Will Imus Affect 'Morning Joe?

[DainBramaged]

As Don Imus' first air date at Fox Business Network approaches, NY Oberver's Felix Gillette profiles how Imus and his previous network affiliation might change the dynamic of the time slot, saying that FBN is "unleashing Don Imus to compete against NBC, the media company that shunned him in his time of crisis."

Gillette writes:

Some critics now argued that the addition of Mr. Imus would finally present CNBC with a serious challenge. Others wondered if FBN was simply giving up on business news altogether. But, at least in the short term, the arrival of Don Imus on FBN is less likely to impact CNBC than it is another NBC franchise -- namely, MSNBC's Morning Joe.

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


Not long ago, shortly after dawn, Don Imus sat behind a live microphone and let his mind linger for a moment on Hillary Clinton’s wardrobe. The day before, he had watched Harry Smith on CBS’s Face the Nation interview Secretary of State Clinton about such things as Iran’s nuclear ambitions. What, Mr. Imus now wondered, was with her red pantsuit? “I don’t know if I would have worn it,” said Mr. Imus. “It was not flattering.”

It was the morning of Monday, Sept. 28, and Mr. Imus was at work in a new studio inside the News Corporation headquarters in midtown Manhattan. In just seven days, News Corp.’s two-year-old foray into financial reporting, the Fox Business Network (FBN), would begin simulcasting Mr. Imus’ morning radio show (which is currently broadcast by WABC and syndicated nationally by Citadel) into some 50 million American homes. This was a test run—which was airing on the radio, but not on television.


AFTER CANCELING Imus in the Morning two-odd years ago, MSNBC executives held a bake-off among various anchors to see who would replace Mr. Imus. In the end, Joe Scarborough, the sharp-witted former Republican congressman from Florida, beat out the likes of David Gregory. Since then, Morning Joe has gone on to attract a slightly larger audience than Mr. Imus’ program ever did in its heyday. In September 2009, Morning Joe averaged 373,000 total viewers versus Imus’s 354,000 during his last full month on MSNBC, in March 2007.



http://www.observer.com/2009/media/watch-your-backs-msnbc-imus-can-see-you?page=0


It's like having Bevis and Butthead on two different channels without each other. Lord help us.

[livetohike]

1. Joe Scarborough "sharp-witted"?

:rofl: They have low standards apparently.

[DainBramaged]

3. The race to the bottom continues

Of course, FBN broadcasts into 50 MILLION homes (I'd like to believe that but FBN isn't on Cablevision in metro NY so there goes 25,000,000).


Someday the Reich-wing Media will realize we're out here too.

[vi5]

2. Wow...this is going to be a DU dillemma.....

The DU masochists who insisted on watching and breathlessly updating the board on Imus and his crew's every burp and utterance when he was on, then switched to doing so for Morning Joe. Now that they'll have to choose.....I can hear the heads exploding already.

[DainBramaged]

5. Like this?

[Gidney N Cloyd]

13. Not necessarily the same groups. I for one seldom watched Imus.

[SoFlaJet]

4. Imus has been on some DTV station

the Rural Farm Network or some shit-I didn't watch him there and I won't watch him on Fox either-oh yea and I refuse to watch Joe and the drunk chick on MSNBC in the morning. Hell, even Ed Schultz gives me a headache. Right now with Keith tending to his father, Rachel's show is the best thing on TV.

[Berry Cool]

10. Keith was back tonight. His father is doing better.

But his attendance is likely to be spotty in the near future because of his dad's health issues; he said so tonight. All one can do is tune in and hope for the best.

[underpants]

6. I thought Morning Joke was only influenced by the conventional wisdom/RW talking points

and the "bake-off" showed that Stephanie Miller should definitely have got the spot...but then we can't have people leaving the house in the morning with anything other than the corporate approved "everyone knows" angle on everything now can we?

[madrchsod]

7. i wonder if the RHD folks are missing donny boy....

will they watch AG DAY on rhd or donny on fox?

[SoCalDem]

8. "...his time of crisis."...

Imus is a blowhard who gets caught time after time

[Berry Cool]

9. Yeah! Perhaps MSNBC didn't stand by him because he had a habit of sexually harassing MSNBC women

which Keith Olbermann finally acknowledged after Imus was fired. On Dan Patrick's radio show, KO refused to say anything about the Imus flap while it was going on, out of loyalty to his bosses who had asked him to not say anything for the time being. After it was over, he admitted that Imus made himself highly unpopular at MSNBC by sexually harassing the women there, including his Countdown staffers.

ed. for typo

[LTR]

11. Imus and FBN - a show nobody watches on a network nobody watches

Imus was expendable by MSNBC. Nobody watched him.

[TexasObserver]

12. They'll be competing for the all important White Male Douche Nozzle demo

Not all white males. Just that really big GOP demo, white male douche nozzles.

Like Joe Scar or Pat Buchanan.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

14. MJ is often annoying. Imus is just fucking creepy.