One channel, that is - really, when you come right down to it, one personality (though Dan Abrams is following in the footsteps).
That would be Keith Olbermann, and some “insiders” are apparently P.O.’d that he’d dare do the Fox News thing, from the other side:
“Every Tuesday night Keith is up there as the face of NBC News. That’s a problem,” says our source. “[Tim] Russert is upset about it. Russert has spent 20 years building credibility. All of a sudden he’s taking questions from Keith Olbermann, the Daily Kos blogger?”
The insider says Olbermann’s election night partner has reservations as well: “Chris Matthews is quite pissed about it. He knows a lot about politics and he takes it seriously. He’s so close to it that he’s not that political. He’s not an activist — Keith’s an activist. That’s the difference.”
Asked for a response, an MSNBC spokesperson said this:
“Your source is ill-informed and the assertions are laughable.”
Teh funny.
MSNBC is reportedly terrified that Olbermann will quit - and he’s threatened to do just that. Small wonder, given his ratings; “Countdown with Keith Olbermann has been the highest rated program in all of cable news in the A25-54 demo four times during the last two weeks.”
And even the unnamed source concedes:
“There’s a very large untapped market of liberal TV viewers,” says the insider. “It’s probably smart in the short term. Fox has succeeded because there are a lot of alienated conservatives who thought no one was speaking for them. All of a sudden there are huge numbers of liberals who feel the same way.”
And this is the heart of the matter.
The success of Fox News has given some news executives pause, as well it should have. Conservatives will say that the media in general has exhibited a liberal bias for years, and therefore the ideal of neutrality is simply a sham. But Fox News has worn its bias on its sleeve like virtually no other news program/network in history.
It has also been the most successful. So if you own the network - you do the math.
Because that unnamed source is exactly right. There is a huge demographic of ticked-off liberals who, frankly, want their own Fox News. And as there’s so much gold in them thar hills, they’ll get it.
