One NewsNight Story About Rathergate? Try Eight

In an interview with the Oregonian today, CNN anchor Aaron Brown says he took a moderate approach to Rathergate. "We did one story and moved on," Brown said. But a quick Lexis Nexis search reveals NewsNight offered eight updates on the story recently. "The Rather effect is apparently spreading to CNN like a virus," an insider remarked today. "Of all the stories to lie about covering, Aaron picks this one?" Check all the transcripts yourself on CNN.com...

> Update: 1:10am: Aaron Brown recently told Editor's Notes that Memogate was "a story that deserved attention. A major TV news organization took a major hit." More...

Ratings: NBC Nightly News Dominates Evening

Quoting NBC's press release: "'NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw' dominated ABC and CBS by double digits in total viewers and topped both of them in every other category for the week of September 20 – 24, 2004.  For the week, "Nightly News" averaged 9.439 million total viewers, a staggering 16% advantage (+1,301,000) over ABC "World News Tonight's 8.138 million, and a whopping 38% (+2,574,000) lead over CBS "Evening News'" 6.865 million.  This represents the seventh straight week that the NBC newscast has topped ABC by over 10%." Will another round of "Evening News ratings woes" stories follow?...

Debate: Media Organizations Ignore Restrictions

The pages of debate rules agreed upon by the Bush and Kerry campaigns won't necessarily be followed by media organizations tomorrow. Here's what spokespeople told the AP:
> Paul Schur, FNC: "Because of journalistic standards, we're not going to follow outside restrictions." (Fox will provide the pool feed in Miami.)
> Barbara Levin, NBC: "This is a news pool, and we are not subject to agreements between candidates...We will use pictures as we see fit."
> Matthew Furman, CNN: The network "reserves the right to make our own decisions about coverage during the debate, just as we always have."

MoveOn Criticizes CNN's Gallup Polls

MoveOn.org criticized CNN and USA Today's use of Gallup polling in a full-page NYT ad Tuesday, and CJR's Campaign Desk says CNN "circled the wagons." They say Judy Woodruff's response was "not the journalism of a disinterested party with no ax to grind. This was PR." Details...

Sites: Iraq Journos Are Like Infants

MSNBC Baghdad correspondent Kevin Sites says Western journalists in Iraq "are like infants -- must be spoon fed information to stay alive." On his blog, he writes: "We are living vicariously through our local fixers and crews. The conventional wisdom in Iraq now (at least for highly conspicuous tv news) is, 'go out heavy (embed with the military) or don't go out at all.'" He's promising to blog more frequently... (Via LostRemote)

1st Fox News-Branded Radio Station Announced

KVI Talk Radio 570 in Seattle has become the first "Fox News branded radio station in the country." The channel will feature FNC personalities and news updates, along with Tony Snow, Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes' radio shows. More...

Ratings Recap: Strong Quarter For The Cablers

Variety sums up the Q3 ratings: "For the first time in its history, Fox News Channel beat the combined competition in primetime during the third quarter of 2004, with major headlines of the summer including the national political conventions and a brutal string of hurricanes. According to Nielsen Media Research, Fox News averaged 1.8 million viewers, while CNN, MSNBC, CNBC and Headline News averaged a combined total of 1.7 million." Here are all the #'s...

Should We Be Impressed President Bush Didn't Restrict O'Reilly's Questions? (No)

Bill O'Reilly deserves kudos for his great interview with President Bush, but his Talking Points on Monday irked me. "The president did not receive the questions in advance, nor were there any restrictions on what I could ask," Bill said. "Again, that's impressive. Even if you don't support Mr. Bush, you have to admire his willingness to discuss the issues in a venue like this." No, it's not impressive, and we shouldn't "admire his willingness" -- it's expected from a sitting President.