TV News & Politics, Perfect Bedfellows

Several TV news-meets-politics stories in the weekly newsmagazines and today’s New York Times.

-Jim Rutenberg, The New York Times:

“On any given night, there are two distinctly, even extremely, different views of the presidential campaign offered on two of the three big cable news networks, Fox News Channel and MSNBC…”

-Sarah Kliff, Newsweek:

“The three major cable networks-CNN, Fox News and MSNBC-have all seen their ratings skyrocket, thanks to the election. But if history’s any guide, there will inevitably be a post-election crash. Both Fox and CNN saw double-digit drops in their prime-time ratings the day after the 2004 election.”

-Alessandra Stanley, The New York Times:

“Neither CNN nor the Fox News Channel is known for comedy, or even much of a sense of humor, so it is a measure of how important a role comedy has played in the 2008 election that these two sober cable news channels now offer lighthearted Saturday night talk shows.”

-David Von Drehle, Time:

“The fracturing of the media into a thousand voices — many of them strident — will further complicate the new President’s efforts to deliver on the promise of a more civil way of doing the nation’s business.

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