Actually, I meant to put “knowledgeable” in quotes as sarcasm but my fingers failed to get the orders from the brain. Still, your suggestion/correction fits my thoughts quite accurately, thank you very much.

I will guess… 13.6 million total from the aforementioned nets.

I’ll be interesting to see if So Think You Can Dance gets a ratings bump or not.

Oh and of course it is not good for the networks either. They need money in order to continue their broadcasting and keep people employed you know…

There’s also PBS, as well, which does coverage.

If the press conference hadn’t been moved, it’s quite likely only CBS would have carried it, so *NEWSFLASH* the other nets were just as concerned about their revenues. Without the time change, it’s quite likely that all the networks running new programming were going to tell the White House to stuff it.

FOX has one less hour of primetime, and a two-hour show to fit in Wednesday, so their options were a bit more limited than the other networks.

As far as the Cable News Networks go, all of them should air it. To not would be to defeat the purpose of what they’re designed to do- cover the news on a 24 hour cycle. To ignore a President’s primetime news conference (regardless of how many he has given in the past) would damage their creditability.

Principle.
FOX is stating they don’t care, they care more about themselves and their precious $ad revenue$ than they do about the state of the country. They should give the president the respect he deserves.

God forbid So You Think You Can Dance get’s pushed back an hour, or a week, or they air two in a row next week, or any number of things that could happen to ensure their crummy, moronic, reality tv shows still are viewable by the public.

Sorry for interjecting some sense to a senseless discussion.

So Eric, what difference does having the same thing on 4 broadcast networks (AT THE SAME TIME) make vs. only 3? None.

Besides, anyone who needs to find out about the proposed sham healthcare plan via this press conference must be too dumb to read a newspaper or turn on the tv news.

Where is the opposite side of this issue? Why is only President Osama’s views that get multi network coverage? Networks should be required to give equal time to the plans opponents. Then again, dissent is only favored when a Democrat isnt in the Whitehouse.

FOX declining is just a deliberate slap in the face to the country. FOX News clearly is against Obama, and their main television station declining to air his conferences backs that up completely.

Seriously: So You Think You Can Dance season umpteen episode umptyseven is more important than the state of the country?

For shame, FOX. For shame.

Its just another dog and pony show by Obama with hand picked people to ask questions friendly to Obama. With support for the plan and Obamas overall approval dropping he is desperate to ram a healthcare bill through before its too late.

I watch more TV than anyone I know.
None of that is Reality TV.

I love that Obama calls press conferences like this routinely. I think every president SHOULD. So one hour of one week of TV gets interrupted. Cry me a river.
If anyone works in an office, they understand how even if the schpeels are predictable, a quarterly meeting saying how the company is doing is always beneficial to the moral of the workers. A little hurrah, a little ‘hears where we’re at: problems and plusses’. It helps.

I think it’s sort of dumb that no president before him let the people know what’s going on routinely like this.

My question is this, will there be equal coverage on this issue? Say, Obama talks for one hour on Wednesday night and on Thursday night at the same time doctors and nurses etc give their assessment of the situation. Such hasty action is imprudent and one should look at both arguments for and against it. For some reason I doubt there will be such a dialogue with the American people.

I am starting to think of these conferences as bully pulpits.

It seems that no one party is to blame. And please, don’t act like the other news channels don’t spin either.

On topic, I’m glad Fox declines (although I wish they would air something other than Dance). We don’t need this on every channel. I like the suggestion someone else made, the networks should take turns airing these press conferences.

A majority of people do have cable so they can watch it there and they have the internet so they can still catch President Obama somewhere if they wish.

hopefully a good edit..its bedtime

That was Easy!!

Kevin – I suggest you look up the term “socialized”, it doesn’t mean what you think it means. The Obama proposals are a rather limited extension of what we already have: it’s still going to be the awful employer-mandate based system we already have, with a few tweaks around the edges to deal with some of the more extreme problems to deal with the presently uninsured and the issues with pre-existing conditions. It’s not only not the extremist proposal Republicans are pretending to be, it’s barely qualifies as reform to begin with.

Kevin, might want to get a little news outside the republican echo chamber. Republicans have obstructed every step of the way, and didn’t even bother to come up with a real plan of their own.

Don’t forget about the CBO reversing most of their pronouncements about the cost of the Congressional bill later Friday night.

Given the reluctance of the networks to carry this press conference (and the ensuing time change), I can’t see it overrunning much.

The networks would have a fit if it did considering their programming, and the White House would likely have an even tougher time getting coverage the next time.

Can we start a topic called Cramer Conflicts?

Pointing out times that Jim Cramer has contradicted himself, perhaps points could be awarded for the time difference between the original statement and the conflicting statement as well as the scale of the error.

i.e. “Nails is a financial Genius”….”Nails files for bankruptcy” 3 weeks conflict 200 points, scale of error 300 points.

or “Keep your money in Bear Sterns”…..”Bear Sterns shares collapse 92% in 10 days”. 2 weeks conflict 400 points, scale of error 1000 points.

You get the idea

I realise it’s not mainstream to the site but could be seen as a fun diversion that is kind of TV related!!

“….and self-important, ego-inflated alleged reporters and knowledgeable pundits….”

I think you meant to say “self absorbed pundits”?

Perhaps the only irony that compares to the reams of nonsense espoused, on air and in print, by self absorbed pundits dissecting every nuance of style and syllable uttered is the fact that even when showing identical programming NBC will still get the worst ratings.

When are those two muppets at the top of that Network going to be made to walk to plank?

As for time shift of conference, well, this link might have some helpful fill-in-the-blank info about that.

http://www.thrfeed.com/2009/07/cbs-obama-news-conference.html

As for me, I’ll just do what I usually do — skip it. I’ll read the transcript, if I think it is important, sans talking heads and self-important, ego-inflated alleged reporters and knowledgeable pundits, and make up my own mind.