Fox News Channel vs CNN and MSNBC

[John]

The Fox News Channel (FNC) is clobbering CNN and MSNBC in the
ratings. Bill O'Reilly, who is hugely hated on the left, is now
celebrating 100 consecutive months of being #1 in his time slot with
The O'Reilly Factor.

The following chart shows the cable news ratings for Thursday, April
16. It compares the number of viewers for the five cable news
networks (HLN is CNN's Headline News). All numbers are in the
thousands of viewers:

Network  Total day   Morning (6-9 am ET)      Prime Time (8-9 pm ET)
-------  ---------   ----------------------   ----------------------
FNC       1443       FOX & Friends     1098   O’Reilly Factor   3897
CNN        725       American Morning   529   Campbell Brown     942
MSNBC      441       Morning Joe        429   Keith Olbermann   1229
CNBC       234       Squawk Box         217   CNBC Reports       228
HLN        375       Morning Express    301   Nancy Grace       1172
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/04/17/ca ... l-16/16968

This week's "news" coverage by CNN and MSNBC of the April 15 "Tea
Parties" was laden with sick oral sex jokes and other remarks that
are extremely offensive to millions of people, and I write in the
following article:

** Vile 'teabagging' jokes signal the deterioration of CNN and NBC news
** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/cgi-bin/D.PL?xct=gd.e090418#e090418

I like the aphorism I heard a few years ago: "Liberals think that
conservatives are evil, and conservatives think that liberals are
stupid."

CNN and MSNBC are being gratuitously offensive to millions of ordinary
people, and this is costing them dearly in ratings. If that isn't
stupidity, then I don't know what is.

Sincerely,

John

[The Grey Badger]

Damn right it's stupidity, and of the vulgar, smarmy,smirking sort one had hoped was left behind in high school. Since I don't watch mainstream media commentary (talking heads = bulshytt as far as I'm concerned) I will have to take your word for it and give thanks that I was too bust to expose myself to that.

Pat, blushing with shame at how low her own side is falling.

P.S. The teabag protesters in Albuquerque were good-humored and polite, I heard no vulgar jokes about them from the local media, and the only charges of unfairness in coverage on either side was someone who said the mass media coverage underestimated the size of the crowd. I never thought of Albuquerque as being a major civility center, but right now am very pleased with my city.

[Matt1989]

"Teabagging" has taken on more meanings than one. As someone who plays multiplayer online video games, it's quite common to see someone hit the 'duck' button repeatedly after they've killed an enemy and are standing over their virtual corpse. At the "health seminar" for my Freshman orientation last year, a lady was describing things not to do to your friend while he's drunk. Guess what was included, to a fair amount of laughter? As far as I know, it's always been a bit of a joke.

Still, it was quite bizarre to see respectable anchors start making cracks about this. It just. wasn't. funny. MSNBC has been trying to court the young & edgy crowd, which is okay (and I think they've achieved some success), but unfunny teabagging jokes? Come on.

-Matt (who only watches the Daily Show)

[John]

Dear Pat,

Damn right it's stupidity, and of the vulgar, smarmy,smirking sort one had hoped was left behind in high school. Since I don't watch mainstream media commentary (talking heads = bulshytt as far as I'm concerned) I will have to take your word for it and give thanks that I was too bust to expose myself to that.

Pat, blushing with shame at how low her own side is falling.

P.S. The teabag protesters in Albuquerque were good-humored and polite, I heard no vulgar jokes about them from the local media, and the only charges of unfairness in coverage on either side was someone who said the mass media coverage underestimated the size of the crowd. I never thought of Albuquerque as being a major civility center, but right now am very pleased with my city.

If I'm to judge from the smiles on the faces of some conservative pundits,
they're enjoying the role reversal -- being able to criticize and ridicule the
President, rather than having to defend the President from criticism
and ridicule, which is what they had to do for the last 8 years.

Sincerely,

John

[StilesBC]

John,

I'm glad you covered this subject. What I'm seeing is a very "anti-establishment" movement across America. Unfortunately, via the poor reporting tactics of the unravelling era and a wave of media consolidation, people view the major news outlets as part of "the establishment." So the protests are as much anti-media as they are anti-tax, anti-bailout, etc. As any dog backed into a corner will, the media has tried it's best to polarize the American population in order to deflect populist anger with themselves.

This is a very interesting subject for me because I have long held that the whole left/right paradigm is a charade. Democrats and Republicans (and Liberals, Conservatives in Canada/UK) often talk about how different they are, but upon gaining office they do their best to mimic the other party to achieve "bi-partisanship." Over the decades this has resulted a merging of political ideals (not rhetoric, but action). There is a large amount of material available as to how this was all encouraged by the major corporate interests who obviously benefit from such political continuity.

I thought it a bit surreal to see the media polarization on the reporting of this subject (I don't actually watch TV - just what I see of clips on the internet). I suppose I have a romantic idea of a "fair and balanced" unbiased media. But I just can't believe how the media has become cheerleaders for certain viewpoints - and actual branches of the political parties. It disgusts me.

Also surreal is how it appears to be well-known that the events were a product of Fox news. I personally witnessed the spawning of the events in 2008 on ronpaulforums.com. They had been planning on doing an even bigger event this year when Fox anchors Beck and Cavuto started plugging them as well. RonPaulForums is a collection of civil-libertarians such as myself, but many of them are independants, former Republicans and even many former Democrats (Kucinich, Gravel types). Obviously, these things take on a mind of their own once they get to a certain size.

Anyway, I'm rambling here. It seems to me that the media is confused because their previously very profitable polarization tactics are backfiring and they don't know how to react.

[ridgel]

John, you make an excellent point about the teabagger comments on the news shows. Now I'm one of those sick puppies that actually had heard the term before, but I don't see anything funny about connecting it to tax protestors. A Tea Party is a tax protest, and goes back to the revolution in Boston. Are the news anchors going to start making sick jokes about the founding fathers as well? Do they giggle every time a woman makes a cup of tea in the office?

I love to see the decline of the MSM and the rise of the bloggers and the Internet. In my case it's a generational thing - I can't stand the baby boomers who run those things and their willful ignorance about any PC topic - like how immigration is destroying quality of life in CA or how affirmative action ruins schools and workplaces. Now I've read enough of the site to know that our good host doesn't share my opinion of boomers, but if he ever wants to hear a late Xer (1974) rant I'll be happy to oblige him.

[John]

John, you make an excellent point about the teabagger comments on the news shows. Now I'm one of those sick puppies that actually had heard the term before, but I don't see anything funny about connecting it to tax protestors. A Tea Party is a tax protest, and goes back to the revolution in Boston. Are the news anchors going to start making sick jokes about the founding fathers as well? Do they giggle every time a woman makes a cup of tea in the office?

I love to see the decline of the MSM and the rise of the bloggers and the Internet. In my case it's a generational thing - I can't stand the baby boomers who run those things and their willful ignorance about any PC topic - like how immigration is destroying quality of life in CA or how affirmative action ruins schools and workplaces. Now I've read enough of the site to know that our good host doesn't share my opinion of boomers, but if he ever wants to hear a late Xer (1974) rant I'll be happy to oblige him.

By all means, rant away. You won't be the first.

Sincerely,

John

[Matt1989]

http://www.dailykostv.com/w/001248/

I got nothing to say.

[MisterB]

Your statement: "Boomers never really celebrate other people - just themselves." is right on the mark.

The celebration of the WWII-Greatest Generation has always seemed strange. We have been "celebrating" people whom as a whole are dead or senile. (My dad is 80 and yet he was 2 or 3 years too lyoung to get into the war.) It seems to me that younger people (Boomers?) have been trying to somehow claim the military glory of their parents that they themselves lacked. Even that Tim Russert book about his dad seems to be a way to grab on to his dad's heroism. Maybe I'm too cynical but something seems wrong.

The common thing about famous people dying is that it tells us that we are getting older and we will be dying ourselves. I don't think that is restricted only to Boomers.

You are correct that Chet Huntley and David Brinkley and NBC had better ratings than Walter and CBS.

[jlyer]

I see John's point in the article about Walter. But what struck me about that article, really, was how harsh it was, particularly for a man who has died. Even people blinded by ideology or even generational forces are people too.