CBSNEWS EXECS CONCERN OVER VIEWERSHIP PLUNGE; RATHER RATINGS FADE IN MAJOR MARKETS

The Drudge Report ^ | 9/16/2004 | Matt Drudge

[Rutles4Ever]

Just the title...

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XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX THU SEPT 16, 2004 11:42:09 ET XXXXX

CBS EXECS CONCERN OVER VIEWERSHIP PLUNGE; RATHER RATINGS FADE IN MAJOR MARKETS

CBS executives on both coasts have become concerned in recent days that Dan Rather's EVENING NEWS broadcast has plunged in the ratings since the anchor presented questionable documents about Bush's National Guard service.

NIELSEN numbers released this week show Rather fading and trailing his rivals in every Top 10 city, other than San Francisco, with audience margins in some cities running more than 6 to 1 against CBS!

Executives fear many voters inclined to vote for Bush are now switching off Rather.

"The audience appears to becoming polarized," a top CBS source said from LOS ANGELES on Thursday. "Rightly or wrongly, we're being perceived as 'anti-Bush,' which I do not think is fair to Dan, who is a fine journalist... of course we do not like to see the ratings coming back the way they are this week."

In Philadelphia, the nation's #4 market, Rather pulled a 2.6 rating/5 share on Tuesday night against ABC's 13.3 rating/23 share and NBC's 4.0/7.

In Chicago, Rather hit a 2.3/5 to ABC's 9.2/20.

CBS trailed ABC by more than 2 to 1 in Los Angeles.

And in the nation's top market, New York, Rather finished not only behind NBC NIGHTLY NEWS and ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT -- but also pulled less audience than reruns of the SIMPSONS, WILL & GRACE and KING OF QUEENS.

Rather finished dead last in New York during the 6:30 pm timeslot among all broadcast channels tracked by NIELSEN on Tuesday.

Developing...

[HamiltonJay]

The Firing or Rather (or forced retirement) and Mapes is the only thing that will remotely save CBS at this point, and frankly its long long long overdue.

[marty60]

Why C=BS keeps giving this old fart so much power is beyond me.

[HawaiianGecko]

We are the Pajamahadeen

or maybe the Pajama-natti 

better yet the Pajama-naughty

[Republican Red]

John Roberts is a Dan Rather wannabe. He kisses Rather's butt, has great hair and he's Canadian so I guess that gives him the credentials to anchor.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1216840/posts?page=11#1

John Roberts presumed that Bush should take CBS's memos seriously, complaining: "The President has yet to weigh in on new documents about his National Guard record made public last week by 60 Minutes." After an audio clip of First Lady Laura Bush saying the memos supposedly written by Jerry Killian "probably are forgeries," Roberts, though every day another news outline undermines CBS's claims, had the temerity to lecture: "However, Laura Bush offered no evidence to back up her claim, and CBS News continues to stand by its reporting."

Roberts also highlighted how Democrats rolled "out a new Internet ad highlighting unanswered questions challenging him to clear the air." Following a clip of a Guardsman at the convention who defended Bush's record, Roberts highlighted a disgruntled brother of a Guardsman, who was killed in Iraq, who claimed his brother died because Bush lied: "For the families of some Guard members, it's not the past that's important, it's the present. Sergeant Sherwood Baker was killed in Baghdad April 26th -- betrayed, his brother claimed today, by a President who went to war on a lie."

Roberts concluded by showing that CBS News is in sync with Democrats: "Democrats plan to keep the issue alive, fighting what they see as an attempt by the Bush campaign to turn the focus from the questions to those asking them."

[Cboldt]

I have a hard time believing that ratings went down due to this. I sould think, in the short term, people would tune in to watch the train wreck. But, the system that gathers and reports rating statistics has only one goal - to reflect viewership for commercial purposes. That is, it has no political ax to grind.

[Geezerette]

... gloating over this ...

Me, too ... it's called "Schadenfreude" (spelling?!).

g

[TomGuy]

Interesting caller comment on Boortz:

Caller said it is curious that the LibDems are wailing about the memos and saying 'it is the essence, the content, the substance of the memos that is important.'

Caller reminded that, when the Senate Judiciary memo surfaced, the same LibDems were wailing that it wasn't the content that was important, but how the Pubs got the memo was.

lol. So libDems have hung around Kerry so long that they've learned how to flipflop, too.

[ClancyJ]

Morgan Stanley (financial) is an advertiser. Saw their icon and could not help but contact them.

Mentioned/// Dan Rather was airing forged documents n an attempt to take down the President of the United States in his re-election efforts.

I will not tolerate the news reporters lying to the American people to affect an election.

I do not receive confidence in your organization seeing your ads on a program willfully trying to propagandize the American public. Does this raise faith in your organization?

[Zebra]

This is no longer the equation. It has been settled everywhere, probably even at CBS. This is the topic of conversation everywhere. What is most amazing to me is that the usual defenders of liberal bias and the like are squarely aligned with the this-is-out-and-out-fraud crowd. They see this as dirty beyond the pale (as do I).

There is no doubt CBS will have to fire Rather or accept his resignation. But I think more will be required to salvage its authority as a news organization--probably something akin to installing a public integrity ombudsman like the New York TImes did following the Jayson Blair fiasco.

Rather has become a laughingstock and can never recover what little credibility he had. He may be immune to personal embarrassment of this magnitude, but his employer and its sponsors are not.

[Petronski]

Pajamarazzi: like paparazzi, we're always watching, but we do it wearing jammies.

[areafiftyone]

A BIT MORE FROM DRUDGE:

NIELSEN numbers this week show Rather fading and trailing his rivals in every Top 10 city, other than San Francisco, with audience margins in some cities of more than 6 to 1 against CBS... MORE...

[mudblood]

I love it. The only thing (at the moment) on drudge is a few links to various Rather/memo pieces, and the link to the story about the Rent Boy. too funny.

[steveo]

I told my local affiliate I was locking them out completely.

[Fenris6]

How's Viacom stock doing this AM? If you have it, ditch it.

[Petronski]

[goodolemr]

Could someone please post the picture of The Lord of the Rings/CBS tower falling? I love that one!

[anniegetyourgun]

xactly. Don't step on the gloats all over the floor....

BTW, if FR hasn't called for Dan's resignation yet....allow me to be the first to speak for the organization.

FreeRepublic calls upon the so-called journalist, Dan Rather of CBS, to resign immediately.

[Aeronaut]

Keep calling affiliates.

WCCO TV Ch. 4
Minneapolis-St. Paul
612-339-4444

[capydick]

FR has single handedly brought down the eminence gris of the Leftist Media Elite.

At a minimum, it is the beginning of the end for the Old Media. Congrats everyone!!

[CatoRenasci]

Indeed. It was a very big deal in the mid-1950s when the first half-hour show, the Huntley-Brinkley Report, first aired on NBC. I remember as a kid watching the first show, and, indeed, rejiggering our evening dinner hour to watch the news.