What’s Hot/What’s Not: 05/04/13

What’s Hot:

Donald Sterling – Dominated the first part of the week.

Benghazi – Dominated the latter half of the week.

MH 370 – Well for CNN it’s still hot anyways…

Outnumbered – FNC has a new show. We’ll see how it goes…

Gawker lays a stinky egg – Gawker’s J.K. Trotter got the media world all worked up regarding Shepard Smith and FNC. Only Trotter got key details in his story completely wrong. And things spiraled downhill from there.

Chris Jansing – After nearly 13 years on MSNBC’s air Jansing is leaving to take up a position as Senior White House Correspondent for NBC News.

Who gets Jansing’s slot? – Let the guessing games begin. I have a feeling it’s Ari Melber. That would mean blowing up the “block of journalists” part of MSNBC dayside from 9-1 though…

FNC balks at broadcasting the WHCD – Well, they didn’t come out and say they weren’t gonna air it. But they didn’t air it. Instead a new special on Benghazi aired. Read whatever significance, if any, to that you will…

What’s Not:

Just the facts – NBC News put out a tweet regarding the details of Donald Sterling’s punishment ahead of its announcement. Those details proved to be quite a bit off the mark. And, yes, those details made it on to MSNBC’s air.

CNN and MSNBC’s WHCD coverage – Sorry guys but CSPAN’s coverage was more interesting. Maybe that’s why FNC didn’t cover it?

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…

What’s Hot/What’s Not: 03/10/14

What’s Hot:

Ukraine – It dominated most of the week.

MH370 – It dominated the weekend…highly unusual given that A) it was not near our borders and B) hardly any Americans were onboard. Most international air crashes not involving US carriers that occur on the other side of the world rarely make it to TV in more than a soundbite that lasts a day at most. I chalk it up to the fact that the (presumed) wreckage has not been located yet.

CPAC – Well it was hot for one of the three cable news channels anyways…

Larry Kudlow – CNBC announced that Kudlow’s show was being cancelled/retired (pick one). Kudlow will remain with the network…but for how long?

What’s Not:

NewsMax TV – No chance of success…

Launching a Court show while major news is still breaking – If CNN really goes through with launching its planned half hour court show tomorrow night while Ukraine and MH370 are still hot stories it will be a black eye for the “news is our livelihood” brand.

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…

What’s Hot/What’s Not: 03/02/14

What’s Hot:

Maria Bartiromo – Bartiromo’s FBN debut began this week and the FBN PR machine showed it was in perfect working order as a bunch of Bartiromo pieces appeared.

MSNBC Debuts – Ronan Farrow Daily and The Reid Report debuted this week. Ratings have been weak but lets not rush to judgement…

Piers Morgan – The experiment is over. Piers Morgan’s CNN show is coming to an end.

Ukraine – All eyes focussed squarely on Ukraine after Russia put troops on the ground in the Crimea.

CNN in Indonesia – CNN will be launching an Indonesian channel.

What’s Not:

Rush to Judgement – Or not. While my views on Ronan Farrow Daily are now well known, that doesn’t mean I’m willing to bury the show at this point. And yet, the nattering nabobs are tap dancing all over Ronan Farrow Daily’s (and The Reid Report’s) graves because of the anemic ratings they have generated. It is wayyyyy too early to be reading anything into the ratings.

FNC and Hannity – FNC refusing to do anything about Sean Hannity’s Tea Party fundraising emails is a dark stain on the network.

Don’t cut off Bernard Golberg – Or he’ll show his displeasure…

New Day Woes – New Day must be in trouble if Jeff Zucker is consulting with Rick Kaplan…the man he forced out as President of MSNBC allegedly because of a turf war/fight over the direction and control of MSNBC.

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…

What’s Hot/What’s Not: 02/16/14

What’s Hot:

Michael Smerconsish – Smerconish joins CNN and will host a Saturday show…

Comcast to buy Time Warner Cable – It was an expected move but it had everyone talking once the news was announced.

Gregg Jarrett vs. Don Lemon – A word to the wise…never engage a lawyer over court coverage when you aren’t a lawyer. And never engage a cable cable news anchor with a network known for hitting back…hard. This fight was over in the first round.

What’s Not:

HLN: Social Media Network – HLN announced its latest rebranding of the past few years and this one will be centered around Social Media. Good luck with that…

CNN = Court News Network – CNN went off the deep end…yet again…covering the Michael Dunn trial. What made this particular court case a little different from other court cases CNN has gone off the deep end on was that the network hadn’t been keeping this case in the news in the weeks prior to the case getting started.

David Faber – Did CNBC’s Faber break an embargo to report the Comcast/Time Warner Cable news?

Me too, me too! – Does FBN’s announcement of a new taped series indicate that it’s going to follow CNBC into the world of business tape in primetime? We shall see…

What’s Hot/What’s Not: Submissions…

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

What’s Hot/What’s Not: 02/09/14

What’s Hot:

HLN Cancels Showbiz Tonight – AJ Hammer will stay on but the rest of the staff is out of work…though they will be able to apply for positions elsewhere at CNN/HLN.

Brianna Keilar – Keilar has been tapped as Senior Political Correspondent at CNN. The space created at the White House was immediately filled by…

Michelle Kosinski – Kosinski gets a big step up in profile by jumping from NBC to CNN where she’ll be a White House correspondent.

Maria Bartiromo – Bartiromo will slot in at FBN at 9am ET.

Dennis Kneale Out At FBN – Kneale and two longtime FBN staffers are being not renewed…

What’s Not:

Ari Melber: News Anchor? – Melber has been filling in on Jansing & Co while the show’s namesake has been in Sochi covering the Olympics. To the best of my knowledge this is the first time a non NBC journalist has filled in on her show…a data point I do hold some significance to…though at this point I’m not sure what it means ultimately…

AC360 Later – Dead, dead, dead…

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…

What’s Hot/What’s Not: 02/02/14

What’s Hot:

Joy Reid – Gets her own MSNBC show…

Carol Costello – Costello took on Atlanta’s Mayor right after the city got clobbered by a bad snowstorm and traffic was horribly snarled.

John King – CNN gave King a half hour Sunday show.

Dierdre Bolton to FBN – The network keeps signing on more and more talent and its early days in 2014 still…

Bill O’Reilly – O’Reilly got to interview President Obama before the Super Bore Bowl. Say what you will about the interview…I thought it was a waste of airtime that changed nothing…it was still a coup for O’Reilly and he made the most of it.

What’s Not:

The 2014 SOTU – Hyped to death but it’s already gone and forgotten. I know these are mandated but they’ve become exercises in dead air. Worse, there were three opposition responses. Next year let’s try for four! I know we can do it…

Gremlins? – FNC playing Hannity segments out of sequence one night last week was a big black eye for the show and the network…

Howard Kurtz – Kurtz got called out by Variety’s Brian Lowry for ducking Gabriel Sherman’s Roger Ailes book last Sunday when, according to Lowry, the previous Sunday he said he was going to cover it.

Anchors Away? – FTVLive dropped that CNN was looking to move Kate Bolduan off of New Day. I have yet to see anything from CNN suggesting the story has holes…which in itself is telling.

Martha MacCallum – MacCallum got caught up in a minor bruhaha about women and equal pay.

Tucker Carlson – Carlson got caught in a much more damaging bruhaha about women and equal pay.

More self-inflicted 30 Rock wounds – An anonymous MSNBC staffer put out a tweet that caused a firestorm with the right. The RNC called for a boycott and barred its staff from appearing on the network until Phil Griffin publicly apologized. It didn’t take long at all for Griffin to issue that apology. The staffer got fired.

What’s Hot/What’s Not: Submissions…

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

What’s Hot/What’s Not: 01/26/14

It’s an all “Not Hot” edition of WH/WN…

What’s Not:

Weather Channel vs. DirecTV Round 2 – Now that it’s off DirecTV’s dishes, The Weather Channel looked for new ways to try and turn up the heat on the satellite broadcast provider. Its solution? Beg the channel, via some full page ads in major newspapers, to let its subscribers who want to leave off the hook from the steep cancellation fees. Predictably, like just about every other hairbrained idea the channel has tried to sway public opinion its way, this went almost nowhere.

DirecTV stupidly engages The Weather Channel – I say it went “almost” nowhere because it should have gone absolutely nowhere but DirecTV decided to take out its own full page ads to respond to The Weather Channel’s full page ads. Dumb move. If a line of argument is illegitimate – as The Weather Channel’s cancellation fee plea was – you don’t want to give it any legitimacy by answering back.

Tapeheads – CNN announced yet more tape shows to its lineup this week.

Biebermania – It was overkill about six minutes into the incident. Okay…maybe not quite that short…but when you can predict what the channels will do with their coverage overkill your tolerence level has been set very low. The biggest offender was of course CNN which did a one hour special on Bieber which its crack production staff had been tirelessly working on for all of…ohhhhh…about five minutes.

Andrea Mitchell – But the most famous Bieber related incident was Andrea Mitchell breaking from covering the NSA with Jane Harmon to suddenly cover some new Bieber revelation. I remember back when Mitchell couldn’t be bothered to touch the tawdry world of tabloid news. She once, during her show, tossed to Chris Jansing to handle the tawdry tabloid news bulletin…because apparently she wouldn’t touch it. My how times have changed. BTW, the old ICN site chronicled that strange toss incident but that site is now gone so I can’t dig that post up anymore.

Weekends are slow news days – Saturday the nets went wall to wall on the Columbia Mall shooting. That length of coverage really wasn’t justified in this particular incident in my opinion.

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…

What’s Hot/What’s Not: 01/19/14

What’s Hot:

DirecTV vs. The Weather Channel – The Weather Channel got dropped by DirecTV this week after the former’s contract with the latter expired.

Gabriel Sherman’s Roger Ailes Biography – Say what you will, it was the talk of the media chattering class not obsessed with The Weather Channel vs. DirecTV wars…

MSNBC vs. Chris Christie (or vise versa) – Towards the end of the week MSNBC was front and center over Steve Kornacki’s reporting on a new allegation against the Christie administration. This one has yet to play out fully.

Kathy O’Hearn – O’Hearn has been hired to EP Ronan Farrow’s MSNBC show…

What’s Not:

The Weather Channel’s Lame Appeal – In trying to rouse attention to its struggle with DirecTV, The Weather Channel launched a lame campaign trying to position the network as “must have” because it was like a public utility and safety will be put at risk if the network wasn’t kept on. Nobody outside of The Weather Channel’s employees believed this claim including DirecTV which held firm. So, now what?

Suzanne Malveaux – Malveaux has been essentially demoted…away from the anchor desk and back to reporting as CNN’s National Correspondent.

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…

What’s Hot/What’s Not: 01/12/14

What’s Hot:

Bulletin Board PR: Example #1 – Looks like the network cross warfare is heating up again. FNC took out a full page ad throwing some quotes from the presidents of CNN and FNC back in their faces.

Christine Romans and Christi Paul – Romans and Paul got named to CNN’s morning programming; Romans to Early Start and Paul to CNN New Day Weekends.

Roger Ailes – Ailes is hot because of Gabriel Sherman’s forthcoming book and all the fallout that is ensuing…

What’s Not:

Charles Maddow in charge – A dumb article came out on National Review Online about how Rachel Maddow is essentially getting her way over everything MSNBC does, even if it doesn’t involve her. Uh…yeah, right.

Bulletin Board PR: Example #2 Speaking of Bulletin Board PR, I’m sure Jeff Zucker’s shots at FNC at the TCA on Friday got filed away.

Glass Houses – CNN kept pushing, with a big assist from Mediaite, the narrative that MSNBC’s crime docs are juicing its ratings. So what does CNN do at the end of the week? Announce a new true crime series. Oh…and the block of crime tape the network ran last night doesn’t help its case either.

Not settled – MSNBC doesn’t have a clear choice for 12pm so it’s going with rotating hosts to see who sticks…

The Weather Channel’s campaign against DirecTV – The Weather Channel launched an incredibly stupid PR offensive on DirecTV. That it wants to fight to keep itself on DirecTV isn’t the issue…in fact its a necessity. The problem is with the method the channel has chosen to mount its offensive; namely saying it’s essentially a necessary service akin to a public utility and that people’s lives will be put in danger if it’s taken out of a mere 20 million homes. HA!

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 Sunday night…

What’s Hot/What’s Not: 01/05/14

What’s Hot:

Melissa Harris-Perry – Harris-Perry had to apologize on the air for an incident that took place on her show the previous week where her contributors got out of line. Her contributors. She had to apologize…the optics demanded it. But I still believe that they were principally at fault for this, not her.

Thomas Roberts – Roberts was named new Way Too Early host and Morning Joe regular by MSNBC this week. Though Tommy Christopher posed the question about whether this was a demotion, I agree with Roberts’ answer. It was most definitely a promotion.

Piers Morgan – A bit late on this but Morgan had the stuffing bowled out of him by retired Cricketeer Brett Lee last week. Morgan came away with multiple bruises and a cracked rib. If Cricket was 1/10th as popular here as it is in the former British Empire instead of being even less popular than Football or Rugby, this would have been front page news. It was everywhere else.

NBC News and Revere Digital – NBC announced a deal with the new Walt Mossberg/Kara Swisher startup which will see an increase in tech stories across all NBC News properties.

Self-restraint in cable news? – Granted, it occurred during the tail end of the holiday period but, amazingly, I didn’t find the coverage of the recent Nor’easter to be too overdone. For a change.

What’s Not:

Get MSNBC-ism – It’s one thing to rip the panelists on the Melissa Harris-Perry show for “going there” with the Romney photo. It’s another thing to blame Perry herself for that. This led to a bunch of articles about whether MSNBC has a culture of hate or whatever gibberish point they were trying to make in vain. The articles would cite the Bashir, Baldwin, and Harris-Perry incident. Let’s examine those individually. One incident didn’t even happen on MSNBC’s air, one incident didn’t involve the show host really. The third was as bad as everyone (including myself) said it was. But to take those three disparate events and string them together to make the flimsy argument that MSNBC has a culture problem or a culture of hate or whatever…

…listen. You want to look at records…take a look at all the reckless jaw dropping incidents that have taken place on Fox and Friends during that show’s entire history. Then get back to me regarding your theory of MSNBC’s alleged newfound culture problem.

Gag me with a spoon – Another year ends, another year begins, and CNN viewers have to suffer through another three hours of Kathy Griffin…

What’s Hot/What’s Not: Submissions…

After a multi-month layoff, What’s Hot/What’s Not is returning. So post your nominations and I’ll post the finalists Sunday night…

What’s Hot/What’s Not: 08/25/13

What’s Hot:

Ed Schultz returns to MSNBC weekdays – That didn’t last long did it?

MSNBC ends Hardball double vision – Finally…after all these years…the same Hardball show won’t be repeated twice a day in the span of three hours.

Al Jazeera America Launches – And is immediately dropped by AT&T who promptly is sued for breach of contract.

Al Jazeera America Isn’t All Al Jazeera America – Weekend viewing of Al Jazeera America revealed some simulcasting of Al Jazeera English…a most unexpected and welcome development, considering that we were told that AJA wouldn’t have any AJE content. It may be only temporary but I hope not.

Bill Kristol And FNC Part Ways – Didn’t see that coming.

FNC Fires Brian Lewis – Didn’t see that coming either. Though, apparently, it was a while in coming if you believe the carefully orchestrated leaks that have come out to fill in the alleged backstory.

Irena Briganti to Take Over For Lewis? – This I could see coming a mile away. Briganti is the logical choice.

Peace In Our Time – It’s nice to see ICN commenters treating each other nicely for a change. Well…nicer than lately anyways. Let’s keep it that way…

What’s Not:

CNN Slots Rachel Nichols to Fridays at 7:30 – There are several things fundamentally wrong with slotting Nichols at 7:30 on Fridays…it puts CNN up against Sportcenter on ESPN, it cuts AC 360 Later in half (presuming it will air at all on Fridays), and it ruins 360s flow for the week making one night shorter than the other four. Other than that…great move!

Ed at 5, Chris at 7 – It should be the other way around. Yes, Matthews 7pm show rates higher than his 5 live broadcast but Ed fits in better sandwiched between Sharpton and Hayes than he does between Bashir and Sharpton. Actually Ed fits in better sandwiched between Matthews and Maddow but that ship has sailed…

FBN Airing A Special Featuring Fox New Radio Hosts – And what exactly do the mostly non-business all hot talk partisan opinion hosts of Fox News Radio have in common with Fox’s Business network? Your guess is as good as theirs…

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…

What’s Hot/What’s Not: 08/11/13

What’s Hot:

CNN Changes – Ashleigh Banfield returns to CourtTV will host a court show on CNN, Crossfire gets a half hour, Wolf Blitzer gets 1pm, and AC360 gets a new format at 10pm.

Scot Safon Exits HLN – And the search for a new President begins…

Alec Baldwin to MSNBC? – It may not happen but if it did it will be interesting to see how Baldwin fits in for a once a week show.

Megyn Kelly to 9pm? – That’s just the first domino. Let’s see what it hits next…

What’s Not:

Reince Priebus vs. CNN and NBC – Well that went over well. Up next, Priebus threatens to not include FNC in any GOP primary debates if Fox TV Studios decides to produce NBC’s Hillary movie followed by a demand that any network that carries advertising from companies that sponsored said Hillary films on CNN and NBC will be excluded from any GOP primary debates.

Al Jazeera Shuts Off Streaming of Al Jazeera English – Ok, so they may be obligated by carriage agreements for Al Jazeera America to do so, else risk having operators drop them, but it still sucks…

2016 is still years away – Do we really have to have speculation about the 2016 Presidential election before the 2014 midterm elections? Really? Idiots…

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…

What’s Hot/What’s Not: 07/14/13, 07/21/13, and 07/28/13

What’s Hot:

Elisabeth Hasselbeck to Fox and Friends – It’s a natural fit for Hasselbeck…certainly better than The View ever was…

George Zimmerman Verdict – The best thing I can say about it is at least the wall to wall coverage is over.

Two Years of The Five – Happy Belated Anniversary. Always knew you’d be a success…

What’s Not:

Two Years of The Five – And if you believe that, you obviously weren’t paying attention to Greg Gutfeld’s Twitter feed or watching the show…I’ll take my lumps willingly. I deserve it for getting that so wrong.

David Shuster to Al Jazeera America – Yes, Shuster at one point in time was considered a straight journalist. Those days are over. You can’t unring that bell and Al Jazeera America will find that out soon enough…

Tin Foil, Anyone? – The idea that a crawl blurb will be about the same subject as a breaking news event is thin. That it appears obvious that the two were not related should be self-evident. That someone would try and turn a coincidence into a real story is pathetic. Yet, The Washington Times did just that when it reported about a graphical coincidence appearing on CNN’s screen that the Times suggested tied a baby’s death to the royal birth. Idiots.

HLN’s Court TV withdrawls – With Zimmerman over, HLN is showing all the signs of a network trying to go through forced detox. It keeps looking for another “fix” in for form of whatever court case it can possibly latch on to that might be somewhat sensational.

Four weeks of no What’s Hot/What’s Not and ICN in general – Yeah, I’ve lost my mojo the past four weeks. Busting up one whole side of my body has a lot to do with it. But I’ve also going through a phase of burn out recently. The drive just hasn’t been there except only rarely. I shall endeavor to shape up. The only other option is to pack it in. I don’t want to do that. After all, there might be something else for Gutfeld to trash me over and who would want to deny him that opportunity?

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…

What’s Hot/What’s Not: 06/23/13

What’s Hot:

A New Day for CNN – CNN’s New Day debuted this week. Sure, there was the usual instant ratings posts…as if that signified anything. In a few months we’ll see whether the pre-show launch buzz was accurate or not.

Howard Kurtz to FNC – This story made a lot of news this week but that will pale in comparison to the news that will be generated when Kurtz starts hosting Fox News Watch and everyone watches to see what that show covers and doesn’t cover.

Snowdenstorm – Maybe The Today Show can turn this into a regular feature: “Where in the World is Edward Snowden?”

What’s Not:

Tobin Smith – FBN cut ties with Smith real fast after a conflict of interest situation, which apparently ran afoul of FBN’s contributor policy, developed.

James Gandofini’s Death Coverage on CNN – Geez, based on CNN’s coverage you could be excused for thinking that we lost the greatest actor since Lawrence Olivier and not someone whose big claim to fame was a cable network TV series. This is not to mock or make light of Gandolfini’s passing but…seriously…was all that coverage on CNN really necessary?

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 Sunday night…

What’s Hot/What’s Not: 06/16/13

What’s Hot:

Sarah Palin Signs Again With FNC – Somewhere Jon Stewart is wishing his movie would hurry up and finish…

Mike Viqueira to Al Jazeera America – This can be viewed two ways; a risky move for Viqueira or a nice pickup for AJA…

What’s Not:

AC 360’s Ridiculist – Next time, compare the music you are listening to the music you think it’s supposed to be. Then maybe you won’t make fools of yourselves…

ICN’s What’s Hot/What’s Not: I kept it off the blog too long. I won’t let that happen again.

What’s Hot/What’s Not: Submissions…

Okay, this bit has been away too long. Post your nominations for this week’s What’s Hot/What’s Not. I’ll post the finalists Sunday night…