CNN in Last Place – Behind MSNBC Reruns!
CNN has dropped to fourth place in the cable news business it invented. And Fox continues to rise while under fire from the administration. CNN, which invented the cable news network more than two decades ago, will hit a new competitive low with its prime-time programs in October, finishing fourth – and last – among the cable news networks with ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 27, 2009 09:34
Did Jon Stewart Hurt America?
Dan Drezner notes that "We're coming up on the five-year anniversary of Jon Stewart's verbal skewering of Crossfire in particular and the whole genre of left-right cable gabfests in general. Stewart said these kind of shows were 'hurting America' because of their general blather and failure to ask politicians good, sharp questions." Dan poses the Reaganesque question, Are you better off than ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 1, 2009 16:02
Olbermann vs. Beck
Keith Olbermann is going after Glenn Beck now, requesting Daily Kos readers and viewers of his own show to "Find everything you can about Glenn Beck, Stu Burguiere [Beck's radio producer], and Roger Ailes." Apparently, Olbermann found this "necessary after this in order to prove various cliches about goose and gander, and to remind everybody to walk softly and carry ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 7, 2009 09:21
Brooks-Broder Derangement Syndrome
Mike Rappaport "hates" David Brooks and finds him "a despicable character." Why? He lets John Hinderaker explain: Brooks . . . knows where his bread is buttered. He makes his living as a "conservative" who can reliably be counted on to sell out conservatives and Republicans at every opportunity. In this instance, Hinderaker is reacting to Brooks' characterization of Sarah Palin's "death ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 10, 2009 12:23
Hate Radio?
While their agenda is different from mine, I've generally seen the Center for American Progress as a thoughtful, center-left institution. They employ talented, decent folks like Steve Clemons and Steve Coll (now their president and CEO). Think Progress, the blog of their "Action Fund," has generally followed suit, despite most of its authors being quite young and thus not ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 18, 2009 06:10
FISA Reform Moves Forward, Netroots Angry at Obama
The Senate easily invoked cloture yesterday, ending a threatened filibuster of a major overhaul of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. The revised bill is expected to pass today. This may be the most important bill we pass this year," said Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), an architect of the bill crafted over four months ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 26, 2008 08:03
Ending the Pretense of Media Neutrality
Jay Rosen argues, persuasively, that the only way out of the "media bias" trap is for journalists to stop pretending to be neutral and simply endeavor to be fair. Professional journalists do not improve the situation when they double down on their neutrality and present objectivity as a truth claim about their own work. It is this kind of claim that ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 14, 2008 11:06
Drudge Breaks Media Silence on Prince’s Mission
At 12:20 Eastern yesterday, I got a CNN Breaking News alert that read, in its entirety, "Britain's Prince Harry has been serving on the front line in Afghanistan, CNN confirms." I found it mildly interesting, in that his superiors had previously decided the security risk in sending him to Iraq was too high, but didn't have anything significant to ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 29, 2008 06:47
David Shuster Suspended for Chelsea ‘Pimped Out’ Remark
MSNBC's David Shuster has been suspended for his on-air musing, "Chelsea is sort of being pimped out in some weird sort of way?" I saw the news yesterday evening and didn't find it particularly interesting but apparently I'm alone, in that it's getting the mega treatment at Memeorandum. Howie Kurtz, the media critics' media critic, gets page C1 ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 9, 2008 08:27
Mary Katharine Ham ‘Worst Person in the World’
Keith Olbermann has named Mary Katharine Ham the "Worst Person in the World" for expressing the view on CNN's "Reliable Sources" that Bill Clinton has to be a bit stunned by the backlash over his negative campaigning on behalf of his wife because he was used to soft treatment from the press. I think he's sort of a victim of ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on January 29, 2008 08:19
MSNBC Rebranding as Liberal News Network
MSNBC is looking to capitalize on the success of Keith Olbermann's leftist rants by hiring more people like him, including Rosie O'Donnell, Jacques Steinberg reports in today's NYT. Riding a ratings wave from “Countdown With Keith Olbermann,” a program that takes strong issue with the Bush administration, MSNBC is increasingly seeking to showcase its nighttime lineup as a welcome haven ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 6, 2007 10:15
NBC’s Green Political Football
As I've written numerous times at OTB Sports, NBC and ESPN have combined to ruin late night NFL telecasts. ESPN, which now has Monday Night Football, is the worst of the lot, treating every game as a preseason exhibition, constantly chattering about whatever random thought comes to mind, moving away from live game action so that their sideline gal ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 5, 2007 08:09
Caption Contest Winners
The Donkey Hokey Edition OTB Caption ContestTM is now over. (AFP/Jewel Samad) The Winners: First: floyd - no No NO!!...IT'S TAIL! You pin the TAIL on the donkey! Second: John Burgess - George Soros (in helmet) injects a little 'Go Juice' into the Democratic race for the Presidential Nomination. Third: Wyatt Earp - Lady Godiva has really let herself go Honorable Mention: Rachel ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 1, 2007 18:47
Paula Zahn Leaving CNN
Paula Zahn will be leaving CNN when her contract expires next week. She will be replaced by Campbell Brown. The estimated 558,000 viewers her program has been drawing, on average, each weeknight this year, according to Nielsen Media Research, represents less than a quarter of the nearly 2.3 million who watch “The O’Reilly Factor” with Bill O’Reilly on Fox News. ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 25, 2007 07:47
Keith Olbermann Iraq ‘Betrayal’ Special Comment
Keith Olbermann's most recent Special Comment was indeed quite special. Watch the video: He has accused the Democratic leadership of "betrayal" for caving in on the Iraq supplemental. The Democratic leadership has, in sum, claimed a compromise with the Administration, in which the only things truly compromised, are the trust of the voters, the ethics of the Democrats, and the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 24, 2007 07:48
