MSNBC #1, FOX "News" #3: Role Reversal!

Rachel Maddow, from source, Variety

I know I hardly blog anymore, but I knew when I saw this headline, I had to post it. In what has seemed inevitable for months, MSNBC has finally overtaken FOX "News" as the number one cable news station. I say "cable news" as a category, because FOX has of course never really been news, having practically invented "fake news" twenty years ago.

Now, I know, there are several factors here that make this possibly a temporary--and maybe even hollow--victory. The channel that used to call itself "The Place for Politics," and said "Lean Forward," has been seemingly morphing slowly into sort of a FOX lite, at least in certain areas. The guy pulling all the wheels and pullies behind the scenes, Andy Lack, seems hell-bent on tipping the focus to a blend of "straight news," and a tip rightward. He's been thwarted by Rachel Maddow's dynamo ratings, and also to the surges by the rest of the prime time lineup. He couldn't very well fire his new ratings champions.

Or could he? The channel's second highest rated host, Lawrence O'Donnell, has a contract renewal looming, and nobody seems to know if it's going to go through. His fans are planning a march, but as often happens in these sorts of things, we don't get to hear the details. Even tonight, as the world is dealing with another terrorist act in Manchester, England (as I write this, responsible parties unknown), Lawrence is not hosting his program, and is being pre-empted by Brian Williams.

It would be foolhardy for Lack to terminate O'Donnell--who has made it clear that he wants to stay--in the midst of a ratings bonanza. It would almost instantly damage the ratings they have just started to really reap, because a huge segment of the their audience would abandon MSNBC. But I've seen this happen before. Radio channels running Randi Rhodes or Stephanie Miller when they're performing well, and replacing them with radio formats that get microscopic ratings. Sometimes ideology trumps money. Strange but true.

Of course the ratings wave also came amidst a crash at FOX, where they've been rocked by scandal, schedule shakeups, and a complete lack of focus after the departure (and now death) of Roger Ailes. I'd like nothing better than to see one of two things happen: a) FOX "News" slides to irrelevancy, with FOX Business Channel-level ratings; or b) FOX itself morphs into a more straight-news channel, free of rightward slant. But what we don't need is MSNBC basically taking their place as the new leader in "fake news."

Meanwhile, congratulations to Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell, Chris Hayes and the roster of regulars that has performed a mighty feat, seemingly in the face of their own leadership.

[Excerpt]

MSNBC Reaches No. 1 for First Time in Weekly Primetime Ratings, Fox News Drops to Third

For the first time in its history, MSNBC ranked number one in both total viewers and the key adults 25-54 demographic during primetime for a full week among the big three cable news networks, according to Nielsen data. . .

Read more at: Variety

Roger Ailes Out at FOX "News"

Grab-ass Murdoch, from source, Reuters

I'll bet Jabba Roger Ailes never thought that positively ancient Rupert Murdoch would live long enough to outlast him at FOX "News," and probably was more worried about doing battle with Murdoch's kids, should they inherit the place. But it looks like the loathsome toad (Ailes, not Murdoch) is going to be out on his ass, and very soon!

[Excerpt]

Murdochs decide to oust Fox News chief Ailes: report

Rupert Murdoch, executive co-chairman of 21st Century Fox Inc (FOXA.O), and his sons James and Lachlan agree that Fox News Channel boss Roger Ailes should leave the company but they have not settled on the timing, New York magazine reported on Monday, citing anonymous sources. . .

Read more at: Reuters

Is FOX "News" Dying?

One can only hope!

[Excerpt]

Frank Rich: Fox News Is Dying

. . .In truth, Fox News has been defeated on the media battlefield—and on the political battlefield as well. Even the 73-year-old wizard of Fox, Roger Ailes, now in full Lear-raging-on-the-heath mode as ­portrayed in my colleague Gabriel ­Sherman’s definitive new biography, "The Loudest Voice in the Room," seems to sense the waning of his power. The only people who seem not to know or accept Fox’s decline, besides its own audience, are ­liberals, including Barack Obama, whose White House mounted a short-lived, pointless freeze-out of Fox News in 2009, and who convinced himself that the network has shaved five points off his approval rating. . .

Read more at: Huffington Post

New Book on FOX "News" Mogul Reveals Disturbing Facts

God, he looks like he's taking bids! Image from source, Raw Story.

Ugh. I read the headline below, and my first response was, "Not enough money. Nowhere NEAR enough money!"

[Excerpt]

Book claims Fox News chief Rogers Ailes offered employee $100 a week for sex

A new biography of Fox News chairman Roger Ailes alleges that he often insulted his own on-air talent and offered at least one employee money for sex during a contract negotiation. The New York Times reported on Tuesday that a section of Gabriel Sherman’s book on Ailes will deal with his offer to producer Randi Harrison that he would pay her an extra $100 a week “if you agree to have sex with me whenever I want. . .”

Read more at: Raw Story

Scandal! Or, How to Over-hype a Scandal

Ugh. I'm really hoping that the scandal-ettes peter out this week. And not because I'm some lock-step Obama-bot. Because they're unrelentingly boring and overblown. The Benghazi one should be over and done with, beyond ensuring that such a thing is prevented in the future. The "scandal" was so bad that it got down to quibbling about talking points, and then the email that was based on turned out to be phony. Enough. I couldn't believe it was even still a point of discussion on the Sunday shows. Oh wait, of course it was. Psst! While you're all worried about Susan Rice having mislead the American public on Meet the Press and the rest, every Republican hyping these "scandals" has been misleading the American public on Meet the Press and the rest!

Image from source, NewsCorpse

The Tea Party/IRS one is still failing to even register on my give-a-shit-o-meter. Why does this one matter at all? The Tea Party was singled out for extra scrutiny? As well it should have been! For multiple reasons! And--oh my god--they didn't even get denied! WTF is the scandal here? It ought to be that purely political organizations have been granted tax exempt status in the first place.

Ugh. Again. And I don't know about the AP/Justice Department one. If it turns out laws were broken, charge someone. If it was legal but oogey, change the laws. But just please shut up, I don't care. Sorry if I need a little flash or sex or skullduggery in my scandals, but I'm bored ovah heah! But you know who's not? FOX "News" watchers. Because all of the above have been cranked to eleven, irrespective of the facts! That's why every tea bagger you hear calling in to the radio, or writing on the internet seems to be coming out of left right field. They think President Obama popped some popcorn, stripped to his boxers, watched the whole Benghazi affair on an IMAX 3D screen, and gleefully watched people die. Then, he got on the horn to Eric Holder, and to the IRS and said "I wanna fuck with the Tea Baggers. Oh, and the press too. And where is my UMBRELLA???"

[Excerpt]

Roger Ailes’ Limp Dictum: Keep Flinging Scandals Until Something Sticks

Last week has been described by many in the press as the worst week yet for the Obama presidency. It was a week that saw purported scandals hyped furiously by Fox News and other right-wing media. They almost cheerfully segued from Benghazi to the IRS to the Associated Press, and then looped back for more of the same. . .

Read more at: NewsCorpse

FOX "News" Tried to Recruit Petraeus for President?

It now makes more sense why FOX "News" seemed less than interested in Mitt Romney at first. Roger Ailes wanted to manage a campaign for General David Petraeus to run for President? Rupert Murdoch wanted to finance it? Holy conflict of interest, Batman! FOX "News" would have bought and paid for their own presidential candidate! Well, I mean besides Sarah Palin (who was teasing us that she'd run), Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum (who both gave it their hilarious best shots). And of course, Herman Cain and Donald Trump, both of whom were trumpeted as heroes relentlessly by the channel.

All that aside, a picked, bought and paid for candidate would have been a real coup, wouldn't it? Potentially embarrassing, what with Petraeus' recent flame-out, sure. And it would have been highly unlikely that Ailes' and Murdoch's roles could have been kept undercover. It would have been the Official FOX "News" Tea Party Tax Day Presidential Candidate! With running mate Steve Doocey! Romney's campaign turned out to be something less than a success. But think of the fun we missed out on!

[Excerpt]

Gen. David Petraeus and Alfred Hitchcock Roger Ailes.
Image from source, ABC News.

Petraeus Turned Down Fox News Presidential Run ‘Deal’

David Petraeus running for president, with Fox News chief Roger Ailes as his campaign manager and News Corporation boss Rupert Murdoch “bankrolling” the whole operation. That, as first reported in today’s Washington Post story by Bob Woodward, was the broad strokes of an offer delivered by a Fox News contributor, on Ailes’ behalf, during a meeting with the future, and now former, CIA director in the spring of 2011. . .

Read more at: ABC News

Ted Koppel Takes Partisan Cable News to Task

"Is it me? It's him, right? It's him."

Am I Nathan Thurm?

That's a quote from Martin Short's old Saturday Night Live character, Nathan Thurm, the perpetually nervous and stressed attorney, who was always defending the indefensible.  But, that's how I felt watching Ted Koppel's report on Rock Center on Thursday night. Ted Koppel is of course from the old school of journalism, not quite Walter Cronkite, but close. And his topic was the hyper-partisan nature of discourse in the "news." All the while, I'm thinking, "False equivalence!" "But, FOX has 'news' in its name!" "But, FOX lies!!!"

And yeah, I get it. We are a deeply divided country, on seemingly every topic. One could argue that it began with Newt Gingrich back in the nineties. Oh, sure, there was partisanship before that, but Newt (and Lee Atwater and others) took it to a Whole. 'Nother. Level.  The political division grew, and flourished into the political coverage. And nowhere did it flower more brightly than at Rupert Murdoch's (and Roger Ailes') FOX "News," the first attempt at news with a point of view. 

As you know--though it lost millions for years--FOX was eventually very successful. And though it has taken rival MSNBC many years, they are finally nipping at FOX's heels, at least in recent weeks. And while MSNBC is demonstrably and admittedly from a liberal perspective (at least in prime time), there are numerous differences in their approach. You could maybe align Chris Matthews with Bill O'Reilly and Ed Schultz with Sean Hannity for bombast. But you won't find MSNBC running with debunked "some say" garbage for days on end. You won't find MSNBC claiming themselves to be an island of sanity in a sea of biased media (as FOX and its fans seem to believe every other outlet is liberally biased). You won't find a moron of Hannity's scale on MSNBC, and you won't find an intellect on Rachel Maddow's scale on FOX. FOX will never run a three-hours-per-day program headed by a former Democratic Congressman as MSNBC does with Joe Scarborough.

In short (I know, too late), there are differences. As reported here a couple of days ago, FOX "News" hires Romney campaign surrogates and SuperPAC people as commentators, and doesn't usually disclose this when they appear, commenting on the very races they are a part of. You don't see that anywhere else. As Bill Maher says in Koppel's piece, while both sides are guilty of sometimes being in a bubble, the left's is nowhere near the scope of that on the right. There is an extreme right, but there is no mirror extreme left. The extremity of the right has dragged the left toward the center.

But Koppel presented this as a he-said-she-said, pitting Maher against Ann Coulter's clearly (to me) alternate reality view. And I kept saying to myself, regarding Koppel's false equivalence. . . "It's not me. It's him, right? It's him."

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

FOX "Business" Warned Not to Emulate FOX "News"

Obviously, the order not to copy FOX "News" doesn't extend to the
"news babes." Image from CNBC

Here's a nugget of "common wisdom" I'd love to see consigned to the dustbin of history: the media is liberally biased. In what freakin' universe? Nearly all of the mainstream media is owned by massive multi-national conglomerates. Nearly all of those entities would be considered fiscally conservative. Even MSNBC--the whipping boy of cable news, to most conservatives--has a three-hour morning show every weekday, hosted by a Republican former-Congressman, Joe Scarborough. Even in their admittedly liberal-skewing evening programs (The ED Show, The Rachel Maddow Show, and The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, they regularly have conservative guests like Michael Steele and others. You'd never see that on FOX "News."


For another example, here in Las Vegas, which went blue in 2008, and regularly goes blue in Clark County, there has never been a truly liberal radio station. But there are at least three conservative ones, some on both AM and FM simultaneously.  When you can only name those above along with Bill Maher and Jon Stewart as progressive voices, how can you seriously say it is a liberal media? And yet FOX "News" pretends to be "fair and balanced." And their sister network, FOX "Business" has mostly been a little-watched clone. But the bigwigs are not digging that fact, and they're laying down the law.


[Excerpt]


Memo to Fox Business staff: don`t copy Fox News

Here's a novel idea: Fox Business Network should focus on covering business news.
At least that's what Kevin Magee, executive vice president of the News Corp-owned <NWSA.O> cable news network, is urging his staff to do. . .

Read more at:  CNBC

Roger Ailes Admits FOX "News" Has a Conservative Bias?

Ain't he somethin'? Image from source.

I'm shocked, shocked, I tells ya!

[Excerpt]

Roger Ailes Admits Fox ‘News’ Has Conservative Bias

. . .Recently, Fox News President, Roger Ailesz, a former Republican strategist and employee for the Nixon administration, was interviewed by reported Howard Kurtzz. During the interview, Ailes admitted the conservative spin from Fox News proving that the channel is anything but “Fair and Balanced”. . .

Read more at: Addicting Info

Rolling Stone Chronicles Roger Ailes and FOX "News"

Image from excerpt source, Rolling Stone

And it ain't pretty. A week or so after New York Magazine delved into the genesis of FOX "News," and the main man behind it--Roger Ailes, not owner, Rupert Murdoch--Rolling Stone has an in-depth piece that is bound to tick you off. If you have a built-in revulsion for FOX "News" and/or Ailes, this article will give you even more (many more) tangible reasons to feel that way. And if you're a tea baggin', Sarah Palin lovin', Rush listenin' FOX fan, you'll be pissed for one of two reasons: 1) you've been had, or 2) you'll think the author, Tim Dickinson is a dirty, stinkin' socialist Obamabot!!11!1!!

But this article is thorough. Unlike the NYMag piece, this one names names. It has more sources. It has more detail of Ailes' past (past Ailes projects include the Nixon campaign stagecraft, The Maury Povich Show, The Rush Limbaugh Show on TV, A Current Affair, and the Willie Horton racist ploy). It points out that FOX "News" was born as a right-wing infused news channel, in fact was bred to be one.  It was in fact Ailes' second go at that sort of thing. Both even had "fair and balanced" as their motto. With FOX, he just managed to keep the bias--somehow--halfway under wraps. Like details about Ailes' late friend Liberace, there are things people know, that for some reason aren't openly discussed.

There is no doubt that the author of this piece has no love for Ailes or his tactics. I'm not sure that it would be possible, if you were discovering all of this stuff fresh and never heard of Ailes or FOX "News." It's pretty contemptible stuff. It's basically turning news into propaganda--on purpose--to strongly influence elections and policy, for the enrichment of corporate elites. It's an ends-justify-the-means story, where the ends are just as morally dubious as the means. It shows the man behind the curtain to be every bit as vile as you think he is. It explains what Karl Rove is doing at FOX "News." And the few FOX fans who will actually read this thing will likely not recognize this. They'll read the list of things that Fox watchers erroneously believe, and will have already been preconditioned to think those things are correct.

When the history of this era of America is written, I have a feeling that Roger Ailes will figure into the narrative, along with the Citizens United Supreme Court decision as a time when America changed direction drastically, from a democracy to a corporatocracy. Or, more hopefully, when it almost did.

[Excerpt]

How Roger Ailes Built the Fox News Fear Factory

. . .The key to decoding Fox News isn’t Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity. It isn’t even News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch. To understand what drives Fox News, and what its true purpose is, you must first understand Chairman Ailes. “He is Fox News,” says Jane Hall, a decade-long Fox commentator who defected over Ailes’ embrace of the fear-mongering Glenn Beck. “It’s his vision. It’s a reflection of him. . .”

Read (much) more at: Rolling Stone

Even FOX "News" Head Honcho Agrees: Sarah Palin is an Idiot

I knew it! This is a bit of a shocker, but even though FOX "News" serves heaping helpings of stupid, crazy and lies, behind the scenes, they actually have to know the score, right? That said, though the headline is great, the New York Magazine article it is based on is even better. So, by all means, check out the article excerpted below, but if you've got the time, read the in depth article here. And thanks to Stupid Monkey Planet for pointing it out.

[Excerpt]

Fox News President Roger Ailes thinks Sarah Palin ‘is an idiot’

Roger Ailes, the president of the Fox News Channel, is not fond of former Alaska governor and Fox News contributor Sarah Palin, according to sources. . .

Read more at: Raw Story

FOX "News" Chief Instructs Employee to Lie

Image of Alfred Hitchcock
Roger Ailes from source, NYTimes

Yeah, sure, this happened a while back. But it's just coming to light, and it's just further evidence that Rupert Murdoch's empire is run by folks like Roger Ailes who have a very loose relationship with the truth.

[Excerpt]

Fox News Chief, Roger Ailes, Urged Employee to Lie, Records Show



It was an incendiary allegation — and a mystery of great intrigue in the media world: After the publishing powerhouse Judith Regan was fired by HarperCollins in 2006, she claimed that a senior executive at its parent company, News Corporation, had encouraged her to lie two years earlier to federal investigators who were vetting Bernard B. Kerik for the job of homeland security secretary. . . 


Read more at: New York Times

Glenn Beck IS Howard Beale

Other people have been compared to Network's Howard Beale, but no one fits the profile better than Glenn Beck.  Keith Olbermann, for example, has at times been bombastic, but outside of his occasionally displayed passion, the resemblance is scanty. Beck on the other hand--whom Olbermann himself has compared to Andy Griffith's "Lonesome Rhodes"--is eerily similar to Beale.  Both seem dangerously unbalanced. Both have had meteoric rises in popularity, with a cult-like following. Both seem to believe their own hype.  It just remains to be seen if Beck will have a similar comeuppance in Roger Ailes' or Rupert Murdoch's office: "Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beck? You have meddled with the primal forces of nature! And YOU. WILL. ATONE!!!"  


[Excerpt]

Glenn Beck says tea party will 'set things right'

Fresh off a week of stunning Republican primary victories, several thousand exuberant and newly-empowered tea party followers descended on the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates on Saturday for Right Nation 2010 -- a carefully choreographed night of conservative political cheerleading, headlined by radio and TV host Glenn Beck. . .

Read more at: Chicago Breaking News

FOX "News" Isn't News: Love Letter to Scott Brown

People with functioning brains have no trouble seeing that FOX "News" is something other than a news channel. But denials--all the way up to Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch--still happen anyway. If you're a doubter (and then doubtless a "FOX fan"), check out this drooling smooch-fest for the recently elected Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.).

Paul Krugman Calls Out Roger Ailes to His Face on This Week

That Roger Ailes even tries to put up a modest defense of FOX "News" is amazing to me. I'm really surprised he cares. He hit upon a formula that works and pays big dividends (even if it did lose big bucks for years before it caught on). It's not a news network, and Krugman is correct, its watchers are not properly informed.

On a side note, I noticed that The Las Vegas Review-Journal's TV supplement highlights news programs in orange. Curiously, while Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Glenn Beck, Hannity and The Rachel Maddow Show are not highlighted, The O'Reilly Factor is. What the hell is that about?

NYT: When FOX "News" Becomes the Story

I don't like to use the same source too many times close together, but this story from the New York Times had to be covered here. As often as I've criticized FOX "News" and its stable of "journalists," it's high time I found some high-powered backup.

[Excerpt]

When Fox News Is the Story

Like most working journalists, whenever I type seven letters — Fox News — a series of alarms begins to whoop in my head: Danger. Warning. Much mayhem ahead.

Once the public relations apparatus at Fox News is engaged, there will be the calls to my editors, keening (and sometimes threatening) e-mail messages, and my requests for interviews will quickly turn into depositions about my intent or who else I am talking to. . .

Read more (it's good) at: New York Times

Rudy Giuliani's Latest Little Problem

Photo of Judith Regan from MSNBC

Rudy Giuliani may still be the front-runner for the Republican nomination, but he's gotten quite a few speed-bumps lately. So many in fact, that if he does manage to lock in the nom, he's got a tough row to hoe in a general election. Not that that disturbs me, mind you.

This particular scandal even manages to pull in Roger Ailes of FOX "News," a friend of Rudy's. It's a tangled web, as they say. . .

[Excerpt]

Ex-Publisher’s Suit Plays a Giuliani-Kerik Angle

Judith Regan, the former book publisher, says in a lawsuit filed yesterday protesting her dismissal by the News Corporation, the media conglomerate, that a senior executive there encouraged her to lie to federal investigators about her past affair with Bernard B. Kerik after he had been nominated to become homeland security secretary in late 2004. . .

Read the rest at: New York Times