respublica

Fox broadcasts alone

How bizarre.  Last night Fox News was the only cable station to air Nancy Pelosi's speech to the House of Representatives before the health care bill vote.

CNN decided to air a repeat of The Situation Room while MSNBC went with a real crime documentary.

As someone wrote on the TV Newser website:  As for MSNBC, They had to run their prison shows. So many prisons shows so little time!

Oh, and...they're still at it ...The Chicago Tribune writes:

"At least one Democratic political strategist has gotten a blunt warning from the White House to never appear on Fox News Channel.  he Democratic strategist said that shortly after an appearance on Fox, he got a phone call from a White House official telling him not to be a guest on the show again. The call had an intimidating tone, he said."

Newspaper circulation down except for the Wall Street Journal

Downward Trend

Average Daily Circulation at U.S. Newspapers*

Wall Street Journal	2,024,269	0.61%
USA Today	1,900,116	-17.15%
New York Times	927,851	-7.28%
Los Angeles Times	657,467	-11.05%
Washington Post	582,844	-6.40
N.Y. Daily News	544,167	-13.98%
N.Y. Post	508,042	-18.77%
Chicago Tribune	465,892	-9.72%
Houston Chronicle	384,419	-14.24%
Philadelphia Inquirer	361,480	N.A.

*Preliminary figures

Source: Audit Bureau of Circulations

Cnn in last place

The latest cable news ratings for prime time are shocking the rest of the news media this morning.  Venerable CNN is now in last place behind Fox, MSNBC and Headline News.

This isn't all that surprising, CNN is the network which thought fact checking a Saturday Night Live skit was news. 

Fox is way out in front of MSNBC and Headline News.

Newsday to charge for use

Long Island Newsday, a daily paper in the New York City area, will begin charging to read its online site.

20 dollars a month or 260 dollars a year for access to the Newsday site, although anyone who subscribes to the paper will be excempt from the fees.

Sun-Times critiques the White House

One of Obama's hometown papers, the Chicago Sun-Times finds the administration's excuses wearing thin.

"The White House trying to dictate who's a news organization. Democrats out to gut a business group. Obama media allies damning Americans as racist, unpatriotic and treasonous. Is this the America Obama promised when he campaigned to end the cynical and divisive politics of the past?"

Who's to blame for the weak dollar?

According to Politico, it's the Drudge Report.

Seems some "journalists" are embracing the effort to marginalize news outlets the administration does not like rather than concern themselves with the real question of the why and the how of the dollars demise.  They must be part of the group of White House correspondents who enjoy being "patted on the head by the White House."

First they came for....

Toby Harnden in the London Telegraph: 

"Those journalists sitting this one out need to ask themselves what they will do when the White House comes after them or their news organisation.

Because if Fox is allowed to be placed out of respectable bounds in this way then when the going gets tougher – as it will - the White House will simply move on to another target."

Here's another Politico headline today:

Obama Strategy: Marginalize Most Powerful Critics

Shouldn't this frighten other journalists who are either throwing confetti in the air or sitting on the sidelines?

Obsessed with Fox News?

So who really is obsessed with Fox News?

From a recent comment:  "Personally I ignore Fox; the obsession seems to be with this blog."

The obsession is coming from the White House which does not like being questioned and from the other cable news networks who are way behind Fox in the ratings.  This has been fun to watch.

Wal-Mart goes after Amazon

According to the Wall Street Journal, Wal-Mart just began a book price war with Amazon. 

If you want a best seller cheap, now's the time to do it.  Or, you might hold off until one or the other companies gives them away for free.

Yesterday Wal-Mart announced it would be selling ten of the most sought after new titles for ten dollars at Wal-Mart.com.

A couple of hours later Amazon matched that price.  Then Wal-Mart dropped their price to 9 dollars.

Hang on folks.  If you like to read new best sellers, now's the time to buy.  

They're in a Rush to take down Rush

The left doesn't like Rush Limbaugh.  Most of the media doesn't like Rush Limbaugh.  The current administration doesn't like Rush Limbaugh (or any media which questions them), sportswriters don't like Rush Limbaugh. 

What does this mean?

It means that ever since he took a minority partnership in a group hoping to buy the Rams, he's been subject to all kinds of over the top rhetoric and, downright lies, made up stuff that the national journalists took as truth and repeated.  Lies put up on Wikipedia by some anonymous "cobra".

Chris Matthews on MSNBC's Morning Meeting said,

You guys see Live and Let Die, the great Bond film with Yaphet Kotto as the bad guy, Mr. Big?  In the end they jam a big CO2 pellet in his face and he blew up.  I have to tell you, Rush Limbaugh is looking more and more like Mr. Big, and at some point somebody’s going to jam a CO2 pellet into his head and he’s going to explode like a giant blimp.  That day may come. Not yet. But we’ll be there to watch. I think he’s Mr. Big, I think Yaphet Kotto.  Are you watching, Rush?

So Chris dreams of Rush being killed?

Some football players say they won't play for any team that Rush has part ownership in?  But it's ok for rapper Jay-Z to be part owner in the New Jersey Nets?  It's ok for left hate spewing Keith Olbermann to be a part of NBC's Sunday Night Football panel?  Olbermann is the front runner for top prize in hate speech.

Tim Blair:  "Bizarrely, nobody running these career-killing “quotes” seems to question why they weren’t of previous interest." 

Why have these media types, including sports media types embraced these lies with such vigor?  Maybe because they want to believe them.  And that is not journalism.  It's embracing your own set of prejudices and political leanings and reporting it as truth. 

I despise Keith Olbermann.  But he has a forum from which to spew.  It's called free speech.  Don't like Rush?  He has the right of free speech too. The only thing, if you're going to attribute something to someone, you better be darn sure it's correct. 

Funny how no one in the journalism world can come up with video, audio or transcripts of these things supposedly said by Limbaugh.  But Chris Matthews, you're caught in one of the more despicable things said on recent news programs. 

Obsessing over Fox News

The horror.  A media outlet exists which does not care to be a cheerleader for the administration.  What can the administration do?

Intensify the fight against Fox News.  Isolate them, ignore them.  Call them names. 

"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -Mahatma Gandi

For Pete's sake.  The administration has just about every other news organization in the world bending over backwards to find the best in everything the administration says or does. 

White House communications director Anita Dunn said, "We're going to treat them like we treat an opponent."  Then, "we don’t need to pretend that this is the way that legitimate news organizations behave."

Come on folks.  It's ok that legitimate news organizations never question you?  That's legitimate?

Meanwhile the latest ratings.