KD, you are spot on. I agree that the role of the media should be on the side of the people, and I feel that the media, as a whole, has lifted up Obama as a “Savior” of sorts. And one that is going to save us “from ourselves”. But when you look at the people that he surrounds himself with, it is hard to say that he is on the side of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. He has said that he is going to “fundamentally change America”, and so far, he is on that track.

Bigger government is NOT the answer, and I agree, that we have a lot of problems. but bigger government is not the answer. The government is the reason that lending regulations were loosened, which led to the ridiculous real estate market that we are currently in.

Barney Frank, Maxine Waters, among others are the reasons that Fannie Mae & Fredddie Mac loosened their guidelines to the point that led our country to the brink of disaster. I don’t know about the rest of you, but my house is worth 25% less than it was 2 yrs ago, and it is NOT because the free market allowed it. It is because the government forced them to loosen the guidelines so that the lenders would lend the money because they knew that Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac would buy the loans. It is that simple. They would have not lended the money if they didn’t know that Fannie & Freddie woudn’t back it. And who dictated that Fannie & Feddie should back it? The government.

We, as a people have to stop relying on the government to provide for us and go back to relying on ourselves. OK, so there is a portion of our population that cannot seem to provide for themselves, but that doesn’t mean that we need the government to step in an totally overhaul the best health care system in the world.

Let them provide for the less fortunate by expanding the medicare system to provide for those that cannot do for themselves, or those that cannot get coverage because of their exenuating health care situations. But that does not mean that we, as a whole have to hand over our sovereignty and increase our taxes to the point that we cannot AFFORD to start a new business because of the overbearing tax code that ensues.

It is time that we all wake up and realize that the government is not working in our best interest. They are working for more power…period. PERIOD. The more people that depend on them, the mre power they wield.

Congratulations on the ratings! You certainly deserve them. I wish you continued movement in the same direction. Maybe you and the 34 viewers you now have can start a spinoff? Meltdown, with the MSNBC Chief Propagandist?

Are you guys really too stupid to see that you are no longer relevant or are you just keeping your collective heads in the sand? Has Fox News been kicking your collective butts only since they were put on the White House enemies list, or have they been doin it for YEARS?

Your competition, Bill O’Reilly, has THREE TIMES the amount of viewers and even Glenn Beck, with a crappy 5 O’Clock time slot, is kicking your butt 3.1 million viewers to your 1.3 million.

Get the hint, Olberman…nobody CARES what you have to say!

Even worse news is that COMCAST is starting to move MSNBC to Digital Only while leaving FOX, CNN and HLN on analog cable. This should shrink his numbers even more. Not that anyone but hard core leftists watch him anyway. Same goes for Rachel Madcow.

The only thing being COUNTED DOWN is the day until his show is cancelled.

Please people, stick with non-partisan talk!!!

As for Fox vs. Keith ratings, when has MSNBC ever rated higher than Fox? Fox has the edge in glitz and a DEVOTED fan base.

I love a battle of ideas, but we often only get “talking points” and repetition. I saw Steve Wynn on Fox and he spoke clearly and simply about his views … very gripping. And the others with him, both Dems and Reps … spoke “talking points.”

But at least Fox will have tough opponents on going against the grain of conservative positions.

Too bad most shows are “talking points”

Carl’s posting below

Carl says:
October 28, 2009 at 10:39 am
Im a democrat and watched Olbermann religiously during the election season. Olbmermann had a lot of targets; John McCain, Sarah Palin, George Bush. But once Obama won the election, I started watching Fox News. The opinions of the party OUT of power are usually more interesting than a ‘raa raa’ session for the party IN power. Why watch Chris Matthews pat other Democrats on the back when I can watch Glenn Beck cry about how the country is becoming a dictatorship and see a diagram on a chalk board that ties Obama to Stalin. I like hearing opinions that differ from my own especially when they are this entertaining

It is not like anyone ever gets convinced in online discussion about anything…

People have their opinions, and for “unknown reasons” there is a clear and present bias with the comments on this page that is not wholly representative of the populous at large. If there was, we’d be talking about how president McCain is a ratings glory hole for MSNBC.

Olbermann never claims to have the highest rated cable news show, I watch him just about every night. Still, ratings don’t equal quality. And if Olbernmann can still deliver an average of more than a million viewers in a significantly down month when many other cable entertainment shows can not, MSNBC is just fine with his performance.

Just this month, O’Reilly got about a 2.5 which is close to what Olbermann averaged in October. That says to me that all cable news programs are down from the last election cycle.

Also, considering a repeat of Countdown at 10 does better than AC360, the Situation Room, Hardball, the Ed Show, Campbell Brown and everything else on CNBC – it’s hard to consider the show a failure. Not as watched as shows on Fox News – True. But that doesn’t mean it’s a failure.

(Umm, Mike? You may want to look at the link below where Cankles Ubberdouche claims he has the #1 rated cable “News” show.

http://video.filestube.com/video,23711dfa0b1d85cb03ea.html)

Felix says:
October 28, 2009 at 11:22 am

Olbermann’s ratings are hurt by all the reruns. Clearly MSNBC has just been repeating his shows from last year over and over again. Whenever I turn him on, he’s ranting about George Bush, Dick Cheney, Sarah Palin. Olbermann fans, can you tell me when does he will start doing new shows again?

(These ARE his new shows Felix. It seems like no one changed the teleprompter from last years scripts. Or, he can’t stop because he didn’t get new notes from mediamatters.com or dailykooks yet. Or, he just doesn’t know about anything else to talk about.)

Read above.

>However any story about msnbc having low ratings will bring out conservatives if not Republicans.

This is true.

http://www.quantcast.com/dailykos.com#demographics

shown above? I think many of your statements are subject to quite a bit of question. Based on the demographics I don’t think you can make much of this sites breakdown as saying anything about their politics. However any story about msnbc having low ratings will bring out conservatives if not Republicans.

No Bill, the data shows that because TVBythenumbers is not a politically themed site, its audience does not have a political predisposition (unlike Gawker or Kos.)People come here to read about TV ratings. Thus we can take the demographic numbers, assume they are not skewed and then apply the percentages from the national breakdown of party affiliation based on race, age, and sex.

If you are saying there are equal amounts of Democrats, Independents and Republicans that visit this site you are in effect saying that Democrats are underrepresented being they have twice the statistical value of Republicans based on the most recent polling data. Are you following me?

As for Gawker, the fact that older white liberal men like the salacious stuff they post is no surprise. Being that it is an Online NEW YORK Magazine would probably account for the progressive slant in the user generated commentary. It is tailored for that specific audience (Northeast liberals.)

This site does not have a particular appeal to liberals or conservatives so the demographics are probably a more honest slice of America and from that would could extrapolate that the majority of commentators are older white Republican men.

On another note, something I have always found funny…

For liberals, news is a collage of mainstream and secondary sources, be it MSNBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, BBC, PBS, The New York Times. The LA Times, The Washington post et al. For conservatives it is Fox News or bust with maybe a little Drudge report thrown in for good measure.

..and there is a very good reason why. In these tough times with the Republican party probably to remain a minority party in both Houses of Congress and the White House for the foreseeable future(think at least 7 more years) – They need a place to tune in an hear anything that will reinforce their ideology and tell them everything will return to the way it was in 1950 very, very soon…

Haha…it is actually quite sad, but rather than digress I’ll leave this old white male boys club to its devices and catch up on the latest Dollhouse news!

http://www.quantcast.com/dailykos.com#demographics

they are white, male, and OFF THE CHARTS old. We are relatively less male, relatively less white and downright youthful by comparison. The data clearly suggest that most of the people who really care about television news and politics on a regular basis are older white men. Left, right, or center.

Check out Gawker, a left-wing gossip site with like 99% left-wing commenters, looks pretty similar to the one you posted of this site lol

http://www.quantcast.com/gawker.com#demographics

Naming someone ‘The Worst Person in the World’ is Keith Olbermann’s shot at being non-judgemental.

We post what we think people will read.

Another factor is common to political magazines and other opinion journalism. Readership/viewership is noticeably higher when in the opposition. Conflict draws people in (as in pausing to watch a fistfight in the real world). Without the us versus them tension of having an in-power opponent, the edge comes off and the interest of the casual viewer (interested in observing David/Goliath verbal sparing — even with an off-screen antagonist) wanes.

K.O. could bring some of the edge back by inviting in as guests policy wonks from the right (and not message-of-the-day verbal flamethrowers who would turn off his core audience) capable of intelligent debate. The late William F. Buckley did it for years on Firing Line. Watching an intelligent debate with a conservative version of a Howard Fineman would lessen the odds of fast forwarding through much of the first half of the program. I wouldn’t touch the World’s Best/Worst segments of the show — they are the most unique and entertaining parts of the broadcast.

White, Male and Old (aka Republicans.)

Not a good reflection of society as a whole so I guess it is best to take this fodder with a grain of salt…

Correct. He’s unentertainingly loony.

- JP

FOX every night from 5-10 @ our house. Of course, often we have the tv on and are laying on the couch in the living room not really watching but listening. Also, I practice my piano usually during Brett and Shep – getting up when i hear something exciting haha, yes, two hours of piano.
During Shawn’s show I am doing evening chores, but listening.

I think it is hilarious that they have so few commercial sponsors, you know those sponsors are being threatened by that WH thug group not to advert on Fox. lol

If MSNBC management had 1 functional brain cell, they would fire him.

On the other hand, everyone is watching Bill O’Reilly, so it really doesn’t matter what MSNBC puts in the time slot — they could never win the hour.

Michael Musto’s segments leave much to be desired, as well…

For what it’s worth, Keith has taken a lot of days off this year, more than even O’Reilly, one would think. Of course, most of them are related to caring for his parents (one of whom is now deceased). I’ve noticed that he has taken Fridays off for awhile, and last Friday, when I saw Lawrence O’Donnell (who deserves a regular MSNBC show of his own, btw) introduce a segment, he referred to it being a “regular” segment or something… So I get the feeling that Fridays for Keith will be like Mondays to Johnny Carson.

I don’t think you can find a bigger or better jackass anywhere.

not the same ones i track…