The Cable Game

"CNN Falls Behind MSNBC in Annual Prime-Time Ratings"

2009-12-17T12:55:00.005-05:00

The headline of Bill Carter's story in of The New York Times this morning was certainly bad for CNN: "CNN Falls Behind MSNBC in Annual Prime-Time Ratings."

So that much is good news for MSNBC.

But a look at some of the details on MSNBC's numbers--focusing here on the 25-54 demo-- were kinda startling:

MSNBC’s daytime problems are also illustrated by the puny totals for daytime hosts like Andrea Mitchell and Dr. Nancy Snyderman, which on Tuesday attracted only 17,000 viewers and 23,000 viewers respectively.

In ratings for the total day, Fox, which was up 16 percent, averaged 320,000 viewers for the year, while CNN was down 24 percent, to 185,000, and MSNBC was down 21 percent, to 149,000 viewers.

Time-Warner has obvious problems with CNN, not that T-W seems to notice; but Comcast has some work ahead of it, too, with MSNBC.

NBC/WSJ Polls Puts Fox, MSNBC, In Perspective

2009-12-17T12:13:00.006-05:00

It's kind of astonishing that NBC would allow such a question as the one above to be asked on a poll that it co-sponsored. As you can see from the screen grab above, when people are asked which news sources they trust most for information, Fox scored with 27 percent of the people, while MSNBC won the allegiance of just 5 percent.

Indeed, since the three broadcast networks, NBC, CBS, and ABC enjoyed a combined score of just 36, it's a cinch that Fox by itself beat any one of the broadcasters.

It's hard to imagine that we'll see much more of that poll question in the future.

The Comcast-opus Comes To Washington

2009-12-15T16:27:00.007-05:00

This developing story will require close scrutiny: Politico's Kenneth P. Vogel describes Comcast's way of wheeling and dealing as it works its way through the political system: Note in particular this sentence:

Once a regional cable company immersed in Philadelphia’s Democratic machine politics, Comcast has approached the highest-profile move in its history by projecting onto the national level the lessons learned in the precincts of South Philly and the collar counties, as well as backrooms in City Hall and Harrisburg, Pa.,’s State Capitol.

There's nothing wrong with lobbying, of course, although the ethics of Philadelphia's politics are a legend--a bad legend. So with that sort of experience, Comcast might be able to teach Washington DC a thing or two.

The title of this post, "Comcast-opus," is an homage to Frank Norris' muckraking novel of 1901 about the railroads in California, back in their predatory and monopolistic heyday, The Octopus.

The railroads were a scourge a century or more ago, because they were so uncontrolled--they could charge virtually whatever they wished, even as quality and service were spotty. Does that sound a bit like the cable industry today? The issue is always the same: unchecked power is always abused power. And as Politico's Vogel details, Comcast's gameplan, in buying NBC-Universal is to gain more unchecked power.

Watch the Comcast-opus.

Has Jim Cramer Been Deep-Captured?

2009-12-15T14:05:00.004-05:00

When The Cable Gamer saw this headline, screen-grabbed above, at first she was merely amused. Watch Jim Cramer, be entertained (if yelling is your cup of tea), and lose money if you follow his stock picks--the most recent being Best Buy. There are lots of expensive entertainments, Cramer is just one more.

But then TCG remembered coming across this blog, Deep Capture, created, as near as I can tell, by Patrick Byrne, the chief of Overstock.com. Deep Capture spins a tale of corporate conspiracy, as traders and hedge funders manipulate the news to make money on their trades. And Jim Cramer, both an investor and talking head, gets his own section in Deep Capture. And it's, uh, not favorable.

TCG doesn't pretend to understand all these corporate shenanigans, and so I make no attempt to sort out the infinity of accusations that Deep Capture launches. But it does seem that if what Deep Capture wrote was totally and demonstrably false, it would have been taken down by now.

Moreover, it is worth noting that if you bought Best Buy stock and lost money, someone made money selling it to you, and someone else bought it from you, at a lower price, in the hope that the price will go up again. That's the way markets work, and there's nothing wrong with that--unless, of course, the game is rigged.

Tempest in a Teapot--Meanwhile, the Media Bias Cauldron Boils

2009-12-09T08:12:00.004-05:00

The other day, Fox and Friends ran a graphic illustrating a public opinion poll that didn't quite make sense--the numbers on the screen seemed to add up to 120 percent. In other words, an ambiguity at best and a typo at worst. But this booboo, of course, has led to an enormous hoohah from the usual Fox-bashing suspects, Media Matters, Huffington Post, etc. And so even the fair-minded Michael Calderone of Politico had to take note of the controversy.

But for her part, the Cable Gamer can sum up her reaction in three letters: B.F.D.

In the meantime, real media bias--not ambiguous calls, not innocent mistakes, but outright, premeditated bias--is so thick you can cut it with a knife. For example, on ABC World News last night, Jonathan Karl delivered a report on the Senate healthcare bill, which seems to be making some progress; to which Charlie Gibson responded, "At last some optimism about healthcare reform." That's pure pro-Democrat spin--if the Democrats are for it, it's good, and so we should be optimistic.

And this morning in the WaPo, a front page article on a drought in Australia, in which reporter Blaine Harden takes Aussies to task for not waking up to the importance of global warming. Harden loads up the rhetoric, declaring Australia to be "a crematorium for kangaroos, livestock, and farm towns." The Post is losing money, it is shutting down all its US bureaus, and yet it still scrapes up the money to send a reporter on a 22-hour flight Down Under to commit agitprop during the Copenhagen Summit.

Of course, MM and Huffpo won't worry about that sort of bias. They will cheer it.

NPR Listeners Revolt Against NPR Thought Police

2009-12-08T22:30:00.004-05:00

NPR Ombudsperson Alicia Shepard responds to the attempted purge of Mara Liasson (and earlier, although it got less attention, against Juan Williams). Both Liasson and Williams have come under fire from left-wing thought police at NPR for moonlighting at Fox.

Writes Shepard:

More phone calls than usual came in as well, all on Liasson. By 11:30 this morning, we had 142 emails, with the majority supporting her right to appear on Fox. Liasson, who joined NPR in 1985 and now is a national correspondent, began appearing on Fox as a "political contributor" in 1997.

"I enjoy listening to Mara Liasson on Special Report. She provides another viewpoint in a non-antagonist manner," wrote Howard Kirsh of East Meadow, NY. "Your attempt to pressure her from appearing on this show is an outrage. Stifling free speech because you do not agree with a network's point of view is dangerous to say the least."

Sounds like a victory for people power to me. TCG predicts that NPR backs off on its threats against Liasson and Williams, just as the White House backed off on its threats against Fox News.

So much for NPR's attempt to keep their Berlin Wall against diversity of opinion.

Jon Klein Celebrates His Fifth Anniversary at CNN

2009-12-07T15:35:00.005-05:00

The Miami Herald's Glenn Garvin and Mediate's Steve Krakauer offer up the lonely details, here and here.

The NPR Inquisition

2009-12-07T13:39:00.007-05:00

Josh Gerstein of Politico is reporting--and everyone else is buzzing about--the pressure that National Public Radio is putting on one of its employees, Mara Liasson, who is also a contributor to the Fox News Channel. Here's Gerstein's lede:

Executives at National Public Radio recently asked the network’s top political correspondent, Mara Liasson, to reconsider her regular appearances on Fox News because of what they perceived as the network’s political bias, two sources familiar with the effort said.

According to a source, Liasson was summoned in early October by NPR’s executive editor for news, Dick Meyer, and the network’s supervising senior Washington editor, Ron Elving. The NPR executives said they had concerns that Fox’s programming had grown more partisan, and they asked Liasson to spend 30 days watching the network.

At a follow-up meeting last month, Liasson reported that she’d seen no significant change in Fox’s programming and planned to continue appearing on the network, the source said.

By an amazing coincidence, Liasson was called in about the same time that White House communications director Anita Dunn launched her campaign against Fox News. And so it's little surprise that left-wing NPR execs were eager both to smite the right and also to suck up to the White House. (The fact that the White House has cancelled its anti-Fox campaign seems to have been lost on NPR, like true stooges, they keep going in the direction they've been pointed.)

Note also the totalitarian-style "self-criticism": NPR commissars "asked Liasson to spend 30 days watching the network," to see if she saw the error of her ways. Apparently she hasn't yet. The point is not that Liasson is supposed to agree with Fox. Instead, the point is that Fox open to all points of view, to be argued, in fairness and balance.

This is not the first time this has happened: Juan Williams, another NPR employee, and another Fox News contributor, has come under similar scrutiny.

In honor of Comrade Dunn's well-known Maoist proclivities, perhaps we should have shown a picture of a self-criticism session from Red China's cultural revolution of the late 60s. But this painting of the Spanish Inquisition, from Goya, c. 1816, is a favorite, and a reminder that the totalitarian virus pops up all over the place. (That's Liasson and Williams above, inserted into the picture).

And now, most recently, the "totalbug" has surfaced at NPR.

Comcast Is A Worthy Successor to General Electric When It Comes To Politicized Sucking Up--Or Whoring Out

2009-12-04T09:46:00.004-05:00

So now we know that Keith Olbermann, and the whole lefty gang at MSNBC, are safe in their jobs. Comcast has proven that it will whore out--that's the Whore of Comcast, above, with apologies to the classic movie, "Metropolis."

Comcast chief Brian Roberts just endorsed the Obamacare bill giving the Obama administration a big boost. Thus Roberts will pick up exactly where GE CEO Jeff Immelt left off--indeed, for a time, as the deal awaits approval in DC, the Obamans will get the best, uh, behavior of both corporate behemoths.

Because, of course, the federal government--read, Obama administration--will be passing regulatory judgment on Comcast's purchase of NBC-Universal from GE. The Justice Dept's anti-trust division, of course, will be controlled by Attorney General Eric Holder, Obama's buddy, so the Obamans will be able to deliver that greenlight easily enough--although watch for big contributions from the Roberts family to the Democrats, just to further sweeten the deal.

And speaking of other regulatory agencies with say-so over the deal, don't be fooled by the "independence" of the Federal Communications Commission, under new chairman Julius Genachowski, a law school classmate of Barack Obama, there is no chance that the FCC, in the end, will do anything other than what the White House wants.

Still, if the regulatory clearance process takes a year or more, that's plenty good news for the Obamans, because that "hang time" means that they will be able to extract anything they want out of the billionaire Roberts family, or Comcast, or both.

And of course, the Obamans will always have Olbermann & Co. cheerleading for them at MSNBC. With NBC and even CNBC usually not far behind.

Five Questions for Comcast

2009-12-03T08:45:00.006-05:00

So Comcast is almost certainly the new owner of NBC-Universal. Hats off to Sharon Waxman, of The Wrap, which first broke the story on September 30.

Some details are already becoming clear, such as the reality that NBC-U chief Jeff Zucker is likely to be layered by Comcast COO Stephen Burke--assuming, of course, that Zucker stays on at all. Still a mystery, the fate of Peter Chernin, the ex-COO of the News Corp. Perhaps he was just a feint, too, to help Comcast secure the deal.

The Cable Gamer thinks that overall, Comcast's purchase of NBC-U is a good idea, because, after all, content is king. Pipes will always be important, but whether they are copper wire, fiber optics, the air, or white space, they are still "dumb." What is "smart" is actual content. And now Comcast, which has 25 percent of the cable and Internet pipes in the US, and which has been dabbling with various "content" channel offerings in the past, albeit with no great success, now has some serious content.

But of course, there are some issues:

So here are some Cable Game questions for the new owner of NBC-U:

1) Do you think that MSNBC's Keith Olbermann is an asset to your new conglomerate? And do you, the folks in Philadelphia, really wish to be responsible for his blog posts in, say, Daily Kos?

2) Are you happy the overall left-leaning editorial stance at MSNBC? Olbermann after all, is something of a star, but what about Ed Schultz and Rachel Maddow? They have all the left-wing baggage of Olbermann, but not the barely half-decent ratings. They are there because Olbermann likes them, not because of their own strength. Is that good corporate management?

3) Do you think that Chris Matthews is a stable enough figure for national TV? He, after all, is the one who said that he got a thrill up his leg when he heard Obama speak, and also said that West Point was "enemy territory" for Obama. (Matthews apologized for the comment, but if he didn't mean it, why did he say it?)

4) What will you do about the obvious ethical issues surrounding Dan Abrams? He is still listed as chief legal correspondent for NBC, even as he dabbles in various ventures, from Abrams Research to Mediaite.

5) What ethics rules will you enforce concerning CNBC, including such, uh, high flyers as Maria Bartiromo? Will there be any rules regarding conflict of interest and mixing business with, uh, business?

Comcast is, after all, a publicly traded company. And while the Obama administration and the Democrats might be in love with NBC and its "green" weeks, as well as the "MSDNC" propaganda hurtling out of MSNBC, it's hard to see how such fare meets the basic criteria of journalistic fairness that a broadcast company and a corporation should have to meet.

CNBC Down 40 Percent

2009-12-02T19:13:00.005-05:00

CNBC down 40 percent from last year, according to PragmaticCapitalist.com. That's a screengrab from PC above.

Speaking of p.c., a different kind of p.c., given CNBC's ratings plunge, one might think that the cabler would not reject any good idea out of hand. And yet it did, in the name of political correctness. CNBC spokespeople seemed eager to tell reporters that there was no way that ex-CNN-er Lou Dobbs would be coming to CNBC. Now we might ask: Why was CNBC so eager to diss Dobbs? I mean, Dobbs has been a major star in the cable world for a quarter-century. And while his star eclipsed at CNN, so did CNN's own star. And it was obvious that CNN wanted him to go, mostly because CNN despised his populism. (If low ratings were a cause for termination at CNN, Campbell Brown would have been long gone, and so, for that matter, Jon Klein would have been shown the door. No, the real reason that CNBC went out of its way to diss Dobbs was the political correctness that has taken over the NBC-U properties in the last few years.

Political correctness makes one a hero to the Obama left, but it won't get ratings. CNBC is proof.

"General Electric: The For-Profit Arm of the Obama Administration"

2009-11-30T18:02:00.005-05:00

"General Electric: The For-Profit Arm of the Obama Administration" -- that's the title of a 22-page chapter in Timothy P. Carney's new book, Obamanomics: How Barack Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses.

Carney, who writes regularly for The Washington Examiner, has carved out a sort of beat for himself on the topic of corporate welfare and all that rent-seeking jazz. And as his GE chapter makes plain, the NBC media properties have been a central part of GE's rent-seeking strategy, helping Jeff Immelt's company get into bed with the federal government:

There's one more arm to the GE leviathan that takes this partnership to a new level. It's called NBC Universal. .. When you read this chapter, and learn just how dependent GE is on government favors, and just how significant is the overlap between GE's business and Obama's policy, you might consider in a new light [Chris] Matthews' post-election declaration that it's his job to "do everything I can to make this thing work--this new presidency work."

Given NBC's willingness, well before Obama's election, to turn to advocacy that would aid other GE businesses--like its "Green Week" and "Earth Week" programming--it's not a stretch to see Olbermann, Maddow, Matthews, and their MSNBC and NBC colleagues as GE public relations officials. And given GE's intimacy with government and the current president, it's also not a stretch to call GE the for-profit arm of the Obama administration.

Pow! Olby, Maddow and Matthews as "GE public relations officials." And that's just pgs. 194-5; there's plenty more.

So one might wonder: If NBCU is such an asset--from a lobbying point of view, if not a ratings point of view--why would GE be interested in selling it? Easy: GE has gotten what it needs. And Immelt & Co. are now afraid that the Republicans are going to reclaim power in Washington, starting in 2010, and that NBCU will be the object of much GOP vengefulness. So get out while the getting is good.

Content: The Once and Future King

2009-11-27T13:25:00.005-05:00

For decades now, the debate has raged: Where does the ultimate power of media reside? Is it in the pipes, or is it in content? In the early 90s, the view was that the phone companies would control everything, through their pipes. Then, in the late 90s, it was AOL. Now. it's--your choice, Google, Facebook, or maybe even Twitter.

In the meantime, of course, most content providers have been laid low, even destroyed. Copyrights and walled gardens seem to mean little.

And yet. And yet. Content providers of various kinds are hanging in there. Such as Hulu.com. And now a pipeline company, Comcast, is buying up a content provider, NBC-Universal, assuming that all the regulatory kinks can be worked out--see below.

The Cable Gamer has always taken the view that content was king. TCG has never doubted that people watch TV--including cable news--because they want to see people and stories, not because they want to watch pipelines at work.

So that's why TCG figures that Comcast will do pretty well with NBC-U, aside from the millstone of the corporate chieftain it will be inheriting Jeff Zucker. But of course, as I think about this, it occurs to me that the folks at Comcast are smart--they can see that Zucker has taken NBC from first to fourth in just a few years. So I now have a hunch that the Comcastians have a plan to get rid of Zucker, even if Jeff Z doesn't know it yet. In the meantime, Comcast just needs some stability, until they can get the deal done.

Meanwhile, here's the article that prompted these musings. The Washington Post's Cecilia Kang outlines some of the federal issues surrounding Comcast's proposed acquisition of NBC-Universal:

With Philadelphia-based cable operator Comcast apparently hoping to acquire NBC Universal from General Electric, federal regulators are realizing that they may be thrust into a new era. A combination of the two would create the prospect of a single company controlling how customers access information--through cable and online -- and what they watch there.

Comcast, for instance, could consider same-day releases of Universal movies for its cable customers. With control over more news and entertainment content, it would have greater flexibility to explore online business models, perhaps offering cable subscribers free online access to certain content, such as the show "30 Rock" or CNBC or USA Network programming. Comcast already is the nation's second-largest provider of Internet access, and NBC owns a large stake in Hulu.com, where television shows can be accessed through any broadband connection.

Such are the makings of a complicated regulatory challenge. Any merger would have to be approved by antitrust officials at the Justice Department or Federal Trade Commission. The Federal Communications Commission would determine whether the deal would benefit the public.

Fox Shows Why It Keeps Its Trust

2009-11-23T20:08:00.002-05:00

TV Newser reports on a leak from Fox News that was obviously not really a leak.

The issue is a couple of errors that have crept into Fox's air. And so Fox put out a memo--TVN doesn't say so, but I assume that it came from Michael Clemente, the SVP for editorial--which says, bluntly, "Please know that jobs are on the line here."

It's no fun to make mistakes, it's no fun to get caught making mistakes, it's no fun to admit to mistakes. But the process of identifying errors, and correcting errors, be they human or systemic, is vital. That's what Fox is doing, and that's why we retain confidence in Fox.

If only all the networks were similarly tough on errors.

News Corp and Microsoft vs. Google

2009-11-22T20:32:00.003-05:00

"Microsoft and News Corp eye web pact"--that's the headline in the Financial Times. Drudge plays it big tonight, bigger than most other stories, proving, once again, that he knows exactly what he is doing. The story is that NWS is going to take itself out of Google, and go instead with MSFT's Bing, perhaps for a fee. Thus Google's near monopoly on search is potentially undone.

And that's why this corporate deal such a big deal. Because, frankly, the fate of the media business is a bigger story, even than health care. Why? Because if the Democrats wreck healthcare, those mistakes can be fixed. But we lose our free speech, then we won't have any way to mobilize public opinion to fix those mistakes.

More of the Plan

2009-11-22T18:39:00.005-05:00

The Plan

2009-11-22T13:48:00.002-05:00

Glenn Beck to speak to the country, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, on August 28, 2010.

This could be really huge, right up there with other huge events, such as Martin Luther King Jr.'s march on Washington in 1963.

CNN Blames America First--Again

2009-11-21T16:20:00.008-05:00

The kneejerkers at CNN just can't help themselves: Tonight, a special on alleged American abuses in Iraq.

The Cable Gamer is old enough to remember CNN's notorious "Tailwind" scandal; back in 1998, then-CNN correspondent Peter Arnett gleefully smeared US troops in Vietnam. A firestorm ensued, mostly thanks to an upstart TV network, called Fox News, and the whole story was retracted, Arnett and several others fired.

Such behavior was easy to see, back in the days when Ted Turner and his then-wife Jane Fonda were forces in the network, but long after Ted and Jane were gone, CNN keeps at it, finding new ways to heap scorn on America.

But CNN just can't help itself.

By contrast, tonight Fox is showing a documentary on fighting the Somali pirates.

Illustration credit: Jim Hubbell

Bill Hemmer is True To His School

2009-11-20T16:18:00.004-05:00

The Cincinnati Enquirer and USA Today both note that Bill Hemmer is a still a true-blue--make that true-purple--Cincy homeboy, who wears a purple tie on every game-day Friday.

Sell Comcast!

2009-11-17T11:21:00.008-05:00

Something weird is happening at Comcast--it'll be bad for Comcast shareholders, but good for Comcast shorters.

The cable giant seems poised to buy NBC-Universal, thus ending GE's long nightmare, but Comcast seems determined to recreate the nightmare at their shiny headquarters on Market Street in Philadelphia. How so? Comcast seems eager to recruit a crew of losers and castoffs to run the new content acquisition.

The biggest loser, as noted here at TCG yesterday, is Jeff (We're Number Four!) Zucker. It appears that he will still be heading up NBC-U when it becomes the new Comcast subsidiary.

And it also appears that Peter Chernin will play a major role, too; we see increasing signs of Comcast and Chernin snuggling up.

The Cable Gamer never had a terribly high impression of Chernin, through all the years that he was at the News Corporation. Yes, he got a great press, and during the time that he was negotiating on whether or not to stay at NWS, the papers were full of breathless insider-y reports, warning Rupert Murdoch what would happen if he let Precious Peter slip out the door. (No prize for figuring out where those reports came from.)

But was the loss of Chernin any great loss to Murdoch & Co.? Let's look at what's happened to NWS stock since Chernin's departure. (See graphic above, from Google Finance, showing the rise of NWS stock in recent months.) On his last day on the job, June 30, NWS stock was 11. Now it's almost 15. Obviously, other factors are involved, but just as obviously, NWS is doing fine without Chernin.

Still don't be surprised to see Chernin going to Comcast, in some senior capacity.

Also, don't be surprised if longtime Chernin lieutenant Gary Ginsberg ends up, too, at Comcast. He is the outgoing head of communications for News Corp.; he just announced that he is leaving NWS. Without plans, if you know what I mean, and I think you do.

TCG claims no insider information, and has no position in Comcast stock. So there's no reason for anyone not to heed my friendly and dispassionate advice to fellow Cable Gamers: If this deal goes through, with this bunch at the top, Sell Comcast!

Obama Is Getting Used to This

2009-11-17T10:39:00.000-05:00

"Obama Ends Idiotic War With Fox News, Will Do Interview"

2009-11-17T10:25:00.004-05:00

That's the headline atop The Business Insider's Joe Weisenthal's "feud" update this morning.

So much for Anita Dunn's influence, even if she is still hanging around the White House, sucking up a few last meals at the White House mess. She will soon enough be left to make speeches to the Moveon crowd. That should be lucrative, albeit irrelevant.

Jeff Zucker Is Still Working. Go Figure.

2009-11-16T18:59:00.003-05:00

Jeff Bercovici, always a Cable Game fave, asks some pointed questions. Mainly what does explain Jeff Zucker's grip on his job?

Anita Dunn's Next Move

2009-11-16T18:18:00.003-05:00

Outgoing White House communications chief Anita Dunn is continuing her attacks on Fox News, taking them to "The Daily Show."

Indeed, she has escalated those attacks, by assuring Jon Stewart that the White House was fully apprized of her actions: “I am not a person who is known for going rogue.” To which the White House must be thinking, "Thanks a lot, Anita. You just threw all of us under the bus." That is, Dunn wants the world to know that she was just following orders when she put the hit on Fox, or at least was part of a consensus within the West Wing. But now, Dunn is leaving, while her White House colleagues are left holding the bag for a disastrous media offensive that blew up in the Obamans' collective face.

It will be interesting to see what Dunn does next. I know that the spin is that she wants to spend more time with her family, but it looks more like she was invited to leave, a month ahead of the announced schedule. Don't be surprised if she goes on tour, taking her media-bashing act on the road.

Shepard Smith: Ten Years In The Spotlight

2009-11-16T13:28:00.008-05:00

Howard Kurtz published a fascinating update on Shep Smith this morning, taking note of Shep's 10 years in the anchorman post--a period during which his show has been mostly # in his timeslot.

Here's the good stuff:

Seated in his Sixth Avenue office with an erect posture that matches his caffeinated style, Smith says he was unaware that correspondent Shannon Bream had grabbed Christie on the fly. "I came off looking condescending," he says. "I handled it poorly." But the on-air rebuke underscored Smith's status as an outspoken newsman at the network defined by high-decibel conservatives, a stance that has earned him respect even from some Fox-hating liberals.

Kurtz, adds some deets about The FOX Report’s new sponsorship deal with Verizon: Verizon recently launched a multimillion-dollar arrangement to be the sole sponsor of TFR on the first Monday of each month, providing more minutes for news.

Heres more:

Michael Clemente, Fox's senior vice president, says Smith's greatest asset is his passion. "He sort of wakes up with the curiosity to find out what's going on and brings that energy home to the viewer," Clemente says. "He gets very excited about car chases. . . . He happens to be a nice-looking guy as well -- good pipes, he's got the whole tool kit."

Instead, he says he is proud to work for a cable channel that has stuck with the 7 p.m. "Fox Report," where Smith just celebrated his 10th anniversary as anchor. "Think of the ratings difference if they were to put opinion in" at that hour, he says. Not that Smith's ratings are anemic. He has drawn an impressive 1.87 million viewers this year, up 18 percent over 2008, while his chief rivals were losing audience share. Lou Dobbs, who abruptly quit CNN last week, had been drawing 759,000 viewers, while MSNBC's Chris Matthews is averaging 714,000 for a rerun of "Hardball." As for some of the more inflammatory rhetoric heard on Fox, Smith deflects a question about Beck calling Barack Obama a racist, saying he always uses the terms "President" and "Mr." At the same time, he credits his pugnaciously conservative colleagues for his own sizable budget. "Our newscast is better because our opinion programs are successful," he says.

PS: Shep has a nifty website, too--Fox seems to be overhauling its whole website.