Reese blogs about the October numbers…

The most striking number in the October ratings is 7%. That’s 7% more primetime Fox News total persons viewing this year than last October. In every other category Fox lost. Of course, CNN lost viewers in every meaningful category, while NBC’s audience gains flattened or disappeared. Here’s a look:

The AP writes that FNC chief Roger Ailes made a donation to his alma mater Ohio University…

Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes donated money to Ohio University for a renovated student newsroom, the school said Wednesday.

The newsroom, expected to be functional in early 2008, is part of a larger renovation to the school’s radio and television building.

The amount of Ailes’ donation wasn’t disclosed. He graduated from the school in 1962.

NABET is painting a dire picture for non-union MSNBC employees as it tries to organize them…

MSNBC

Are You Affected?

In the wake of the move from Secaucus to 30 Rock, some MSNBC employees are facing a loss of jobs. Some estimate the cuts to be about half the current MSNBC staff. Don’t get caught in the crossfire. Find out what you can do to protect your jobs. NABET-CWA Local 11 has been representing NBC employees since the 1950’s, which is about the last time there were any layoffs among our ranks.

Update: TVNewser has an emailer who said it’s not going to happen…

Update 2: An emailer writes in to ICN…

I read the following on ICN, pursuant to your link:

NABET-CWA Local 11 has been representing NBC employees since the 1950’s, which is about the last time there were any layoffs among our ranks.

This is a blatant lie. There have been numerous layoffs involving NABET-represented people since the 1950s. NABET allowed NBC to create a second-class “perma-temp” employee and these “Daily Hires” (NABET language) or “Quick Hires” (NBC language) are routinely laid off by NBC with no action by NABET whatsoever.

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Johnny Dollar has the audio from the John Gibson radio program where Judge Andrew Napolitano goes mano-a-mano with Gibson over Napolitano’s new book…

Marketwatch’s Jon Friedman writes about Stephen Colbert’s interviews by “star-struck journalists”…

The clever host of Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report” is holding the usually clear-eyed media in the palm of his hand and bringing out the worst in some star-struck journalists who should know better.

New York Times curmudgeon Maureen Dowd beseeched Colbert to write a not-too-funny column for her. (Stick to your night job, Steve.) Noted powerbroker Tim Russert invited Colbert to go on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and suck up the rarified air of Washington’s elite.

It’s depressing to watch respected journalists lower themselves just to tickle Colbert’s funny bone. Dowd is the wittiest columnist anywhere, and Russert is the best interviewer in television news. They shouldn’t be kissing up to a comedian, even one as talented as Colbert.

…is available for viewing at C-Span. I mention this because emailers were asking if MSNBC would re-run it and as of this morning I heard there were currently no plans to do so.

Last Friday, Hannity & Colmes aired a report on CNN’s Planet in Peril by going to the University of Alabama to have students in a forum give their opinions on the CNN doc. The “forum” was moderated by Dr. John Christy, climatologist and critic of the “Global Warming” theory.

Monday, ICN was contacted by one of the students who attended the forum, Christopher Hain. He wrote that several of the students there felt that what aired on Hannity & Colmes was not an accurate portrail of either the forum or some of the views represented on it. The forum itself was open to all Atmospheric Science graduate students at the University and not just students who attended Dr. Christy’s classes; 10 students in all. Of those 10, Hain says three or four disagreed with at least part of the responses given on the H&C segment, which in percentage terms would be 30-40% of the students.

In watching the video I noticed Alan Colmes asked Dr. Christy, “…the students we saw in that clip…were they representative of the people in your class? There were a lot of students who were not photographed who probably had a different view, right?” To which Christy responded, “I think there were a wide range of views presented in that and those were not special students selected. They volunteered to come.” Which begs the obvious question, if there was “a wide range of views presented” why were only the critical views shown in the segment?

ICN interviewed Hain Monday afternoon…
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Factoring in MSNBC’s debate into the rankings of all cable news debates, MSNBC’s Democratic debate last night ranked fifth according to Live+SD ratings.

1. 9/5/07 on FNC (GOP), 3.202 million viewers
2. 6/3/07 on CNN (DEM), 2.783 million viewers
3. 7/23/07 on CNN (DEM), 2.566 million viewers
4. 5/15/07 on FNC (GOP), 2.545 million viewers
5. 10/30/07 on MSNBC (DEM), 2.465 million viewers

If you factor in broadcast debates, MSNBC’s debate last night came in 6th according to Live ratings…

As these debates occur on different days of the week and at various time periods and up against various other programs, it’s somewhat problematic to make direct comparisons. For example FNC’s last debate was on a Sunday night and was up against Sunday Night Football and Game 7 of the American League Championship. But despite the heavy competition it still pulled in 2,367,000 viewers.
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Cable News Daily Live Ratings for October 30, 2007

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 792,000 viewers
CNN – 450,000 viewers
MSNBC – 493,000 viewers
CNBC – 245,000 viewers
HLN – 216,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 1,651,000 viewers
CNN – 714,000 viewers
MSNBC- 1,917,000 viewers
CNBC –253,000 viewers
HLN – 421,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC – 208,000 viewers
CNN – 159,000 viewers
MSNBC – 170,000 viewers
CNBC – 79,000 viewers
HLN- 92,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 351,000 viewers
CNN – 232,000 viewers
MSNBC – 613,000 viewers
CNBC – 116,000 viewers
HLN – 160,000 viewers

Morning programs P2+ (25-54)
FOX & Friends – 827,000 viewers (279,000)
American Morning- 323,000 viewers (126,000)
Morning Joe – 191,000 viewers (63,000)
Robin & Co. – 223,000 viewers (98,000)
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From an emailer…

Liz Claman and David Asman’s show this afternoon, FBN was crowing about having the first live wireless roving camera on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Well, one would think that Claman might have recalled that more than a year ago, while she was an anchor at CNBC, she herself spent two hours on the floor of the Merc with just that technology, talking to traders ahead of a Fed decision that day.

Update: FBN’s wireless Merc presence will be on an ongoing basis. So there’s a substantial difference between a one off like what happened on CNBC and what FBN is going to be doing.

Cable Rant is hearing that CNN-HD is coming to Cablevision. Apparently viewers are seeing promotions for the new channel on the channel guide. The channel is due to be rolled out between November 6th and 8th. Cablevision is moving around its HD channels to make room apparently. CNN-HD is set to be channel 725 which is currently occupied by Sportschannel. The SD feed for CNN is channel 25 so I can see the reason for 725 for HD.

As if the Cablevision MSNBC exclusive that freezes out Verizon FiOS in New York City and parts of New Jersey wasn’t bad enough, TVNewser is keeping an eye on an ugly pattern of Comcast, in various markets around the country, taking MSNBC off its analog tier and put on its digital tier to save bandwidth. And all this happened because NBC didn’t negotiate the contract in a way that would have prevented Comcast from doing what it’s doing. As Aaron Barnhart writes…

So the question really is — why did NBC Universal leave MSNBC exposed? NBC executives typically negotiate cable carriage on behalf of affiliates, and they’re supposed to make sure the cable company carries all their channels with the most favorable placements possible. MSNBC has been relegated to the level of Sleuth and Chiller, two NBCU digital offerings that mostly act as rerun machines.

Update: An emailer offers up some interesting, albeit unsubstantiated, speculation on why Cablevision may have an exclusive for MSNBC…

I wonder if the exclusive thing they did with Cablevision was to keep cablevision from dumping them to digital only? They must have felt squeezed

Tim Russert landed Stephen Colbert for his Saturday MSNBC program…

Stephen Colbert, host of Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report,” interviewed by Tim Russert on the October 21st episode of “Meet the Press” and Howard Kurtz, Washington Post columnist and author of “Reality Show,” will appear on this week’s edition of “Tim Russert.”

“Tim Russert” features interviews with the country’s most intriguing policymakers, authors, journalists and others, and provides in-depth discussions on politics, entertainment and the media.

Tim Russert is host of “Tim Russert.” Barbara Fant is the executive producer.

Interesting. MSNBC has started collecting the best quotes from Keith Olbermann and putting them out on a weekly basis…

Update: They had done this before but not for nearly a year…

Following are quotes from “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” for October 22-26. “Countdown,” a unique newscast that counts down the day’s top stories, telecasts weeknights, 8-9 p.m. ET on MSNBC. Complete program transcripts are available at www.tv.msnbc.com.

“Britain’s Daily Star says Britney [Spears] will be singing a ‘Sesame Street’ duet with Oscar the Grouch, a perfect match since we already know Oscar would be lip synching while there was some guy’s hand on his butt.”
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Extreme Mortman wraps up what some of the political media players, including FNC’s Carl Cameron, Major Garrett and Jim Pinkerton, MSNBC’s Chuck Todd, Tucker Carlson, and David Shuster, and CNBC’s John Harwood will be doing this New Years in Des Moines, Iowa…

CNBC announced that it was nominated for eight Business Emmy Awards…

CNBC, First in Business Worldwide, today received eight nominations for the 5th Annual Emmy Awards for Business & Financial Reporting. The awards recognize outstanding achievement in business and financial reporting broadcast from July 1, 2006 through June 30, 2007.

“We are honored to receive eight nominations for the Emmy Awards for Business & Financial Reporting,” said Jonathan Wald, Senior Vice President Business News. “Being recognized with these nominations confirms that CNBC is America’s Business Channel providing fast, accurate, actionable and unbiased business news of quality.”

CNBC received the following nominations:
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Following up on this from last week, The Chicago Tribune’s Phil Rosenthal has some not so good news…

Here’s hoping Erich “Mancow” Muller (late of WKQX-FM 101.1) and Amy Jacobson (late of WMAQ-Ch. 5) weren’t counting on the pilot they taped last week for Fox News Channel to boost their respective careers. Said a Fox News executive with knowledge of the situation: “The show will never see the light of day.”

CNN announced a new air date for its “The Noose: An American Nightmare”. The CNN Special Investigations Unit special will now premiere on November 1st at 8pm ET…

Since July, there have been more than a dozen reported incidents of nooses being displayed around the nation apparently intended to intimidate black people. CNN investigates whether the upsurge in these acts are associated with the events surrounding “The Jena 6″ in Louisiana or part of a growing, more widespread racial intolerance. CNN’s Kyra Phillips, who recently reported the network’s in-depth investigation, Judgment in Jena, will anchor a special one-hour report, CNN: Special Investigations Unit – The Noose: An American Nightmare, Thursday, Nov. 1, at 8 p.m. The Noose premieres one day before “National Black Out Day,” an economic boycott expected to be supported by thousands across the country to protest racial and economic injustices.

The documentary will replay Saturday, Nov. 3, and Sunday, Nov. 4, at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. All times Eastern.
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CNN announced that Wolf Blitzer will be doing weekly radio reports for CNN affiliates on the 2008 campaign…

CNN’s lead political anchor Wolf Blitzer will provide CNN Radio affiliates with a weekly update of the 2008 campaign trail, giving listeners a rundown of the whereabouts and goings-on of the leading Democratic and Republican candidates as they seek the U.S. presidency.

New “America Votes 2008” radio reports from Blitzer will be released every Monday starting Nov. 5—exactly one year before election day—and will continue through the presidential campaign. Each segment will run a minute in length and can be found in the special “America Votes 2008” section of the network’s affiliate site at www.CNNRadio.com and also will be available in the 4:07 a.m. news feed.
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Here are the Program ranker and Channel ranker for the month of October. FNC ranked 5th in primetime basic cable. CNN ranked 27th. Of the top 15 programs in cable news, FNC had 13. Larry King Live was the only CNN program to break the top 10.
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The Triangle’s Janhavi Purohit writes about a Chris Matthews book signing at Drexel University yesterday…

Matthews held a brief talk in which he addressed the student audience and answered a few questions. He began his address to students with his view of the modern-day political situation.

“I think I’m a skeptic. I ask the right questions,” Matthews said. “Most politicians don’t like to give answers.”

The American perception of our country’s role in the world also needs adjustment, according to Matthews.

“We’re involved in an echo chamber of dim-wittedness when it comes to the world view,” Matthews said.

The Hollywood Reporter’s Alex Woodson writes about the Future of Business Media conference that both Neil Cavuto and Mark Hoffman spoke at…

Update: Paidcontent.org has more…

Cavuto expressed frustration with how CNBC has used Wall Street Journal reporters in light of the pending acquisition of WSJ parent Dow Jones by News Corp.

CNBC has an exclusive contract to use WSJ reporters for its business stories until 2012, while FBN has only been using the reporters for non-business-related stories.

Cavuto said that before the acquisition, CNBC was not as interested in using the reporters as they are now. He compared the network’s actions to the way one kid only wants to play with a toy that another kid is playing with.

Commenting further on Dow Jones, Cavuto said that once the sale becomes final, “there’s a lot we can look at.” He said that the online presence of Dow Jones, which includes MarketWatch and Barrons in addition to the Wall Street Journal’s Web site, could be a part of FBN’s Web strategy.

When asked about FBN, which is broadcast to 30 million homes, Hoffman said that with 95 million viewers in North America and 390 million worldwide for CNBC, it would be unfair to compare the two networks.

Rather, he said, FBN “deserves credit” for launching the channel, which is a “very, very tough” thing to do. This echoed comments from NBC Uni CEO Jeff Zucker on Monday, during which he got in several digs, too.