July 28
P2+ Total Day
FNC – 959,000 viewers
CNN - 510,000 viewers
MSNBC - 218,000 viewers
HLN - 216,000 viewers
CNBC - 166,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 1,507,000 viewers
CNN – 685,000 viewers
MSNBC – 277,000 viewers
HLN - 287,000 viewers
CNBC - 139,000 viewers

25 - 54 Total Day
FNC - 310,000 viewers
CNN - 160,000 viewers
MSNBC - 93,000 viewers
HLN - 107,000 viewers
CNBC – 56,000 viewers

25 - 54 Prime Time
FNC – 353,000 viewers
CNN - 228,000 viewers
MSNBC - 83,000 viewers
HLN - 115,000 viewers
CNBC – 64,000 viewers
(more…)

The AP’s Nedra Pickler writes up some of President Bush’s comments on Your World with Neil Cavuto…

Asked about the Israeli attack later in an interview on Fox’s “Your World with Neil Cavuto,” Bush said the deaths had added pressure on Israel to stop bombing. But, he said, “stopping for the sake of stopping can be OK, except it won’t address the root cause of the problem.”

“Yesterday’s situation was awful,” Bush said. “I understand that, but it’s also awful that a million Israelis are worried about rockets being fired from their neighbor to the north.”

TVNewser has Dan Abrams’ memo announcing the hiring of Davidson Goldin as Editorial Director at MSNBC…

CNBC announced Friday that it will air “August Anxiety: A CNBC Hurricane Special Report” tomorrow during Squawk Box and On The Money…

With much fanfare and angst, the 2006 hurricane season kicked off on June 1st. Since then, the storm front has remained quiet. But the calm period could soon be over. NBC Weather Plus Tropical Expert Jason Cali’s says that although a storm is still more likely to form in September than August, the storms in August are more likely to impact the U.S.

On Tuesday, August 1st, CNBC will air, “August Anxiety: A CNBC Hurricane Special Report” to kick off the month of August, answering the big questions: “Will another US city, and perhaps even the US economy suffer a devastating blow between Aug 1st and Aug 29th? If so, what industries, localities are best prepared? What sectors prosper and what sectors could perish? What, if anything, did we learn from the last few years?”

Special packages will air during “Squawk Box” (M-F, 6am-9am ET) and “On the Money” (M-F, 7pm-8pm ET) with CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla anchoring live from Punta Gorda, Florida and CNBC’s Scott Cohn reporting live from the NOAA in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
(more…)

The St. Petersberg Times Eric Deggans has CNN’s Jonathan Klein talking about his network’s Middle East crisis coverage…(via TVNewser)

Jonathan Klein, president of CNN/U.S., said the cable news channel has placed about 100 or so staffers in the region, including anchors and reporters such as Anderson Cooper, Wolf Blitzer and John Roberts.

He said the channel’s news coverage has evolved from scrambling to cover the basic facts of the early conflict to exploring the larger geopolitical questions such as Syria and Iran’s influence on Hezbollah and the United Nations’ role as a monitor.

“Viewers have short attention spans. They tend to tire of a story and they tend to feel they know the story backward and forward, unless a news organization can provide a layered sense of what is behind the story,” he said. “You could cover this as a series of rockets fired between one side and another … (but) we’re trying to combine visceral coverage with analysis from intelligent people and academia.”

Paul Bedard’s Washington Whispers column notes the The Situation Room’s 1st Anniversary and features a mini-interview with Wolf Blitzer…

While the show is a fast-paced combination of hard news and gizmology, some worry it overexposes Blitzer, on TV at least 17 hours a week when you add in his Sunday talk show. The public’s reaction? They seem to want more: He’s much better rated than some of the programs previously in his time slots. And despite the hours, he’s still got time to phone and E-mail his family and pals during commercials and attend baseball and basketball games. “You try to have a balanced life,” he says, “and make sure you’re not just obsessed with one part of it.”

The Pew Survey breaks down the viewing habits by channel…

There has been little change in the regular audiences for most individual TV news outlets over the past two years. This includes Fox News Channel, whose regular audience increased impressively from 17% to 25% of the general public ­ between 2000 and 2004. This year, 23% say they regularly watch Fox News, virtually no change from two years ago.

(more…)

The Pew study shows that cable news audiences remain polarized along political and ideological lines…

News audiences for cable television news became more polarized along partisan and ideological lines between 2002 and 2004. That polarization remains but has not increased since 2004. Republicans are still much more likely than Democrats to say they regularly watch the Fox News Channel (34% for Republicans, 20% for Democrats), while Democrats are more apt to turn to CNN (28% vs. 19% for Republicans).

The lastest Pew survey on the media is out and it finds that no cable media outlet holds a significant lead in the credibility department. Some networks have declined in credibility which Pew attributes to a general skepticism in the viewing public. FNC’s credibility has remained unchanged.

Changing public views of CNN perhaps best exemplify these trends. In 1998, 42% of those familiar enough with CNN to rate the network said they believed all or most of what CNN reported, significantly more than for any broadcast or cable news outlet tested. Today, just 28% give CNN the highest believability rating, a share which is statistically indistinguishable from most other television news sources.
________________

One of the few sources that has not suffered a credibility decline in recent years is Fox News Channel. Currently, one-in-four (25%) say they believe all or most of what they see on Fox News Channel, virtually unchanged since the outlet was first tested in 2000. This overall stability, however, belies the increasingly polarized views of the cable channel. An increasing number of Republicans give Fox News Channel the highest rating for believability, while there has been a comparable decline in ratings among Democrats ­ doubling the partisan gap in views of the network’s credibility between 2004 and 2006.

(more…)

Offsite again today. Blogging will be sporadic…

Reuters has a story (uncredited) on CNN’s to be announced Tuesday initiative on citizen journalism…

The cable news network on Tuesday plans to announce it has created a new program to let users send in digital audio and video from breaking news events in their region. Users can e-mail or upload these so-called “I-Reports” directly from CNN’s site.

Contributions are vetted by seasoned editors much in the same way all news tips are followed up, Susan Bunda, senior vice president of news at CNN/U.S. said in an interview.

The news network also has created a new Web site, CNN Exchange, which will house user-generated audio and video submissions.

The new website is located here…

UPDATE: Broadcasting & Cable’s Anne Becker has more (via TVNewser)…
(more…)

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Tim Cuprisin has an interview with The Fox Report’s Shepard Smith…

These days, his schedule runs from “2 p.m. local time through 7 a.m. local time, and we sleep after that.” And he noted that he’s more plugged in than he’s ever been on such a story.

“This is the first conflict that I’ve been involved with, or the first major story, including Katrina, where our BlackBerry devices work. So we’re able to get real-time both wires and internal reporting.”

The ratings show the effectiveness of having Smith on the scene. Nielsen Media Research numbers, supplied by Fox, show his “Fox Report” averaging 1.6 million viewers, more than CNN, Headline News, MSNBC and CNBC combined between July 17 and 25.

CNN broadcast CNN International at 6 am. They also did it at 1 AM and CNNI had the Qana airstrike. CNN did a live edition of Larry King Live with John Roberts hosting from Israel. Kyra Phillips was at the newsdesk in Atlanta.

FNC had a bunch of reports during Fox and Friends and Fox News Live at 10 am from Greg Burke, Greg Palkot, Steve Centani, and David Lee Miller reporting from around the region. Studio B with Trace Gallagher was live from Israel. FNC was live with War Stories, Hannity & Colmes, and On The Record.

UPDATE: An emailer writes in to note that FNC also had the Qana airstrike at 4:10 am with Darby Dunn anchoring and David Lee Miller and Greg Palkot reporting from the region.

MSNBC cut back its daytime coverage, which it had expanded two weeks ago to cover the crisis. It went to tape at 4 pm and stayed there with news updates every half hour. MSNBC spent a lot of time talking strategy with its military analysts; moreso than usual. Usually it’s just one analyst on at a time but today there were as many as three on at the same time.

This morning on CNN’s Reliable Sources one of the subjects discussed was the Middle East crisis and the media. Joining Howard Kurtz were CNN anchor John Roberts, CNN special correspondent Frank Sesno, and author/blogger Eric Boehlert. Transcript follows…

KURTZ: Welcome back to RELIABLE SOURCES. We turn now to the question whether Israel and Lebanon are getting a fair shake in the media coverage of a war that’s produced civilian casualties and disturbing images on both sides.

Joining us now to talk about that and other issues, in New York, Eric Boehlert who blogs at the huffingtonpost.com and is author of the new book “Lapdogs” about the Beltway press corps.

Here in Washington, Frank Sesno, CNN special correspondent and professor of media and public affairs at the George Washington (sic) University. And in northern Israel along the border is CNN’s John Roberts.

John Roberts, what has been the Israeli media reaction to the mounting civilian casualties in Lebanon, even leaving aside this morning’s devastation of a four- story apartment building. Is there anguish about this or is there a sense that, well this, is war?
(more…)

Variety’s Michael Learmonth writes that FNC is close to settling a sex discrimination lawsuit filed by the EEOC regarding advertising/on-air promotions executive Joe Chillemi…

Fox News Channel is close to settling a sex discrimination suit filed by the Feds on behalf of four former female employees.

In a deal expected to be announced as soon as Monday, sources said Fox will pay a nominal sum — less than $250,000 — to the four women involved, but admits no wrongdoing.

FNC will be airing live version of Hannity & Colmes and On The Record with Greta Van Susteren at 9 pm and 10 pm ET respectively…

Running around the internet this morning I came across this in the New York Times by Richard Siklos. I don’t know how many FNC staff will qualify for this because the “250 most senior News Corp Managers” is a pretty small group considering the size of News Corp. But it sure looks impressive. You’d think it was Davos or something…

The gathering kicks off with an introduction by Mr. Murdoch, remarks by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and an address by Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain.

The agenda includes discussions featuring Senator John McCain, the former House speaker Newt Gingrich and the former Vice President Al Gore, and a “town hall meeting” with Bill Clinton. Bono will deliver a keynote speech, as will former Prime Minister Shimon Peres of Israel.

If you had the power to remove one program from CNN’s lineup, which one would it be and why? (I’m going to be asking this question with the other networks too so don’t be accusing me of singling out CNN now…)

The Virginian-Pilot has an editorial on Keith Olbermann’s TCA stunt…

Woody Allen once said, “I can’t listen to that much Wagner. I start getting the urge to conquer Poland.”

Pretty funny guy, that Woody Allen. He’s one of the few comedians who could crack a Nazi joke and get a laugh, not a wince. Mel Brooks is another. (“Springtime for Hitler,” anyone?)

Keith Olbermann , take note.

(NOTE: I thought I would have time to blog this evening before heading out but my Offsite dragged long. Now it’s 11:30 pm and I have to play catch up…)

July 27

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 1,061,000 viewers
CNN - 546,000 viewers
MSNBC - 234,000 viewers
HLN - 211,000 viewers
CNBC – 158,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 1,842,000 viewers
CNN – 871,000 viewers
MSNBC - 337,000 viewers
HLN – 381,000 viewers
CNBC - 174,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC - 354,000 viewers
CNN - 206,000 viewers
MSNBC – 103,000 viewers
HLN – 82,000 viewers
CNBC – a scratch with 42,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC - 532,000 viewers
CNN - 222,000 viewers
MSNBC - 147,000 viewers
HLN – 111,000 viewers
CNBC – 57,000 viewers
(more…)

The New York Daily News’ Helen Kennedy chronicles the Olbermann/O’Reilly feud and covers some pretty old territory in the process, making it sound a lot more heated than it has been recently, particularly from O’Reilly’s side.(via TVNewser)

Despite squashing Olbermann like a bug in the ratings every night and lording it over cable news in general, the plainspoken, blue-collar O’Reilly frequently fails to ignore the snarky Ivy League pest poking fun at him.

He’s called Olbermann - whose name he never says on the air - a “smear merchant,” complains about MSNBC’s “cheap shots” and has warned NBC brass that he would “go into greater detail about the problems besetting that network” unless Olbermann is reined in.

A special edition of War Stories with Oliver North will air live Sunday at 8pm on FNC…

FOX News Channel (FNC) presents a special live episode of War Stories with Oliver North on Sunday, July 30th at 8PM/ET that will feature interviews with former hostages Terry Anderson and David Jacobsen. Anderson and Jacobsen will discuss their experiences as hostages of Hezbollah.

Anderson was a correspondent for the Associated Press when he was kidnapped by Hezbollah in 1985 and held hostage in Lebanon for more than six years. Jacobsen was a director of the American University Hospital in Lebanon when he was kidnapped and held hostage by Hezbollah. Jacobsen was released in 1986 after 17 months of captivity.

CNN announced that Larry King snagged Floyd Landis for an exclusive interview tonight at 9 pm ET…

In a prime-time exclusive interview, 2006 Tour de France champion Floyd Landis will appear on CNN’s Larry King Live Friday, July 28, at 9 p.m. (ET). He will discuss the doping allegations that have put his Tour de France win in question.

UPDATE: Here’s the transcript…

LARRY KING, CNN HOST: Last Sunday American Floyd Landis won cycling’s biggest race, the Tour de France. He did it after one of the most dramatic comebacks in the history of the event but a doping test which showed an abnormality has cast a major doubt over the victory and today in his first public appearance since the controversy broke, Landis proclaimed his innocence and he joins me now from Madrid.

Was all this, Floyd, a shock to you?

FLOYD LANDIS, BICYCLIST: Good evening, Larry, and yes, it was a shock as much to me as to anyone else.

KING: Now, tell me about the testing process. Do they test you right – when does the test take place?

LANDIS: The way it works is they test three people each day. They test the winning of each stage, they test the leader of the race and then they test a random person in the race.

All of these take place directly at the finish line. It turns out the leader of the race has often things to do at the podium and awards but immediately after that, but within a half an hour, I would say, maximum.
(more…)

Offsite today. Blogging will be sporadic.

Brian over at TVNewser (not to be confused with Dylan…Dylan?) notes that FNC has posted the full transcript of Roger Ailes’ appearance at the TCA…

ROGER AILES: Good afternoon. I understand you’ve been locked in here for three weeks, so I’m going to try to get you through this as quickly as I can. I got an e-mail from a guy in Guantanamo and he said, “We got to get these prisoners out of there,” so we’ll do our best.

FOX News is doing pretty well. We overtook CNN at the end of 2001. We haven’t lost a day to them for almost 60 months now. Since 2002, our cable news marketplace share has increased from 38 percent to 54 percent. Our primetime has made three or four adjustments over the ten years. Our competition, MSNBC and CNN have cancelled 54 shows against us in that time. We’re now seen in 80 countries. Ad sales has increased and continues to; over the last five years, cumulative growth over 30 percent a year.

But I really want to talk about our journalism. I was going to bring Shep Smith with me, but he’s standing by in Israel. I’m going to introduce him in a minute if you have questions.

FNC just teased that on Monday Neil Cavuto will be interviewing President Bush on Your World…

UPDATE: FNC issued a release on this…

FOX News Channel’s Neil Cavuto will conduct an interview with President George W. Bush on Monday, July 31st from the Port of Miami. The interview will be presented on Your World with Neil Cavuto on Monday from 4-5PM/ET.

Among the topics Cavuto and President Bush will discuss, include: the conflict in the Middle East and its effect on oil prices and the economy.

CNN Radio announced that it will air a one hour special on Global Warming hosed by CNN technology corresponent Daniel Sieberg. “Feeling the Heat” will air Thursday, August 3rd at 2pm ET…

For the special, Sieberg and CNN Radio talk to lawmakers and scientists most closely affiliated with the often tense debate over global warming. They also speak with actor Ed Begley Jr., an environmental activist and one of the first to use the latest state-of-the-art electronic car, and with How Stuff Works founder Marshall Brain, who reveals what he thinks is the most practical alternative fuel source. Sieberg and CNN Radio then take their interviews directly to ordinary people, including a man who runs his car on vegetable oil, another who uses bio-diesel and another who built a car that gets 100 miles per gallon.
(more…)

Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith in the National Ledger have a mini-interview with Greta Van Susteren about her Natalee Holloway shows…

Greta Van Susteren doesn’t mince words when it comes to answering complaints about sensational and provocative fare making it into the mix of news and politics on her “On the Record” show — such as a story about a judge who used a sex toy while on the bench, or the show’s ongoing attention to the story of coed Natalee Holloway, who disappeared in Aruba more than a year ago.

Anderson Cooper makes Digital Journal’s list of 10 Rebels with a Cause…

As much as his work is about death and loss, it’s also about removing the filter. A classic Cooper moment will feature all the raw emotion reporters are taught to stifle. Even his inflection often hints at his true feelings about a story.

Forget Blitzer, King and Soledad: this grey-haired wunderkind actually makes CNN worth watching.

July 26
P2+ Total Day
FNC – 1,097,000 viewers
CNN - 626,000 viewers
MSNBC - 241,000 viewers
HLN - 202,000 viewers
CNBC - 184,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC - 2,144,000 viewers
CNN – 879,000 viewers
MSNBC – 296,000 viewers
HLN - 371,000 viewers
CNBC - 143,000 viewers

25 - 54 Total Day
FNC - 361,000 viewers
CNN - 235,000 viewers
MSNBC - 105,000 viewers
HLN - 78,000 viewers
CNBC – 53,000 viewers

25 - 54 Prime Time
FNC – 602,000 viewers
CNN - 297,000 viewers
MSNBC - 132,000 viewers
HLN - 124,000 viewers
CNBC – 77,000 viewers
(more…)

Johnny Dollar has the video of FNC’s David Lee Miller coming under rocket fire.

UPDATE: Here’s a transcript of the incident…

David Lee Miller: “Oh my goodness, we are under attack here now one more time. We are being fired upon by rockets here. I’m going to ask my photographer to stay on my here while I grab a flack jacket. Can you hand me a jacket there, Miriam?

That was one of many rockets that hit northern Israel today. We have been hit by as many as 80 of these in the north a short time ago. We had a dozen or so that hit us here in Kiryat Shmona. I’m looking around now to asses the damage It seems to hit something in a field. I don’t know what we can show for censorship reasons. Can we show that? We are going to cover our camera for a second and focus on the damage. We have another camera here to show the damage? We are going to do it that way. We’ll let you see the damage for yourself.
(more…)

MSNBC announced that Hardball Executive Producer Tammy Haddad has been promoted to Vice President, Washington for MSNBC…

Award-winning broadcaster Tammy Haddad has been named Vice President, Washington for MSNBC, overseeing political and election coverage for the network from MSNBC’s Washington office. She will also continue in her role as Executive Producer of “Hardball with Chris Matthews.” The announcement was made by Dan Abrams, General Manager of MSNBC. Haddad will report to Abrams.

For the past two years, Haddad has served as Executive Producer of “Hardball” and MSNBC’S primetime political director. In that role, she has overseen the coverage of the 2004 presidential election as well as MSNBC’s signature political program, “Hardball.” She also developed a series of specials and documentaries including “Picking the Next President,” the Hardball Heroes Tour and “JFK: The Day that Changed America.” Haddad came to MSNBC in June of 2003 as Executive in Charge of the daily political show, “Buchanan and Press.”
(more…)

Fishbowl D.C. has an interview with Megyn Kendall…

What single person played the biggest role / had the biggest influence on your journalism career? Henry Ford, who said: “If you think you can do a thing, or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.”

Beach, city or country? City. Beach leads to cancer. Country’s fun for a day and then a yawn. City is busy and dirty and crazy and yet so much fun.

MSNBC was broadcasting a car chase at around the 11:50 am hour. Say what you will about Rick Kaplan but at least he kept those idiotic things off the air…

UPDATE: Grrrrrrr…FNC and HLN are covering it too. At least CNN is showing some restraint…

TVNewser has a CNN spokesperson issuing what seems to me like a non-denial denial about Roger Ailes’ claim at the TCA that the network has spent 20 million dollars to market Anderson Cooper noted below…

‘’We haven’t spent $20 million marketing a single star, as one of our competitors has, although not their top-rated star, which I found interesting,'’ said Ailes in a clear reference to CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, who despite an enormous advertising campaign still trails Fox News programming by a 2-1 deficit.

CNN doesn’t actually come out and say that they didn’t spend that much. They just question where Ailes got that figure. That’s why it seems like a non-denial denial to me…