No Room for Progressives on Cable News Inauguration Coverage

No Room for Progressives on Cable News Inauguration Coverage, Says Media Matters for America

1/21/2005 11:59:00 AM


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To: National Desk, Political and Media Reporters

Contact: Melissa Salmanowitz of Media Matters for America, 202-756-4109 or MSalmanowitz@mediamatters.org

WASHINGTON, Jan. 21 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Media Matters for America inventoried all guests who appeared on FOX News, CNN, and MSNBC during the channels' Jan. 20 inauguration coverage. Between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET, Republican and conservative guests and commentators outnumbered Democrats and progressives 19 to 7 on FOX, 10 to 1 on CNN (not including a Republican-skewed panel featuring Ohio voters), and 13 to 2 on MSNBC. Moreover, the rare Democrat or progressive guest usually appeared opposite conservatives, whereas most Republican and conservative guests and commentators appeared solo or alongside fellow conservatives. In this survey, Media Matters included only those commentators whose party or political affiliation is generally known.

REPUBLICANS OR CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATORS

FOX News

-- Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.)

-- Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.)

-- Brian Harlan, head of officially authorized Bush-Cheney inaugural memorabilia

-- Ashley Faulkner, star of "Ashley's Ad," campaign spot by pro-Bush political action committee

-- Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.)

-- Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.)

-- Bush-Cheney '04 chief campaign strategist Matthew Dowd

-- Weekly Standard executive editor Fred Barnes

-- U.S. News & World Report senior writer Michael Barone

-- National Review editor Rich Lowry

-- Wall Street Journal contributing editor Peggy Noonan

-- Weekly Standard editor William Kristol

-- Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer

-- Radio host and FOX News contributor Mike Gallagher (opposite Beckel)

-- Pro-Bush singer Tony Orlando

-- FOX News political analyst and radio host Tony Snow

-- Former Bush-Cheney '04 senior adviser Tucker Eskew

-- Boxing promoter and outspoken Bush supporter Don King

-- Advertising executive Jerry Della Femina (opposite Hindery, Koplovitz)

DEMOCRATS OR PROGRESSIVE COMMENTATORS

FOX News

-- Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.)

-- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)

-- Democratic strategist Bob Beckel (opposite Gallagher)

-- National Public Radio senior correspondent Juan Williams (opposite Barnes)

-- Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D-Tenn.)

-- RTV Media chairman Kay Koplovitz (opposite Della Famina)

-- InterMedia Partners chairman Leo J. Hindery Jr. (opposite Della Famina)

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REPUBLICANS OR CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATORS

CNN

-- Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.)

-- Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.)

-- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-Calif.)

-- Gov. George Pataki (R-N.Y.)

-- Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani

-- Former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer

-- Bush senior adviser Karen Hughes

-- White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card

-- National Review contributing editor David Frum

-- Republican author Doug Wead

Additional note: CNN political analyst Carlos Watson's Ohio citizens panel included four Republicans, one Democrat, and one swing voter.

DEMOCRATS OR PROGRESSIVE COMMENTATORS

CNN

-- Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.)

--- REPUBLICANS OR CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATORS

MSNBC

-- Vice President Dick Cheney

-- Lynne Cheney

-- Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)

-- Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.)

-- Former Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.)

-- MSNBC host and Former Rep. Joe Scarborough (R-Fla.)

-- Radio host and MSNBC contributor Monica Crowley

-- Washington Times editorial page editor Tony Blankley

-- Former Reagan Chief of Staff Ken Duberstein

-- Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge

-- Bush senior adviser Karen Hughes

-- Retired baseball manager Tommy Lasorda

-- Bush-Cheney '04 attorney Ben Ginsberg

DEMOCRATS OR PROGRESSIVE COMMENTATORS

MSNBC

-- Progressive blogger Ana Marie Cox (Wonkette)

-- MSNBC political analyst Ron Reagan Jr. (opposite Crowley, Watts, Scarborough)

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-- Media Matters staff

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Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media. Media Matters for America is the first organization to systematically monitor the media for conservative misinformation every day, in real time. For more information, visit http://www.mediamatters.org.

http://www.usnewswire.com/

here, but somehow I am. I am so glad I have been ignoring all cable news stations except International World News.

and saw Judy woodruff, donna brazile, and bey buchanan. I laughed out loud and tuned in to comedy central.

None of the Democrats they allow on TV regularly are progressive, BTW.

CNN hemorrhaged more than half their audience from the 2001
Inauguration, overnights show. The troubled news network only averaged
779,000 viewers during yesterday's Inauguration coverage from 10am-4pm
with just 168,000 of those viewers landing in the coveted 25-54 demo.

Like CNN, MSNBC also suffered major losses, only averaging 438,000
viewers throughout yesterday's coverage (141,000 in 25-54), down a
whopping 68% over 2001 and faring even worse in primetime with just
385,000 viewers.

In contrast, Fox News averaged 2,581,000 viewers from 10a-4p (up 30%
over 2001) and their 25-54 demo average of 705,000 came close to CNN's
total coverage ratings yesterday.

PRIMETIME:

FNC -- 2,439,000 (up 57% OVER '01)
CNN -- 1,353,000 (down 14% over '01)
MSNBC -- 385,000 (down 47% over '01) http://www.zeppscommentaries.com/zeppol.htm

Did you see how Fox news had about two million viewers and CNN and MSNBC had about 500,000 each during the inaugural?

It is soooo obvious, CNN and MSNBC are going to fade away if they don't change their ways.

I've written to both and I know they don't care but the answer to their ratings problems is sitting in front of their faces. Yet they can't even see it.

First everyone watches Faux news but not because they agree with the conservative crap. The conservatives watch Faux to reinforce their opinions, and the liberals watch them to see the latest Repuke outrage. Come on admit it. I do it. I tune in Faux, every now and then, just to see what evil the neocons are up to.

Second, people don't watch the news networks to get the "news". They watch the news channels to get the latest spin or current status of events they already know about. Today there are so many news sources that you already know most of what's going on before you turn on the television. You just want to get the latest info about what you are interested in. Yeah, every now and then you get some real news from the television but you're really there to see the status of things you know about already.

Third CNN and MSNBC are just warmed over Faux news. They think if they imitate Faux, then they will get the ratings too. But CNN and MSNBC don't really do the outrages, neocon spin that Faux does. They can't get themselves to lie and make things up like Faux. Faux does it meaner and better. CNN and MSNBC attempt to give the news an impartial, middle of the road, conservative view. But that is just plain boring. It pisses the liberals off and makes the conservatives feel uninspired. Today, there just aren't enough moderate conservatives to support their viewership.

Finally, if CNN and MSNBC don't want to keep hemorrhaging their ratings to Faux one of them has got to go ultra liberal. It's the only way for them to stay in business. See right now we have 3 very big grocery stores and no book stores in a small town. CNN and MSNBC see the grocery stores doing well (Faux, Limbaugh, Cristian radio) so they open up another grocery store. And guess what? They lose money. They need to open a book store instead. They need to go ultra liberal. The liberals will watch it to confirm their opinions, and the conservatives will watch it to see what the liberals are up to.

I know for a fact if CNN had advertised they would be reporting on the protesters during the entire Inaugural, they would have had millions of viewers. Liberals would have watched it to see how the protests went and conservatives would have watched it to see if any fights broke out (like watching car racing to see if there are any wrecks).

That's free enterprise, that's the market place. But these news networks don't see it. They have all these conservatives running the networks they can't see the elephant in the living room, let alone talk about it.

But the writing is on the wall, their ratings are in the tube and they better change or go away.