cable channel

Following up from my previous post, I think I have figured out why people don’t watch Morning Joe (he does rank 3rd amongst the 3 cable stations).

The most common demographic you are going to find during the early morning hours are people getting ready for work. They are on a limited time schedule and need to be able to absorb the most information possible. The can’t sit there and waste time hearing one person go on about a single issue over and over again, making you think the record is stuck.

Add to that the time of the year. People are doing more things outside, so their biggest chance of catching cable news is in the morning. They have limited watching time and want the most info, since they have the kids soccer game after work, or maybe cut the grass, or any number of outdoor activities this time of year is accustom for.

I got thinking about this while switching between CNN and MNSBC this morning. It turned into my own little “unofficial survey”. Here’s what I noticed. In one hour Morning Joe covered the same story nonstop – Pelosi and the CIA. During that same time CNN covered that story, but also the Rumsfeld memos, the decline of popularity of the GOP, teachers possibly abusing handicap children, and a few other topics.

Honestly I must say I felt so much more informed watching CNN than I did watching the Morning Joe “worry about only what I want” show.

And FOX is getting caught:

Bottom line is that Fox News is in for a very rough 2008. And the umbrella reason for that is quite simple: Eight years ago the all-news cable channel went all-in on the presidency of George W. Bush and became a broadcast partner with the White House. Proof of that was on display Sunday night, Jan. 27, during Fox News' prime-time "Fighting to the Finish," a "historic documentary" on the final year of Bush's presidency. Filmed in HD and featuring "unprecedented access," according to the Fox News press release, the show was pure propaganda. (I must have missed Fox News' "Fighting to the Finish" special back in 2000, chronicling the conclusion of President Bill Clinton's second term and his "extraordinarily consequential tenure.")

Last week there was a buzz on the blogosphere, mainly from the right, that Olbermann could be losing his job. We now find out that is no where near the case, and him along with Chris Matthews are the only two protected from changes right now:

If NBC's selection of Dan Abrams, an on-air anchor, as the new day-to-day boss of MSNBC left employees of that all-news cable channel gasping in shock — and it did — the next steps in the reshaping of the long-struggling network are likely to generate at least a few low whistles of surprise.

Mr. Abrams, in an interview at the MSNBC headquarters in Secaucus, N.J., acknowledged that he was still in the learning stages of his new job. At the age of 40, he's taking his first management post in television, where he has worked as a legal analyst and news anchor. While steering away from suggestions that a widespread overhaul of MSNBC is imminent, he did suggest that he would push right away for more breaking news coverage during the channel's daytime hours.

But there are bigger changes coming to MSNBC, especially in prime time, where the network will apparently be dropping some of its talk-show lineup in favor of more taped reports. That change is likely to take place as soon as the next couple of months. "I think we're going to have some program changes this summer," Steve Capus, the president of NBC News, said in a telephone interview. "Prime time is the focus. That's where the money is."

[SNIP]

Two of the channel's hosts, Chris Matthews of "Hardball" and Keith Olbermann of "Countdown," clearly will not be affected, because MSNBC's managers consistently cite those programs as long-sought breakthroughs.

And the reason for keeping Olbermann?