Grumpy Editor

POST-ELECTION SEES FEWER PRIME-TIME CABLE NEWS VIEWERS

Post-election cable news viewers have gone to other things, notes Grumpy Editor.

As The Wall Street Journal points out, cable-news viewership fell for all major networks in this year’s first quarter.

It cites Fox News losing 32 percent of prime-time viewers in the first three months of 2021 compared with last year’s fourth quarter, based on Nielsen data, with CNN and MSNBC showing smaller declines of 16 percent and 7.8 percent respectively,  “though each fell more substantially from highs they hit in January.”

The Journal points out “Fox News retained the No. 1 spot among prime time viewers for the full quarter, averaging 2.58 million, though its lead has narrowed.  MSNBC is second in that category with 2.29 million viewers and CNN, which was No. 1 in the weeks after November’s election, is now No. 3 with 1.99 million.”

Following the election, cable news networks have made significant programming changes.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

 CHURCH MEMBERSHIP EBBS.  American church membership falls below the majority for the first time, Gallup finds.  It tracks church membership over the past 80 years, starting with 73 percent membership in 1937 and peaking just after World War II with 76 percent.  The past 20 years have seen a sharp dropoff, falling from 70 percent to 47 percent.  Church membership was strongest among those born before 1946, with 66 percent claiming membership, compared to 58 percent of baby boomers, 50 percent of Gen X and 36 percent of millennials.

EARLY BLOOM IN JAPAN.  Cherry blossoms in Japan reach their peak much earlier this year.  Usually in full bloom in April, this year’s peak appeared on March 26.

 

BIDENS DOGS CONTINUE TO GRAB HEADLINES.  President Joe Biden’s dogs continue to grab headlines.  Latest concerns which of his two dogs --- Major or Champ --- left a “deposit” in a White House red-carpeted hallway. That news follows a report last week of Major’s second biting incident in March.

 

WELLS FARGO SEES STAFFERS BACK IN OFFICES IN SEPTEMBER.  With the pandemic fading, Wells Fargo & Co. plans return of home-bound employees to offices on Sept. 6.  A bank officer mentions, “We believe most of us benefit by being physically together.”

 

AUCTION SET FOR LOCK OF WASHINGTON'S HAIR.  A lock of George Washington’s hair is set for auction with bids of nearly $2,000 for the historic relic that is contained within a brass and glass locket.

 

FAMOUS GIRAFFE EUTHANIZED.  April, the giraffe that became famous via coverage of her 2017 pregnancy, is euthanized because of advancing arthritis.  The 20-year-old giraffe started to show mobility problems last summer.

 

DATE TRIGGERS WEDDINGS.  The calendar on Saturday triggered more than 1,000 people to wed in Las Vegas.  Reason: the date 4.3.21.  That doesn't happen often.

 

CABLE CHANNEL WGN PLANS THREE-HOURS OF FACT-FILLED NEWS DEBUTING IN SUMMER

 

An alternative to the current cable news networks will debut this summer via Chicago-based cable channel WGN America, notes Grumpy Editor.

“News Nation,” slated for three hours nightly, promises just the facts without opinions — which many viewers will relish.

 

It means luring audiences from MSNBC, Fox News and CNN.

 

The new prime time offering will draw on the news operations of its parent company, Nexstar Media Group which boasts 110 local newsrooms and 5,400 journalists.

 

“I’ve heard so much about how news has become coastal, all with opinionated talk, all far left or far right, with no one covering news anymore in prime time,” says Sean Compton, executive vice president at WGN America, in a Wall Street Journal interview.  “Part of the problem is all this content is created in New York City or Washington, D.C.”

 

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE...

 

 

HEMMER DEBUTS TODAY ON FOX NEWS.   Fox News' Bill Hemmer, starting today, takes over the news hour vacated by Shepard Smith late last year.  Hemmer, with Fox News since 2005, says he has no interest making opinion part of his job.

TRUMP, BLOOMBERG SLATE $10 MILLION SUPER BOWL COMMERCIALS.  President Donald Trump and presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg both plan to run Feb. 2 Super Bowl 60-second commercials.  Those commercials each cost about $10 million.  The game airs a day before the Iowa caucuses.

WOMAN JOINS S.F. GIANTS COACHING STAFF.  The San Francisco Giants makes baseball history by hiring the first woman to a Major League Baseball full-time coaching staff.  Alyssa Nakken, a former Sacramento State softball player, will help round out a 13-person staff as a “major league assistant coach.”  

COWBOY HAT-TOPPED PIGEON DIES.  A Las Vegas pigeon rescue group says one of the birds — called Billie the Pidge — that had a cowboy hat glued to its head has died.  The rescue group figures fumes from the glue could have poisoned it.

CIGARETTE TOSSERS FACE HEAVY FINES.  Drivers in New South Wales, Australia face a penalty of up to $11,000 if they are caught tossing a lit cigarette from their cars during a total fire ban.  Fines also apply to passengers if they toss cigarettes. 

FOX DROPPED FROM STUDIO NAME.  Disney, which bought 20th Century Fox with other media operations last March, cuts the word "Fox" from the studio's name.  

STUDENT JOURNALISTS EYE CRIME STATISTICS.  The Florida Institute of Technology is undergoing scrutiny after student journalists at the school's student newspaper, The Crimson, exposes a discrepancy over crime statistics reported by the university.

HUNGRY DOG EATS AT SUBWAY.  A hungry dog called “Subway Sally" is gaining widespread coverage by daily patiently waiting for supper outside the doors of a Portales, New Mexico, Subway sandwich shop for the past year.  Staff is happy to feed her.

VULTURES ROOST IN RADIO TOWER.  Federal officials are seeking solutions to address the problem posed by about 300 vultures roosting on a Customs and Border Protection radio tower in Kingsville,Texas.

AMBASSADOR'S MUSTACHE BOTHERS SOUTH KOREANS.  Harry Harris, a retired navy admiral and U.S. ambassador in South Korea since 2018, upsets the country with a mustache.  To some South Koreans, it evokes memories of Japanese colonial rule over the country from 1910 until 1945.

 

 

With Super Bowl looming, Cox pulls plug on KLAS in Vegas

Looks like a booming business from Southern Nevada this week in signups for DIRECTV or DISH, stemming from a fee battle between Cox Communications’ cable service and Nexstar Broadcasting Group, owner of KLAS, Channel 8 in Las Vegas, which is scheduled to telecast the Super Bowl next Sunday in one of the biggest betting days of the year in the gambling mecca, notes Grumpy Editor.

Cox already has blanked out KLAS cable transmissions in a steamy corporate battle.

That leads to unexpected new business for satellite service providers DIRECTV and DISH.

At issue is the monthly fee per household that Cox pays Nexstar for Channel 8's content.

In pulling the signal from subscribers to the cable service, Cox accuses KLAS, the CBS affiliate in Las Vegas, of  "demanding a significant fee increase." 

KLAS management has advised Cox customers to cut the cable cord and sign up for satellite service, or use a high-definition TV antenna to get the station's signal over the air.

The station’s owners point out “Cox has had disputes with five other broadcast companies in the last two years” and “from the outset of negotiations five months ago, Nexstar offered rates to Cox that are comparable to those Nexstar receives from other cable companies.”

Meanwhile, Cox is running ads on other cable stations blaming KLAS for the impasse.

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Overlooked in the Cox-Nexstar battle, Grumpy Editor finds Cox --- in a rate increase mode --- is springing higher charges on its Las Vegas area customers for its cable TV service (along with its high-speed Internet) starting Wednesday.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

Anyone notice that while Washington, Congress and other federal workers were snarled --- and off work --- by a snowstorm last week, the capital’s print and broadcast folks made it to work on time?...Also with that D.C. storm, two photos by Reuters photographer Joshua Roberts of people shoveling snow in front of the Supreme Court building made it into two sections of Tuesday's The Wall Street Journal… A jump in military helicopter crash deaths last year is raising questions on whether budget cuts are endangering troops by less maintenance and training, reports Stars and Stripes, pointing out 12 helicopter crashes in 2015 killed 30 service members, triple the deaths a year prior. Twelve more died when two U.S. Marine CH-53 Super Stallions collided off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii during a night training flight Jan. 14…Sprint, fourth-largest U.S. wireless carrier with a workforce of 33,000, is cutting about 2,500 jobs at six customer care centers plus its Kansas headquarters, part of a plan to slice $2.5 billion in costs…Blushing Sin City news folks? A detailed story on the resignation of Las Vegas-based Allegiant Air’s chief operating officer likely resulted from safety issues, runs in the Las Vegas Sun --- but is picked up from the far-off Tampa Bay Times…In a PR move, in the mail last week: envelopes stating they are from the “Office of the governor of Alaska.” In a message, Bill Walker declares, “Alaska is different from every other destination in the world” and invites recipients to use a postage-paid card “and your FREE Alaska travel guide is on its way!”

After not carrying bylines in its 80-year-history, Consumer Reports adds writer’s names, starting with the May issue.