O'Reilly Lied About LA Times Article (Election/Ratings)

On the Thursday Nov, 9th Factor, O'Reilly said The
L.A. Times used a misleading headline to claim CNN had
a ratings victory in their election coverage. He
called this policing the press, yet he is a liar, and
the only Press who should be policed is Bill O'Reilly.
The truth is not even close to what O'Reilly reported,
this is a perfect example of how O'Reilly spins things
to make papers like the L.A. Times look like far left
liars.

Here is what O'Reilly said:

O'REILLY: "Policing the Press" segment tonight: The
ratings are in -- FOX News Channel once again the
cable news champion on election night, CNN second,
nobody else close.

On the network side, ABC News won, NBC second, CBS
third.

Now, "The Los Angeles Times" reported today -- quote
-- "CNN enjoyed a rare ratings victory." Of course,
that isn't true.

"The L.A. Times" went on to cite a demographic
category to cover its misleading headline. That kind
of stuff happens all the time.

---------------------------------

And now the truth, as in the facts:

The headline on the L.A. Times article was "Stars help
ABC glide to top of election ratings" and not "CNN
enjoyed a rare ratings victory" as O'Reilly claims.

Dont just believe me, go read the article for yourself.

www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-tv9nov09,1,4467198.story?coll=la-news-politics-national

And here is the full quote from the actual article.
Notice that the article clearly states CNN enjoyed a
ratings victory in the 25 to 54 year old demographic,
and that they never claim CNN was #1 in total viewers.
In fact, they also clearly state that FOX News
maintained an edge in total viewers, on top of that
they also report the actual numbers showing FOX to be
#1 in total viewers.

Among the cable news channels, CNN enjoyed a rare
ratings victory, drawing the largest number of 25- to
54-year-old viewers — the key demographic advertisers
seek on news programs — throughout the day and during
prime time. Top-ranked Fox News maintained an edge
among total viewers, but just barely, with an average
prime-time audience of 3.06 million to CNN's 2.97
million.

Fox wins with 3 million in a country like the US? That's awful..

Fox won in cable news, just barely, but in network news ABC won with 9 million viewers, NBC was 2nd with about 8 million, and CBS was 3rd with 7 million.

Ah ok, that puts it into perspective. There must be over 100 million viewers in the US for great events and 3 million sounded so low.

the rest of America splits according to their favorites. Fox skews older and less educated, not the more desired demographic for advertisers. But Fox does have a lock on that segment, just as talk radio speaks largely to the same older, less educated group.
This group routinely scores the lowest on current events questions. Just a coincidence I guess.
Plus, Fox has been steadily losing viewership while MSNBC's viewership has been increasing.
So let Fox enjoy their election night edge. They have all their eggs in one basket. And they know it.
They'll either have to branch out and be less "Bill-O" and "Hannity" driven or continue to lose viewers. Their audience will be, literally, dying off. (Fox still is the number station at retirement homes.)
Look for changes at Fox. You can bet the suits are looking at the numbers the tiny Comedy Channel is getting thanks to Stewart and Colbert. Imagine if they had a bigger network. They'd bury O'Reilly.
And Olberman is building, also.
No wonder O'Reilly is a rage-o-holic. Who knows? He might even be smart enough to realize the part he and Limbaugh and the other hatemongers had to do with aiding and abetting the demise of the GOP.

Same shock value.:) Great site, by the way.

Thanks, and I know people here know O'Reilly is a liar. I just wanted to post one of his lies for new people and for everyone to use if they need it.

It's clear proof of how O'Reilly lies, right there in black and white. I also sent that to mediamatters.org and the writer of the L.A. Times article.

by 11:59pm Nov. 7. We as a public do have patients, it the media that are swarming around like flies.