Cable News Daily Ratings for March 1, 2007

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 939,000 viewers
CNN – 556,000 viewers
MSNBC – 320,000 viewers
CNBC – 311,000 viewers
HLN – 280,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 2,001,000 viewers
CNN – 1,012,000 viewers
MSNBC – 479,000 viewers
CNBC – 430,000 viewers
HLN – 486,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC – 284,000 viewers
CNN – 212,000 viewers
MSNBC – 134,000 viewers
CNBC – 120,000 viewers
HLN – 111,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 525,000 viewers
CNN – 303,000 viewers
MSNBC – 177,000 viewers
CNBC – 154,000 viewers
HLN – 176,000 viewers

Morning programs P2+ (25-54)
FOX & Friends – 761,000 viewers (266,000)
American Morning – 402,000 viewers (199,000)
Imus in the Morning– 340,000 viewers (145,000)
Robin & Co. – 213,000 viewers (78,000)
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Here are the break in times for the Atlanta Bus accident. MSNBC was very late to the story.

CNN - 6:22 am
FNC - 6:23am
MSNBC - 7:01am ET.

Tuesday, Glenn Beck talked about Keith Olbermann’s comments regarding him and how he might eventually self-destruct. Then a day or two later Beck almost did just that with a poor attempt at humor that embarrassed his guest, himself, and his network. Watching the poor woman’s expression change after the “joke” is painful. Naturally, Beck wound up as Keith Olbermann’s Worst Person In The World for it. YouTube has the video…

YouTube has the video clip of the next episode of FNC’s “1/2 Hour News Hour” airing on Sunday at 10:00 pm ET…

I hesitate to put out even more red meat because some of you have had more than your fill the past couple of days. Nevertheless, here we go. Blogging Stocks’ Jonathan Berr says that NBC should promote Keith Olbermann more on its Nightly News broadcast to drive up its ratings…

If General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE) really wants to boost the faltering ratings at NBC’s “Nightly News with Brian Williams,” it should bring in Keith Olbermann.

The host of MSNBC’s popular “Countdown” show is far from traditional anchor material. He’s loud, occasionally obnoxious and extremely In other words, he’s interesting and people will watch him even if they don’t agree with his political views.

Brian Williams doesn’t have to be replaced; Olbermann would serve as a good counter-point to the affable anchor who was anointed by Tom Brokow as his successor. Maybe Olbermann can have a Lou Dobbs commentator role on the show. Something has to be done.

This morning on American Morning, CNN’s Don Lemon reported live from the scene of the charter bus accident this morning in Atlanta in which as many as six people were killed. CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta was called into Grady Hospital, where the injured were taken and where he is a doctor. CNN investigative correspondent Drew Griffin reports with medical updates from outside the hospital in Atlanta. A partial transcript follows…

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: We’re getting some new pictures in now of the scene of the accident, the bus crash in Atlanta. We have been showing you all morning the pictures. The bus went off of the overpass and it was on its side. They righted it just a few moments ago. It looks like this is one of the first steps in being able to clear the accident scene and hopefully reopen the southbound lanes of Interstate 75 that have been shut down since that pre-dawn accident.

Meanwhile, we’re going to go now to CNN’s Don Lemon at the scene. He has someone with him who actually witnessed that accident in the moments after it happened — Don.

LEMON: We do. And also, Kiran, we also have new video from the hospital. We understand our Sanjay Gupta has been called in as well to Grady Hospital. Some of the injured folks who were brought there — we’re told nine people are seriously injured. We have 20 who are walking wounded. And of course, as you reported, we have six people who died in all of this. As you reference, Kiran, Mike Morris from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution just happened to be on the way to work this morning.
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Ainsley Earhardt will be sitting in on Fox and Friends weekend this weekend…

Pierre Atlas pens an Op-Ed in the Indianapolis Star that decries the sensationalistic bent American cable news takes…

Turn the channel to CNN, Fox News or MSNBC and if the story isn’t about Anna Nicole, it’s about Britney Spears shaving her head.

Steve Adubato, media analyst for MSNBC, observed in his Feb. 14 online column that “it’s a lot easier and more fun to cover celebrity-based, salacious stories than to examine sobering stuff like social security, health care, race relations or what the best approach is in getting out of Iraq.”

Deliberately or not, the mainstream mass media, especially broadcast and cable TV are far more likely to provide mind-numbing distraction rather than information that would be useful to an active and responsible citizenry. In Roman times, it was called “bread and circuses.” Twenty years ago, political scientist Murray Edelman called it “Constructing the Political Spectacle.” This isn’t new; it’s just gotten worse.

The AP writes about Verizon launching a TV service for cell phones which includes a news component…

The eight 24-hour channels are CBS Mobile, Comedy Central, ESPN, Fox Mobile, MTV, NBC 2Go, NBC News 2Go and Nickelodeon

Radar Online got ahold of a PFTAW email that said that Keith Olbermann will be talking with Valerie Plame at a PFTAW event on March 17th. Certain people will be making much hay out of this…

Outed CIA operative Valerie Plame is coming in from the cold to speak with MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann on March 17, according to an announcement e-mailed to supporters of event sponsors People For the American Way. Plame, however, won’t be bumping Richard Lewis’s usual one-on-one shtick with Olbermann on Countdown, and she certainly isn’t filling Michael Musto’s regular slot. A select group of NPR tote baggers will get to see Olbermann and Plame face off live at Manhattan’s Tishman Auditorium.