Outside Cable News

Via B&C
Democratic Rules Committee Boosts Cable News Ratings
CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC Draw Viewers
By B&C Staff

The Democratic Rules Committee meeting last weekend gave cable news a big bump Saturday.

CNN averaged 762,000 viewers (236,000 in the 25-54 demo) in total day, followed by Fox News Channel (728,000 viewers, 166,000 in the demo) and MSNBC (538,000, 212,000).

For CNN it was an increase of more than 50% in total day in both total viewers and the demo compared with year-to-date Saturday average.

In primetime, Fox News averaged 1.17 million viewers (177,000 in the demo) compared with CNN’s 960,000 (293,000). MSNBC averaged 426,000 viewers and 186,000 in the demo.

Via RadarOnline
Suze Orman Gets an “F” On Her Credit Report Card
By Neel Shah

Susan “Suze” Orman, the self-proclaimed “internationally acclaimed personal finance expert” and one of Time magazine’s “Most Influential” people of 2008, has made millions of dollars doling out overly simplistic (if not overtly sexist) advice about money. In her column in this month’s issue of O: Home magazine (page 76, if you’re visiting your mom), Orman continues on with her common-sense approach to finance by talking up the importance of having a good credit score. She even goes so far as to recommend an online site, myFICO.com, where you can go and find out what yours is!

Handy advice, to be sure, but what Orman neglects to disclose to the readers of O is that she actually has a business partnership with myFICO.com: the site’s homepage has a direct link to her “Suze Orman FICO Kit Platinum” package, which can be yours for only $49.95 (a “FICO Kit” link from her website also takes you to myFICO.com). Of course, federal law now mandates that you are entitled to request a credit file disclosure once every 12 months for free, which makes Orman’s advice not particularly financially prudent to anyone but herself. Being a corporate shill, though, does admittedly help pay the bills.

Orman’s rep did not return a request for comment.

Via FOX News
FOXNews.com Live Streaming Coverage of the Montana and South Dakota Democratic Primary Returns
By FOXNews.com

Join FOXNews.com Tuesday night for live streaming of exclusive programming covering the Montana and South Dakota Democratic primaries.

The special online program begins with the latest installment of “The Strategy Room” at 8:00 p.m. ET, where readers can watch, hear and help participate as FOX News’ Shepard Smith moderates a freewheeling discussion among some of America’s leading political minds. Smith and crew will also appear live on FOX News Channel throughout the evening’s coverage, discussing the vote results and working their own sources to report new information.

A series of guests and FOX News personalities will also be on hand to participate in the streaming. Among those scheduled to participate include:
(more…)

Via NBCUNI Media Village
CNBC’S “SQUAWK BOX” BROADCASTS LIVE FROM FENWAY PARK FOR “SQUAWK ACROSS AMERICA” BROUGHT TO YOU BY AMERICAN CENTURY INVESTMENTS

“Squawk Box,” Co-Anchored by Joe Kernen, Becky Quick and Carl Quintanilla, Broadcasts Live From Boston, MA on Friday, June 13th 6AM-9AM ET

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J., June 3, 2008—CNBC’s signature morning program, “Squawk Box,” (6AM-9AM ET) heads to Boston’s Fenway Park, for “Squawk Across America,” brought to you by American Century Investments. Co-anchors Joe Kernen, Becky Quick and Carl Quintanilla will broadcast live from the home of the Boston Red Sox and the famous Green Monster on Friday, June 13th.

The program will feature unprecedented access to Fenway Park and interview with the biggest leaders in business and politics in Boston, MA including special guest host Former GE Chairman & CEO Jack Welch, Boston Red Sox Principal Owner John Henry, Boston Red Sox President & CEO Larry Lucchino, New England Patriots Owner Robert Kraft, Dunkin’ Donuts CEO Jon Luther, Citizens Energy Corp. President & Chairman Joseph Kennedy and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick.
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Via Fox Business
Co-Anchoring Happy Hour Ain’t Easy but I Probably Shouldn’t Complain (or, Yes They Do Pay Me to Interview Petra Nemcova)
By Cody Willard

Last night, I lost a lot of sleep as I fretted, worried, stressed, and otherwise thought about my job as a co-anchor of Happy Hour on Fox Business Network. It’s a new network, a new show, and I hadn’t really much of a clue about what doing TV for a living was like when I signed up…

My current least favorite part of talking on TV for an hour a day about stuff I care about — studying the core of how you present and communicate yourself and your thoughts for an hour a day for months on end…Why didn’t I stop that question there? What insecurity did that guest’s comment uncover that made me backtrack? I mean, you sit there watching yourself, trying to improve how you interact with people so that it’s more enjoyable, more fun…and it’s your very job to obsess about doing so. How can I quantify my interviewing skills so that I can track any improvement (hope-for improvement, at least!).

At any rate, like I said, I was really stressed out about my job after a tough-behind-scenes episode last night…and then I come in this morning for another hard, stressful day at work and they tell me here’s one of my guests I need to prepare for today:

>Read the rest at Fox Business.

Via HotAir
Bob Beckel and the Mighty Big Shoe
By Ed Morrissey

Democratic strategist Bob Beckel appeared on Fox & Friends this morning and dropped a bombshell. Beckel says he believes a “shoe will drop” as early as tomorrow, and that it involves Michelle Obama. This will, he says, be “significantly” bigger than the earlier college-thesis issue, which implies that the supposed “whitey” video exists. Here’s Beckel sounding strangely out of breath while delivering this “news”:

>Read the rest and check out the video at HotAir.

Via CJR
The Winkler Way—Okay?
With Bloomberg News at a crossroads, an audience with its maximum leader
By Dean Starkman

I am deep inside Bloomberg LP’s global headquarters, the Lexington Avenue office of the financial-information giant,

With its post-modernist design—sweeping interior vistas, bristling clusters of computers, oversized screens blinking up-to-the-minute sales figures, streaming stock tickers, TV studios, financial radio chatter in various languages, swoopy futuristic red couches, puzzling art—it conveys a sense of energy, power, certainly, but mostly, for me, of self-containment. The free bananas, breakfast cereals, energy bars and coffee available near the elevators on Level Six do nothing to detract from the sensation that this is a place where all biological needs are provided for. You can leave, but you don’t have to and it’s not encouraged.

>Read the rest at CJR.

via phillyBurbs
MSNBC producer cries for Obama
By Eric Gargiulo

I had to rewind my DVR this morning when I heard Mika Brezinski reveal this tidbit about her news producer. It isn’t just Chris Matthews who gets emotional about MSNBC’s chosen son. Mika reveals that her producer cried when she realized that Barack Obama was going to receive the nomination.

How anyone could expect an impartial newscast from a producer who is that emotionally involved is beyond me. As a producer, she has a lot of control about what gets reported and how it is presented. The admission by Brezinski says a lot about MSNBC’s tone when it comes to covering Barack Obama.

>Check out the video at phillyBurbs.

Via Business Wire
FlightView Signs FOX Business Network

Expands Partnership to Deliver Real-Time Flight Information for On-Air Programming as well as FoxBusiness.com

BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–With a deal between FOX Business Network (FBN) and FlightView®, viewers in more than 35 million homes nationwide will have access to up-to-the-minute information about flight delays as part of FBN’s on-air programming. The agreement extends the partnership between the cable television network and the leading provider of real-time flight information to give consumers the actionable information they need to manage their travel plans – both online and on the air.

Airport delay information, already available by FlightView online and in airports, is a preferred resource for travelers looking for reliable up-to-the-minute information. Graphically pleasing and easy-to-read, the complete and accurate view of travel includes air traffic, weather and traffic congestion in and out of U.S. airports and is automatically refreshed and updated continually.

“We are extremely pleased to extend our working partnership with the team at FOX,” said Michael Benjamin, CEO of FlightView. “Making this information available through multiple channels means Fox viewers get the information they want, whenever and wherever they need it – a great way to build loyalty.”
(more…)

Via MLive
CNN analyst Jeffrey Toobin lifts the veil on the Supreme Court for a Matrix:Midland event
by Janet I. Martineau

Did Matrix:Midland hear it first on Monday night?

“Barack Obama will be on the U.S. Supreme Court someday,” said CNN senior analyst Jeffrey Toobin of the current Democratic presidential candidate. “It needs that kind of person, that kind of mind.

“It needs public officials — not nine judges, as it has now, who were all federal appeals court judges before being appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. We need a mix, some who were public officials with a legal background — like Obama, and your present governor (Jennifer M. Granholm).”

And he wasn’t done with his predictions June 2 at the Midland Center for the Arts.

Asked what monumental decisions face the U.S. Supreme Court in the next few months, Toobin said one of the two big ones “is a gun control case out of Washington, D.C. Since the 1930s the court has not tried to interpret the Second Amendment, which is the least grammatically correct of all our amendments.

“Washington, D.C., bans the possession of hand guns, which (the court) is likely to strike down. But then they have to decide how far to go with it — we don’t want to end up with surface-to-air missiles sold out of K-Mart, or tanks. That’s the hard part of the case.”
(more…)

Via Detroit Free Press
Political insiders to speak today in Troy
By KATHLEEN GRAY

On the last day of presidential primary contests, Republican Andrew Card and Democrat Paul Begala will talk about the extended contest at a meeting of Inforum, formerly known as the Women’s Economic Club.

The meeting will be held at noon today at the Troy Marriott on Big Beaver.

Card was the White House Chief of Staff to President George W. Bush until 2006. He also served in the presidential administrations of George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan.

Begala is a Democratic strategist and former adviser to President Bill Clinton. He appears on CNN’s news program “The Situation Room.”

Via C21Media
By Emily Brookes
MSNBC digs Cellar doc

MSNBC is among eight channels to pick up RDF Rights’ documentary Austrian Cellar, marking the US cable news network’s second non-US acqusition.

Its first was Cult Killer, from UK-based distributor TVF International, the deal for which was closed last month.

Produced by UK indie Blakeway Productions, Austrian Cellar is the story of Josef Fritzl, who imprisoned his daughter in a cellar for 24 years. It premiered on Channel 4 two weeks ago, pulling in two million viewers and a 7.6% share.

Following that debut, the film has sold to TVNZ in New Zealand, DBS in Israel, Poland’s TVP, Television Nacional in Chile, Romania’s Antena 3 and Estonia’s ETV, as well as MSNBC.

Scott Hooker, senior executive producer of documentaries and development at MSNBC, called Austrian Cellar “a well-produced documentary telling a very compelling and timely story – just the kind of programming MSNBC’s Doc-Block viewers have come to expect.

“As our second acquisition of a European-made film, this demonstrates that our commitment to great storytelling now stretches beyond America’s shores.”

Via Reuters
Cable networks thrived on lengthy primary campaign

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - If the long Democratic nominating process does in fact end this week, one couldn’t have asked for an odder weekend of coverage to top off what has been a surprising six-month run.

CNN and MSNBC provided more or less constant coverage of the Democrats’ panel to decide the fate of the Michigan and Florida delegates, an event that seemed better suited to C-SPAN.

“You’re asking for a fair reflection of a flawed primary,” Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., told Clinton advocate Harold Ickes on Saturday afternoon. Not exactly Ronald Reagan’s “I am paying for this microphone, Mr. Green!” in the annals of political history.

Sunday’s sole primary, in Puerto Rico, didn’t provide much more drama. The contest evaporated quickly, leaving the networks to declare Hillary Clinton the winner by a 2-1 margin soon after the polls closed at the odd time of 3 p.m. EDT.

>Read the rest at Reuters.