Outstanding Table By MediaMatters.org of Inaug Coverage

[RobertSeattle]

Media Matters for America inventoried all guests who appeared on FOX News, CNN, and MSNBC during the channels' January 20 inauguration coverage. Between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET, Republican and conservative guests and commentators outnumbered Democrats and progressives 17 to 6 on FOX, 10 to 1 on CNN (not including a Republican-skewed panel featuring Ohio voters), and 13 to 2 on MSNBC. Moreover, the rare Democrat or progressive guest usually appeared opposite conservatives, whereas most Republican and conservative guests and commentators appeared solo or alongside fellow conservatives.

Complete Table at:

http://mediamatters.org/items/200501210001

[Benhurst]

1. A good post. Thanks.

:hi:

[PROGRESSIVE1]

2. Thanks! CBS and ABC had much better coverage along with...

CSPAN.

Cable "News" is horrible.

[blm]

3. I remember Clinton's 2nd inaugural and Republicans dominated the networks

then, too.

It's been like that for over a decade, and it gets worse during elections and...well....practically everyday now.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

4. Were the Rethugs on CBS/NBC/ABC or just the Cable "News"....

channels?

[blm]

5. The 24/7 networks. They call themselves "news" networks.

But, that's just their disguise. More accurate to call it fascist propaganda.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

6. As I said, CBS, ABC, and CSPAN were good today.

and Cable is shit! Thank You

[annabanana]

7. I thought CBS was "off" on this........

There was next to no coverage of the protesters and no video of the motorcade rushing past their "pens". Much was made of how "friendly" the crowd was while he was walking, with no mention of the fact that those bleachers were restricted to ticket buying faithful. And they never addressed that orwellian lousdpeaker uring the crowd to "Clap for them!. Show them how much you love America!!"

ABC was much better (and this surprised me). Peter Jennings remarked on how "unattractive" the motorcade part of the trip down Pennsylvania Ave really was,

[fasttense]

8. Well MSNBC and CNN got the ratings they deserved.

Did you see how Fox news had about two million viewers and CNN and MSNBC had about 500,000 each during the inaugural?

It is soooo obvious, CNN and MSNBC are going to fade away if they don't change their ways.

I've written to both. I know they don't care, but the answer to their ratings problems is sitting in front of their faces. Yet they can't even see it.

First everyone watches Faux news but not because they agree with the conservative crap. The conservatives watch Faux to reinforce their opinions, and the liberals watch them to see the latest Repuke outrage. Come on admit it. I do it. I tune in Faux, every now and then, just to see what evil the neocons are up to.

Second, people don't watch the news networks to get the "news". They watch the news channels to get the latest spin or current status of events they already know about. Today there are so many news sources that you already know most of what's going on before you turn on the television. You just want to get the latest info about what you are interested in. Yeah, every now and then you get some real news from the television but you're really there to see what you already heard about.

Third CNN and MSNBC are just warmed over Faux news. They think if they imitate Faux, then they will get the ratings too. But CNN and MSNBC don't really do the outrages, neocon spin that Faux does. They can't get themselves to lie and make things up like Faux. Faux does it meaner and better. CNN and MSNBC attempt to give the news an impartial, middle of the road, conservative view. But that is just plain boring. It pisses the liberals off and makes the conservatives feel uninspired. Today, there just aren't enough moderate conservatives to support their viewership.

Finally, if CNN and MSNBC don't want to keep hemorrhaging their ratings to Faux one of them has got to go ultra liberal. It's the only way for them to stay in business. See right now we have 3 very big grocery stores and no book stores in a small town. CNN and MSNBC see the grocery stores doing well (Faux, Limbaugh, Cristian radio) so they open up another grocery store. And guess what? They lose money. They need to open a book store instead. They need to go ultra liberal. The liberals will watch it to confirm their opinions, and the conservatives will watch it to see what the liberals are up to.

I know for a fact if CNN had advertised they would be reporting on the protesters during the entire Inaugural, they would have had millions of viewers. Liberals would have watched it to see how the protests went and conservatives would have watched it to see if any fights broke out (like watching car racing to see if there are any wrecks).

That's free enterprise, that's the market place. But these news networks don't see it. They have all these conservatives running the networks they can't see the elephant in the living room, let alone talk about it.

But they are paying the price for their conservative views in their ratings. They better change or go away.