Dylan Ratigan: 'Tankster'

Bill Gorman TVbytheNumbers: Not one, but two pieces in the New York Times today about Dylan Ratigan’s transformation from CNBC stock picker to MSNBC (primarily anti-bank) crusader. Unfortunately, he’s transformed MSNBC’s ratings downward.

NYT Brian Stelter: On most cable newscasts, the people who are writing new financial regulations are called congressmen. But on “The Dylan Ratigan Show” on MSNBC, some are called “banksters.” That term, a twist on gangsters ...  

Yeah, I'm smarter than a 5th grader and figured out the 'gangster' thing myself, Brian. But if you check out Dylan's ratings after a year on MSNBC, on Chickaboomer Dylan's called a 'tankster.'

Brian notes that the NBC-owned CNBC 'is sometimes mistaken for the captain of the stock market cheering squad.'

How's Dylan's anti-bank, anti-Wall Street play-acting going to play with MSNBC advertisers?

“Dylan wants to change the world. He’s a crusader.”  MSNBC czar Phil Griffin to pimp reporter Stelter, adding:

There are early signs that viewers are responding favorably to Mr. Ratigan. His show, which is on at 4 p.m. on weekdays, had an average of 330,000 viewers each afternoon in May, up 20 percent from the straightforward newscast that ran on MSNBC in that time slot last year — yet another viewer vote for opinion over old-fashioned news.

But in the battle for second place behind Fox News, MSNBC still loses to CNN in the daytime — including Mr. Ratigan’s hour — even though it wins at night . . . At MSNBC, Mr. Ratigan was initially given a midmorning time slot, but he made no dent in the ratings. Mr. Griffin concluded that “he plays better in the afternoon,” closer to the channel’s evening lineup of point-of-view hosts like Chris Matthews and Ed Schultz.

What has changed, perhaps, is that, while an anchorman like Mr. Dobbs fought to express his opinions on CNN, Mr. Ratigan is being emboldened by his bosses. Mr. Griffin likened Mr. Ratigan to a “wild mustang,” and said, “I don’t want to change him. I want to tame him a little bit,” so that the audience can keep up.

His advice to Mr. Ratigan: “If you want to create a movement, take it a little slower.

TVbytheNumbers Gorman reports, indeed, ex-CNBCer Dylan is taking it waaaay slow building up a following : His Dylan Ratigan Show (4pm Eastern, weekdays) launched on January 11, 2010, replacing MSNBC Live in that time period.

Dates Program Avg. Viewers (000s) Adults 25-54 (000s) Since then, vs. the same time period in 2009, the Dylan Ratigan Show has lost 12% of MSNBC Live’s average viewership and 21% of its cable news advertiser target adults 25-54 audience.

01/11/10-06/24/10 DYLAN RATIGAN SHOW 325 83

01/12/09-06/25/09 MSNBC LIVE 371 105

Change -12% -21%

Who’s [sic]  money is Dylan pouring out of a bucket?

Bill's referring to this NYTimes photo that accompanied Stelter's piece.

Maybe it's all the dough MSNBC's lost in advertising.

Bill's not the only one puzzled over the NYTimes Stelter piece.
BusinessInsider's 'The Wire' Joe Pompeo bends it like Bill.

Ratigan, an obvious over-indulger of Russian vodka, is 'transforming' himself into a 'Howard Beale' huckster.

MSNBC's theatrical primetime lineup is hosted by pitchmen on the level of the late Billy Mays.  Sham. Wow!  NYTimes fails to issue the disclaimer:  NYT has a 'content-sharing agreement' with MSNBC, CNBC, NBC et al.

I'd rather have my fingernails extracted with pliers than endure the torture of Dylan Ratigan's 4p three-ring circus.

To quote circus master showman P.T. Barnum:  'There's a sucker born every minute' - but I -- and thousands of others -- am not one of them.