Can I Call The President a Scaredy Cat?

Or is that racist too?

Barry O is going on an all out television blitz in the coming days, appearing everywhere but on "Survivor", where they no doubt would vote him off the island. Everywhere that is but Fox News.

He was on "60 Minutes" this weekend. Did anybody watch it? He is making campaign stops at the major union halls and making the rounds of the late night tv shows. He is doing everything but acting like a president.

The president is going to appear on five Sunday talk shows – five – to press his case for health care, White House officials disclosed. That is a presidential record.

Mr. Obama is going to appear on This Week with George Stephanopoulos on ABC. And Meet the Press on NBC. And Face the Nation on CBS. In between, he is going to sit down for interviews on CNN and Univision. (Fox News didn’t make the cut).

Barry if you can't stand the heat from the Fox kitchen, how in the hell can we expect you to stand up to Islamic terrorists, socialistic regimes, and dictators bent on nuclear power? Those people are not impressed by your command of the teleprompter and they certainly are not going to be lobbing softballs at us if they wake up on the wrong side of the bed one day.

He has been on tv so much that he should qualify to receive royalty checks for syndication. He has certainly lasted longer then most new series on NBC do.

Shock Study: Kids Like Watching TV

Remarkably, someone actually spent money to research this. I could have saved them some dough with the findings of my own research: Just watch the reaction of a kid when you unceremoniously change the channel or shut the television off.

TECHNOLOGY continually invades the lives of most young Australians but the one constant is television, according to new research.

A staggering 94 per cent of all children aged between three and 17, responding to a survey, watched in excess of one hour of TV a day, edging towards two hours for those over the age of eight.

The study, compiled by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, reveals how much technology plays a role in the lives of Australian children. It brought together data from two surveys conducted in 2007.

Interest in other mediums, such as DVDs, videos and computers, both rose and fell depending on age. However, children continued to watch TV at the same participation rates.

DVDs and videos were of most interest to the three to four-year-old age bracket but interest in these seems to have decreased as children got older.

Yes, right around the time they discover the Cartoon Network.

The next study will probably find kids watch more TV during the winter when they spend less time outdoors.

Heh: Fox's 'Lie to Me' Wins 8 pm Timeslot While Obama Lied to Everyone Else

Sure, you can quibble that Obama's combined audience was greater than Fox's 'Lie to Me' airing opposite him, but Fox had better ratings than any other network during Wednesday night's 8 pm Eastern time slot.

FOX Lie to Me 2.4/7 2.1/7 7.88
CW Top Model 1.8/6 2.1/7 4.00
ABC Obama 1.6/5 1.4/5 6.12
CBS Obama 1.5/5 0.9/3 6.01
NBC Obama 1.6/5 1.1/4 6.68
UNI Obama 1.3/4 1.3/4 3.224

Smart move by Fox ignoring Obama's self-congratulatory, albeit inept, presser.

Of course if you're still reading newspaper sycophants, well, it was the best press conference in the history of mankind.

Thanks to Ace and Instapundit for the links.

More NAACP Mau-Mauing About Lack of Diversity on TV

I see white people

Lack of diversity, of course, meaning they want to see more black people, just for the sake of it. But that's not racist, of course.

Here's a suggestion for these racial grievance-mongers: Just put on any news channel and you'll see endless fawning and sucking up to a black guy. Well, he's half black, and if you haven't noticed, he's the King President-elect.

Nearly a decade after the NAACP condemned a "virtual whiteout" in broadcast TV, the civil rights group said major networks have stalled in their efforts to further ethnic diversity on-screen and off.

Television shows of the future could be even less inclusive because of a failure to cultivate young minority stars and to bring minorities into decision-making positions, NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous said.

The effect on the country could be profound, Jealous said.

"This is America: So goes TV, so goes reality. We don't think it's any accident that before we had a black president in reality, we had a black president on TV," he said, referring to the chief executive portrayed by Dennis Haysbert on Fox's "24."

Not only that, but his little brother Wayne also became president, so there.

A "critical lack of programming by, for or about people of color" can be traced in part to the lack of minorities who have the power to approve new series or make final creative decisions, said Vicangelo Bulluck, executive director of NAACP's Hollywood bureau.

Oh, sorry about calling them black. My bad. People of color. Forgot about that one.

NBC To Give Jay Leno 10 pm Timeslot

Killing two birds with one shot. Save production costs on some likely bomb programs and go with a known quantity. Can he pull in a sizable enough audience night after night to go up against established network shows in that timeslot?

We'll find out.

NBC is expected to announce Tuesday that it has signed its late-night star Jay Leno to a new contract that will keep him at the network in a new format that will give him the 10 p.m. time period each weeknight for a show similar to the one he has done on NBC’s “Tonight Show” show since 1993.

Five years ago NBC announced that it would give the job of host of that franchise late-night show to Conan O’Brien in May 2010. Since then the network has maneuvered to try to keep Mr. Leno, who continues to be the late-night ratings leader, at the network in some capacity, fearing that he could leave and start a new late-night show on a competitor.

Mr. Leno was known to have suitors, including ABC, the Fox network and the Sony television studio. The new show is expected to be set in Mr. Leno’s longtime studio in Burbank, Calif. Mr. O’Brien will move the “Tonight” show to a new studio on the NBC Universal lot in Universal City, Calif.

No broadcast network has ever before offered the same show in prime time five nights a week. Such so-called “stripped shows” have been a staple of daytime broadcasting.

The offer of a new weeknight show for Mr. Leno at 10 p.m., an idea that NBC executives said Monday came from the NBC chief executive, Jeff Zucker, not only allows NBC to retain Mr. Leno’s services, but also means the network may be able to greatly reduce costs of developing and producing other prime-time shows.

Quagmire! NBC, CNN Cut Hundreds of Jobs

Maybe this wouldn't have happened if they actually reported the news. Instead they sold their soul to the Democratic Party and in effect became adjuncts to the DNC.

Now look where it got them. Redeployed to the unemployment line.

First up is the far left NBC cutting 500 jobs. They throw millions at the moron they have on MSNBC at 8 pm while staffers get pink slips.

TVNewser has learned NBC Universal will be cutting up to 500 jobs in a round of layoffs which are now underway at all levels of the company — television, film and parks. That amounts to about 3% of the workforce. An insider with knowledge of the situation says the cuts are expected to continue into next week.
...
Last month, TVNewser reported the network was offering buyouts to "virtually everyone." If enough employees did not accept the offer, layoffs were to be the next step.

Meanwhile, CNN is lopping off entire units.

CNN, the Cable News Network, announced yesterday that it will cut its entire science, technology, and environment news staff, including Miles O’Brien, its chief technology and environment correspondent, as well as six executive producers. Mediabistro’s TVNewser broke the story.

“We want to integrate environmental, science and technology reporting into the general editorial structure rather than have a stand alone unit,” said CNN spokesperson Barbara Levin. “Now that the bulk of our environmental coverage is being offered through the Planet in Peril franchise, which is produced by the Anderson Cooper 360 program, there is no need for a separate unit.”

There's a lesson to be learned here if they're paying attention: Less environmental hysteria equals fewer people tuning them out.

They'll never listen, of course, which is why they're sinking into the morass.

“It’s disheartening,” said Christy George, who is president of the Society of Environmental Journalists and has worked closely there with Peter Dykstra, CNN’s outgoing executive producer for science and technology. “For the last year or two, television has, in general, been making a commitment to beefing up its environmental coverage.”

If only they realized there's no such thing as global warming and they've been wasting their time and money.

Unhinged Philly Anchor Fired

We noted last month the obnoxious antics of Philadelphia news anchor Alycia Lane.

Well, she's now looking for work.

Alycia Lane -- yeah, Miss Crazazy Philly News Anchor -- has broken one too many news stories -- with her in 'em!

The news mess, who was arrested in New York in December after allegedly slapping a female cop and calling her a "f***ing d*ke" in a traffic spat, got the chop from CBS 3 this afternoon, reports the station. In a statement, CBS 3 President and GM Michael Colleran said, "We have concluded that it would be impossible for Alycia to continue to report the news as she, herself, has become the focus of so many news stories."

Lane gained notoriety last year for sending snaps of herself to NFL Network anchor Rich Eisen -- except his wife found them in e-mail and wrote her a scathing response.

Her attorney responds.

More here.

Lane has made headlines since arriving from Miami with the nickname "The Latina Bombshell." A Long Island native, she is of Puerto Rican heritage and has been a staple of gossip pages in Philadelphia after two failed marriages.

During her stint in Philadelphia, Lane cried about her first divorce on "Dr. Phil" and e-mailed bikini shots of herself to NFL Network sportscaster Rich Eisen. Eisen's wife intercepted the photos and fired back a tart response, congratulating Lane for her fit physique. An embarrassed Lane called Eisen a longtime platonic friend.

Lane has been married to a minor-league baseball player and later to a North Carolina businessman.

Recent print reports link her romantically with Chris Booker, a local radio DJ who was with her when she was arrested in New York.

Lane and Booker were out with another couple when Lane thrust a camera in the face of a male officer who was trying to get an intoxicated man to return to his taxi, according to the police affidavit and published reports.

When a female officer tried to pull the camera away, Lane allegedly identified herself as a reporter in a profanity-laced tirade in which she used the sexual slur.

Live Earth Bombs in Nielsen Ratings

What happened to the two billion people that were predicted to watch? OK, granted this just covers the United States, but these are abysmal, Olbermann-esque numbers that just cannot be spun in a positive fashion.

Viewers don't warm up to 'Live Earth' coverage

NEW YORK -- NBC's three-hour primetime "Live Earth" special, which included highlights from Saturday's global concerts, failed to generate much enthusiasm in the ratings.

The estimated 2.7 million viewers was slightly under the 3 million viewers NBC has averaged on Saturday nights in the summer with repeats and the Stanley Cup hockey playoffs on what is already the least-popular night of television.

It also performed below the Live 8 concert two years ago, according to preliminary estimates released Monday by Nielsen Media Research.

The three-hour concert special from Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., drew a 0.9 rating/3 share in adults 18-49 --- the same as a typical summer Saturday after Memorial Day.

The special was also just under ABC's primetime coverage of the Live 8 concert, which occurred Independence Day weekend on July 2, 2005. Live 8 averaged 2.9 million viewers and a 1.0 rating/5 share in adults 18-49.

But ... but ... but this was the biggest event in the history of mankind, addressing a "grave crisis" that imperils us all!

Al Gore's hologram was unavailable for comment.

Remote Control Inventor Dead

An American icon has passed away. You may not know him, but he's affected all our lives.

Hit the mute button for a moment of silence: The co-inventor of the TV remote has died.

Robert Adler, who won an Emmy Award along with fellow engineer Eugene Polley for the device that made couch potatoship possible, died Thursday of heart failure at a Boise nursing home at 93, Zenith Electronics Corp. said Friday.

In his six-decade career with Zenith, Adler was a prolific inventor, earning more than 180 U.S. patents. He was best known for his 1956 Zenith Space Command remote control, which helped make TV a truly sedentary pastime.