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New York, 6:50 AM
Fri Dec 18
46 posts in the last 24 hours
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12/15/09
His ratings haven't been great, but CNN's rating overall are down and they need a new general direction if they are going to be competitive. He just gets singled out all the time nowadays for articles about ratings being in the shitters because the right wing hates him and are looking for any dips or demographic trends that can be presented as proof he's failing.
The right wingers hate him because they know he's gay because he's the one gay guy in news who is always outed and he made a tea bagging joke (after the early tea baggers themselves made themselves a laughing stock by calling their activities tea bagging, websites made jokes, and MSNBC personalities made jokes) so he became the fall guy for the whole tea bagging snafu. He's been routinely miscredited by the right for creating the title "tea bagger" for demonstrators and popularizing it ever since he made the joke. From the start the explanation has been that he's the gay guy and tea bagging is a dirty gay thing only he knew about. The right wing blogs even included pics of his face on the cover of the Advocate to show he's the one to blame. A publication with right wing readers posts an article about 360's ratings being bad this month in this demographic or compared to what they were during the election or whatever then their readers go into an orgy of glee over the big bad tea bagging gay's expected demise and claim credit for it. Then the article gets reposted on right wing blogs and links are twittered between conservatives with remarks like "tea bag THIS, homo!".
However, I think you're correct that he's better as a correspondent. Or he could anchor during the morning or afternoon and CNN could put in some demagogue in his slot who has a chance of competing against the primetime demagogues.
12/15/09
Sorry but the stats speak for themselves: His 10 p.m. show, "Anderson Cooper 360," has declined 62% in total viewers and 70% in adults 25-54 from November 2008, according to Nielsen figures for the first three full quarters of 2009. He has been dead last (fourth place) among all age groups for the last two full quarters of 2009.
But I dont think this is Anderson's fault: I think its because CNN has lousy news writers and a lousy format. Anderson can't change that. He just reads the news. But all the more reason for him to go back to what he does best and what I miss most: his full time investigative reporting. Thats where he really shines.
What does he need that huge salary for anyway? His boyfriend is clearly low maintenance....he doesn't even own a shirt!
12/15/09
There are plenty of nights he does fine against the competition in his slot (accepting that FOX will always be first by a wide margin since it has the whole far right audience), but the focus in articles are totally on negatives. Like the Friday ratings were good and 360 was a comfortable second:
10 PM P2+ (25-54) (35-64)
On The Record w/ Greta —1,866,000 viewers (469,000) (777,000)
Anderson Cooper 360 — 811,000 viewers (252,000) (368,000)
Countdown w/ K. Olbermann – 474,000 viewers (161,000) (199,000)
American Greed – 165,000 viewers (77,000) (78,000)
Nancy Grace –427,000 viewers (126,000) (215,000)
11 PM P2+ (25-54) (35-64)
The O’Reilly Factor —1,264,000 viewers (388,000) (610,000)
Anderson Cooper 360 — 542,000 viewers (176,000) (258,000)
Rachel Maddow Show —430,000 viewers (155,000) (189,000)
Mad Money – a scratch w/56,000 viewers (a scratch w/18,000) (a scratch w/26,000)
Showbiz Tonight– 396,000 viewers (118,000) (199,000)
[tvbythenumbers.com]
Having a traditional format means the ratings fluctuate depending on interest in the news of the day while editorialist demagogues have much steadier ratings since people will tune in when nothing of exceptional interest is happening just to hear their hero rail against the adversary. 360 probably did take some additional ratings hit from moderate conservative viewers leaving as a result AC of being falsely branded by the right as the man who coined the highly resented epithet "tea bagger" while the left is oblivious and gives him no false credit for that. CNN in general also has the problem that liberal dismiss the network as conservative and conservatives dismiss it as liberal.
A traditional format can't compete against demagogues in primetime. That doesn't make the format bad, just not a ratings grabber. America and American public discourse would be a lot better off if the demogagues were cleared out of cable news.
12/15/09
She was the girl in elementary school that "had ants in her pants." Always moving spastically, words caroming out of her mouth like pinballs shout out of a tilt-a-whirl, making you wish you had chosen to live in another country. One where freedom of expression was no less protected, but where there was an intelligence minimum that had to be met.
When did she change her name to Kelly?
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Anderson is under contract to CNN still anyway.
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It doesn't make any sense to hang Champion and Roberts' decisions on Anderson Cooper and hypothetical scenarios where he is both out and hired for GMA.
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You can only be outed if you are in.
If you're out, you're out.
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He's simply decided his sex life is private. So is mine, and so should anyone's be. This is not the 80s. We have enough happy-to-be-out gay icons.
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By the way, for the love of all that's holy, please don't refer to AC's taking it up the ass and swallowing cock as "his preference." It's his sexual orientation.
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/salacious gossip
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