Media News Monday!
Media News Monday is a compilation of media news from the past week posted on Monday. Media is an integral part of politics, and I think that it’s important to get to know media and media innovation in order to forecast future ways of campaigning, targeting voters, and disseminating information. If any of you are interested in campaigning, this weekly diary may help you with ideas. It is also important to keep up with right wing corporate media (RWCM) news. If you have any media news to add, please do so.
Previous edition: June 13, 2005
For more previous editions, search my diaries.
Now for the news from the past week posted today, June 20, 2005:
Note: I’m going to put a %%% next to things that are more interesting or go into things more in-depth. Those links/stories that get singled out are obviously must-reads, so I don’t bother with the %%%.
Week’s Must Read
Dean, Mehlman and the Media
Woohoo Senator Dorgan (D-ND)!
VIDEO: Dorgan defends Public Broadcasting, American jobs
Nomination for Worst Lede Ever
NYT tries to cover up the importance of the Downing Street Memo
Go Brian Williams!
Putting Jacko Coverage in Perspective
FAKE NEWS ALERT
What they’re doing to push CAFTA
Let’s See How Truthful Carlson Is
6 question interview… and how truthful Rick Kaplan is.
Lies, Damn PR Lies!
Harry Shearer busts cable news networks and their promos.
The state of CNN
* In Jacko’s Wake: CNN’s new president isn’t keen on stories like Michael Jackson’s. But will a more highbrow plan work in a tabloid era?
Seven months into his tenure, Klein is making revolutionary changes at the cable network–scrapping signature broadcasts like “Crossfire” and “Inside Politics,” shaking up his morning-show ensemble and his prime-time producing staff, and creating a new international news show at noon. These are only the first steps in a broad overhaul plan aimed at getting the pioneering and once dominant cable news network out of a seemingly perennial second-place finish, far behind Fox News. His unorthodox, even heretical game plan: serious news that doesn’t put viewers to sleep. “There’s a palpable thirst out there for the broad scope of stories if they’re told in a compelling way,” Klein says.
[…]
Privately, though, many staffers express discontent with the new regime, saying it’s not possible to make “60 Minutes”- style pieces on a limited budget and tight time constraints. The ratings have yet to pro-vide consolation: in May CNN averaged only 610,000 viewers in prime time, still well above third-place finisher (and NEWSWEEK strategic partner) MSNBC, but still far below Fox’s 1,401,000 viewers. CNN officials say they have numbers to be proud of, pointing to strong improvement in the key 25-to-54 demographic and a powerful performance by the brand name when CNN’s numbers are combined with those of its sister network, Headline News. That network has improved dramatically in the ratings thanks almost entirely to its legal-affairs program hosted by Nancy Grace. Last Thursday, Grace drew 804,000 viewers, more than any CNN prime-time program save for “Larry King Live.”
There’s a thirst for real news, but CNN won’t stop being a joke until it goes after the tough stories. They need their own Woodward and Bernstein in order to gain respectability again. Maybe tough pursuit of DSM would help? Anyways, the whole article is worth reading.
Public Broadcasting
- Schiavo memo author involved with PBS
- ACTION ALERT!: Stop Congress From Killing Public Broadcasting …, by Murshed Z
- PBS gets standards to be “fair and balanced” Uh-huh. I guess accuracy isn’t important?
Media Personalities
- Woodward counsels young journalists
- Gen. Wesley Clark signs on as a FNC analyst
- Photos from Michael Kelly Award dinner %%%
- Ailes v. Alter go toe to toe %%%
- MSNBC’s Rita Cosby gets major scoop re: Michael Jackson trial
- About 40% of Americans consider O’Reilly a journalist. My take? I think that the public thinks anyone in the media is a journalist. The poll also reflects name ID. More on the Annenberg poll… Rush Limbaugh says he’s not a journalist
- Edward R. Murrow Award Winners
- Geraldo Rivera gets a new 4-year contract
- Chris Matthew gets a big book deal. Think 7 figures.
- Many TV pundits eat crow re: Michael Jackson predictions
- Talking Heads Stuck Necks Out on Jackson case My mother even made comments about how biased some of the pundits were, and she rarely ever talks about media bias.
- At least Nancy Grace admitted that she needed to eat crow
- Kurtz profiles Stephanie Miller of Air America %%%
- Olbermann to also do ESPN Radio
- Neurotoxin sprayed at FoxNews
RWCM Watch
- Arianna Huffington’s “Russert Watch”
- Tom Oliphant: Conservative spin befuddles the media
- When talking about Dean and fundraising, the media is lazy or they just like to lie.
- Bush’s Missing WMD ‘Joke’: Is the Media Still Laughing? And Dana Milbank’s Friday hack job on DSM hearings
- FNC’s John Gibson calls Gitmo a great American institution. %%% No joke. Prisons of any kind should never be referred to as great American institutions. Prisons versus say, the Capitol building? Give me a break.
- CPB chair Kenneth Tomlinson and undisclosed payments to two Republican lobbyists %%%
- Why the DSM isn’t old news, and even if it were, ahem, so were the Pentagon Papers at the time %%%
- Chicago Tribune manipulates the facts
- Fact checking articles on DeLay
- Geraldo Rivera attacks Dean %%%
- EW’s Stephen King blasts media for over the top Jacko coverage
- Second Look at DSM from the media Kurtz article and other links.
- Media: Where’s the Reality?
- NYT Pulls A Gannon on Downing Street
- Even Kurtz says FNC’s Cavuto’s Bush interview was “squishy soft”
- This guy slams American media %%% MUST read.
- Kinsley is so wrong re: Downing Street Memo coverage
- CNN Reliable Sources: Right-wing Media Buries Downing Street Memo
- St. Pete Times won’t cover DSM hearing, by Susan S
- Media VERY slow to pick up the story of Mitchell Wade and Rep. Duke Cunningham (R)
- Meanwhile, the LATimes just makes shit up about Rep. Murtha (D-PA)
- Newsweek’s Evan Thomas screws up Deep Throat story. Evan Thomas is routinely bad.
- NYT lends credence to reports on abstinence-only sex ed, that aren’t published in real academic journals and aren’t available for peer review. A study that isn’t published and isn’t available for peer review is NOT a legit study.
Notes & News on Programming & Specials
- A new version of mnsbc.com comes June 25.
- Cnn.com now has a wide range of free videos. It launched on Saturday (two days ahead of schedule). If you go to the main page, there’s a green box with the videos on the right.
- Some The Situation premiere reactions
- CJR Daily reacts
- NYDN and NYP have very similar day-after Jacko verdict covers
- Woodward and Bernstein’s forthcoming book on Deep Throat
- Roll Call may expand and do state editions %%%
State of the Media, Trends, Research Reports, Innovations
- Bloggers victory over the DSM
- One-fifth of Web users prefer online news
- Attention Spans Migrate During Multitasking, Media Shift From Fore To Background %%% Even if you’re not paying attention to a political ad on TV, you can still pick up some things from it. Sometimes it’s just a catch phrase or the topic of the ad. Very general stuff. It a reason why political campaign ads use such deceptive language. If you pay attention, you might not be fooled, but if it’s just on in the background, you may subconsciously get deceived.
- In the Face of Fines, Networks Are More Friendly to Family Programming %%% I don’t care what kind of programming it is. It just has to be good quality. Networks have long put up family friendly programming, but a lot of efforts have been poor in quality and haven’t attracted strong viewership. If Americans are truly concerned about TV programming content, then, they should get people to watch programming that is family friendly.
- Media Dis-Consolidation: Help Yourself or the Government Will %%%
- Media Revolution to be digitized, on demand %%%
- Military blogging guidelines %%%
- Electronic Frontier Foundation issues blogger guide
Ratings, Circulation, & Ad Revenue Strength:
- XM and Sirius stock rise, while traditional radio stocks drop
- At U.S. newspapers, news is nearly all bad in 2005
- Jackson verdict ratings That’s a lot of people watching.
- Morning show ratings war Today Show widens gap with GMA.
- NBC and ABC people notice the ratings battle between the two morning shows
- Jacko verdict produces rise in web traffic for news sites
- Yahoo! Draws most visitors; AOL keeps them the longest
- Fox News business channel; CNBC ratings
- Jacko Ratings:
Almost 31 million viewers watched the Michael Jackson verdict live Monday on 13 networks, according to figures released by Nielsen Media Research yesterday.
Between 4:43 and 6 p.m., 28.1 million viewers were tuned in to ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC, Court TV, E! Entertainment, CNN Headline News, MTV and MTV2.
Spanish-language networks Telemundo and Univision drew 2.5 million more from 4:48 to 5:30.
For more RWCM watch & Media News: Penndit’s News, Media News, and RWCM Watch Links. I get the advertising, public relations, targetting voters information, and media research from a variety of sources other than the links above.
Cross-posted at Penndit.
