Post by GSC Admin on Mar 31, 2004 17:46:02 GMT -5
www.washingtondispatch.com/article_8602.shtml
Al Franken and Al Gore: The Liberal Media Answer?
Exclusive commentary by CK Rairden
Mar 31, 2004
Nearly a year in the making, Al Franken and Al Gore are close to setting up a pure unabashed liberal outlet for commentary and news. They are targeting conservative talk radio and cable news/ talk programs. The reason is clear; the frustration is boiling over for the left. Sure they have the establishment liberal media on air each day but the belief from the left is they are not getting the true message out.
When The New York Observer asked Franken about the Al and Al combo he made it clear that he doesn‘t believe the mainstream media is carrying the water for the liberal voice, “It’s all part of the same thing. It’s fighting back …. I think that the country-there’s an odd idea that the mainstream media is liberal, and it just isn’t. And I think the mainstream media has become scared of its own shadow. Basically, their testicles have been sucked up into their body cavity with a slurping sound.”
Franken is right, the loss of viewers and the success of a more balanced media have the elite mainstream outlets on their heels.
Al Gore is taking a lower profile, claiming his network will not be exclusively liberal, but this rant from last year in the Observer gives a glimpse at what Gore is really thinking, “The media is kind of weird these days on politics, and there are some major institutional voices that are, truthfully speaking, part and parcel of the Republican Party," Gore said. "Fox News Network, The Washington Times, Rush Limbaugh - there’s a bunch of them, and some of them are financed by wealthy ultra-conservative billionaires who make political deals with Republican administrations and the rest of the media.”
As predicted in this column last summer the Al and Al combo will attempt to answer that.
And while those sound bites are amusing, a closer look reveals that the message is actually there, but the numbers are not. The CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC left wing media potpourri really isn’t taken seriously anymore by mainstream America. They are getting the liberal message out, but the message is benign and it seems as if even the left is tuning out.
The audience is dwindling, especially on the cable news side.
Matt Drudge reports that the cable networks CNN and MSNBC combined have dropped over half of their audience share in the last quarter according to Nielsen Media Research. All of the cable networks have dropped audience share from the peak during the height of the war in Iraq. But FOX News still holds a commanding lead over its two rivals. Drudge reports that according to Nielsen, “In 24-Hour Time Period for the first quarter of 2004, FOX News Channel averaged 824,000 viewers, down 36% vs. a year ago. CNN plummeted 52%, averaging 458,000 viewers, while MSNBC dropped 49% averaging 234,000 viewers.”
Combined viewership at CNN and MSNBC doesn’t even equal the FOX numbers.
On the AM talk radio dial, the numbers for the left are even bleaker. Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity combined pull in nearly 30 million listeners a week. Add in Laura Ingraham, Michael Medved, Neal Boortz, Hugh Hewitt, the newly formed ‘Snow Show’ hosted by Tony Snow and the rest of the conservative talkers that are far too numerous to mention and the numbers are astronomical. The few liberal talk show hosts that attempt to battle this highly charged medium are mostly local and don’t stand a chance at battling the well defined machine that is conservative talk radio
It’s time for the left to try another approach. The elite media has failed them. When Peter Jennings talks, skeptics arise. 60 Minutes is now looked at by many observers as nothing more than an infomercial to push it’s own liberal books. MSNBC’s Chris Mathews has dropped viewers with his nightly anti-Bush rants being tuned out. Fewer people take the established liberal media seriously. It looks as if the latest gamble for the left is to try an unconventional approach.
And that’s a smart move.
Enter Al Franken and Al Gore. Franken is the anchor of the new ‘Air America’ radio network that goes live today in five cities and on XM radio. Liberal talk radio is here. It’s numbers are small but it’s voices promise to be angry. The window of opportunity for success is barely open and the early line-up of hosts is suspect, but the network is well funded. If it’s ever going to succeed the time is now.
And liberal cable isn’t far behind.
The New York Observer reports today that Al Gore and his business partner, entrepreneur and Democratic fundraiser Joel Hyatt (the founder of Hyatt Legal Services) will acquire Newsworld International (NWI) for around $70 million from the French company Vivendi. For now NWI is only available in around 20 million homes (it’s only on a few cable systems and DirecTV) and will continue in its current format. But that will soon change. Gore’s goal is to change the channel “into a youth-oriented public-affairs channel.” Despite the early denial that's probably 'Gorespeak' for a liberal station aimed at a younger crowd. And that’s exactly what it had better be or that $70 million investment won’t pan out very well. Even with that $70 million it was a struggle for Gore and Hyatt to even get the deal done. The Observer noted that Gore had to approach the French-owned Vivendi through French President Jacques Chirac in 2003, hoping to get a better deal from Vivendi CEO Jean-Rene Fourtou.
The French, Al Gore and Al Franken. What could go wrong?
Al Franken and Al Gore: The Liberal Media Answer?
Exclusive commentary by CK Rairden
Mar 31, 2004
Nearly a year in the making, Al Franken and Al Gore are close to setting up a pure unabashed liberal outlet for commentary and news. They are targeting conservative talk radio and cable news/ talk programs. The reason is clear; the frustration is boiling over for the left. Sure they have the establishment liberal media on air each day but the belief from the left is they are not getting the true message out.
When The New York Observer asked Franken about the Al and Al combo he made it clear that he doesn‘t believe the mainstream media is carrying the water for the liberal voice, “It’s all part of the same thing. It’s fighting back …. I think that the country-there’s an odd idea that the mainstream media is liberal, and it just isn’t. And I think the mainstream media has become scared of its own shadow. Basically, their testicles have been sucked up into their body cavity with a slurping sound.”
Franken is right, the loss of viewers and the success of a more balanced media have the elite mainstream outlets on their heels.
Al Gore is taking a lower profile, claiming his network will not be exclusively liberal, but this rant from last year in the Observer gives a glimpse at what Gore is really thinking, “The media is kind of weird these days on politics, and there are some major institutional voices that are, truthfully speaking, part and parcel of the Republican Party," Gore said. "Fox News Network, The Washington Times, Rush Limbaugh - there’s a bunch of them, and some of them are financed by wealthy ultra-conservative billionaires who make political deals with Republican administrations and the rest of the media.”
As predicted in this column last summer the Al and Al combo will attempt to answer that.
And while those sound bites are amusing, a closer look reveals that the message is actually there, but the numbers are not. The CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC left wing media potpourri really isn’t taken seriously anymore by mainstream America. They are getting the liberal message out, but the message is benign and it seems as if even the left is tuning out.
The audience is dwindling, especially on the cable news side.
Matt Drudge reports that the cable networks CNN and MSNBC combined have dropped over half of their audience share in the last quarter according to Nielsen Media Research. All of the cable networks have dropped audience share from the peak during the height of the war in Iraq. But FOX News still holds a commanding lead over its two rivals. Drudge reports that according to Nielsen, “In 24-Hour Time Period for the first quarter of 2004, FOX News Channel averaged 824,000 viewers, down 36% vs. a year ago. CNN plummeted 52%, averaging 458,000 viewers, while MSNBC dropped 49% averaging 234,000 viewers.”
Combined viewership at CNN and MSNBC doesn’t even equal the FOX numbers.
On the AM talk radio dial, the numbers for the left are even bleaker. Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity combined pull in nearly 30 million listeners a week. Add in Laura Ingraham, Michael Medved, Neal Boortz, Hugh Hewitt, the newly formed ‘Snow Show’ hosted by Tony Snow and the rest of the conservative talkers that are far too numerous to mention and the numbers are astronomical. The few liberal talk show hosts that attempt to battle this highly charged medium are mostly local and don’t stand a chance at battling the well defined machine that is conservative talk radio
It’s time for the left to try another approach. The elite media has failed them. When Peter Jennings talks, skeptics arise. 60 Minutes is now looked at by many observers as nothing more than an infomercial to push it’s own liberal books. MSNBC’s Chris Mathews has dropped viewers with his nightly anti-Bush rants being tuned out. Fewer people take the established liberal media seriously. It looks as if the latest gamble for the left is to try an unconventional approach.
And that’s a smart move.
Enter Al Franken and Al Gore. Franken is the anchor of the new ‘Air America’ radio network that goes live today in five cities and on XM radio. Liberal talk radio is here. It’s numbers are small but it’s voices promise to be angry. The window of opportunity for success is barely open and the early line-up of hosts is suspect, but the network is well funded. If it’s ever going to succeed the time is now.
And liberal cable isn’t far behind.
The New York Observer reports today that Al Gore and his business partner, entrepreneur and Democratic fundraiser Joel Hyatt (the founder of Hyatt Legal Services) will acquire Newsworld International (NWI) for around $70 million from the French company Vivendi. For now NWI is only available in around 20 million homes (it’s only on a few cable systems and DirecTV) and will continue in its current format. But that will soon change. Gore’s goal is to change the channel “into a youth-oriented public-affairs channel.” Despite the early denial that's probably 'Gorespeak' for a liberal station aimed at a younger crowd. And that’s exactly what it had better be or that $70 million investment won’t pan out very well. Even with that $70 million it was a struggle for Gore and Hyatt to even get the deal done. The Observer noted that Gore had to approach the French-owned Vivendi through French President Jacques Chirac in 2003, hoping to get a better deal from Vivendi CEO Jean-Rene Fourtou.
The French, Al Gore and Al Franken. What could go wrong?
