Not a single basic cable "news" show breaks the top 40...

[WCGreen]

For the first time since the november election, not one news show from Fox, CNN or MSNBC attracted enough viewers to break the top forty. That threshold is usually about 2.1 million HH or about 3.1 million viewers.

http://www.top5s.com/tvcable.htm

Last week, BO was the lone "presonality" to break into the top 40 settling in at 38. This week, repeats of SpongeBob, Law and Order and WWF wrestling matches on Spike beat out conservative talk TV by huge margins.

Remember, Fox attracts less viewers than PBS, more people listen to NPr than watch any show on Fox, more people read the NYT than any show on Fox, more people watch third place CBS in one night than wach anyshow all cable news shows in that time slot combined.....

[teryang]

1. Nobody watches that crap

Why should they? It's an insult to anyone's intelligence. That's a pretty low standard.

[Detergent Insurgent]

2. A mixed bag about news...

WCGreen:

I found your post interesting so I went to the site you linked, top5s.com. It was as much as what was said and wasn't said. It seems official now that CNBC is now "FoxLite" with the end of McEnroe. I only watched McEnroe a few times. His redeeming quality to me was that he did not appear to always toe the party line. Unlike that obnoxious and absurd Dennis Miller I could watch him without throwing my balled-up socks at the TV. I cannot remember seeing a program with his replacement but I will try to catch it just to see how far right CNBC stays. See the blind mice, see how they run, up and down the block, hickory-dickery-dock, same folks own all of their stock, scurry through the night as they rush to join the chorus of "FoxLite"!

What about that ubiquitous "talk radio" machine the Republikans have built? Are all the pink, blind, little mice sucking teat over there? That's probably where they have scurried off to. There the pontificating, propagandizing prattlers spew forth their malevolent porridge of malicious mush. Those purveyors of political pomposity that put the "con" into conservative. The wide wonderful world of "FalwellLite" (I see a trinity of Ls in that moniker, a sure sign of moral values), o say by the ether's constant crackle does that genre yet thrive?

Give me a L, give me an I, give me a B, give me Liberal, where are we in the sweeps? Nowhere.

PROPOSAL: "Hollyweird Liberals" it's time to step up to the plate, we need a TV network! That's your business, your bailiwick, you're the folks who get our dough at the box office, our clicker on the small screen. Give Bill Mahr a show where he can really say what he thinks. Run Al Franken against Imus, let the shtick begin! Let the purple states rise up from the pools of red and blue! Have a few guest like some of us so everyone can listen to our solutions. It's not time to just think outside the box, this is a digital world, let's throw away the box and plug in the ethernet card.

At least buy some star's used tour bus. Web cams? Wireless laptops? Videophones (they work well in war)? Michael Moore we made you rich enough off of Fahrenheit 911 to buy the bus. Let's roll it across America broadcasting in twenty mile spheres. It's time to kick Liberalism out of its little marsupial pouch. When there is a caravan following that old bus that causes traffic jams, stop there and build a TV station. If I was a star my money would be where my mouth is so that the voices of others could be heard. We are the tired, the weak, the poor, the hungry and the naked out here so give us a hand. Take your paychecks and shove them right down the throats of America just like the boys of "FoxLite" do.

I am a totally disabled Vietnam Veteran who cannot work and must survive on a VA pension but I find enough money to send a few dollars (literally) a month to support a cause or two. I am compelled to chip in what I can to do my part. I know that I have to if I expect anyone else to do their part. I am an ex-Christian, but one "moral value" that I hold dear is one that Jesus told his disciples when they wanted to know who was the greatest among them. Jesus said that the Greatest among you shall be the Servant of you all. We are all each other's servant if we expect to find greatness in our cause.

This is a general call to action. My first suggestion is that we model our Liberal Network on the PBS modus operandi. I will pledge $10.00 a month for the next three years. Any takers? :hippie: B-) :D :crazy: :hurts: :hi: :kick: :yourock: Not quite worth a thousand words?

[blondeatlast]

3. Sounds wonderful, but... first of all, welcome to DU!

:toast:

After you've been here a while you will realize that we, as LW, have no cohesive message like the Radical Rights do. For more on the reasons why, I would direct you to "The Republican Noise Machine" by David Brock, must reading for anyone concerned about the death of an objective press and the threat it poses to domocracy.

Until you read the book, it will be impossible to really get you to see the problems with your proposal, but I can point to this:

We finally have 24/7 progressive radio in the form of Air America. Yet here at DU we nitpick about the hosts and their messages. That's okay, but already we seem to have forgotten what a revelation AAR is for us.

It's already been suggested here that because AAR is broadcast on a few Clear Channel stations that they have diluted their message and are aiming down the center. I love DU, but we have an annoying tendency to go right ahead and look at that gift horse's teeth every single time.

"Republican Noise" explains why you NEVER hear this happening in the RW. It is a systematic effort to keep everyone on the message, all the time. Perhaps RW pundit A has a pet issue that seems to contradict RW pundit B's view. A meeting is held, and it is determined that this week RW pundit B gets to have his pet issue aired. Next week may be RW pundit A's turn.

No one is EVER allowed to go off message; if they do, they stop getting booked on the talk shows.

It's the modus operandi and raison d'etre of the tax-exempt, blatantly political, RW "stink tanks" like the Heritage Foundation, American Enterprise Institute, and Cato Institute, plus dozens of others.

[Detergent Insurgent]

4. Understand, but do not accept

Blondeatlast:

I understand but do not accept our lack of organization. Air America is great - but it is just one cog in the wheel. The adage of a picture being worth a thousand words is essential in today's digital society. Fox, which stands for Feed Our Xenophobia, gets the attention of a lot of people who don't bother to read or fail to use their imagination while listening to radio (I must use the internet). Without our own TV outlet we will, as we say down here in Texas, be "sucking the hind teat". We cannot compete in the media war without our own TV network. One thing Fox does that we can't is float all of those balloons. If they are unpopular the Banana Republikans can back away and point the finger at Fox. I listen to Air America and RadioPower.org and they are great - but we need TV coverage. I have not seen pictures of those people in Ohio who waited 9 hours to vote. Our network could have hit it hard on election day and kept the issue alive over these weeks. There a picture is worth 3 million words.

CHALLENGE: Let's get up off our rear-ends and make it happen. I'm stuck in a small town in Texas and am virtually homebound - but I'm gonna try it. I'll be the clearinghouse. E-mail me with ideas. Especially if you are or you know a celebrity who could help the cause. Before my disability side-lined me I was a business person who started with nothing so I know things can happen. Contact me, together we can change the order of things. We, the average Liberals, can and will make it happen. :evilgrin: :kick:

[hickman1937]

6. I'm in

I don't want to hear why it won't work. I'd like hear how it can work. I'm broke, but I'll give up my cable tv to get money to make this viable. Who do we approach first? Any ideas?

[Detergent Insurgent]

8. Back to I'm in...

hickman1937:

IDEAS:

1. Non-profit publicly funded.
2. Board comprised of high profile persons and average people.
3. Need volunteer lawyers.
4. Form committee. MEMBERSHIP THROUGH JOINING THE COMMITTEE. Donation not required now just e-mail.
5. Need fiduciary to handle donations when time comes. i.e. cpa firm, nonprofit organization, etc.
6. Planners that can take over as this gets bigger to keep organized.
7. Talent, all kinds, tv, air personalities, organizers, gophers, etc.
8. Web site: 1. need designers, 2. initial donations to fund so we can organize from there.

This is just a start.

Next? :) :hippie: :toast: :bounce: :think: :crazy: :tinfoilhat:

[rainbow4321]

5. If they bothered to report news, we would watch....

Instead they give us 23 hours of useless fluff and 1 hour of the latest celebrity scandal/trial.

Most of us wanting real news have traded in our remote control for our mouse. They either need to get used to their crappy ratings or adjust their reporting to our taste.

My news cable watching days ended, oh, about 3am on Nov 3rd.

Maybe the drop in their ratings will help them catch a clue...48 million of us tuning OUT = crappy ratings = no one watching commercial$/advertisers. Obviously the 50 million chimp worshipers cannot sustain the necessary ratings, so maybe it will prove that PANDERING to these fools is not the way to go.

To hell with the TV "news", it's much more informative to cut out the biased middlemen/media and go to the Internet news sites and blogs.

[FrenchieCat]

9. Always on the "hunt" for

an OJ or "Clinton's Blue Dress".....story line that can capture large audience forever....

That's why they don't care about the news.....cause it's about hooking viewers to whatever distraction they can find, and hope one hits "paydirt".

Totally deplorable and a disgusting way to run a newsroom.

Our 4th estate is no more. The Internet is "it".

[htuttle]

10. They use the 'Sordidity Index' to prioritize stories

The Sordidity index of any given story is the 'sordidness' of the story, multiplied by the fame of the person the story is about.

That's why, for example, we see stories about J.Lo and Ben Afflack getting in an argument, but you and your significant other getting into a fight is ignored. But if you did something REALLY sordid, like killed your pregnant wife while having an affiar, THEN you'd finally be newsworthy.

That's also why a story like Michael Jackson being arrested for child molestation is simply off the charts, and would knock anything short of a nuclear war out of the headlines. Even then, I think they'd lead with the Jackson story...

I think it all has something to do with those 'values' I keep hearing about....

[Bouncy Ball]

7. God knows we don't watch any of it in our house.

I've had friends telling me a lot lately that they just watch movies on DVD anymore. This despite paying $50 and up per month for satellite or cable. They say "nothing good's on." So do like we did, save the $50 and cancel it. Some have.

THAT sends a big message, loud and clear, to the media when a lot of us don't watch and better yet, cut it off.