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Flap’s Links and Comments for March 2nd from 12:28 to 12:34

March 2, 2011 /

These are my links for March 2nd from 12:28 to 12:34:

  • Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum taken off air by Fox News – Fox News announced Wednesday that it is suspending the contracts of political contributors Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum because both have demonstrated that they are seriously considering running for president.

    Dianne Brandi, the network's executive vice president of legal and business affairs, said in an interview that the channel made the move because Gingrich aides told Fox News executives that the former House speaker is stepping up his exploration of a presidential bid.

    While Gingrich is not expected to announce that he is forming a federal exploratory committee this week, he is expected to say in Georgia on Thursday that he is meeting with advisors to explore seeking the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, a Gingrich aide said.

    Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania, has indicated that he plans to participate in Republican primary debates, Brandi said, "so that leads us to believe he is seriously considering running."

    Brandi said the network acted out of journalistic principle.

    +++++++

    They will pull Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin too if they make too much more of an effort to run.

    I expect neither of them to give up the nice fat Fox News paycheck.

  • Oprah Winfrey’s new TV channel fails to win viewers – The OWN channel, which launched two months ago, is being watched by only 135,000 people at any one time.

    The ratings are 10 per cent lower than for the cable channel it replaced which was called Discovery Health.

    And only 45,000 of those watching are women aged 25 to 54, the audience the channel is being aimed at.

    Miss Winfrey, 57, has urged patience and supporters say ratings will improve when the chat show host begins appearing more regularly herself towards the end of the year.

    She will still be busy filming "The Oprah Winfrey Show" for the ABC network until September, but will then be able to devote more time to her own channel. That will include having her own show two or three nights a week.

    ++++++

    Most of the Discovery-Health Channel's shows have been moved the FIT TV and that is where the viewership has gone.

    Oprah's vanity channel will maybe more successful when she ends her ABC show.