Ratings report for cable news shows airing Jan. 7

There's no other way to say this. KO was obliterated in last night's ratings. He finished in third place across the board, and lost the key demos by about half.

8PM - P2+ (25-54) (35-64)
The O’Reilly Factor —3,560,000 viewers (704,000) (1,409,000)
Campbell Brown—825,000 viewers (203,000) (291,000)
Countdown w/Keith Olbermann —1,337,000 viewers (372,000) (697,000)
Nancy Grace –1,576,000 viewers (702,000) (866,000)

9 PM - P2+ (25-54) (35-64)
Hannity & Colmes –2,041,000 viewers (469,000) (829,000)
Larry King Live—1,394,000 viewers (382,000) (557,000)
Rachel Maddow Show –1,230,000 viewers (388,000) (696,000)
American Greed– 480,000 viewers (215,000) (308,000)
Lou Dobbs- 550,000 viewers (261,000) (284,000)

10 PM P2+ (25-54) (35-64)
On the Record w/Greta—1,553,000 viewers (295,000) (598,000)
Anderson Cooper 360—1,013,000 viewers (370,000) (420,000)
Countdown w/Keith Olbermann —747,000 viewers (225,000) (424,000)
On the Money—169,000 viewers (74,000) (118,000)
Nancy Grace –608,000 viewers (271,000) (349,000)

11 PM P2+ (25-54) (35-64)
The O’Reilly Factor —1,363,000 viewers (410,000) (637,000)
Anderson Cooper 360 —673,000 viewers (235,000) (307,000)
Rachel Maddow Show –467,000 viewers (165,000) (285,000)
Mad Money—142,000 viewers (65,000) (101,000)
Showbiz Tonight– 451,000 viewers (219,000) (303,000)

O'Reilly had Ann Coulter as a guest, which may have helped him. Sorry Keith, but it looks like she knows how to sell books. Were I a more cynical man I'd suggest she only wanted to do the Today show to create material for O'Reilly.

Olby spent half his show spouting propaganda to defend the pick of Leon Panetta as CIA chief. Then ended with a 10-minute segment about the joke porn bailout.

Yep, looks like it's gonna be a long year for Billo.

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/01/08/cable-news-ratings-for-wednesday-january-7/10466

Did anyone else here see O'Reilly's TPM as opposed to Olbermann's #1 story? The coverage of Sarah Palin was like night and day. One recapped her interview well, allowing the viewer some insight into what it was all about; the other did a predictable, point-by-point trashing of everything the woman said.

One is gaining in viewership, and the other is hemorrhaging viewers. Maybe Keith should worry about his own year.

Keith Show is gasping for air before our eyes. He will do something insane soon. I predicting a fight between him and his house boy Maddow.

WPITW:

Worse: Brit Hume for saying everyone agrees the New Deal failed. KO says countless economists say its "longterm achievements remain the bedrock of our nation's economic stability." So, according to KO our economy is stable? So KO agrees with John McCain?
Isn't part of the anti-New Deal argument that some underpinnings of the current economic crisis stemmed from expansions of New Deal ideals?

Worser: Michelle Malkin, for saying recounters in Minnesota provided moral support and help Al Franken, that Acorn was involved, that it was rigged because Republicans were left out in the cold on the canvassing board. KO then focuses only on the canvassing board part of the statement and reads the roster of the five members, two of whom apparently were Republican State Supreme Court appointments (a majority only in KO's mind, I guess), two being independents who don't claim a party allegiance, and Sec of State Mark Ritchie, a Democrat.

Worst: Bill O'Reilly (Countdown's Website headline: "O'Reilly Terrorizes Viewers"), "Who has apparently decided to devote the show this year to scaring children, the gullible and those blighted souls who watch his comedy program into believing that a terror attack is imminent" by showing a "Security Alert" banner with 9/11 footage, and discussing the Army Field Manual, which KO says does not contain the rules O'Reilly paraphrased about not torturing anyone ("nor does the Geneva Convention"). Then he quotes O'Reilly saying he doesn't want the New York Times or NBC News calling the shots when terrorists are trying to kill us. Olby says no one wants that, but they couldn't do a worse job than Bush in protecting us in 2001. I suppose KO meant to throw the Clintons in there for letting the World Trade Center get bombed in 1993, but he must have forgotten. Or to blast FDR, whom he just praised a few WPITW items back, for letting Pearl Harbor happen. Oh well. Back to the point.
KO calls him "Billo 'There's Ratings in scaring people' the Clown" before ending the segment. Hmm. Guess there must be, since O'Reilly won the night, and Olby got creamed.

Of course, Olby doesn't mean to scare people by implying that George Bush is taking all their civil rights away to fight terrorists, or insinuating the country is one step removed from armed troops breaking into your home to torture you.

But when KO says Billo is devoting his show to scaring people, I guess that must include Billo's segment about cancer awareness. Or how Billo donates money to charity. Or when Billo challenged Ann Coulter for being crass and confrontational. Or the majorities of The Factor segments that have nothing to do with Terrorism, and the many segments that aren't even about politics. All they really have in common is having more viewers than KO.

Then again, if KO is so sure the nation is in love with Obama, why isn't everyone watching his nightly propaganda hour?

Here's the thing. Keith Olbermann is full of crap.

In the Nielsens, Keith can't keep pace
Nightly bitch slap from Nancy Grace
Kountdown's circling the drain
With no Palin/McCain
Krazy Keith will completely debase

Yeah, he's definitely full of crap, and even Jon freakin' Stewart thinks they're all "f---ing nuts" at MSNBC (except for Maddow). I just ~dare~ Olbytard to nominate Stewart WPITW for that succinct smackdown.

Worse blue blog source: Media Matters.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200901080005
Worser blue blog source: Media Matters...again.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200901080010
I couldn't find a source for Worst. It might be one of those rare occasions where Keith just attacks for the hell of it.

Actually, Worst for O'Reilly is also traceable back to Media Matters, at least partially, where he talks about the field manual. It was an item from yesterday.

Also partially, from yesterday, Crooks and Liars.

What the hell was up with KO's graphic of Palin with a "Classless" graphic. KO equates the media showing Caroline Kennedy saying "You Know" a lot as equal to what they did to Sarah Palin. Excuse me? Did KO ever slam Caroline Kennedy the way he slammed Palin on a regular basis?

Then Margaret Carlson says there are a lot of inadequate people in the Senate and the world gets by. Really? Has she seen the economy lately? After two years of a Democrat controlled Congress? Is today the Countdown Economic Whitewash Hour? (see comments in WPITW regarding FDR).

Are they defending Caroline Kennedy for having a cutesy aw shucks kind of naivety about things but trying to step up, while accusing Palin of being calculating and manipulative?

Ah geez. Let it go Olby.

However, there is a certain irony in Olby backing up his claim that the mainstream media hasn't been too easy on Caroline Kennedy compared to Sarah Palin by defending Kennedy and relentlessly attacking Palin.

But nothing out of line or unexpected on Olbyplanet

You guys are forgetting the ultra-scary Great American Culture Quiz.

I mean jeez, it's scary enough Steve knows most of the answers.

Revealing closing line prelude to copy throwing shtick ending to WORLD'S BEST PERSON segment.

LoBloKO, "I made the last part up."

No kidding! And the parts before that, plus the parts that followed.

I can't really say that I'll miss him, though I'm sure something will linger on after the conversion to digital. At least we'll finally be rid of MSNBC's Anal Log.

Keith "Man on Fan" Olbermann got in bonus Worst Persons attacks during two teases for WPitW throughout the show. Via the transcript: "And Billo declares a, quote [Ding!], (Ted Baxter voice, I assume): “security alert” because Leon Panetta is nominated to run the CIA. Security alert is usually reserved for when somebody has recorded Billo‘s [Ding!] phone calls with his producers. Worst Persons is ahead." Classy, as always. And for Brit: "Also, did you know everybody now agrees the New Deal failed, everybody. Apparently, Brit Hume held a vote. It was unanimous, FDR sucked, ahead in worst persons."

As for WPitW itself:
Worse: The bronze to Brit Hume of Fox Noise [Ding!], now in the rewriting history department over there." Lousy Brit impression used here, I assume. Then, "Sure. Everybody, except the most recent Nobel Prize Laureate in economics, Paul Krugman, who just wrote that the New Deal‘s long term achievements remain the bedrock of our nation‘s economic stability, and except for probably a majority of economists, economic professors. But Brit Hume agrees with Brit Hume. That will show that damn Roosevelt."

Let's skip right to Worst, which I will preface with links to the Wednesday's Talking Points Memo...
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,477872,00.html
http://tinyurl.com/957h28
...Top Story segment with Karl Rove, who disagreed with BOR: http://tinyurl.com/a67vrv
...and Miller Time segment. Dennis also disagreed:
http://tinyurl.com/868hva

"But, in the winner‘s circle for the first time this year, it is Bill-O the clown [Ding!], who has apparently decided to devote the show this year to scaring children, the gullible and those blighted souls who watch his comedy program [Ding!] into believing that a terror attack is imminent. It began last night, with a banner reading Security Alert, while video rolled of the 9/11. This after O‘Reilly had claimed, incorrectly again, that limiting interrogation of prisoners to what is in the Army Field Manual would mean no interrogation because, ..." Out came the Ted Baxter voice quoting his blue blog source, Media Matters, which was quoting BOR asking a question to Col. David Hunt. Then, "The field manual says no such thing, nor do the Geneva Conventions, which are quoted in the field manual. Billy [Ding!] also said, (Back to the guy Frank Caliendo does a light years better impression of than Keith): “I don‘t want the ‘New York Times‘ or NBC News calling ideological shots when terror killers want to murder us.”
(Likely said with bombast and glee): Guess what? Neither does anybody else. Though clearly, neither NBC News or the “New York Times,” either one of them could have done worse at protecting us than the Bush administration did in 2001. Bill-O [Ding!], there‘s ratings in scaring people, the clown [Ding!], today‘s worst person in the world!"

One other thing, from that Talking Points Memo that Keith parsed at the end (non-parsed sentences surrounded by asterisks):
O'REILLY: "*The danger here is not just physical.* *If America is attacked after Barack Obama changes the anti-terror strategy, there is a good chance that his administration will be damaged beyond repair.* *Thus the strategy being put in play is a huge gamble on Obama's part.*
*"Talking Points" is perplexed by this.* *So far, Obama's economic vision has been good.* *He seems to understand what needs to be done to restore confidence in the American system.* *But on national security, I'm not getting it.* I don't want The New York Times or NBC News calling ideological shots when terror-killers want to murder us. *I also want to make the terrorists as uncomfortable as possible, something Barack Obama is not going to do.*
*And that's "The Memo."*"

Frank Caliendo doesn't seem to like BOR either. In an episode of "Frank TV" called "Frankvergnugen," BOR and Bill Clinton meet in a bookstore. Frank plays Clinton while co-star Mike McRae handles our humble correspondent. It was at this moment that I stopped watching that show. The O'Reilly characterization was the same one Krazy Keith puts out: close-minded conservative zealot. "I'm here promoting my new book 'How the Liberals Stole Christmas'," McRae says as BOR.

To the show's credit, Mike McRae's impression is pretty good and fairly measured; no bombastic caricature of Ted Baxter.

Thanks, Mike, for giving the full context of what BillO said.

It’s funny how KO almost always reads what he (or Hume, Limbaugh, or anybody else) says rather than just playing the tape. Of course, reading the quote gives KO the chance to distort the context. He knows he's doing it and he doesn't care. Neither, apparently, does NBC.

Remember when O'Reilly chewed out Barney Frank? He played the tape, and then later referred to the transcript. It was when Billo read from the transcript that Frank started accusing him of distorting the issue. But everyone had just seen the actual tape, and Frank was toast.

Speaking of Barney Frank, he blew up at another reporter, a guy at ABC, who wondered why Barney Frank as chairman of the house finance committee wasn't taking any responsibility for the financial meltdown. Of course Billo had to show that clip on his show as well.

Now, Billo will probably be called WPITW for showing the tape of the cop killing the guy in Oakland. Olby may find it too shocking and insensitive toward viewers and the family of the victim.

You're welcome.

Democrats behaving badly....stealing from the poor no less!

Will Olbermann cover the Democratic mayor of Baltimore with one of his well known (and over rehearsed) breathless condemning diatribes?

Odds are 20:1 he will.

The guy at ABC was Chris Cuomo of "Good Morning America."