Outside Cable News

Via Daily Herald
Minority journalists to ask McCain, Obama questions
By David Beery

Minority journalists meeting in Chicago for a convention this summer will question presidential candidates in a nationally televised primetime forum.

UNITY, an alliance of four associations representing minority journalists, had been planning to conduct its forum on the afternoon of July 24. But CNN now plans to telecast the two-hour event that same day at 7 p.m., a timeslot that could draw more than 2 million viewers.
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Via The Industry Standard
Pundits beware - Hubdub is watching every move
By Mary A. C. Fallon

Just how smart are America’s political, social,and technology pundits? The free, news predication game Hubdub now exposes on PunditWatch whether a select 10 commentators - from MSNBC’s Chris Matthews to the six tech journalists blogging for VentureBeat - really know what they are talking about.

Looking for another way to engage its target audience - college-educated, American males who are early adopters -the U.K. company Hubdub Ltd.,(DEMO 08) decided to score pundits’ predictions for a month and now challenges its growing audience to pit themselves against public pundits’ continuous stream of predictions. The initial 10 pundits are individuals and co-written blogs:

Politics: Chris Matthews of MSNBC, Pat Buchanan of MSNBC and NBC,and David Brooks of the Public Broadcast System and The New York Times.

>Read the rest at The Industry Standard.

Via phillyBurbs
It’s trash day on MSNBC Morning Joe
By Eric Gargiulo

MSNBC reporter Andrea Mitchell is truly a pro. Check out this clip from this morning of Mitchell doing a live report outside of the Clinton home in Washington D.C. Garbage men don’t stop for anyone, especially on a Friday morning. Sadly even after forty-years of journalism, Andrea Mitchell can’t even get the respect of a D.C. trash man.

The gold in this clip may be Joe Scarborough’s quick save once the compactor goes off. A true Republican will never miss a shot at the Clintons. It is nice to see that even after weeks of flirting with Hillary, “our friend of the tax payer” still hasn’t forgotten about his days in the Clinton Congress.

>Check out the video at phillyBurbs.

Via NY Daily News
Finding happy news in local news
BY RICHARD HUFF

Greg Kelly was a good fit on WNYW/Ch. 5’s “Good Day New York” this week. Kelly is the son of the NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly and is a Fox News staffer. And at the start of this week, he was in the seat left vacant when Ron Corning was cut.

During his run, Kelly bounced between serious and not-so-serious news. He admitted at one point he’d seen the “Sex and the City” movie, but added that he couldn’t tell the difference between Manolos and Keds.

That’s good, no?

Later in the week, Kelly took part in a segment on Father’s Day gifts.

“I used to cover the White House,” he said on the air. “Now I’m modeling flip-flops.”

Now that he’s come to terms with that drastic career shift, he should be given the job full-time.

Ch. 5’s Christina Park, as always, had just the right thing to say. After a series of segments built around Anne Craig’s wedding preparations, Park said to Craig: “Thanks for participating in our bridal booty camp - and your booty looks beautiful.”

>Read the rest at NY Daily News.

Via Slate
Fox News 1.0 Revisiting TVN, Roger Ailes’ first stab at running a TV news operation.
By Jack Shafer

Decades before Roger Ailes birthed the Fox News Channel for proud papa Rupert Murdoch, he had already played a role in creating a national conservative television news network—Television News Inc.

In Dark Genius, a new biography of Ailes, Kerwin Swint revisits the dawn—1973—and early demise—1975—of the news service funded by conservative brewer Joseph Coors to counter the “liberal” TV networks. Coors, a profligate donor to conservative candidates, causes, and institutions, thought the media needed an ameliorating conservative voice, too.

>Read the rest at Slate.

Via MediaWeek
CNN Puts Up Big Numbers on Final Primary Night
According to Nielsen Media Research data, CNN last night averaged 3.52 million total viewers in prime time
By Anthony Crupi

Exactly five months after the Democratic presidential primary race officially got underway with the Iowa caucuses, the historic battle between Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama finally came to an end Tuesday night, as the junior senator from Illinois became the party’s presumptive nominee. And as has been the case throughout the primary season, CNN drew cable news’ largest audience during the Montana and South Carolina returns.

According to Nielsen Media Research data, CNN last night averaged 3.52 million total viewers in prime time (8 p.m.-11 p.m.), beating out MSNBC (2.63 million) and Fox News Channel (2.39 million).

As the returns came in, CNN delivered 1.42 million members of the core 25-54 demo, topping MSNBC’s 1.05 million, and FNC’s 739,000.
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