(Press Secretary Robert Gibbs demonstrated how to the WH press corps last week.)
Baltimore Sun TV critic David Zurawik: Now comes the ratings data this week showing that Fox, which has long ruled in cable TV news ratings, has entered another league altogether of near-total dominance. I believe this current ratings surge is related to Fox and the relentless watch it is keeping on the White House. Viewers are responding to Fox as the cable channel speaking most effectively to citizen questions and concerns about the breakneck pace at which American life is being tranformed while so few hard questions are being asked elsewhere on television.
Comparing the second quarter of 2009 with the same period in 2008, Fox is up in total-day viewing by 33 percent among all viewers and 44 percent in the key news demographic of viewers 25 to 44 years of age.In prime time, it is up 34 percent in total viewers and 55 percent in the desired demographic. Fifty-five percent!
Even more impressive is that the Fox ratings surge comes at a time when competitors often try to explain any year-to-year ratings drop by saying you can't compare pre-election 2008 and post-election ratings because the audience was so much larger and more engaged last year at this time due to the presidential race. Yeah, tell that to Fox.
In the first quarter of 2009, Fox had nine of the top 10 shows in cable news. The only non-Fox entry in the Top 10 during the first three months of the year was Keith Olbermann's show on MSNBC.
Now, Fox owns all 10 of the Top 10 spots -- no Olbermann in the Top 10.
Fox is now the 3rd highest rated basic cable channel in prime time behind USA and TNT, which program top-rated entertainment series.
Maybe, it's wishful thinking. But I would like to believe part of the latest surge is the result of Fox performing a socially important press function in not giving the president a free pass to change American life overnight.
Note: Olbermann branded Zurawik "Worst Person In The Wurrrrrlddd!" recently for criticism that got under Olbermann's thin psycho skin.
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