MSNBC Leads In Daytime Viewers For The 1st Quarter

 

The Nielsen numbers show that for the first quarter of 2021, MSNBC led all other cable shows in daytime ratings. Fox led in primetime for the quarter, although both MSNBC and CNN narrowed the gap. During the week of the January 6th insurrection, CNN led in average viewers.

Cable News Regressing On Diversity

With each passing year, the United States becomes a more diverse nation -- with minorities becoming a larger percentage of our population (and whites becoming a smaller percentage). In fact, many predict that minorities will make up the majority percentage of the U.S. population around the middle of this century. It only makes sense then that our society should reflect this growing diversity (and also include more women being shown in positions of power).

But the cable news networks don't seem to reflect that view anymore. In the last five years, some of them have actually regressed in the diversity shown on their networks. It doesn't really surprise me that Fox News is moving back to white males instead of women and minorities -- with the number of white men on their network increasing from 56% to 60%, while the number of women and minorities dropped from 44% to 40%. But they are not the only one.

CNN has been even worse in their hiring over the past five years. The number of white men on CNN has gone from 55% to 62%, while the number of women and minorities has dropped from 45% to 38% -- and this is supposed to be the middle-of-the-road network that most closely represents America.

Fortunately, there is one network that seems to be moving in the right direction. MSNBC had the number of white men on its network drop from 61% to 54%, while the number of women and minorities rose from 39% to 46%.

Some of you may think I'm just quibbling over an unimportant point. I disagree. I believe it is important, especially for the news networks, to present a more accurate picture of the country we live in -- and a part of presenting that accurate picture is to show the diversity of this nation through the people they put on the screen.

NFL / Cable Dispute Goes To Austin

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell took their dispute with the cable companies to Austin yesterday. They appeared before the legislature's Regulated Industries Committee, and asked that the state step in and settle this dispute.

The NFL wants the cable companies to put the NFL Channel on its basic cable tier and pay them 70 cents per subscriber. The cable companies want to put the channel on a sports tier and sell it only to customers that want it. It all boils down to an argument over which side gets to keep the bulk of the consumers' money.

It has already resulted in 65% of the country's viewers missing the big game between Dallas and Green Bay, and it looks like we consumers may miss a lot more games before this gets settled.

After listening to both sides for four hours, the committee refused to get involved. Chairman Phil King (R-Weatherford) said, "I'm still of the opinion that Texas doesn't have legal juristiction over this matter."

This matter put our state Republican leadership in a quandry. If this was just a corporation against consumers, they would have handled it in a heartbeat. They absolutely love to side with corporations against the consumers. But this was corporation against corporation, and they didn't know how to handle it. How could these corporate lovers pick one corporation over another?

I don't know which side will finally win this argument. I just know that the consumer will probably lose either way. There was only one person speaking for the consumer during the hearing -- Rep. Rene Oliveira (D-Brownsville). He wants the games to go back to free TV.

But that makes too much sense, and making sense is simply something the Republicans and the corporations cannot do.

Now I'm Getting Angry !

Most of you who have read this blog for a while know that I'm a die-hard Dallas Cowboys fan. The only thing that makes me happier than firing up the TV for a Cowboys game is attending the game in person (and that doesn't happen nearly enough now that I've moved away from the Metroplex).

This week, I learned that I will not be able to see the Cowboys play the Packers. It is arguably the biggest game of the year for the Cowboys -- and it will not be on my television. Why is this happening? Corporate greed!

The NFL and the cable companies are locked in a battle over who will get to make the most money off the normally unwatchable NFL channel. The NFL wants the channel to be on cable's basic tier of channels and they want to be paid 70 cents a subscriber for this privilege. Meanwhile, cable wants to be able to sell subscriptions to the channel so they can make more money themselves.

They have been arguing about this for a while now, with neither side wanting to give in -- after all, dollars are more important than fans or consumers. Both sides show this by holding my Cowboys game as a hostage this week.

I am not taking sides in this stupid argument. Personally, I think both sides already make far too much money. I'm just angry that they would deny me the right to see my Cowboys, so each side can try and pressure the other into giving in. A pox on both their houses!

Thank goodness radio is not involved in this grade-school style argument.