The Weird World of News... In Triplicate!

I have three very weird news stories that I've found at United Press International.

1. A man who admitted having sex with a bicycle (yes, that's right, a bicycle!!!) in a Scottish hotel has been placed on the sex offenders register.

First of all, how the hell do you have sexual intercourse with a bicycle? Second, why is this man on the sex offenders register? Surely there's a nice padded rubber room somehwere that has this man's name on it.

2. British government jobcentres are carrying a job advert for a woman to strip on an internet site. Not surpisingly, the Daily Mail has it's usual conservative spin on it, condeming it by proxy. But this from a paper that blatantly shows provocative poses of Teri Hatcher from an episode of Desperate Housewives that has yet to air in the UK. Another case of do as I say not as I do.

3. Some Zimbabwean officials are disappointed to learn that you can't produce refined diesel by striking a rock with a stick!

The daftest thing about this story is that any government official believed her story long enough to give her money!!!

Fox Business Anchor or Porn Star??? They Question, You Decide.

TV Newser pointed me to this fun little quiz on Radar Online seeing if you can tell your business briefs from your... well, you know...

My result? 6 out of 10, which is not bad, considering I can't get Fox Business in the UK yet.

News Roundup: Friday 26th October 2007

Al Jazeera: An official in the US government responsible for diplomatic security has resigned in the wake of the Blackwater scandal.

Fox News: A female high school teacher is accused of having sex with a 17 year old male student.

Comment: Expect this story to be a headliner on Fox News Channel and particularly The O'Reilly Factor. Bill O'Reilly has made this kind of story almost a staple diet of his programme. It will probably be accompanied by B roll footage of other teachers who have been similarly accused, in suggestive footage and poses.

Agence France-Presse: Astronomers have discovered hundreds of expanding "supermassive" black holes in galaxies billions of light years from Earth.

Independent Television News: A "female Walter Mitty" who stole £2million from company accounts has been jailed.

NHK World: Japan plans to put a probe on the moon by 2015.

RTE News: The Irish Supreme Court has ruled that life sentences may be imposed in rape cases, even if there is a guilty plea.

And Finally...

United Press International: A ghoulish groom and a ghastly bride were married by the Grim Reaper in a Cleveland haunted house!

Comment: Gives new meaning to "til death do us part"!!!

US Cable News Numbers: Tuesday 23rd October 2007

Tuesday's numbers were helped overall by the California Wildfires coverage, and by the premiere of CNN's Planet in Peril documentary.

Congratulations have to go to Keith Olbermann who for the first time ever on MSNBC, managed to score over 1 million viewers, both on Live and Live +SD numbers. But Keith was beaten in third place, legit style, by an early airing for Anderson Cooper 360, who managed over 1.3 million. Anderson Cooper was reporting live from Southern California at the scene of the wildfires.

Bill O'Reilly, pulled out a massive 2.77 million viewers, another spectacular performance for him,the second in relatively quick succession.

In the demo, O'Reilly was FNC's only success on the night, winning the 8pm hour. CNN won the demo for all the other hours. Even looking at CNNs total viewers numbers, they have 1 million viewers or more for every hour from 5pm to midnight, as did Fox News Channel.

Overall, a great night for Cable News. CNN have to be proud of their performance, winning Total Day demo and Prime Time demo, plus the fact tha Planet In Peril scored over 1.5 million total viewers and 532,000 in the key demo. Fox News Channel have to be pleased that they held up their numbers despite some extra tough competition out there, and MSNBC have to be pleased that they gained viewers as well, as well a record viewership for Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

It seems that more viewers came to Cable News that night, and everybody gained.

News Roundup: Thursday 25 October 2007

Al Jazeera: Opposition Leader Aung Sun Suu Kyi has met a government official for talks.

BBC News: The parents of Madeline McCann have relased a sketch of the man they suspect of kidnapping their daughter.

CBC News: An army reservist from Nova Scotia will face military trial over the shooting death of a colleague in Afghanistan earlier this year.

CBN News: The US House of Representatives is to vote on a revised version of the S-CHIP bill that President Bush vetoed earlier this month.

KNBC - Los Angeles: Firefighters have attacked the wildfires buring in Southern California amind calm conditions.

Cable News Network: Argentina's First Lady has said she doesn't want to be compared to Hillary Clinton or Eva Peron.

And Finally...

BBC News: Australian coal miners are being given lessons in foreplay, and the menopause... in an attempt to boost productivity!

Comment: Hmmm, I wonder what kind of productivity they are actually trying to boost...

Ratings Review: RAJAR Quarter 3 2007

The new set of RAJARs for June to September 2007 are out, and there are many interesting things to report.

First to the BBC Local Radio stations, and their top 10 by reach percentage...

01. BBC Radio Jersey - 45%
02. BBC Radio Cornwall - 36%
03. BBC Radio Guernsey - 35%
04. BBC Radio Cumbria - 33%
05. BBC Radio Stoke - 32%
06. BBC Radio Humberside - 30%
07. BBC Hereford & Worcester - 29%
08. BBC Radio Suffolk - 27%

and then we have a 4-way tie

09=. BBC Radio Derby - 25%
09=. BBC Radio Devon - 25%
09=. BBC Radio Norfolk - 25%
09=. BBC Radio Shropshire - 25%

BBC Radio Cornwall's performance is a real standout in that list, despite having a lot of competition in the area, with Pirate FM, Atlantic FM, and on DAB, Plymouth Sound as well, broadcasting across the county of Cornwall, and despite being 2% down on the last quarter.

Pirate FM have done well this quarter with 31%, up 1% on the last quarter. But the local story in Cornwall is Atlantic FM, who are up 3% on the quarter, despite still being in third place overall.

Nearby Plymouth Sound are down 2% on the quarter to 29% reach. BBC Radio Devon are holding steady at about 25%. Gemini FM are down 1% to 34%, whilst Lantern FM are down 2% at 39% reach.

Orchard FM have managed their own standout performance, gaining an extra 3% to 39% reach. South Hams Radio is down 1% at 14%.

Meanwhile, the newly merged Classic Gold and Capital Gold brand, known only as Gold, is floundering badly. Gold Plymouth is down 1% to 3% in percentage terms, but that represents losing about 25% of their audience, from a reach of 13,000 listeners to a reach of just 9,000. The audience for the 1152 AM frequency has collapsed since the local Plymouth Sound AM was closed and replaced with the semi national Classic Gold Plymouth, as it was. Perhaps OFCOM will do well to remember this when the Plymouth AM licence comes up for renewal. The licence is due to expire at the end of 2015.

However, the Exeter & Torbay version is a bit of a standout gaining 2% to 5%. An extra 7,000 listeners for the AM station which partners Gemini FM.

It's a little trickier to discern the top perfomers in local commercial radio,due to the sheer number of stations but here we go...

01. Radio Borders - 54%
02. Radio Pembrokeshire - 53%
03=. Manx Radio - 52%
03=. Channel 103 FM - 52%
05. Island FM 104.7 - 49%
06. Moray Firth Radio - 47%
07. West Sound - 45%
08. Spire FM - 44%
09. Yorkshire Coast Radio 42%
10. C. F. M. Radio - 41%

Notable there is that the two locals for the Channel Islands, Channel 103 FM and Island FM, both manage to outscore their BBC counterparts, and as well, between BBC Radios Geurnsey and Jersey, Channel 103 and Island FM, they manage to almost completely dominate radio listneing in the Channel Islands. The national stations between them don't get much of a look in.

Also notable there is Manx Radio which is unconnected to the ILR network, and began broadcasting on 29 June 1964, 9 years before ILR began and 3 years before any BBC Local Radio stations. 1964 was the height of the pirate radio revolution in Britain. Radio Caroline had begun broadcasting just 3 months earlier on 28th March and Radio Atlanta had lanuched on 12 May. At the time of Manx Radio's launch, Radio Atlanta was days away from closure and eventual merger with Radio Caroline to become Caroline South.

On the national front, BBC Radio 2 continues to be the most popular national station with just over 13 million listeners. Radio 1 is next with around 10.5 million listeners and third is BBC Radio 4 with just over 9.25 million listeners.

Next comes the most popular national commercial radio station, Classic FM with over 5.8 million listeners. Radio Five Live is just behind them with just under 5.5 million listeners.

Of the pseudo-national commercial networks, the top performers continue to outperform the national stations on AM and Digital, TalkSport and Virgin Radio. Magic is the best performing network with 3.43 million listeners, followed closely by Heart with just under 3.33 million listeners. Kiss is also a top performer with just under 3.1 million listeners, as is Galaxy's network with 2.6 million listeners.

By comparison, Virgin have around 2.47 million listeners and TalkSport, a mere 2.31 million.

Comparing very unfavourably in the network stakes is Gold. I highlighted the Plymouth station as a particular failure of the brand, but as a whole, the network is not much better. The network of stations on AM and DAB gets just under 1.5 million listners, which is down from the around 1.58 million listeners of the combined Capital and Classic Gold networks last quarter. When you think that this includes station in high population areas such as London, Bristol, Birmingham and Manchester, this performance comes across as doubly poor!

News Roundup: Wednesday 24th October 2007

KNX NewsRadio 1070, Los Angeles: FBI agents have raided a home in Orange County in connection with an arson investigation into one of the wildfires.

Press TV: At least 23 people have been killed in a bus explosion in a northern district of Mogadishu.

Channel News Asia: Myanmar/Burma pro-democracy protestors have been staging protests in front of Chinese Embassies around the world on Wednesday to mark 12 years of detention for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Coalition MPs are playing down fears that a likely interest rate rise in Australia next month will spell electoral doom for the party.

RTE News: A Chinese lunar orbiter, named after a legendary goddess who flew to the Moon and never returned, has successfully launched from the Sichuan province.

Yahoo! News UK: Gerry McCann, father of missing Madeline McCann, has angrily denied claims that he and Kate drugged their children.

And Finally...

BBC Bristol: A man used a false identity to get a job a Bristol Magistrates Court, despite having 129 convictions!

Comment: The daft thing was, he held down the job for a whole 17 months!!! You'd think with 129 convictions, someone there would have recognised him!!! He must have been up before magistrates there many times!

Ratings Review: BARB Week Ending 14th October 2007

Well, the main story in the ratings this week, seems to be one of recovery for Sky One. For the second time in three weeks, the channel has increased its share of viewing, this time going up to 1.2 share / 16.9 weekly reach, which equates to a total of just over 8 million viewers over the course of the week. Despite that, that is still about half a million less viewers than Sky Three, despite it having a lower share (0.7 / 18.0).

However, on the positive side for Sky One is the fact that despite the fact that The Simpsons still had 6 of the Top 10 highest rated programmes, the Top 5 were not dominated by any one show. Noel Edmonds' new quiz show for Sky One, Are You Smarter Than A 10 Year Old? has for the second week in a row come in at Number 2 in the top 10, with an audience over 600,000. Add to that episodes of Ross Kemp On Gangs, Stargate Atlantis and Prison Break all scoring over the half a million mark, and you'll see that Sky One has an improving stable of programmes. There's still work to be done, but there is a good foundation forming.

It's unfortunate that a lot of the news channels ratings information is not made publically available. In terms of share of viewing and weekly reach, we have ratings for Sky News, BBC News 24 and Fox News, but for individual programmes, only data for Sky News is publically available. For Sky News, their top rated bulletin was a Sunday edition of Sky News at Seven, which just made it over the 100,000 mark! Just out of interest, I wonder just how low the ratings are for Fox News Channel over here. I know they reached only 216,000 viewers this week, but I wonder how that pans out for individual shows. It's kinda disappointing that BBC News 24 don't have their indivdual show ratings released. I'd love to do what Inside Cable News and TV Newser do for US cable news channels and release the hour by hour comparison for primetime. That would be truly interesting information. Unfortunately, I think I'd have to be a subscriber to get that info, and that means paying thousands of pounds a year to get it.

There's a whole load of news channels that do not subscribe to BARB and therefore do not have ratings information collected for them by BARB. CNNI, CNBC Europe, Bloomberg UK, EuroNews, France 24, Al Jazeera English, NDTV 24x7 and others do not appear on the list of channels in the BARB ratings list, so unfortunately, we have no idea just how many people watch those channels at all.

Onto the timeshift channels, and let's list the Top 5 again.

E4 +1 - 0.6 / 13.6
Channel 4 +1 - 0.5 / 14.5
ITV2 +1 - 0.4 / 9.5
Living TV+1 - 0.4 / 8.0
UKTV Gold +1 - 0.3 / 9.1

Next, to the weekly Hall Of Shame...

Sky Travel Shop - 73,000
Anime Central - 88,000
Business Channel - 40,000
Community Channel - 108,000
Diva TV - 156,000
Fashion TV - 169,000
Golf Channel UK - 99,000
Legal TV - 121,000
LIfe One - 121,000
MusFlash - 60,000
MUTV - 74,000
Overseas Property TV - 41,000
Performance Channel - 195,000
Real Estate TV - 128,000
Rockworld TV - 41,000
Setanta Golf - 134,000
Simply TV - 40,000
The Baby Channel - 28,000
The Travel Channel - 191,000
The Travel Channel +1 - 180,000
Wedding TV - 161,000
Wedding TV +1 - 128,000
Xleague.TV - 96,000

And finally for this week's ratings, a heads up for next week, when we get the first set of ratings for Dave, the rebranded UKTV G2. The final week's ratings for G2 looked like this. 0.5 share / 11.9 weekly reach, which equates to over 5.6 million viewers. The timeshift version had a 0.1 / 2.6, which equated to just over 1.25 million viewers. Their last week's top 10 programmes looked like this...

1	TOP GEAR (Thu 2001)	190
2	BILLY CONNOLLY'S WORLD TOUR OF (Sun 2220)	185
3	QI (Mon 2100)	177
4	TOP GEAR (Tue 2000)	169
5	DRAGONS' DEN (Thu 2100)	150
6	BILLY CONNOLLY'S WORLD TOUR OF (Sun 2140)	148
7	BILLY CONNOLLY'S WORLD TOUR OF (Sun 2300)	143
8	BILLY CONNOLLY'S WORLD TOUR OF (Sat 2220)	137
9	THE CATHERINE TATE SHOW (Fri 2100)	131
10	TOP GEAR (Tue 1900)	116

So, just how much better or worse will Dave do? Answers next week...

Reporting on the wildfires turns personal

I've been following KCBS TV's (CBS2) breaking news coverage of the Southern California wildfires online and I've seen that one of their San Diego colleagues had the unpleasant duty of reporting the destruction of his own home in those wildifres.

Fortunately, everybody had gotten out, no pets were in the house, so everybody was fine, but he had lived in that house for 25 years! My thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family for a positive resolution.

News Roundup: Tuesday 23rd October 2007

1010 WINS: Long Island store clerk fights off would-be robber with an axe!

WBZ NewsRadio 1030: Tickets for the World Series between Boston Red Sox and Colorado Rockies are a hot commodity!

CBS 2 / KCAL 9 - Los Angeles: Over 1000 homes lost to Southern California wildfires. Complete coverage including Live News Video.

CNN.com: The Space Shuttle Discovery blasted off at 11.38 am ET, headed to the International Space Station.

Deutsche Welle: The European Union is planning a "blue card" work visa programme, similar to the US "green card" system.

Yahoo! 7 News Australia: A "white powder" has been found at Parliament House in Canberra.

And Finally...

Yahoo! News US: An 81-year old German woman took a short cut, going the wrong way down the Autobahn - at a pedestrian 4 miles an hour in a wheelchair!

News Roundup: Monday 22nd October 2007

MSNBC: Over 250,000 people are fleeing from a string of fires in Southern California.

France 24: The far right Swiss People's Party makes gains in Swiss general election.

WTOP News: Police in maryland believe they've found the body of a woman missing since 1996.

BBC Dorset: Government figures have revealed that the number of highest risk registered sex offenders dropped by over a third in Dorset.

CTV News: A UNHR Commissioner has called a vote by Canada against a UN declaration of Aboriginal Rights "astonishing".

NDTV India: A special session of parliament may be called over the continued wrangling over an Indo-US nuclear deal.

And Finally...

BBC News: New York is releasing 700,000 ladybirds in two housing complexes, as a pest control measure!

NBC Nightly News: New Studio

As an interested news listener and viewer, I watched this first edition of NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams from the rebuilt NBC News World Headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, with more than the usual degree of interest.

Like many othersI had seen the preview images released on various blogs, but basically, I didn't have a clue how the set would look on screen. I was pleasantly surprised by some of the things I saw.

In some ways, the new anchor desk is unique, being L-shaped. This gives you two views of the anchor desk, one with a giant screen as a backdrop, not unlike ABC News, and the other has the newsroom as a backdrop, which is somewhat reminiscent of many 24 hour news channels around the world.

The fact that it reminds me of so many studios in varying ways, rather than any one particular studio, highlights the fact that rather than trying to deliberately copy any other studio, they have tried to do something different, but with elements that are familiar to everyone.

So, do I think the studio looks good? Oh yes, very definitely. They've managed to achieve something that looks different, stylish, practical, reminiscent and distinctive, whilst avoiding being copycat. They've also managed to avoid trying to look too modern, whilst also avoiding looking too staid. It's a difficult balancing act to pull off, but they have managed it, somehow.

Personally, I can't wait for the usual pro-FOX brigade of comment contributors to Inside Cable News to put their usual pro-FOX / anti liberal media spin on this studio. Granted, it's not a studio you would expect to see a FOX News programme, it's too stylish and classy for that. Fox News studios tend to be a bit more in your face than other news studios. This NBC Nightly News studio is almost understated, which actually helps to take the attention off the studio set and onto the stories themselves.

I would give this 9 out of 10.

News Roundup: Sunday 21st October 2007

I've brought back something I trialled earlier this year. What I do in these "News Roundup" posts is highlight stories that are truly important, especially those which haven't recieved as much news media attention as perhaps they should. Also I highlight occasional stories that are just quirky and fun, and worth the attention.

With that in mind, here are my selections for the day, not necessarily in order of importance...

Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Australian PM John Howard announced plans for climate change fund during leaders debate. ABC News has a page on the debate, plus their election site.

Al-Jazeera English: A Republican has become the first Indian-American to be elected Governor of a US state.

CBC News: Hollywood writers have voted overwhelmingly for strike action if their union cannot strike a new deal with producers.

Fox News: When the Space Shuttle Discovery launches Tuesday, a woman commander of the shuttle will go to the International Space Station to be met by a woman commander there, the first time this has ever happened.

RTE News: Talks between the EU and Iran on Iran's nuclear programme will go ahead despite the resignation Iran's lead negotiator.

Press TV: US military massacres 49 civilians in Sadr City.

And Finally...

United Press International: Even though they may not discuss it with their doctors, a new survey indicates US seniors are still seeking sex into their sixties and seventies!

Ratings Review: BARB Week Ending 07 October 2007

A bit later than usual this week, because there are less obvious stories this week.

The main one however, is Virgin 1. In it's first week of operation, V1 manages a credible 0.5 share / 13.8 weekly reach. This equates to just over 6.5 million viewers across the week. Ther timeshift version manages a 0.1 / 4.3, which is just over 2 million viewers across the week.

Compare this to FTN's final week numbers which were 0.2 / 6.2, which is just under 3 million viewers across the week, plus a negligable share and 1.6 weekly reach, which is 759,000 viewers across the week, and you can see that initial indications for Virgin 1 look promising. More viewers in general have turned to the effectively rebranded FTN channel.

This does look like the first shots being fired in a new battle between Sky and Virgin Media, and the battleground could well be Freeview, as I mentioned previously in a post here at the MediaBlog about a month ago.

One interesting note this week on Timeshift channels. Just out of interest, here are the top 5.

E4 +1 - 0.6 / 13.3
Channel 4 +1 - 0.5 / 14.9
UKTV Gold +1 - 0.4 / 9.2
Living +1 - 0.4 / 7.9
ITV2 +1 - 0.3 / 8.8

It is very interesting to note that E4 has the most timeshift viewers, more than the most popular digital channel, ITV2.

Now, to the "Hall Of Shame", once again, in no particular order...

Sky Travel Shop - 50,000
Anime Central - 82,000
Business Channel - 79,000
Community Channel - 106,000
Diva TV - 106,000
Fashion TV - 122,000
Film 24 - 130,000
Golf Channel - 153,000
Hollywood TV - 185,000
Legal TV - 140,000
Life One - 184,000
MusFlash - 51,000
MUTV - 45,000
Overseas Property - 69,000
Performance Channel - 162,000
Real Estate TV - 175,000
Rockworld TV - 70,000
Setanta Golf - 122,000
Simply TV - 33,000
The Baby Channel - 81,000
The Travel Channel +1 - 196,000
Wedding TV - 124,000
Wedding TV +1 - 123,000
XLeague.TV - 95,000

The interesting thing to note is that Baby TV, which was on the list last week, has come off the publically released list this week. Why I don't know, but when channels choose not to release ratings info, it's a sure fire sign of trouble. Baby TV announced on 8th October 2007 that Fox International Channels has acquired a "...major stake..." in the channel.

Newly launched Diva TV, from the team behind The Hallmark Channel, is new to the list, with a paltry 106,000 viewers. Despite airing programmes like The Oprah Winfrey Show and The Late Show with David Letterman, all the channel has so far managed to succeed in doing is pull in one of the lowest rated launches ever in the history of television. They say they are "...sassy, sexy and totally seductive...", whilst in reality they are nothing of the sort.

Open Thread - Week Commencing 21st October 2007

They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks!

Well, I've been looking around blogs for quite some time now, and I've noticed that there is a common theme between a lot of them, they use Open Threads to encourage readers to contribute to the blog.

So, I open the floor to you on this thread. It is here for your comments and thoughts on anything in the news and media this week.

Feel free as well to comment on any of the other posts I have made on the blog, I welcome your comments.

So, over to you...

Breaking News: LIberal Democrat Leader Sir Menzies Campbell to resign

Both BBC News 24 and Sky News are reporting that Sir Menzies Campbell, the leader of the UK's Liberal Democrats is to resign. An announcement is due shortly at 6.30pm UK. BBC News 24 is available to watch online, so there will be coverage available.

Denise Van Outen - Hot Lesbian for "Rent"

Denise Van Outen is paying the 'Rent' by playing a sex mad lesbian in a new version of the musical at the Duke Of York Theatre in the West End Of London.

This Is London and the Daily Mail have pictures of Denise in costume looking extraordinarily sexy and hot. It's even drawn the attention of Bootmaster Teri at Booted Up, and news has even spread to India, via the website of news magazine Top News, in their "Light Reading" section.

At the moment, bookings are being taken until 5th April 2008. I'd love to go, but at £30 a ticket, I think my own 'rent' comes first, unfortunately.

The Menagerie on the Big Screen!

For one night only in selected US and Canadian locations, the only two part episode from the orignal series of Star Trek, The Menagerie, comes to cinemas for a "limited engagement" on November 13th.

I'd like to think they would release this in the UK and Ireland too, maybe at a later date, but for now, click here to see which US locations have the showing, and keep checking back there to find out which Canadian locations will have it too.

Ratings Review: BARB Week Ending 30th September 2007

Well, we have some very interesting and unusual news from the latest publically released ratings figures from BARB.

It was during this week that ITV2 premiered The Secret Diary Of A Call Girl, a series that seemingly is not going to air on ITV1 for a while yet. At the moment, this commission seems to be exclusive to ITV2. Everybody wondered how high or low the ratings would be. Now, we can reveal all...

1,997,000 viewers.

Just 3,000 shy of the 2 million mark.

Not surprisingly, this, along with another million plus rating for an X-Factor episode, saw ITV2 gain a 2.2 share / 33.1 reach for the week. Huge numbers.

In other ratings news, Sky One is back above the 1% share mark with a 1.1 / 16.3. Decent numbers for the channel, and a marked improvement on the recent downward trend. IT was helped by the fact that the top 3 shows on the channel all scored over half a million, with a new episode of The Simpsons scoring 750,000. And for a change, the new Prison Break season scored in the top 10 finally, coming in at Number 2. Other than that and Premier League All Stars at Number 9, every other spot is taken by The Simpsons. Improvement, yes, but still, a long way to go, in order for Sky One to reclaim the top spot in digital TV.

Time for the regular "Hall Of Shame". This week, the channels that have performed the worst, are, in no particular order...

Sky Travel Shop - 93,000
Sky Arts - 135,000
Anime Central - 123,000
Baby TV - 157,000
Business Channel - 65,000
Community Channel - 146,000
Film 24 - 76,000
Golf Channel - 167,000
Legal TV - 162,000
Life One - 114,000
MusFlash - 29,000
MUTV - 93,000
Overseas Property TV - 81,000
Rockworld TV - 85,000
Setanta Golf - 166,000
Simply TV - 28,000
The Baby Channel - 52,000
The Travel Channel - 190,000
The Travel Channel +1 - 142,000
Wedding TV - 154,000
Wedding TV +1 - 156,000
XLeague.TV - 106,000

No surprise, yet again, Simply TV, simply is the bottom rung of the televisual ladder.

Not that the likes of Wedding TV have any real cause for celebration. It says a lot when your timeshift channel does better than the main channel.

And finally, it has to be said that the first two weeks of Nuts TV have been spectacularly low, even though they have managed to avoid entry into the Hall Of Shame, so far. 298,000 and 377,000 viewers respectively, are not great numbers for a channel that broadcasts on Freeview. Perhaps Turner Broadcasting, who surprise suprise, are the registered owners of Nuts TV, should be looking for other options.

No improvement in UEFA Champions League radio coverage saga.

Yesterday, I reported on the shameful state of affairs in UEFA Champions League coverage on radio. How Five Live and Talksport both covered the Manchester United match yesterday, despite the fact there were 3 British teams in action.

Today, it's no better. Five Live is covering the Valencia vs Chelsea match, and so is TalkSport. Once again, BOTH competing sports radio stations are airing the SAME match, with different commentators. WHY?

Sky TV viewers have a choice. Sky Sports 2 is showing Liverpool vs Marseille, Sky Sports Extra is showing Valencia vs Chelsea whilst Sky One has coverage of Celtic vs AC Milan. All three matches are being shown, and Five Live have the option of airing another match on FiveLive Sports Extra, but that channel is off air tonight.

Two stations covering the same match is not extending choice. TalkSport made a lot of noisde about being allowed to cover UEFA Champions League and other events where the rights were held by the EBU, which it considered a cartel.

TalkSport, you were not allowed your victory simply so you could squander it by covering the SAME match the BBC are covering.

This truly is a shameful state of affairs!

Seatlle woman says no to $1 million!

United Press International are reporting a 86 year old Seattle woman has turned down an offer of $1 million on her propertyand is now surrounded by a construction site for a new development. She's philosophical about the construction of a new retail complex and parking garage going on around her. She says if it gets too noisy, she turns up her TV or plays opera recordings!

I'm going to see if I can find any more on this story from the local Seattle media. This one will be interesting to follow.

Mother uses her kids to help her steal!

United Press International reports that Alberqueue Police have accused a mother of using her kids to steal stuff from a Wal-Mart there.

As Robin said in "The Joker Goes To School / He Meets His Match, The Grisley Ghoul", Holy contributing to the deliquency of Minors!

UEFA Champions League coverage on radio. Why the same match?

Radio is my usual home for news, sport and music, although I watch TV news and ues the web too. Tonight, 3 British teams were involved in UEFA Champions League action. Television had them all covered. Manchester United vs Roma was on ITV1, Steaua Bucharest vs Arsenal was on ITV4, whilst Rangers vs Lyon was on Sky Sports 2.

Radio did not serve the listeneing public nearly as well. BBC Radio 5 Live had the Manchester United vs Roma match, as did TalkSport. Five Live Sports Extra was supposed to be on the air covering a Coca Cola Championship match, but was off air when I checked. TalkSport could have covered the Arsenal match, rather than Manchester United, and instead of a Championship match, perhaps 5 Live Sports Extra should have aired coverage of Rangers vs Lyon.

In this case, the poor radio listener had no choice about which match to listen to. Only 1 was available. Come on BBC and TalkSport. You CAN do better than this.

I'll be noting what you guys will be covering tomorrow. 3 more British teams will be in action tomorrow night. Celtic will be hosting AC Milan. Liverpool will be hosting Marseille whilst Chelsea are away at Valencia. After tonight's shameful performance, I don't hold much hope for tomorrow night. Which one of those three will get covered by both Five Live and Talksport?

Useful tips for defending yourself against the Falafel Guy!

On yesterday's MSNBC Countdown with Keith Olbermann, as the number 3 story, was a selection of tips about how do defend yourself against a fatwa from your friend and mine, the awful falafel! Crooks and Liars has the story.

I love this. This is so damned funny. I have taken the tips from this feature and incorporated it into my "Anti-Biased News Defence Strategy". I already have my loofah, so I can challenge Falafel Guy to a duel if needs be!

And yes, I do expect Fox Security or one of Bill O'Reilly's producers on my doorstep sometime soon!!!

China bans sexy ads!

The Associated Press is reporting that China has banned ads for bras, underwear and sex toys, in its latest push to rid China of what it calls "social pollution".

God, they sound more like the Republicans every day!!!

They might as well ban ads for those figure hugging madarin dresses which are so synonomus with China. Those dresses look even sexier than bras and underwear do.

Lois Maxwell: 1927-2007

Sad news which came out this morning. Lois Maxwell died on Saturday evening at Fremantle Hospital in Western Australia. She was 80 years old.

For me, as for many others, she was incomparable as Miss Moneypenny in 14 James Bond films from Doctor No in 1962 to A View To A Kill in 1985. But she had a far greater career than playing just one role in a series of films.

IMDB is my usual source for film information, and a quick search for Lois Maxwell tuns up a whole host of roles that I have never seen, but one I do remember. She was the voice of Lt Atlanta Shore in Stingray.

Rest in peace, Miss Moneypenny.

Shakira gives something back

TMZ.com is reporting that Shakira has dug into her very deep bank account and contributed $45 million to charity during Clinton's Global Initiative on Friday. It's good to see her giving something back. It was songs like this, one of my all time favourite songs, which helped make her that money.

US Cable News Ratings: Live vs Live + SD: The Debate will continue...

It is noted by Inside Cable News that the Drudge Report has noted that according to the live ratings, the Debate on MSNBC hosted by Tim Russert was beaten by FNC's Hannity and Colmes.

This is true, although the margin was small, just 4,000 viewers(1,453,000 for FNC, 1,449,000 for MSNBC). However, that victory was on the Total Viewers ranking, and it was Live numbers only. On Live + SD, it was the other way around, as reported by TV Newser. 1,472,000 watch the debate on MSNBC, whilst 1,465,000 watched Hannity & Colmes, a victory to MSNBC of 7,000 viewers.

In the 'money demo', whether you use Live or Live + SD, the result is the same, a victory to MSNBC. Live: MSNBC 539,000 vs FNC 426,000; Live + SD: MSNBC 559,000 vs FNC 437,000.

So, on the balance of the numbers, I think it's safe to call that an MSNBC victory overall.

I think it's fair to say that the whole debate on Live vs Live + SD viewing figures is not going to go away anytime soon.

Ratings Review: BARB Week Ending 16th September 2007

The latest publically released viewing figures from BARB reveal some interesting facts. The first one to catch my eye, was this...

Sky Three is watched by more people than Sky One!

It's true. Check the Weekly Reach figures, which shows how many people tuned into the channel for at least 3 continuous minutes. Sky One was watched by over 6.4 million people. Sky Three was watched by over 7.7 million people.

This little factoid should be setting off alarm bells at BSkyB headquarters in Isleworth. It should be saying to them, do the deal with Virgin Media and get Sky One back on Cable. The only other alternative is to make Sky One a Freeview channel replacing Sky Three. That is not likely to happen, given the fact that they do not own FTA rights for all their programmes, only some of them.

If you look at the top rating digital channels, that's excluding the big 5 terrestrials, the most popular digital channel is ITV2, with a 2.4 share / 32.9 weekly reach. That is a huge set of numbers. If you look at ITV2's top 10 rated programmes, you'll see The X Factor and The Xtra Factor hold 5 of the top 10 slots, but all of the top 10 programmes score better than half a million viewers. That is a pretty rare sight, and one worth noting.

Coming in behind ITV2 is Sky Sports 1, with a 1.9 / 13.1. Whilst Sky Sports 1 is only 0.5 behind ITV2 in share, it's 19 percent plus behind on weekly reach. Behind them are BBC3 with a 1.3 / 27.2, ITV4 with a 1.3 /20.2 and ITV3 with a 1.3 / 14.8. ITV4 was helped by Rugby World Cup coverage which has brought more people to the channel than ever before, whilst BBC3 was helped in no small measure by some stellar numbers for Eastenders repeats and Heroes.

Once you get outside the Top 5, it gets a little close but also more interesting. CBeebies comes in next with 1.2 / 10.3, followed by E4 with 1.1 / 19.6, and then, BBC News 24, with a 1.0 / 16.8. Now, these numbers for BBC News 24, should really scare BSkyB. Because, not only does it beat Sky News by quite a margin (0.7 / 11.4), but with a weekyl reach of over 7.9 million viewers...

BBC News 24 was watched by more people than Sky One.

If that doesn't make Sky want to improve Sky One, then I don't know what it will take.

Rounding out the top 10, Sky Sports 3 with a 0.9 / 7.9, helped by Live Twenty20 World Cup Cricket, and finally, Sky One just sneaks in to the top 10 with a 0.8 / 13.6. Whilst ITV2's top 10 all rated above half a million viewers, not one of Sky One's top 10 programmes managed to score half a million viewers. Looking at these ratings, I just have to say this...

If I were in charge of Sky One right now, I would be seriously worried about my job, and would be seriously considering just what can be done to turn Sky One around.

Having been just a couple of years ago, the most watched digital channel, and now, struggling to remain in the top 10 most watched digital channels, Sky One has gone from being must see TV, to an also-ran channel. That, truly, is a scary thought.

My regular weekly check of the worst performers of the week, reveals some of the usual suspects in the lower levels of the ratings league, where if relegation was a worry, then these guys would have been biting nails to the bone! As it happens, just the usual dose of humiliation via the ratings numbers.In no particular order, as they're all pretty bad anyway...

Sky Travel Shop - 49,000
The Business Channel - 52,000
Hollywood TV - 85,000
Life One - 83,000
MusFlash - 55,000
MUTV - 66,000
Overseas Property TV - 78,000
Rockworld TV - 84,000
Simply TV - 5,000
The Baby Channel - 43,000
XLeague.TV - 77,000

Every single one of these channels should look at their ratings and feel ashamed. These are not the channelsof the premier league that I talked about earlier. No,these channels are some 12-15 leagues below that level, equivalent to one of the local amateur leagues, and as for Simply TV, I cannot honestly remember a channel ever scoring that low, except when a channel was closing down or going into receivership that week. Simply TV is still on the air, though how, I'm not sure.

If Sky One's performance of the past couple of years has been disappointing, then Simply TV's performance in it's entire life, has been a complete disaster. And this week's performance is simply, the lowest of an incredibly low bunch. If Simply TV are to make any kind of ratings, they will have to put together something a hell of lot better than what is being aired currently.

The weekly Hall Of Shame is one thing I look forward to reporting, but I too realise that there are people's livelihoods at stake when channels are in trouble and shutting down. The reason I report these figures, is not, as I sometimes say, for the ritual humiliation, but as a way of saying to these channels, whatever you're doing, it ain't good enough yet, do better. It's an easy thing to say, but a difficult thing to do.

Australian PM soon to call a federal election?

ABC Australia is reporting that there is mounting speculation as to whether PM John Howard will call an election this weekend. ABC Australia seem so certain on this that their election site is already up and running.

Out of interest, I decided to look at the other Australian news sites. NineMSN didn't show anything of interest there. The SBS World News Australia site reports that Howard says he has more to do before setting an election date. Seven News doesn't have anything to say on the matter, whilst Sky News Australia highlights the fact that unofficial campainging is already underway.

One thing I can assure you, is that when the election happens, I will cover Australia's Election Night, right here on Viewpoint.

Sorry, Did you say something?

Salon has a very funny, and spot on, political cartoon on their site called This Modern World. The current edition is particularly spot on!

The Ridiculous News File: Lawsuit filed against God. God Responds!!!

Earlier this week, a Nebraska State Senator filed a lawsuit, against God!

This in itself, is enough for ridicule, and even the Senator himself admits this, and claims this is exactly his point.

But today, the story takes a turn for the even more ridiculous!

God responded!

Okay, so somebody has a sense of humour, even going so far as to name St Michael the Archangel as a witness!

But, I think the point has been well made, the story should come to an end here as it is totally... Ridiculous!

What an outfit!

I would recommend that you head on over to Booted Up and look at this post.

I gotta agree with Teri, who runs the site. It is an absiolutely stunning outfit and I think it all works so well together. The top, the trousers, the boots, the gloves, it just all works.

9/11 +6.

And now, from Viewpoint, an extra special commentary on September 11th.

You know every time this date comes round, it seems to be more and more infamous every time. There is no doubt that what happened at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon was the kind of event that you do not ever forget if you witnessed it. I happened to be in front of the TV that afternoon UK time, and I did witness the live video footage of the second plane crashing into the other tower of the World Trade Center.

Looking back at the in depth sections of BBC News and CNN reminds me just what a mind numbing event it was, how at the time, we had no immediate idea what had really gone on. Even now, we know a bit about what happened, but we really don't know it all. What has happened since has been the great politicising of 9/11, and the increased divisiveness of politics in the USA, which since Reagan has always been somewhat divided, but the 1994 congressional elections saw it stepped up a level and 9/11 has seen it stepped up to yet another level of intensity.

Patriotism became the new watchword. If you criticised the Bush administration's policies, you were called unpatriotic, or even treasonous. It became almost like the new McCarthyism, where those back in the mid 50s who disagreed with the policies of time were branded as Communists. This was at the time when Stalin ruled the Communist regime of the Soviet Union, and was the "enemy du jour" for the Republican administration of Dwight D Eisenhower.

Now, 6 years on, the world has never seen a more unpopular US president, nor a more divided political landscape, helped in no small part by a so-called news channel, whose real aim is to spread anti-Democrat and pro-Republican propoganda. A channel which blurs the line between news and opinion and not only presents it as fact, but as "Fair and Balanced" news, rather than what it truly is. It is the ultimate in spin-meistering, and it used 9/11 to make itself the most popular news channel in the ratings for years to come.

Now, as unpopular as President Bush has become, Fox News Channel is slowly headed the same way, albeit nowhere nearly as unpopular as the president and his Republican party. But as viewers slowly realise that they are being fed propoganda by Fox News, they are moving away from the channel. Last Friday, Countdown with Keith Olbermann on MSNBC was the most popular programme in the key 25-54 advertising demo, according to the Live + Same Day DVR ratings, beating Bill O'Reilly for the first time ever.

All of this is a result of the wasted opportunity that was basically handed to President Bush in the wake of 9/11. An opportunity to create a truly bi-partisan politics, where both Democrats and Republicans could go forward together in unison, finding common ground. What happened was not that. What happened was Republicans decided how things were going to be and expected everybody to follow like sheep into the pen of warmongering and fearmongering. It happened for a while, but there is an old political saying which Republicans would do well to remember. ""You can fool some of the people all the time, and all the people some of the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time."

OutFOXed, online and viewable

I have discovered that the movie that spawned the Newshounds web site, OutFOXed, is available to watch online via Google Video.

Fox News is well known for its slogans "Fair & Balanced" and "We Report, You Decide". But do they actively persue a Republican/Conservative agenda? Watch the film, and see what you think.

I've reported, now you decide.

Viewpoint Extra: TNA Doubles Its iMPACT!

Forgot to mention, fans in the UK and Ireland can get to watch TNA's No Surrender on Wednesday (12th September 2007) at 9pm in the evening on Bravo 2. If you want to see the big announcement, about TNA Impact!, made in the ring by Mike Tenay, catch it then, along with seeing if Kurt Angle can continue to hold all the gold in TNA. It should be an absolute corker, don't miss a moment!

TNA Doubles it's iMPACT!

Some very interesting news for the pro-wrestling industry was announced at TNA's No Surrender pay-per-view last night in the US. From October 4th, TNA Impact! becomes a two-hour show on Spike TV on US cable.

It is anticpated that UK satellite channel Bravo 2, which is currently airing Impact in the UK and Ireland will also expand their slot at around the same time. Whether EuroSport will do the same with their airings is not yet known.

This will prove to be quite troubling for WWE. Until now, TNA's 1 hour shows were not regarded as serious competition by WWE. But with the expansion of Impact! to 2 hours, WWE cannot afford to take the newcomer lightly. Now, it can truly be said that TNA has arrived. It has monthly pay-per-views, it has it's own World Championship, as it now no longer has use of the NWA world Heavyweight Championship, and now, its main show, Impact!, is expanding to 2 hours weekly.

Let the new wars begin! WWE vs TNA. The battles are just beginning...

Dubious Awards for Dubious News!

I have some awards to hand out to "newsmakers" and organisations, who have the dubious distinction of creating some very dubious news stories.

The Backpedalling Bicycle Award goes to Idaho Senator Larry Craig (Republican) for stating that if he can get the disorderly conduct case overturned in court in Minneapolis, he will NOT resign his Senate seat. Of course, once you've pled guilty, getting that plea overturned is very, very difficult indeed.

The Award for the Most Desperate Attempt at Momentum Scuttling is shared between Newsbusters, the blog of the Media Research Center, and The Mark Levin Show for the desperate attempt at stopping MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann's current momentum, which resulted in a week of great numbers, including the most total viewers who have ever watched the show, and the first victory ever for Countdown against The O'Reilly Factor in the key 25-54 advertising demographic.

Newsbusters uses the Mark Levin Show site as proof that Keith Olbermann, or as Mark Levin seems to like to call him, Keith Overbite, is a mysoginist. The trouble is that the links on the page, the links that Newsbusters seem to highlight as being proof of his mysoginy, are in fact on the New York Post website, which is owned by the same person who owns Fox News. Yes, you've guessed it, your friend and mine, Rupert Murdoch. And guess what, the stories highlight what is said against him, and are treated as fact, when in actuality, all we really have in those articles, is one person's side of the story. No hard and fast facts here for the Truthseeker to find.

So, possible lies, and nothing offered in the way of proof. Can we believe the stories to be undeniable fact? No, plainly we cannot, because of the lack of proof, and because the New York Post, much like it's broadcast cousin Fox News, has a definite agenda against Keith. It was the New York Post, if you recall, that trivialised the story about the white powder that was sent to Keith Olbermann's home. Keith later set the record straight on his own newscast.

So, why did Newsbusters highlight this? Simple, to try and slow down the momentum that has built up since NBC aired a live edition of Countdown with Keith Olbermann on a Sunday Night not too long ago. Nothing more than that.

Congratulations to our rather dubious award winners!

Luciano Pavarotti 1935-2007

Last night I recieved an email news alert which said that Luciano Pavarotti had been taken seriously ill. This morning, I woke up to breaking news from Classic FM, that he had just died. He was 71, and was perhaps best known for two things. Nessun Dorma, from Puccini's Turnadot, and the Three Tenors, which he performed alongside Jose Carerras and Placido Domingo.

As a tribute, courtesy of YouTube, we feature two videos here featuring Pavarotti in some of his greatest performances. The first is a recording from Spanish television channel TVE1 of Pavarotti performing Nessum Dorma in concert.



The second and final video is a performance of La Donna e Mobile by Carerras, Domingo and Pavarotti, from a Three tenors concert.



Enjoy the performances.

BBC News has more on the tributes being made to one of opera's brightest burning stars ever.

Dorma eterna, Pavorotti.

PVC clothing popular in celebrity circles?

It wasn't long ago I was talking about Girls Aloud and their latest look for their new video, called "Say No No No", PVC Catsuits.

But it seems as if they were following a trend that has been noted elsewhere. Fashionising's blog highlights the fact that at Glastonbury, Kate Moss was wearing a pair of PVC pants and highly inappropriate boots for the muddy surrounds. Then at the relaunch of the Spice Girls, Posh Spice aka Victoria Beckham was wearing a decidely un-posh pair of PVC jeans too.

Then Hilary Duff made an appearance in some faux-leather leggings.

Perhaps it is merely PVC's time now. When PVC was first introduced as the fabric of the future back in the 1960s, parafin heaters were the norm, and caused the PVC to melt or catch fire. Now, with central heating and air conditioning, PVC maybe finding it's mark as more than just a fetish fabric.

For more possible evidence that PVC is making something of a comeback, let me direct you to the Greta Constatine site, where the pictures of their latest collection show models wearing PVC gloves. Maybe there is something of a revival just beginning to happen.

WWE suspends 10 superstars, maybe more!

I've said it before, it's rare for a wrestling story to get any traction in the mainstream news. So with MSNBC reporting on 10 WWE superstars being suspended by the company for violations of it's "Wellness Program", well, I get interested.

The story reveals that no names have been released by WWE but that the suspensions were...

"...based on independent information from the Albany County, N.Y., district attorney’s office, which has been investigating sales of steroids and growth hormones through Internet and phone-order firms."

Wrestlezone.com is amongst many other sources with more information, although I cannot completely verify the accuracy of some of their stories. In this case however, they seem to be relying on information released by the mainstream media. Of the various other mainstream media outlets that are reporting the story, three seem to be more up on it than the rest.

The New York Daily News is on the case, thanks to the fact that the investigation is being carried out through Albany County, NY Distict Attorney's Office. They were the first people to list names connected with the investigation.

ESPN also listed names, though a different set. They too seem to be well on-top of this story.

Sports Illustrated seem to be the most clued up though, with a story that reads very authoritatively, and gives a more complete list of names. It has to be said that all the names in NY Daily News and ESPN lists also appear in this list. This is why I have said thatb I feel both of the other sources are well on top of this story. There are more details here though, including drugs listed and dates of supply. All of them are between September 2004 and February 2007.

Amongst some of the other reports I have seen for this, are reports that one of the pharmacies involved in the investigation is a company called Signature Pharmacy in Orlando, FL, and that a Florida doctor is apparently helping with the DA's enquiry.

There are also reports that say that stars from Major League Baseball and the National Football League could also be involved in this scandal, so this may not be a WWE exclusive problem.

WWE are known to be facing congressional hearings soon, so this information could not have come at a worse time for them.

This is one of those stories that will probably take a long time to go away, and will be followed by many media sources with interest. Wrestling fans too will want to follow this story, even if they don't like the result of it. One thing I know for sure is that TNA, WWE's best known rival in the wrestling world, will be looking at this as a major oppourtunity. I doubt they will be completely silent on this for long.

Tony Snow - Leaving the White House, back to Fox News?

MSNBC reports that Tony Snow is to step down from his post as White House Press Secretary on September 14th 2007, to be replaced by his deputy Dana Perino.

He obviously feels hard-up cos he said he needs more than his White House salary of $168,000. Ah diddums!

I wonder if he'll be heading back to the old Murdoch dollar at Fox News. He might be able to come close to being able to ask for top dollar now he is well known worldwide.

On a more serious note, Tony Snow is still ailing with cancer after having had a reoccurance of the disease back in March, and underwent another course of chemotherapy, which has only recently concluded. I wish him well in his continuing recovery from cancer.

US Cable News Ratings: Countdown's best figures!

This is a post that I am cross posting on both Viewpoint and EMC MediaBlog. For those of you who read one blog but not the other, a brief intro. Viewpoint is my own personal blog where I cover an eclectic mix of subjects. EMC MediaBlog is a blog I contribute to along with many other Transdiffusion colleagues about the media, predominantly in Britain, but we also cover overseas media as well. So, with the introduction to new readers out the way, it's time to talk about the growing Countdown.

No, this is nothing to do with the Channel 4 game show which started on the same day that the channel did, but a news programme on US cable network MSNBC. Countdown with Keith Olbermann is one of MSNBC's most popular shows, and is in many ways, the ratings flagship of the network. However, it is ususally behind many other shows on both Fox News Channel and CNN.

All that could be changing, because last Sunday (26th August 2007), MSNBC's parent company, NBC, aired a live Sunday version of the show, before a pre-season NFL game. Preliminary ratings indicate the show was watched by around 4.1 million viewers, which is around 6 times the usual audience for the programme on MSNBC (around 600-700 thousand), which for a show that wasn't advertised heavily, except on the political blogosphere,is a pretty decent performance.

Now, the numbers for Wednesday night's cable news ratings have just been released, and they reveal some interesting facts.

In what is seen in advertising circles as a key audience demographic, the 25-54 demographic, Countdown was only 6000 viewers behind their big rival in the 8pm timeslot, The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News Channel (299,000 for Countdown, 305,000 for the Factor). However, the bigger story lies in the total viewer numbers, where Countdown recorded what must be its best performance ever, 974,000 viewers.

This doesn't beat the Factor, in a week where Bill O'Reilly is on holiday, but it did emphatically take second place, behind the Factor's 1.641 million, but well ahead of third place CNN (527,000). Maybe O'Reilly being off this week does help, but I think the greater factor here is the live Sunday edition of Countdown which has definitely brought new viewers, to the show, and in the long run, could bring new viewers to MSNBC. Only time will tell.

On that wednesday, Countdown was watched by more viewers than any of the following programmes on US cable news.

The Big Story with John Gibson (Fox News Channel)
Lou Dobbs Tonight (CNN)
Anderson Cooper 360 (CNN)
Glenn Beck (Headline News)
Nancy Grace (Headline News)

Add to that that it was less than 100,000 viewers behind these programmes...

Lary King Live (CNN - 1,029,000)
On The Record with Greta Van Susteren (Fox News Channel - 1,071,000)

...and you have an idea of just how good a performance it was. Larry King Live was the only programme on CNN to rate higher and nobody on Headlines News could even get glose. In fact, even combining the ratings of any two Headline News shows that day wouldn't help them beat Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

Is this the start of a trend? We'll have to wait and see, but there is definitely signs of an upturn, and expect these numbers to be heavily celebrated by MSNBC.

The Weather In Leather - Joanna Rice

The web has a funny way of allowing you to dig up things that you may have forgotten or had not known about. I found one such incident on YouTube, when we had a weather forecaster dressed pretty much exclusively in leather on Sky News some years ago.



Hopefully my HTML skills are up to scratch and the video in question should be seen above. If not or if you're reading this blog via an RSS reader which doesn't work with video, the link to the video is here.

This got me searching for more, and turned up this slideshow of other occasions when the same forecaster, Joanna Rice, appeared in leather outfits. There's one outfit in particular in that slide show which looks like a catsuit of sorts!



Again, hopefully the video slideshow should be above, if not, or for those on RSS readers without video, the link is here.

I did some further digging around. Unfortuantely I couldn't come up with an official site for her, nor an agent's site, more's the pity. But I did dig up this site, which has 10 pages of her myriad outfits for weather forecasting, most with leather in them somehwere.

I also turned up information about her here and here, which also has a limited selection of images.

It just goes to show, you never know what you can find on the net. Go forth, my friends and explore

Trade-off rescuers lives for the Utah Miners???

Some of the press can be completely stupid sometimes, and in his latest Washington Times column, Thomas Sowell proves that point by suggesting that there was no point in rescuing the trapped miners in Utah.

A whole nation following the tragedy of a Utah mine cave-in was struck by the further tragedy of another cave-in at the same mine, killing men who had gone underground to try to rescue the miners trapped there.

The second tragedy was avoidable — but only if we were willing to talk about human life in terms of tradeoffs. But our society has become too squeamish to do so.

He then tries to justify his callousness by resoundingly condemning any thought that it might be compassion.

Tradeoffs are inescapable in every aspect of life. But anyone who talks about tradeoffs when life is at stake is likely to be denounced as lacking compassion, if not cruel. Squeamishness is too often confused with humanity, but the consequence of squeamishness can be needless suffering and needless deaths

Thomas Sowell, how can you know what compassion is, if you have none? How can you write that, utterly condemning every fireman, policeman, doctor, coastguard and every other member of the emergency and medical services for whom compassion is not an option, it's a way of life.

The only thing that was needless here, was your inane rantings about a tragedy. Rantings, which will cause more hurt and suffering to the families of those who have died in that mine. Sometimes, just sometimes, for the greater good of the human race, it is better that views like yours, Thomas, are not published, thereby not causing further unnecessary and needless suffering, the very thing you claim to want to save people from.

Thomas Sowell's column is worthy of nothing but a nomination on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann's Worst Person In The World segment. Heck, it could even win it.

Newsbusters actually reports factually, whilst trying to insinuate bias!

Newsbusters is a blog from the right wing Media Research Center which supposedly highlights liberal media bias. However, this time, they actually managed to report something completely factually, whilst trying to insinuate that bias was involved.

The entry by Brent Baker highlights comments by syndicated columnist Mark Shields, on the programme Inside Washington, produced by Washington DC ABC affiliate WJLA. Mark Shields describes how right wing radio attacks will make Hillary Clinton somewhat as a sympathy figure, in the same way, as NPR's Nina Tottenberg pointed out, as she was elected to the New York Senate seat in her first Senate run.

The whole entry is written with lots of quotes, to insinuate that there is bias in the statements, whereas in fact, what was stated was factual. We have seen it happen before, we could see it happen again.

Olympic Park Security Guard Dies

MSNBC is reporting the death of the security guard who was wrongly accused in the 1996 Olympic bombings in Atlanta. Richard Jewell was 44 and had had kidney problems since the end of February 2007.

I remember that incident all too well. Surprisingly, some original reporting from that incident still exists on the web, courtesy of CNN.com, or as it was known back then, CNN Interactive.

But it is amazing that that event has been politicised by some on the right. Amazing and shameful. I've located an article on right wing news website WorldNetDaily, which claims,astonishingl, that Democraitc President Bill Clinton covered up the bombings! It's from about 3 years ago now, but the ridiculousness of it beggars belief. It's part of a series of articles about a so called 'political deciet' that led us to September 11 2001.

This is why I am against the news being politicised, by any and all sides. To me News = Fact and I know that politics and facts are not exactly comfortable bedfellows at the best of the times. Keep the personal political viewpoints in the opinion columns and blogs, not in the news.

The Castro Rumour-Mill Returns!

Wikinews is reporting that two websites are reporting the rumour of the death of Fidel Castro. ONe even reported that an official announcement would come at 4pm ET. Well, no such announcement came.

I always have my doubts when it comes to rumours, but just occasionally,as in the Sky Sports 3 case back in 1996, the rumours can be proved to be true. However, as is usual in these situations, I will believe it when it is reported by a trustworthy and reliable news source.

I believe that some of these rumours are started by those who would like to see him dead. They are the ones who believe that a Cuba without Fidel Castro could be won back from the "commies". These were probably the same people who thought that we would be welcomed with open arms in Iraq and that Iran would back down fromthe might of the United States. There is no reason to believe they would be any more correct now than they were previously.

Newsbusters bust their own guts!

Okay, now if THIS is not the most biased, egotistical, unscientific poll I've ever seen, I don't know what is.

I feel like adding a fourth option to the list... Stupid Conservative!

Ratings Review: JNLR year ending Jun 07

The Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR) figures for Jun 06-Jun 07 have been released by Ireland's media regulator, the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI). These are the figures for radio stations in Ireland.

Of interest to me is the fact that little has changed in the past 6 months. RTE Radio 1 still holds a 23% national reach with RTE 2FM just behind on 18%. RTE Lyric FM also holds a consistent 3% reach.

Commercial music station Today FM is only just behind 2FM with 16% reach, whilst commercial talk station NewsTalk 106-108 struggles with just 5%.

It is very interesting to note that the local stations in Ireland tend to have much larger reach than the national stations. Highland Radio has a 64% reach in their listneing area. By contrast, the two local Dublin stations 98FM and FM104, both score 12.7% in their area, which is lower than RTE Radio 1's equivalent number in Dublin (31%).

It will be interesting to look at the next set of numbers, when they next come out.

Welcome to the backwards society!

Imagine living in a society where guns are freely available and it is a constitutional right to bear arms, but sex toys are banned! It would be legal to carry a lethal weapon, but not legal to carry something that does no physical harm to anyone.

Say hello to Alabama!

Society really does have it backwards!

And now, the non-news, about the newscaster!

Hot on the heels of one piece of bad journalism from the Daily Star yesterday, comes a very different journalistic boo-boo from the ultra-conservative Daily Mail. This time, making a news story out of nothing.

The story is basically that during a trailer for Monday's 10 O'Clock News on BBC1, newscaster Emily Maitliss was caught showing rather too much leg!

Apprantly there have been 30 complaints to the BBC's message boards. Note, not the complaints department, but the message boards!

The picture is there on site, and you can quite frankly see how much the Daily Mail is talking through its hat, a hat that incidentally, I hope they soon have to eat, preferably with a hot sauce!

Repackaged 18 month old news? Must be the silly season!

Stories may go in and out of news bulletins and newspapers depending on how much has happened in the meantime, but rarely do you get stale news. Today, you did, from the Daily Star!

The story is about new X-Factor judge, Dannii Minogue, and pictures of her enjoying "...lesbian romps with a naked lapdancer." at a London nightclub.

Now, originally, the crux of this post would have been that what celebrities do in their off hours is really not our business. Even now, I still believe this.

However this blog post has become a rant at a lazy media.

You see, when I checkout a story that I'm going to comment on, I do it the honour of a little research beforehand. This way, I find out if a story is pure hyperbole, or actually has something a little more factual about it. In this case, I simply typed in the words "Dannii Minogue Lesbian" into Google, and I found the story straight away, with the incriminating photgraphs.

However, what struck me about the story was not the pictures, but the date!

The story is reported on the site, dated February 2006!

This material is 18 months old!

Furthermore, just a little way into the story itself, the site reports that the story was originally reported in the News Of The World!

So, just because she is now a judge on the X-Factor, this story is dredged up from a competitor, repackaged it and branded it an exclusive!

Quite frankly, this is the ultimate in bad journalism! We see it far too much these days, but this is possibly the worst example of journalism I have seen in a very long time.

A little research told me just how bad this was and proved to me just what these so-called tabloid journalists will do to get their paper to sell more copies. This should give you all the reasons you need to AVOID these kinds of charlatans. Stick to reputable news sources.

Networking women with new boobs!

MSNBC's News Blog points to a Yahoo! News piece about a company which "networks" women with implants for their breasts!

Is it me or is the world getting just a little bit wierder?

Lego Man found off Dutch Coast!

Saw this on Wikinews, and am stunned.

What I want to know his, did he have any swimming lessons???

Girls Aloud in PVC catsuits!

I've been a fan of Girls Aloud ever since their debut single, Sound Of The Underground. But now, they've stepped up to a new level by wearing PVC catsuits in their new video "Sexy! No, No, No..."

I've loved catsuits since first seeing them on Julie Newmar when she played Catwoman in the 1966 Batman TV series, and with the popularity of the films The Matrix and Underworld, the catsuit is now moving well and truly into the mainstream.

No sexy woman should be without one in her wardrobe.

Big Cats on Dartmoor? here we go again!

There seems to be a pretty never ending run of Big Cat stories in the South West of England. Whether it's Bodmin Moor, Dartmoor or Exmoor, there's more talk about big cats on the moors than I think is really healthy.

And now, BBC News is reporting another big cat sighting, this time on Dartmoor. I'm starting to get a little fed up of all the stories that keep cropping up about big cat sightings. It's getting as pathetic as the Loch Ness Monster sightings.

Big Surprise! Another Republican under investigation.

ABC News is reporting that Republican Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska is under investigation by both the FBI and IRS.

Another story of Republican political corruption that Fox News will probably gloss over. But you can guarantee that they wouldn't do that if it was a Democrat being investigated. It would be all over every programme they could.

US Cable News Numbers: Friday 27 July 2007

I only talk about the numbers when there is something interesting to report. Otherwise, if you're particularly interested in finding out, there's always Inside Cable News. But this time, I find it particularly interesting to note that Fox Noise, Faux News, call it what you will, but Fox News did not dominate Friday's Numbers.

Fox won every hour from 6pm to 10pm, but unusually lost the 11pm hour, to MSNBC's Doc Block!

MSNBC won the 25-54 Prime Time figures too, with strong showings for the Doc Block, and a 2nd place for Countdown, which of recent times has languished in 3rd, usually just behind Nancy Grace.

Bill O'Reilly usually likes to brag that the second nightly airing of The O'Reilly Factor, gets more viewers than Countdown's first airing at 8pm, but not this time. Countdown at 8pm had 662,000 viewers whilst the 11pm repeat of the Factor only got 509,000.

Friday was strong for MSNBC and unusually weak for Fox News. Even CNN languished.

Rupert Murdoch's Dow Jones bid might not continue

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation is reporting that Rupert Murdoch is 'highly unlikely' to proceed with his US$5bn bid for Dow Jones.

I bet that will please the News Hounds!

The Bill O'Reilly house of buffoonery!

There are so many stories that are complete non-events, that to call them news is a disservice to the public and the world of journalism. And it's not just your National Enquirers, Daily Stars and OK! magazines that are worst culprits. There are more sources of non-event non-news stories than many people realise. These include popular so-called news programmes, such as Fox News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor.

The Factor has been caught before getting it's facts wrong, but now, it seems to have gone over the line. Bill O's current target of his brand of bluster is the website DailyKos, which is a blog that was created back in 2002, at a time when all criticism of the 'War On Terror' was branded unpatriotic, or even treasonous. With it's distinctly liberal/democratic agenda, it has become a target for the Conservative media of talk radio and now the Falafel guy is promising an expose on DailyKos on tonight's show that he says will destroy the site.

Except, that once again, Bill O'Reilly is being less than truthful. DailyKos themselves have seen the evidence, and rather than print the photo on the site, they have separately linked to it. And when you look at the photo, it is clear as day, that the photo is a piece of photoshopping! As a subscriber to the DailyKos RSS feed, I've checked back through the archives, and I cannot find the photo having been used anywhere on the site. If anybody can find it being used, I would like to know.

So, as far as my own investigations have revealed, this wouold appear to be a story, made up by Bill O, out of his fear or possibly paranoia, so as to denegrate or discredit this popular internet site, because of it's liberal agenda. This latest Falafel-fatwa is totally, ridiculous.

This is a total, non-event non-news story, that deserves only ridicule, and believe me, this story is as ridiculous as the loofah-wielding buffon gets. There seems to be no truth here for the truthseeker, just a lot of dark, sad unfunniness that should be attempting to pass for comedy, not news.

Expect "Bill Orally" to pick up another World's Worst gold medal either tonight or tomorrow on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann. At least that segment is satirical, unlike the Bill O ballon of bluster and buffoonery that is "The O'Reilly Factor"

SaberCats wins ArenaBowl 21!

Congratulations to the San Jose SaberCats, who defeated the Columbus Destroyers 55-33 in ArenaBowl 21 in New Orleans. For the Destroyers, it was just one upset too far. But well done to them for getting to the ArenaBowl, which is no mean feat in itself.

Iranian International News Channel highlights story about Impeaching President Bush. Surprised?

Well,I can honestly say I'm not surprised about the decision by Press TV to highlight this story on their front page.

It's well known that George W Bush is not exactly the most popular US President in the world at large, except of course to American conservatives and Republicans. But remember this is a state-funded media organisation, much like the BBC and Voice Of America. The head of Press TV claims that they maintain editorial independence from the government, though this is disputed.

Whether they are independent or not, ultimately how they will be judged is on the stories they cover and how they cover them.

Arena Bowl 21: This Sunday!

Well, I certainly didn't predict that the team that would take the last play-off spot would go on to appear in ArenaBowl 21 in New Orleans. But this Sunday, the Columbus Destroyers, who have pulled off upset after upset to make it through, face the San Jose SabreCats in New Orleans, just across the road from the Superdome.

Live coverage is on the US network ABC, in High Definition, and in the UK and Ireland, NASN will air the final live as well.

Why am I so surprised to find the Columbus Destroyers in ArenaBowl? Well, they are in the same conference and division as the team who dominated the season with an incredible record of 15 wins to just the one loss, the Dallas Desperados. By contrast, the Destroyers scraped in with record of 7 wins and 9 losses. But come the Divisional Playoffs, it was the Destroyers meeting the Desperados, and winning out 66 to 59. You just wouldn't have predicted it. But then, that is why the games are played on the field, not on paper.

Editorialising The News

I have a confession to make. I would call myself something of a news junkie. I regularly have one of the 24 hour news channels on in the background, and I download lots of news podcasts from different broadcasters all over the world. The reason for this is simple: it gives me a wide variety of different perspectives on the news, and on how the media itself reports the news.

But I do have another motive for my possible over-consumption of news programming. It gives me a better chance to separate the facts of a news item from any unintentional or deliberate bias that might be injected into a story, and also allows me to eliminate the ‘tabloid’ hype and clichés that are used to ‘sell’ you the story. It gives me a purer, more factual perspective on the news, and it has shown up a trend that started in newspapers, but is showing through in broadcasting and the new media.

I call it “Politicising” or “Editorialising” the story. Like so many trends, this one seemed to start in the United States a number of years ago, quite probably around the time when the media regulator there, the Federal Communications Commission, decided to do away with an ‘equal time’ rule, which allowed aggrieved parties equal time to respond. This rule was done away with in 1985, during the Republican administration of Ronald Reagan.

Now let me get one thing straight. You had conservative talk show hosts prior to 1985, and they did not give equal time to all issues, but there was far less difference between perspectives than there is now. But in 1994, the political world in the USA was turned upside down by the election of a Republican Congress, under the political leadership of House Speaker Newt Gingrinch Gingrich, Majority Leader Dick Armey and Majority Whip Tom Delay aka “The Hammer”.

In 1995, this triumvirate of Republican leaders managed to get not only Conservative radio talk show hosts, but Conservative newspaper editors to all speak with one voice rather than many voices, in opposition to the Democratic President, Bill Clinton. Clinton was incredibly popular with both Democrats and Independents, but Republicans hated him, with a greater vengeance than had ever been seen against any Democrat before.

It was around this time that the Republican message about the so-called ‘Liberal Media’ first became really widely known, and even slightly considered to be even possibly accurate. In 1996, Rupert Murdoch launched Fox News Channel to be a conservative news network, as opposed to CNN, which got labelled the Clinton News Network by some conservatives. It was the first time that the news itself was becoming well and truly politicised in the broadcast medium.

Until this time, in broadcast news at least, the news was the news and that was it. You may have had bulletins created for a younger audience for example, but targeting the news with a particular political bias was regarded as an absolute no-no. However, conservatives felt that the mainstream media, or as conservative radio talk show host Rush "Limburger" Limbaugh calls them, the ‘drive-by media’, were not being critical enough of the Clinton administration, hence the idea that the mainstream media had a liberal bias. Of course, few anticipated the story that was going to engulf the news media in 1998.

Before news of the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke, Republicans had been so desperate to pin anything on Bill Clinton, that they were practically begging the media, especially Fox News, to throw them even a small bone to gnaw on. But when the story broke in January 1998, both Republicans and the media realised that they hadn’t been given a small bone to gnaw on, but a huge, meaty, 8 course feast to gorge on - and gorge on it they did!

For over a year, the media became more and more divided over the Lewinsky scandal, and whilst Republicans did not get the impeachment that they wanted, the real result of this effort came in 2000, with the most politically divisive election that there had ever been between Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W Bush. It ended in the ‘hanging chads’ debacle in Florida, and a win for George W Bush, a win that Fox News had declared on the night, only to have to retract it later the same night.

What had really been happening was that the conservative media had been moving further and further away from the rest of the media. But that seemed to be over, on September 11th 2001.

Almost every media outlet around the world was united in shock and outrage at the deliberate crashing of two planes into the World Trade Center in New York City. This single act managed to do what had hitherto seemed impossible, uniting the conservative and mainstream media in the US. For about 2 years, these two arms of the media would act as one.

However, a new media form, which had been coming together since 1994, would be partially responsible for the re-separation of the conservative and mainstream media: the weblog, aka blog. Bloggers had been around for quite a few years, but in 2002, this new internet media format, which had been used for years as a rebroadcast, and latterly a new broadcast medium, suddenly started to make itself widely known on both the US and world stage.

This new medium has become as politically divided as the rest of the media, and in some ways is still finding its feet. Some proposals to regulate the format, such as a Blogger’s Code Of Conduct, have been regarded by some political bloggers as tantamount to censorship.

Blogging grew from being a text-only medium, to an audio and then video medium. Blogs can be exclusively text, exclusively audio, exclusively video, or any combination of all three. Some bloggers have crossed over into other media, such as Michelle Malkin and Ariana Huffington. But there are many more out there for whom the blog is perhaps as close to fame as they will ever come.

With blogs being liberal, conservative, and all political points in-between, we have seen the development of true ‘liberal media’. Liberal Blogs now sit alongside the liberal talk radio network Air America Radio and Sirius Left on sateliite radio and liberal newspapers as being the real ‘liberal media’. Conservative media is representated by conservative newspapers and blogs, conservative talk radio, and of course, the ever-controversial Fox News Channel.

The rest of the news media, mainly radio news and most TV news, including the public /public-service media, try to maintain going down the political centre, even if they cannot claim to be unbiased. But of course, the politically biased dislike any media that do not agree with them.

There are a number of blogs that attack the public media for not being biased in their direction. Most are politically conservative, but one, surprisingly perhaps, is Liberal.

Today, through ‘user-generated content’, such as blogs, podcasts, public access TV channels, and Current TV, there are millions of voices out there. And while some have suggested that this would lead to democratization of the media, it could be argued instead that something like the opposite is happening - something that none of us ever dared imagine. We are seeing the news media as a whole, and individual news stories, used as political pawns, rather than as something that we use to base solutions on. This process of politicisation is only going to get worse, until the media get their act together en masse, stop trying to promote political viewpoints, and go back to doing what they do best: just reporting the facts and getting to ‘the truth’.