State of the News Media 2008

Rachel Sklar, formerly of The Huffington Post and now of Abrams Research, takes a look back at '08 (and a look forward) in a column on The Daily Beast.

One area is the African American media landscape. "Considering what a watershed year it was racially, surprisingly few new African-American stars emerged," she writes. "The networks relied, for the most part, on the names they already knew...If 2009 isn't the year of the black media star, then we are all doing something wrong."

And with the Obama-media correlation, there's also one regarding Clinton and the media. "We are so not ready for a female president. By 'we' I mean the media, whose stunning mishandling of the gender politics of the 2008 race meant that no one would even admit there might be a sexism problem until it was too late for Hillary Clinton — and just in time for Sarah Palin," writes Sklar.

Other topics discussed include two undercovered (or "undernews") areas — the war in Iraq and John Edwards.

Remember voting? That was exciting. Let's channel all the voting that took place this year and make your voices heard regarding some 2009 TV news predictions. Voting closes January 7. Happy New Year, and see you in '09:











And three repeats from last year:

If you haven't voted yet... here's your chance:

From a Matt Lauer tease to a disturbing Glenn Beck video (and his new place of employment). From what David Shuster said on-air to what Jesse Jackson said off-air, here are the top 10 TVNewser stories, by page view, from 2008.

And since it's the holiday season, we included a little thank you in parentheses to the sites that made these page views possible.

1. January 4 — Beck Surgery Goes Horribly Awry — 907,286 (Drudge)

2. July 16 — Breaking: What Else Jesse Jackson Said on That FNC Tape — 366,611 (Drudge)

3. February 8 — Shuster Suspended For Pimped Out Comment — 334,182 (Drudge)

4. January 28 — Clinton Cancels on the Cablers — 214,524 (Drudge)

5. October 16 — Glenn Beck To Join Fox News Channel — 167,721 (Glennbeck.com)

6. May 28 — May Ratings: FNC Stays on Top — 76,480 (Drudge)

7. May 27 — Couric to Make Major Announcement on Today — 60,999 (Drudge)

8. November 23, 2007 — Glenn Beck's Road Ahead: "A Doctor Told Me, 'You Keep Treating Your Body Like This, You'll Be Dead in 6 Months'" — 57,060 (TVNewser link from #1)

9. March 15 — Laurie Dhue Leaves FNC — 47,113 (Fark, HotAir)

10. February 8 — "Pimped Out" Comment Could Jeopardize Dem Debate on MSNBC — 46,892 (TVNewser link from #3)

• TVNewser's Top 10 of 2007

Last year at this time we brought you the 2008 TVNewser Challenge — eight questions about what will happen in the coming year. With more than 25,000 total votes cast, the results were set. In a year of some sketchy predicting ability by the "experts," how did you do with your predictions?

• In the closest vote of the Challenge, 47.83% of you thought NBC Nightly News would finish first while 47.60% thought it would be ABC. In the end, although it was close, the NBC's have it.

• None of our five choices left the anchor chair during 2008; in fact, two got a contract extension. Maybe we should have put Alan Colmes in.

• We asked whether the Today show would "maintain its dominance" or "lose ground to GMA." 49.29% of you thought "Today" would maintain its dominance while while 37.63% thought the program would lose ground. In fact, the "Today" show had a very strong 2008 consistently beating second place GMA by more than a million viewers. The Total Viewer gap increased from 13% (616,000) in 2007 to 26% (1,134,000) in 2008.

• 71.34% of you were right that Shepard Smith will continue what he's doing (but in a new studio) at 7pmET.

• Despite a big push by Nancy Grace in December, 45.42% had it right that Campbell Brown's 8pmET show on CNN would finish #3 in the time slot.

• The cable news show most likely to be canceled was a runaway in the voting, and the majority got it right: 57.67% of you thought it would be "Tucker" and an additional 10.19% were sort of right about CNBC's "The Big Idea." (Shelved, not canceled.)

• Then there's Fox Business Network. 52.46% thought the new net would not be close to CNBC in the ratings, and although that's somewhat vague, it's probably closer to the truth than "competitive with CNBC." So we'll keep an eye after year two.

• The Weekend Today anchor race was decided, by not being decided. We asked who would be the co-anchor with Lester Holt: 34.4% said it would be Amy Robach, 31.67% said Jenna Wolfe and 33.92% voted "Neither." In the end nothing has changed — Robach anchors Saturday, Wolfe on Sunday. Should we vote again?

Which brings us to 2009.

Later today — The 2009 TVNewser Challenge!

It's time to look back at this historic year in which the media played such an important role — often becoming the story. What do you think was the biggest TV News story of the year?

The Pew Research Center has put out their post-election report, and Bill O'Reilly was found to lead both the "favorite campaign journalist" and "least favorite campaign journalist" lists. Tom Brokaw and Sean Hannity were the other two to reach above 2% on the favorite list, and Katie Couric, Fox News in general, Rush Limbaugh and Keith Olbermann had more than 2% of the vote out of the least favorites.

Couric was #1 in a different category — Republicans' least favorite reporter (this may have had something to do with it). O'Reilly won big on the Democrats' list.

And what may signal a bad sign for the cablers — 82% of those polled said they will not miss following election news.

These days you may feel like Yana Collins Lehman. The Brooklyn film production accountant and mother of 5-year-old Beckett was surprised when one day Beckett said to no one in particular, "I'm John McCain, and I approved this statement." And this is New York, where there's scant political advertising compared to states like Ohio, Florida and Wisconsin.

Collins Lehman was one of several news junkies featured this weekend in a New York Times Sunday Styles story by Alex Williams. Collins Lehman is watching so much news these days, she scaled back her Netflix account to two movies a month.

Ray Roker has also become an information addict. He sets his DVR to record more than 10 political shows every day. Then he spends four to five hours a night watching them. "If that's not addiction, I don't know what is," Roker tells Williams in an email message.

A presidential contest and a faltering economy are driving Americans to cable TV and the internet like never before. We've seen ratings records for CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, Fox News and ABC. So we want to know:

(Photo: Kelly Shimoda for The New York Times)

Days before Gov. Sarah Palin sits down for her first big interview with ABC's Charlie Gibson, we put the issue of press fairness to a poll. But first, some notes.

• According to a Rasmussen poll out last week, 51% of voters think, "reporters are trying to hurt Sarah Palin with their news coverage." The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz was "critical of the media's performance," including many who took, "cheap shots," at the GOP VP nominee. Of course, some think the media's coverage has been completely fair.

• Then there's the issue of internet rumors. Newsweek published a fact check, taking on Soledad O'Brien's assertion that Gov. Palin cut 62% of the funding for special needs education. The story proved to be a false. But O'Brien was not the only one to report it as fact — it was brought up last night during the Lou Dobbs Independent Convention, which TVNewser attended (more on that later). Also on CNN, during Sunday's Reliable Sources, correspondent Lola Ogunnaike was making a point about a bikini-wearing, gun-toting Palin — an image that was photoshopped.

• Then there's this video sent by an emailer yesterday, of Donny Deutsch putting on his advertising exec hat while dissecting the Palin choice. Duetsch was making the point that some Palin supporters are concluding, "'I want her laying in bed next to me.'"

Check it out:



So, what do you think?

Is the 2008 election coverage "new"?

The New York Daily News' Richard Huff talked to many in the media and who cover it regarding the evolution of politics/press.

"I've been covering campaigns for a lot of years," said FNC EP of political coverage Marty Ryan. "There was the simple 24-hour news cycle. Now, with 24-hour cable — this is where the game is now — plus the blogs, there are news cycles that don't even last five minutes."

Huff cites the addition of multiple outlets, blogs and even Twitter with changing the coverage.

Tom Rosenstiel, head of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, makes the case to be wary of politicians giving press advice. "Their goal is getting elected, not improving the press," he said.

• Related: What the media was saying after the Palin speech.