New York Times and Bloomberg Act as Stenographers for MSNBC on Anti-CNN Coverage - Charlie Warner - MediaBizBloggers

On Tuesday October 27 New York Times reporter Bill Carter wrote an article titled amp8220CNN Last in TV News on Cableamp8221 in which he gave 2554 demo ratings and rankings in prime time for the four cable news networks He did not indicate where he got the numbersSarah Rabil wrote a similar article on Bloombergcom posted at 318 pm EDT and titled amp8220CNN Falls to Fourth Place in PrimeTime Cable Newsamp8221 in which she wrote amp8220CNN owned by Time Warner Inc placed fourth among cable news networks in primetime audience ratings in October according to Nielsen Co data provided by MSNBCamp8221OK now we know where Bill Carter got his numbers amp8211 the MSNBC flacks had been spinning the story to media reporters and columnists amp8211 and Sarah as a good reporter should wrote where she got the numbers Bill Carter didnamp8217t but you know as well as I do what the original source of his information wasCarter and Rabil acted as virtual or rather digital stenographers for the MSNBC public relations flacks just like the flacks wanted them to Neither Carter nor Rabil gave much insight into why the ratings might have been the way they wereWhen I returned to the Bloombergcom site at about 715 pm to link to the CNN story I noticed it had been updated at 758 pm and the name of another reporter Brett Pulley had been added The storyamp8217s headline was amp8220CNN Falls to Fourth in PrimeTime Cable News Ratings Update1amp8221 it was longer than the original one and mentioned that the ratings information was amp8220according to Nielsen data cited in an email by Alana Russo a spokeswoman for MSNBCamp8221At least the Bloombergcom reporters were transparent about where they got their information but the journalistic question is amp8220would the story get played to make CNN look bad if it wasnamp8217t sold by MSNBC flacksamp8221 and amp8220Do the stories give insight or are the reporters merely acting as stenographers for their sourceamp8217Carteramp8217s New York Times story was more insightful and gave some possible reasons for CNNamp8217s decline 1 CNN was down from 2007 and 2008 which were dominated by political news and 2 because MSNBC and Fox News in prime are filled with opinion programming and CNN except for the ridiculous Lou Dobbs my comment not Carteramp8217s isnamp8217t Prime time was emphasized because thatamp8217s where ratings and thus ad dollars and profits are highestBut neither Carter nor Rabil and Pulleyamp8217s story made the connection between CNNamp8217s rating declines and the drastic change in the news networkamp8217s channel position on Time Warner Cable in New York where about six percent of the countryamp8217s TV cable homes areCNN has been moved from the favorable Channel 10 position on Time Warner Cable in New York to the unfavorable position of Channel 78 and Foxamp8217s FX network has been moved to Channel 10 Why do you suppose this happened Could it possibly have anything to do with the fact that in February 2007 Time Warner spun off Time Warner Cable into a separate public companyWhen Time Warner owned both Time Warner Cable and the Turner Broadcasting System which owns CNN and HLN previously Headline News they were in the same family and CNN got favorable treatment from Time Warner CableBut after the divorce in 2007 the newly independent Time Warner Cable apparently wasnamp8217t in a mood to be nice to its former family members After February 2007 Time Warner Cable was in a position to maximize profits for itself not for its former siblingsI suspect Time Warner Cable instituted a payforplay policy and began to charge cable networks for more favorable channel positions Iamp8217ll bet Fox sweetened the pot and got FX moved to Channel 10 in New York Iamp8217ll bet that MSNBC ponied up too and got a more favorable position Channel 14 in New York next to its sibling CNBC on Channel 15 It doesnamp8217t look like CNN or HLN Channel 58 in New York coughed up enough if any money and CNN got buried on Channel 78 which could affect the ratingsThe Nielsen ratings sample is notoriously small and thus is not terribly stable from rating period to rating period In October according to MSNBCamp8217s numbers as fed to the Times and Bloombergcom CNN in prime time had 202000 viewers 2554 and MSBNC had 250000 Those 48000 viewers could be a rounding error caused by the change in channel position although CNN lost in a couple of months to MSNBC before the channel switch or to sampling errorBut perhaps the larger questions is amp8220What does it matter to cable subscribers if Time Warner Cable is making more money because of payforplay if indeed it is using this strategyamp8221My wife and I pay Time Warner Cable 142 a month for cable and an Internet connection and I canamp8217t remember the price of our service ever going down Well thatamp8217s not entirely true we recently got a measly 100 taken off our bill for eliminating paper and paying electronically But the point is that our cable bills have been going up the service is passable at best the Internet service is fully automated by means of voice recognition and you have to give up two fingers and a toe to get to talk to a real person and Time Warner Cable is now making more money than everNot what youamp8217d call consumer friendly No wonder the cable industry is vilified in public opinion polls and sometimes shows up lower than even journalists and politicians and thatamp8217s lower than whale dung Consumers are angry and having the cable companies inconvenience them with senseless channel switches just to make more money is going to make them angrierComcast the nationamp8217s largest cable company Time Warner is number two is in negotiations to buy 51 percent of NBC Universal from GE Congress will give this proposed merger close scrutiny because both Congress and consumers are angry and when they both find out about payforplay theyamp8217ll be angrier Iamp8217ll betAnd it doesnamp8217t help when business and media reporters donamp8217t scrutinize stories they are fed by PR flacks and act as stenographers for cable company spinUntil he retired in 2002 Charlie Warner was Vice President of AOL39s Interactive Marketing division Before joining AOL he was the Goldenson Endowed Professor at the Missouri Journalism School where he taught media management and sales and he created and ran the annual Management Seminar for News Executives Charlie can be contacted at charleshwarnergmailcomRead all Charlieamp8217s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Charlie Warner MediaBizBloggersFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBlogger

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New York Times and Bloomberg Act as Stenographers for MSNBC on Anti-CNN Coverage - Charlie Warner - MediaBizBloggers

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