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Faced With Poor Ratings, Networks Soul Search (sounds like they're finding religion? Not)
New York Times ^ | September 3, 2004 | BILL CARTER

Posted on 09/03/2004 5:39:09 AM PDT by OESY

On his last night in the anchor chair at a political convention, Tom Brokaw of NBC was feeling resigned. The conventions, he said in an interview on Thursday, were mere "infomercials," with little to interest anyone beyond political partisans.

"These events are managed down to the last semicolon," said Mr. Brokaw, who is retiring after the election. "That's why I find it hard to climb those stairs and get into the anchor chair anymore."

Like Mr. Brokaw, a number of television executives yesterday blamed the Republicans and Democrats for the networks' dwindling convention viewership. But as the Fox News cable channel widened its lead in the convention ratings race, other observers suggested that the networks needed to look within.

While Fox broadcast the convention for much of the day, the three networks covered it only from 10 to 11 p.m.

Dorrance Smith, the longtime former ABC News executive who is now a television consultant to the Republican National Convention, called Fox's dominance in the ratings this week "truly a seminal event," and said that that development could be interpreted as a serious threat to the identities of the broadcast news operations.

"It never ceases to amaze me how the networks can continue to rationalize their ongoing decline in both numbers and relevancy," Mr. Smith said. "The way that we and the Democrats have programmed the 10 p.m. hour has reduced their impact dramatically. By limiting their coverage, they are forced to show what the conventions have programmed, and it has reduced to a bare minimum their ability to react and opine."

Dan Rather, the CBS anchor, said that precisely that kind of stage managing had helped reduce the networks' interest in the conventions. His team, he said, was left to act less like journalists than like sports producers who show up at a prepackaged event and turn on their cameras.

"Actually, in sports you can do more," Mr. Rather said. "You can say the fullback missed a block. Here we don't even get to do that."

After beating the broadcast networks for the first time on Tuesday, Fox News dominated viewership from 10 to 11 p.m. on Wednesday, when Vice President Dick Cheney gave his acceptance speech. Fox not only pulled in more viewers than any individual broadcast network, with 5.918 million, but also attracted more viewers than CBS (2.6 million) and ABC (3.3 million) combined. NBC had 4.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research.

While many network news executives dismissed Fox's success as a function of its warmth toward the Republicans, many admitted that the size of the audience differential on Wednesday was startling.

"Any time you see a number of that magnitude you have to think about it," Neal Shapiro, the president of NBC News, said.

Contemplating what the networks might do differently, Mr. Rather said one alternative would be to approach speeches ready to question every fact, figure and charge. Mr. Rather said that some executives at CBS had already suggested another approach this year: reducing coverage from three nights to two. With this week's ratings, he added, talk of further cuts is "in the mix for sure," though he will be opposed. And Mr. Rather said that he would not be surprised if a network started to calculate how much better it could do financially by skipping convention coverage entirely and counter-programming with an entertainment show.

In curtailing convention coverage "the networks are operating as economic institutions and very minimally as public institutions," Tom Rosenstiel, the director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, said.

But he argued not to overstate Fox's success this week. "I think it's premature to suggest this is a sign of Fox rising," Mr. Rosenstiel said. He noted that CNN and PBS did far better during the Democratic National Convention and said audiences with strong partisan preferences seemed to be gravitating during the conventions to channels that they were most comfortable with.

The more general news audience, which tunes in to the networks during most breaking-news events, has sensed that the conventions do not provide much news anymore, Mr. Rosenstiel added. "Many have decided not to watch the conventions at all," he said.

Bill Shine, the vice president of production for Fox News, said that Fox was doing better than it had during the Democratic convention in Boston (its audience was up 261 percent on Wednesday versus the third night in Boston) not because of its appeal to partisan Republicans but because "the story is just more interesting than it was a month ago."

Mr. Rather suggested that the ratings may not be ideal for the Republican Party come November.

"I tip my cap to Fox," he said. "I'm sure people in the party are saying that's a great audience and on a channel that's friendly to us. But the wise ones know that this is preaching to the converted. And if they want to reach independent or swing voters, the way to do that is through the over-the-air networks."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: abc; broadcastnetworks; broadcastnews; brokaw; cbs; cnn; dorrancesmith; fox; gwb2004; nbc; pbs; projectforex; rather; rncconvention; rosenstiel; shine
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To: All

Dan Rather reminds me of those Communist retreads like Walter Ulbright in East Germany back in 1989. So loyal to his time honored Bolshevik principles, but failing to notice no one is listening anymore.


41 posted on 09/04/2004 12:03:12 AM PDT by Luke21 (Christ is wonderful)
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To: RGSpincich

yep that's the truth.


42 posted on 09/04/2004 12:03:52 AM PDT by television is just wrong
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To: Malesherbes

liberals are extinct.


43 posted on 09/04/2004 12:09:50 AM PDT by television is just wrong
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To: OESY
"Mr. Rather suggested that the ratings may not be ideal for the Republican Party come November. "I tip my cap to Fox," he said. "I'm sure people in the party are saying that's a great audience and on a channel that's friendly to us. But the wise ones know that this is preaching to the converted. And if they want to reach independent or swing voters, the way to do that is through the over-the-air networks."

Yeah, Blather, you go ahead and tell Fox News how to reach independent and swing voters, everyone needs a good laugh.

44 posted on 09/04/2004 12:11:39 AM PDT by MissAmericanPie
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To: OESY

Some of these people seem to feel Fox's dominance means that viewers are right leaning. If so, get ready for a landslide!


45 posted on 09/04/2004 12:25:19 AM PDT by BunnySlippers (Michael Steele ... WOW!)
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To: PogySailor

Agreed. One of my co-workers is sure the economy is horrible because her boyfriend hasn't been able to get a job in 2 years. I say take a long hard look at the boyfriend.


46 posted on 09/04/2004 12:30:37 AM PDT by BunnySlippers (Michael Steele ... WOW!)
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