How Low Will 24-Hour News Go For Ratings?
Media Matters recently noted that Fox News Channel has become a “treasure-trove” of sexually-suggestive footage, including “pole-dancing actresses and adult film stars, Playboy and Victoria’s Secret models, and other adult-oriented entertainers.â€
Now, MSNBC is replicating Fox’s “practice of airing photographs and videos of scantily-clad women or blurred images of nude women — frequently with the skimpiest of news relevance.†These images appeared on television within seconds of each other this morning:
MSNBC, 10:54 am:
Fox News, 10:54 am, during a segment on a serial killer:
May we humbly suggest a few stories the media could examine to fill the news cycle.
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99 Responses to “How Low Will 24-Hour News Go For Ratings?”
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This morning on NBC’s today, there were two or three stories about strippers. One, as I remember, was, “Is a strip club a good place to hold a business meeting.” The other that I noticed was, “Should a wife let her husband go to strip clubs?” I believe there was one more slightly different mention. I personally was happy when all they had was Jack Lescoulie with the news and then Dave Garroway would play with the monkey, but I guess times change!!
March 24th, 2006 at 11:51 amSex, and violence sell. Plus when your ratings are dropping you might as well throw some boobs up on the screen.
March 24th, 2006 at 11:52 amlet’s see, sex sells, and a ratings war…..1+1=2 , kids go outside and play.
March 24th, 2006 at 11:53 amObviously, I need to watch MSNBC and Fox more often.
March 24th, 2006 at 11:55 amIt’s enough to make you watch the Situation Room.
March 24th, 2006 at 11:56 amLike I say, they are obsessed with sex. Fox knows they can “sell” a piece by provoking the neocon with nudity. It is a form of product placement or subliminal message. Well, you have to get those zealots watching you. And now we know why Cheney only watches Fox. And really, doesn’t it say a lot about a station that right wingnuts clamor for? I don’t trust any news agency that only sells to one group. Geeez, fair and balanced.
March 24th, 2006 at 11:58 amThese are the same people who were in such an uproar over Janet Jackson’s boob!
March 24th, 2006 at 11:58 amKrazny, I agree - nothing like a boob to sell that Iraq policy.
March 24th, 2006 at 11:59 amIt would have been newsworthy if they had put a picture of the boob in the White House alongside these photos…
March 24th, 2006 at 11:59 amI believe I’ve also noticed something else: whenever I tune in to FOX News Channel, it’s only to hear what they’re saying about National Politics, and so I can’t help but notice what appears a habit of theirs: They always immediately follow those stories with murder stories.
I don’t think it’s my imagination, although I don’t tune in enough to be sure, but I’m sensitive to what seems a strange interspersing of murder stories with whatever it is they report on National Politics.
I at first found it strange (disconcerting even); why not report all the National Politics stuff together, at once; why continuously mix in murder stories?
I know one thing for sure: the people who program FOX News Channel are very clever and very good at what they do, which is manipulate their viewers to whatever ends they seek.
March 24th, 2006 at 12:00 pm#9 there are actually more than one set of boobs in the white house.
March 24th, 2006 at 12:00 pmOh, and here’s another news story. Just below the radar. The daily carnage in Iraq. Which receives about as much in-depth coverage as the nightly Lotto drawings.
March 24th, 2006 at 12:00 pmBoobies on FAUX? On the conservative, christian, moral, fair and balanced news program? I don’t believe you!
March 24th, 2006 at 12:01 pmif fox goes nude, i’ll watch, forget all of this teasing
March 24th, 2006 at 12:03 pmSorry - just can’t do it. Sex is not enough, I need stimulating, intelligent conversation and I just cannot find it there!
March 24th, 2006 at 12:05 pmboobs are news.
any bets on whether this site gets more hits with boobs being the lead story?
March 24th, 2006 at 12:05 pmI’ve noticed this as well…and I resent it! Another version of a dumbed-down audience. Yes, I have some suggestions: Whiskey Pete baby victims in the U.S. assault of Fallujah. Show the images of last week’s marine meltdown, of dead babies–one with an obvious hole in his little head. Show graphs, as presented by responsible Dems of undeniable trashing of our economy, and the future of our children, and grandchildren, and great grandchildren. Present accredited scientists, as they make the case for global warning. Etc. ad-infedim, on and on. The list is too long.
Fox, NBC and the rest of these cultists have proven themselves irrelevant to the common people gaining knowledge. The FCC refuses to inforce it’s 1934 act, and will not allow a level playing field. Think of the mileage that a progressive spokesperson would get if the mainstream media would just devote 10% of their resources to common sense, and a reasonable news agenda. As Bill Moyers said, (paraphrase) ‘While we speak in a whisper, the powerful roar.’
March 24th, 2006 at 12:05 pmI knew O’Reilly was sex-obsessed, but this is ridiculous.
March 24th, 2006 at 12:05 pm#13: This is something I do for fun on a slow night - I watch the Christo-fascists like Tony Perkins rail against filth and smut on the Fox News Channel, then I turn the channel to my local Fox affiliate to watch said filth and smut. I love the smell of irony in the evening. It smells like hypocrasy!
March 24th, 2006 at 12:10 pm#7~ These are the same people who secretly loved seeing Janet Jackson’s boob. Shhhhh!
March 24th, 2006 at 12:10 pmAnd Katherine Harris’s boobs!
March 24th, 2006 at 12:12 pmWhat we really need to do is send an army of bikini-clad girls into Iran so we can get some great footage of babes firing big guns and shootin’ them towel-heads! GO, AMERICA!
March 24th, 2006 at 12:14 pmLook OUT!!!! Gang Way!!!
Those are DANGEROUS KNOCKERS and Osama is gonna invade if you don’t continue to watch our program. Coming up next, we burn Hillary at the stake, AGAIN!!!!
Phaux Pnews tag line—-
March 24th, 2006 at 12:15 pm8- As I recall it was a lot of “boobs” that sold the Iraq policy.
How can conservatives rail against the coarsening of society and culture, when their “chosen network” is one of the leading purveyors of what they claim to detest?
March 24th, 2006 at 12:15 pmWell that explains why Dick “big time” Cheney wants all his televisions set to Faux News
March 24th, 2006 at 12:16 pmtowel heads- that’s racist red.
You know lots of folks wear turbans. Sihks, Indian (subcontinent), as well as Lots of African peoples.
Please keep a grip on your “entusiasm”.
March 24th, 2006 at 12:16 pmThey always immediately follow those stories with murder stories.
I think it has something to do with presenting the “good” news. That, and they don’t have to show things blowing up or burning in Iraq.
March 24th, 2006 at 12:19 pmkindness, I do believe Red was engaging in a little sacarstic irony…
March 24th, 2006 at 12:19 pmAs long as sex sells….
March 24th, 2006 at 12:20 pmOur history will be what we make it. And if there are any historians about fifty or a hundred years from now, and there should be preserved the kinescopes for one week of all three networks, they will there find recorded in black and white, or color, evidence of decadence, escapism and insulation from the realities of the world in which we live. I invite your attention to the television schedules of all networks between the hours of 8 and 11 p.m., Eastern Time. Here you will find only fleeting and spasmodic reference to the fact that this nation is in mortal danger. There are, it is true, occasional informative programs presented in that intellectual ghetto on Sunday afternoons. But during the daily peak viewing periods, television in the main insulates us from the realities of the world in which we live. If this state of affairs continues, we may alter an advertising slogan to read: LOOK NOW, PAY LATER.
EDWARD R. MURROW October 15, 1958
March 24th, 2006 at 12:24 pmHow Low Will 24-Hour News Go For Ratings? - - I would guess the crotch.
March 24th, 2006 at 12:35 pmObvious distractions…
…to keep from reporting on who else is involved with, or the latest on:
Abramoff
Libby/ L’il Dick/ Bushiva/ Plame
“Duke” Cunningham
DeLay
Carlyle group
Halliburton
N. Korea
Diebold
Phase II
NSA domestic spying
Iraqi civil war
war with Iran
war profiteering
GM/ Delphi…”death of the middle class”
pension thefts
Enron trial
Pat Tillman’s murder by his fellow Rangers in afghanistan
executions of two Iraqi families by U.S. Marines
…need I go on?
March 24th, 2006 at 12:36 pmThis is REPUBLICAN FAMILY VALUES?!??!!
March 24th, 2006 at 12:37 pmWhat? Did they run out of “good news” stories from Iraq already? That wacky MSM, always keeping things interesting. (snort)
March 24th, 2006 at 12:40 pmYa mean like these-
http://www.gunchicks.com/
(notice they are now out of business)
March 24th, 2006 at 12:41 pmTrolls, any comments?
March 24th, 2006 at 12:44 pmBoobies on FAUX? On the conservative, christian, moral, fair and balanced news program? I don’t believe you!
Comment by Who is John Galt? — March 24, 2006 @ 12:01 pm
The very people who called for a boycott and, I think, burning at the stake of Janet Jackson for her Superbowl “outage”????
March 24th, 2006 at 12:46 pm“Pat Tillman’s murder by his fellow Rangers in afghanistan”
News story needed.
March 24th, 2006 at 12:49 pmTrolls, any comments?
Comment by progressive and proud — March 24, 2006 @ 12:44 pm
Nah, they’re just staring at the picture above.
March 24th, 2006 at 12:49 pm“Pat Tillman’s murder by his fellow Rangers in afghanistanâ€
News story needed.
Comment by Tracy
Whaaaaatt! Are you coming out into the light of day?
March 24th, 2006 at 12:51 pmIt’s by far tha breast newscast on Cable TV
Goper’s Lament (Hard To Be A Republican)
March 24th, 2006 at 12:52 pm#39 You are unbelievably funny. I will take that laugh with me through the weekend. THANK YOU! Hahahahaha, still damn funny.
March 24th, 2006 at 12:53 pmFor surely we shall pay for using this most powerful instrument of communication to insulate the citizenry from the hard and demanding realities which must be faced if we are to survive. I mean the word survive literally. If there were to be a competition in indifference, or perhaps in insulation from reality, then Nero and his fiddle, Chamberlain and his umbrella, could not find a place on an early afternoon sustaining show. If Hollywood were to run out of Indians, the program schedules would be mangled beyond all recognition. Then some courageous soul with a small budget might be able to do a documentary telling what, in fact, we have done–and are still doing–to the Indians in this country. But that would be unpleasant. And we must at all costs shield the sensitive citizens from anything that is unpleasant.
EDWARD R. MURROW October 15, 1958
March 24th, 2006 at 12:55 pmNowhere is this better illustrated than by the fact that the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission publicly prods broadcasters to engage in their legal right to editorialize. Of course, to undertake an editorial policy, overt and clearly labeled, and obviously unsponsored, requires a station or a network to be responsible. Most stations today probably do not have the manpower to assume this responsibility, but the manpower could be recruited. Editorials would not be profitable; if they had a cutting edge, they might even offend. It is much easier, much less troublesome, to use the money-making machine of television and radio merely as a conduit through which to channel anything that is not libelous, obscene or defamatory. In that way one has the illusion of power without responsibility.
EDWARD R. MURROW October 15, 1958
March 24th, 2006 at 1:01 pmMaybe a good compromise for un-blurred boobs on TV would be to only show 70+ boobs and man-boobs. That ought to keep the boys in check.
March 24th, 2006 at 1:02 pmIT’S PROBABLY THE SUREST SIGN YET THAT FOX NEWS IS STARTING TO WORRY ABOUT THEIR RATINGS.
RUPERT MURDOCH HAS BUILT AN EMPIRE ON REACTIONARY RIGHT-WING POLITICS AND SOFT-CORE TITILLATION.
WHEN ONE’S NOT WORKING, HE ALWAYS SWITCHES TO THE OTHER.
MSRNC IS, AS ALWAYS, PLAYING FOLLOW THE FOX.
March 24th, 2006 at 1:03 pmOf course, one wonders if it works, since this post has the most comments of all the posts today. Good one, Payson!
March 24th, 2006 at 1:05 pm#46 - Heh, heh. You said TITILLATION. Heh, heh.
March 24th, 2006 at 1:07 pmWhat do you expect from a network that built its viewership on crap like “Hard Copy”, “A Current Affair” and “Worlds Blankiest Blank” type shows?
March 24th, 2006 at 1:09 pm#45- “man boobs”- EEEEEEWWWWWWWW!!!!! ;)
March 24th, 2006 at 1:10 pmOMG - I have not heard from Beavis and Butt head in years. Where have you been?
March 24th, 2006 at 1:10 pmFix News televises a woman’s covered breasts.
John Ashcroft birquas Lady Liberty.
“Thou shalt not covet they neighbor’s wife unless she’s a beauty.” - WC Fields
How about some of those pictures from Abu Ghraib? Put those up on the Fix News screen.
If the sex industry can be sexed-up news, so can the war in Iraq.
All is fair in love and war.
March 24th, 2006 at 1:11 pm#50 - could not agree more!
March 24th, 2006 at 1:11 pmMy son and I were discussing the other day that all of this war and propaganda is a way of building up to a war with China over all. Though most folks don’t realize that all China has to do is smuggle 10 million beautiful Chinese to the US and we’d all be Chinese in 150 or so years and China wouldn’t have to fire a shot.
50 Ways To Dump The Dubya
March 24th, 2006 at 1:18 pmMaybe the sex perverts on Fox and MSNBC would better be served if they watched “Good Night and Good Luck”, a film about how real journalism works and covering issues that have nothing to do with strippers, prostitutes or missing white women in foreign countries.
March 24th, 2006 at 1:21 pmNever send stories about strippers to Keith Olbermann, he’ll just laugh it off. If I want stories on strippers, I’ll read Playboy.
March 24th, 2006 at 1:23 pmFOX’s new mission statement:
Distract the masses with boobs.
March 24th, 2006 at 1:24 pmoff topic - but really important news —
sam on franken is talking about matthews on imus this morning…
seems chrissy has woken up, smelling the coffee…
waiting for the clips at crooks and liars…
sam was asking listeners what they thought could have brought on this sudden change, a caller suggested that because his brother was running for office, matthews had to distance himself from bush, as are a lot of other repugs…
March 24th, 2006 at 1:33 pmanother said he wasn’t sure to be glad about it, or mad at him for waiting so long to come clean…
that’s where i stand….
#51: “OMG - I have not heard from Beavis and Butt head in years. Where have you been?”
They’re now on the Supreme Court!
March 24th, 2006 at 1:38 pm#59 - You’re too quick, Ken. Great minds…
March 24th, 2006 at 1:39 pm#57- They already do- only they call it “the Bush Administration”!
March 24th, 2006 at 1:45 pmfound a transcript … matthews on imus this morning ( link getting flagged as spam - go to msnbc.msn.com):
“Well I am just going to stick to this point that the president led us in there with the background music of American culture. Everybody was led to believe that we were getting payback, we were avenging what happened on 9/11 and that we are going to get them…
The reason there are terrorists in Iraq today like Zarqawi is we created the opening by blowing the country apart…
So you really can’t count on the administration to tell you what is going on. That is just the fact…
…the president said this week that he wants the whole truth about what is going on in Iraq, the whole truth and that the media isn’t telling the whole story. I’ll tell you what we are not telling. We are not showing pictures of the twenty five hundred bodies coming back because they won’t let us show the pictures. They don’t want the whole truth out and that’s the fact.”
see “NEWS QUOTE OF THE DAY”
March 24th, 2006 at 2:11 pmawaiting the clips somewhere!
I saw a bit of the T&A on Tucker’s show last night and I was taken aback by it. He and his boyfriend at the end were comparing this to taking a client out to dinner and meeting a B-girl, etc. What is wrong with them? What is wrong with MSNBC? Why is this legitimate news when, as TP points out, there is so much of importance that they could/should be reporting instead. This is pandering to the least common denominator.
March 24th, 2006 at 2:38 pmToo bad Tucker preceeds the Olbermann rerun which I sometimes miss at the earlier hour, or I would never see the little twerp at all. He’s like the juvenile who tries to be “cool” but he’s awful at it.
#61 - Was that an intentional double entendre? So naughty!
March 24th, 2006 at 2:39 pm#34 cyra brown
March 24th, 2006 at 2:40 pmLOL
#62 - Tweety must be finished with his speaking tour of wingnuttia.
March 24th, 2006 at 2:43 pm#39~
“Trolls, any comments?”
“Nah, they’re just staring at the picture above.”
ROTFLMAO!
March 24th, 2006 at 3:44 pmsame as the Sun readers tactics - I never buy papers anyway you just encourage the brainwashing goverment
March 24th, 2006 at 3:48 pmIsn’t CBS getting slammed by the FCC for stories like this?
March 24th, 2006 at 3:52 pm“May we humbly suggest a few stories the media could examine to fill the news cycle.”
Nope, it’s better for the country if we use that time airing XXX porno.
March 24th, 2006 at 3:59 pmI would imagine that one of the few things that IRI and I agree on would be a nice pair of boobies.
March 24th, 2006 at 4:07 pmI would imagine that one of the few things that IRI and I agree on would be a nice pair of boobies.
Comment by Krazny — March 24, 2006 @ 4:07 pm
You’re into cows too? Didn’t suspect that…
March 24th, 2006 at 4:14 pm#39 You are unbelievably funny. I will take that laugh with me through the weekend. THANK YOU! Hahahahaha, still damn funny.
Comment by progressive and proud — March 24, 2006 @ 12:53 pm
Thanks and you’re welcome. Figure it’s preferable to laugh than cry… :)
March 24th, 2006 at 4:15 pmFOX News wanted to show President Bill Clinton’s penis on their station, so they are willing to go as low as they possibly can! If they showed Bushies member it would be just a sock in his underwear > lol.
March 24th, 2006 at 5:22 pmNo wonder Dick always requests TVs be turned onto Fox News.
If you want Senator Feingold to run for President in 2008, please, come over to http://russfeingoldpetition.blogspot.com/ and sign the petition.
Peace,
Kat
March 24th, 2006 at 6:01 pmIts either that or do like Fox News and watch them polish Bush’s apple for 24 hours.
Can’t have it both ways.
March 24th, 2006 at 7:02 pmnow, now, everybody, those lassies looked both fair and balanced to me. Very fair and fairly well balanced. Which is more than I can say for most of Fox news!
March 24th, 2006 at 7:30 pm“now, now, everybody, those lassies looked both fair and balanced to me. Briseadh na Faire”
Look at the picture again, especially the first ‘pair’ of subjects. The one on the right was ‘fatter’ (and probably more rigid) than the one on the left. It’s art imitating life :)
March 24th, 2006 at 7:50 pmThis has been a strangely compelling thread all day….if I had my own, I’d probably never go out….
March 25th, 2006 at 12:02 amFaux family values.
March 25th, 2006 at 12:35 amI hate to say it, but despite all the yack about family values and Christian morality, Fox is giving their viewers what their viewers like. There is probably nothing on this earth more hypocritical than a right-winger — except maybe a moral majoritarian. Fox is allowing them to get their jollies under the guise of condemning what they see — exactly the schizophrenic viewpoint these folks have of the world. I’m sorry to see MSNBC follow suit, but I understand their incessant need to go where the money is.
March 25th, 2006 at 12:22 pmSo you think it’s bad now? Wait till Fox rolls-out the next generation:
“Fe Fi Faux Fun: Fox Adds Five Cable Channels”
EWM- (March 25, 2006) Rupert Murdoch’s media empire grew by five channels today with the announcement that its wildly successful Fox News franchise has spawned five new cable channels. The quintet is devoted to 24/7 coverage of various themes that have made Fox a ratings bonanza.
The plans were revealed in a celebrity-studded Times Square event in which master of ceremonies Dick Cheney shot a stage hand holding down a shroud covering giant billboards promoting the stations. As the worker fell bleeding onto Broadway Avenue, the curtain rose on a new era of cable news…
Editor’s Note: Please excuse the Muse for reporting fantasy. As a Fairly Unbalanced Journalist, it’s his calling.
March 25th, 2006 at 4:00 pmHere’s a story Fox News might want to cover, “Democrat Leaders who want to protect a terrorists right to communicate with other cell members, or bankers, or fertilizer salesmen…For fair and balanced commentary let’s welcome Senator Russ Feingold and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich…
***FYI - LOVED the “Talking Points” section at the TP Center. Just a suggestion - you might want to tutor some of your spokespeople as they seem to stumble over multisyllabic words….
March 25th, 2006 at 7:06 pm#40
Provide a news link, not a BS blog or someone’s opinion, to the allegation the Tillman was murdered by his fellow Army Rangers.
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