Posted on 09/06/2005 10:20:00 AM PDT by sydbas
CNN made significant ratings gains on Fox News during the networks coverage of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.
From a rating of 0.5 before the hurricane, CNN rose to a 2.0 although it still lagged behind Foxs 2.3 rating.
A particularly poignant moment in CNNs coverage came on the Monday night following landfall, when veteran reporter Jeanne Meserve was interviewed by Aaron Brown after she had gone out into the flooded streets of New Orleans with rescuers. Meserve broke down in tears as she described hearing "people yelling for help and no one can get to them.
Said Brown: "Jeanne Meserve has been on the team for almost 15 years, I think. She is a very tough, capable, strong reporter, and she met her match on a story tonight.
CNNs Anderson Cooper also left an impression on viewers when, during an interview with Sen. Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana, he seemingly lost his temper and told her, "Ive been seeing dead bodies in the streets here in Mississippi. And to listen to politicians thanking each other and complimenting each other, you know, I got to tell you, there are a lot of people here who are very upset, and very angry and very frustrated.
The New York Times reported: "Mr. Coopers well-shaded outrage he stopped just short of editorializing elicited the kind of anger that has been mostly missing from a toothless press.
CNN's after cane coverage was disgraceful. Is was Bush-hating disguised as journalism.
Now that NWI is gone, there is no tv news worth watching anymore.
Thanks Gore!
CNN's problem is they are still liberal at the core. So after a couple of days, they fall back into their liberal bias. I thought CNN was great Sunday evening, Monday, and most of the day Tuesday. Fox sucked on Monday. But by Tuesday evening, into Wednesday, CNN started into their analysis phase. Which means they were going after Bush and FEMA.
Fox started slow, but improved by the end of the week. I do agree that they seem to be trying to expand their "base" by doing more liberal touchy/feelie stories. Or Shep or BOR are trying to show how tough reporters they are.
I thought MSNBC did good in terms of showing what was going on. Much like CNN, they had a lot of live or new video that was always on. Of course their liberal bias was there too. In many cases, I just turned down the sound after a couple of days, and just watched CNN and MSNBC video. Now, I am watching Fox more, even though they are still not doing a great job.
The never-ending Aruba and other totally frivolous tabloid sagas nearly did the trick, but this past week has clinched the sale. They are now in the league of CNN, MSNBC and the BBC.
Speaking of MSNBC, can anybody tell me what has happened to Joe Scarborough? Has he been sitting to close to Ronny Reagan or was he kidnapped, drugged and taken hostage by Wolf Blitzer - from whence he returned with Stockholm Syndrome?
Scarface Greta (who can't communicate at all in English), Whorealdo (who tries to make himself the hero of every story) and now Frat-boy Shep make this once promising network nearly unwatchable - and certainly unbelievable. I have never seen such terrible "reporting" in my entire life (except for a few of the "other" FOX reporters). O'Blowhard has become totally unhinged and I just can't stand another night of exposure to Colmes. He makes me feel like I'm watching a flasher in my living room.
I would rather sit on my front porch and count passing cars or even watch a bad movie. I get better news.
Funny you should say that. Greta von Thetan DID do a hurricane Katrian show from her studio in Aruba.
You have got to be kidding. Last Thursday, Geraldo was hyperventilating . . . O'Reilly had to tell him to take a breath and calm down.
It's temporary, CNN will be back in the basement next week.
Yes, rightly or wrongly, CNN commands a broader array of field staff around the globe.
Additionally, FOX repeatedly looks stupid when their graphics are incorrect (storm track times into the mainland had the am and the pm reversed); and, worse, FOX habitually cannot spell in its breaking news tags -- they must have the worst editors on Earth. All of this makes them look childish in comparison to the other networks. Details count.
I'm shocked...except when I think of all the times I zapped Fox when Geraldo was acting insane. Their hosts would also often interrupt an interview to switch to an absolute non-event on the other side of the split screen...very rude as well as dumb.
I'm in agreement. Except for Brit the rest of them aren't worth a whole lot. I just watched Shepard Smith --the frat boy as you say-- on with John Gibson say that now is not the time to be pointing fingers. That's an amazing statement considering that's all he and everyone else has been doing all week.
It's a shame because it was, as you say, a promising network but they are becoming more like the rest instead of the rest becoming more like them.
I'm not sure, but that might have been Steve Carrigan...though I didn't see him holding up any cloth (of course, that probably happened after I left for work). And your impression is correct; I used to watch Fox every night, and much of the weekends....over time, less and less, tuning out more and more programs as it became more and more tabloid/repetitive dronings about the current sensationalism...there is instance after instance many folks have cited about that. It's a shame, because they used to be very good about covering news. Their "Fox News Alerts" more and more became humor alerts in FR, with reason.
Fox News has almost the same number of homes these days. I'm VOTING with my remote! Fox IS MSM now people. Except for Brit there's nothing there to watch
CNN generally seemed to do a better job.
"Among other things, I got fed up with Geraldo's grandstanding. He is pathetic."
I agree. Shep and Geraldo were trying to one up each other to see which one cound come the closest to tears without crying, and both of them sounded so panicky I was glad the citizens couldn't see or hear either of them.
I actually watched CNN and other networks a lot last week to see all the coverage. Aaron Brown found interesting people to interview, and there was live coverage throughout the night. As far as Shep and Geraldo are concerned, they became frustrated and personally involved when they had to watch people suffer for days. I don't fault them for their emotion and compassion. I thought Shep was burned out and exhausted.
"No doubt CNN is the best at breaking news...until they get to the point where they start editorializing.:...
Uh, yeah and THAT's usually about 5 SECONDS into the story if it has ANYTHING to do with Bush or Replicans.
Ditto. Someone at FCN just doesn't get it. They could stay number one the way they became number one, but seem to believe the answer lies in emulating those they rose above!
I used to turn to Fox for news during any "breaking" story--but after both Shep and Geraldo suffered major breakdowns, on-air live, within minutes of each other, only a couple of days after they'd spent a day telling the world that NO had "dodged a bullet," I became an ex-Fox Fan...
I've now set the Tivo to be sure I catch Brit Hume's show, and spend my time with Bach, not Fox...
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