Brit Hume, with his monotone delivery, has served as the grandpappy of Fox News since leaving his job at ABC in 1996 to join the just-launching Rupert Murdoch news channel. And now, twelve years later and some four decades after entering the news business, Hume, 65, is making his grand (planned) exit. Like many old timer media men, the presidential election seems like as good a time as any to schedule a departure: It's one last hurrah before heading off camera, the realization of a final milestone to mark a lengthy career. And the historic anointing of Barack Obama as president makes the timing even more appropriate. CONTINUED »
We're generally not too impressed with any cable news network's high-definition offering. Do we really need to see Wolf Blitzer or Brian Kilmeade with extra clarity? Being able to lust after a higher-resolution Anderson Cooper (or John King) is one thing, but so far the only tangible advantage anybody has shown is CNN when, during the presidential debates, they used the extra space HD broadcasts provide for those obnoxious pundit pie charts. Then again, only CNN (last September) and Fox News (this May) have made their broadcasts available on a HD channel; MSNBC remains out of the loop — and will remain that way until at least the the second quarter of 2009, missing the election season. So for now, you'll have to rely on our assessment: Yes, 35-year-old Rachel Maddow is as "fresh faced" in HD as she is in standard-def.
Know what's more childish than a cable news battle? A cable news blog battle! When it comes to chronicling America's most visible pundits, executive rank shake ups, and how talent spends their clothing allowances, there are really only a few players in the game. Beside all-things-media blogs like Jossip, TV news types log on to TVNewser, Chickaboomer, Inside Cable News, and Johnny Dollar. And just like the networks they cover, sometimes these blogs start attacking each other in print. CONTINUED »
A little after noon this Independence Day, Greta Van Susteren was not cooking up burgers and hot dogs with her family, as any patriotic American is supposed to do. She was spending her July 4th blogging, and really, what's more embarrassing than that? However, Van Susteren's sin is forgivable — because once again she was on the attack against CNN's Anderson Cooper 360.
Last time it was for 360's stealing the Rev. Al Sharpton as a guest. This time, she's taking the bait from a dig launched by Cooper's camp.
And this is just the latest tete-a-tete from a lengthy fight between these two kiddos. Whee! CONTINUED »
Not two weeks after we get through an in-depth look at how virtually anybody can be labeled an "expert" and thrown on a cable news network comes a veritable how-to guide on accomplishing exactly that.
In the article, in the July issue of Politics magazine, Patrick Gavin explains how you too, without a newspaper's name on your business card or a publicist responsible for bookings, can get your message heard. Potentially, his information could be more harmful to America's safety than a DIY guide to building nuclear bomb.
But it isn't. Mostly, it's no-brainer tips: Don't try to get a booker or producer's ear when she's in the middle of a broadcast; Do use the telephone; Don't expect to they'll want to meet you for coffee the first time you reach out; Do use your connections; Do be reliable.
But there are three strategies anecdotally laid out: CONTINUED »
"In the first five-and-a-half months of 2004, the last presidential election year, Fox’s prime-time audience among viewers aged 25 to 54 was more than double that of CNN’s — 530,000 to 248,000, according to estimates from Nielsen Media Research. This year, through mid-June, CNN erased the gap and drew nearly as many viewers in that demographic category as Fox — about 420,000 for CNN to 440,000 for Fox. Meanwhile, CNN has added 170,000 viewers a night, on average, when compared with the last presidential year, while Fox has shed about 90,000, according to Nielsen. (MSNBC, which added 181,000 viewers in that audience, much of it courtesy of gains by “Countdown With Keith Olbermann,” still lagged in third place, with 303,000.)" [NYT]
You have your own appetite for endless, 24/7 coverage of the news cycle to blame for the proliferation of a whole new class of pundits being labeled "political strategists." Desperate to fill their programming hours with experts, the trio of cable news networks are booking guests — sometimes they're authors, sometimes they're small-time party coordinators — to weigh in on John McCain's age and Barack Obama's elitism, and also on issues of import. In this era, the only thing it really takes to become a "Democratic strategist," a "political analyst," or a "military expert" is a single lower-third Chyron describing you as such. And when in doubt, that's exactly what the control room is willing to do. CONTINUED »
What, those multi-culti panels of talking heads – culled together only because a black man is running for president – on CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC aren't enough to satiate the African-American community's appetite for news?
Actually, no.
The cable nets still don't feature a single non-white primetime show host, and American Morning's Nepalese Kiran Chetry might as well represent the industry's non-white A.M. line up all by herself. (Ahem.)
So the idea that there's a gaping void in 24-hour coverage isn't so shocking, nor that former Oklahoma Republican congressman J.C. Watts plans to fill it. The tentatively titled Black Television News Channel has already inked a deal with Comcast for carriage, with more contracts in the works. [NYP]
And if BTNC can accomplish one thing and one thing only, let it be offering hat hooks for the Rev. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, and finding their replacements.
This whole "picking a president" thing has been gangbusters for cable news. Debates sent ratings soaring! Keith Olbermann is totally the man! Glenn Beck is still a crazy person! But what's driving all this interest from American TV watchers, who can usually be described as "lazy," "uninterested," and "not even watching TV"?
Talking heads! So let's peek at some of the most in-demand names that are fueling the television economy and, for all we know, supporting terrorism. CONTINUED »
The Daily Telegraph is spending the entire week publishing its list of the Top 50 most influential television pundits. This is a delightful little scheme: The British newspaper will get the chattering class to visit its site everyday for at least the rest of the week as they scramble to see if they made it, with 10 more results printed each day.
But let's not kid ourselves: You know who's going to round out the top of the list, and they've got names like O'Reilly, Olbermann, and Hannity. Air America's Rachel Maddow kicks off the list at No. 50, the Times Paul Krugman is at No. 48, former B. Clinton press sec Dee Dee Myers is No. 39, WaPo columnist Eugene Robinson is No. 37, and colleague Howard Kurtz is No. 34. Sadly, we don't think Greg Gutfeld is gonna make it.
The idiotic debate about whether Barack Obama's not wearing an American flag pin on his lapel makes him unpatriotic has HuffPo's Rachel Sklar analyzing every soul that appears on the cable dial to see if they practice the ridiculous speech they preach.
On Fox News, three do! At MSNBC, everyone hates America! Same for ABC! But hey, Madonna hates New York, so everyone gets a pass.
CABLE SNOOZE Former White House spokesman and current Fox News host Tony Snow is jumping to CNN … Fox Business Network won't release Nielsen data given the ratings agency's "recent accuracy issues … especially given the margin of error on several of their digital measurements. Our number one priority is accountability for advertisers." … Alan Colmes reads his hate mail … Why doesn't Chris Matthews let guests finish their sentences? …
Isn't funny that cable news' talking heads – the Chris Matthews, the Tim Russerts, the Bill O'Reillys – all play up their blue collar roots, identifying as one of the people, when they earn millions of dollars a year and have more homes than you have limbs? CONTINUED »
While our black sister Stereohyped explores the politics behind the new black and lady commentators popping up on cable news, it'd be smart to recognize the influx of pundits isn't just because we suddenly need non-white, non-male talking heads to talk about issues that are suddenly relevant to more than aging white men.
Rather, it makes perfect economic sense.
For years, cable networks have signed analysts to envious contracts, with six-figure fees thrown their way because, it was argued, they didn't want a competitor snapping them up in an exclusive deal, keeping the expert from appearing on their own network. And the more high-profile experts any cable net had, the more boldfaced the channel's image. (Remember why a certain pair of Newsweek staffers didn't accept buyouts at their print employer?)
No longer. With editorial budgets being slashed thanks to dwindling ad spends, CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC are smartly swapping out some of their high-fee analysts with a flurry of lower-budget replacements. Say hello to Air America's Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons on CNN, and Republican strategist Angela McGlowan on Fox News.
They might all look different than your typical on-air guests (black, brown, or lady-like), but they also come a lot cheaper.
But why pay these people at all? Surely they, too, benefit from the arrangement; most have books to promote, candidates to endorse, or consultancy fees they can spike based on their TV-assembled expertise.
[Graphic: New York Times]
The lack of black and female pundits on popular news shows has been a topic on Stereohyped since last May, when I wrote about a Media Matters study that showed women and blacks were only ever seen as expert guests cable news when the topic was about women or blacks.
An article in the New York Times today highlights the influx in minority pundits on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox this election cycle. So surprising!
Nancy Grace and her newborn twins (or "two little sunshines," as Grace wrote on her baby blog) are home and resting comfortably after mother and children endured a harrowing premature labor.
Fortunately for alleged rape victims everywhere (and less fortunately for innocent-until-guilty types accused of maybe-raping them) Grace has announced that she'll be resuming her CNN Headline News anchoring duties on January 7th.
With Grace safely out of harm's way, her children dispassionately suckling at her teat and her banker husband showering all three with love and support, we eagerly look forward to seeing her back on the air. Mainly because it means we now officially go from worrying about the woman's health to mocking her for her crazy politics, irrational views and callous disregard for political correctness.
Despite MSNBC's impressive/aggressive recruitment efforts to land Rosie O'Donnell, the highly anticipated (but as-yet nonexistent) deal with outspoken liberal comedienne has reportedly fallen through.
Naturally we wanted answers, and we quickly found several—all of which are contradictory.
One "NBC executive" claims Rosie's fear of commitment was to blame, citing her unwillingness to sign a multi-year contract. (Not so! says "a person familiar with the discussions," who insists "the main sticking point" was compensation, specifically, Rosie's not getting enough of it).
More confusing still, however, is O'Donnell's own version of what transpired, which is both intentionally vague and told through the ancient – and unnecessarily annoying – art of the long and drawn-out haiku.
Is MSNBC grooming Rosie O'Donnell to be the next Keith Olbermann?
Word has it the cable news network is interested in the former View cohost for her abrasive personality and left-leaning political views. Because, as Jacques Steinberg theorizes, "the cable channel believes there is ratings gold in shows that criticize the [Bush] administration with the same vigor with which Fox News's hosts often champion it."
The only problem? Hiring another polemic pundit means you're only catering to a small, albeit fanatically devoted, subsection of the general population. Kind of like what the majority of successful Republican candidates tend to do right around election time.
Ever wonder why people in those red states have such funny ideas about politics, voting and presidential elections? Well, it has a lot to do with where they're getting their news. And, for the impressive-slash-terrifying 83rd month in a row, the man with the untenable hold (or in his case, more like a permanent death-grip) on the 8pm cable news demos is none other than Mr. Bill O'Reilly.
So the next time you hear about someone openly expressing surprise at the prospect of a successful black-owned business enterprise, disrespectfully shouting down someone with an opposing viewpoint or sending vigilante cameramen to harass someone for refusing to voluntarily subject herself to on-air humiliation, just ask yourself, "What Would Bill O'Reilly Do?"
Then, get a hold of yourself, remember exactly who it is we're talking about here, and ask yourself a more important—albeit somewhat more frightening—question: what wouldn't he do?
Former Fox News and "current" MSNBC host stops singing karaoke for a minute to pen tell-all book proposal.
Editorial Director
