MSNBC, Lifted by War, Works to Keep Its Gains (Sorensen Admits CNN is leftist)

The Wall Street Journal ^ | April 21, 2003 | Joe Flint

[Timesink]

Perhaps the high point of cable-news channel MSNBC's war coverage came when a newspaper photo depicted Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld working in front of a television tuned to the network. For an outlet whose small audience until recently seemed to comprise mainly the joke writers at "Saturday Night Live," who relished poking fun at the troubled channel, it was something of a validation.

[Timesink]

I strongly disagree with the hoary old "there may not be enough viewers to support three news channels" canard. We could have TEN if they were programmed correctly. The only problem is that the channels usually haven't been programmed well at all, so people ignore them.

[Steve_Seattle]

I find MSNBC to be an acceptable alternative to FOX.

[nutmeg]

FoxFan ping!

Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent FoxFan list.

[Interesting Times]

The "Fading Story" graph tells a striking tale overlooked by Nielsen: Fox News retained 85% of its primetime viewers "after the war," compared to CNN's 49.3 and MSNBC's 47.1. Fox News more than doubled CNN's primetime viewers during the most recent period.

[HAL9000]

Where is Imus?

[aristeides]

Wasn't Imus on this morning? He was sick with pneumonia last week.

[nutmeg]

FYI

[Paradox]

I find MSNBC to be an acceptable alternative to FOX.

I agree, in fact, I found their coverage to be better. I really enjoyed Bob Arnot and David Bloom. MSNBC's coverage was surprisingly good, without being "over the top" as I sometimes felt that Fox news was.

[prairiebreeze]

Me too. Scarborough is pretty much OK. And I think MSNBC's coverage in general has become less lib-baised. Beats the heck out of CNN.

Prairie

[dodger]

It really hurts to say this, but MSNBC generally did the best and most lively field reporting while Fox relied too much on studio chatter (and -- yikes -- Geraldo). Lester Holt was excellent much of the time whereas Shep Smith was off-puttingly hammy (and those cataracty eyes of his are weird).

MSNBC still let a bit of lefty editorialism leak in, but who would have thought they would be, basically, fair & balanced!

[Paradox]

Err, I meant thats I found MSNBC's coverage to _sometimes_ be better than Fox.

[Timesink]

Where is Imus?

I've been watching the trade papers, and haven't seen anything to indicate MSNBC is planning to permanently dump Imus. Perhaps later this week?

[SolidSupplySide]

I prefer MSNBC to Fox.

Fox has too much opinion and not enough news. But at least unlike CNN or the NY Times, Fox is upfront that their fare is opinion. Fox likens its prime time schedule to the op/ed page of a newspaper. CNN and the NY Times claim that their opinion is "news".

[Coop]

I agree, in fact, I found their coverage to be better. I really enjoyed Bob Arnot and David Bloom. MSNBC's coverage was surprisingly good, without being "over the top" as I sometimes felt that Fox news was.

I still definitely prefer FNC, but MSNBC does pretty well. Those are my two TV news sources, and I avoid CNN and ABC News like the plague.

[JmyBryan]

I second your thoughts entirely. If Fox didn't have their embeddeds, especially Ollie North, I would have rarely watched them. MSNBC proved to be the best cable news network for "hard news".

[JoJo Gunn]

I won't give Sorenson and MSNBC any slack.

http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2003/cyb20030417.asp#2

MSNBC Chief Goes from Scorning Patriotic
Coverage to Hyping It

In a remarkable transformation, upon figuring out that appearing patriotic helps in the ratings, MSNBC chief Erik Sorenson has gone from disdaining pro-American patriotic programming to championing it.

In November of 2001, Sorenson grumbled that if you make “any misstep...you can get into trouble with these guys and have the Patriotism Police hunt you down." In a New York Times story he ridiculed those concerned about the tone of post-9/11 coverage: “These are hard jobs. Just getting the facts straight is monumentally difficult. We don't want to have to wonder if we are saluting properly. Was I supposed to use the three-fingered salute today?"
Jump ahead to Wednesday's New York Times this week and reporter Jim Rutenberg noted, the MRC's Rich Noyes observed, how MSNBC now “has patriotic flourishes throughout the day,” including “the regular screen presence of an American flag” and “an 'America's Bravest' studio wall shows snapshots of men and women serving in Iraq.” Sorenson acknowledged that he's realized that “after Sept. 11 the country wants more optimism and benefit of the doubt.”

Excerpts of the two New York Times stories:

-- November 7, 2001 story on coverage of the war on terrorism:

....Much of the criticism comes from a group of conservative media voices and outlets, including Rush Limbaugh's radio talk show, The New York Post's editorial page, The Drudge Report and some commentators on the Fox News Channel. Much of the information for their critiques has been assembled by a conservative media watchdog organization called the Media Research Center, which hires full-time monitors to watch the network newscasts.

These outlets have kept tabs on the media for some time and were on the opposite side of the White House for the Clinton presidency.

How their criticism will affect coverage of the war is an open question. But news executives at CNN, ABC and MSNBC said they were conscious of the criticism while making their day-to-day decisions about coverage.

“Any misstep and you can get into trouble with these guys and have the Patriotism Police hunt you down," said Erik Sorenson, president of MSNBC. "These are hard jobs. Just getting the facts straight is monumentally difficult. We don't want to have to wonder if we are saluting properly. Was I supposed to use the three-fingered salute today?"...

-- April 16, 2003, “Cable's War Coverage Suggests a New 'Fox Effect' on Television,” by Jim Rutenberg:

....MSNBC has patriotic flourishes throughout the day. Along with the regular screen presence of an American flag, Mr. Bush's portrait is featured on MSNBC's main set and an "America's Bravest" studio wall shows snapshots of men and women serving in Iraq.

Neal Shapiro, the NBC News president, said MSNBC hired Mr. Scarborough and Mr. Savage to add political equilibrium to its lineup of hosts. Before the war, Mr. Shapiro said, all of them -- Chris Matthews, Phil Donahue, Bill Press and Pat Buchanan -- opposed the war. Mr. Donahue's program was canceled in February.

"If you have a range of opinion that leaves out a whole part of the country," Mr. Shapiro said, "you're unintentionally sending a message that 'you are not welcome here.' "

Erik Sorenson, MSNBC's president, said it was trying to differentiate its report from what he called a mainstream style of automatic questioning of the government.

"After Sept. 11 the country wants more optimism and benefit of the doubt," Mr. Sorenson said. "It's about being positive as opposed to being negative. If it ends up negative, so be it. But a big criticism of the mainstream press is that the beginning point is negative: 'On Day 2, we're in a quagmire.' "

MSNBC's programming moves were welcomed by L. Brent Bozell III, founder of the Media Research Center, a conservative media analysis group. "What Fox is doing, and frankly what MSNBC is also declaring by its product, is that one can be unabashedly patriotic and be a good news journalist at the same
time," Mr. Bozell said.

END of Excerpt

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/16/international/worldspecial/16FOX.html

[RetiredArmy]

CNN. All the lies and half-truths fit to print.

[ken5050]

I stumbled on MSNBC when I turned off Fox' coverage of the Challenger distaster in disgust..they were clowns that morning..and I've checked out some of their war coverage...it's been pretty good.....Scarborough it excellent....though Greta is really pulling in some huge ratings.......I'd suspect thatMSNBC's big bump in the ratings during the war came at CNN's expense..that's where they got the viewers from..not Fox..

[gcruse]

I find MSNBC to be an acceptable alternative to FOX.

So do I.  CNN doesn't rate consideration, but when I tire
of watching the Fox talk crew, I try MSNBC .  Unfortunately
for MSNBC, I have grown so accustomed to the Fox folks
that I don't tire of them.