quickly from what MSNBC did with Buchanan to whether Buchanan was correct or not.

Filed under: FNC, MSNBC

Inside CNN’s iReport

icn2 — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:50:55 +0000

Poynter’s Craig Silverman writes about CNN’s iReport…

The protests that erupted in Nigeria earlier this month over skyrocketing fuel prices initially received only a small amount of coverage from North American media, including CNN.

But CNN’s iReport team soon began seeing a steady stream of photos, videos and on the ground reports submitted by users in Nigeria. It became clear they couldn’t ignore the story.

“CNN wasn’t really covering that story at all until we started seeing an outpouring of contributions of video and photos and people writing into iReport over and over for days,” said Lila King, participation director for CNN Digital. “It made us say, ‘Gosh, you know we really need to be paying attention to this.’ ”

The result was increased coverage on CNN properties featuring the material submitted by a range of Nigerian citizens and freelancers.

This is iReport’s fifth anniversary, and a CNN spokesperson calls it “the most developed and active citizen journalism platform of any news organization worldwide.” It claims 1,002,428 registered iReporters, and 2.4 million unique users each month. King said iReport has had content submitted from every country on earth.

Filed under: CNN

Free for All: 01/27/12

icn2 — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:06:22 +0000

What’s on your mind?

Filed under: Free For All

Dylan Ratigan Profile…

icn2 — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:04:56 +0000

The Miami Herald’s Glenn Garvin profiles Dylan Ratigan…

Certain that the financial collapse of 2008 would trigger major political and economic reforms, Ratigan left a successful show on the business network CNBC for MSNBC, which he thought would be a better forum for delving into politics. He was surprised — and ticked off — that little seemed to be happening.

“That was my naïveté,” Ratigan says. “What stunned me was that neither the media nor the political parties were willing to engage in debate on the corruption in our banking system which underlay the financial collapse. Since then, not only is there no debate on banking corruption, but there’s no debate on corruption in healthcare or in trade policy.

“The unifying factor in all those matters is that the funding of both our political parties comes mainly from the greedy bastards, the big corporations, who are buying our politicians.”

The focus of Ratigan’s show since then has been the nexus between big business and government, a dirty game in which corporations use government to leverage big profits, while leaving their losses to be covered by taxpayers. Not that taxpayers are wholly innocent, he quickly adds.

Filed under: MSNBC

The Hazards of Live TV: #25,141

icn2 — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 05:50:28 +0000

Gremlins in the FNC tape machinery again?

Filed under: Hazards of Live TV

Geraldo Rivera Interview…

icn2 — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 05:09:54 +0000

The Orange County Register’s Gary Lycan interviews Geraldo Rivera about his new LA radio show…

I always wanted to do radio,” Rivera said. “I am kind of a liberal Republican but I’m not always right. I hesitated for several reasons, one of which is that it is so labor intensive. As radio talk took hold, I saw it skew hard right. Everyone wanted to be Rush. But for him, there would never have been a Tea Party or a Fox News Channel.

“I am for free enterprise. I want people to be responsible for themselves as a family. The times when we had liberals like Nelson Rockefeller and Jacob Javits have all but evaporated. I think the party is reduced because of it.”

Assessing his WABC program, he said, “It’s hard to tell. Lots of sponsors have come around, the phone calls are always coming in. The ratings are delayed. We get some numbers next month. My sense is all the people who call me have said they ‘appreciate your coverage of the wars.’”

Rivera will do both shows live from KABC starting Monday, Jan. 30. He will later divide time between New York and LA. On Sunday, Jan. 29, he will meet everyone and start to “figure out where I am living.”

Filed under: FNC

CNN’s Crowd Egging Debate Controversy…

icn2 — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 03:09:26 +0000

When NBC had its crowd-noiseless debate on Monday, it drew criticism from some quarters for NBC’s decision to tell the crowd to refrain from outbursts. As tonight’s CNN debate drew closer some CNN staffers/talent were making note that their debate wouldn’t have this restriction. Okay, not having that restriction is one thing. Egging on the crowd deliberately is another thing entirely.

Keith Olbermann tweeted the following tonight…

You know what CNN guy w/his hands up is doing, right? He’s egging on the #FLdebate audience to clap – like a game show (link)

I wasn’t watching the debate as we’ve had too many and none having much to do with my state of California but when I saw that tweet I tuned in at the end and I saw a floor guy, probably the same floor guy, whipping up the crowd with his arms just as the debate ended. So that’s two instances of CNN egging on the debate crowd. How many more of those incidents were there?

Filed under: CNN

Florida CNN Debate: Your reactions…

icn2 — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:34:15 +0000

Post you reactions to the Florida GOP CNN debate and the coverage thereof here…

Filed under: CNN

Andy Levy Profile…

icn2 — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:19:54 +0000

Michael Elkin profiles Red Eye’s Andy Levy in Jewish Exponent…

An unapologetic libertarian — like host and friend Gutfeld — whose mischievous mantra is “I apologize for nothing,” this political science grad of Columbia University helps make it all politics as unusual on a program where blistering broadsides are interspersed with cracks on Gutfeld’s gnome-like height, weird webcam posts of pets in comical positions and conspiratorial conversations between guests.

It is, as Gutfeld once sniveled, “kind of like The View, but with bladder control.”

Gutfeld controls the tempo, but Levy holds him in check with his “pre-game” and “halftime reports,” and “postgame wrap.”

So, what’s the rap on Levy, whose esoteric bio includes time served in the miliary as well as war time in the jungles of Hollywood, and keyboard work for singer Dalton Grant?

He and the host, Levy says, live in a time warp: “We have the same warped sensibility,” Levy concedes of why he and Gutfeld can gut it out so well on TV. “We make a good team.”

Filed under: FNC

Free for All: 01/26/12

icn2 — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:36:39 +0000

What’s on your mind?

Filed under: Free For All

Free for All: 01/25/12

icn2 — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:28:13 +0000

What’s on your mind?

Filed under: Free For All

Jennifer Granholm Interview…

icn2 — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:26:22 +0000

Politico’s Patrick Gavin interviews Current TV’s Jennifer Granholm…

“I will be a progressive, and I will be on the left side of the spectrum,” Granholm said. And she will be, largely, supportive of what she sees coming out of the Obama administration.

“The show must be totally honest if it’s to work and, so, if there are things that the administration or others are doing that I disagree with, even though they may be Democrat, of course I want to be able to unearth that. But I don’t want to presume that I’m going to find a lot of that because I really do independently support the president and the direction he’s heading in.”

This all came together, thanks to a phone call from Current TV co-founder Al Gore.

“It was completely out of the blue,” said Granholm, who left office after she was term-limited out at the end of 2010. “It was not something that I was even thinking about for one moment, and he was very persuasive, especially since it was covering something near and dear to me and every political junkie’s heart, which is the 2012 election. I said, sure, I’ll do it.” (At the time, Granholm’s move to Current was considered a minor coup, since she was a contributor to NBC’s “Meet the Press.”)

Filed under: Miscellaneous Subjects

Ed Schultz and Paul Begala to Participate in Democratic Retreat…

icn2 — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:57:23 +0000

Roll Call’s John Stanton writes about an upcoming Democratic retreat and what’s going to happen. Ed Schultz and Paul Begala will be there…

Wednesday evening’s festivities are highlighted by an “American Voices Panel” that includes pundit Paul Begala and the leaders of several Democratic-leaning interest groups, while MSNBC host Ed Schultz will participate in a panel on Minority Whip Steny Hoyer’s (Md.) “Make it in America” plan.

I’m surprised both CNN and MSNBC will allow their people at these things.

Update: TVNewser’s Chris Ariens reports that MSNBC execs signed off on Schultz going there. I never thought otherwise. But it’s the second part of Ariens’ reporting that caught my eye…

Schultz will also conduct an on-site interview with Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi which will air on his show tomorrow night.

The storyline just changed. It’s no longer “Why does MSNBC allow Schultz to go to a Democratic ~~poltical operation event~~ retreat”. Nope. Now the storyline is “Does Ed Schultz still get that Pelosi interview if MSNBC doesn’t let Schultz go to this Democratic ~~political operation event~~ retreat?” Quid Pro Quo? Probably not. But it looks bad. Really bad. And apparently these kinds of cozy insidery appearances are A-OK with MSNBC brass. I guess it’s all about the access…

Filed under: CNN, MSNBC

SOTU: Your reactions…

icn2 — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:33:52 +0000

Post your reactions to tonight’s SOTU address and the coverage thereof here…

Filed under: Miscellaneous Subjects

Free for All: 01/24/12

icn2 — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:51:47 +0000

What’s on your mind?

Filed under: Free For All

George Lewis Retiring…

icn2 — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:48:02 +0000

LA Observed’s Kevin Roderick writes that NBC News’ veteran reporter George Lewis is retiring…

George Lewis, the venerable NBC News correspondent in Los Angeles, is hanging up his microphone on January 31. What’s he doing today, on his last day in the field? Covering the Oscar nominations for the NBC Nightly News. Lewis has been with the network for 42 years. The network calls Lewis “one of NBC News’ most-honored correspondents — the winner of three Emmys, the George Foster Peabody and Edward R. Murrow awards.” He began with NBC as a war correspondent in Vietnam in 1970. When he passed 40 years, anchor Brian Williams gave Lewis a nice shout-out on the broadcast.

Filed under: MSNBC

Liz Claman Interview…

icn2 — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:22:44 +0000

The Jane Dough’s Amy Tennery interviews FBN’s Liz Claman…

TJD: Who are you most excited to interview?

LC: I have never been bored talking to Eric Schmidt of Google. I love it because other CEOs are so jealous of him. He is so smart and has such interesting ideas.

TJD: What kind of behind-the-scenes stuff goes on at Davos that you think people would never expect?

LC: It’s hilarious to see everyone star-struck. Last year, the chef of Red Rooster, Marcus Samuelson, was there. CEOs of major global banks were stumbling over each other to get to him to say hello.

And everyone has the same complaint: Their lodging.

TJD: Really?

LC: “Oh my hotel room is so small; it’s so far! Oh what a pain; oh they didn’t plow the road up to my hotel.” We pile on top of each other. [For] our crew, I think it’s two bedrooms and there are six of us. We don’t even care. We go and we figure out a way and it’s hilarious.

Filed under: FBN

Press Releases: 01/24/12

icn2 — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:19:09 +0000

CNN (1)

CNN Presents Live Coverage of President Obama’s State of the Union Address and GOP Response

Special Edition of AC 360 to Follow

Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer will lead CNN’s coverage of the State of the Union beginning at 8 pm tonight along with John King and Candy Crowley. President Obama’s State of the Union Address will begin at 9:00 pm. The GOP response with Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels will follow.

Blitzer and King will anchor the special coverage live from Capitol Hill, where chief political analyst Gloria Borger and senior political analyst David Gergen will provide analysis immediately following the address. In addition, senior congressional correspondent Dana Bash will report live from inside the Capitol surrounding the address while chief White House correspondent Jessica Yellin provides the latest reports and insights of the president’s remarks from the White House. Political contributors participating in tonight’s special coverage include Paul Begala, Ari Fleisher and Roland Martin.

A special edition of AC 360 will follow CNN’s State of the union coverage and analysis, and will air live until midnight.

CNNPolitics.com will offer extensive coverage and real-time analysis of the State of the Union address with live-blogging on the Political Ticker and reader interaction on CNN iReport. Additionally, the address will be live-streamed on CNN.com/Live, via the CNN App for, iPhone and Android.

Filed under: Press Releases

Deirdre Bolton Profile…

icn2 — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:18:13 +0000

Chrissa Shoemaker profiles Bloomberg’s Deirdre Bolton on PhillyBurbs.com…

“There’s not really a more interesting time to be in business news,” Bolton said. “More and more people are more knowledgeable about their own finances, their government’s finances, the global credit crisis. Stories about the economy are on the front page of every newspaper. My job now is more putting those details in context for people. There’s so much information out there that the value-added we try to provide for people is explaining what’s going on in very clear terms.”

Filed under: Bloomberg

Anatomy of a Fiasco…

icn2 — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:11:53 +0000

Philip Taylor blogs about a big bruhaha involving Suze Orman, a new pre-paid debit card she’s hawking, some ill-advised Tweeting, and FBN’s Geri Willis…

I’ve heard through a source close to the matter that Gerri Willis has been repeatedly called and emailed with criticism from Suze Orman’s PR firm over the reports she’s done surrounding the issues with Orman’s new pre-paid credit card.

I’m no stranger to this approach as I was labeled the idiot and I’ve seen suspect comments on my original post. But all this denial without much backing makes me question, why not just go on a national platform and engage your critics?

If the card is really as great as Suze says it is, wouldn’t we all benefit from an explanation from her?

Filed under: CNBC, FBN

Press Releases: 01/23/12

icn2 — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:19:19 +0000

CNN (1)

René Marsh Joins CNN Newsource as Correspondent

René Marsh will join CNN Newsource from WSVN in Miami, Florida, as a national correspondent serving more than 800 affiliates, it was announced today by Paul Crum, vice president of news operations, administration and affiliate services for CNN/U.S.

Marsh will cover breaking news and topical news stories for CNN’s affiliates. She will be based in Washington, D.C. and will report from locations throughout the U.S.

“René is a sharp and poised reporter with a solid background in covering a vast array of news stories, from investigative to major breaking events. She will be on the frontlines of national breaking news and with her insights and presence, she will be a differentiator for our affiliate news partners and their viewers,” Crum said.

Marsh joins CNN Newsource from our affiliate WSVN in Miami, where she served as a general assignment reporter. Before WSVN, she was an investigative reporter and weekend anchor at CBS 6 in Albany, New York. While in Albany, she gained recognition covering major stories in New York State politics and for her investigation into an underground society operating out of public bathrooms in the Capital Region. She was also a reporter and anchor at KTAL in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Marsh graduated with honors from Binghamton University and holds a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Filed under: Press Releases

South Carolina Primary Ratings: CNN…

icn2 — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:17:36 +0000

CNN is noting its South Carolina Primary Ratings…

According to Nielsen time period data for South Carolina primary election night: Saturday, January 21

Highlights:

CNN tops MSNBC in primetime (8-11p) and during full coverage block (7-11p)
CNN has a +60% advantage over MSNBC in demo in primetime and +74% during full coverage block
CNN has its best election night performance so far this cycle
CNN increases from 2008 South Carolina GOP primary night in both total viewers and the demo

During Saturday night’s coverage of the GOP South Carolina primary, CNN topped MSNBC in primetime (8-11p) in both total viewers and in the key demo adults (25-54). In total viewers CNN averaged 1.148 million, +20% more than MSNBC’s 954k and in the target demo CNN had 394k, a +60% advantage over MSNBC’s 247k.

CNN had triple digit growth compared to the prior four Saturdays (excluding holidays) in primetime among total viewers and in the key demo. CNN was up +193% in total viewers (1.148m vs. 392k) and increased +237% in the demo (394k vs. 117k).

From 7-11p, CNN also topped MSNBC in total viewers (1.213 vs. 985k) and in the key demo 25-54 (417k vs. 240k).

South Carolina represents CNN’s best election night performance this cycle in total viewers, topping Iowa caucuses (1.213m vs. 1.173m) and NH primary (1.213m vs. 996k). Compared to the 2008 South Carolina GOP primary night four years ago, CNN grew in this year (2012) among total viewers (1.213 vs. 1.098m) and in the demo (417k vs. 380k).

Filed under: Ratings Related

Free for All: 01/23/12

icn2 — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:37:58 +0000

What’s on your mind?

Filed under: Free For All

What’s Hot/What’s Not: 01/22/12

icn2 — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 05:52:10 +0000

What’s Hot:

South Caroline Primary – It dominated the week and into the weekend.

Italian Shipwreck – It seems odd to me that this got as much press as it did. There have been lots of ship disasters but maybe that tape recording where the Captain got reamed had something to do with it.

Newt Gingrich – I hate giving this guy any attention but he was topic 1 for most of the week.

What’s Not:

Nothing made the cut this week…

Filed under: What's Hot/What's Not

The Decline and Fall of the Flagship Cable News Anchor

icn2 — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 22:03:06 +0000

The Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Jill Vejnoska profiles FNC’s Bret Baier using a quote in the headline “Bret Baier is ‘the face of Fox News’”.

There was a time several years ago where such a headline couldn’t possibly have been contemplated as Shepard Smith was far and away “the face of Fox News”. But that was then and this is now. Smith has not been part of FNC’s election coverage at all. Smith is supposedly the network’s multi-million dollar franchise anchor and he’s been put on the sidelines. Oh sure, whenever Fox decides to do something on broadcast, Smith will probably make an appearance. But his position as the the guy at FNC is not what it once was. FNC isn’t getting out of him what it used to, not because of anything he did but because of what they’ve decided to do. You have to wonder come the next contract period whether the network will offer a deal in the range that he currently gets because to do so is essentially overpaying to keep him on their team given the (lack of) amount and prominence of his usage.

Unlike broadcast news, on cable the days of the central anchor on big political events seems to be over. I was thinking about doing a piece on this even before I saw this AJC article. It’s now become anchoring by committee. Look at CNN. Look at MSNBC. Look at FNC. 15 years ago it was different. You’d have a central anchor and a bunch of people they’d toss to. Now it’s a bunch of people who play a central role all occupying the same set at the same time. If I could toss in an analogy few are going to get, this is like the Total Football equivalent of news anchoring.

But unlike Total Football it’s not about team play…it’s about everyone having their “me too” moment on the air. It’s like the network brass get together and say, “Crap we’re paying all this money to all these people, we gotta have them on the air covering the election. We can’t leave anyone out!” This is why you have these things drag out for hours at a time with all this useless information being thrown at you which most of the TV viewing audience could care less about. Things like exit poll question breakdowns, voting patterns by county, entrance poll information, issue voting patterns, and on and on – all of it displayed on splashy new screens with fancy graphics that can be manipulated every which way by the million dollar talent so they can have their “me too” moment on the air.

The reality is nobody but hard core political operatives, political science majors, and elected officials care at all about this data. Those groups constitute a small percentage of the viewing public. The rest of we poor schlubs have to put up with and slog through all these reams of data waiting for the actual news to occur. It’s the ultimate freak show where data is repackaged (or camouflaged) as news content and delivered to an audience that doesn’t want it and has no use for it. No, what they want is to know who won and who lost. But a network could cover that in roughly half an hour. Then what do they do with their time? Well we kind of got an example of that in New Hampshire which was declared for Romney in the first minute after the polls closed. That left the networks two hours and fifty nine minutes to manufacture something to justify keeping them on the air live. But who really wants to stick around once the results are in and the speeches are over?

This fiasco takes network narcissism to unparalleled levels where the spectacle of the network covering the election is used as rationalization for the excess of going to these extremes. And they’ve gotten very very good at it because the public has bought into the networks’ self-important strategy hook line and sinker, as reflected in the ratings. You thump your chest hard enough and long enough yelling out “This is important and we’re the best at it and you need to watch it so that you don’t miss anything” enough times, people are going to get sucked in. The networks won’t change until the ratings give them reason to change.

Filed under: Miscellaneous Subjects