Free Republic

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...

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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...