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Mark Simone: Many Great Myths Surround Barbara Walters

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Mark Simone: Many Great Myths Surround Barbara Walters

Television news reporter Barbara Walters died late last week, and many remembered the legendary news personality fondly. 710 WOR midday host Mark Simone was in the camp who had nice things to say about Walters, but believed the story being told about her wasn’t entirely accurate.

“She was a great woman, a great television figure. She created The View, and if you say ‘That’s the worst, most awful, disgusting, awful show’, it was fine until she left so give her credit for that. Once she left it turned into a cesspool of hatred, but when she was there it was fine,” Simone said before launching into his perceived myths about the venerable reporter.

“She was not much of an interviewer. You could watch those shows and see a great interview, but it wasn’t like Larry King where you go on live for an hour with no note in front of you and interview the guy. She would spend three weeks preparing, 20 people write questions for her. They’d tape eight hours, and then cut it down to eight minutes to get a great interview. She was a very hard worker, a great producer…but if you put her on live, she couldn’t have done it.”

Simone then took issue with the reaction from the public after she died, disputing that she was not a trailblazer.

“This was all you heard about when she died: she was this great pioneer who broke the glass ceiling. Absolutely not true. Not even close. Plenty of women did everything she did long before she did it…there were a million of these women who did what she did before she did it.”

The WOR host concluded by saying Walters was “great” and “tough” but was not the big breakthrough female news personality she made herself out to be.

Craig Carton: Bart Scott Opinion of Damar Hamlin Situation A ‘Sad Attention Grab’

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ESPN NFL analyst Bart Scott made waves yesterday by insinuating that Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins was partially responsible for the injury that saw Buffalo Bills defensive back Damar Hamlin collapse on the field due to cardiac arrest. WFAN afternoon host Craig Carton viewed that opinion as preposterous.

A caller into Carton & Roberts tried to agree with Scott’s claim, before the hosts disagreed with the point.

“Look, with respect — I respect Bart — he played the game, you and I didn’t,” Carton said to co-host Evan Roberts. “But I watched, you’ve watched it a hundred times. There’s nothing wrong with what Tee Higgins did. And to try now to find blame in a situation that’s like a unicorn, that will most likely — knock on wood, at least — never happen again and hasn’t happened in the history of the NFL, to me, I think, I don’t wanna say outrageous but its kind of a sad attention grab. What did Tee Higgins do? He didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t even think it’s relevant to what happened,” Roberts argued.

“There’s nothing special — one way or the other — about the violence of the hit or the tackle,” Carton said. “So why are we looking to blame somebody for — what appears to be — a very unique situation that nobody could have seen coming? He didn’t spear him, he didn’t target him, it wasn’t a hit to the head, it wasn’t a hit with the head. It didn’t go against any of the many rules that are in place to protect players.”

Carton later admitted he didn’t hear the exact comments made by Scott, but reiterated his point that there doesn’t always have to be someone to blame for a situation. He added the focus should have remained on the personnel who rushed to save Hamlin’s life and not try find blame in blameless situation.

Roberts added that Higgins — in addition to being a football player — is a human being, and has likely been greatly affected by the situation.

“Everyone’s gotta make it about them,” Carton concluded. “That’s the world we live in now. Let me be the guy that’s out there, and instead of talking about what happened, you’re talking about me. That’s one of the worst parts of the media today. It’s just ‘Let me say something that makes me the story now’. And we’ve been watching that online last night, and all day today,” alluding to the reaction to the tweet from Skip Bayless that the FS1 host claims was misconstrued and misrepresented.

Learfield To End Suspension For NC State’s Gary Hahn On January 14

BSM Staff
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Gary Hahn was suspended indefinitely as the voice of North Carolina State sports on December 30. While several speculated, there is no termination coming. ABC 11 reported on Wednesday that Hahn will be back behind the microphone on January 14.

During the radio broadcast of the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, which NC State lost to Maryland, Hahn updated what was happening in El Paso at the Sun Bowl.

“And amongst all the illegal aliens down in El Paso, it’s UCLA 14 and Pittsburgh 6; that’s with 11:15 to go in the second quarter,” he said.

Learfield, which distributes the school’s radio broadcasts, announced after the game that Gary Hahn had been suspended. Hahn has been the voice of the NC State Wolfpack for the last 31 years.

Nielsen Sets Launch Date For New Viewership Measurement Project

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Nielsen Sets Launch Date For New Viewership Measurement Project

Nielsen has set the launch date for Nielsen One Ads, the latest measurement product from the company.

On January 11th, the company will launch the cross-platform measurement device that will track linear TV, streaming services, mobile devices, and desktop computer viewing habits.

“Ultimately, Nielsen One will allow advertisers and publishers to plan and transact using a single metric across linear and digital that is reliable, independent and standardized across the industry,” the company told The Hollywood Reporter.

TV networks, streaming services, and media buyers have asked for a more precise measuring service from the company, with many companies striking deals with other data measurement offerings.

“Audiences today control what they watch, when they watch, and how they watch it. As the media landscape becomes more varied and complicated, Nielsen is committed to working with the industry to bring clarity and simplicity to media buying and selling through Nielsen One,” said Nielsen CEO of Audience Measurement Karthik Rao.

The new measurement tool will track viewers by the second with it’s “always-on” digital dashboard.

Barstool Sports Looking At More Live Sports Offerings in 2023

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Barstool Sports Looking At More Live Sports Offerings in 2023

Coming off a successful broadcast of the Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl, the digital media company is hoping for an expanded live sports offering in 2023.

Barstool Sports CEO Erika Nardini told CNN’s Oliver Darcy that the company will look for more live events in 2023 after Barstool.TV saw nearly 1 million total views of the bowl game that pitted Ohio against Wyoming.

According to figures released by the outlet to Front Office Sports, the Arizona Bowl broadcast saw 500,000 unique viewers, and peaked at 130,000 concurrent viewers.

“We are streaming first,” Barstool Sports head of media technology and production Peter Overmyer told FOS. “Everything that we’ve built, everything that we’ve done, is to deliver content over the internet. We’re proud of that and proud of being a destination for a younger audience that is used to consuming their sports over the internet.”

Barstool is currently slated to broadcast the 49th annual FDNY vs NYPD hockey game. It also currently broadcasts its owned and operated Rough N Rowdy amateur boxing series, alongside its several other digital television productions.

Jermaine Wiggins: NFL Shouldn’t Have Objected So Hard To Joe Buck

BSM Staff
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What happened on Monday night in Cincinnati is a moment many of us will never forget. Not only will Damar Hamlin laying lifeless on the field as first responders performed CPR for nine minutes to revive him be a part of the memory, so will the belief that initially, the NFL planned to give players just five minutes after the ambulance left the field to get ready to resume play.

The NFL has denied this is true. Joe Buck, who announced that plan on ESPN, insists that this was the information the network was given from the league.

On WEEI Wednesday morning, former tight end Jermaine Wiggins told his colleagues on The Greg Hill Show that the league made a mistake in not acknowledging that this was a brand new experience for everyone involved. It wasn’t right to insinuate the voice of the game was a liar or didn’t know what he was talking about.

“It was all about the whole Joe Buck thing where it looks like they’re gonna go back out there. They’re gonna get five minutes to warm up and then they’re gonna continue the game,” Wiggins said. “Just say ‘we were in a situation we have never run into before. Maybe it was misinterpreted the way we wanted to continue.’ Just say that.”

He added that he actually thinks some of the criticism has been unfair. No one can definitively say they knew exactly what to do when it was clear Hamlin was not getting up.

“Listen, I give the NFL credit. This is something they have never seen before. I have been around a lot of football and I have never seen anybody get CPR on the field. We’ve heard from plenty of people that have been around football a lot longer than I have that say they have never seen that before. So, I give them credit of being in a situation where this was all brand new to them and they had no idea how to handle it in the moment.”

The show’s producer, Chris Curtis, took Roger Goodell to task. He wondered why the commissioner did not face the media and acknowledge that in an effort to do things right, the league got it wrong.

Twitter Ending Ban on Political Ads

BNM Staff
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Twitter Ending Ban on Political Ads

Twitter has announced it is ending it’s ban on political advertising, claiming the move aligns itself with that of traditional media outlets.

Twitter originally stopped accepting political advertising in October 2019 as then-CEO Jack Dorsey announced it was anticipation of the upcoming 2020 election. We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought,” Dorsey tweeted. “A political message earns reach when people decide to follow an account or retweet. Paying for reach removes that decision, forcing highly optimized and targeted political messages on people. We believe this decision should not be compromised by money.”

Now owned by Elon Musk, Twitter Safety has reversed course on it’s previous ban. “We believe that cause-based advertising can facilitate public conversation around important topics,” the company tweeted. “Today, we’re relaxing our ads policy for cause-based ads in the US. We also plan to expand the political the political advertising we permit in the coming weeks.

“Moving forward, we will alling our advertising policy with that of TV and other media outlets. As with all policy changes, we will first ensure that our approach to reviewing and approving content protects people on Twitter. We’ll share more details as this work progresses.”

The social media platform has experienced a massive drop in advertising revenue after it was purchased by Musk in 2022. According to a report from NPR, 50 of the platform’s top 100 advertisers left after it was purchased by Musk.

In November, The New York Post reported advertising agencies were advising clients to “pause” their spending with Twitter. “A lot of high profile chief marketing officers are very worried about Twitter,” The Post reported. “They’re working with agencies to create contingency plans for moving money away from Twitter.”

Microsoft Bulking Up Bing to Compete With Google

BNM Staff
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Microsoft Bulking Up Bing to Compete With Google

According to a report from The Information, Microsoft is planning to launch a new version of its search engine Bing with new features that will help make it more competitive against Google.

Utilizing ChatGPT — which is powered by AI company OpenAI — will purportedly provide “humanlike answers” to questions placed with the search engine, rather than just links that match the searched query.

However, Google has claimed it will wait to launch its own AI-powered search engine due to the posed “reputational risk” if it does not work properly from the outset.

“We are absolutely looking to get these things out into real products and into things that are more prominently featuring the language model rather than under the covers, which is where we’ve been using them to date,” said Google Head of Artificial Intelligence Jeff Dean in an interview with The Verge. “But, it’s super important we get this right.” Pichai added that Google has a “a lot” planned for AI language features in 2023, and that “this is an area where we need to be bold and responsible so we have to balance that.”

Microsoft’s relationship with OpenAI goes back several years, with the company investing $1 billion in the Artificial Intelligence organization in 2019. Microsoft holds the exclusive license for AI GPT-3.

Sports Media Reacts To Tension Between Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe

BSM Staff
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The sports media is not the biggest business in the world. Everyone knows what everyone else is up to and there is always an opinion to share.

That was clear Wednesday morning during the opening moments of FS1’s Undisputed. The show began with Shannon Sharpe attempting to address why he was not on Tuesday’s episode of the show. He noted that because of personal experiences, he knew he would not be capable of talking about Damar Hamlin’s collapse during the first quarter of Monday Night Football on a public platform.

As a result, yesterday’s show was a solo act for Sharpe’s partner Skip Bayless. During the early moments of the Tuesday show, Bayless attempted to explain a tweet he sent on Monday night wondering how the NFL could ever finish the game between the Bills and Bengals.

Sharp brought the tweet up on Wednesday and even mentioned that he hoped Bayless would consider taking it down. That is when the tensions started to boil over.

“Time out. Time out. I am not gonna take it down, because I stand by what I tweeted,” Bayless said.

Sharpe threw his pen down on the desk and told Jennifer Hale to just forget what was planned and to get on with the show.

“I mean, I can’t even get through a monologue without you interrupting me,” he told Bayless. “I was just gonna say, Skip, I didn’t want to yesterday get into a situation where Damar Hamlin wasn’t the issue. We should have been talking about him and not get into your tweet. That’s what I was gonna do, but you won’t even let me finish my opening monologue without you interrupting.”

On air spats between the two are not new. Just last month Sharpe accused Bayless of publicly disrespecting him on the show. It is something that many of their sports media colleagues brought up as they reacted to the segment on social media.

ABC Leads Coverage of Volodymyr Zelensky Capitol Speech

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ABC Leads Coverage of Volodymyr Zelensky Capitol Speech

It was a busy news week as it approached Christmas Day in 2022, with several news items creating a race for victories for news outlets like ABC News, MSNBC, Fox News, and CNN.

The January 6th committee that investigated the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol held its final public hearing on Monday Dec. 19. It presented the case to the Justice Department that there’s evidence to pursue multiple criminal charges against Donald Trump, including obstruction of justice, defrauding the United States, making false statements and assisting or aiding an insurrection. (Later in the week, on Friday Dec. 23, a full committee report was released further advising that Trump should be barred from ever running for public office again.)

The viewership figures of the cable news outlets for this Dec. 19 hearing (from 1:07-2:17 p.m. ET) held the same pattern as the previous committee hearings since the summer of 2022: MSNBC (2.665 million, over CNN’s 1.964 million) led in total viewers, CNN No. 1 in the key 25-54 demo (332,000, over MSNBC’s 317,000) and Fox News (1.041 million total viewers; 102,000 adults 25-54) trailed them in both ratings categories.

A special joint session of Congress was held at the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. on Wednesday Dec. 21 with a visit from Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. It marked ten months since Russia first invaded Ukraine. Zelensky, who sought reinvigorated support from the U.S. and other global allies, addressed to Congress that his country still stands “against all odds” and it “will never surrender” to Russia as democracy itself is being tested.

Nearly 16 million across six networks tuned in for Zelensky’s historic prime time address, according to Nielsen Media Research. ABC, the usual network leader in the early evening with World News Tonight and most of its affiliates carrying Wheel of Fortune and/or Jeopardy!, was tops in coverage among total viewers with 4.229 million. CBS (3.208 million) was runner-up. MSNBC was first place on cable and third overall with 2.424 million, besting its parent network NBC (2.375 million). It was then Fox News Channel (2.237 million) followed by CNN (1.41 million from 8-9 p.m. ET).

Closing out the holiday week was the weather occurrence called a bomb cyclone which put most of the United States into a deep freeze. Many cities and towns experienced near-zero or sub-zero degree temperatures, as holiday travel and outdoor events (including several NFL games) were hampered. Not surprisingly, The Weather Channel (as noted in the network averages below) had its most-watched week since Hurricane Ian had made landfall in Florida during the week of Sep. 26, 2022.

Cable news averages for December 19-25, 2022:

Total Day (Dec. 19-25 @ 6 a.m.-5:59 a.m.)

  • Fox News Channel: 1.189 million viewers; 152,000 adults 25-54
  • MSNBC: 0.830 million viewers; 96,000 adults 25-54
  • CNN: 0.514 million viewers; 95,000 adults 25-54
  • The Weather Channel: 0.186 million viewers; 31,000 adults 25-54
  • HLN: 0.145 million viewers; 40,000 adults 25-54
  • CNBC: 0.117 million viewers; 30,000 adults 25-54
  • Fox Business Network: 0.110 million viewers; 12,000 adults 25-54
  • Newsmax: 0.087 million viewers; 8,000 adults 25-54

Prime Time (Dec. 19-24 @ 8-11 p.m.; Dec. 25 @ 7-11 p.m.)

  • Fox News Channel: 1.574 million viewers; 189,000 adults 25-54
  • MSNBC: 1.276 million viewers; 133,000 adults 25-54
  • CNN: 0.552 million viewers; 108,000 adults 25-54
  • The Weather Channel: 0.189 million viewers; 28,000 adults 25-54
  • CNBC: 0.182 million viewers; 62,000 adults 25-54
  • HLN: 0.157 million viewers; 46,000 adults 25-54
  • Newsmax: 0.097 million viewers; 10,000 adults 25-54
  • NewsNation: 0.090 million viewers; 16,000 adults 25-54
  • Fox Business Network: 0.060 million viewers; 10,000 adults 25-54

Top 10 most-watched cable news programs (and the top programs of other outlets with their respective associated ranks) in total viewers:

1. The Five (FOXNC, Mon. 12/19/2022 5:00 PM, 60 min.) 3.075 million viewers

2. The Five (FOXNC, Tue. 12/20/2022 5:00 PM, 60 min.) 3.048 million viewers

3. The Five (FOXNC, Thu. 12/22/2022 5:00 PM, 60 min.) 2.971 million viewers

4. The Five (FOXNC, Wed. 12/21/2022 5:21 PM, 39 min.) 2.914 million viewers

5. Tucker Carlson Tonight (FOXNC, Wed. 12/21/2022 8:03 PM, 57 min.) 2.822 million viewers

6. Tucker Carlson Tonight (FOXNC, Tue. 12/20/2022 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 2.775 million viewers

7. Tucker Carlson Tonight (FOXNC, Mon. 12/19/2022 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 2.749 million viewers

8. The Five (FOXNC, Fri. 12/23/2022 5:00 PM, 60 min.) 2.747 million viewers

9. January 6th Hearings “Hearing Final Meeting” (MSNBC, Mon. 12/19/2022 1:07 PM, 70 min.) 2.665 million viewers

10. Jesse Watters Primetime (FOXNC, Mon. 12/19/2022 7:00 PM, 60 min.) 2.634 million viewers

30. Attack on Democracy “Jan 6th Hearings 12/19/22” (CNN, Mon. 12/19/2022 1:07 PM, 70 min.) 1.964 million viewers

316. Weekend Recharge (TWC, Sat. 12/24/2022 10:00 AM, 60 min.) 0.442 million viewer

369. Forensic Files II “The Ambush” (HLN, Fri. 12/23/2022 12:00 AM, 30 min.) 0.355 million viewers

401. Kudlow (FBN, Wed. 12/21/2022 4:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.314 million viewers

489. Shark Tank “Shark Tank 614” (CNBC, Thu. 12/22/2022 9:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.249 million viewers

850. Newsnation: Rush Hour (NWSN, Fri. 12/23/2022 5:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.159 million viewers

Top 10 cable news programs (and the top  programs of other outlets with their respective associated ranks) among adults 25-54:

1. Tucker Carlson Tonight (FOXNC, Wed. 12/21/2022 8:03 PM, 57 min.) 0.413 million adults 25-54

2. Tucker Carlson Tonight (FOXNC, Tue. 12/20/2022 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.394 million adults 25-54

3. The Five (FOXNC, Mon. 12/19/2022 5:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.381 million adults 25-54

4. The Five (FOXNC, Wed. 12/21/2022 5:21 PM, 39 min.) 0.370 million adults 25-54

5. The Five (FOXNC, Thu. 12/22/2022 5:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.357 million adults 25-54

6. The Five (FOXNC, Tue. 12/20/2022 5:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.332 million adults 25-54

7. Attack on Democracy “Jan 6th Hearings 12/19/22” (CNN, Mon. 12/19/2022 1:07 PM, 70 min.) 0.332 million adults 25-54

8. MSNBC Special Coverage “Pres. Zelenskyy Address To Congress” (MSNBC, Wed. 12/21/2022 7:39 PM, 26 min.) 0.320 million adults 25-54

9. January 6th Hearings “Hearing Final Meeting” (MSNBC, Mon. 12/19/2022 1:07 PM, 70 min.) 0.317 million adults 25-54

10. Tucker Carlson Tonight (FOXNC, Thu. 12/22/2022 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.305 million adults 25-54

204. Forensic Files “Tooth or Consequences” (HLN, late Tue. 12/20/2022 4:00 AM, 30 min.) 0.114 million adults 25-54

276. Shark Tank “Shark Tank 1220” (CNBC, Tue. 12/20/2022 9:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.092 million adults 25-54

283. Weekend Recharge (TWC, Sat. 12/24/2022 10:00 AM, 60 min.) 0.089 million adults 25-54

752. Newsnation Prime (NWSN, Sun. 12/25/2022 7:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.037 million adults 25-54

797. Cavuto Coast To Coast (FBN, Thu. 12/22/2022 12:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.035 million adults 25-54

Source: Live+Same Day data, Nielsen Media Research

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