Carlin didn't see TV critics fleeing before Ailes' presentation
Romenesko Letters
Oregonian TV critic Peter Ames Carlin questions Glenn Garvin's observation about critics and Fox News chief Roger Ailes. "I have no idea what made him think that two-thirds of our colleagues left the room before the Fox News session with Roger Ailes. If some reporters left grumbling about FNC's politics they were a distinct minority. The room remained crowded, there were plenty of questions, hardly any of them were confrontational." || Read Garvin's response.
GARVIN's reply:
From GLENN GARVIN, TV critic, Miami Herald: Peter's claim that the room was "crowded" is quite mysterious to me. There were about 150 critics accredited for Monday's session, and I'd say my estimate of 50 in attendance was generous. Whether the rest were simply too tired to attend a session with Ailes -- one of the most powerful executives in television, making his first appearance at the gathering in 10 years -- there is no way to know, but I certainly heard several derogatory comments about Fox News before the session from critics who did not attend. At a party later that night, several critics told me they considered the low attendance extremely unfortunate not only on journalistic grounds but because it would give Fox News further ammo for its contention that it's treated unfairly in the press.
Characterizing the atmosphere in the room Monday is necessarily subjective. But no other news organization that has appeared at the TCA meetings opened with a video castigating critics by name, and no other news organization has been accused during a session of maintaining an "enemies list," as Ailes was, or asked to promise that they would not imbue local local newscasts with their network's "attitude," as Ailes was.
And it fairly boggles my mind to imagine that Ailes could have gotten an uproarious laugh from the critics by comparing the host of a rival network's show to Hitler, as MSNBC's Keith Olbermann did a couple of days earlier.
http://poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=11651