Blustery Sunday Theater 3000
Ro-bot
Roll
Call!
The Media Division of the American Empire, LLC spared no expense dredging the Potomac for every Republican drone and ancient waxwork Villager mouthpiece to shove in front of its cameras this weekend (it appears that at the last minute someone at ABC noticed that the ridiculous mismatch of Republicans to Democrats [never mind Liberals] was too absurdly slanted even for network toadies to pretend it wasn't there and blew in a call to Paul Krugman asking him to pretty please come on as a sop to the Left, but he wasn't listed on their website as of Thursday evening.)
I won't be watching, but here is the line-up (sans Krugman) as it stood two days ago.
ABC’s “This Week” — Gov. Nikki Haley, R-S.C.; Sheila Bair, head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Panel:
The mortal remains of George Will
Cokie "But the Democrats...!" Roberts
ABC News Political Director Amy Walter
NBC’s “Meet the EXCLUSIVE Press” — EXCLUSIVELY
Former Fox Employee of the Month and Born-Again-Centrist Baron Grifthausen, R-EXCLUSIVE
Newt: I believe that the Radical [fill in the blank] on the Left is just as dangerous as the Radical [fill in the blank] on the Right.
Gregory: Your hair smells like Freedom! And you penis tastes like Liberty!
Newt: If I repeat magic hex words over and over again, stupid people will think I'm a genius.
Gregory: Do it!
Newt: Fundamentally! Basically! Profoundly!
Gregory: Harder! Faster!
Make it hurt!
Rinse and repeat.
Forever.
The EXCLUSIVE Panel:
Washington Post, EJ "please just don't hit me" Dionne;
Murdoch Street Journal, Peggy "Dolphin Lady" Noonan;
Time Magazine, Mark "Always Wrong" Halperin;
New York Times, Helene Cooper;
New York Times Magazine, Matt "The Mattster!" Bai.
CBS’ ”Face the Nation” — House Speaker John Boehner, R-Rock-and-Rye.
CNN’s “State of the Union” — Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
“Fox News Sunday” — Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas; Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.
Ladies and Gentlemen, your Liberal Media at work.
So why should anyone care about the weekly national fraud that passes for political discourse in America?
Well you know your neighbor/friend/colleague? The one who barely grazes a newspaper, listens to jock or all-"news" radio at work, follows local sports franchises and their alma mater's teams with apostolic devotion, but is possessed of a belief that they are also politically astute? The one who speaks authoritatively on economic, foreign policy and social matters about which they clearly have no fucking clue? And who will always retreat into a petulant, lazy, default "Well, both sides are just as bad!" corner when confronted with the fact (usually by you) that they're just talking out of their ass?
Well if they're not getting their horribly ignorant opinions by freebasing whatever comes out of Rush Limbaugh's ass on any given day, they're picking them up n easy-to-swallowed measured doses between the commercials for the wonders of boner creams, oil companies and defense contractors on Sunday Morning at the Mouse Circus.
Or at one of the many Mouse Circus Leftover After-market Bullshit Resale shops that infest Teh Internets.
Meet the Press Increases Lead over Competition Year-on-YearAnd I am positive that Betsy Fischer, Adam Verdugo, Chris Donovan and Ilana Marcus Drimmer would all just love to hear from you.
According to Nielsen Media Research data, Meet the Press with David Gregory was the top-rated Sunday morning public affairs program for the week ending May 8, 2011.
The NBC program’s special edition focused on the operation that killed Osama bin Laden attracted 3.465 million total viewers, +19% (+546,000) more than second place CBS’ 2.919 million viewers, a +41% advantage (+1,003,000) over third place ABC’s 2.462 million viewers, and a +206% (+2,333,000) lead over FOX News Sunday's 1.132 million viewers.
"Meet the Press" has now placed first in total viewers for 487 of the past 494 weeks (when everyone is at full coverage). The program delivered an additional 1,323,000 viewers with rebroadcasts – 509,000 on the network and 814,000 on MSNBC.
In Washington, D.C., "Meet the Press" placed first in the market with 96,000 viewers (3.6/11 HH), topping the competition combined with +153% more than “Face The Nation’s” 38,000 viewers (1.0/3 HH), +242% more than “This Week’s” 28,000 viewers (1.1/3 HH), and +357% over “FOX News Sunday’s” 21,000 viewers (0.8/2 HH).
In homes nationally, the NBC broadcast topped the competition with a 2.5 rating and 7 share. CBS came in second with 2.0/6, ABC followed in third place with 1.7/5 and FOX was last with 0.8/2. "Meet the Press" has now placed first in households for 586 of the past 590 weeks (when everyone is at full coverage).
Among adults 25-54, the NBC Sunday morning program averaged 1,110,000 viewers, outdelivering CBS by +22% (+197,000), ABC by +47% (+355,000), and FOX by +155% (+675,000). For the week ending May 8, 2011, in rating A25-54 "Meet the Press" outperformed “Face The Nation” by +29% (+2 tenths), “This Week” by +50% (+3 tenths), and “FOX News Sunday” by +200% (+6 tenths).
Season-to-date, “Meet the Press” has grown in total viewers (+42,000) and rating M/A25-54 (+13%/+13%) versus the comparable period last season. Versus its season-to-date average, “Meet the Press” widened its lead over all competitors in homes, total viewers, and rating W18-49 while increasing deliveries in homes (+9%), total viewers (+5%, or +167,000), rating W18-49 (+17%), and rating W25-54 (+13%). Season-to-date, “Meet the Press” now leads second-place “Face the Nation” by +17% (+473,000) in total viewers and +25% (+219,000) in A25-54 (000), and third-place “This Week” by +38% (+910,000) in total viewers and +37% (+293,000) in A25-54.
The NBC program has also widened its lead over both CBS and ABC in homes and rating M/A25-54 year-to-year. “Meet the Press” is the only Sunday public affairs program this season to post an increase in homes and A25-54 ratings year-to-year.
On its digital platforms, "Meet the Press" generated over 288,970 online video streams from May 6 - 12. The "Meet the Press" video podcast remains the top ranked network Sunday Morning program podcast on iTunes.
...
David Gregory is the moderator of "Meet the Press." Betsy Fischer is the executive producer, Adam Verdugo is the senior producer, and Chris Donovan and Ilana Marcus Drimmer are producers.
The Sunday Puppet Shows: Now EXCLUSIVELY colder, staler and less-appetizing than a stranger's leftover scrambles eggs fished out of the hospital cafeteria dumpster.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in Gotham City...
...I found myself getting a sudden burst of traffic from someplace buried deep inside the 69 pages -- pages -- of comments from the 355th post about what an asshat Glenn Beck is at Arianna Huffington's
I went to check on who and why, but between the Big Headline about "Texas' 10 Hottest Female Sex Offenders?" and the Big Headline about "Chelsea Handler Pokes Fun at Kirstie Alley's Weight" and the Big Headline about "Five Signs Your Husband May Be A Psychopath" and a 1000 other Big Headlines of the same vintage leering down at me from the the Glittering Future of Media I got all a'skeered and lost in the Great Democratizing New Digital Content Aggregation Forest Dahling and ended up scampering all the way back along my trail of breadcrumbs until I arrived here, at home home, safe in my little, single-shingle pie shop waaaaaay at the edge of the Big Media Empty.
11 comments:
..Croooooow!!
Off Topic but if you ever get a chance to see a live performance of the MST3K crew (now self-publishing & doing live performances as "Cinematic Titanic"), do it! Just saw them in a show in SF a week ago - 20 years later they've still got the magic.
And on topic: The lineups appear ever predictable, am really not surprised at all. Part of why I've basically stopped watching any TV news or polit. commentary, esp. on Sun. AM.
QUESTION, & possibly related: They announced Jim Lehrer is retiring. Anyone want to speculate as to which Centrist Shill they'll get to replace him on The NewsHour?
Or if JL has any class (and control over the program) perhaps he'll find a way to simply have it shut down for good. He's always seemed non-political* but now I fear for the show's future.
* (give or take the way he allows DFB on once a week to spew his BS, basically unchallenged)
Anyway a fresh, TV-less sunday awaits -
Cheers!
Mike from CA
Not sure if Cokie will ever say "but the Democrats" again, as that line's only needed if a fact is uttered by a guest.
Just a thank you for another thought provoking, infuriating and fucking hilarious post. Please.Don't.Stop.
Can I just comment to say how much I love this blog? I know you post a lot about how meaningless all of this blogging is, and it won't make much of a difference, but as a member of the liberal academy, surely I am indoctrinating my students with it, right? That has to count for something. Seriously, the writing here is so smart, dead on, and entertaining.
Second that. The comments about my neighbor/friend/colleague left me gasping for breath with their dead-on-edness. Thanks.
Not "The Voice of Empire", but "The Voice of a Rotting Empire".
Although the allowable viewpoints were strictly circumscribed, at least once upon a time the conversation seemed to be taking place among adults. With rare exceptions like Krugman, it's now devolved into nothing but a murderous farce, enacted by a gaggle of exquisitely-groomed toadies and buffoons.
I feel sorry for the Krugthulu, though. Time after time, he's willingly consigned himself to something like Rick Meyerowitz envisioned for William F. Buckley in his update to Dante's Inferno: an eternity spent debating opponents with an IQ of 3.
Keeping with the meme Drift, I must concur. You are really good at this.
What separates you from a lot of the
other non-conservative blogs is the deep knowledge that you have, it is notable that you do your homework and then some. The passion is always there, the logic is rock solid and the acerbic wit is the icing on the cake. You do so keep us in the loop
but more importantly, you give us hope. Now would someone PLEASE post a comment so I can stop fawning all over this guy!
I visit Salon to read Greenwald, and then browse other writers there. UG UG UG. I can only imagine the Editors adore mediocre blither-blather about subjects it is difficult to imagine anyone being interested in for more than 30-seconds. WHY WHY don't they offer Driftglass a slot? They'd get plenty of replies & ah- hits, I am sure.
It seemed to me quite a while ago (when I stopped watching) that the majors had figured out that they needn't be bothered with facts or real argument anymore.
Their dependable returning viewers were already convinced that Bush and Cheney were great men - gone wrong occasionally, sure - but nonetheless great men.
And that all others were not worthy of a platform (and besides, they might actually have the temerity to look at the camera and tell the truth, and thereby ruin the game (and the sure payoffs) for the owners).
Nothing seems to have changed.
A hair.
Not even your stellar comment.
Courage! (As Dan Rather tried to say at the end of his long-running CBS broadcast before he himself got unceremoniously maligned and dumped (for going off script).)
It's the voice of a diseased and dying empire, a murderous farce presented weekly by a gaggle of exquisitely groomed toadies and buffoons.
I'm not sure whether the Krugthulu is to be pitied or admired, for trying to inject a little sense into the proceedings. He's willingly consigned himself to something all too reminiscent of that circle of Hell in Rick Meyerowitz's update to "The Inferno", where William F. Buckley has to spend eternity debating opponents who have an IQ of 3.
What prof fate said.
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