In this edition: CNN's identity crisis; an O'Falafel joke; a WI paper is letting readers choose page one stories; could The Note be anymore self-involved?; Chris Matthews whiplash; National Journal on PBS; the latest Abramoff crap from the media; Katie Couric owes Howard Dean & Dems an apology; the missing piece of the NSA spying story; Stephen Colbert at WHCA dinner; that shady Jim VandeHei?; Ted Koppel kicks some ass in his first NYT op-ed; the FNC mold suit and more!
Thoughts, and Then, the News
Journalists caught up in violent situations have been getting its own section in MNM for a few weeks now. With the news about Bob Woodruff, journalists in violent situations gets even more attention this week.
Everyone knows who the top right-wing radio talk show hosts are, and everyone knows about AAR. I thought it'd be a good idea to highlight some lesser-known progressive talkers. This week's featured lefty talk show host is Barry Gordon's From Left Field. It's based in LA. If you know of any more progressive talkers, please email me with the info. Thanks. We can't build a VLWC if we don't know where to go support `em.
Now for the news from the past week posted, January 30, 2006:
Note: I'm going to put a %%% next to things that are more interesting or go into things more in-depth.
Feel the love, Monsieur Colbert
- Colbert says he "fixed Canada" First, it was the hilarious AP-is-the-#1-threat-in-America segments that led to a lot of free publicity when an AP wire story on it got re-printed just about everywhere. Now, Colbert's commentary gets him free pub in Canada.
- Colbert to head WHCA Dinner. That's White House Correspondents Association.
Soon to be Must see TV
National Journal and Washington Week together? My feelings about Gwen Ifill can be summarized as "eh." My interest is piqued by the National Journal side of it.
National Journal asked its staffers today to "save the date" for an early February kick-off event to celebrate a "new partnership" between WETA's "Washington Week with Gwen Ifill" and National Journal.
Email text: "John Fox Sullivan and the editors of National Journal GroupâTMs publications invite you to celebrate our new partnership with Washington Week and Gwen Ifill, and to learn more about how our National Journal brand
will now reach 1.9 million households nationally each week.
Not My Idea of Entertaining a.k.a. the horse manure from CNN
I don't care to comment anymore (though I may have to) about how disappointing CNN is. That will come as good news to CNN. Maybe people at the channel will stop sending me e-mails about how I've hurt their feelings, or how wrong I am about their pathetic decline.
I don't care about Fox News either, about whether it's actually fair or balanced. That discussion is tiring and serves merely as free advertising. I will say this: There's a laughably righteous anger to all the post-40 white guys who watch that channel. Their lemminglike sense of outrage at so-called liberals and the mainstream media (or "MSM," the cliched shorthand that pops up in their frequently misspelled e-mail rants, which I joyfully delete in blocks) says less about their political beliefs than it does about their myopic sense of oppression. That could probably be fixed by traveling abroad.
MSNBC hired Maury Povich and Connie Chung. Why launch a failure analysis when there's a match, a gas can and a bag of rags out back?
*
Marketwatch's Jon Friedman: Fickle CNN slouches to the right
It's no secret that CNN has been panicking as rival Fox News relentlessly widened the ratings gap between itself and the former "Clinton News Network." Rather than stick to one journalistic style and let an audience gravitate to it (the secret to Fox's success), CNN changed approaches and personnel regularly and, naturally, failed to establish a clear identity with the public and the critics.
Joke of the Week
Via About.com, Tina Fey: "Fox News Channel has launched a contest called 'Bloviate with Bill,' in which six viewers will be flown to New York and given the chance to fend off O'Reilly's unwanted sexual advances."
Chris Matthews Whiplash
Payola Punditry
*
A roundup from Romenesko on why there's an increase in payola punditry.
Credit Where It's Due
More Faux News Coming?
Whatever.
There was conjecture yesterday "that News Corp. could move to repurpose programming from Fox Broadcasting, Fox News Channel, FX and other outlets on its stations that are soon to lose their UPN affiliation in such top markets as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Speculation about such a move was so rampant at the National Association of Television Programming Executives confab that executives were already referring to that valuable real estate as 'Fox 2.'
Fox News Mold & Pesticide Suit
2 employees of FNC sue alleging exposure to pesticides and mold at work caused injury.
The Missing Piece of the NSA Spying Story
It's the warrantless part. The coverage in the NYT fails to do much on the warrantless part. Even if you did agree that domestic spying has to be done, you ought to be concerned that there's no oversight in the NSA program.
Violence against journalists
Journalists and the CIA Leak Case, a.k.a. Plamegate
Abramoff and Sh*t from the Media
RWCM Watch
- If journalists can't read poll numbers, then, they should stop writing about them. "It's amazing how [Bush's poll numbers] can keep going up and be stuck at 41 simultaneously."
- FNC's online science columnist takes handouts from industries
- O'Reilly falsely attacks MSNBC
- Fox News stays mum on WB & UPN merger, given the threat to sister network, Fox.
- Media coverage of Bush scandals is a lot more favorable to Bush than media coverage of Clinton scandals was to Clinton. That's been a trend for awhile, but the Whitewater vs. NSA scandal coverage is just another example.
- NBC smearing Arianna? Wouldn't surprise me. I'm not exactly the biggest Arianna Huffington fan, but if it's a smear against a liberal, it's a smear that gets posted in this section (as long as I find it). (And Russert using MTP to benefit his son's show without any disclaimer is unethical; heck, even Mickey Kaus says so.)
- WaPo's inconsistency on the Bush impeachment poll question
- kovie nails Maureen Dowd's blind spot Dowd can be good when she gets serious, but when she focuses too much on superficial things, her stuff becomes, well, crap and a regurgitation of talking points.
- Tim Goodman on cable news
The Chronicle reported Monday, 34-year-old Sean Keel was carjacked and shot dead early Saturday in San Francisco's Bayview neighborhood. According to the story by Simone Sebastian, Keel gave up his car but was shot a number of times in his stomach anyway by two "unidentified boys or young men in ski masks."
The story said Keel had turned his life around -- he'd been off drugs for four years, fathered 4-year-old and 5-month-old daughters, and taken over his father's business. He bought a house in the Bayview. Life seemed good.
Now, if CNN and Fox News and MSNBC really wanted to, they could probably find a story like this 10 or 12 times each week in New York, Baltimore, St. Louis -- anywhere. But, hey, it's just, you know, urban crime. Framing it like that is the great crutch that allows the news organizations to defend their obsessions with the relatively smaller number of horrifyingly sleazy stories about lost white girls or about Scott Peterson killing his pregnant wife, Laci, claiming that these stories are what this country wants to see, as opposed to, you know, urban crime.
- Kevin Drum explains why the NYT should stop publishing anything from John Lott
- Mr. Daou on the media Must read. %%%
- Howell and Hardball: We're winning the long struggle, by BriVT I'm glad that some in the media are at least paying attention to the fact that we're complaining. They should start paying attention to what we're paying attention to, and focus on fact-based reporting.
- Katrin vanden Heuvel knocks media for rightward shift and inaccuracies
- SacBee's Delsohn named Schwarzenegger's speechwriter
- MTP response on Russert's Obama question is lacking
- Media uncritically reported Rove's false claim that Americans don't want to eavesdrop on Al Qaeda
- Joe Klein: "Hackett makes Howard Dean look like Mr. Rogers," by AnthonySF The diarist notes Klein's inconsistency. Joe Klein's column is "all opinions, very little information," if you ask me. I'm not going to go into the merits of Hackett's candidacy and campaign, but Klein is engaging in quite a bit of hypocrisy.
- A Wonkette contributor tries to decode The Note. And yes, I'm wondering exactly why The Note is so self-congratulatory when the WH leaks smears to them and all it does is repeat GOP spin.
- Scarborough compares Howard Dean with Osama, by redtravelamaster Love one of the replies: "Would it be fair to compare Joe Scarborough with O.J.?"
- Clinton & Bush43 favorability ratings and the media narrative Cognitive dissonance.
- Mild wankery check: Cokie Roberts on Morning Edition 1/23/06, by Waveflux She misstates the Democratic problem with warrantless domestic spying. She thinks it's the spying. It's really the lack of warrants that is at issue.
- Coulter "jokes" about poisoning Justice Stevens Will Tim Russert ask white Republicans about her comments, like he asked Sen. Obama about Harry Belafonte's comments?
- WaPo's Jim VandeHei's wife used to be a social/family policy advisor in the office of Tom DeLay. Steve Clemons defends him, but this is the sort of thing that makes people suspicious. VandeHei is an okay reporter (in other words, better than say Sue Schmidt and not as good as Walter Pincus), but his wife's relationship could easily color his view on things, whether he realizes it or not. WaPo should avoid putting VandeHei near the DeLay beat and the Plame beat.
- Stoller on Media Stupidity
- Open Letter to the Washington Post
- Open Letter to Tim Russert
- Media Matters
Media People
News & Notes on Media orgs, Programming, Specials, etc.
State of the Media, Trends, Research Reports, Innovations
- Consumer Behavior Study finds Print may be more engaging than TV, Radio, Web %%%
- Ted Koppel: And Now, a Word for Our Demographic. I read the version in print, and it was a solid start to Koppel's NYT op-ed career. He was right about the business aspect that influences the lousiness of today's news. I think he discounts too much the political partisanship and hackery of networks and individuals, but the profit margins problems in the news business is a problem that Koppel lambastes terrifically. If you don't have Times Select, E&P does a summary.
- Pentagon-backed report hails embed program, with a few surprises in the details
- Networks make $1.44 per iTunes download %%%
- Aaron Brown says serious news at risk %%%
- More blogs, less ads. More media orgs (including BusinessWeek) are following this trend.
- A General Serves Notice: It's a Moving Target Youngsters travel in spheres of influence. Related to politics, because we have to find a way to reach this generation.
- A reporter on bias, Hugh Hewitt, and the media An interesting perspective.
- PR Week interview with Slate media critic Jack Shafer. Interesting interview where Shafer opines on the future of media. %%%
- MSU students embrace online publishing with an "edge"
- NYT reporter Kit Seelye
Seelye loves Comedy Central's The Daily Show, but she's weary of its spin on the news.
Seelye, who covers media trends, spoke about the credibility of the media and the future of journalism to an audience of about 60 students and community members at the Kelly Writers House yesterday.
When competing with comedian Jon Stewart's The Daily Show, Web logs and Internet news, the future of print journalism appears grim, Seelye said.
But she remains optimistic.
"I think print will survive, although I'm not sure in what form," she said.
[...]
In the fast-paced environment of today's media, there is a race between being right and being first.
"That kind of race can encourage sloppiness," she said.
The increasing difficulty in obtaining hard news from tight-lipped administrators has led to an increase in what Seelye termed "fluffy sections" of the newspaper such as "Style" and "Fashion."
Ratings, Circulation, & Ad Revenue Strength
- Los Angeles Radio Booming to Tune of $1B
- XM satellite added 2.7M subscribers in Q4. Sirius added 1.1M new subscribers in Q4. (Source: Center for Media Research)
- CNBC has renewed The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch. The ratings are low, but the show is finding an audience.
- MSNBC worth $1B. Microsoft and NBC Universal are restructuring their joint venture.
- Ana Marie Cox's book is bombing. She's sold just 3,800 copies. Is it time to try and get that Wonkette job back?
- Via Hollywood Reporter: Today Show II (9-10AM) averages 4.1M viewers. Live with Regis & Kelly averages 4.4M. More on the Today Show's third hour here.
- Evening news ratings: Week of Jan 16 NBC still on top, but WNT gains a bit.
- ABC says the new Nightline is holding on to the old Nightline's viewers. Well, it is in the 25-54 demo, but not in total audience. More ABCNews ratings info here.
- TimesSelect draws about 156,000 web-only subscriptions in first 4 months. The NYT is spinning the numbers as a good thing, but only 234,000 print subscribers have signed up for Times Select (which would be free for them). The NYTimes has 1.7M Sunday subscribers. That's a lot of people who aren't interested in a free service. In related news, NY Times Co. reports earnings decline.
- Podcasting rankings. ABC World News Now is the #1 most downloaded news podcast on iTunes. #2 is CNN News Update. #3 is Meet the Press. #4 is the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. The Wall Street Journal Report is #5. Nightline is #9. Among all downloaded podcasts, Onion Radio News is #1. Hotline On Call has a full list of media podcasts.
- Newspaper Cos tell mixed story for 4Q
Media News Monday is a compilation of media news from the past week posted on Monday. Media is an integral part of politics, and I think that it's important to get to know media and media innovation in order to forecast future ways of campaigning, targeting voters, and disseminating information. If any of you are interested in campaigning, this weekly diary may help you with ideas. It is also important to keep up with right wing corporate media (RWCM) news. If you have any media news to add, please do so. For more RWCM watch & Media News:
Penndit's News, Media News, and RWCM Watch Links. I get the advertising, public relations, targeting voters information, and media research from a variety of sources other than the links above. Cross-posted
at Penndit and
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