Ratings As A Weapon in the Cable News Battles

MediaPost editor Joe Mandese writes about the latest salvo in the Olbermann / O’Reilly “bloody on-air feud:”

“…moving from trash talk to trashing Nielsen’s TV ratings for the fledgling Fox Business [Network]. What makes the development so surprising is that Nielsen has yet to release any ratings for the new business network, and the on-air rants are likely not-so-veiled references to highly preliminary ratings data that Fox and NBC have purchased from Nielsen.”

“A Nielsen spokesman said such data is available for purchase by any client, but said it was unclear whether there were any restrictions on publicizing them.”

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