• Pinboard Links

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

    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.

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for February 25th from 13:49 to 14:32

    These are my links for February 25th from 13:49 to 14:32:

    • Bashing Fox News? Call it free advertising for the network – Those who call it "fake news" may wish to reconsider giving Fox News Channel free advertising: FNC and Cablevision have announced a new multi-year carriage agreement, continuing Fox's presence in homes throughout New York, New Jersey, and my native Connecticut. This news comes despite constant attacks from the Left, primarily in the form of Media Matters, who consistently claims that Fox News is a kind of partisan propaganda outlet that needs to be exposed. Could it be that Media Matters' and other critics' constant drumtaps against Fox are helping to make it stronger?

      In fact, Fox is still going strong. For nine years straight, the network has been on top of the pile. It's raking in more and more cash. During its coverage of the Egyptian uprising, Fox beat out MSNBC and CNN combined, the latter of which having had the historical advantage of being the international network. (Many networks risked a great deal to get in on the story, as CNN's Anderson Cooper, CBS's Lara Logan, and Fox News's Greg Palkot were all attacked during their coverage.)

      +++++++

      Fox News continues to weather the attacks of the LEFT with even greater ratings success.

      Bring it on = Roger Ailes

    • Two more leftwing front groups exposed = Common Cause and Alliance for Justice Go After the Koch Brothers – The Post's Feb. 24 story did not explain that the letter had been the brainchild of AFJ. (It didn't provide any reference to Common Cause, which had been manning a nearly identical campaign.) But there it was: the same storyline about the Koch brothers and the attendance of Justice Thomas and Scalia at a Koch event. Moreover, the head of AFJ repeated the Koch storyline to The Post. "Nan Aron, director of the liberal group Alliance for Justice, said that if these rules were extended to the Supreme Court, none of the justices could attend 'overtly political meetings or events' like those sponsored by the Kochs." The Post report never identified her as head of AFJ, the author of the letter.

      And so we have the second liberal front group in this scheme, AFJ. AFJ didn't identify itself on the letter to Congress, and I wouldn't have known it was behind the latest round of "get-the-Kochs" except for my work on Citizens United and Morrison's forthright answers.

      In a subsequent post I'll look at what AFJ is and who funds them. But if you've been paying attention, you probably know all that, right?

    • Gingrich: If Palin Took Obama Actions, There Would Be Calls for Impeachment – In an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV Friday, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said President Barack Obama’s decision not to fully enforce the Defense of Marriage law has sparked a constitutional crisis as he has directly violated his constitutional duties by arbitrarily suspending a law.

      Gingrich for the first time raised the specter of Obama’s removal from office, noting that, if a “President Sarah Palin” had taken a similar action, there would have been immediate calls for her impeachment.

      Obama Attorney General Eric Holder said on Wednesday that the administration will not defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act in the courts, which has banned recognition of same-sex marriage for 15 years. President Clinton signed the act into law in 1996.

      Obama’s decision to forego a legal defense of the law has caused a firestorm of anger from conservative groups.

      Gingrich slammed Obama for his decision, telling Newsmax that he is not a “one-person Supreme Court” and his decision sets a “very dangerous precedent” that must not be allowed to stand.

      ++++++

      Indeed there would be.

      Obama is not a one man Supreme Court and cannot FLEE from his responsibilities to enforce the laws

  • Apple Computer,  Day By Day,  Fox News

    Day By Day March 30, 2010 – Bite Me

    Day By Day by Chris Muir

    Apple Computer can advertise where and when it wants. This is private enterprise.

    More than 200 companies have joined a boycott of Beck’s program, making it difficult for Fox to sell ads. The time has instead been sold to smaller firms offering such products as Kaopectate, Carbonite, 1-800-PetMeds and Goldline International. A handful of advertisers, such as Apple, have abandoned Fox altogether. Network executives say they believe they could charge higher rates if the host were more widely acceptable to advertisers.

    However, Fox News and Glenn Beck in particular have a following and should a competitor arrive to rival Apple’s products (particularly thinking the new i-Pad) that competitor may very well pick up this business. It is not politics or political ideology – it is business.

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