Obama may be asked to GIVE UP the race?

[Woody]

According to Fox News ... Hillary's lead in the PA race is growing due to the recent mistakes by Obama. She now has a 20% lead in polls. Her claim that Obama would not win against McCain is looking right. Will Obama be asked to step down for the good of the party? I have to wonder if this is going to happen.

[Bravus]

First four words, key...

[Woody]

Fox News is rated the #1 News Channel in America.

IF you want the Truth ... on BOTH sides ... Fox is the choice.

[Amelia]

teehe

[Dr. Shane]

I have nothing to say about FOXNews other than they do a good job. Fair and balanced is a good way to report the news. I think it better than trying to reach the impossible objective goal. I think the poll being reported is the American Research Group poll. Zogby has them four points apart in Penn.

2008 Polls

[Bravus]

OK, let's leave Fox News out of it. Is there any reality to the idea that Obama might be asked to leave the race? Is anyone in the Democratic Party saying it?

Actually, let's not leave Fox News out. If no-one else anywhere is saying this, then Fox News is making the news, not reporting it...

[Neil D]

Fox News needs to talk pirate talk..... They can be taken just as seriously....

[John317]

Fox News is rated the #1 News Channel in America.

IF you want the Truth ... on BOTH sides ... Fox is the choice.

This is true. I watch all the news channels, and I can tell you that no news program puts as many different perspectives on as Fox News. They almost never have someone on without giving someone from a different viewpoint an opportunity to express their view. You can't say that about CNN, which used to be my news channel of choice.

As far as Obama is concerned, I hope no one asks him to give up the race, and I hope Mrs. Clinton doesn't give up either. They both need to battle it out all the way to the convention. Right now they are both trailing McCain, and when you look at a map of the states, as they are expected to vote in the general election, it looks like the math is easily on McCain's side. Of course anything can happen between now and the election, but it's McCain's to lose now.

[lazarus]

The Ratings Mirage

Why Fox has higher ratings--when CNN has more viewers

By Steve Rendall

Reporting on the ratings rivalry between the Fox News Channel (FNC) and CNN is often misleading--and almost always over-hyped.

"Fox Tops CNN as Choice for Cable News," declared one typical headline (Chicago Tribune , 3/24/03). "Fox News Channel Continues to Crush CNN ," reported Knight Ridder (Dallas Morning News , 2/3/04) in a column comparing the rivalry to a party primary: "Fox News Channel is winning the Nielsen caucuses." Last summer (8/17/03), the New York Times Magazine declared, looking back at the period of the Iraq invasion, "Fox was--and still is--trouncing CNN in the ratings."

After exposure to countless similar stories published since January 2002, when Fox was reported to have surpassed CNN in the Nielsen ratings, one might naturally conclude that Fox has more viewers than CNN .

But it's not true. On any given day, more people typically tune to CNN than to Fox .

So what are the media reports talking about? With few exceptions, stories about the media business report a single number for ratings (often expressed two different ways--as "points" or "share"). This number is often presented as if it were the result of a popularity contest or a democratic vote. But it is actually the average number of viewers watching a station or a show in a typical minute, based on Nielsen Media Research's monitoring of thousands of households.

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2005

[Woody]

OK, let's leave Fox News out of it. Is there any reality to the idea that Obama might be asked to leave the race? Is anyone in the Democratic Party saying it?

Actually, let's not leave Fox News out. If no-one else anywhere is saying this, then Fox News is making the news, not reporting it...

For the Record .... Fox News did not say Obama would be asked to leave the race. I proposed the question if you look at my post carefully. I proposed the question because if the 20 point lead is correct then I would anticipate this since there had been talk about Hillary leaving when she was behind. Only Fair?

[Bravus]

Perhaps - but then the title of the thread might be better written as 'Might Obama be asked...' or even 'Should Obama be asked...' The way it's written suggests that someone, somewhere, has reported that the question is already being asked, presumably by those who would have the power to make such a request. Misleading, IMO.

[John317]

...But it's not true. On any given day, more people typically tune to CNN than to Fox .

So what are the media reports talking about? With few exceptions, stories about the media business report a single number for ratings (often expressed two different ways--as "points" or "share"). This number is often presented as if it were the result of a popularity contest or a democratic vote. But it is actually the average number of viewers watching a station or a show in a typical minute, based on Nielsen Media Research's monitoring of thousands of households.

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2005

Analyze this:

Quote:

When an outlet reports that CNN is trailing Fox , they are almost invariably using this average tally, which Fox has been winning for the past two years. For the year 2003, Nielsen's average daily ratings show Fox beating CNN 1.02 million viewers to 665,000.

But there is another important number collected by Nielsen (though only made available to the firm's clients) that tells another story. This is the "cume," the cumulative total number of viewers who watch a channel for at least six minutes during a given day. Unlike the average ratings number the media usually report, this number gives the same weight to the light viewer, who tunes in for a brief time, as it does to the heavy viewer.

How can CNN have more total viewers when Fox has such a commanding lead in average viewers? Conventional industry wisdom is that CNN viewers tune in briefly to catch up on news and headlines, while Fox viewers watch longer for the opinion and personality-driven programming. Because the smaller total number of Fox viewers are watching more hours, they show up in the ratings as a higher average number of viewers.

CNN regularly claims a cume about 20 percent higher than Fox 's (Deseret Morning News , 1/12/04). For instance, in April 2003, during the height of the fighting in Iraq, CNN 's cume was significantly higher than Fox 's: 105 million viewers tuned into CNN compared to 86 million for Fox (Cablefax , 4/30/03). But in the same period, the ratings reported by most media outlets had Fox in the lead, with an average of 3.5 million viewers to CNN 's 2.2 million.

Even among Fox 's core audience of conservatives, CNN has an edge in total viewership. A study by the ad agency Carat USA (Hollywood Reporter , 8/13/03) found that 37 percent of viewers calling themselves "very conservative" watch CNN in the course of a week, while only 32 percent tune to Fox .

It means that a lot of people such as myself may tune into CNN for some news during the day, or maybe even several times a day, but for some reason they aren't sticking around. If they liked CNN, they would be watching it a lot longer, like viewers do with Fox.

If you were a news station, which would you rather have, a lot of people hitting your show for a few minutes a day, or a lot of people watching your show for several hours at a time practically every day?

Which kind of viewers show the most support for a news program? Obviously those who watch longer.

If I am typical of the kind of viewers CNN has-- and it sounds like I am-- then the fact that a lot of people watch it for a few minutes a day is no indication at all that those viewers agree with CNN's viewpoints.

The fact that so many people tune in to CNN for only such a short time would seem to be cause for worry to a station that seriously wants to attract more than short-time viewers. As it is, it seems to me that it means a lot of their viewers are dissatisfied since they change the station so often, going from CNN to some other programming or else perhaps turning off the TV entirely.

[Bravus]

Not necessarily. For news I want a 10 minute precis of everything important I need to know today. Maybe sometimes I'd like a more in-depth discussion, but that's analysis rather than news. But for a movie I'll sit there for 2 hours. I don't want to watch 2 hours of news.

Not really arguing for either channel, just saying 'different does not mean better or worse in any absolute sense, it means more appropriate for a particular purpose'.

[Woody]

Perhaps - but then the title of the thread might be better written as 'Might Obama be asked...' or even 'Should Obama be asked...' The way it's written suggests that someone, somewhere, has reported that the question is already being asked, presumably by those who would have the power to make such a request. Misleading, IMO.

Perhaps you didn't notice the question mark at the end of the title. This would indicate that it hasn't happened ... but that it might be possible. At least that was my intention when I wrote it.

[Woody]

Not necessarily. For news I want a 10 minute precis of everything important I need to know today. Maybe sometimes I'd like a more in-depth discussion, but that's analysis rather than news. But for a movie I'll sit there for 2 hours. I don't want to watch 2 hours of news.

Not really arguing for either channel, just saying 'different does not mean better or worse in any absolute sense, it means more appropriate for a particular purpose'.

Watching Fox News is like watching a movie. They capture real life and at times it can be very amusing.

[lazarus]

Funny.

[olger]

yep