Fox News Dominates Cable Ratings - Again

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News Ratings

Entertainment

Fox News Channel Tops Basic Cable Quarter For First Time Ever

Lisa de Moraes,

Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdock

For the first time in its nearly 20-year history, Fox News Channel clocked the biggest quarterly crowd in basic cable, in primetime and in total day. In total day, FNC delivered its highest rated quarter ever in total viewers.

In outranking all other cable networks for the full quarter, FNC spent the past 10 consecutive weeks as the No. 1 cable channel in total day viewers.

The news channel, which has spent the past 14 years outstripping its cable news competition, this time bested all cable comers. In primetime, the network logged 2.37M viewers (up 26%), and 483K of them falling into the key news demo of viewers 25-54 years (up 50%). FNC’s total viewer take routed CNN’s 1.4M and MSNBC’s 888K. CNN jumped a whopping 165% compared to same quarter last year, while MSNBC grew 66%.  Among 25-54 year olds, FNC edged out CNN’s 455K and bested MSNBC’s 226K. Here too, CNN soared, by 143%, to MSNBC”s 71% spike.

In total day, the network averaged 1.35M viewers (up 14%)  and 271K news demo viewers (up 23%). In overall audience, FNC’s total day tally  bests CNN’s 732K and MSNBC’s 502K combined. CNN is up 57% compared to first quarter of ’15 and MSNBC is up 59%. In the news demo, FNC’s 271K edged out CNN’s 217K and MSNBC’s 131K. MSNBC is up 54%, compared to CNN’s 48% gain and FNC’s 30%.

To get there, FNC notched the Top 14 cable news programs in total viewers and nine of the top 10 programs in the news demo.  The O’Reilly Factor at 8PM ET continued as the most watched program in cable news and garnered its highest-rated quarter in both total viewers (3.4M) and news demo (598K) since 2012. The Kelly File at 9PM ET delivered its most-watched quarter since its launch in October 2013 (2.5M). They were closely followed by Special Report w/ Bret Baier (2.4M), The Five (2.3M), and On the Record w/ Greta Van Susteren (2.1M). But FNC’s Hannity was up the most among FNC primetime programs for the quarter  in total viewers (1,882,000, up 35%) and the demo (434,000, up 39%), delivering its highest-rated quarter since the net re-configured its primetime in ’13.

Also in the quarter, FNC  logged top-rated primary debate of 2016, on March 3rd, averaging 17 million viewers. The network delivered the highest-rated primary night in cable news history on March 15th, with over 5M in total viewers for coverage of the Michigan and Ohio primary results, topping both MSNBC and CNN.

CNN, meanwhile, bagged its most-watched quarter in total day in seven years, and best primetime since 4Q 2008 in total viewers and the news demo. On the weekends, CNN ranked No. 1 in the first quarter across cable news among those viewers 25-54 in both total day and primetime. Of particular note, CNN narrowed the gap with Fox News to the closest it’s been in at least seven years in both total viewers and the news demo, in total day and in primetime. Fueling CNN’s quarterly ratings hikes were its 12 debates and town halls in the first quarter. MSNBC boosted its numbers with one debate and five town halls; FNC telecast two debates and one town hall.

MSNBC, meanwhile focused its 1Q ratings talk on its dayside gains for the quarter. In the daypart, the NBCU cable news net scored its best quarter in three years, in total viewers and the news demo. The network credits its shift to a renewed focus on breaking news in the Monday through Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM daypart. And, Morning Joe clocked its best quarter ever for MSNBC in the 6-9 AM timeslot.

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American Elections 3 - Tips for International Followers - The Media Machine and Promoting News with Bias

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Anyone who has lived in or visited America has most likely witnessed the power of the media, the bias of the media, and the elitist attitude of America's Fourth Estate.

About 227 years ago, on September 25, 1789, the First Congress of the United States proposed 12 amendments to the Constitution.  Ten of the proposed 12 amendments were ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures on December 15, 1791. The ratified Articles (Articles 3–12) constitute the first 10 amendments of the Constitution, or the U.S. Bill of Rights.  In 1992, 203 years after it was proposed, Article 2 was ratified as the 27th Amendment to the Constitution. Article 1 failed ratification.

Here is the exact text of the original third amendment, which eventually became the first amendment to the Constitution.

"Article the third... Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Now if ever there was a doubt as to the power of the press the first amendment to the Constitution should end the discussion.  In that action, two special interests received special rights and protection in America, religion and the press.  A third interest, the people, received a guarantee of free speech, the right to assembly, and the right to petition the government.

If our Founding Fathers could see the maze and mess of the media today one wonders if such special rights would exist.  Back then there were only newspapers and magazines, and current news could be a week and often far longer before it reached you.

The instantaneous nature of news today with the bias and lack of fact checking inherent in it, while broadcasting such a cacophony of dribble and drabble through radio and television would be enough to put Ben Franklin in a premature grave.  Add to that confusion the explosion of the Internet and the competition between everyone to control it, and the Founding Fathers would probably give us back to Great Britain.

So today, we are stuck with a New World media.  Once upon a time, the media in America had "ethics," "standards," and rules to assure "objectivity."  In fact all members of the traditional or Main Street media, meaning those who existed in the era of print, radio, and television, agreed to establish a Society of Professional Journalists and adopted a Code of Ethics in 1909.

Here is a summary of the Code.

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SPJ Code of Ethics

Preamble

Members of the Society of Professional Journalists believe that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. Ethical journalism strives to ensure the free exchange of information that is accurate, fair and thorough. An ethical journalist acts with integrity.

The Society declares these four principles as the foundation of ethical journalism and encourages their use in its practice by all people in all media.

Seek Truth and Report It

Ethical journalism should be accurate and fair. Journalists should

be honest and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting

information.

Minimize Harm

Ethical journalism treats sources, subjects, colleagues and members of

the public as human beings deserving of respect.

Act Independently

The highest and primary obligation of ethical journalism is to serve

the public.

Be Accountable and Transparent

Ethical journalism means taking responsibility for one's work and

explaining one’s decisions to the public.

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Well, it was a great idea in 1909 but largely ignored in every presidential election cycle since until this year, 2016, when any such binding Code of Ethics for journalists seems to have disappeared off the face of the Earth.

This year the American media has demonstrated an elitist attitude, a contempt for the people of America, a disdain for seeking the truth, and they despise many of the political candidates.  In short, ethics in the media is long gone.

Yet it is okay in this tumultuous election cycle because the candidates themselves have also bent the rules of decorum and obliterated any political correctness in the process.

As an advocate of the Lincoln approach to our system of government, an approach Honest Abe discussed in his First Inaugural Address Monday, March 4, 1861, here are his own words.

"The government, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it."

Not only did he have 1861 in mind when he spoke those prophetic words, he was speaking for an America 155 years into the future, the year 2016, and the presidential election "revolution" that is underway.

What Abraham Lincoln foresaw as a possibility when the government, politicians, and special interests took control and ignored the will of the people, has materialized today.

The signs were there but the perpetrators including the media, politicians, and the establishment were blind to them.  Every poll for the last decade has reflected a growing mistrust of all institutions in America from the news media to politicians to Wall Street.

People are watching, and people are losing faith because they are not being heard and not being served by the very people they elected to protect them.  Institutional inertia and governmental paralysis are unacceptable and Wall Street rip offs are the height of arrogance by a privileged class.

Why do 50% of eligible voters refuse to participate?  Why did a little over 20% of the eligible voters elect our last president?  Why are there more registered Independents than Democrats or Republicans, for the first time in our history?  Majority rule by the people is a joke because long ago Minority rule by Special Interest cast the people aside.

What is clear to the America people but not clear to the political and corporate establishment and politicians is the fact that the long talked about "Silent" or "Forgotten" majority is finally fed up and ready to fight back.       

Media Bias

Regarding media bias, those who say it does not exist are plain and simple liars.  Many studies of the media undertaken prove where the major media outlets stand in terms of bias.  Here are the results according to Pew Research.

So, we know there is extreme liberal media, the liberal media controls the vast majority of major media outlets, the liberal media are Democrats, and the people of America can be characterized as some liberal, some conservative, most in the middle, and they are Americans first!

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American Elections 2 - Tips for International Followers - Donald Trump cannot destroy the Republican Party - the destruction was over long before Trump!

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Perhaps one of the greatest media myths of the election is that the nomination of Donald Trump by the Republicans will destroy the party and assure the election of Hillary Clinton.

There are a couple of factors at work the media seems incapable of comprehending thus their erroneous assumption regarding Trump and the GOP.  First, it is clear the liberal media is afflicted with early stage Alzheimer's as what else could explain such folly.

Such an assumption is clear evidence that liberals have no sense of history, either short term or long term.  A reporter with no sense of history nor understanding of the past is pretty much useless in the resent.

Take the most basic requirement of truth when it comes to the Republicans.  The Blue Nation Review documented Abraham Lincoln's vision of the Republican Party back in the inception, as Abe was the first GOP president in our history elected in 1860.

Compare the principles the Republican Party stood for during Lincoln's time to the current perception of the party as an advocate of small government, an enemy of labor, a puppet of Wall Street and special interests, the defender of capitalism, protector of the one percent rich, and party of war.

Here is how Lincoln defined the party he helped start.

BlueNationReview.com

1. All people are created equal:

“Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

-Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address

2. The low and middle class:

“Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.”
– Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln and the Civil War In the Diaries and Letters of John Hay selected by Tyler Dennett (New York, Da Capo Press, 1988), p. 143.

3. Without workers you have no success:

“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”
– Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln’s First Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1861.

4. Corporate greed will destroy America if we’re not careful:

“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.”
– Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864 (letter to Col. William F. Elkins)

5. Government is to be used to help those who need it:

“The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves in their separate, and individual capacities. In all that the people can individually do as well for themselves, government ought not to interfere. The desirable things which the individuals of a people can not do, or can not well do, for themselves, fall into two classes: those which have relation to wrongs, and those which have not. Each of these branch off into an infinite variety of subdivisions. The first that in relation to wrongs embraces all crimes, misdemeanors, and nonperformance of contracts. The other embraces all which, in its nature, and without wrong, requires combined action, as public roads and highways, public schools, charities, pauperism, orphanage, estates of the deceased, and the machinery of government itself. From this it appears that if all men were just, there still would be some, though not so much, need for government.”
– Abraham Lincoln, Fragment on government The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 2, pp

6. Upward economic and social mobility:

“It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: “And this, too, shall pass away.” How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! — how consoling in the depths of affliction! “And this, too, shall pass away.” And yet let us hope it is not quite true. Let us hope, rather, that by the best cultivation of the physical world, beneath and around us; and the intellectual and moral world within us, we shall secure an individual, social, and political prosperity and happiness, whose course shall be onward and upward, and which, while the earth endures, shall not pass away.”
– Abraham Lincoln, Address before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, September 30, 1859.
Originally posted July 3, 2014 at 21:53

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Nowhere does Lincoln defend capitalism, corporations, or all the other sins of the modern Republican Party according to the media and Wall Street.  Any sane and objective person can clearly see Lincoln was compassionate, far more suspicious of corporations and international bankers than Democrats, a rigid advocate of equal opportunity and individual freedom, and protector, not of Wall Street, but of the people not being given the rights guaranteed in the Declaration of Independence.

Political labels had no meaning to Lincoln, just doing what was right for the people.  Today he is much closer to the center and left than the right thanks to the media misconceptions of the Republican Party principles.

It has taken nearly 80 years to destroy the Republican Party that Lincoln founded, since the days of Franklin Roosevelt when he adopted the original Republican principles for his Democratic Party.

The politicians and media may have missed the erosion in the GOP but the people did not over the years.  They watched as special interests, big banks, the super rich, the international corporations and bankers, evolved their own brand of conservatism, and hijacked the GOP to be their standard-bearer.

The super rich are patient since they already control the wealth of the world and it was only a matter of time before they leveraged their wealth, into owning the politicians.  Make no mistake, the Party registration makes no difference to big money, they own politicians whether Democrats or Republicans.

As they tightened their stranglehold on the American political process and President Clinton passed a flurry of laws to accelerate the corruption of capitalism, the people noticed.

The people Lincoln so trusted knew the establishment was corrupting America and the institutions were the agents of corruption.  Many citizens gave up on both parties and registered as Independents and many, many more gave up on the entire political process and refused to be a party to the destruction of America.

How often do members of the media talk about how there are now more registered Independents than either Democrats or Republicans?  It is the first time in our nation's history and they neglect the truth.

As for the much larger truth, how many times do you hear the media talk about how nearly fifty percent of ALL eligible voters refuse to be part of an election process because they consider it hopelessly corrupted?

No, my friends, Donald Trump will not destroy the Republican Party and Bernie Sanders will not destroy the Democratic Party because the fat cats, politicians, media, and special interests have already completed the mission.

Trump and Sanders knew the people felt this way and they knew the revolution has already begun.  They may be messengers, but the will of the people is the soul of the movement.  It is time the media wake up.  It is too late for the establishment.

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American Elections 1 - Tips for International Followers - Where can you find the truth?

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International interest in the American election is intense, and no wonder with all the debate and discussion on policies that may influence our international relations.  However, if international readers understand the implications of what you learn about the election, you may not be so concerned about the outcome.

Here in the colonies, if you are a citizen of the Midwestern United States, the Rust Belt around the Great Lakes, the South or Southwest, and even the Pacific Northwest, the odds are you are not paying much attention to the current presidential election.

In this day and age of constant 24-7 bombardment of the mind by the television news channels and the Internet news sources (???) most folks in those regions of the nation long ago learned to ignore the media and senseless babble spewing forth from the media.

Now do not get confused, these people are very aware.  Yes, they follow the actions of government and politicians in the American scene.  However, when it comes to politicians running for office, and news media coverage of said events, well that is quite another story.

The truth is the majority of people in the USA long ago turned off the television news and stopped reading the newspapers recognizing that journalism lost it's way and is corrupted.  Since the news media will never tell you the truth, ask yourself why very few cable news or commentary shows get over three million viewers, and TV network news shows only get six to eight million viewers.

There are 322 million people in America and less than 10%, below thirty million, watch the nightly network and cable news.  Newspaper readers are but a fraction of the television viewers.  So to understand politics and election coverage by the media in America first understand that ninety percent of all Americans refuse to watch the same television seen by all international viewers.

Long ago people realized our news media stopped being a reliable source of news in America.  Unfortunately, television and the Internet are the only sources for the world to get news on America, and neither one is considered a reliable news source by the vast majority of Americans.

One last note on the reliability of elections, I have been directly involved in thirty-two campaigns over the years and most polls in America are biased.  The easiest thing in the world is to manipulate a poll to give you the results you seek so the special interest behind the poll can control the results they will discover.

Typical Americans give polls little credibility as they know the polls serve a far greater purpose in generating advertising revenue for the media outlet than providing valuable information on election results.

Moreover, and the pollsters know this, no poll regarding the general election in November from the match ups of Clinton and Trump to the mood of Democrats and Republicans can be accurate as Americans do not ever start thinking about the decision until after the political conventions and after the end of summer.

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Congressional Black Caucus PAC Endorses Clinton - Black Vote Hijacked Again

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W.E.B DuBois - Booker T. Washington -.Malcolm X - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Since when did a group of just 30 older black politicians get the authority to speak for the 42.3 million Afro-American blacks in America?

“We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.”

                                              Martin Luther King, Jr.

Based on the news media exposure for this CBC special interest group, you would think that blacks controlled election outcomes in American presidential elections when in truth they represent just 13.2% of our total population.

“We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”

                                                Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Congressional Black Caucus in Washington has never had a white member and only two Republican members in its history.  By liberal standards, that makes them racist.

“I believe that all men, black, brown, and white, are brothers.”
                                                W. E. B. Du Bois

They claimed they endorsed Hillary Clinton because of the work by the Clinton family over the decades on behalf of minorities in America.

From this point on, the facts get fuzzy.

 “I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.”
                         Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery: An Autobiography

Bill Clinton was the president who took three actions that nearly destroyed the black community when he passed a major criminal reform program, the NAFTA trade program, and the Regulatory Reform regulations for the stock market.

“If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.”
                                                Booker T. Washington    

The crime program filled the prisons with new criminals, the vast majority who were black.

NAFTA wiped out the blue-collar manufacturing base in America and opened the floodgates for the corporate flight to offshore islands and foreign nations to avoid high labor costs and taxes in America.

As for the financial regulatory reform, well it turned our stock and financial markets over to the criminals who drove us into the worst recession in our history, wiping out any chance to get financial backing from the credit markets, and burying the public in housing debt.

"I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

                                                Martin Luther King, Jr.

So why do minority groups like the CBC play into the hands of dynasties like the Clintons, who have demonstrated they are most likely to benefit financially, not the people they claim to champion.

“The Negro cannot win if he is willing to sacrifice the futures of his children for immediate personal comfort and safety. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

                                                Martin Luther King, Jr. 1929-1968

One claim from the CBC members who spoke was that Hillary's support for protecting Planned Parenthood was a reason to back her.  Well both Hillary and Bernie Sanders support Planned Parenthood, so are they also responsible for the death of 17.4 million black children by abortion, and there is no way all blacks in America support such an aggressive termination effort.

“There is another class of coloured people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.”
                                                  Booker T. Washington

The CBC is concerned only for black issues.  That is contrary to the work by previous black American icons like W. E. B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, and Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. who recognized the diversity within the black population and sought the assimilation of all people, all races, and all factions within those people into the American Constitutional system.

“Honest and earnest criticism from those whose interests are most nearly touched,- criticism of writers by readers, of government by those governed, of leaders by those led, - this is the soul of democracy and the safeguard of modern society”

                                                W. E. B. Du Bois, The Soul of Black Folk

No group of 30 elders has the right to speak for millions people of all ages, all economic backgrounds, and all levels of academic achievement.  More than half of all blacks have family incomes of over $50,000.  Graduation from high school has improved to the point that 92% of blacks graduate today compared to 96% of Whites.

“The happiest people are those who do the most for others. The most miserable are those who do the least.”
                                                 Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery

In higher education, black graduation rates have improved significantly with many of the top universities and colleges in America showing white and black student graduation rates equal or within 10%.  Today nearly 4.6 million blacks are college graduates.

“Believe in life! Always human beings will progress to greater, broader, and fuller life.”
                                                W. E. B. Du Bois

There are many black leaders in business, politics, education, health care, and private industry.  Many of them long ago recognized black voters were taken for granted by the Democrats or the black politicians.

“Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than to be in bad company”
                                                 Booker T. Washington

Of course, there is a long way to go to achieve racial and criminal justice equality, but that is not a Democrat or Republican problem, it is an American problem, and the sooner we work together the sooner the problem will be resolved.

“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.”

                                                Martin Luther King, Jr.

As for our youth, when did a new generation of Americans ever accept that the current leaders and standard of living was the best they could expect for their generation?  Times change, needs change, opportunities change, and our youth are smart enough to know the future does not have to reflect the problems of the past but the dreams for a better tomorrow.

“I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.”
                                                 Booker T. Washington

CBC made a mistake, they had no business endorsing anyone.  A racist and discriminatory organization has no right to tell anyone what to do, who to vote for, and what to think.  Perhaps our youth could solve the many problems we, and they, face if we stopped telling them what to do and let them tell us how to do it.

“Here is the chance for young women and young men of devotion to lift again the banner of humanity and to walk toward a civilization which will be free and intelligent; which will be healthy and unafraid, and build in the world a culture led by black folk and joined by peoples of all colors and all races - without poverty, ignorance and disease!”

                                                W. E. B. Du Bois, A Reader

Imposing your will and wants on anyone else is not American, nor democracy, and not respect for individual rights and freedom.  Polarization and hatred never solved anything and judging others is a slap in the face to Christianity.  Now is the time to get rid of hypocrisy, and get on with solving problems.  Now is the time to listen to the true heroes of America.

"I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood."

                                                Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

                                                Martin Luther King, Jr.

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