And now Fox is Targeting the USA Network...

...as Anthony Crupi reports in Media Week, Fox, now #2 among all cable networks, has only one rival left ahead of it--the mostly cheesy all-non-news USA Network, owned, of course, by NBC-U.

The Cable Gamer wonders if Jeff Zucker will dare get into the ring with Roger Ailes.

...and Fox Beats MSNBC...

...As Politico's Michael Calderone also notes,Fox beats MSNBC and CNN in the ratings combined--in the demo.

Fox Beats CNN...

As Politico's Michael Calderone notes, Fox beats CNN...

Presenting More of The Un-Watchedmen: The Tingler

Who can forget Chris Matthews' most famous phrase from the 2008 campaign?

"GENBC Talks Its Book." Oops, Make that "MSCAP Talks Its Book." Oops, Make That "MSNBC Talks Its Book."

"Talking your book" is a phrase used to describe investors who constantly tout the stocks--sometimes called a "book," as in portfolio book--they are holding. It's perfectly legal, of course, to buy a stock and then brag about how great the company is, in hopes of seeing the stock price rise--unless, of course, there's some sort of deception involved.

But of course, one obvious problem with talking your book is that it tends to be predictable, relentless, un-nuanced, and thus, well, boring. You know, like Soviet TV in the bad old days. It's obvious, it's upfront, but it's not interesting. (And, come to think of it, it might not be entirely honest.)

Nobody can accuse MSNBC of hiding its relationship with General Electric, because GE, of course, owns MSNBC. But still, its interesting to see MSNBC launching a big series on environmental themes, while at the same time, GE is a member of the US Climate Action Partnership, a mostly corporate group that lobbies for pro-corporate environmental law changes, such as "cap and trade." Cap-and-trade, of course, would be a bonanza for Wall Street. And other law changes, such as requiring that a certain percentage of energy be generated by windmills, is obviously good for windmill makers, including GE. Hence the confusion: Who is MSNBC working for? The viewers? Or for GE? Or for GE + USCAP? Or is the ultimate employer now Uncle Sam? That seems the most likely now--Uncle Sam is the Big Boss.

There's a lesson here, about the nature of corporations, that most liberals, and most conservatives, don't understand. And that is, corporations aren't inherently right, or left--they are inherently corporate. They are no better or worse than the people who run them, although the corporate structure does allow for a largeness and a permanence that some people love and others loathe.

In any case, GE, thoroughly controlled now, by the federal government, stands to gain from active environmental regulation in two ways. First, as noted, GE is in the windmill business, and lots of other energy-related businesses, as well. And second, because of the government's bailout for GE Capital, GE has to do something for the government in return. And a little enviro-apple polishing--Jeff Immelt as a leading "teacher's pet" for Principal Obama--can't hurt.

The only problem, of course, is that the actual product of such calculation can be boring. And so we come to "Future Earth: Journey to the End of the World," the first part of which ran on MSNBC last night--warning, three more parts to go!

Here's Tom Shales, a liberal, albeit a smart and witty one, writing for The Washington Post, describing the show as "boring." Once again, that's what you get when non-creative, non-audience-minded objectives drive programming. MSNBC was under orders to put on a show that satisfied a) the corporate-suit liberals (or corporate-suit conservatives masquerading as liberals), and b) the political liberals in Washington.

One variable that might have perked up the show--works to perk up any show, in fact--is a sense of argument and debate. You know, drama, tension, resolution. All that. And so, for example, if MSNBC had featured Benny Peiser, a leading global-warming debunker. I am not saying that Peiser is right, but I am saying that a discussion/debate with Peiser would be interesting.

Instead, we just got dreary propaganda from MSNBC, which even WaPo liberals disdain. But hey, from their point of view, it pays the bills!

One of the Un-Watchedmen: Dr. Olbermann

Yes, it's a sad life for Dr. Olbermann. He started doing sports, but was always more a lefty than a sportsy. And so when baseball and football seemed insufficiently progressive, he turned to politics. And when Hillary Clinton proved insufficiently progressive, he turned to Barack Obama. And now, of course, President Obama is insufficiently progressive.

But Dr. Olbermann is stuck--trapped in the Bias of the Network, deep underneath NBC-Universal headquarters in Rockefeller Center in Manahttan. He and all his fellow wage-slaves in the NBC empire are under direct orders from Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric, to toe the pro-Obama line, as GE protects its bailout position, striving to stay on the federal government's good side as more bailout billions are needed.

So Dr. Olbermann must do his job, lonelier and lonelier, more and more cut off from ordinary media contact. You can see the pain in his eyes. (Fortunately, he is well paid, not covered by those salary caps, and that takes away some of the pain. Of course, it doesn't seem that anybody is covered by those caps.)

Coming Soon: The "Un-Watchedmen," Starring MSNBC!

The Un-Watchedmen: They came for the ratings, and when that didn't work out, they stayed for the bailout.

Ailes and Beck at The Alamo

Thinking about the Tea Parties last week, including the one hosted by Glenn Beckin San Antonio, The Cable Gamer was reminded of a March 6 LA Times article reporting on Beck's phenomenal rise of at Fox, to the point where he is vying with Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity for ratings dominance.

Last month, the LAT's Matea Gold--a great Cable Gamer, by the way--provided some background,reporting that before he signed on with Fox, Glenn "sat down with Roger Ailes, the network's chief executive, to make sure they were on the same page."

As Beck remembers it, "I wanted to meet with Roger and tell him, 'You may not want to put me on the air. I believe we are in dire trouble, and I will never shut up.'"

OK, that makes sense. Beck is, after all, an outspoken figure. And yet here's where it gets really interesting, because Ailes beat him to the punch.

But before Beck could say anything, Ailes shared a message of his own: The country faced tough times, he said, and Fox News was one of the only news outlets willing to challenge the new administration.

"I see this as the Alamo," Ailes said, according to Beck. "If I just had somebody who was willing to sit on the other side of the camera until the last shot is fired, we'd be fine."

The Alamo! Now there's an image! No wonder Beck turned up in San Antonio! The Cable Gamer knows that Ailes is from Ohio, but he obviously has the blood of a Texan. And so, with apologies to the great Texas painter Robert Onderdonk, I present this updating of the Alamo, starring, Roger, Glenn, and, just for fun, Alan Colmes and Judge Napolitano.

Yes, I know that Alan is a liberal, but I have never doubted that the author of Red, White, and Liberalloves his country just as much as anyone, and would fight for it if he had to. Fox has plenty of room for liberal voices, but not much room for hate-America lunatic leftists.

The historically minded might point out that the good guys lost at the Alamo--albeit gloriously. But just a year later, the good guys won at San Jacinto, guaranteeing Texas Independence. And so while this historical mashup is of the Alamo, it's San Jacinto that's always on this girl's mind.

Cody Willard and the Next American Revolution (And Yes, It Will Will Be Televised).

The Cable Gamer has always liked Cody Willard, he of the fab Fabio hair, but it wasn't till she read this profile,from blogger Kate O'Hare, that she realized that Cody had a whole worldview in his head. In fact, he is teaching that worldview, in a college course called "Revolutiononomics," at Seton Hall U. in Jersey.

Speaking of the Tea Parties last week, Cody had this exchange with Kate:

"It was a protest against the incumbents," he said.

Asked what would replace the current political crowd if it's voted out, Willard said, "It's to be replaced with a much more fluid, free-thinking, less rigid democracy/republic, that this country was founded to be."

Reminded that, while people often talk about ditching the two-party system, it hasn't actually happened yet, Willard turned to technology as an answer.

"I know," he said, "but there hasn't been an Internet and YouTube and Twitter. I teach a class at Seton Hall University called 'Revolutionomics,' that's the premise of the class, that the power of the center always disperses to the edge over time, and it's done through technology.

"That's why, in 2009, why would you possibly want to align yourself with a rigid, confusing political platform like Republicans or Democrats when you could simply go to your constituents and get a following on Twitter and Facebook and build up your presence, get the word out to your actual constituents and empower them and communicate with them and get them to follow you? What if you could get a groundswell underneath you via the technologies that are now available.

"You don't need the financial backing that you did to run for office just 10 years ago. In modern America, you don't need a two-party political regime anymore. You have technology that enables you to distribute your message for free to everyone on the planet instantly."

There you have it. Cody's points about the instant-organizing potential of the Net are well taken. TCG assumes that the new-media matrix is going to produce some new politics, and some new candidates. We might well have one here--Cody should keep his legal residence back in New Mexico.

Neal Cavuto on Tea Parties

Interesting interview with Neal Cavuto in Capitol Weekly, a Sacramento-based publication focusing on California politics. Cavuto, of course, went out there for the Sacto rally, where Malcolm Maclachlan caught up with him.

Here's part of the Q & A. Note that Cavuto's answer shares plenty of blame with the previous Bush administration, which, after all, started the whole bailout process.

Why do you think these protests were so big?

I’m not sure. But I think they predate a lot of that, going back to last fall, a completely different administration. It was the financial rescue for the banks and the brokerage houses that got a lot of people, of all political persuasions, thinking about the wisdom of what was at the time a seven or eight hundred billion dollar financial rescue. People asked of a Republican president, as they do now of a Democratic president, how are we going to pay for this? It festered like a wound back then, and it boiled over to a gaping wound now.

I think there is angst about how we are going to pay for all of this, and it built day by day, bailout by bailout, amid the reality that in blackjack terms, we were doubling down and tripling down on the deficit and the debt to see if something sticks here. It might work, it might not work, but clearly, given the number of protestors and the sheer number of protests throughout all 50 states and virtually all major cities, there was something clearly registering.

NBC-U On The Block

So says Kim Masters, the veteran entertainment industry chronicler, in The Daily Beast this morning.

Here's the best stuff:

The fact is NBC Universal never fit in with GE anyway. That mismatch may have been fine when the economy was stronger but not so much now, when traditional media businesses have such a dubious future. The economic meltdown has brought the looming problems caused by the digital revolution into sharp focus.

The Cable Gamer has been predicting the sale of NBC-U for two years now. The meltdown might have slowed the process--because GE needs money from the federal government, and the federal government needs lackeys such as those found at MSNBC and other NBC properties (including NBC)--but the larger logic of de-conglomeration, as Masters suggests, is inescapable.

"Drama at GE Shareolders Meeting" -- Jesse Watters Speaks Truth to Power in Orlando!

The Hollywood Reporter details how Jesse Watters, the gutsy producer for Fox News, infiltrated into the GE shareholders meeting, to bravely ask about the left-wing bias at MSNBC and other GE-NBC media properties.

"The crowd was very upset with MSNBC because of its leftward tilt," one attendee said to THR's Paul Bond. "Some former employees said they were embarrassed by it."

Here's more:

"My biggest surprise was the open hostility to MSNBC," said Tom Borelli of the Free Enterprise Action Fund and a four-year critic of Immelt. "It was noticeable and loud. I don't remember any of this going on last year."

"Any time MSNBC was mentioned, there was a rumbling in the crowd of 400 people," he added. Borelli also asked a question pertaining to GE's stock performance since Immelt took the helm.

The meeting, which lasted more than two hours, was described by all four of the attendees THR talked to subsequently as variously rancorous or critical. Other than questions about MSNBC, shareholders brought up questions about executive pay and cuts to the company's dividend.

Needless to say, GE chiefs don't like being dressed down in public. But don't look for them to change their ways--they are bought and paid for, literally, by the government, in the form of all those bailouts. And they know that they need more. So expect to see more of Janeane Garofalo and all the rest of 'em on MSNBC.

So some sort of boycott, beyond MSNBC, is inevitable.

Next, Fox Takes On The Department of Homeland Security

The Cable Gamer knows that Dianne Brandi was the Fox Newser who signed the letter to the Department of Homeland Security, invoking the Freedom of Information Act to request all the background info on that defamatory "report" on veterans and others, but TCG couldn't find a picture of Ms. Brandi.

If any Cable Gamer knows of one, it will be gratefully received--and semi-competently PhotoShopped! In the meantime, here's another "fair use" of Roger Ailes.

Roger Ailes Slew Timothy Geithner's Treasury Goliath...

Fox Business News won its Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Treasury Department. Roger Ailes 1, Timothy Geithner 0. But that was just the beginning...

Fox News Fighting for Full Disclosure/Huffington Post Doesn't Know What to Do!

The Huffington Post is reporting the news of Fox News' Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, and yet is obviously a little perplexed. Isn't it only liberals who support full disclosure and transparency?

CDNC

The transformation--the takeover of CNBC by the Democratic National Committee--is now complete!

CNBC Meets Arthur Jensen

The Great Persuader from "Network," now updated.

CNBC Gets Its Arthur Jensen Moment--The New Order Is Ordained From On High

The Overlords of GE--under pressure, no doubt, from the Overlords in Washington DC--have put the wood to CNBC. No more Rick Santelli-like anti-bailout rabble-rousing. Preach, instead, subservience to established power. Arthur Jensen would be pleased.

You remember Arthur Jensen, don't you? He was the corporate big cheese character in the classic 1976 Paddy Chayevsky movie "Network, who told the equally fictional Howard Beale to knock off with the anti-corporate populism stuff--""I'm mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore!" Jensen was played by Ned Beatty, who should've won an Oscar, while Beale was played by Peter Finch, who did win an Oscar.

But Jensen's speech to Beale is the standout of the movie. Here's the video clip.

That was fiction, but the GE to CNBC lecture was real. And here's the item, from the NYP's Page Six this morning:

THE top suits and some of the on-air talent at CNBC were recently ordered to a top-secret meeting with General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt and NBC Universal President Jeff Zucker to discuss whether they've turned into the President Obama-bashing network, Page Six has learned.

"It was an intensive, three-hour dinner at 30 Rock which Zucker himself was behind," a source familiar with the powwow told us. "There was a long discussion about whether CNBC has become too conservative and is beating up on Obama too much. There's great concern that CNBC is now the anti-Obama network. The whole meeting was really kind of creepy."

One topic under the microscope, our insider said, was on-air CNBC editor Rick Santelli's rant two months ago about staging a "Chicago Tea Party" to protest the president's bailout programs -- an idea that spawned tax protest tea parties in other big cities, infuriating the White House. Oddly, Santelli was not at the meeting, while Jim Cramer was, noted our source, who added that no edict was ultimately handed down by the network chieftains.

CNBC flack Brian Steel confirmed the get-together, but insisted: "The dinner was to thank CNBC for a job well done in our in-depth reporting throughout the financial crisis. As far as our coverage is concerned, we are built for balance and we are unabashedly pro-investor."

Our source retorted: "That is complete bull[bleep] . . . they didn't invite a lot of people to [the meeting]. There were many staffers who were working 24/7 during the crisis who weren't asked to attend, even Santelli, who was a big star for the network during those weeks. Why not?"

In addition, the insider said: "News of the meeting is starting to leak out and people are contacting a number of the on-air people to ask if they've been muzzled by GE."

CNBC has already been housebroken: Dylan Ratigan left, Jim Cramer has gotten with the pro-Obama program, and now doubt others, such as Larry Kudlow, will soon get the word--or get the door.

CNBC will thus go the way of MSNBC and, to a great extent, NBC. All pro-Obama media tools, sucking up that bailout money.

"MSDNC" smears GOP -- Again and Again

Thomas Charles Stewart III is one of those ever-vigilant cyber-hawks who seem to keep track of not only everything on Fox, but also everything that on MSNBC and the other cablers.

Here are two important items about MSNBC he blasted around a little while ago:

MSNBC Features GOP Logo in Segment on Violence and the "Radical Right"

MSNBC Again Touts Right-Wing Threat of Violence; Features GOP Logo

Of course, it's all perfectly understandable why MSNBC is slashing Republicans at every turn--MSNBC, through its parent, GE, is on the government payroll. And the government, these days, is the Democrats. So MSNBC is simply following orders.

Hence this re-rendering of the "MSDNC" logo.

The Fix Is In? Jim Cramer Declares "The Depression is Over." Could Cramer's Bullishness Have Anything To Do With the GE Bailout?

The always perceptive Jeff Poor, of MRC/Newsbusters/Business and Media Institute, notes that CNBC-er Jim Cramer has changed his tune in regard to Barack Obama and his economic policies:

Cramer made the pronouncement despite his long record of criticism for being a bull-market cheerleader. And he had already taken "The Great Depression II" off the table - and defended his decision to do so - back in December after the previous president and Congress passed bailout plans.

But on April 2 he credited President Barack Obama for the end of this Depression and the beginning of this forecasted bull market.

"And then today, we got the second big positive - President Obama praised, what did he praise? The stock market! This is a total 180 from his position a few months ago. You got to admire a president who can change his mind, especially after eight years of George W. Bush's laissez-faire philosophy - that almost led rapacious late-stage capitalism to devour itself."

So why the switch? Poor speculates that it has to do with criticism:

While Obama's rhetoric may have changed in Cramer's view, it's difficult not to notice that the "Mad Money" host's about-face comes after his criticism of the administration embroiled him in a controversy with Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" host Jon Stewart that climaxed with a less-than-stellar appearance on Stewart's March 12 show.

From that point on, Cramer has taken a less abrasive tack toward the Commander-in-Chief.A month ago Obama was responsible for "the greatest destruction of wealth I have ever seen by a president" and Cramer was calling him a Lenin. Today, Cramer is not only pro-Obama, he's also upbeat on Federal Reserve Chief Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner - both of whom he has harshly criticized in the past.

Pain-avoidance is always a good explanation for behavior, especially for a bullying personality--can sure dish it out, but can't take it--like Cramer. But The Cable Gamer thinks that the explanation is even simpler, and it has to do with the old wisdom, "follow the money." CNBC is a subunit of NBC, which is in turn owned by General Electric. And GE has massive exposure on the bad-loans front, thanks to another of its subsidiaries, GE Capital. And GE Capital, as TCG has pointed out many times, has received hundreds of billions from the feds in bailout assistance of various kinds.

Which is to say, because funds are fungible, CNBC might be reckoned as being on the government payroll now, just like NPR or PBS. And so, of course, CNBC's politics are starting to resemble those of NPR and PBS. So more now dissing of Obama. Got that, Jim? And by the way, meet your new CNBC buddies, Arianna Huffington and Howard Dean.

Where's Jim Walton?

Does everybody get an award these days, even if they fail? It sure seems that way. A case in point is CNN honcho of honchos, Jim Walton, who has disappeared from the media, except when it comes to picking up an award. I guess the award is good for Jim's self-esteem, bucking up his spirits as his network declines into third place.

Here's part of an acid report from the always cutting FTV Live

CNN Worldwide President Jim Walton is up for the Vanguard Award today at this week’s Cable Show, NCTA annual convention which was underway this week in Washington. ... 
Nevertheless, perhaps Walton will now catch some of the heat for CNN’s ratings woes at this week’s convention. So far it’s just been the hapless Jon Klein having to answer for CNN’s third place showing, while Walton has been MIA.


Maybe next we can start giving "Vanguard Awards" to execs at AIG, GM, Lehman, etc. I am sure that their self-esteem could use a bucking up, too.

Newsmax: MSNBC Lying About UPS and O'Reilly

This is from Newsmax, under the headline, "UPS: We Didn’t Boycott O’Reilly’s Show":

On March 31, Keith Olbermann said this about O’Reilly on MSNBC’s “Countdown”:

“He also reiterated his delusion about the It Happened to Alexa Foundation, where Bill-O was thoroughly criticized for having the gall to address a fundraiser for rape victims, after twice publicly blaming rape victims, then sending a producer to stalk a woman who wrote a blog post about his hypocrisy.

“UPS promptly dropped out as an advertiser in protest of Bill-O’s victimization of Amanda Terkel of ThinkProgress.org.”

Quite a story, but there's a catch. It's not true:

But UPS has issued statement from its national spokesman Norman Black: “We are writing to clarify our statement of last Friday because it appears to have been misinterpreted. UPS has not ‘pulled’ any advertising from Fox News nor has the company taken a position on the ‘ThinkProgress’ campaign. Our intent on Friday simply was to note that UPS does not have any pending advertising plans with the O’Reilly show.”

Keith Olbermann lying?

You Won't See This on CNN, or MSNBC

The Cable Gamer hasn't quite figured out Fox Nation yet, but I am sure of one thing: you won't see a headline like this anywhere else but Fox.

Right now, Fox Nation is sort of like a Huffington Post for non-lefty nitwits, but I get the feeling that it is going to be more than that.

CNBC Sells Out -- For the Greater Good of General Electric

The Cable Gamer has noted the paradox of CNBC hosting a few noisy conservatives (Larry Kudlow, Rick Santelli, and Mark Haines), plus some other liberal Obama skeptics (Jim Cramer), while at the same time, sister company MSNBC panders to the Obama administration and parent company GE curries favor with the TARP Lords at Treasury. How long could GE CEO Jeff Immelt tolerate such diversity of opinion?

Answer: Not for too much longer. The straws are already in the wind, as noted by Jeff Poor, of the Business and Media Institute at the Media Research Center. In an important piece, headlined, "Liberals Complain, CNBC Caves In/Business network goes from inspiring anti-tax 'tea parties' to adding left-wingers like Dean, Huffington," Poor outlines the transformation--which is, of course, a sellout.

With the economy suffering a steep downturn and a new hands-on approach by the federal government to correct it, financial news outlets have received increasing scrutiny. None more so than CNBC.

The cable channel, along with its left-of-center sister network MSNBC, operates under the umbrella of NBC Universal. One openly liberal NBC network apparently isn’t enough. The left – from the White House to think tanks to bloggers – has targeted CNBC because of its traditional pro-investment point-of-view. After a few weeks of criticism, the network seems to be taking the criticism to heart and making a big left turn.

CNBC went from comparing President Barack Obama to Lenin in January to saying he was “pro-shareholder” two months later. The network that inspired anti-tax “tea parties” and criticized the Obama administration as economically destructive became the same one that features Howard Dean as contributor and Arianna Huffington as a guest host.

The whole of Poor's piece is a must-read. So is the BMI, and so is MRC.

So sayonara, CNBC. You had a moment when you were hot, but then you sold out. Or more precisely, you were sold out by your bosses, and when you got the order to veer left, you saluted and did what you were told. That's good order-following, but it's bad journalism.