Wednesday’s numbers are out. Once again Greta beat O’Reilly but this time O’Reilly was hosting and not a sub. FOX has been advertising on TV the other day that their numbers for the Presidential address beat all the other networks combined. Well yesterday they beat all the cable news networks combined in Total Day, Prime Time, and their corresponding P 25-54 demos.

MSNBC had a really bad day. They came in 5th place behind Headline News and CNBC in Total Day, Total Day P 25-54, and Prime Time P 25-54. Ouch. Primetime was the only thing that kept MSNBC completely out of the basement. Countdown pulled in really good numbers in total viewers but their P 25-54 numbers lagged badly in 5th (behind the eBay special on CNBC which also beat Paula Zahn Now’s P 25-54 numbers). Scarborough Country pulled down an impressive 417,000 Total Viewers. Where did everybody come from? And why?
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Rumblings today that layoffs are taking place at CNN. Both ICN and What’s Happening At CNN have received tips that layoffs are going on.

We get so many tips from people wanting to push agendas or cause a stink and rain on someone’s parade and 99% of them never get published because it’s just unsourced rumor mongering. So I sat on this one (not knowing about the tip in to WHAC) for a while until I could see if it started popping up elsewhere. And it has. Over on Medialine someone wrote in that this is because of a re-organization spurned on by three hour long “The Situation With Wolf Blitzer” originating from D.C. and that some people were offered transfers to Washington but most didn’t take CNN up on it.

UPDATE: TVNewser is getting the rumors too. In fact one of his tipsters sent the exact same tip written the exact same way in to ICN. Guess they really want to get this story out…

UPDATE 2: Remember what I wrote earlier about agendas? Well, according to info sent to TVNewser, it seems that the original characterization that both TVNewser and ICN got about this being as bad as 2001, is way off the mark. TVNewser pulled that stat from his blog and I’m doing the same….

Tim Arango in the NY Post writes today that NBC is considering taking MSNBC and CNBC and putting them under one roof and having that roof be in New Jersey. (hat tip: TVNewser) Money quotes…

NBC is searching for an executive to run the combined operation, who would report to Jeff Zucker, president of the NBC Universal Television Group, sources said.
….
One source said that while the combined news operation is likely to be based in New Jersey — where MSNBC and CNBC are housed
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FTVLive today hints that MSNBC’s David Shuster may have lifted info from the APAF (American Progress Action Fund) website for a blog entry on Iraq that was, according to FTV, linked by “many other blogs” and was called “honest”.

Specifically, FTV points to a series of quotes that are in the APAF article pertaining to Iraq from various Republican/Bush Administration people, which also are used in Shuster’s entry. FTV makes a pretty convincing case that Shuster could have used the APAF article as research material because the similarities between the quote selection are too similar to be easily explained away as coincidence.

But that’s not the issue for me. The issue is whether Shuster was obligated to acknowledge the APAF article in his blog entry? FTV seems to think so. But what form would that acknowledgement take? The quotes were just that…quotes. Already on the record and out in the public domain. Shuster didn’t lift any non-quotes from the APAF article (if he lifted anything at all). So if FTV is correct what was Shuster supposed to do? Say something like “Chuck Hagel said xxxxxx (according to an APAF article)” even though that info didn’t originate on APAF?

More importantly, are blogs subject to the same rules as print journalism or TV News? Heck, half the blogs out there will repeat public quotes that their authors read somewhere else without attributing to the other source unless they also include non-quote information from that source. Is it really plagiarism to properly attribute a public domain quote, apparently cited by multiple sources, to its speaker but not attribute the quote to where the article writer read the quote? That’s a tough call and one that would typically be hashed out on Romensko’s letter’s page.

I’m tending to believe that Shuster didn’t do anything particularly wrong from a blog perspective. But FTV did raise the question and Shuster needs to answer it to clarify the situation.

CJR Online both praises and pans CNN’s coverage today of the President’s speech…

The latest came this morning around 6:20 a.m. on CNN’s “Daybreak” when Carol Costello interviewed Rep. Robin Hayes, R-N.C. (Fort Bragg, the location of Bush’s speech last night, is in Hayes’ district.) The transcript is worth a read because it’s a rare example of a television reporter challenging an elected official who the reporter knows to be peddling falsehoods

And on the other hand…

CNN became a little fixated itself — so much so that the Hayes-Costello exchange was replayed all morning on CNN, on CNN Headline News, and on CNN Europe — and that’s not so good.

Read it all here…

Harry Shearer opines on the Presidential speech and coverage thereof….

And the commentary offered since the speech, that which I’ve been able to catch up with, has offered a full range of opinions–on the right, all the way from John McCain’s stolid stoicism on as many networks as possible to Chuck Colson (today on MSNBC) suggesting that Congressional war critics are close to traitors. On the other side, Joe Biden offered a slightly smarter version of John Kerry’s it’s-the-wrong-war-but-let’s-fight-it-better stance, and Paul Begala cheered him on.

The blog entry is here…

The numbers for last night’s speech are out…

FOX dominated again. As you can see in the numbers below FOX’s demo numbers beat CNN’s overall numbers during the speech. Some strange things happened after the speech though. Both CNN and MSNBC gained viewers from their levels during the speech while FOX suffered a slight decline. One possiblity is that FOX viewers were channel hopping to hear what the other (and presumably for some FOX viewers…more liberal) channels were saying about the speech. Another explanation is an exodus from ABC which cut away at 8:30 on the East Coast only, leaving those viewers with having to find a new channel to get speech analysis.
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Mark Glaser in the Online Journalism Review has a nice in depth article on the MSNBC.com redesign but also manages to weigh in on the oft talked about breakup of Microsoft and NBC from the deal…

MSNBC TV has struggled in the cable news ratings, dropping to fourth behind Fox News, CNN and even CNN Headline News during the second quarter of this year. Microsoft has been trying to get out of the media-creation business since its mid-’90s splash (and subsequent burn), shedding Slate and trying to focus more on software and technology. One source with inside knowledge told me the TV joint venture is likely to end in the next three to six months, but the complicated 99-year deal between Microsoft and NBC is quite expensive to break up. Microsoft has invested more than $500 million in the TV venture.

The whole article is here…

Ohhhhhhhh…the spinning and crowing is in full bloom and you need a scorecard to keep track of the flying smack of who said what about whom. The Q2 Ratings are out and it’s time for the dueling press releases. TVNewser already has CNN’s release info posted and note the tone…
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Sunday’s numbers are out and despite a stronger than usual primetime offering, with a re-airing of Rita Cosby’s interview with Michael Jackson’s mother, Katie Couric’s Runaway Bride interview (also a re-airing), and Lester Holt hosting “Coming Home” (repeated from the previous weekend), combined with the premiere of Chris Jansing’s “The Ethical Edge”….MSNBC came in as a distant also ran in primetime and scratched in the 25-54 demo. FOX beat MSNBC nearly 8:1 in no small part due to Geraldo Rivera live in Aruba. CNN beat MSNBC nearly 4:1 with canned programming.
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NBC must really want The Situation to succeed because they’re going all out with TV advertising. People who tuned in to Monday’s Medium saw a hilarious ad for The Situation in the form of a take-off on 70’s Quinn Martin crime shows…

—–

(Carlson busts through rooftop door carring a gun and looking for some action)

(cue voice over)

Tucker…

IN COLOR

(Carlson shoves bad guy to hood of car)

An MSNBC Production

(montage of Carlson jumping down stairs, aiming a gun, etc…)

starring Tucker Carlson…

(montage of Carlson sipping champagne with comely blonde/Carlson boogeying on the dance floor)

as…TUCKER CARLSON

(car exploding over cliff….Carlson picking up police radio in car)

(cut to MSNBC office…Carlson gestures to production execs a “how’s this for a show?” gesture…)

Execs: Actually we were thinking of a fast paced news show….

Carlson: Do I still get to solve crimes?

Execs: (emphatically) um…NO.

The Situation With Tucker Carlson on MSNBC. Check your local listings…

—–

Now we’ll see if this gambit pays off….

The lineups are now set. CNN will have Blitzer and Zahn (!). FOX will have Hume. And as previously mentioned MSNBC will have Mathews. Interesting that Zahn will be a part of this. Last year her abscence from the Democratic and Republican convention coverage had tongues wagging.

After some brief downtime with the blog’s servers, here are Fridays Nielsen numbers. Greta had another phenomenal night and was FOX’s number #1 show that night (O’Reilly had a sub)…
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Saturday I noted the MSNBC press release announcing the Hardball Church Tour that will be in Tennessee on Tuesday, the night of President Bush’s Iraq speech. Well MSNBC has taken what was a potential logistical headache (Mathews in Tennesse…the action in Washington D.C.) and turned it into something of an advantage by using the same TV audience for the Church Tour to be in a Town Hall meeting after the speech is over according to today’s release…

Immediately following the President’s address Chris Matthews will anchor a live Heartland Town Hall Meeting from Twin Lakes Baptist Church in Nashville, Tennessee. Matthews will gauge audience reaction to the President’s speech and have analysis from MSNBC’s Chief Washington correspondent Norah O’Donnell, MSNBC’s Tucker Carlson and Newsweek Managing Editor Jon Meacham. The town meeting will conclude at 10 p.m. ET.

The Washington Post’s Libby Copeland has an interview with Nancy Grace… (via What’s Happening At CNN)

“I’m on a search for the truth,” she says during a recent visit to the District to promote her new book, “Objection!,” in which the former prosecutor calls defense attorneys “dangerous” and compares them to pigs. The way Grace sees it, prosecutors want to do what’s right, whereas defense attorneys are unethical and just want to win. She’d never cross over to what she calls the “dark side” because “I don’t really want to have any part of getting guilty people off.”

ooooooooook….the article is sure to give more ammo to Grace’s detractors….

The New York Times’ Katharine Q. Seelye has a report on a new Pew Research survey on the media which some pretty obvious (to me) observations…

The survey found “a startling rise in the politicization of opinions on several measures,” and its authors said the results reflected the increasing political polarization of the country. This was especially pronounced on the question of whether news outlets “stand up for America” or are too critical of America.

“Republicans increasingly express the view that the press is excessively critical of the United States,” the survey said, with 67 percent agreeing with that statement now compared with 42 percent in July 2002. About a quarter of Democrats say news organizations are too critical, the same level as three years ago.

No kidding. TV Newser breaks down the numbers even further…

While CNN still ranks #1, (giving Roger Ailes another reason to declare that Pew is a “liberal lobbying organization”), its audience share has declined in the Pew study

Ailes might be critical? That’s an understatement. It totally flies in the face of the Nielson numbers. FOX has consistently beaten CNN handily on every breaking news story. If more Americans are ranking CNN above FOX according to Pew, where the hell are they when news breaks? Not turning on their TVs apparently if Nielson is accurate. Someone needs to reconcile these two sets of numbers in such a way that it shows that they’re both right. That would be one survey I would be very interested in reading.

Rachel Tobin Ramos in the Atlanta Business Chronicle writes up CNN’s struggles to re-define itself in the face of FOX News Channels dominance and has some juicy Jim Walton quotes in it…

Although Walton denies CNN has any reporting bias, he said some have called CNN “anti-American.” In his thinking, that’s because “it sometimes angers people when we report the truth.”

The truth? Oh man…FOX’s PR machine could have a field day with that one….

“CNN does not have fans per se, like other networks,” he added. “Our job is to report the truth without bias from different angles. We should be like your best friend … who’ll be honest with you. That angers people sometimes.”

I don’t know about that. CNN has fans. CNNfan and What’s Happening At CNN are proof of that. Is Walton really in tune with his own audience?

The article seems to get Walton on the record about how long Jonathan Klein has to turn things around.

He said the changes Klein is making on CNN/U.S. will have gradual returns. He wants to give Klein six to 18 months to implement his plan and start to see results. The focus, said Walton, is on better “storytelling,” and reporting on “characters that are surprising and interesting,” which is what makes a successful book or movie.

Six to eighteen months? It took FOX five to six years to overtake CNN. I guess it will all depends on what sort of “results” Walton is looking for. An uptick in the ratings? Or overtaking FOX? If it’s the latter six to eighteen months is very aggressive for a timetable…

Following up on this, an insider reported on the MSN MSNBC board that they were taping the Chris Jansing Ethical Edge special today and they will be airing follow up reports on this subject for the next couple of weeks.

UPDATE: At the end of tonight’s broadcast, Jansing announced that tonight’s panel will be on throughout the coming week to discuss this subject further. She also announced that this was the first in a series of specials on the subject that will air in the coming months.

Tuesday will begin what apparently is being billed as a series (how can you have a tour if it’s just to one place only? Must be a series…) of specials on religion and politics on MSNBC’s Hardball. Billed as the “Hardball Church Tour” this particular special will originate at Two Rivers Baptist Church in Nashville, Tennessee according to this release….

“The Hardball Church Tour” brings together in this one-hour program the principals atthe center of the fight for the hearts, souls and as well as the votes of the American people. We will feature three of the people at the center of the biggest culture war battles of the last year including Judge Roy Moore of Alabama, George Felos, attorney for Michael Schiavo, and Mickey Weinstein, an Air Force cadet parent who complained about religious intolerance at the academy.

The nation’s top religious leaders will debate the role of religion in U.S. politics including Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, Reverend Albert Pennybacker, of the Clergy and Leity Network, Dr. Richard Land, from the Southern Baptist Convention, Dr. Jerry Sutton, Pastor of Two Rivers Baptist Church and Reza Aslam, a Muslim religious scholar.

UPDATE: This release was issued before it was announced that MSNBC would be carrying the President’s Iraq speech live at 8 pm Tuesday. While there is no direct conflict between the two programs, there is a logistical problem in that Mathews will not be in Washington to cover the speech. Perhaps the duty of covering the speech will fall to newly minted Chief Washington correspondent Norah O’Donnell?

Klein seems to be very prolific on the interview front these days. Here’s another interview from Dallas News (via What’s Happening At CNN)

“They sound a little nervous,” he said of Fox. “And guess what, they should be. Because we haven’t even started trying yet.”

I’m sure Greta is scared silly based on her show’s astronomical numbers this week….

The Nielson numbers for Thursday are in and Greta led all comers…in fact her show scored the highest rated telecast of 2005 (so far) with a 2.8 million average. Grace beat Zahn again.
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Yes, MSNBC will re-air Katie Couric’s “runaway bride” interview this Saturday according to the release.

I point this out not because it’s the sort of thing MSNBC should be doing but because this is precisely the kind of thing that MSNBC should not be doing. Re-airing NBC product in the “dead zone” that is MSNBC weekends is one of the reasons MSNBC has the reputation in some circles as an also ran in the cable news wars.
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Gabriel Okolski at George Washington University’s GW Hatchet student newspaper (registration req.) notes that the CNN relationship with the University will continue with On The Story moving there in front of a Live audience. (via What’s Happening At CNN)

Daniel Gross in Slate puts forth the notion that it’s not going to be a slam dunk for FOX Business Channel to overtake CNBC the way FOX News overtook CNN. I think CNBC is somewhat vulnerable but Gross makes some interesting points that Roger Ailes will have to overcome in order for the new FOX Business Channel to succeed. Nut graph…

It’s an open question if Ailes can replicate his Fox News success in business news. Fox News Channel succeeded because it easily and smartly defined itself in opposition to what its core audience perceived to be bias on the part of the other networks. But nobody regards CNBC and Bloomberg TV the way Fox viewers regarded CNN and MSNBC. And CNBC has solid right-wing credentials. Mark Haines, the host of Squawk Box, routinely greets his colleagues at CNBC Europe by asking what’s going on in Socialist Land. CNBC’s idea of a leftist is a Wall Street Democrat like Roger Altman. And the network has given over an entire show to supply-sider Larry Kudlow. The gang at CNBC bears some resemblance to the House Republican caucus—an all-white, overwhelmingly male group in which centrists are branded as liberals and marginalized.

Gross’s article carries the whiff of a liberal point of view and that needs to be kept in mind. But one thing is certain. If there’s one thing that we’ve learned it’s that Roger Ailes is no dummy and if there is a way to displace CNBC, Ailes; who used to run CNBC, is probably the one guy who can do it.

Here are yesterday’s numbers. Greta in Aruba had another huge night and her demo numbers beat out CNN’s entire audience number average for Prime Time. MSNBC got beat out by HLN all day on average. Nancy Grace beat Paula again. Scarborough Country’s Rita Cosby special (Michael Jackson’s mother interview rehashed) got pounded by CNN and FOX. A Contender repeat on CNBC beat both Prime News and The Situation. Some wierd numbers too. Countdown (sub host) had more viewers than Hardball (sub host) but Hardball beat Showbiz Tonight. The only MSNBC program to beat a HLN program….and it had fewer viewers than Countdown? Go figure…
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When FOX overtook CNN in the ratings early in this decade, CNN continued to put forth the notion that they were still the network to go to when news really mattered. In the run up to the Iraq war CNN was angling to own the coverage as they had during the first Gulf War, only it turned out that FOX showed that it could indeed mount a credible overseas operation for an extended period. While MSNBC, CNN, and FOX each brought their own unique tools to the table and to get the best coverage one had to be a channel hopper (MSNBC using the live anywhere anytime “Bloom mobile” nick-named after David Bloom who tragically died while on assignment there, CNN with its huge international organization and resources, FOX with its gutsy, aggressive reporters using satellite phones), FOX maintained its dominance in the ratings.
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FTV is breaking news that MSNBC’s Natalie Morales will be hosting the Today Show on Friday. I would have figured Alexis Glick would have been given the shot first seeing as she’s been all over the Today set lately and it’s the world’s worst kept secret that Glick is Jeff Zucker’s pet project.

TV Week has an article on Jeff Zucker commenting on the drop in ad rates for NBC and how that won’t affect NBC’s ability to invest in programming.

He also said there would be no major personnel changes in NBC’s programming hierarchy.

Does this include Neal Shapiro?

Axis Of Logic has an interesting breakdown of 16 hours of cable news courtesy of Columbia Journalism Review Daily. (via What’s Happening At CNN)

The Hollywood Reporter (subscription req) has a run down of the negotiations and what’s being discussed in terms of placement and subscriber base. Bignewsnetwork.com has an abridged version.

CNNFan has the details on the upcoming half hour update of the Tsunami disaster to air June 26th…

Another take on the “missing white woman” syndrome that seems to obsess Cable News. This one is courtesy of radio talk show host Steve Yuhas. But its arguments are a lot more complex than the usual attacks we’ve seen on the subject…

I’m not so naïve not to understand that when the news is slow and when your fame and fortune depends on major, high profile cases falling into your lap so that your angry and vitriolic tone can help boost ratings for CNN that you don’t jump at the chance to cover and cry over a story (read: Nancy Grace), but for Greta Van Susteren to cover the case with such vigor is overkill for someone who typically balances out the sensational with the standard and mundane, yet important, legal issues of the day. Something has to explain what it is about Holloway that makes her disappearance so special and the disappearance of so many people that are just normal every day people that they make the headlines so often.

(via FTV)

This one comes from Dusty Saunders in the Rocky Mountain News and uses the “runaway bride” story to take the media to task…

Whenever network television news topples into the electronic morass of pop culture, I recall that the revered Edward R. Murrow once had a weekly CBS half-hour titled Person to Person, in which Murrow, sitting in a studio, would talk to notable personalities as cameras roamed their homes.

Fortunately, Murrow is remembered for documentaries like Harvest of Shame, his See It Now specials and coverage of Sen. Joseph McCarthy.

While Person to Person was basically fluff stuff, I think Murrow would have walked out of the CBS Studio before talking with a runaway bride.

WorldScreen.com has a brief overview of the final numbers. I know I’ve been zealous in covering how this shakes out, and some people might question the impact of NBC’s ad rates, but as MSNBC’s success depends in some part on NBC News content (Today interviews, Dateline stories, etc, etc..) not to mention NBC Universal’s coffers and how full they are, it’s an important story for MSNBC (and even CNBC) to some extent. FOX and CNN don’t have such entanglements to deal with as their news organizations don’t have to depend on the success or failure of another entity in their corporate family (for CNN; Time Warner…for FOX; News Corp) nearly as much.

Harry Shearer today contrasts CNN International with what goes on with American News TV and makes some interesting observations. Such as…

But the startling difference, one which CNN International apes (so you can see for yourself on the one hour a day when CNN simulcasts the world feed, noon-1 p.m. ET), is the sound of the newscasts. Or the silence. Somehow, they’ve figured out a brilliant new technology which allows graphics to come on and off the screen, or the picture to cut to another shot, without a single “whooooosh”. No grinding noises, no sounds of onrushing wind past a train window, none of the mechanical and electro-mechanical sounds which accompany every change that occurs on the American cable newscast’s screen these days.

(hat tip: What’s Happening At CNN)