News Media Coverage of 2016 Presidential Election - Fair or Biased? Fox, CNN and MSNBC duke it out for ratings!

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After the first caucus and primary and the stunning results to the prognostications of political pundits what have we learned?

The most dominant and controversial news media story this election season was the Comcast - MSNBC decision to depoliticize their left-leaning, progressive liberal news slant and attempt to compete as a real journalistic news organization.

Of course, the liberals were shocked and denounced the move, conservative citadel Fox News probably liked the chaos in their competitor, CNN did not like a challenge to their false claim of being the only source of fair and balanced reporting, and the radical mouthpieces of the old MSNBC screamed as they were ushered out the door.

Chris Matthew

Lawrence O’Donnell

In the ensuing months the MSNBC line up went through painful shake ups at the anchor and reporting levels and the results have been interesting to date.  Unfortunately, MSNBC has continued to over-expose the old progressive-liberal anchors, guests, and reporters.

Rachel Maddow

Chris Hayes

People like Chris Matthews, Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes, and Lawrence O’Donnell continue to trash Republicans in general, Trump in particular, and anyone not agreeing with their leftist views.  The result for the New Hampshire primary, Fox garnered 4.17 million viewers, CNN 2.73 million viewers, and MSNBC 1.75 million viewers.

Overall cable news did quite well since all the major networks were running new shows for the Sweeps period.  The Iowa caucus spectacle still drew higher ratings but a real battle between Fox and CNN is in place, and if MSNBC can continue to improve by eliminating the liberal bias and report more news, they could become a major force.

Brian Williams

More than anything else MSNBC needs continuity.  In order to accommodate their anchor egos the election coverage is broken up between the return of Brian Williams and the revolving door of worn out radicals trashing the latest news developments rather than reporting the news.

A single host with alternating partners could solve the problem but the anchor should have no baggage and most MSNBC anchors have baggage.  The sad news is that there are rising stars at MSNBC, the next generation of anchors and reporters, who are free of the bias in their reporting and entertaining to watch.  They are getting lost in the constantly changing faces of election night coverage.

If I wanted to compete with CNN and eventually Fox here are the rising stars I would push to the forefront at MSNBC, the latest of the new journalists you should check out because of their news sense, journalistic principles, charisma, and camera presence.

Chuck Todd

Chuck Todd and Willie Geist are the most underutilized of all on air personalities.  However, Chuck would be a great news analyst while Willie, effectively buried on the ego driven Morning Joe Show, could be one of those rare anchors who do not take themselves too seriously.

Willie Geist

Potential anchors

Steve Kornaski

Gigi Stone Woods

Reporters

Hallie Jackson

Jane Timm

Kate Snow

Anderson Cooper

Of course CNN has some of the same problem, too many old and worn out anchors and is slow to recognize and promote those fresh voices and faces.  Continuity is also a problem but they do have some underutilized people and new faces.

Erin Burnett

Anderson Cooper remains one of the most unbiased and entertaining anchors on the air and Erin Burnett brings a lot of objectivity to the desk.  Between them, they have helped drive CNN closer to Fox in the ratings.  If they shared the anchor desk throughout the election night broadcast, the results could be interesting.

Here are the rising stars at CNN.

Anchors

Poppy Harlow

Reporters

Brianna Keilar

          

As Variety Magazine reported on the Nielsen survey of the election to date:

February 10, 2016 | 11:23AM PT

Rick Kissell

Senior Editor @ratesrick

Fox News Channel finished on top in both the demo (narrowly over CNN) and total viewers Tuesday as it and the other cable news networks combined for another sizable slice of the viewership pie with coverage of the New Hampshire primary.

Despite going up against all-original sweeps programming on the broadcast networks, Fox News Channel (4.17 million), CNN (2.73 million) and MSNBC (1.75 million) drew 8.65 million viewers during primetime, according to preliminary national estimates from Nielsen. Last night’s tune-in for the cable networks was well above average for a typical Tuesday but couldn’t quite match the record-setting tune-in eight nights earlier for coverage of the surprising results in the Iowa caucuses (10.16 million).

For Fox News, whose Tuesday coverage was anchored by Bret Baier and Megyn Kelly, last night’s average audience represents the second highest ever for a night of primary coverage, behind only its 4.46 million for the Iowa caucuses.

After finishing second to CNN in the key news demo of adults 25-54 on the night of the Iowa caucuses, FNC moved to the top spot on Tuesday. It averaged about 992,000 viewers in the age group, with CNN a close second (951,000) and MSNBC (494,000) drawing about half the total of its rivals.

CNN reported that CNN Digital’s traffic surpassed last week’s record-setting audience on the day of the Iowa Caucuses, with more than 7 million unique visitors and 15 million page views on CNNPolitics.com. Nearly 3 million unique users engaged on CNN’s mobile app and there were 13 million unique visitors for CNN Digital overall.

Tuesday night proved to be a big one for Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, who scored huge victories for their respective parties. Next up on the political front are a Democratic debate on Thursday (PBS) and a Republican debate on Saturday (CBS).

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NBA Finals - Battle for Supremacy - Records shattered in Greatest of all Championships

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LeBron James and Stephen Curry have now met three times in the playoff and records are falling to the wayside.

After three games and 583 points scored, the combined scoring difference between the two teams is just ONE POINT, Golden State has 292 and Cleveland 291, though Cleveland holds a 2-1 lead in games.

The first two games ended in overtime, a new NBA record, and LeBron James scored 123 points in the first three games, another new NBA record.

As the referees allow an amazing amount of physical contact, the floor of the game is often covered with bodies in hot pursuit of the ball.  Such enthusiasm was almost lost in the deluge of cash pumped into professional basketball and it is great to see it resurface.

The Cleveland Cavaliers, in existence since 1970, have never won an NBA Championship during the forty-five year history, although LeBron James won two while with the Miami Heat.  Unlike his stint at Miami, James is no longer surrounded by a supporting cast of superstars.

Out west the Golden State Warriors, who were founded in Philadelphia in 1946 and moved to the west coast in 1962, have won three NBA championships but it has been forty years, 1975, since they last won.

In terms of television interest, and noting that TV viewership nationally continues to fall, the first two games drew the largest audiences since ABC took over the broadcast in 2003.  Game 1 drew about 17.8 million viewers and game two 18.8 million viewers, new ABC records and up 26% from last year.

Highlights include a maturing of LeBron James into one of the greatest team leaders, most inspirational motivators, and relentless physical stalwarts to ever play the game.

His success in leading the Cavaliers is in spite of the loss of two stars at the beginning of the finals, and being the decided underdog against the Warriors.

As for the favored Golden State, Curry knows he must be far more aggressive from the start of the game, take more shots rather than pass off so often, and turn up the emotion in order to lead his team back into the lead.

America is being served a dose of basketball the way it used to be before money dominated the game. This series is all about passion, grit, and guts and the battle between the opposing superstars.  It should be a great finish.
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MSNBC Deceptive Advertising Campaign

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Fans of the Morning Joe show have seen and heard a new MSNBC self-promotion ad that says the Morning Joe program is the cable news leader because they beat out CNN in ratings for the past five years.

As the liberal network and more liberal program struggle to gain viewers deception does not seem like a good component for their playbook.  Following are the actual rating numbers for yesterday, November 20, and while they did beat out CNN, they forgot to mention that Fox News had over three times as many viewers as MSNBC.

Fox and Friends have clobbered Morning Joe with three times as many viewers for a lot more than five years.  Note to MSNBC, leave the deception to politicians.

    

Live + Same Day Cable News Daily Ratings for Thursday, November 20, 2014

Net	Morning programs (6-9 AM)	P2+  (000s)	25-54  (000s)	35-64 (000s)
FOXN	FOX AND FRIENDS	1,264	284	662
CNN	NEW DAY	325	100	192
MSNBC	Morning Joe	382	96	172
CNBC	Total Program Combo	112	31	47
HLN	Morning Express W/ MEADE	197	70	85

Nielsen

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Love 'em or hate 'em - Fox News Continues Domination

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Fox News Exec Talks 50-Quarter Ratings Streak, Megyn Kelly and Benghazi

By Michael O'Connell

Perennial ratings victor Fox News Channel celebrates a new feat this week: it just wrapped its 50th consecutive quarter (and 150th consecutive month) as the most-watched cable news network in both total day and primetime. Its a record only matched by ESPN, which has enjoyed a similar dominance in the sports category.

Though FNC, like all cable news networks, saw year-to-year losses in the second quarter, its average 1.6 million viewers and 267,000 adults 25-54 still gives it large margins of victory in primetime -- where its biggest competition might be with itself. Recent weeks have seen 9 p.m. anchor Megyn Kelly enjoying multiple nights out-rating her lead-in, reigning cable news champ Bill O'Reilly. That achievement is not lost on FNC executive vp of programming Bill Shine, who spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about the streak, the year of changes and some recent coverage choices. 

"For us, that was a big change, we hardly make any adjustments our primetime lineup," Shine says of the decision to move Kelly from daytime to prime. "[She's] much newsier. And I think we're fortunate to have good timing."

That timing includes Kelly's arrival during the rocky launch of HealthCare.gov and the recent story of released P.O.W. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl -- which Kelly was one of the first to cover heavily. She's also found herself at the center the pop culture conversation, at least more so than her FNC colleagues, with interviews like June's heated exchange with former vice president (and Republican) Dick Cheney. 

"I think it shows who Megyn is," says Shine. "She's a great broadcaster and she's a great journalist. I think it also shows some of our competition and some of our skeptics what we do over here. I always say a lot of people who don't like us, don't watch us."

There are people watching, though. And while there have been big changes to primetime, Shine sees the network's few changes to its talent roster as one thing that has kept them around. "I think we've had a lot consistency. You look at people like Bill and Sean [Hannity], they've both been here since day one. Shep Smith and Neil Cavuto have both been here since day one."

Some critics have called out that consistency as one reason why FNC's average viewer is now over 65 years old, but Shine says an increased median age is something affecting all networks.

Roger Ailes, Fox News President

"It's happening to most everyone in television, and in terms of the economics of it, we don't buy and sell on that data," Shine tells THR. "We buy and sell on the demo, and we're still clearly winning the demo race amongst our competitors -- combined in some cases. Is it something we keep our eye on? Absolutely. But it's not something I currently go home and lose sleep over."

Shine also says his eye is on the competition. He's not ignoring CNN's decision to ditch live news coverage for documentary news at cable news' traditional flagship hour of 9 p.m. -- "They've decided to go in another direction, and I think you've got to give them some time to see if it works." -- though he is committed to live programming and now considers their primetime block beginning at 5 p.m. with The Five. That show now goes back and forth with Kelly for the No. 2 or No. 3 telecast on cable news.

One thing Shine says he's not paying attention to is criticism over the network's reputation for conservative slant. And he's quick to point at Kelly as someone who can potentially chip away at that reputation. He also says that the recent reassurance in attention on the U.S. handling of the 2012 attack on the American diplomatic mission at Benghazi, Libya, has vindicated FNC's decision to heavily cover it for the last two years.

Fox personalities

 FNC was one of several outlets that recently greeted former Secretary of State and potential 2016 presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, promoting her book Hard Choices, and focused some of the interview on Benghazi.

"What we heard for years was that it was not a real story -- four dead Americans, including the first U.S. Ambassador in a generation -- but as soon as the Secretary's book came out, it was enough of a story for her to devote an entire chapter of it," says Shine. "And at the beginning of the book tour, all of the broadcast journalists were basing the news around the Benghazi stuff. It is kind of ironic and humorous for a story that apparently was not important and only being pushed by Fox to end up being so significant in terms of newsworthiness." 

Second Quarter 2014 Primetime Averages

FNC: 1,596,000 viewers, down 16 percent (267,000 adults 25-54, down 16 percent)

CNN: 459,000 viewers, down 31 percent (157,000 adults 25-54, down 31 percent)

MSNBC: 577,000 viewers, flat (160,000 adults 25-54, down 16 percent)

HLN: 338,000 viewers, down 35 percent (124,000 adults 25-54, down 30 percent)

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American Media Madness - Cable & Network News Ratings

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Cable News

Fox News was rocked by an 8.0 mega quake the first week of June when the newest prime time host, Megyn Kelly, knocked the brash, cheeky and ever impertinent Bill O'Rielly off his prime time perch when she beat him in the key news demo, adults 25-54 for the week.  While O'Rielly remained #1 in total viewers with over 2.5 million Kelly was barely behind with over 2.4 million.

The two Fox powerhouses with Hannity at #3 and Greta Van Sustern helped Fox take 9 of the top 10 cable news shows for the week.  No hosted news show by MSNBC, CNBC or CNN made the top ten, just a special by CNBC, Shark Tank, and CNN's 1960s documentary.

CNN news continued it's troubles with the lowest key market ratings in 14 years. Second place MSNBC continued to be clobbered by Fox even as cable viewership continues to decline.  In virtually every time slot from Morning Joe to Chris Matthews, Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow in prime time Fox leads with 3 to 5 times the MSNBC audience.    

Network News

At the network level NBC's Nightly News with Brian Williams remained first with 8.1 million viewers while ABC's World News with Diane Sawyer averaged 7.3 million and CBS's Evening News with Scott Pelley pulled 6.0 million viewers.

Morning shows continued to be dominated by ABC's Good Morning America with 5.5 million viewers followed by NBC's Today at 4.77 million and CBS's This Morning at 2.9 million.

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