Outside Cable News

Via Campus Progress
By Kay Steiger
Five Minutes With Rachel Maddow
On gay marriage, Chris Matthews, and the youth vote.

CP: You started out doing activism and in academia for a long time and then you made a transition to radio and television. What prompted that transition?

RM: I started doing radio almost on a dare when I was supposed to be finishing my doctoral dissertation. I was living in western Massachusetts. I was crashing with friends. I was doing odd jobs. My scholarship money had run out, and I was not done with my doctorate. Some friends I was living with were connected to this local morning show, and I just showed up to an open audition. I did an on-air open audition, got hired on the spot, and started the next day. At that point I thought it was just going to be one more odd job in a series of very odd jobs, but I really fell in love with it. And after having done that first radio job for a year, I quit so that I could submit my dissertation and do my oral exams and everything, and actually get the doctorate. And I thought that’s it, that would have been my one year in radio, but I missed it a lot. I was like an addict. And I ended up getting the morning show there, and I realized that radio was probably going to be a permanent part of my life.

>Read the rest at Campus Progress.

Via AOL Sports
Keith Olbermann Has No Idea Who Chauncey Billups Is
By Brett Edwards

Keith Olbermann is now the poster boy for left wing political news commentary, via his Countdown show which airs nightly on MSNBC. But it didn’t used to be that way. Olbermann spent over 20 years as a sports broadcaster, including five as an anchor on ESPN’s SportsCenter. So it was a little surprising when, as they showed Chauncey Billups at the Gore-Obama rally in Michigan last night, Olbermann went flipping through his notes to try to figure out what team Billups plays for.

Here’s a hint, Keith: the rally’s in Detroit. It’s not like Billups has toiled away in obscurity either, the guy has played in the Eastern Conference Finals for the last six years. I guess Keith is much like the rest of us, in that at times, our real job is all-consuming and leaves us little time to pay attention to sports.

>Check out the video at AOL Sports.

Via Kansas City Star
MSNBC’s Chuck Todd and Rachel Maddow are young, geeky and hot
By Aaron Barnhart

Because primary season lasted five months instead of five weeks, I spent many nights in front of the TV watching voting results trickle in.

That’s how I got to know Chuck Todd and Rachel Maddow, the number-cruncher and the pundit who were hired not long ago to beef up MSNBC’s election coverage.

Have they ever.

>Read the rest at Kansas City Star. (3 Pages)

>Update: Just noticed this added part which wasn’t there in the 7am hour.

Editor’s Note: This story was published before the death of NBC News Washington bureau chief Tim Russert.

>Details to follow, just saw it on CNN.

Via TVDecoder
CNN And The Weather Channel: Complementary Channels?
By Brian Stelter

Casual cable viewers could occasionally be forgiven for confusing CNN with The Weather Channel.

CNN, the cable news network owned by Time Warner, promotes itself as a “Severe Weather Headquarters,” complete with a spiffy new weather center set and a row of respected meteorologists. More than its cable news competitors, it has tried to brand itself as an esteemed weather source.

So what would happen if Time Warner acquired The Weather Channel? It is known to be a bidder. Landmark Communications, the current owner, had hoped to fetch $5 billion for the channel and its popular Web site Weather.com, but recent media reports say that $3.5 billion is a more likely sales price.

Last week John Martin, the chief financial officer of Time Warner, said that a combination of CNN and The Weather Channel “would give us a very, very interesting cross-platform play,” though he emphasized the need for “price discipline” in the bidding. He said of a potential deal: “At a certain level it might make sense,” according to Reuters.

A group led by NBC Universal is also bidding; TV Decoder wrote last week about what an NBC/Weather combination could look like.

But what about this potential marriage?

>Read the rest at TVDecoder.

>Earlier: NBCU And Partners Bid $3.5 Billion For Weather Channel: Report

Via NYT
Networks Firm Up Convention Lineups
By JACQUES STEINBERG

The cable news channels expect to offer many more hours than that, perhaps none more so than MSNBC, which is seeking to swamp the efforts of its principal competitors, CNN and Fox News, by showing 20 hours of live convention programming each of the four days that the conventions are in session. To put that figure in perspective, consider that much of the official party business is conducted over the course of about four hours a night.

For MSNBC, which has scheduled its marathon coverage from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. Eastern time, the challenge of having enough for Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews and Joe Scarborough, among others, to discuss during all those hours would seem to be especially formidable. As television programs, conventions long ago made the transition from smoke-filled gatherings with more suspense than a “C.S.I.” episode to gleaming, ready-made infomercials where the audience knows the ending from the beginning.

(Among those to be featured on MSNBC is John Harwood, a CNBC correspondent who also reports for The New York Times, which pools some political newsgathering efforts with NBC.)
(more…)

Via TVDecoder
A Ratings Coup for Keith Olbermann
By Brian Stelter

Keith Olbermann may not be going on vacation anytime soon.

Mr. Olbermann, the host of “Countdown” on MSNBC, cancelled his vacation plans for this week when it appeared likely that his program, which debuted five years ago as a distant also-ran to its counterparts on Fox News Channel and CNN, may beat Fox in the 25- to 54-year-old demographic for a full week for the first time.

And sure enough, “Countdown” did displace “The O’Reilly Factor,” hosted by Mr. Olbermann’s arch-nemesis Bill O’Reilly, last week in that demographic.

>Read the rest at TVDecoder.

Via LAT
CNN hopes to capitalize on its primary numbers
By Matea Gold

NEW YORK — Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama aren’t the only ones courting swing voters as the 2008 campaign shifts into its next phase. The ferocious battle for cable news viewers is moving into its own general election mode — and CNN is striving mightily to keep its primary winning streak going.

The cable news network was the biggest beneficiary of the drawn-out Democratic primary, averaging 1.11 million prime-time viewers this year, a 50% boost over the same period last year. It’s the best performance by the channel since the invasion of Iraq in early 2003.

In all, CNN gained an average of 368,000 prime-time viewers through June 1, compared with Fox News’ 190,000 and MSNBC’s 224,000, according to Nielsen Media Research.

But even as its ratings swell, the network faces a rising challenge from MSNBC, which is riding high on the sharp-edged opinions of hosts such as Keith Olbermann, an outspoken Bush critic. And it still has not caught up with dominant Fox News and its popular right-leaning commentators.

To maintain its momentum, CNN is trying to seize the middle ground and distinguish itself from its rivals’ opinion-laden programming, even with the outspoken Lou Dobbs on its schedule.
(more…)

Via TriCities.com
J. TODD FOSTER: Thank You, Andrea Mitchell, For The Ready-Made Column
By J. Todd Foster

I learned something about myself Thursday that I did not know: I’m a redneck. But then again, so is every one of you reading this column. Or so says Andrea Mitchell of NBC News.
Mitchell, the wife of former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, actually went on MSNBC on Thursday as Barack Obama was leaving the stage in Bristol and quipped live: “Interesting images today. Barack Obama, Mark Warner, in Southwest Virginia. This is real [chuckle] redneck … sort of … uhm … bordering on Appalachia … country. This is not the Northern Virginia … uh … you know … high-tech corridor. And these are voters that he would not logically … be … you know, gravitating to. This is the beginning of a pivot.”
You know, uhm, I’ve been wondering where all these urges of late have been coming from – namely the desire to trade my Toyota Camry for a pickup, complete with rubber bull testicles (product name: bumper nuts) dangling from the trailer hitch. I’m inexplicably craving chew tobacco. I passed a road-kill possum Friday and thought it looked tasty. And I nearly wore a wife-beater T-shirt to Wal-Mart yesterday, until my wife intervened with “that’s not a good look for you.”

>Read the rest at TriCities.

>Update: Mitchell Apologizes For “Redneck” Comment (TVNewser)

Via Hagerstown Morning Herald
Academy settles for jokes about absent graduation speaker
By KATE S. ALEXANDER

MERCERSBURG, PA. - MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews might have missed Mercersburg Academy’s graduation Saturday to cover Hillary Clinton’s announcement that she was suspending her presidential campaign, but jokes of his absence made multiple appearances at the academy’s 115th commencement.

“I don’t know what Chris Matthews was going to speak about, but odds are that right now, he is drinking beer in an airport bar with a nagging feeling that he forgot to do something important,” said Tom Thorne, second-string commencement speaker and instructor of Latin at the academy.

>Read the rest at Hagerstown Morning Herald.

Via Baltimore Sun
NBC correspondent to Bush: Become a diplomat
by Aamer Madhani

One of the most interesting anecdotes in NBC Iraq correspondent Richard Engel’s new book didn’t take place on the streets of Baghdad but in the Oval Office.

In February 2007, weeks after President Bush announced his plans for the troop buildup in Iraq, Engel, one of the longest serving Western correspondents in Iraq, received an out-of-the-blue invitation to sit down with President Bush, Engel writes in the recently published “War Journal: My Five Years in Iraq.”

NBC Washington Bureau Chief Tim Russert warned him to use caution in his off-camera meeting with the president. “Don’t tell them anything you wouldn’t broadcast…You want to make sure you stay a reporter.”

But by Engel’s account, he offered the President a surprising amount of analysis, commentary and advice.

>Read the rest at Baltimore Sun.

Via LAT
Is Olbermann’s snide act on MSNBC the future of TV news?
By Howard Rosenberg

Former Times Television Critic Howard Rosenberg, a Pulitzer Prize winner for criticism in 1985, will be writing occasional commentaries about news on television and the Internet.

It seems like a couple of centuries since His Holiness Pope Walter reigned as God’s deputy on the airwaves. Even longer if you think about leave-’em-laughing funnyman Keith Olbermann.

The leer, the smug histrionics, the relentless needling, the shameless self-puffery, the accusatory rants excoriating Bushies and other Republicans as well as cable competitor Fox and its temperamental bully, Bill O’Reilly. And, of course, the comedy.

“Countdown With Keith Olbermann” is the bean ball between “Hardball With Chris Matthews” and “Verdict With Dan Abrams” in MSNBC’s weekday lineup. This trio has spent the election season heckling Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton from deep inside Sen. Barack Obama’s hip pocket and hammering Sen. John McCain since Day One.

>Read the rest at LAT.

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 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.
(more…)

Pat Buchanan has been on FNC 3 times, from what I’ve seen, in 2 weeks. What’s up with that? I thought he was a MSNBC contributor. I know he’s promoting a book, but I thought employees from other cable news networks can only go on other cable news networks once, to promote their product. I guess I was wrong, or am I?

Back for his first day in more than two weeks due to a family emergency, Joe Scarborough made some time Wednesday to talk with the NYTimes’ Jacques Steinberg. The story focuses on how Morning Joe went from post-Imus gap filler to must-stop shop for politicians and their surrogates during the primaries. Steinberg also reveals Scarborough has signed a contract extension with MSNBC until March, 2011.

>Read the rest at TVNewser.

Via Die Jüdische

The Israel Project Launches TV Ad Campaign to Increase Pressure on Iran and Stop Rocket Attacks on Israel

Ads to Air as Thousands Expected at National Mall to Celebrate Israel’s 60th Anniversary

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Israel Project (TIP) is launching a major TV ad campaign to highlight Iran’s sponsorship of terrorism and encourage enhanced pressure on Iran to peacefully end its illegal nuclear program.

The ad campaign consists of two 30-second spots that will begin running Sunday (June 1) on CNN, CNN’s Headline News, MSNBC, CNBC and FOX News Channel in Washington, D.C., Maryland and northern Virginia. The TV ads will air hundreds of times until June 5.

>Read the rest at Die Jüdische.

Via E&P
‘Daily Show’ Tweaks Joe Scarborough for Poor Predictions on Obama — Here’s More
By Greg Mitchell

NEW YORK On “The Daily Show” tonight, Jon Stewart played a few clips of TV pundits dissing Barack Obama’s chances vs. Hillary Clinton a year or so ago. One of them was Joe Scarborough, in a late 2006 segment pooh-poohing his chances.

A search of the MSNBC site from that period uncovers more, from December 22, 2006. Say it ain’t so, Joe.
*
SCARBORUGH: Even before the final votes were tallied in the 2006 elections, politicians started lining up for the 2008 presidential sweepstakes. Without further ado, let me kill Hamlet in the first act and tell you how your favorite candidate will fare over the next 12 months.

Barack Obama

Forget the fact this guy’s middle name is “Hussein.” Forget the fact he has been in national politics for less than two years. Forget the fact that Hillary Clinton will raise more money than God in 2007. Forget all of that, the Washington press tells us, because Barack Obama is none other than the second coming of JFK.

Yeah, right.

Barack Hussein Obama is more Johnny Bravo than John Kennedy. The vest fits and the fans scream while DC’s star-maker machinery shifts into overdrive.
(more…)

Via OJR/Poynter
What journalism students hate about local and cable news
Online Journalism Review

Robert Niles writes: “My students complained about the titillation — fear-mongering crime reports, salacious coverage of the entertainment industries, reporters and anchor people glammed up to look like models. And when TV reports covered more serious issues, including politics, they result as little more than propaganda — talking points served up from two sides, with no analysis testing the claims, beyond petty insults.”

>Read the rest at OJR.

Via TVDecoder
Season Finale: CNN’s Ratings During Obama Speech Are a Milestone
By Brian Stelter

It is extremely rare for a cable news channel to draw higher ratings than the broadcast networks, but CNN apparently managed to pull it off on Tuesday night, when its telecast of Barack Obama’s victory speech attracted 4.73 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Only one broadcaster, ABC, interrupted its entertainment programming for the speech. While ratings for the special report are not yet available, ABC never topped four million for all of prime time on Tuesday, according to Nielsen. Another 3.45 million viewers watched the speech on MSNBC.
(more…)

Via MarketWatch
I don’t understand Anderson Cooper’s appeal
By Jon Friedman

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Yes, CNN’s Anderson Cooper has heart. He oozes empathy. He’s clearly a good-hearted fellow and, by all accounts, as likeable as all get-out.

And yet I have this Cooper-related conundrum.

Can you please explain to me how the host of “Anderson Cooper 360″ seems to have become the most trusted name in news at Time Warner’s CNN?

I may have just answered my own question. I suspect that people tune in to Cooper because they like him, and that’s no small feat for a television personality. If more people liked Katie Couric, she probably wouldn’t be in danger of getting shoved out of the “CBS Evening News” anchor chair.

>Read the rest at MarketWatch.

Via Baltimore Sun
Getting the story first, or getting it right
By David Zurawik

The most-watched presidential primary season in TV history ended yesterday with a wild roller-coaster ride of conflicting news reports, updates, “knockdowns” and delegate countdowns that left even veteran media executives scratching their heads.

“It was exactly one year ago that we televised our first debate, and it’s been an incredible ride straight through to today,” CNN political director Sam Feist said last night. “And what a last day for the primary season! We had one development after another - and more breaking news banners today on CNN than during any other day in recent memory.”

Typical of the topsy-turvy times, 24/7 cable TV news channels like CNN and upstart Web sites like Politico.com served as the media of record yesterday, while the Associated Press, one of the nation’s most respected sources of news, was the institution needing clarification - if not correction.
(more…)

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 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 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.

Via Time Warner Newsroom
CNN Digital Network Maintains No.1 Position for 10th Consecutive Month

The CNN Digital Network maintained its No. 1 ranking in total minutes for the month of April among all News and Information properties, ranking ahead of Wikipedia, Yahoo! News, MSNBC Digital Network and Weather Channel. This is a distinction CNN Digital has achieved for the last 10 months.

In April, CNN.com’s award-winning reporting and multimedia storytelling again kept the site’s users informed and engaged about not only what is happening on the global stage but also in their own communities. News events in April that kept users with CNN.com longer than any other news and information site on the Web range from the dramatic Democratic presidential primary race to the housing crunch and escalating gas prices. Additionally CNN.com provided extensive coverage of stories of personal travail and triumph related to events including the war in Iraq and World Autism Day.
(more…)

Via Minneapolis Star Tribune
Meier felt KSTP-TV’s ax; now, he gets its hook
By C.J

Now, Randy Meier has been literally, as well as figuratively, kicked off KSTP-TV’s air.

The former KSTP-TV anchor was invited to guest-host on FM107’s afternoon drive-time show for two days last week. On weekdays, “5 Eyewitness News” sends a camera to the radio station for frothy cut-ins that air live on TV.

On Wednesday, after clearance seemed to have been given for Meier to be back on KSTP-TV’s air for the first time since 2003, he got rudely pushed off camera at the last minute by show sidekick Julia Cobbs, who did not return calls.

“It was just weird,” Meier told me Thursday. “My biggest astonishment was, ‘Where’d this come from?’ Clearly there were some people who were fine with it and at the last minute somebody wasn’t fine with it. For all parties involved it would have been nice if everybody had been on the same page.

“It was very difficult for the radio people to have to deal with that. It was disRESPECTful to get stiff-armed off camera. That’s never happened to me in 25 years. I don’t blame FM107 one bit. They did exactly what they had to do. … I felt bad for the people around me because it put them in a very difficult situation. They couldn’t apologize enough and wanted to make sure I was going to come back the next day.”

Yeah, it seems somebody wanted him to return Thursday for just a tad more insult to go with Wednesday’s injury.

>Read the rest at Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Via Multichannel News
Politics In High Definition
Election Helps Drive Cable’s High-Def News Coverage
By George Winslow

With voters pondering the prospect of the first African-American or woman gaining the presidential nomination of a major party, cable news networks are preparing to make television history with their coverage of the election in high-definition.

“For those of us who cover politics and elections, this is the election you want to do,” said David Bohrman, senior vice president and Washington, D.C., bureau chief for CNN. “We knew from the beginning it was going to be interesting with two open races but it has turned into this amazing story that has almost transitioned into a spectator sport. That has really caught on with people.”

It has also caught on with networks ramping up their high-def offerings. HDNet provided gavel-to-gavel high-definition coverage of the conventions in 2004, but this year will mark the first time that the major broadcasters and 24-hour cable news networks will be using an HD pool feed.

“We expect HD to be a big part of our convention coverage and going forward a big part of everything we do,” said Warren Vandaveer, senior vice president of operations and engineering for Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, which will provide the pool feed for the Democratic Convention in Denver in high-definition. “All the pool members wanted an HD feed, and we’ll be providing that.”
(more…)