Category Archives: News

January 29, 2013 · 7:12 pm

Fox News Ratings Hit 12-Year Demo Lows In January Cable News Figures

Some interesting information from the Huffington Post…..

I’m interested to see how/if this trend continues….

Keep in mind, Fox News has the same problem as the GOP: Only old white people pay them any attention and that demographic is dying out.  Younger people don’t watch much TV news anyway, but they certainly aren’t watching Fox.

And cheers to Rachel Maddow and the gang at MSNBC….

And, does anyone watch CNN anymore?  I can remember when they did real news and I watched it almost all the time.  Now I can’t take five minutes of their blathering.  Well, except for Anderson Cooper and even his show is not exactly a master class in journalism anymore….

Here is an excerpt from the Huff Post article and a link to the full story:

 

At the end of each month, cable news ratings are released to the public. And, like clockwork, Fox News dominates the top 13 or so programs, far outstripping its competitors.

January was … a little different. To be sure, everything is relative in cable news: Fox News still had nine out of the top ten programs. It has spent 11 consecutive years as the top-rated cable news channel. Its 6 AM show drew almost double the ratings of CNN’s top-ranking prime time show.

But, as rival MSNBC was quick to point out, and BuzzFeed was quick to trumpet, Fox News had its worst primetime ratings in the coveted 25-54 demo since August 2001, and its lowest total day ratings since June 2008.

To a seasoned watcher of cable news ratings, there were other surprises. Rachel Maddow, for instance, came in 10th, beating “Studio B” and the 11 PM repeat of “The O’Reilly Factor.” In January 2012, she came in 14th. It may not seem like much, but the top of the cable news field has been extremely stable — and if Maddow were to continue creeping up the list, it would mean a real sea change. Overall, MSNBC — perhaps powered by liberal euphoria over President Obama’s inauguration — was the only cable news channel to grow its ratings from 2012.

This continues a pattern that emerged in 2012: Fox News viewers tuned out en masse from Democratic-themed events, causing the network’s ratings to plunge during the Democratic National Convention, the hours immediately following Obama’s re-election, and the president’s inauguration. MSNBC, meanwhile, benefited from the solidification of its Democratic-friendly lineup, and drew a lion’s share of eager liberal viewers.

via Fox News Ratings Hit 12-Year Demo Lows In January Cable News Figures.

Leave a comment

Filed under Journalism, Media, News, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , ,

March 22, 2011 · 10:53 pm

Glenn Beck Contemplates Starting His Own Channel – NYTimes.com

Please, Please, Please!

It would be so much easier to isolate him and avoid him…

I wouldn’t be forced to watch him on any of the 75 TV’s at the gym as no one could call the Beck Network “News”….

And no one– I mean no one– could be exposed to him 24/7 without either going insane or postal….

The possibility that Glenn Beck will exit the Fox News Channel at the end of the year has prompted a big question in media circles: if he leaves, how will he bring his considerable audience with him?

Two of the options Mr. Beck has contemplated, according to people who have spoken about it with him, are a partial or wholesale takeover of a cable channel, or an expansion of his subscription video service on the Web.

Reports this week that Joel Cheatwood, a senior Fox News executive, would soon join Mr. Beck’s growing media company, Mercury Radio Arts, were the latest indication that Mr. Beck intended to leave Fox, a unit of the News Corporation, when his contract expired at the end of this year.

Notably, Mr. Beck’s company has been staffing up — making Web shows, some of which have little or nothing to do with Mr. Beck, and charging a monthly subscription for access to the shows.

Were Mr. Beck to set off on his own, it would be a landmark moment for the media industry, reflecting a shift in the balance of power between media institutions and the personal brands of people they employ.

via Glenn Beck Contemplates Starting His Own Channel – NYTimes.com.

Leave a comment

Filed under Media, News, Tea Party, Television

Tagged as , , , , ,

March 11, 2011 · 5:26 pm

Monkey in woman’s bra makes waves at Amherst courthouse | GoDanRiver.com

Only in Virginia….

Authorities said a woman entered the Amherst County Courthouse on Thursday morning with a tiny monkey tucked into her bra, dressed in diapers and a pink and white dress.

The unusual event occurred when the woman arrived for a hearing in Juvenile and Domestic Relations court.

Officials said they had no idea the woman had the monkey until the she went into an office for a routine procedure to fill out court-related paperwork.

When the woman referred to a daughter, a puzzled official asked where the daughter was and the woman pulled the monkey out of her bra.

Officials confirmed the incident, from the commonwealth’s attorney, Stephanie Maddox, to deputies who were working in the courthouse. They did not identify the woman.

“You couldn’t make up something like this,” Maddox said.

But it was no big deal, the woman said later, because her tiny marmoset turns seven weeks old today and is, in the parlance of monkeys, an infant who needs constant attention.

“I can’t understand why the deputy didn’t see her — she was peeking out” from the cleavage of her blouse, she said.

The woman contacted The News & Advance late Thursday afternoon after seeing a story about the monkey online. She wanted to explain why she took the creature, named Cara, into the courthouse. The woman’s identity is being withheld for family reasons.

via Monkey in woman’s bra makes waves at Amherst courthouse | GoDanRiver.com.

Leave a comment

Filed under News, Virginia

Tagged as , ,

March 6, 2011 · 1:33 pm

So You Want to be a Journalist…

A journalist friend of mine sent this to me….

This kind of explains why I changed from my journalism major while I was in College…

It also kind of shows the unreasonable expectations of the kids fresh out of college today….

 

2 Comments

Filed under Journalism, Media, News, Politics, Television

Tagged as , , , ,

March 6, 2011 · 1:27 pm

Hillary Clinton’s Al Jazeera Comments Draw Attention Of U.S. Media

As usual, she’s right…

I’ve been occasionally watching Al-Jazeera English on line and it reminds me of how CNN and the BBC used to be…

U.S. News reporting has become a joke-mainly due to the Corporate acquisition of the networks and the mixing of real news with entertainment.

Not to mention “opinion” journalism where talking heads scream at each other…

And networks like Faux News that just reiterate the Republican Party talking points all day….

Sad when you have to watch a foreign network to get around censorship in the US.  Censorship that is driven by profit motives….

NEW YORK — A decade ago the U.S. government attacked Al-Jazeera as a propagator of anti-American propaganda. Now Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is citing the network for fine news coverage – and tweaking the U.S. media in the process.

The Arab broadcaster says it’s ready to take advantage of what it considers a major boost in its acceptance in the United States.

Clinton, on the week many U.S. television outlets were preoccupied by the spectacle of actor Charlie Sheen, suggested during testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that American networks were falling behind in the competition for information.

Al-Jazeera has been a leader in changing people’s minds and attitudes, Clinton told lawmakers Wednesday.

“Like it or hate it, it is really effective,” Clinton said. “In fact, viewership of Al-Jazeera is going up in the United States because it is real news.”

“You may not agree with it, but you feel like you’re getting real news around the clock instead of a million commercials and, you know, arguments between talking heads and the kind of stuff that we do on our news that is not providing information to us, let alone foreigners.”

In fact, Al-Jazeera’s television viewership hasn’t gone up much in the U.S. because it is still not widely available, seen only on scattered cable systems in Vermont, Ohio and Washington, D.C.

But online viewership of Al-Jazeera English spiked during the demonstrations in Egypt – up 2,500 percent at its peak, with nearly half of the followers from the United States, the network said.

Al-Jazeera has taken advantage of the moment, asking visitors to its website to click a tab that automatically generates a letter to the users’ local cable system encouraging them to add the network. More than 40,000 e-mails have been generated, spokeswoman Molly Conroy said.

via Hillary Clinton’s Al Jazeera Comments Draw Attention Of U.S. Media.

Leave a comment

Filed under Journalism, Media, News, Politics

Tagged as , , , ,

March 6, 2011 · 1:18 pm

Bill Keller: Fox News Viewers ‘Among The Most Cynical People On Planet Earth’

Amen…

From The Huffington Post:

“I think if you’re a regular viewer of Fox News, you’re among the most cynical people on planet Earth,” Keller said. “I cannot think of a more cynical slogan than ‘Fair and Balanced’ ”

It’s the second time this year that Keller has made critical comments about Fox News. At the end of January, he spoke to veteran journalist Marvin Kalb, and said that Fox News and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, had made American political discourse more “cynical,” “strident” and “polarized.”

via Bill Keller: Fox News Viewers ‘Among The Most Cynical People On Planet Earth’.

1 Comment

Filed under Journalism, Media, New York, News, Politics

Tagged as , , , ,

March 6, 2011 · 1:15 pm

NPR, PBS Put Millions Into Investigative Reporting

This is why the GOP wants to de-fund NPR and PBS.  The Republicans don’t like investigative, impartial journalism…

They much prefer to have Fox “News” parrot their press releases….

Oh, and before anyone goes off….If you read the entire article, you will see this investigative journalism is funded by donations, not tax or government funding…

This is one of the many reasons I donate regularly to both NPR and PBS….

WASHINGTON — NPR, PBS and local public broadcast stations around the country are hiring more journalists and pumping millions of dollars into investigative news to make up for what they see as a lack of deep-digging coverage by their for-profit counterparts.

Public radio and TV stations have seen the need for reporting that holds government and business accountable increase as newspapers and TV networks cut their staffs and cable television stations have filled their schedules with more opinion journalism.

“Where the marketplace is unable to serve, that’s the role of public media,” PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger said last year at a summit on the future of media at the Federal Communications Commission. “PBS exists to serve the people, not to sell them.”

In the past three years, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has invested more than $90 million in federal funds on new journalism initiatives. That includes a $10 million local journalism initiative that is paying for the creation of five regional centers that will help local PBS and NPR stations cover news that affects wider geographic areas. Also, a $6 million grant from the group expanded the PBS investigative series “Frontline” from a seasonal series with a summer break to a year-round program.

via NPR, PBS Put Millions Into Investigative Reporting.

1 Comment

Filed under Journalism, Media, News, Politics

Tagged as , , ,