And here's the reason Paris Hilton has been dominating Cable TV News:

[NYCGirl]

Paris: Boosts Cable News Viewership

Lou Dobbs didn't need to mention Paris Hilton to spike his ratings: he averaged 906,000 viewers on Friday.

But all the cable news nets received a boost from Hilton's court appearance and subsequent sentence. FNC averaged 379,000 demo viewers in total day, up from 304,000 a day before (and 231,000 on Wednesday, a relatively Paris-free day).

MSNBC's total day demo viewership also spiked, from 101,000 on Thursday to 162,000 on Friday. CNN spent less time on Paris than FNC or MSNBC, but their demo audience was still up from 185,000 on Thursday to 220,000 on Friday.

In primetime, Larry King enjoyed 1,417,000 viewers, at least a 50 percent bump. Nancy Grace, over on HLN, experienced King-like viewership at 8pm, averaging 1,068,000.

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/


And, as Walter Cronkite used to say, "And that's the way it is."

[Buzz Clik]

1. And this is a surprise because .... ??

The cable news people are annoying, but they know their business.

[NYCGirl]

4. No surprise, but an answer to those who asked "Why are they showing this?" NT

[Buzz Clik]

10. It certainly is the answer to that question.

Those asking the question are probably frustrated that the American public is so easily distracted.

[Donnachaidh]

2. People WANTED to see "Ms. I'm Hot" come unglued.

The photog that caught the weepy Ms. in the cop car got a real money shot. :shrug:

[Norquist Nemesis]

3. Percentage-wise, MSNBC killed the other two

according to those numbers:
Faux 25% increase
MSNBC 60% increase
CNN 19% increase

I turned all of it off.

[WiseButAngrySara]

5. Me too. And escaped to DU only to find it equally flooded

with Hilton threads. And it continues to be so flooded.

[MonkeyFunk]

6. What's interesting

is how small their viewership actually is. We need to keep that in mind when we go nuts over something someone said on Cable. The fact is, nobody's watching.

[WiseButAngrySara]

7. IMO not so much for ratings as for diversion. They make the

news. And their version of what is 'newsworthy' does not fit with the reality of Walter Cronkite, who had the integrity to report on matters of importance rather than trivia to define his 'way it is.'

[NYCGirl]

8. Cronkite was also fortunate to work in news at a time when you didn't have to

meet ratings criteria to sell advertising. News divisions of networks were expected to run at a loss — that was the status quo. That changed, unfortunately, and the news has to compete with entertainment.

[WiseButAngrySara]

12. Then 'news' is no longer news and the networks are devoid of

integrity. Plain and simple.

[CK_John]

9. They are just getting footage for when she runs for congress. n/t

[bamacrat]

11. Jon Stewart hit on that last night.

CNN interrupted Peter Pace being replaced to show her getting in a police car. How fucking sad is that.