Once More Into Comcast’s Breach:* KO’s KO Foreshadows Cable on the Canvas?

[kpete]

Once More Into Comcast’s Breach KO’s KO Foreshadows Cable on the Canvas?

Cross posted at Balloon Juice

Amidst the gnashing of teeth over the suspicious coincidence of Comcast’s take over of NBC and Keith Olberman’s disappearance from the air, my first reaction was, who cares? Or rather, who really will notice?

That’s because I’ve been feeling, without much evidence, that cable blather is reaching a diminishing returns point, at least as far as political mobilization is concerned. Certainly, their impact exceeds their actual reach. As of November, the top rated cable news-like show was Bill O’Reilly’s, with a total viewership of about 3.5 million. In Neilson terms, that’s a rating of maybe 3.4 or so. Not bad — but not exactly dominant either. Next up was Fox’s Bret Baier, someone I confess I’ve literally never heard of. His number for the month? 2.4 million — or about 2 and change in the ratings. Olberman came in at number 12 with 1.1 million and a bit, or a barely more than one Neilson point.

It is indeed horrifying that the top 11 programs in cable news are all Fox shows — but the point is that however successful Fox has been with its business model,** these are not impressive numbers within the mass media and in an electorate the size of ours. Fox has had influence disproportionate to its actual reach — but it helps to remember its man-behind-the-curtain quality.



******If you missed Rocky and Bullwinkle, you missed civilization.***************

much more:
http://inversesquare.wordpress.com/2011/01/22/once-more...