This chart, from TV By The Numbers, an encyclopedic blog of no known bias, and cited by David Zurawik, the gutsy TV critic/blogger for The Baltimore Sun, says it all about the decline of Keith Olbermann's ratings. As Zurawik observes:
MSNBC's Keith Olbermann took offense to a post I wrote Saturday that referred to him as "slumping." He didn't dispute any of the facts in my piece, he just went on the attack with his usual innuendo, slurs and bombast over my characterization of his performance in the ratings.
Here are two graphics from tvbythenumbers.com tracking Olbermann's ratings the last six months. Read them and judge for yourself whether the adjective "slumping" applies.
No spin, just the facts. Especially note the one that shows him down 50 percent since the last quarter of 2008 in the key news demographic of viewers 25 and 54.
Also, note that in the first quarter of 2009, Olbermann's show ranked in the Top 10 programs on all news cable TV. In the figures released this week for the second quarter of the year, he is no longer in the Top 10. All 10 spots belong to shows on Fox News.
That's the fatal flaw in Jeff Immelt's strategy of using MSNBC as a lobbying/p.r. operation for General Electric. Yes it's great for the Obama administration that GE's tools--Chris Matthews, Ed Schultz, Rachel Maddow, and, of course, Olby--are shilling for them every day, but people won't watch. It's hard to be a cheerleader for a not especially popular administration. I mean most people support Obama, and he might even win re-election, but it's not that interesting just to watch people on TV kissing up to him.
And yet MSNBC's Obama suck-up strategy continues: new host Nancy Snyderman--that's Dr. Nancy Snyderman to you-- said on her show, "The White House, their health care agenda continues to be our agenda."
Talk about being on message! But nobody read Pravda, either.
The only time that MSNBC gets any traction these days is when the channel is slamming Republicans, especially those GOPers from the Bush-Cheney administration, but that's old news, and getting even older.
So MSNBC is stuck. Maybe they should just formally become a part of the GE p.r. operation. So instead of "MSNBC: The Place For Politics," it could be "MSNBC: Imagination At Work." And then MSNBC could fight more vehemently for "cap and trade" legislation, without naysayers like Pat Buchanan getting in the way of the message.
H/T for the Snyderman quote: Mark Finkelstein.
