Free Republic

“Feedback from viewers is great,” Roberts tells Scrolling Eye at the tail end of a shift he woke up for at 1am. “But that’s different from the ranters who will rant about anything, especially those fierce partisans taking issue with whatever doesn’t fit their view of politics. We’re not going to change their view of the world. “What CNN is dedicated to is speaking to the great middle of America, going after viewers seeking a reasonable opinion of things — all the moderate Republicans, Democrats and independents that want to be reliably informed. “We’re offering personality, not partisanship. That means...

The liberal press crowed loudly when cable TV’s Keith Olbermann beat out Bill O’Reilly in a key demographic during a recent week, but Olbermann’s ratings success has been isolated and press reports about it have been much overblown, Newsmax has learned. MSNBC’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” did average 477,000 viewers in the age 25 to 54 demographic during the first week of June, narrowly edging out Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor,” which averaged 472,000 in that demo, according to Nielsen Media Research. “This marks the first time that MSNBC has beaten Fox News in O’Reilly’s 8 p.m. time slot,” the...

FishbowlLA today quells some of those Ryan Seacrest-to-CNN rumors. Mayrav Saar reports that sources close to Seacrest confirmed the American Idol host is in talks with CNN to take over for Larry King at 9pmET, but the source also says, "I don't think it's going to happen." King just signed a new deal that will keep him with CNN into 2011. The deal, however, does not guarantee King will stay as 9pmET host of Larry King Live.

Some 50 delegates were reportedly poised to unite behind Barack Obama if he had won by even 1 point in Texas. He lost the popular vote by 100,000 ballots, and now we learn that 100,000 Republicans voted for Hillary Clinton, probably not because of some change in party allegiance but because they thought she would be the easier candidate to beat. This kind of strategic voting often backfires (think Ralph Nader). The Texas crossovers are winners. By helping to prolong the Democratic race, they can claim credit for weakening the eventual nominee, whoever it turns out to be. Obama has...

Al Jazeera Aims to Influence American Politics by Humberto Fontova 03/18/2008 Al Jazeera, eager for greater international coverage and cachet, recently launched an International Division. Aiming to influence the US audience, they recruited heavily from CNN and The BBC. CNN's former Havana Bureau chief Lucia Newman is noteworthy among these job-jumpers. "In Cuba we will be given total freedom to do what we want and to work without any censorship," (italics mine) she stressed upon accepting the CNN assignment in 1997. Among her "scoops" from Havana: "No dubious campaign spending here. No mud slinging -- a system President (italics mine)...

CNN has fired producer Chez Pazienza after the network brass realized he had been blogging at his own left-wing site and several others over a period of years: In a phone interview this morning, Mr. Pazienza, 38, said he joined CNN as a senior producer in January 2004 and has consistently received positive performance evaluations of his work. He spent his first year at CNN at the network’s headquarters in Atlanta, then moved to New York to work on “CNN Daybreak,” which has since been canceled, then “American Morning,” which is shown Monday through Friday, from 6 to 9 a.m....

CABLE NEWS RACE THURS., MAR. 29, 2007 VIEWERS FOXNEWS O'REILLY 2,844,000 FNC HANNITY/COLMES 2,299,000 CC SOUTH PARK 1,854,000 FNC GRETA 1,689,000 FNC SHEP SMITH 1,381,000 FNC HUME 1,336,000 CNN KING 1,062,000 CNN DOBBS 874,000 CNN COOPER 756,000 MSNBC OLBERMANN 712,000 CNNHN GRACE 646,000 MSNBC SCARBOROUGH 510,000 MSNBC HARDBALL 463,000

Industry buzz has it that MSNBC, the perennial also-ran in cable news, is considering the prospect of essentially dropping its live-news format and devoting itself entirely to taped, newsmagazine-style programming. And much of its content could likely be repackaged from NBC News. One indication of the possible move came in July when the network launched a newsmagazine, "MSNBC Investigates,” the industry publication Broadcasting & Cable points out in a recent edition. ---> SNIP <--- "The unspoken truth in all of this speculation is that there are simply too many all-news networks and only so many people to watch them,” according...

I should've known that something interesting was coming on CNN when I saw that the violent-nihilistic movie, "V for Vendetta" was advertising itself earlier today on "CNN Sunday Night." You might remember that film; audiences were supposed to cheer terrorists as they blow up Big Ben in London. Happily, audiences shunned the film--Hollywood seems to have overestmated the public appetite for terror-philic films. And that was just the commercial. Host Carol Lin didn't let me down, either--even as she ran down the USA....

Let's face it: the vast majority of the offerings on cable news networks aren't very good. This article analyzes some common traps cable news networks often fall in. From partisan politics to populism to media bias, cable news networks should be viewed more as entertainment rather than legitimate news commentary sources.

Now that Keith Olbermann has banned personal responses to viewer email, it's becoming much more fun for us to dig through the Outlook archives provided to us to find only the most entertaining nuggets. Keith's viewer-cum-sexual partner "KarmaBites1" returns to her Blogger account to reveal the Counterdowner's thoughts on Sienna Miller ("her IQ is about 7") and why men (specifically actors) cheat. It's all yours, after the jump. From: Keith.Olbermann@MSNBC.COM To: Cc: Bcc: Subject: RE: RE #1 Story (Jude Law's nanny) Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 12:29 AM Well, I probably should've said she was a nitwit (if you didn't...

FINAL Weekday Competitive Program Ranker June 2006: 5/27/2006 - 6/23/2006 Ranked On: HH HH P2+ A25-54 NETWORK PROGRAM NAME DAYS TIME COV AA% AA (000) AA (000) AA (000) FOXN THE OREILLY FACTOR MTWTF.. 06:00A -11:00P 1.8 1,643 2,141 402 FOXN HANNITY & COLMES MTWTF.. 06:00A -11:00P 1.3 1,180 1,490 321 FOXN ON THE RECORD W/GRETA MTWTF.. 06:00A -11:00P 1.1 1,008 1,241 289 FOXN THE FOX REPORT W/S.SMITH MTWTF.. 06:00A -11:00P 1.1 957 1,181 274 FOXN SPECIAL REPORTW/BRIT HUME MTWTF.. 06:00A -11:00P 1.1 951 1,178 251 CNN LARRY KING LIVE MTWTF.. 06:00A -11:00P 1.0 901 1,059 236 FOXN THE OREILLY...

May 2006 Weekday Competitive Program Ranker May 2006: 5/1/2006 - 5/26/2006 NETWORK PROGRAM NAME AA% AA(000) AA(000) AA(000) FOX THE OREILLY FACTOR 1.8 1,558 2,003 375 FOXN HANNITY & COLMES 1.2 1,096 1,378 296 FOXN ON THE RECORD W/GRETA 1.2 1,034 1,284 280 FOXN THE FOX REPORT W/S.SMITH 1.1 968 1,211 290 FOXN SPECIAL REPORTW/BRIT HUME 1.1 950 1,186 226 FOXN THE OREILLY FACTOR (RPT) 1.0 845 1,068 287 CNN LARRY KING LIVE 0.9 841 992 194 FOXN THE BIG STORY W/J GIBSON 0.8 752 898 166 FOXN FOX AND FRIENDS 0.9 775 863 333 FOXN STUDIO B W/S.SMITH 0.8...

SpongeBob on Brit Hume's Target List The steady creep to the top for Brit Hume's nightly Special Report on Fox--not just the No.1 Washington-originated cable show but also the fourth in all basic cable at 6 p.m.--has the host eyeing the next victim. "We've been having a series of meetings here about how we can beat Nickelodeon," he says. "We just hope that they don't put SpongeBob SquarePants up against us." Fun aside, Hume's hourlong mix of news and debate now reaches 1.5 million nightly while dominating the key 25-to-54 age demographic. And it happened in a very un-Fox-like way:...

Over the past few days, stories have been leaking out suggesting that Larry King is getting old and isn't putting out the same quality show he used to. Despite this, CNN seems to be throwing him under the bus, as neither Jon Klein nor anyone else at CNN has come to Larry's defense. This despite the fact that after Klein's gutting of CNN, Larry King Live is the only show left on CNN with ratings that aren't a total embarassment. Last night, under the headline "We Respect Larry", Hannity & Colmes wondered why Jon Klein and his CNN destroying staff...

WASHINGTON - The building is far from finished, but Newseum curators installed their first artifact Wednesday _ an item so big they'll put up the rest of the museum around it. The world's first news satellite truck was gingerly lowered by a crane into what will be the new home of the museum dedicated to journalism and the First Amendment. The CONUS 1 satellite truck transformed local television news in 1984 by allowing stations to cover national stories without depending on the major networks, said Newseum curator Carrie Christoffersen. Hubbard Broadcasting and CONUS Communications used the first satellite truck. Four...

That liberals have so quickly pounced on Rush Limbaugh over a relatively minor on-air error, could it be a sign his accuracy rate is actually rather high? Otherwise, would the mainstream media's obvious glee be quite so pronounced? After all, opponents are monitoring every broadcast, waiting in hope for moments like this. So what was Limbaugh's Colossal Error Of The Century? He incorrectly believed Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) was black. Stop the presses! Dog bites man, nobody's perfect. Is this really a big story?

25-54 demographic:Total day: FNC: 295,000 / CNN: 139,000 / MSNBC: 105,000 / HLN: 94,000 / CNBC: 79,000Primetime: FNC: 507,000 / CNN: 233,000 / MSNBC: 145,000 / HLN: 151,000 / CNBC: 104,0004pm: Cavuto: 235,000 / Blitzer: 106,000 / MSNBC: 83,000 / Closing Bell: 95,0005pm: Gibson: 244,000 / Blitzer: 96,000 / Hardball: 197,000 / Kudlow: 69,0006pm: Hume: 464,000 / Dobbs: 103,000 / Abrams: 152,000 / Mad Money: 127,0007pm: Shep: 496,000 / Blitzer: 195,000 / Hardball: 158,000 / Showbiz: 94,000 / On The Money: 85,0008pm: O'Reilly: 589,000 / Zahn: 153,000 / Countdown: 169,000 / Grace: 214,000 / Deal or No Deal: 131,0009pm: H&C:...

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. said after the market closed Wednesday that its fiscal first-quarter profit nearly tripled on a gain related to the sale of its TSL Education business, along with revenue gains at its cable television networks. The New York-based media titan said it earned $1.08 billion, or 33 cents a share, compared to a profit of $386 million, or 13 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter. Excluding a gain of $381 million related to the TSL sale, News would have earned $694 million, or 21 cents a share, in the latest three months. Revenue...

Ted Koppel Pens First Piece as 'NY Times' Columnist--Comes Out Swinging By E&P Staff Published: January 29, 2006 12:45 AM ET NEW YORK In his first contribution after being named a New York Times columnist, former ABC newsman Ted Koppel declares, "I cannot help but see that the industry in which I have spent my entire adult life is in decline and in distress." Koppel raps the new "calculated subjectivity" and forced empathy of cable news, and adds: "The accusation that television news has a political agenda misses the point. Right now, the main agenda is to give people what...

The cable network's Headline News outlet is poised to give a primetime slot to radio talk-show host Glenn Beck. He goes against everything that CNN has claimed to stand for -- a first-rate pedigree, a non-biased point of view and understated excellence. Beck's chief qualification is that he personifies controversy. Then again, who do I think I'm kidding with this high-minded blather? OF COURSE, controversy alone is enough. In fact, it's PLENTY. If Beck catches on with his own unique audience, he'll get a shot to go on CNN. Then CNN will reckon that Bill O'Reilly will no longer be...

These must be great days to work at Fox News. Not only does the 24-hour cable channel beat rival CNN like a sick, sad mule, but Roger Ailes is so deep in the heads of CNN's managers that every time they stumble over themselves in chaos -- which is often -- the chairman of Fox News looks like some kind of psyops genius. If Ailes -- boo! -- isn't haunting the halls of CNN and driving CNN President Jonathan Klein batty with paranoia, then how else to explain Klein's relentlessly nonsensical decisions, which are driving CNN into the ground? What...

My favorite show on cable news has been cancelled. MSNBC’s Connected Coast-to-Coast political talk show with Monica Crowley and Ron Reagan has been disconnected. I was on the show several times, pleased with the fact that the hosts permitted guests enough time to complete their sentences. It provided a serious forum for the discussion of hard news. Crowley is a knowledgeable conservative who never gave any ground to her liberal co-host, the pleasant but usually smirking Ron Reagan. Bill O'Reilly Rita Cosby’s Live & Direct program seems to represent the new direction of MSNBC. Her show was supposed to feature...

It's program ranker time. FNC had 9 of the top 10 shows on cable news in November, with Bill O'Reilly averaging an impressive 2,552,000 viewers. H&C was #2, Greta was #3, Shep was #4 and Hume was #5. CNN's Larry King was #7. He averaged 1,012,000 viewers in November. Notably, NewsNight with Aaron Brown averaged 795,000 viewers in November before it was yanked off the air; Anderson Cooper 360 averaged 632,000. The #1 show on MSNBC was Countdown with Keith Olbermann. It averaged a strong 462,000 viewers for the month, beating HLN's top program, Nancy Grace. Hardball was MSNBC's #2...

THURS., OCT 27 VIEWERS FOXNEWS O'REILLY 2,612,000 FOXNEWS HANNITY/COLMES 1,645,000 FOXNEWS BRIT HUME 1,615,000 FOXNEWS GRETA 1,604,000 FOXNEWS SHEP SMITH 1,552,000 CNN LARRY KING 1,311,000 CNN AARON BROWN 1,198,000 CNN ZAHN 858,000 CNN ANDERSON 786,000 CNNHN GRACE 724,000 MSNBC HARDBALL 494,000 MSNBC OLBERMANN 469,000 MSNBC RITA 399,000 MSNBC SCARBOROUGH 344,000 MSNBC TUCKER 296,000

Bill Hemmer joined Fox News Channel (FNC) as a weekday anchor and correspondent in August 2005. For the past 10 years, Hemmer worked as an anchor and correspondent at CNN where he most recently co-hosted American Morning. While there, he also anchored CNN Live Today and CNN Tonight...

Why haven't the broadcast networks been going wall-to-wall today with Katrina coverage? It's a perplexing question that baffles the Radio Equalizer. Sure, there were plenty of early morning updates, but at 9am it was abruptly cut off for a return to normal programming. Say what you want about Pat Robertson, but his 700 Club had superb Katrina coverage, while Regis and Kelly were doing trivia segments.... ...In the category of "timing is everything" comes word that among the lawsuits filed by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) against another batch of file-swappers are some against individuals living in NEW...

Once again FOX’s 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 pm programs beat all the competition combined. But what happened with Newsnight? It came in fourth behind FOX, HLN and MSNBC’s shows. Thursday The Situation Room topped 500,000 for the first time. Friday, it dipped below 400,000 for the first time. With Rita now doing at least above 300,000 every night, the new prime time low show on MSNBC seems to be Countdown…which has been hanging around in the under 300,000 range the past week and a half. Katie Couric’s comments nonwithstanding, Deutsch continues to scratch on a regular basis and...

What is your favorite cable news station? CNN Fox News MSNBC Don't watch cable news

Another big night for FOX. Its entire Primetime lineup averaged over 2.3 million viewers. FOX beat CNN 3:1 in Prime Time and the Prime Time 25-54 demo. CNN was flat. Even Larry King didn’t do better than Nancy Grace and Grace was just doing average for her. MSNBC had a better than usual night thanks to The Situation doing over 250,000. HLN beat CNN in the Primetime Demo. (numbers courtesy of FOX News) P2+ Total Day FNC - 1,023,000 viewers CNN - 398,000 viewers HLN - 210,000 viewers MSNBC - 196,000 viewers CNBC - 130,000 viewers 25-54 Total Day FNC...

A big night for FOX. All its prime time shows were over 2.2 million viewers. MSNBC’s decision to go on with wall to wall Toronto Air France coverage with Chris Jansing and Dan Abrams paid off for it as it got significantly higher ratings than it would have if it had run Hardball at 7 pm. And the viewer interest continued on throughout the evening for MSNBC (except for The Situation). Newsnight with Aaron Brown had a big night with over 800,000 viewers. (Numbers Courtesy of FOX News) P2+ Total Day FNC - 1,036,000 viewers CNN - 491,000 viewers HLN...

Another big month for FOX News Channel. For the 43rd consecutive month FOX came in first place. On The Record with Greta Van Susteren was the big ratings winner in July, with a viewership increase of 58% to 2,158,000 viewers. This was the second month in a row she came in second behind The O’Reilly Factor. FOX widened the gap between itself and CNN, an increase of 85% in Prime Time viewership since Jan 2005 and an increase of 46% in Total Day since Jan. 2005. FOX’s total advantage over CNN is 168% in Primetime and 127% in Total Day....

This giant television screen is along a busy thoroughfare in the Washington suburb of Arlington, Va. (Photo by Tyrone Turner) HEALTH AND MEDICINEThe Human Cost of 24-Hour News BY BRUCE TAYLOR SEEMAN  More Stories by Bruce Taylor Seeman It's opinion. It's conjecture. It's a tidbit from the newest poll or another alarming image -- delivered with rising drumbeats -- from the day's top story. It's today's 24-hour news. But as Americans bathe in constant reports from CNN or Fox, the Internet, satellite radio, newspapers and magazines, is there a price to pay for living in a world where the...

FOX had another huge evening. For starters FOX’s Demo beat CNN’s Total Viewer number in Primetime. On the Record broke another record for 2005 by coming within a whisker of 3,000,000 viewers. O’Reilly’s demo numbers beat Zahn’s total viewer number for the second night in a row. And, in what is getting dangerously close to going from being an occasional trend to becoming the norm, Grace beat Zahn. Larry King was flat last night considering the levels of the prior two CNN shows. MSNBC cratered in daytime. Not even the Shuttle launch was enough to keep MSNBC from 4th place....

It’s been a long time since I did numbers on the competing cable news networks. They’ve been reasonably constant and there’s nothing I can do to change them, so I’ve just let it be. This week, Broadcasting&Cable produced a first quarter report that is worth a comment or two. First, it shows Fox News in 8th place among all ad-supported cable networks, with CNN at 25th. Fox averaged 700,000 households per quarter hour and CNN 400,000. That gives Fox a 7-4 edge over CNN, slightly more then the 8-5 I used to report. In percentage that’s 63.6% vs. 36.4% for...

Big night for FOX. On The Record came within 70,000 of beating O’Reilly (it did beat its Demo). On The Record’s Demo number beat CNN’s entire Primetime show lineup’s Demo numbers added together. Relatively flat day for MSNBC in primetime. The Situation continues to struggle hard. (numbers courtesy of FOX News) Total Day FNC - 1,025,000 CNN — 463,000 HLN — 238,000 MSNBC — 194,000 CNBC — 134,000 Total Day P25-54 FNC — 297,000 CNN — 135,000 HLN — 106,000 MSNBC — 65,000 CNBC — 42,000 Primetime FNC — 2,582,000 CNN — 916,000 HLN — 455,000 MSNBC — 236,000

The Scoreboard: Monday, July 11 Total viewers: Total day: FNC: 1,037,000 / CNN: 450,000 / HLN: 209,000 / MSNBC: 194,000 / CNBC: 144,000 Primetime: FNC: 2,355,000 / CNN: 763,000 / HLN: 344,000 / MSNBC: 323,000 / CNBC: 145,000 25-54 demographic: Total day: FNC: 265,000 / CNN: 141,000 / HLN: 81,000 / MSNBC: 72,000 / CNBC: 49,000 Primetime: FNC: 506,000 / CNN: 192,000 / HLN: 101,000 / MSNBC: 124,000 / CNBC: 82,000 The hourlies: 7pm: Shep: 1,494,000 / Cooper: 521,000 / Showbiz: 88,000 / Hardball: 278,000 8pm: O'Reilly: 2,666,000 / Zahn: 565,000 / Grace: 458,000 / Countdown: 299,000 / CNBC: 191,000...

President Bush just can't win with the broadcast networks. More than two-thirds of the news stories on ABC, NBC and CBS covering the first 100 days of Mr. Bush's second term were negative, according to an analysis released today by the District-based Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA). It's actually a slight improvement: During the first 100 days of his initial term in office, the coverage was 71 percent negative, according to a similar CMPA study conducted in 2001. In comparison, President Clinton's first-term news coverage was 59 percent negative in 1993. The three networks also seem to be...

OK, I definitely think I'm dreaming this week, but after a spring of having the news canceled on the 24/7 cable channels because of: - Terry Schiavo - CNN breaking an arm patting itself on the back for 25 years and dropping news - Runaway Bride - Michael Jackson - Crime Week/Special Report Documentary Repackages/CSI: Rehash Now it's clear the news has been completely canceled because of missing white people. If it isn't the girl gone missing on Aruba which Fox is absolutely addicted to covering (Greta "owns this story," much to the annoyance of Bill O'Reilly whose now #2...

DOHA, Qatar -- Al-Jazeera is nothing if not bold. It has fought repeatedly with Washington, which says its exclusive broadcasts of Osama bin Laden speeches show an anti-American, pro-terrorist bias. Its freewheeling broadcasts have decimated state-run TV stations across much of the Arab world, leading some countries to close its bureaus down. So what does such a network do next? Plan a massive expansion. By March, the network will launch Al-Jazeera International, a satellite channel that will beam English-language news to the United States - and much of the rest of the world - from its base in tiny Qatar....

Following up on yesterday's rumors of CNN layoffs, and subsequent reports that the rumors were exaggerated, here's what a few tipsters and e-mailers have said: > "One look at our electronic bulletin board on Inews, and there's nothing BUT goodbye's in there...With movements, shiftings, and rearranging (including those fired) the staffing in Atlanta is down CONSIDERABLY. For example, in just the last couple of months, we've lost six line producer positions and three executive producer positions. And word from managers is 'we're not through yet.'" > "It's not just the layoffs, schedules are being completely retooled and several people were...

Wednesday Ratings: Greta Back On Top; CNBC Beats MSNBC In Total Day Total viewers: Total day: FNC: 1,105,000 / CNN: 389,000 / HLN: 186,000 / MSNBC: 154,000 / CNBC: 168,000 Primetime: FNC: 2,585,000 / CNN: 678,000 / HLN: 397,000 / MSNBC: 339,000 / CNBC: 249,000 25-54 demographic: Total day: FNC: 348,000 / CNN: 120,000 / HLN: 85,000 / MSNBC: 55,000 / CNBC: 67,000 Primetime: FNC: 638,000 / CNN: 199,000 / HLN: 159,000 / MSNBC: 139,000 / CNBC: 143,000 The hourlies: 7pm: Shep: 1,458,000 / Cooper: 536,000 / Showbiz: 127,000 / Hardball: 349,000 / Conan: 133,000 8pm: O'Reilly: 2,582,000 / Zahn:...

I'm hearing a variety of reports of layoffs at CNN in Atlanta. Here are the e-mails and anonymous tips: > "CNN is getting rid of a chunk of employees in Atlatna. Two old friends, who so far have survived, just called to say it's as bad as the 2001 layoffs, which were really, really awful. It went beyond depressing, it was so unprofessional how they handled it, spreading the layoffs over a 3-5 day period. Now they're doing it before a holiday weekend when they think people won't notice which is awful because it's SO pre-meditated. Jonathan Klein continues to...

From the inside: "The axe fell at CNN Atlanta on Wednesday, with producers, directors, and copy editors being shown the door due to staffing cuts. Newsroom and control room morale is the lowest ever, with employees wondering who is next on the list. Union-forming rumors are beginning as Atlanta staff tries to combat management's horrible handling of the latest round of Atlanta downsizing. "

Wednesday Ratings: Greta #1 In Cable News; CNBC Beats MSNBC In Prime Total viewers: Total day: FNC: 1,012,000 / CNN: 330,000 / MSNBC: 153,000 / HLN: 194,000 / CNBC: 150,000 Primetime: FNC: 2,409,000 / CNN: 617,000 / MSNBC: 188,000 / HLN: 377,000 / CNBC: 200,000 25-54 demographic: Total day: FNC: 289,000 / CNN: 99,000 / MSNBC: 55,000 / HLN: 101,000 / CNBC: 42,000 Primetime: FNC: 602,000/ CNN: 153,000 / MSNBC: 67,000 / HLN: 126,000 / CNBC: 57,000 The hourlies: 5pm: Gibson: 1,118,000 / Blitzer: 370,000 / Connected: 73,000 / HLN: 147,000 / Kudlow: 229,000 6pm: Hume: 1,286,000 / Dobbs: 415,000...

Tuesday Ratings: P2+ & 25-54 Demo It was a huge night for Fox News, but not for anyone else. Here are the numbers (with more to come later tonight): Total viewers: Total day: FNC: 1,032,000 / CNN: 417,000 / MSNBC: 174,000 / HLN: 194,000 / CNBC: 123,000 Primetime: FNC: 2,460,000 / CNN: 707,000 / MSNBC: 196,000 / HLN: 351,000 / CNBC: 77,000 25-54 demographic: Total day: FNC: 303,000 / CNN: 122,000 / MSNBC: 61,000 / HLN: 80,000 / CNBC: 30,000 Primetime: FNC: 581,000 / CNN: 191,000 / MSNBC: 52,000 / HLN: 125,000 / CNBC: 31,000 The hourlies: 5pm: Gibson: 1,166,000...

From the universe of annoying liberal habits, here are two that consistently jump off the page: --- When our viewpoints are intentionally misrepresented, to suit their cartoonish horns-on-heads images of conservatives. --- When they use their still-considerable mainstream media muscle to hire phony, weak, or otherwise ineffective "conservatives" for radio, television and newspaper gigs, in order to make our side look foolish. That likely explains how lightweight pundit Tucker Carlson has landed yet another TV talk show

For the major media, Watergate was the "good war," in which purely heroic reporters brought down the thoroughly villainous Richard Nixon. So the belated revelation that W. Mark Felt was Deep Throat is being cheered by the press establishment - even if those cheers sound a bit like last gasps. Not surprisingly, The Washington Post ran seven self-back-patting articles yesterday, including two on the front page. But others in the Old Media joined in, too: Felt-is-"Throat" led all three nightly broadcast news shows and filled up countless other news holes. For the mostly liberal MSM - mainstream media - the...

Only balanced news can win a global audience, the international channel's British head tells James Robinson ___ The in-house adverts trumpeting CNN's 25th anniversary are surprisingly candid about its early history. 'We were there before you knew you needed us,' it says, acknowledging that for the first years of its existence, hardly anyone tuned in to Ted Turner's cable network. A quarter of a century on, CNN International broadcasts to 23 countries, reaching 150 million households worldwide, and a fair few hotel rooms to boot. CNN International's British MD, Chris Cramer, recruited from the BBC almost a decade ago, is...

CNN's new boss ready to hunt Fox By David Bauder Associated Press Jonathan Klein wants to bring out the Bronx in CNN. There's a toughness, an aggressiveness imbued in many residents of the new CNN chief's native borough. They have street smarts that residents of posher neighborhoods have rarely needed to get ahead. Stamping that underdog personality on CNN requires nothing short of an attitude transplant, a willingness to fight at a complacent organization knocked on its heels by years of executive turmoil and ratings dominance by scrappy rival Fox News Channel. In four months on the job, the former...