TV often reduces a three-dimensional world to two dimensions for one-dimensional minds.
If there’s anything more shallow than American television, it’s journalism about American television, as demonstrated by the latest TV Week “TV News’ 10 Most Powerful” rankings.
Here are the rankings alongside Newsprism’s commentary:
1. Steve Capus, President, NBC News Good choice. NBC leads the evening news and morning news ratings, and MSNBC is strong in cable news and stronger online.
2. Roger Ailes, Chairman and CEO, Fox News Another good choice. FoxNews’ Ailes has done more than anyone to even the ideological playing field in American broadcast journalism, proof positive that personality and beauty trump news judgment.
3. David Weston, President, ABC News Only if managing to come in second or third place in a field of four broadcast networks is considered “powerful.”
4. Tim Russert, Senior VP, NBC News Washington bureau; editor/moderator, “Meet the Press” Good choice. The best of the influential Sunday morning hosts, also a strong contributor on MSNBC.
5. Jim Walton, President, CNN Worldwide, and Jon Klein, President, CNN/US Okay, IF you can combine two people, and IF you can compare CNN’s audience share to FoxNews’, and IF you can disregard the laws of mathematics, THEN, good choice. Otherwise, CNN competes with MSNBC for second place in the cable news ratings well behind FoxNews, and all three together don’t add up to one broadcast news show’s ratings.
6. Keith Olbermann, host, “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” Worst…Choice…in the World! Olbermann is highly entertaining, and his verbal skills are the best in the business, but his show draws fewer than a million viewers each night. If this were the 10 most powerful liberals in TV news…well, he still wouldn’t belong.
7. Bill O’Reilly, host, “The O’Reilly Factor” By far the top dog in cable news personalities, O’Reilly draws nearly three times the viewers as Olbermann. TV Week describes Olbermann’s 900,000 viewers as “about a million” and O’Reilly’s 2,900,000 as “more than two million.” Sounds like they’re turning a 3:1 ratio into a 2:1 ratio. Despite the voodoo math, O’Reilly belongs at best at number 10.
8. Sean McManus, President, CBS News Only if managing to come in third or fourth place in a field of four broadcast networks is considered “powerful.”
9. NS Bienstock, Talent Agency Are you kidding? Maximizing the salaries of on-air talent makes you “powerful”?
10. Amy Pohler, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart, Comics Okay, IF you can combine three people, and IF you consider late-night news satire as TV news, and IF you can disregard the meanings of words AND the laws of mathematics, THEN good choice. Otherwise, you might as well name the list, “Our Most Favoritest Liberal News Satire Hosts!” (Colbert did win a Peabody Award for his brilliant mocking of personality-based news shows like “The O’Reilly Factor,” but that makes him exceptionally talented, not top-ten powerful.)
Missing from the list are notables including Chris Matthews and Brian Williams of NBC/MSNBC; Brit Hume and Sean Hannity of FoxNews; and from the world of news satire, Ben Karlin, the former executive producer largely responsible for the success of both “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “The Colbert Report.”
Of all the “Top Ten”-type kudos attention-starved media types give each other, Newsprism ranks TV Week’s “TV News’ 10 Most Powerful” near the very bottom, just beneath Time magazine’s “Top 10 New TV Series” (like CBS’s mind-numbing reality show ”Kid Nation”) and slightly above gametrailers.com’s “Top 10 Video Game Weapons” (the chainsaw is a perennial favorite.)
Also in the running: yesbutnobutyes.com’s “Top 10 Female Streakers” (WARNING: Not Safe for Work) and urinal.net’s “Top 10 Most Fascinating Urinals” (check out these art-urinals, which are particularly lovely.)
April 14, 2008 at 3:53 pm |
Those are funny websites…this is the most useless top ten ranking i have ever heard of. i cannot believe people get paid and acutally calculate and think of this list. how can you say that someone is more powerful over another if they do not even go on air and if they do go on air is this ranking who is more believable or how many housewives and stay at home dads(to be politicly correct) tune into their shows and buy into whatever they say.
April 14, 2008 at 5:31 pm |
Well, TV news is entertaining and sometimes we can even learn something of great import; we simply need to be patient.
April 14, 2008 at 8:50 pm |
It’s a good list, but you’re right a few people are missing. Where’s my man Tom Brokaw? His voice is unmistakable. Remember his 9/11 coverage? Along with being on of the best news anchors in his day, he still does a great job with NBC, and writes great books. I’d buy any book he reads on CD…well maybe not Bill’s “My Life”.
April 14, 2008 at 9:22 pm |
The “Top Ten” genre should be limited to stupid and meaningless things such as “Top ten topless people you can see from Google Earth” and other mindless ideas. Of course Time did the 50 top ten lists of 2007. Actually, these lists are really great when you are bored out of your mind and have nothing better to do. And as it goes for the urinals, some of them were really pretty! I think that once you have seen one, you have seen them all, just like anything that has to be mass produced, but some of those urinals were very unique!
April 14, 2008 at 9:56 pm |
I’m not gonna lie, I haven’t heard of a lot of these names. Shame on me, I know. I’m not sure I would use the term “powerful” when referring to Jon Stewert and Stephen Colbert, perhaps influential but I would definitely use the term entertaining. I wonder what Steve Capus and Roger Ailes would say about being compared to these entertainers. In their defense, I’ve learned one or two things from them!
Also, I must agree with the missing news “notables” like Chris Matthews and Brian William.
April 15, 2008 at 10:13 pm |
I think that all news anchors are powerful people. There job is very important to the world. It is how we are able to know and understand what is happening in the world. I think to try and distinct who is more “powerful” than another is ridiculous. I think the list left off a few important people and feel Peter Jennings was a very powerful anchor during his stint with ABC.