Yeah, we also beat CNN-which is pretty sweet too as CNN lately has become kind of Fox News lite-think Anderson Cooper and Erin Burnett. What exactly is Cooper's obsession with Debbie Wasserman-Schultz?
CNN tries to prove that it's not liberal by having people like Erich Erickson and Ari Fleischer on. Fleischer was about the only person in America-even counting Republicans-who took potshots at Michelle Obama's speech on Tuesday. Last night Erickson joined Ann Coulter in making disgusting comments about Sandra Fluke.
So, yeah, that was pretty sweet too.
"MSNBC celebrated a major milestone on Wednesday when it topped its rivals in primetime convention ratings for the first time in its 16-year history."
"TVNewser was the first to report the news. An MSNBC spokesperson confirmed that it was the network's first-ever convention victory, and the first time that it beat its rivals head-to-head while all three were covering the same political event."
"MSNBC's victory came on the first night of the Democratic convention in Charlotte. The network was first in both total viewers (4.107 million) and in the coveted 18-49 demo (1.432 million.) CNN came in second, with 3.88 million and 1.368 million in both categories. Fox News trailed far behind, drawing just 2.398 million total viewers and 550,000 in the demo -- a far cry from its ratings on the first night of the Republican convention, when it drew a whopping 6.87 million viewers. MSNBC was also the only channel to grow its ratings from 2008. All of the other networks saw their ratings drop sharply."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/05/msnbc-primetime-ratings-win_n_1858794.html
Of course, this could be chalked up to Democrats watching MSNBC and Republicans watching Fox News. Yet this is unprecedented and we are the only channel to grow our ratings since 2008-yes I say "we."
"The disparity between MSNBC and Fox News could be chalked up to simple partisanship. Democrats are more likely to watch MSNBC during the Democratic gathering, and Republicans are more likely to watch Fox News during the Republican gathering — and to stay away from watching the DNC altogether. But it's also a reflection of the success MSNBC has had in solidifying its brand as the go-to network for progressive and Democratic viewers."
"MSNBC president Phil Griffin reacted to the news in an interview with HuffPost's Michael Calderone at the MSNBC Experience center in Charlotte."
"As somebody who's been here pretty much throughout the whole time, it's tremendously exciting for everybody here," he said. "To be number one on a big night, where we've never been number one before, to beat a couple of networks, to beat CNN, to beat Fox, it's just a credit to everybody here. It's exciting. And it's hopefully going to launch us the rest of the year and into years ahead."
What also makes this particularly sweet is that MSNBC has been taking a lot of shots lately over it becoming "Fox News' evil twin."
We've heard a lot of concern trolling about how this hurts NBC, etc. Andrea Mitchell certainly seemed to be worried about such talk the other day when she told Chris Matthews that she doesn't agree that it's true that Republicans are rolling back African Americans' voting rights.
Sure, Andrea. I'm sure they'll love you over at CNN. You and Cooper can be "serious" all day. You know serious people don't care about voters having their rights rolled back, just buddying up to the GOP like Jim Acosta.
"MSNBC president Phil Griffin is a happy man."
"On Wednesday afternoon, Griffin learned that MSNBC was the top-rated cable network for the opening night of the Democratic National Convention, a first in its 16-year history and a validation of the network's progressive shift in recent years."
"I'm thrilled. You kidding me?" Griffin told The Huffington Post, shortly after getting the news. "You have to take a moment. For all of us in here, we're just taking a moment. Nobody thought we could do this. But to beat CNN and Fox on a big night like that? To beat ABC and CBS on a big night like that? That is friggin' fantastic. Everybody at MSNBC should feel great."
"Griffin said MSNBC has "evolved" over the past four years. The network, he said, is "about smarts, it's about depth."
"People connect with us," Griffin said. "It's not about just having your ideas reflected back at you. That is bogus. That is wrong. It is about trusting people who do their homework, who know it, who live in the world of facts. They connect with all these people. There is a personal connection between our hosts and our audience. They believe in them. They trust them because they do the homework. They do the hard work. So they come in here and they want their picture taken with the picture of the guy. They believe in them. That's a powerful thing."
"MSNBC came in first Tuesday night in both total viewers (4.107 million) and in the 18-49 demographic (1.432 million). CNN ranked second (3.88 and 1.368 million), with Fox News -- the dominant cable news network and the big winner during the Republican National Convention -- coming in third (2.398 and 550,000 million)."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/05/msnbc-convention-phil-griffin_n_1858933.html
What I hope is that MSNBC doesn't get intimidated like CNN did. CNN now really has one objective: to prove they're not liberal to shield themselves from being called liberal. It doesn't work as even with Fleischer, Erickson, Anderson Cooper, and Jim Acosta-all who only shoot Left-they are still attacked as liberals.
Meanwhile, the public hasn't rewarded them with ratings for being so "non-partisan."
"And on Tuesday, Sam Feist, Washington bureau chief for CNN, told The Huffington Post that "if you watch MSNBC during convention coverage, you have a cheering section for the Democrats."
Griffin rejected the notion that the network's hosts are supporting one party over the other.
"My problem with that is it doesn't give credit to what we've done," Griffin said. "That's painting in big, fat, ugly strokes and it's just not right. If you look at our coverage, if you look what our people said during the Republican convention -- It wasn't cheerleading for the Democrats when Ed Schultz says 'a star is born' with Ryan and gives him a ton of credit for that speech, when Lawrence O'Donnell comes right after the Romney speech and says 'best speech of his career, of his life, that's what they needed to do and they did it,' when we have Steve Schmidt on our desk explaining the strategy of everything they're doing."
"Yes, we have a sensibility," he continued. "And yes, it's progressive. But I think that there's a difference between us and Fox and a big difference between us and CNN. And that is, we go deeper. We're not afraid to have depth. Our shows require you to sit down and listen and we connect with the audience."
What I hope though is they don't ever fall into the trap of "proving" their not partisan. Look, in my view, Krugman says it best: facts tend to have a pronounced liberal bias.
They do their homework on MSNBC which is why what we learn tends to have liberal implications. It's not MSNBC's fault, it's how God constructed reality.
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