Barry Diller Goes On CNBC And Praises...Fox Business News!

Barry Diller, entertainment industry legend, recently appeared on Michael Eisner's "scratchy" CNBC talk show. The Cable Gamer didn't catch it there, of course, but happily, a little bird called "bizfan123" did catch it and was nice enough to put it on YouTube.

Diller must have known what he was doing--going on CNBC's air, and praising FBN. One wonders, of course, what Eisner was thinking, or expecting from his guest--and whether or not Diller will ever be invited back. And one wonders further how CNBC management will react.

Here's the good stuff: When Eisner asked Diller to assess FBN, Diller recalled that more than a decade ago, when Rupert Murdoch had told him about his plans to start a "Fox News Channel," Diller had dismissed the idea. And of course, Diller said with a smile, Murdoch had been proven right and he, Diller, had been proven wrong.

So now, when asked about Fox Business News, Diller saw things differently. He told Eisner that he gave FBN high marks "Because Roger Ailes is such a genuine talent...you can't discount what he'll be able to create."

For purposes of comparison, Eisner asked Diller what he would think about a business channel started up, by say, Time-Warner. And a look of horror came over Diller's face. "Oh no," he gasped.

The Last To Know?

NBC Universal's Jeff Zucker tells Crain's NY Business that NBCU is not for sale. Got that? Jeff is positive. So never mind the steady Wall Street buzz, about the de-conglomeratization of General Electric, just read Jeff's lips: No sale by GE of NBC--nosiree.

Of course, Zucker would be the last to know. That's always the case these days with CEO's on their way out. In all the big corporate defenestrations of recent years--Carly Fiorina of H-P, Hank Greenberg of AIG, Harry Stonecipher of Boeing, and, just today, Stan O'Neal of Merrill Lynch--the CEO was the last to know. That is, the board met, away from the CEO, made a decision, and then delivered the news.

Why? Because the CEO is always happy with the status quo--him or her being in charge, what's not to like? And since, typically, the CEO has a seat on the board, the firing majority needs to keep it a secret.

But note the weasel words that Zucker used, according to Crain's :

Speaking at a breakfast organized by Syracuse University's Newhouse School, Mr. Zucker said it made little sense for GE to sell NBC in coming months because of a variety of advertising opportunities that would become available.

Note the key phrase above: "it made little sense for GE to sell NBC in coming months." Well, heck, Jeff, talk about beating down a straw man!

Nobody is saying that GE is going to sell NBC tomorrow; they are saying, in fact, that GE would unload NBC after the Beijing Olympics, scheduled for August 8-24, 2008. And let's say that nothing would happen before the November '08 presidential election, either.

So The Cable Gamer predicts that Jeff has about a year to find something new to do--because that's when the other Jeff, Jeff Immelt, starts looking for a buyer.

Hint: Think a private equity player. They're all rich, but don't have the visibility to match their wealth. Buying a network using someone else's money? Now that's a plan!

"Sexist banter on CNBC" Where's The Outrage? Where's Anita Hill? Where's Media Matters?

That's the blunt headline atop Marisa Guthrie's tough-minded and well-researched story on CNBC's Dylan Ratigan in today's Broadcasting & Cable.

Or should it be Dylan RAT-igan? Guthrie (pictured above) reports, you decide:

On Friday morning’s edition of The Call, CNBC correspondent Melissa Francis, who was reporting on frenzied gasoline trading from NYMEX, asked Ratigan: “Is it as crazy on your exchange as it is here?”

Ratigan’s comeback: “I think if I was blond and beautiful I could draw a big crowd.”

Francis, visibly irked, responded: “That’s not what it is all about.”

As Guthrie observes, such pig-talk is part of a pattern at CNBC. Speaking of Ratigan, she writes, "He's been doing his best lately to alienate female viewers." She continues, "Sadly, such comments are hardly atypical from Ratigan and his band of merry he-men." Here's another one:

Thursday on Fast Money – CNBC’s signature market broadcast which was recently shifted to the high-profile 5 p.m. time slot to coincide with the close of the markets – Ratigan and Fast Money contributors Jeff Macke and Karen Finerman were discussing the upcoming auction season and Finerman’s adoration of investor Carl Icahn.

Finerman apparently bought a painting of Icahn at auction, paying several hundred thousand dollars for it. (Finerman can afford it. She runs a multimillion dollar hedge fund). Icahn joined the conversation via phone – and that’s when Macke took the discussion down several notches by suggesting that Finerman would have paid considerably more for a naked portrait of Icahn.

“She would have gone $2 million for a nude, Carl,” said Macke.

To which Icahn responded: “I would have bid that for (Finerman).”

After more back and forth about Finerman’s crush, Ratigan closed by thanking Icahn for “playing with us.”

But it's CNBC, and the liberals are rallying around CNBC--when they can. But we might wonder: What if these exact same words had been uttered on the Fox Business Channel? In that case, you can bet that Media Matters and all the other liberal pressure groups would have been all over this story.

But it wasn't Fox, it was CNBC, and so only a few gutsy reporters, such as Guthrie, are chasing after the story.

Fox's "Facing Reality: Choice": Fair & Balanced--But Don't Take My Word For It!

The Cable Gamer is kicking herself for missing "Facing Reality: Choice" on the Fox News Channel last night. It was, by all accounts, a fair-and-balanced look at arguably THE most controversial topic there is: abortion.

But don't take my word for it. The review The New York Daily News' David Bianculli is here. In that piece, Bianculli emphasized, "This one-hour documentary...doesn't pass judgment, and even gives the last word to one of the women, whose closing comment - about whether or not she would recommend abortion for others - is, just like the Fox News slogan, 'fair and balanced.'"

Another admiring review came from Conde Nast Portfolio's Jeff Bercovici , found here, in which he called the Fox special "thoughtful, understated."

And finally, here's Newsday's Verne Gay's take, equally positive: "Fox has, in fact, proven that it can undertake a subject of this emotional magnitude and handle in a manner that's both intelligent and sensitive."

I am sure that this special will be re-run again on Fox, and I will absolutely positively set my TiVo for it when it does run again--and I will let other Cable Gamers know, too. In the meantime, be on the lookout for YouTube!

If there's any justice, this special will be up for an award--producer Rachel Feldman deserves much of the credit for shepherding this project--but of course, what remains of the MSM seems determined to snub Fox.

Which makes The Cable Gamer think: One fine day, there will be a whole parallel system of awards and honors for fine shows that the MSM chooses to ignore.

Columbia Journalism Review -- Stupid? Arrogant? Or Just Lazy? I Report, You Decide

As first noted here at TCG on Thursday, The Columbia Journalism Review sets itself as the watchdog for the media. And yet CJR can't even watch over its own spelling. CJR pounds away at Fox News' Steve Doocy, but it does so in a singularly incompetent way. It misspells his name as "Doocey," and then repeats the error six times in the piece. And that piece was posted two days ago!

Yup, it was on Thursday morning that the erroneous article appeared. And now, two days later, as of Saturday morning, neither Liz Cox Barrett, nor her editors, have bothered to fix the error. Imagine, two full days after the pot called the kettle black, the pot is still black, and not only that, but the pot is fully oblivious to its own blackness, either through complacency, or arrogance or both.

It wasn't supposed to be this way: Here's CJR's ambitious"mission statement":

Columbia Journalism Review’s mission is to encourage and stimulate excellence in journalism in the service of a free society. It is both a watchdog and a friend of the press in all its forms, from newspapers to magazines to radio, television, and the Web. Founded in 1961 under the auspices of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, CJR examines day-to-day press performance as well as the forces that affect that performance. The magazine is published six times a year, and offers a deliberative mix of reporting, analysis, criticism, and commentary. CJR.org, our Web site, delivers real-time criticism and reporting, giving CJR a vital presence in the ongoing conversation about the media. Both online and in print, Columbia Journalism Review is in conversation with a community of people who share a commitment to high journalistic standards in the U.S. and the world.

Reading those high-minded words, The Cable Gamer might be induced to think that CJR was a cut above those relentlessly partisan (and Fox-bashing) outlets such as Media Matters. Yes, of course, TCG knew that CJR often used the guise of "media criticism" to blast conservative positions--especially the Iraq war, see the cover above, for example--but hey, that goes with the territory; this is the Ivy League after all, and Columbia U. was the school that invited Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to dispense his incendiary wisdom on campus.

But in addition to being liberal and partisan, CJR has also proven itself to be just as careless and incompetent in their writing craft.

Or maybe they're just lazy.

I report, you decide.

PS: TCG assumes, eventually, that CJR will correct this error. But just to help immortalize that error, TCG just did a Google search, using the search terms "steve doocey liz cox barrett." And of course, Google came back and asked "Did you mean: steve doocy liz cox barrett?" And I said "no thanks," of course, because I want "Doocy" spelled the way CJR spells Doocy. And of course, the first article that came up with the wrong-spelled search was Barrett's piece in CJR.

So if there's any justice on the Net, the CJR blunder--unfixed for two days and counting--will be cached forever inside Google, there to remind everyone that the mighty CJR has feet of clay--and quality control that's no better.

UPDATE: As of Sunday morning, the six errors are still not fixed! Mabye CJR is proud of itself for being stupid when it comes to Fox.

CNN "Pushes" A Story--And Its "Turner-ian" Agenda.

Matt Drudge, of course, is the true king of the New Media--always and forever. And so The Drudge Report is required clicking for Cable Gamers: A case in point is this leaked memo, from CNN prexy Jon Klein.

Here's the way Drudge summed it up:

According to notes from CNN's Monday news meeting network president Jon Klein tells employees to use the California fire tragedy to "push" their "Planet in Peril" special, but warns reporters not to "irresponsibly link" the fires to "Global Warming."

In other words, they are supposed to "push" the story, but not "irresponsibly." Does that mean that they have been acting irresponsibly heretofore? Just asking.

And in any case, where does CNN get off linking a fire story to an environmentally themed special, "Planet in Peril"? I thought that Ted Turner had retired. But evidently, his Fonda-fied radical-chic spirit still lingers, in Atlanta and of course NYC.

I mean, does CNN really believe that brush- and forest fires are something new? Do they expect us to believe that? CNN might wish to blame fire on the automobile and the oil companies, but it seems to me that fire goes back quite a long ways, way before humans.

So who is CNN going to blame--God? Uh oh, shouldn't give Turner & Co. ideas.

(And I guess it would be silly for The Cable Gamer to expect, say, the vaunted Columbia Journalism Review to take note of such an obvious journalistic infraction.)

UPDATE: As of 11 a.m. ET on Friday--more than 24 hours after the initial post-- CJR still hadn't bothered to correct its error.

Don't Close Your Eyes--To Red Eye!

This coming Saturday, 10/27, at 11 pm ET, FNC is featuring a special edition of "Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld."

Gutfeld has four guests: Julie Banderas, host of FNC's "The Big Story Weekend," Shandi Ren Finnessey, a beauty queen, and comedian Sherrod Small.

And oh yes: Tobin Bell. Tobin who? I didn't recognize the name, either, till I saw that he's "Jigsaw" in the ongoing series of "Saw" movies. In other words... Him! The bad guy that I have seen in
many slasher/serial killer films.

Since I feel like I already kinda know Tobin from so many movies and TV shows, I feel I should meet him--but just to be on the safe side, I am glad that he will be on the other side of the TV screen.

And as for the cast and crew on set in NYC--watch out!

That's him on the right, above, in "Saw III," with sidekick Amanda, played by Shawnee Smith. They should get her on, too!

Columbia Journalism Review Needs A Review! Maybe It Needs Better Spellers, Maybe It Needs More Editors, For Sure It Needs Less Arrogance!

Can anyone spell at the Columbia Journalism School? Can anyone fact check? Apparently not. More to the point, they do't seem to care. I guess that's how arrogant they are up in Manhattan--not that I would ever detect such arrogance in the MSM, which relies so heavily on Columbia's J School.

The Columbia Journalism Review, the allegedly distinguished media chronicler published by Columbia University, runs a regular feature called "Darts and Laurels." You know, "darts" for the bad guys, "laurels" for the good guys.

So I wonder if CJR will give itself a dart for this embarrassingly erroneous story, in which Liz Cox Barrett, identified as a writer for the magazine, couldn't manage to correctly spell the name of the person she was repeatedly lambasting, for alleged bad journalism--in this case, Fox News anchor Steve Doocy. You see, it's Doocy, not "Doocey," as Ms. Barrett miswrote six times in the piece.

More screamingly, as Cable Gamers can see from squinting at the screen-grab, featured above, CJR posted the story at 9:58 a.m. ET on Thursday, and as of the time of this posting, about 9 p.m. ET, nobody had caught the error, and nobody had bothered to change it. Again, if you squint, you can see "Doocey," as of Thursday evening. Although, of course, for all The Cable Gamer knows, CJR will leave it like that forever.

Maybe they're lazy at CJR, maybe they're careless, maybe their stupid. Most likely, they are just so arrogant that it's sort of beneath them to check their facts, especially concerning Fox News. After all, THEY know the truth, up there at CJR, and they are willing to share it with the hoi polloi, just so long as the masses don't ask too many questions.

Well, Ms. Barrett & CJR, the blogosophere is asking questions.

Including this one:

How can we trust you if you can't get basic facts right?

UPDATE: As of 11 a.m. ET on Friday--more than 24 hours after the initial post-- CJR still hadn't bothered to correct its error.

John Gibson Rips Olbermann, OK. But Gibbie Gobbles Gabler, Too! Man Bites Fox!!

It's not overly surprising when Fox News' John Gibson rips into MSNBC's Keith Olbermann. That's standard inter-network Cable Gaming.

But listen to what Gibson has to say says about FNC "News Watch" panelist Neal Gabler. Calls him all sorts of names, starting with "low life."

Now Gabler is about as left-wing--and, many would say, obnoxious--a figure as there is in The Cable Game. Yet there he is, every weekend, popping off on Fox.

Yes, Fox is heavy with O'Reilly and Hannity, but the channel makes room for Gabler, too--and then, of course, for Gibson to blast Gabler. Gibson routinely invites Gabler on the show; I hope that Gabler takes him up on it.

Say what you wish about Fox--they really do mean it when they say, "fair and balanced."

And it's interesting, as Gibson observes, that Media Matters never takes note of what Gabler says, in all its endless/tendentious fine-toothing of every word that is said on Fox. MM is listening, and recording, but not writing up.

Why not? Here's why. Because a left-winger blasting the right--and, frequently, Fox News itself--doesn't fit MM's preconceived ideo-partisan template, which holds that FNC is in the tank for the Bush admininistration and the neocons.

Thanks, of course, to Johnny Dollar for catching this audio item!

Cable Game Ad Wars -- CNBC vs. FBN

Variety's Michael Learmonth always gets the
good stuff--although, of course, he and all cable-beat reporters have a "target-rich environment" in which to do their work. In its blooming and buzzing abundance, The Cable Game is the game that keeps on giving! That's what keeps me in The Game.

A case in point is this go-round of advertisements. First, CNBC runs ads saying, "First in Business." Whereupon Fox Business News sallied back with ads saying, "First in Business. Soon."

Point. Counterpoint.

This Cable Game is fun!

Maria de la Soledad Teresa O'Brien

The Cable Gamer has newfound admiration for Soledad O'Brien after reading this article, by Joanne Fox, in The Sioux City Journal.

She spoke at a dinner to benefit Catholic schools in Iowa. That alone is enough to bring TCG around, but here's some interesting
Here's some good stuff from the piece:

"My first job interview was in Massachusetts and the manager told me I didn't look 'black' enough," she said. "I called my mother and cried and she told me, 'Lovey, get over it.'

"At another job interview they felt 'Soledad' was too difficult a name and would I consider changing it," O'Brien continued. "I told them my full name was Maria de la Soledad Teresa O'Brien, which means The Blessed Virgin Mary of Solitude, and I wasn't changing it. I called my mother crying again, and she again told me to get over it."

TCG always thought that Soledad got a bad deal from CNN when she was pushed off "American Morning" for that tramp, Kiran Chetry. Now she feels that way all the more so.

Hooray for MSNBC and Fox! Boo, CNN!!

Newsbuster's Matthew Balan did a great job of monitoring the news, and an even greater job of reminding us that our freedom--including freedom of the press--is not free. But let him tell the tale:

CNN decided to not to break away from its almost non-stop coverage of the California wildfires as President Bush formally awarded a Navy SEAL killed in Afghanistan the Medal of Honor, as its competitors Fox News and MSNBC aired the ceremony at the White House live.

The Medal of Honor went to Lt. Michael Murphy of Patchogue, New York, who died in the line of duty in 2005 during operations against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Murphy received the first Medal of Honor awarded from Operation Enduring Freedom...

The ceremony started at 2:23 pm Eastern, and both of CNN’s rivals carried President Bush’s remarks, as well as the presentation of the medal to the deceased SEAL’s parents. It wasn’t until 2:43 pm Eastern, eight minutes after its rival networks concluded its live coverage of the award ceremony, that CNN aired a 3-minute long segment featuring some of President Bush’s remarks and a story by CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr on the 2005 battle in which Lt. Murphy was killed.

I guess CNN was too sick with worry about trees getting burned up, and maybe some extra CO2 going into the atmospher, to be concerned about a "mere" American hero.

But The Cable Gamer urges all of us to take a moment of silence, to honor the glorious memory of Michael Murphy.

And then, after a respectful interval, a raspberry to CNN!

Action Item: Get CNBC A Dictionary! Or Maybe A Lawyer!!

The Cable Gamer is not a big fan of Fortune magazine, because it tends to be sort of dull. But some of the blogs on its website are are oftentimes interesting. The best of them make no pretense of being fair and balanced--but they aren't dull!

A case in point is "The Browser," which declares, as its mission, "analyzing the tech biz." But the authors, who seem to prefer to anonymous--and that's fine with TCG!--are pretty handy with a stiletto, as well as a dictionary:

CNBC has been running ads touting its coverage as “unbiased.” Leaving aside whether you find that claim plausible - or even interesting - the actual full slogan is that CNBC provides “fast, accurate, actionable and unbiased business news”.

Perhaps we are on the crest of a new semantic wave, but does CNBC - a division of General Electric (GE) - really want to refer to its coverage as “actionable”? Every dictionary I have consulted uses as the primary definition for “actionable” some variation of “providing grounds for a lawsuit.” In fact, I can find only one dictionary that even includes a definition akin to the one I assume CNBC intends, i.e., leading to an action, or capable of being acted upon.

I suppose this is nitpicking, but as an editor it is my job to spot and (I hope!) weed out unintended ambiguities. And I’m hardly alone in insisting that, really, the legal meaning is the only meaning of the word actionable, and all other uses are unfortunate corporate malapropisms.

The picture above is an actual screen grab from the website, showing the dopily chosen words.

Interestingly, Fortune shares with its fellow Time-Warner company, CNN. As an aside, one wonders whether this particular posting is really from CNN.

If only CNN were so juicy on the air!

"CNBC Audience Slips"

Multichannel News' Mike Reynolds has the details, which aren't all bad for CNBC.

Mike reports, also, on something that TCG had been wondering about: Fox Business News won't be Nielsen-ed till next year.

"Rupert Murdoch sketches financial media assault"

That's the headline atop the story from Reuters' Kenneth Li, reporting the latest from the shareholders' meeting of The News Corporation. And here's the good stuff:

Rupert Murdoch sketched out his plans for the Fox Business Network on Friday, saying he will spend years nurturing the new channel to win over more than half of the business news audience.

The News Corp chairman and chief executive confirmed media reports that his media conglomerate intended to invest $150 million to $200 million over three years in FBN, including about $70 million in fiscal 2008.

Aiming to repeat the success of the Fox News Channel, which unseated CNN as the top cable news network four years after its launch, FBN is part of Murdoch's ambitions to build a global financial media powerhouse in print, the Internet and TV.

"I view FBN's growth in terms of years, not months," he told reporters following News Corp's annual shareholders meeting.

This is all cool, but when The Cable Gamer sees articles such as this, from The Hollywood Reporter, showing that Google is now triple the market cap of the News Corp., she wonders what the future landscape of the media landscape is going to be--and who will be assaulting whom.

Liz Claman to Fox Business News

Here's a writeup from The Hollywood Reporter.

In the meantime, the Cable Gamer is jealous of... Liz's sweaters.

Neal Gabler Comes On Strong--Deadly Strong

Media writer Neal Gabler has his own strong opinions on many topics, but those opinions don't come any stronger than they did on Saturday's "Fox News Watch," when Gabler kinda sorta wished for the deathin Iraq of Bill Kristol.

It's interesting that Fox has such a strong liberal voice--strong to the point of tastelessness--on its air. I guess that's to Fox's credit.

Thanks to Pundital for posting this on YouTube.

Gothamist Visits Fox & Friends

Gothamist is one of those cool websites that doesn't get enough attention in this crowded media market. But it always keeps up with entertainment, and it's always entertaining. A case in point is Toby von Meistersinger's item on Fox News Channel's "Fox & Friends."

What Toby wrote was interesting and knowing enough to be repeated in some detail, below:

We recently visited Fox News Channel’s morning show Fox & Friends. Unlike most of the other morning shows it is a freewheeling kind of crazy romp that definitely has “Fox attitude”.

We don’t know if that “Fox attitude” is what gives a different on-set vibe compared to other news sets, but it did seem like less of a precision military operation than their competition at the Today Show. It could be that the show is unscripted, so the anchors are thinking on their feet making the show seem more organic than other shows (which are almost all tightly scripted).

Another differentiating characteristic is its interactive component: Viewers e-mail, call in and become a part of the show, and the people outside the studio are “bit players,” too. They average about 1000 e-mails per day and the anchors log on during the breaks to get instant feedback on what they've done.

Watching this sausage get made was not as dull as being on other sets, and both cast and crew seem to be having genuine fun getting the show on air. The anchors are also just as fun and crazy when the cameras are not rolling, which might be why they have been the #1 cable news morning show for over five years and in some places even beat out the CBS Early Show.

The show and network has some critics (like Media Matters) and provides fodder for comedians (like Stephen Colbert). But how do those being criticized and made fun of like it? The show’s news anchor, Alisyn Camerota says, “We’re helping them out.” Anchor Steve Doocy told us, “I love it. It is free publicity for us because it is to a whole new audience that doesn’t watch news a lot. They get their news from the phony news channels.”

Obviously the "F&F" hosts have figured out how to deal with their critics, including Media Matters, those professional nitpickers.

The picture, above, is one of many from Gothamist--the site has a pretty slick "slide show" feature. But his pic shows how casual and loose the show is--and that comes across, even to those of us not lucky enough to hang around on set!

NBC: 99.2% Democratic? The Huffington Post (Which Ought To Know!) Reports, You Decide. Although It's Hard To Argue With Data!

According to The Huffington Post, not exactly a hotbed of conservatism, NBC employees (and NBC sub-units, including CNBC and Telemundo), gave $31,251 to presidential candidates in what Huffpo calls "Fundrace 2008." Of that campaign cash, $31,000 went to Democratic presidential hopefuls, and $251 went to Republicans.

That's 99.2 percent for the Dems.

Is it possible that such a 100:1 skew in political donations will signify bias NBC's political coverage, this year and next?

Aside, of course, from the enormous--and unquantifiable--in-kind political contributions made to the Dems by Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, David Shuster, Dan Abrams, and the rest of the gang at "MSDNC."

Rupert Murdoch: The Power Behind Fox Business News/In The Converged Future, The New York Times, As Well As CNBC, Needs To Be Afraid, Very Afraid

The Cable Gamer thinks that Fox Business News is pretty cool, but TCG also thinks that we ain't seen nothin' yet--and neither haveThe New York Times or CNBC!

That is, Rupert Murdoch is going to dramatically modernize and upgrade The Wall Street Journal--which Murdoch's News Corporation purchased earlier this year--making it more of a threat to the NYT. And then some day relatively soon, FBN is going to crack open even more latent value in the WSJ. And when that FBN + WSJ synergy comes, look out!

Specifically, look out, NYT and CNBC! The WSJ, turbocharged by FBN--and the likes of super-newsmen/showmen Murdoch and Roger Ailes--will blow the Times away in newspapering, and CNBC in television-ing (or whatever news-delivery is called five or ten years hence). That's TCG's prediction, based on watching these various media properties over the past 10 years or so. I mean, look at how little value CNBC got out of its existing relationship with the Journal. Even now, it was Fox News, not CNBC, that had the brains to turn the legendary Journal editoral page into a TV show, the "Journal Editorial Report."

So now the Times' sun is setting; the era in which it could set much of the national agenda--in a liberal-left direction, of course--is coming to an end.

And I am not the only one who sees it this way: Here's a hot headline in the latest The New York Observer: "Murdoch To Times: I Will Bury You! Keller Bristles." Now perhaps ace NYO reporter Michael Calderone doesn't quite like that header, since it's so inflammatory, but it's certainly accurate.

("Keller," btw, refers to Bill Keller, the managing editor of the Times, who reports to the Times' heir-CEO, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., a Certified Upper Class Twit--nobody cares what "Pinch" Sulzberger thinks, except to make fun of him.)

Calderone speculates on what Murdoch and the WSJ--and down the road, WSJ/FBN might do to the NYT, which makes the Observer-man's piece compelling read, as we all look ahead to the Converged Future, when all media are found on one screen.

And as a helpful data point, or data points, we might consider this chart above, showing that Murdoch's News Corp. stock (the red line) is up more than 125 percent in the last five years, while NYT stock (the blue line) is down more than 58 percent in the same period.

Pretty cool, huh? It's from Google Finance, and if TCG can figure out how to do it, anyone can!

So the Times is toast. But TCG can't help but think: If Google ever decided to get into the Cable Game--that would be something.

Joe Scarborough, Your Cup O' Joe Is Emptying

Inside Cable News has the hard Nielsen numbers on the decline of the post-Don Imus show on MSNBC.

"Fox Business Network blazes new trail" -- CNBC and Wall Street vs. FBN and Main Street

That was the headline across USA Today, which, of course, knows something about blazing new journalistic trails.

Speaking of trailblazers, here's another one speaking: "CNBC is a financial channel for Wall Street. We're for Main Street." And that was Rupert Murdoch, last month, talking about the difference between CNBC and Fox Business News.

USA Today's David Lieberman provides a fascinating take on FBN, thanks to Neil Cavuto and also a blast from Cable Games past, Myron Kandel.

Cavuto, the anchor-in-chief for FBN, added a future-oriented tidbit, suggesting that FBN's investigative reporting would be oriented toward investigating the government:

"We will focus a lot more on policy and policymaking and following people's tax dollars and how they're spent. These are going to be superseding issues for this network."

Now that's something that you never saw from CNBC--although, of course, given CNBC's imitative track record, Cable Gamers shouldn't be surprised to see CNBC go scurrying off with some whistle-blowing investigation, however half-hearted it might be.

Also Lieberman snagged some insight from a venerable TV figure: Myron Kandel, CNN's founding financial editor, who told the paper:

"There's definitely an audience out there for business news that's relevant to the desire of individual Americans to be informed about investments, interest rates, employment trends, retirement issues, college and home costs."

That sounds like good advice to me. Now we'll have to see who gets their firstest with the mostest--and whether, over at CNBC, Erin Burnett will once again beat out Maria Bartiromo.

Jossip Resorts to Reruns--This Is Not Hot!

The Cable Gamer likes gossip as much as the next girl. Gossip is good--but Jossip? I'm not so sure about that site any more. Not when Jossip runs an 11-day-old left-over, using such sloppy seconds, as an excuse to bitchslap Fox Business News. For doing that, Jossip itself deserves a spanking. At least.

It's perfectly fair to criticize Fox Business News. For example, Rachel Sklar, the fun-loving brunette who posts for The Huffington Post, offered a piece on Monday headlined,“Launched! Fox Biz Network Goes Live (With Bloopers).” That's fine: If Rachel catches a blooper, she is free to run with it. If, for example, Jenna Lee (another brunette, yay!)gets something wrong, as Jenna did when she said that Starbucks gives away free WiFi--it doesn't--that's fair game for fact-checking bloggers, such as, in this case, Rachel. Indeed, such flyspecking is actually healthy, in the sense of providing a good feedback loop for on-air talent and for keeping everyone on his or her toes. (TCG appreciates such constructive criticism, too, btw-it's good for all of us!)

But here's the point: Rachel was doing her homework! She was watching FBN--that's how she caught the error about Starbucks.

But apparently, Jossip can't be bothered! Instead, Jossip just ran a nasty item, which passed off an 11-day old item from The Deal.com as if it were something fresh. Now, Cable Gamers, let us reason together: With FBN on the air, there to be watched and critiqued, why would Jossip hang its sparsely worded, unwittily bitchy hat on a peg that's nearly two weeks old? Mostly dismissing an amusing piece in Tuesday's The New York Times by Allesandra Stanley, which referred to FBN as "perky," a place where "the fun never stops." By contrast, The Deal piece was nasty, and yet it was the Deal that Jossip relied on for its own posting. And yet I am sure that even TheDeal doesn't think that an attempted preview of FBN dated October 5 has much validity after FBN has been on the air for the better part of two whole days.

Oh, of course, Jossip made another mention of FBN, citing the same Stanley piece in the NYT; this equally brief and unfunny Jossip item dwelt on the supposedly "gravity-defying bosoms" of Fox anchors. It's worth pointing out that Stanley made no reference, whatsoever to "gravity-defying bosoms," the quote is entirely the making of some Jossipist.

So what's going on here? What is it with such sloppy and lazily fact-free gossip? Why would Jossipprefer to get its tone from a stale piece in an obscure publication such as TheDeal, as opposed to a fresh piece in The New York Times? The Times, is still, after all, despite its many flaws, the numero uno media outlet in the country.

For perspective on this perverse choice by Jossip, Cable Gamers must turn their attention away, briefly, from cable news. We must look over into the realm of new media in New York City. And our guide will be Vanessa Grigoriadis. Specifically, she has written a knowingly brilliant article in the new issue of New York magazine, entitled, "Everybody Sucks: Gawker and the rage of the creative underclass." The headline tells the tale, although the entire 6000-word piece deserves close consideration. Grigoriadis looks piercingly into the hyper-competitive, hyper-nasty world of blogs and bloggers, in which underpaid and overworked 20-somethings compete with each other to be nastier and edger. And so everyone is "annoying," or "slutty," or a "douchebag."

What a rotten, wicked bunch these bloggers are--at least for as long as they are doing what they are doing. Maybe they will clean up their act and shift away from the dark side, but so long as they work for the likes of Gawker's owner, Nick Denton, Grigoriadis is saying, they will be dwelling in websites of slime and sliminess.

And that's Gawker.

Jossip, of course, is a notch even below Gawker, in terms of reputation and revenue.

Which explains everything about this stupid post, whose malicious intent is exceeded only by its maladroit journalism.

Update: Jossip has a new item, on Joe Scarborough's reaction to FBN, here.

Cavuto: "We don't accept it as a given that business news is inherently boring"

The Los Angeles Times' Matea Gold offers yet another take on FBN,
here. As Neal Cavuto says, business news doesn't have to be boring. (He is pictured above, with co-anchor Alexis Glick.)

After allowing that some might not like Fox's breezily populist style, Neal adds, in his uniquely humble-yet-authoritative manner: "But the greater audience that wants to get the bigger picture, I hope they'll come to Fox."

Indeed.

Reuters on Fox Business News

Reuters offers a pretty good little video news service, featuring, among others the lovely and lively Bobbi Rebell. Here, she gets some good stuff out of FBN's Neal Cavuto.

Whenever I listen to Neal, I usually find myself nodding in agreement. As in, I think, "I knew that." But of course, it was Neal saying it first that got me thinking it! And so, for example, in the course of telling Bobbi that FBN would be "jargon free," he gives a terrific f'rinstance. Is the mortgage market in "meltdown," as we keep hearing? Well, no, Neal sez, 96 percent of mortgages are being paid on time. That's news, that 4 percent are delinquent, but that no meltdown.

And that's the sort of calm insight that we expect from Neal, and now from FBN. And hurray for Rebell and Reuters, for simply letting Neal speak!

Daily News to America: "FBN hit the ground running yesterday"

The New York Daily News' TV pundit, David Hinckley, weighs in on FBN, the the review is pretty good! Here's a taste:

FBN hit the ground running yesterday. Its production was polished, despite a few small glitches like flashing a Coke/Pepsi graphic at the wrong moment, and it conveyed a clear sense of what it intends to be.

Specifically, it's aiming for as breezy and upbeat a presentation as its upbeat airstaff can wring out of news that necessarily involves a lot of charts and numbers.

The kickoff shows ' "Fox Business Morning," 5-6 a.m, cohosted by Lee and Nicole Petallides, then "Money for Breakfast," cohosted by Peter Barnes and Alexis Glick ' kept their segments short, breaking up international market reports with sports news, weather and even a scattering of celebrity chat and references.