A Dan With A Plan

Now you know why Anderson Cooper and other cable news network "stars" blather endlessly about their Twitter sites. The more Twitter followers the higher these fools rank on former MSNBC's "The Verdict" host Dan Abrams's new media ranking site Mediaite.com debuting today. What a concept!

The verdict?  Biased and personality-driven like MSNBC.  And fatuous.  Abrams manages to dumb down the media to the bottom of the food chain much to the consternation of dinosaur purists who not only hate what Abrams is doing, they (including me) question how he can do this while running Abrams Research pimping media stars to corporate clients.

What Abrams is doing is creating the buzz climate for which his clients are paying big bucks.  "It's all about status," trumpets Abrams Research February 2009 Social Media Survey.

It appears that Abrams is hellbent on a media fiefdom where one arm feeds off the other. PRNewser after an Abrams speech last month:  "You can't look at the media as just mainstream media journalists. A lot of what we're [Abrams Research] doing is social media strategy. With social media changing, literally every month there are major new developments that you have to understand. Anyone who can't tap into the cutting edge are at a distinct disadvantage."

When asked specifically about Abrams Research's current business momentum, Abrams would only say, "business is going great." He also wouldn't mention any clients by name. "I'm not going to get into that yet. We will in the relatively near future."

Abrams to Wash Post media czar Howard Kurtz:   "Part of what we're doing is appreciating the celebrity of the media," Abrams says. The site "plays into the vanity of these individuals," says Managing Editor Colby Hall, a former producer for MTV and VH1, but is "not over-snarky or mean and nasty."

Abrams:  ""It's fun to take some jabs at people in the media, calling out hypocrisy and gaffes."

Howard Himself a CNN star and an aggressive troller for social networking notoriety:  "I came in 78th, behind Ellen DeGeneres but creaming Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien."

Howard:  Few would quarrel with the notion of Oprah Winfrey as the most influential television host, with Bill O'Reilly coming in second. But Elisabeth Hasselbeck at No. 4 and Jon Stewart at No. 15 -- ahead of Bob Schieffer (37), Chris Matthews (40) and David Gregory (50)? Kelly Ripa (20) and Mary Hart (22) trouncing Wolf Blitzer (70), Joe Scarborough (89) and Charlie Gibson (117)?

In other Mediaite rankings, No. 1 finishers include Newt Gingrich (pundits), Rupert Murdoch (media moguls), Jeff Zucker (TV titans), Chuck Todd (TV reporters), Glenn Beck (radio hosts), Paul Krugman (columnists), Bill Keller (newspaper/online editors) and Jon Meacham (magazine editors). All that seems like a lot of bandwidth for something so gimmicky, but Abrams says a more substantive approach would be dismissed as purely subjective.

It's all about the amount of online BUZZ these "stars" solicit and the mantra of Dan Abrams's real money-making venture:  Abrams Research.

The sickening by-product of social networking and "buzz":  Ratings.  CNN, which one of my commenters has christened "Corpse News Network," MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC (late to the Michael Jackson Staples Center Spectacle) are all going Off The Wall wall-to-wall for Jacko's memorial service Tuesday in LA.