A blog called Olbermann Watch says this site is run by a “liberal activist” who “despises Fox News” and emphasizes 25-54 demographic ratings data “at the behest of executives at MSNBC.” If you really believe that, click continued to find out why I emphasize the demo data…

Olbermann Watch, a blog dedicated to lambasting MSNBC host Keith Olbermann, recently turned its attention to this site. In a 2,630 word post analyzing this blog, Robert Cox calls me a “liberal activist” who “despises Fox News.”

For the record, I am not a liberal activist and I do not despise Fox News.

The writer tries to figure out why this site has started to emphasize 25-54 demographic ratings instead of total viewers and share data. Here’s the hypothesis: “I believe Brian began focusing on this demographic at the behest of executives at MSNBC who decided that since they had no chance of ever catching Fox News in the ratings they would try to redefine what success meant by focusing on a demographic where they were not as far behind.”

Wow.

For the record, I don’t do anything “at the behest of executives at MSNBC.” I’ve talked to MSNBC president Rick Kaplan twice in the last nine months, and we didn’t talk about ratings (or Olbermann) on either occasion.

I started emphasizing demo data at the end of 2005 as I gradually learned that the cable news nets simply do not care about total viewers. Got it? They do not care.

At CNN, the ratings reports delivered to execs like Jon Klein only analyze the demo ratings. They do not mention total viewers. At CNBC, the afternoon “daily nationals” delivered to execs like Jeff Zucker and Mark Hoffman focus solely on the demo. They don’t mention P2+, either.

So when I “ignore share data,” as Cox asserts, I do it because the cable news execs do it, too. They measure success or failure based on the demo, so I do, too. Fox News Channel usually wins every hour, every daypart, every day, in every category of viewership. That’s why a ratings win by Fox News is not as notable as a ratings win by CNN or MSNBC. To suggest that I’m motivated by ideology or influence by certain cable news channels is offensive, baseless, and wrong.

Thanks, though, to Olbermann Watch, for giving me an excuse to explain why the demo matters.

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