Broadcasting & Cable’s Anne Becker has more on CNN’s side of the story…

The gap-lowering should not all be attributed to 360, however. All of the news networks posted double-digit drops in November compared to the same period last year, when large audiences were tuning in for election coverage. CNN’s drop was lower than Fox News’. Year to year, CNN dropped 34% in the demo in total-day viewing to 129,000 viewers, while Fox News dropped 49% to 228,000 viewers. (MSNBC was down 20% to 97,000 viewers; CNBC was down 19% to 47,000 viewers; and Headline News was down 17% to 84,000 viewers).

FTVLive is reporting that the Journal Editorial Report program, currently running on PBS, may be moving to FNC.

UPDATE: FNC issued a release announcing the move…

The Journal Editorial Report, a production of The Wall Street Journal, will move to Fox News Channel (FNC) beginning in January, announced Bill Shine, senior vice president of programming, Fox News.
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The November numbers are out and the “what it all means” he said/she said analysis begins….

CNN is touting its rival FNC’s diminished Total Day Demo numbers for the month of November ‘05 vs. November ‘04. CNN notes that FNC “lost HALF of its Total Day P25-54 audience, delivering their lowest numbers in over 2 years!”

CNN went on to note that the only network to show gains in either total viewers or the P25-54 Demo was HLN.

Other tidbits from CNN…
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TV Guide.com’s Stephen Battaglio got a Q&A with Steve Capus. There’s some info regarding MSNBC which, in my opinion, is part news but unfortunately also part spin…(via TVNewser)
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Liz Smith got Brown to have lunch with her…

“I don’t know exactly what I will do,” he mused as a succession of media visitors came to interrupt us and ask where they might register their outrage at his “NewsNight” cancellation — among them ABC veteran visionary Av Westin and Fox TV’s Roger Ailes. Aaron expressed admiration for the manner in which Fox beats the pants off its competitors. “They are the most on-target, disciplined bunch I’ve ever seen!” he told Roger. And we talked with one man who said he was a journalism teacher from the Midwest. He professed much admiration for Aaron, who has had a long career — at ABC under Roone Arledge in “the good old days.” Then Aaron made his mark with the heartfelt emotional coverage he did for CNN during 9/11 from a Manhattan rooftop. “I will never forget your magnificent work in those terrible days,” said the teacher.

The New York Times’ Jacques Steinberg writes about Capus…

Its most notable innovation so far was announced by Mr. Capus earlier this month: NBC became the first broadcast network to make its early-evening newscast available later each night, at no charge, on the Internet. Soon, the network expects to offer similar online versions of “Today” and “Meet the Press,” and is already providing news updates to cellphone customers of Verizon, Sprint and AT&T, among others.

In an interview yesterday, Mr. Zucker said, “There’s no question the biggest priority for Steve in the coming two years is the evolution of news gathering and delivery of news, via new models.”

The AP’s David Bauder writes about Steve Capus’ position as President of NBC News being made permanent….

His new job gives him authority over MSNBC and its president, Rick Kaplan. MSNBC hasn’t been able to escape the ratings cellar in its competition with Fox News Channel and CNN, but Capus said it has made NBC a stronger news organization.

“We have become much more aggressive because NBC News is in the 24-7 business,” he said. “We have to respond quickly and aggressively to stories.”
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TVNewser notes that MSNBC beat CNN in the Demo on Friday both in Total Day and Primetime. However on Saturday MSNBC beat CNN in Primetime and both FNC and CNN in the Primetime Demo…

Primetime P2+

FNC 668,000
MSNBC 412,000
CNN 396,000
HLN 172,000
CNBC 101,000

Primetime P25-54

MSNBC 207,000
FNC 160,000
CNN 117,000
HLN 57,000
CNBC 35,000

Though this could possibly be explained away because last weekend was a holiday weekend, the holiday excuse doesn’t work for the previous weekend when MSNBC beat FNC and CNN in the Primetime Demo on both Saturday and Sunday. But what is the reason for this? Is MSNBC showing increased strength in the coveted 25-54 age demographic? Or is the competition faltering by comparison?

FNC’s Rick Leventhal uses his stint in the chair last weekend on The Big Story Weekend Edition to give readers a behind the scenes of some of what went on during the show…

If you were watching Sunday, and didn’t get up to make popcorn at 10:30 pm ET, you probably saw me lose my place in the “D” block. The first story of the segment was an alert updating the search for a phony firefighter sex-assault suspect in New York City. The story was supposed to include an interview with a New York Post reporter who broke exclusive details on the perp, but there were technical problems. The guest was in the newsroom studio but couldn’t hear me, and our engineers couldn’t correct the issue in time… so as I’m introducing him, I hear a producer in my ear telling me to move on to the next guest.

New York Giants running back Tiki Barber has joined FNC as a general contributor and beginning next week will be appearing Tuesdays on Fox and Friends First….(via FTVLive)

It was announced on Imus In The Morning this morning that Amy Robach is expecting….

Miles O’Brien conducted an interview with Mike Wallace yesterday which aired this morning on CNN’s American Morning. Among the subjects discussed was Wallace’s most gut wrenching interview. Transcript follows…

MILES O’BRIEN, Anchor CNN American Morning: What an amazing career Mike
Wallace has had, the “60 Minutes” veteran. Actually he was there on day one when that clock started ticking. He’s interviewed just about anyone you can imagine over the past 30-40 years.
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In a move that should surprise nobody, NBC named Steve Capus as the President of NBC News. Capus had been acting as temporary President in the wake of Neal Shapiro’s resignation in September….

Capus has served as Acting President of NBC News since September. In June 2005, he was named Senior Vice President, NBC News. In that capacity, Capus served as the Division’s No. 2 executive and had executive oversight of “NBC Nightly News,” Specials programming, newsgathering and breaking news. He served as the arbiter of issues involving ethics, style, standards, safety and other matters that affected the Division’s journalistic bearing.

During Your World Today, CNN will air an exclusive interview with French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin that was conducted by Christianne Amanpour. Among the topics discussed were the aftermath of the French riots and Iraq. Full transcript follows…

Christiane Amanpour, CNN Chief International Correspondent: Firstly, thank you very much for joining us Mr. Prime Minister, would you accept that France has a very serious social malaise, a very serious social problem that requires dramatic solutions, actions?
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Bob Sassone at TV Squad looks at the pro-Aaron Brown comments one of his blog entries received and pens a defense of Anderson Cooper…

When, exactly, did Aaron Brown do anything that would make him a better reporter or journalist than Cooper? I’m not talking about being the host of a show or an anchor (Brown seems perfectly amiable). I’m talking about actual reporting. Cooper has been in the trenches, whether its been in the Middle East, in Africa, or down in New Orleans confronting politicians about the rescue efforts after Hurricane Katrina.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Jill Vejnoska has an article on FNC’s Shepard Smith…

Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity long have been the big names at cable news’ No. 1 network, but increasingly, Smith is the big-gun anchor viewers expect to see when a big story breaks.

“If you’re talking about a major story, major news — certainly Shep is the face of Fox News,” says Bill Shine, the network’s senior vice president of programming. “He has that rare combination of being very smart and also very talented. You can put him out there, and if the prompter goes down, you’re not going to be in trouble. If news breaks unexpectedly, you’re not going to be in trouble.”

CNN announced that Dr. Sanjay Gupta will report in depth on the Bird Flu situation in a one hour special “Killer Flu: A Breath Away”… (via WHAC)

“If the virus mutates, even a single infected traveler to the United States could unknowingly spark an outbreak of the virus here,” Gupta said. “We went to Southeast Asia – where the bird flu is already infecting people – to see how close we might be to that nightmare scenario. In many ways, this is a detective story.”

The current deadly strain of bird flu or avian flu is also known by its technical name, “H5N1.” Gupta explains the science behind those letters and how researchers are racing to find a cure

The special airs Sunday, December 11th at 10pm ET…

Well not really…but Lloyd Grove does dish today that CNBC’s Liz Clayman got to sing on stage with The Boss the other night….

That was CNBC dollar diva Liz Claman being summoned to the stage by Bruce Springsteen as a “special friend” for his encore at Trenton’s Sovereign Bank Arena the other night. Yesterday an awestruck Claman - who belted out backup vocals for the Boss’ rendition of “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” - explained to Lowdown: “My sister and her husband have been friends with Bruce and [wife] Patti for a long time. I felt bad - I think people thought it was gonna be Clarence Clemons! I said to myself, ‘Remember this, you can actually see your audience this time.’ I never get to see my audience, it’s just me and the cameras. Who knew that such exciting things could happen in Trenton?”

Blogger Larry Johnson at TPM Cafe relates a behind the scenes anecdote pertaining to tonight’s Scarborough Country. This kind of booking showdown stuff goes on all the time on cable news but we don’t hear about it much….

Apparently, Mr. Bozell is a coward. He told MSNBC he would not appear if I was on the show, even if they scheduled me before or after him. He couldn’t handle a man-to-man debate. Typical conservative coward. I think the term is “Girly Man”. Tough talker when he is alone but unable to handle an informed debate. What is really sad is the MSNBC is caving into Bozell, rather than insisting that its audience hear both sides of an issue. Shocked, anyone?

UPDATE: MSNBC put Tucker Carlson on in Johnson’s place according to the MSNBC MSN board….

I tried to post this story this morning but for some reason I couldn’t get to the site to get the link. I see now that it’s fixed since TVNewser blogged about it. BrandWeek’s Michael Applebaum uses CNN’s Anderson Cooper as a weapon in his argument against Jim Cramer’s style…

As usual, the press is reluctant to argue with success. Cramer attracts nearly 2 million viewers each week, no small feat in the heavily fragmented cable market. The call-in lines—not to mention the bandwagon—are filling up.

So why be critical of the show? One reason is purely a subjective matter of style. After all, any discussion of ratings ignores the distinct possibility that millions of other TV viewers are annoyed, not intrigued, by Cramer’s shrill antics. If you haven’t seen the hourly show, think nails on blackboard.

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Jossip is positively brutal on Rita Cosby today….

Plenty of evidence that Rita is 10 parts tabloid to one part journalist, after the jump.

Rita Cosby’s MSNBC show promises “the interviews only Rita can get.” So far, that’s turned out to be a gushfest with Matt Damon (who conveniently was pimping his newest movie), Shar Jackson (who conveniently was pimping her new reality show) and the ladies at the Bunny Ranch (who conveniently were, um, pimping). So I wasn’t exactly shocked to hear her latest “get” was Nicole Narain, who’s pimping her breakout role in Colin Farrell’s sex tape.

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Every once in a while MSNBC does something that makes me think, “Why didn’t FNC think of this first? This is right up their alley.” One of the more famous examples of this was the America’s Bravest wall, a portion of which (at least) is still standing in MSNBC’s Secaucus studios. Now here is another example. MSNBC announced today that Scarborough Country is teaming with the USO to bring phone cards to U.S. servicemen stationed abroad. It’s been dubbed “Operation Phone Home”.

Joe Scarborough will announce details of the campaign on tonight’s “Scarborough Country” (10 pm ET) and will speak with USO President Edward A. “Ned” Powell. Scarborough will continue to keep viewers updated with the progress of donations throughout the campaign. The calling cards will be delivered to troops beginning mid-December. “Scarborough Country” telecasts Monday through Friday on MSNBC, from 10 to 11 pm.

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“We are incredibly proud to be able to join with the USO in Operation Phone Home this year,” said Scarborough. “The holidays can be such a lonely time of year for our troops and the cost of phone calls from the Gulf can be prohibitively expensive. Providing support to the troops is something everyone can easily do and even the smallest amount can make a difference.”

Anna Johns on TV Squad has a list of her five least watchable news personalities. (via FTVLive)

(Note: I’ll be monitoring the comments for this one very closely. So play nice…)

The Daily Illini’s Christine Kim has an article about MSNBC President Rick Kaplan visiting the University of Illinois…

President of MSNBC Rick Kaplan is to visit the University to work with journalism students from Monday until Wednesday.

He will specifically work with the Television Journalism II class with their newsbreak projects that will air on UI7. He also will speak at Dean of the College of Communications Ron Yates’ Reporting I lecture, focusing on what’s next for cable and network news and how MSNBC is covering news in Iraq. Kaplan will also hold one-on-one discussions with graduate students and seniors in broadcasting.

“He manages to contact lots of students by guest lecturing or talking with other classes,” Yates said. “He’s one of the most creative people in the broadcast news, and we feel very fortunate to have this kind of relationship with him, and more than anything else, a great opportunity for our students.”

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New York Magazine’s David Blum writes about the anchor wars among the broadcast networks but somehow manages to inject Anderson Cooper into the discussion. If broadcast news is your thing, this article is a total must read…

Life is tough for television news anchors these days, especially the ones who aren’t Anderson Cooper. Even Cooper’s having it rough lately; at last count, he’s down to only three or four fawning media profiles a week.

Much as the news chiefs might not want to admit it, Anderson Cooper is the best hope for the future, with Klein the behind-the-scenes architect of his ascendancy. Other networks have inquired about Cooper’s status, only to be reminded that his ironclad CNN contract lasts two more years. No matter what he might say about the future of television news, Klein knows there will still be anchors five years from now; that’s why he’s banking so heavily on Cooper, while he still has him under contract. Two weeks ago, the 38-year-old CNN star began hosting the two-hour-long Anderson Cooper 360° every weeknight at 10 p.m., combining the passion of Edward R. Murrow and the pacing of MTV into a jazzy, if still low-rated, package. No one can afford to be content anymore with the idea of a gray eminence (CBS chairman Les Moonves’s famous “voice of God”) behind a desk anymore, unless he’s prematurely gray.

Last Weekend, ICN reported that The Abrams Report would begin broadcasting at 3pm starting Monday. That information was accurate at the time, but is now invalid. The Abrams Report will instead be airing the “early show” at 4pm, displacing Scarborough Country at that timeslot. This means that MSNBC’s schedule will look like this…

4 pm - Abrams Report
5 pm - Hardball
6 pm - Abrams Report

It is not known if the 6pm version of Abrams will be live or tape.

This last change probably also means that the “single anchor” format from 10-12 idea, which had been talked about, will not be implemented since MSNBC Live will remain three hours long.

Bill Quick at Daily Pundit is reporting that CNN has fired a Turner switchboard operator who had been fielding calls complaining about the “X” that appeared on Dick Cheney’s face.

UPDATE: 6:18 PM, PT 11/23/05: Call Authentic, CNN Fires Rep:

I just got off the phone with Laurie Goldberg, Senior Vice President for Public Relations with CNN. Her statement confirms the authenticity of the tape recording and reveals the actions CNN took after learning of the incident:

“A Turner switchboard operator was fired today after we were alerted to a conversation the operator had with a caller in which the operator lost his temper and expressed his personal views — behavior that was totally inappropriate. His comments did not reflect the views of CNN. We are reaching out to the caller and expressing our deep regret to her and apologizing that she did not get the courtesy entitled to her. ”

Blogging will be sporadic the next couple of days due to the holiday. And you really should have better things to do than read blogs on days meant for family and friends. Happy Thanksgiving to you all….

Rebecca Dana and Lizzie Rattner have written an article in the New York Observer about the media and Iraq. Some of the highlights….

While Vietnam is remembered as the television war, Iraq has been the television-crawl war: a scrolling feed of bad-news bits, pushed to the margins by Brad and Jen, Robert Blake, Jacko and two and a half years of other anesthetizing fare. Americans could go days on end without engaging with the war, on TV or in print.

“There’s a dearth of seriousness in the coverage of news,” said veteran war correspondent Christiane Amanpour, “at a time when, in my view, it couldn’t be more serious.”
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Corporate security restrictions likewise stifle reporting. At CNN, reporters need clearance from the bureau chief to leave the network compound; similar rules apply at other networks.

The danger “really impedes our ability to get around the country to talk to average Iraqis, to get a really good sense of what’s going on on a daily basis,” said Paul Slavin, a senior vice president for ABC.
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Following on the heels of Monday’s NY Times article, CJR Daily’s Paul McCleary examines the issue himself…

While Kurtz has taken his lumps over years from the likes of Mickey Kaus and Eric Alterman over his dual — and possibly conflicting — roles as Post media critic and host of CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” Katharine Q. Seelye’s piece in the New York Times yesterday has kick-started the debate anew: Is it really a conflict of interest for Kurtz to hold both positions, which may put him in an uncomfortable spot when the situation calls for him to criticize or interview one or the other of his employers?

Seelye takes it pretty easy on Kurtz, writing that “He draws salaries from two of the most important media companies in the country: CNN, which is owned by Time Warner, and the Post, which is owned by The Washington Post Company. Such arrangements do not violate Post policy. In fact, the Post has quite liberal rules regarding extracurricular work by its reporters and editors.”
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CJR Daily’s Liz Cox Barrett examines yesterday’s overkill coverage on the Gulfstream with only one landing gear down (and makes the same car chase analogy I did). Barrett unfairly singles out FNC for scrutiny in my opinion since all three networks were covering it. Maybe Barrett only watched FNC and that’s why the article is so slanted. In any case I think it unfair to devote a whole article to just one network when all three were beating the story into the ground…

It was a mixed blessing for cable news yesterday when a corporate jet in Oregon developed landing gear troubles soon after takeoff. The upside: dramatic live coverage sure to draw viewers — almost like a police chase in the sky! The downside: lots of airtime to fill.

And no matter how many talking heads news producers call on — pilots, former employees of the National Transportation Safety Board, airport officials in Oregon, even a Gulf Stream 5 expert, all of whom Fox News interviewed yesterday afternoon — chances are they will still be grappling for ways to fill the air (not to mention the screen, as the caption must be constantly refreshed to convey ongoing urgency).

What to do? Here is what Fox News did.
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A few moments ago during Special Report’s Grapevine segment, Brian Wilson made note of recent comments made by Hardball’s Chris Mathews…

MSNBC host Chris Mathews says President Bush invaded Iraq because “he wanted a big bang on the War On Terror”. What’s more the Toronto Sun reports that during a speech to political science students at the University of Toronto, Mathews said The Administration shouldn’t demonize terrosist saying, “the person on the other side isn’t evil. They just have a different perspective.”

Methinks Mathews hasn’t heard the last of this…..

UPDATE: Powerline has comments from Mathews on this incident.

I told the students that the way to deal with terrorists is the way Golda Meir did after the attack on the Israeli Olympic athletes: hunt them down and kill them one at a time and be rough about it.

Every person in that room heard my say this. I don’t know why the reporter chose to conflate my remarks about our need to get behind the forces in the Muslim world into my approach on how to deal with terrorists.

Feel free to check with the University of Toronto students who invited me to speak.

Will FNC note Mathews comments to Powerline on this today?

WHAC notes something that got past FNC’s editing department….

While flipping through the channels, working my way to CNN, my remote got stuck on FNC. They were airing a story on a new, upscale McDonalds having waiters that wear tuxedos. Well they did several panned shots and show the tv’s in the Mickey D’s and low and behold on the tv’s was CNN, NOT FNC. Makes me wonder why whoever put that story together didn’t notice that.

Manhattan Offender weighs in… (via FTVLive)

Now this joke would be mildly funny if delivered by, say, Coco Peru. Perhaps an analogy will be more illustrative though: Sanchez poking fun at discrimination of gays is like me telling jokes about the Mariella boat lift to Cuban-heritaged Sanchez, or hurricane-victim jokes to former Miami-native Sanchez, or jokes about substitute anchors to just-not-ready-to-helm-a-show Rick Sanchez.

Jossip ridicules Rick Sanchez’s sense of humor….

Good morning! We hope you’re enjoying the beginning of your day as much as those whacky CNN anchors, namely Rick Sanchez – who somewhere has a sex act named after him – who had a hysterical approach to the “Thanksgiving in Iraq” segment.

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