This Week’s Cable News Ratings: Fox Still on Top

Lately when I listen for about 20 to 30 minutes of Al Sharpton’s radio show, I hear callers complementing him for his TV ratings for his MSNBC cable news program, Politics Nation. Mr. Sharpton is beating the competition, CNN and CNN’s sister station, HLN in the 6:00 P. M. (eastern) time slot. But all one has to do, is look at  all the numbers that represent viewers to see that it should still be pretty embarrassing for those at the non Fox News cable stations. Mr. Sharpton explains it away by saying that Fox News has a strong loyal right-wing base.

Well,  I do think it is true to say that people on the right are far more into news and politics oriented TV programming than people on the left.  MSNBC would love to have a strong left-wing loyal base, but that still has yet to happen. Fox News’s Bret Baier has more viewers by 5 points at the 6: P. M. time slot than CNN’s John King and MSNBC’s Al Sharpton combined. Go here to view the cable news ratings scoreboard for Wednesday, Dec. 21st. Also see The Scoreboard: Tuesday, December 20  and The Scoreboard: Monday, December 19.

Politichicking Ladies

Saturday Night Live alumnus, Victoria Jackson is very much the conservative and is now on an online TV program called PolitiChicks, which is somewhat like a conservative alternative to The View. Well The View is not 100% liberal/left. There is Elizabeth Hasselbeck who gets some conservative support in relation to family matters and support of the military sometimes from her otherwise liberal  buddy Sherri Shepherd.

PolitiChicks came on the scene just last month. Besides Victoria Jackson, the other fiercely conservative activists are Anne-Marie Murrell, Jannique Stewart and Jennie Jones. Read more about PolitiChicks here.

Get a taste of PolitiChicks

The Hasselbeck/Maher Confrontation

Bill Maher was on the View yesterday and Elisabeth Hasselbeck confronted him about him making women  in general (in the citation, it was Ms. Hasselbeck)  the butt of nasty jokes. His jokes and comments are quite vulgar in reference to Republican and conservative women. In his monologues on his HBO program, “Real Time with Bill Maher,” he called Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann vulgar names associated with female genitalia. Read more and view a video clip here.

Since Bill Maher was on a morning broadcast network TV program, he could not be his usual self. If he had the freedom he has on HBO, ABC would have had to cut the sound to keep viewers from hearing the foul language that would have flowed from his mouth. Real Time did its last show this past Friday before going on holiday hiatus. That is a good thing for Ms. Hasselbeck confronting Bill Maher, because if Real Time were on again this Friday, he would cut loose on her with the vulgarities something awful! Her husband would have to do something painful to him to her uphold her honor.

A Sample of What Led to Cenk Uygur Being Dumped for Al Sharpton

When Cenk Uygur lost his program on MSNBC to Al Sharpton, it was not only because of poor viewer ratings. Some reports said it was because the pro Obama MSNBC was highly annoyed with him being too critical of Pres. Obama, his administration and some Democrats. I always hear from the liberal leftist side how conservatives eat their own. If you believe that, you must not be familiar with Cenk Uygur. He is proof that liberal left types eat their own too! Just watch the video.

Cenk Uygur’s mouth might be the cause along with poor viewer rating for getting dumped by MSNBC. But if any of you feel sorry for Mr. Uygur, fret no more. A TV version of his Internet-based new talk program, Young Turks is on its way to Current TV. It will be on 7:00 p. m. weeknights. He will pull in even less viewers as does another former MSNBC host, Keith Olbermann whose Current TV program is on week nights at 8:00.

MSNBC’s Higher Ratings with Al Sharpton!

So MSNBC is considering Rev. Al Sharpton for a permanent spot on its roster! He is doing the 6:00 P. M. hour most of July. Cenk Uygur who was the host for that hour since January was given his walking papers. Al Sharpton improved the ratings. You know MSNBC is on their knees yelling, “Thank You” to whomever. The are experiencing a sustained ratings increase. Something they have not seen, like forever! I do believe he is giving them real hope to catch up to Fox News for at least one hour.

As I read around the Internet, I am seeing protest to Al Sharpton getting his own cable news TV program. Some prefer Cenk Uygur and say he got a raw deal. Some are saying Mr. Sharpton is the left’s version of Glenn Beck and for that reason he should not have a TV platform for his views. I also read that MSNBC is caving to pressure to add persons of color to their white evening line up. The National Association of Black Journalist are even protesting MSNBC, because Al Sharpton in not a journalist. They believe news program should go to people with journalistic credentials.

With the cable news honchos, it is all about ratings. Of course journalistic credibility is important, but when a cable news network viewer ratings are far lower than the competition that it politically opposes and has just about reached the blood feud level, journalistic credentials lose out. MSNBC is going with someone who comes across wooden when in free format and umms and errs a lot when not on script, but (at least for now) he is bringing in some new viewers.

On Media Matters Quest to Take Down Fox News

There was a time when I paid some serious attention to David Brock and his left-wing (George Soros backed) watchdog organization, Media Matters. I read his book, The Republican Noise Machine, which is about his times as a conservative gay and then his crossing over to the opposing political side and is now a liberal lefty. Media Matters is a liberal leftist delight. Their animosity toward all things conservative is so out there that it even glows in the dark.

Media Matters’ biggest target is the Fox cable news channel who they definitely do not think is fair and balanced. They view Fox News as a wing in the Republican Party. They are throwing a lot of money up in the air in trying to bring down Fox News who to their revulsion continues to have more viewership than the other 2 major cable news channels combined for most of their programming. Plus, now it appears that the money they are throwing up in the air is coming from tax-free funds which is illegal. Read more here and here.