CNN Slips to Third in Primetime News

[Force Commander]

http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2009/03/27/daily.13/

Associated Press, Mar 27 2009, 5:55 PM ET
CNN is poised to finish March third in the prime-time weeknight ratings behind Fox News Channel and MSNBC, the first time this has ever happened for the channel that pioneered the cable news genre nearly three decades ago.

CNN says its overall business is healthy and it is not straying from its straight news path. But it is suffering more audience erosion than its rivals since the peak days of the presidential election, further proof that the opinionated prime-time shows on Fox and MSNBC have greater audience loyalty.

CNN's weekday prime-time ratings are relatively flat compared to last year during the primary campaign, up 1 percent from March 2008, according to Nielsen Media Research. Fox's ratings have jumped 30 percent and MSNBC, the new No. 2, is up 24 percent. The biggest growth in cable news is for CNN's partner, Headline News, which is up 62 percent.

Fox remains on a mountain above its two closest competitors, with its prime-time audience in March more than that of MSNBC and CNN combined. "The O'Reilly Factor" has done particularly well, keeping more of its postelection audience than anything else on CNN and MSNBC.

Through Wednesday, Fox was averaging 2.73 million prime-time viewers in March. MSNBC had 1.16 million and CNN had 1.14 million. The March ratings period ends Friday, and it's doubtful CNN will be able to overcome MSNBC.

"The fact that one network may have eked out a slight edge in one small slice of the overall business really doesn't say much of anything," Jon Klein, CNN U.S. president, said on Friday. "It's more clear than ever, given the way that our competitors have positioned themselves, that CNN has positioned itself as the real news network."

Relying on news, rather than opinion, leaves CNN more susceptible to higher ratings peaks during big stories and lower valleys in routine times. Yet it's hard to consider the present - new president, economic turmoil and two wars - a slow news period.

CNN's ratings news "is very significant," said Frank Sesno, a former CNN Washington bureau chief and now a professor at George Washington University. "This is a big problem."

More significant is what CNN's ratings problems mean coupled with the daily drumbeat of layoffs in the newspaper industry, he said. With people more interested in hearing things through an ideological prism as a form of entertainment, it diminishes the value of independent voices giving straight news.

"It's getting harder to do real journalism on television," Sesno said. "This is 'man the ideological barricades.'"

Fox is ready to start a new venture Monday, "The Fox Nation," which it bills as an online community that believes in "your right to express your views, your values, your voice." Fox representatives would not immediately return a call for comment.

The most problematic part of CNN's prime-time schedule is Campbell Brown's 8 p.m. show, up against O'Reilly and MSNBC's Keith Olbermann. Brown's audience is smaller than any prime-time show on the three networks, and beneath Nancy Grace's crime hour on Headline News.

Brown leaves for a six-to-eight week maternity leave following Friday's show, and will be replaced temporarily by Roland Martin. Klein said Brown's show isn't in any danger, noting that it took years for Olbermann and O'Reilly to build their audiences and Brown has been in her job for a year.

There's been no talk of moving Grace to CNN, he said. Having Grace's crime-oriented show on Headline News allows CNN to keep its focus on being a news network, he said.

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow is a close third to Larry King, and both are beaten handily by Sean Hannity's new Fox solo show. At the 10 p.m. hour, a rerun of the show Olbermann did two hours earlier has been doing surprisingly well against CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360," leading MSNBC to at least temporarily put on hold any development of a new live show then.

MSNBC chief executive Phil Griffin said the prime-time ratings are an affirmation of the network's decision to go liberal with Olbermann and Maddow. But he also said it pointed to problems at his rival.

"They've got the best brand in news," he said. "CNN, that's better than anybody. But you've got to deliver on that - and they're not. It's a hollow promise."

He compared CNN to ESPN, which started at the same time, saying that, while ESPN has evolved aggressively and remained the leader in sports, CNN hasn't. Their evening lineup of Lou Dobbs, Brown, King and Cooper lacks any consistency or flow, he said.

"What do they stand for?" he said. "That's their biggest challenge. CNN ain't what it used to be, and that has given us an opening because we stand for something and they don't."

Klein dismissed Griffin, noting CNN is beating MSNBC handily when the full day - not just prime-time - is taken into account. He said that for March and the year's first three months, it was CNN's best showing since 2003, when the Iraq War started.

CNN continues to have a greater reach and reputation than its rivals across all platforms, he said.

"When you have other so-called news networks ceding the field of journalism, we are happy to fill that void," Klein said. "It's working for us."

[Hoosier Daddy]

With people more interested in hearing things through an ideological prism as a form of entertainment, it diminishes the value of independent voices giving straight news. "It's getting harder to do real journalism on television," Sesno said. "This is 'man the ideological barricades.'"

Word.

[AmpedNow]

I actually think that CNN is the most balanced of them all, but suffers a lot from the perception of being an all-out "liberal" outlet.


MoveOnMSNBC? Forget about it.




FNC? They are technically "fair and balanced" much of the time, but they often approach stories from the conservative paradigm, or browbeat certain stories that gets conservatives riled up against the evil liberals.

[Arp2]

CNN says its overall business is healthy and it is not straying from its straight news path.

There's the problem -- CNN has no "straight news path."

But, obviously, they think they do. Just like a fish thinks breathing and moving through water is nothing unusual.

On occasion, on certain stories, at certain points in a day, they've been reasonably close. Close. Never actually there, but close. Evenings, though.....and, besides, who sucks more than Larry King? If they actually did take an actual "straight news" path in primetime, I could see them back at #2.

[Dave Loudin]

I had no idea how bad things have become until I tried to get some straight news in the evening while on travel. There isn't any! Even Headline News, er, HLN, doesn't have news.

[Bob Campbell]

Fox and MSNBC don't really do news at night do they?

[Mike]

CNN's problem is that while they are very liberal, their anchors and anchorettes aren't slobbering all over "Dear Leader" offering to do Lewinskies on demand like MSNBC's Olberman, Matthews, and Maddow (probably the only straight impulse she's ever had).

CNN obviously has no intention of going after conservatives, as evidenced by how foolishly they let Beck slip through their fingers. So conservatives ignore them, liberals don't think they are "loyal" enough which leaves FNC which has a complete monopoly on conservatives and MSNBC as the "most orthodox" lib channel.

[Hoosier Daddy]

So you admit that Fox "goes after conservatives" ...

[GlenBrannon1]

I remember back in the early days of cable, living in Ashland, that there were 2 news channels that had NEWS. CNN and Satellite News Channel. Ted Turner bought SNC, leaving only one cable news outlet. I would love nothing more than a 30 minute news outlet. No screaming, no biases. To quote Jack Webb, "just the news, ma'am." 24/7/365. Do I think this will ever happen? Sadly, no.

[Lester]

So you admit that Fox "goes after conservatives" ...

With their Op-Ed shows like Hannity, Huckabee, and O'Reilly? Very much so.

With their news? No. Sheppard Smith is the quickest one there to call bullshit on either side... and every political story is approached from both sides of the story.

[Bob Campbell]

An addendum: Here's one way to tell which of the three of MSNBC, FOX and CNN actually cares about news. This morning all three carried large portions of the Obama/Sarkozy (sp?) joint press conference from Paris. Only CNN had an interpreter translating Sarkozy's answers into English.

[Mike]

An addendum: Here's one way to tell which of the three of MSNBC, FOX and CNN actually cares about news. This morning all three carried large portions of the Obama/Sarkozy (sp?) joint press conference from Paris. Only CNN had an interpreter translating Sarkozy's answers into English.

This sort of thing actually annoys me about ALL the news outlets, and goes above and beyond the bias thing.

I'm sick and tired of reporters not... REPORTING. That's what they are supposed to be doing, witnessing something and then telling me what they observed, not how they FEEL about it, not telling me their OPINION, but telling me the facts of what they actually witnessed. That's how journalism used to be taught before the 1960's.

Also, why is it when they are covering a LIVE event with video and audio, why can't they just let me watch and listen to what is happening instead of having some talking head telling me what I am seeing and hearing?

I believe that it's the desire for unfiltered news, as in news that isn't being processed, packaged, and spun by the Obamedia or other corporate entities that is driving the increasing influence of blogs and citizen journalism. One of the reasons why I largely ignore the "mainstream" media is that they continually insult my intelligence. I don't think I've actually sat down to watch an evening newscast in a decade.

[Bob Campbell]

I don't believe there is a single blog on the planet that "reports" anything. How many blogs had reporters at today's press conference. Blogs are, almost by definition, commentary and not reporting. With no oversight on facts, no field reporters, no editors, no news journalism of any sort, you can't call them news sources.
CNN actually reported today's conference. As did the rest of the mainstream media. The myth of "news coverage" from the "blogosphere" is just that, a myth.

If there were some sort of great demand for real news reporting, the ratings of the mainstream media and the circulation of newspapers would be much greater than it it. Sorry, but the vast majority of Americans no longer want straight news reporting. It's too complex, takes too much time, and requires too much indedependent thought. It's much easier to let Olberman, Hannity, Beck or Maddow tell us how to think.

[Mike]

I don't believe there is a single blog on the planet that "reports" anything. How many blogs had reporters at today's press conference. Blogs are, almost by definition, commentary and not reporting. With no oversight on facts, no field reporters, no editors, no news journalism of any sort, you can't call them news sources.
CNN actually reported today's conference. As did the rest of the mainstream media. The myth of "news coverage" from the "blogosphere" is just that, a myth.

If there were some sort of great demand for real news reporting, the ratings of the mainstream media and the circulation of newspapers would be much greater than it it. Sorry, but the vast majority of Americans no longer want straight news reporting. It's too complex, takes too much time, and requires too much indedependent thought. It's much easier to let Olberman, Hannity, Beck or Maddow tell us how to think.

What good is the press at press conferences?

They never ask tough or probing questions of this president.

Monicagate might never have been known about had it not been for the internet, for Matt Drudge...

[Bob Campbell]

Monicagate. A story that had absolutely no relevance to the functioning of the government, the welfare of the people, or anything other than personal embarassment for the President.
Celebrity gossip is not really news. Who cares who's bangin who? Sure, it's titillating, but what does it really have to do with anything of importance?
Don't confuse notoriety and celebrity for new worthiness.
Geeks living in mom and dad's basement firing off anything they can think of into the ether do not constitute substantive reporting.
It's funny how often stories published in blogs and other so-called news sources on the internet turn out to have originated with the mainstream media. Because, no matter their faults and the well founded criticism they endure, they are still the only people who actually go out and cover stories. When was the last time you heard of a blogger being killed while reporting a story? Funny how it's only the mainstream media who put their lives on the line to get information.

[Mike]

This same media won't ask Obama a single question about his involvement with Tony Rezko or Ron Blagoivich, assuming that he's the ONLY one who was hip deep in the corrupt cesspool that is Chicago politics yet emerged pure as the wind driven snow.

Yeah, right.

And no, Monicagate wasn't a trivial matter. I think the people have a right to know if the president is of such low character he's banging a girl young enough to be his daughter, in the oval office, on OUR time. Clinton ended up losing his ability to practice law over his perjuring himself over this.

That sort of behavior with a subordinate employee IN THE WORKPLACE would get most any of us fired or even PROSECUTED for sexual harassment, if not even rape.

[DJSHOCKLEY]

This same media won't ask Obama a single question about his involvement with Tony Rezko or Ron Blagoivich, assuming that he's the ONLY one who was hip deep in the corrupt cesspool that is Chicago politics yet emerged pure as the wind driven snow.

Yeah, right.

And no, Monicagate wasn't a trivial matter. I think the people have a right to know if the president is of such low character he's banging a girl young enough to be his daughter, in the oval office, on OUR time. Clinton ended up losing his ability to practice law over his perjuring himself over this.

That sort of behavior with a subordinate employee IN THE WORKPLACE would get most any of us fired or even PROSECUTED for sexual harassment, if not even rape.

Yeah, and less than 24 hours after 911, Bush drew up plans to attack a country that had nothing to do with it, murdered hundreds of thousands of innocent people, got over 4,000 American serviceman killed, and failed in Afganstan and Iraq, and him, Cheney and Rumsefeld got off scott free!

Damn media!

[Bob Campbell]

Those of you outraged over Monicagate's coverage, or lack thereof, are, I am sure, also as outraged by the same lack of coverage of President Bush's drug abuse, alcoholism, and infidelity also.
Obama's links and lack of links to Rezko and Blago have been covered ad nauseum by the mainstream press since the President announced his candidacy nearly 2 years ago. If you missed it maybe you were spending too much time reading somebody's blog.

[Bob Campbell]

Just to poke a stick in the cage; Did anybody notice which blogger broke the story of the Navy Seals rescuing the ship captain being held hostage by Somali pirates?
Oh...yeah...that was the mainstream media who did that.

Guess the bloggers couldn't get out of mom's basement to cover the story.

[genlock]

Half way through the month of April, CNN is in fourth place among the four cable news channels in prime time (8-11pmET) in the A25-54 demo. Sister network HLN is in third place thanks to a strong prime time performance led by Nancy Grace. Campbell Brown's maternity leave fill-in Roland Martin has not performed well at 8pm. One night last week, Martin drew just 150K A25-54 demo viewers. Five times as many watched The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News.