The spin doctors at "AC 360" are famous--OK, perhaps "famous" is not quite the right word, "notorious in certain circles" is more apt--for playing the program name-game on primary nights to take personal credit, for Anderson Cooper, for ratings bumps due to coverage of major primaries (when the rest of the networks call it "special election coverage").
Happily, Marisa Guthrie of Broadcasting & Cable cuts through the flackery in this well-reasoned article headlined, "Ratings Good News for Fox News, NBC/Fox News Channel Wins Cable-News May Battle; NBC Takes Broadcast." Note the distinct absence of any good news about La Anderson or CNN in that header. As Guthrie explains:
CNN was touting a win in for the 10 p.m. hour of Anderson Cooper 360. AC360, which was buoyed by three primaries in May, averaged 339,000 viewers in the demo, a 51% jump compared with May 2007. Fox News’ On the Record with Greta van Susteren averaged 317,000 in the demo. But unlike AC360, On the Record is pre-empted during primary coverage. On the Record prevailed over AC360 in total viewers with 1.31 million compared with 1.05 million. Subtracting the West Virginia primary May 13 and the Kentucky and Oregon primaries May 20, Van Susteren edged out AC360 by 13,000 viewers.
And then the B&C ace sums up the state of May ratings play in The Cable Game:
For the month, Fox News was ranked sixth among basic-cable networks, while CNN came in at No. 19 and MSNBC ranked 26th.
