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Dan Abrams: No ‘Home’ For Rational News Opinions

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A study from the University of Pennsylvania recently concluded cable news is more polarized now than it was 10 years ago, and Dan Abrams of NewsNation says he’s seen that first hand.

In an interview with MediaVillage‘s News On-The-Record, Abrams said he has experienced first hand the polarization described in the study.

“My frustration is that you’re on one team or the other,” the Dan Abrams Live host said. “I am constantly accused of being dishonest, wrong, or portrayed as a villain by one side or the other because they only watch one segment. They’ll watch one segment where I will say something that that person disagrees with. ‘What happened to Dan Abrams?! He’s become crazy. He’s become this,’ and it’s hard to get people to put everything into context and look at the totality and see I’m trying to look at things issue by issue and that’s not the business model that has typically worked on cable news.”

Abrams pointed to a recent show where he disagreed with students at George Washington University for refusing to take a constitutional law class taught by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in one segment, while then criticizing the Attorney General of Indiana for trying to find information for possible criminal charges of a doctor who performed an abortion on a 10-year-old rape victim in another.

“I don’t view that as radical. I view that as probably where most of the country is on a lot of this stuff. But in the cable news world, there isn’t a home for those views that don’t necessarily align. You’d expect to see the Clarence Thomas segment on Fox (News) and you’d expect to see the abortion doctor on segment on MSNBC and not the other.”

Keith Olbermann: Joe Scarborough ‘One Of The Worst Human Beings I’ve Ever Met’, Worrisome of Alex Wagner

BNM Staff
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While detailing his history with new MSNBC primetime host Alex Wagner Tuesday, Keith Olbermann laid into MSNBC Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough with some of the harshest criticisms imaginable on his Countdown with Keith Olbermann podcast.

“The entire morning of MSNBC’s programming features — and is ruled with an iron fist by — one of the worst human beings I have ever met,” said Olbermann. “The man who, in every day in 2015 and the start of 2016, tried to mainstream Donald Trump to the MSNBC audience and only stopped when he realized Trump was not going to offer him the Vice Presidency, ‘Joey Scars’ himself, Joe Scarborough.”

Olbermann’s sentiment came after he detailed his desire for Alex Wagner, whose new MSNBC show Alex Wagner Tonight debuts this evening, to be a guest host on his MSNBC version of Countdown during the late 2000s, but in his eyes, her lack of work ethic doomed her candidacy.

“I, along with the last executive producer of MSNBC version of Countdown, Richard Stockwell, all saw Alex Wagner from Politics Daily with The Huffington Post on, I’m pretty sure, Hardball with Chris Matthews. As we TV fatheads say, she popped. Jumped right off the screen. In many ways, not unlike Maddow did, before and after all the MSNBC geniuses who claimed credit for her success now fired her in 2006. Alex Wagner was well spoken, intelligent, informed, and vivacious, and you can teach any of those things but you cannot teach all of them to the same person.”

Olbermann then noted there was just one problem with Wagner. Just like Rachel Maddow, Wagner struggled to read the teleprompter. But unlike Maddow, Wagner, according to Olbermann, wasn’t willing to put in the work to fix the issue.

“When Stockwell and I lit upon the idea that Alex Wagner might be the next great guest host of Countdown and maybe someday, like the others (Maddow and O’Donnell) host her own MSNBC show spun off from ours, we invited her up for an audition and a meet-and-greet. Stockwell handled the audition and he came back to me that night crestfallen. It wasn’t only that Alex Wagner could not read the teleprompter, Stockwell told her ‘I told her we can teach her the teleprompter. She could become as good as Maddow in 30 minutes but she said how hard could it be? I can pick it up. Anyway, I gotta go to a dinner party’. Now, I didn’t hear that. That’s what Stockwell told me. I doubt he had the imagination to make it up.

“We talked to our people at Countdown and other MSNBC shows who had produced her segments and the same message came back each time. ‘Nice person, very intelligent, mails it in.’ “

Olbermann then went on to point out the amount of shows and career stops Wagner has had over the last 12 years since her Countdown audition, while saying while it may not sound like it, he wishes her success in her new role.

Rich Eisen Show to Leave Peacock for Roku

BSM Staff
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Rich Eisen has a new digital home. The NFL Network icon’s radio show is leaving Peacock and making Roku the new home of its simulcast.

According to Variety, nothing but the destination changes. The show will still air weekdays from noon until 3 pm Eastern. The move to Roku happens in September. In the interim, the video simulcast of the show will be available exclusively on Eisen’s YouTube channel.

Roku is making a serious effort to beef up its sports programming. The Rich Eisen Show will join the lineup of The Roku Channel. It already includes sports content from Stadium, Fubo, and Real Madrid TV. The channel will also add programming from Paramount+. With a subscription to that service, viewers will be able to watch the NFL, UEFA Champions League, The Masters, and college football on the Roku Channel as well.

On the radio side, it is mostly business as usual for Rich Eisen and his crew. The show continues to be available to terrestrial stations via a distribution deal with Westwood One. The show’s future on satellite radio is unclear though. The show had been available on the NBC Sports Audio channel. It is assumed that will end once Eisen leaves Peacock.

Dan Wetzel: Big Ten More Hurt Leaving ESPN For Basketball Than Football

BSM Staff
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Yahoo! Sports reporter Dan Wetzel joined 92.3 The Fan’s The Ken Carman Show with Anthony Lima Tuesday morning and was asked if the Big Ten was hurt by leaving ESPN for basketball more than it was by taking their football rights to Fox, CBS, and NBC.

“They’re not going to an obscure streaming service,” Wetzel argued. “Their games are going to be on Fox, NBC, and CBS. If you can’t find those three, you’re probably incapable of watching television. They’re going to get their money. The NHL left ESPN and they famously stopped covering them. I don’t believe that’s possible with the Big Ten. How do you cover college football and not mention the Big Ten? ESPN is still in the college football business. They will have a least a piece of the Playoff, and the Big Ten will still be playing on their network in road games. So I don’t think it’s a big deal in football. I think Gameday will still go around. The talk shows on ESPN, all they talk about is the NFL, the Brooklyn Nets, and the Lakers. They don’t talk about college football barely ever, anyway.

“I do think for basketball, it is (a problem). Because I think it’s a much more casual fan base, outside of your hardcore fans that know ‘tonight’s the Michigan State/Wisconsin game. I wanna make sure I watch Big Ten Network’. You just sit down on a Tuesday night in February and you turn on ESPN and there’s a college basketball game. You’ve just been trained that several nights a week that’s Big Ten basketball. Now that’s going to be the Big 12 or the ACC. And I just think the more casual college basketball fan will miss not finding Big Ten basketball somewhere else. I do think there’s a factor there, but with this amount of money, I think that’s a risk certainly the Big Ten is willing to take.”

Carman pointed out the buzz of the NHL returning to ESPN was slightly negated by a majority of the games being ESPN+ exclusives, and wondered if Big Ten basketball games being relegated to Paramount+ or Peacock would further hinder the Big Ten.

Lachlan Murdoch Threatens Lawsuit After Website Claims Fox News Responsible For January 6th

BNM Staff
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Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch is threatening legal action against Crikey, an Australian news website, after publishing an article claiming Murdoch and his father, Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch, are partially responsible for the riots at the United States Capitol on January 6th, 2021.

Bernard Keane, who wrote the article in question, equated the Murdochs to former President Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal, saying the Murdochs and “their slew of poisonous Fox News commentators” are “unindicted co-conspirators”, like Nixon in Watergate.

According to a report from Vanity Fair, Murdoch’s lawyers have sent several letters to the website since the story was published in June. Crikey has since removed the article.

The website and Murdoch clashed in April of 2021, resulting in $14,000 of legal fees for the publication. Crikey editor-in-chief Peter Fray told the Sydney Morning Herald the website and it’s parent company are “sick of being intimidated by Lachlan Murdoch”.

Amazon’s Thursday Night Football Being Tracked By Nielsen

BSM Staff
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Amazon’s Thursday Night Football Being Tracked By Nielsen

For the first time, Nielsen will provide traditional television ratings for a streaming platform, as Amazon’s Prime Video has struck a deal for the ratings firm to measure it’s coverage of Thursday Night Football.

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, a three-year deal has been struck between Nielsen and the world’s largest retailer to include viewership totals for the streaming service as a traditional television report.

Prime Video, which is reportedly telling advertisers not to expect similar viewership to linear television, has exclusive rights to Thursday Night Football and will utilize Nielsen ratings for advertising purposes. Ad Age reports the price of ad time on Thursdays on Amazon has also decreased compared to what they were going for with FOX. Amazon has asked in the ballpark of $500,000 for a 30-second spot, where FOX ads had an average price of $635,439.

Sal Licata: No ‘Wonder Why Players Hate Media’ After Durant Retirement Rumor

BSM Staff
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A now denounced report from NBA reporter Marc Stein that said Kevin Durant was more likely to retire than play for the Brooklyn Nets again caught the ire of WFAN’s Sal Licata Tuesday morning.

While filling in for Boomer & Gio, Licata said he struggled to believe some NBA reporters after the rumor of Durant’s possible retirement came up.

“I think some of these are phony and made up,” Licata said. “Who would believe that crap? Who comes up with that crap? Who even reported it? I wanna know who reported that. It’s ridiculous! Was it Shams (Charania)? (Ric) Bucher? So what? Some BS reporter or website is reporting this stuff. ‘Oh, he may retire.’ Common sense could break half these stories. My common sense says Kevin Durant is obviously not going to retire. Now obviously, he tweets that he’s not going to retire. Of course you’re not retiring! Who would leave that money on the table and not play basketball? Gimme a break!”

“It came from Mark Stein,” Jerry Recco said.

“Alright. At least that’s a name I know,” update anchor Chris Lopresti said.

“What was the exact — was it his opinion? Was it he might –“, Licata said.

“I don’t know,” Recco interrupted. “I’m reading from SI.com right now because they’ve got the Durant portion of it. The denial. And it says ‘the rumor of Durant possibly retiring came from Substack’s Marc Stein. He reportedly heard from one well-connected executive who insisted that, based on what he was hearing, Durant was more apt to retire than play for the Brooklyn Nets again’.”

“That is BS!,” Licata shouted. “Who would take that and run with it?! To a point where it gets on a crawl? To the point where Durant’s gotta respond to that nonsense?! Then you wonder why players hate the media?! According to a source that you heard through an executive?! I mean, come on! It’s ridiculous!”

Durant has since tweeted he will not be retiring, and any report that insinuates he was considering it “is comical at this point“.

Bill O’Reilly: Liberal Media Reaction to Trump Raid ‘Preposterous’

BNM Staff
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During Monday afternoon’s episode of Bill O’Reilly’s No Spin News and Analysis, the former Fox News host called reaction from “liberal media” to the raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate by the FBI as “preposterous”.

After playing a clip of MSNBC’s Tiffany Cross saying Americans wanted to see a “perp walk” of Donald Trump, O’Reilly replied “NBC? Comcast? Paying for this kind of vitriol every single day? I don’t know.”

He then played a portion of an interview with MSNBC former California Congresswoman Jane Harmon, where she speculated Trump could have sold or given valuable nuclear weapons information to Russia or Saudi Arabia.

“Well, she’s lost her mind,” said O’Reilly, after calling her a smart woman who had appeared on his show several times before. “In her view, she can go on national, or international, television and tell the public that a former president might be selling classified information to Russia, Saudi Arabia, whatever. That’s what that woman just said. That is so irresponsible, and stupid to boot, that it’s…I don’t even have the adjective. I’m not shocked anymore. This is the kind of garbage every single day that’s on American television. Every single day. But Jane Harmon? Really. Come on.”

The biggest example of hysterical reaction, according to O’Reilly, came from longtime ABC News reporter Sam Donaldson, who compared Trump to Al Capone. Capone, a noted Chicago gangster, was accused of ordering the murder of several rivals before ultimately going to prison for income tax evasion.

“I feel bad, because in his prime, Donaldson did some good reporting,” O’Reilly countered. “He was biased to the left, everybody knows that, but he was a hard working reporter who was at ABC when I was at ABC. Hey Sam, the IRS didn’t discover Al Capone did anything. It was a Treasury operation. You don’t know what you’re talking about. Obviously didn’t read “Killing The Mob” (a book O’Reilly authored).

“And to even surmise, that the Justice Department is gonna get Trump because maybe he did other things, on this, makes the Justice Department look stupid, Sam. Not cool. It makes them look corrupt. If Donald Trump did something, by removing classified documents he should not have? Legitimate. Let’s see what did he remove. What’s the charge? What did you find out, Merrick Garland? Let’s see it. But this kind of nonsense (media reaction)? Stupid. That’s the only word I have. Yet, there they are. National TV. And people go ‘ahh Al Capone. That’s right’. You would think the whole media industry is now a Saturday Night Live skit. That’s what it is.”

O’Reilly then pointed out sound byte from America First host Sebastian Gorka he considered unreasonable, as well. Gorka declared the former President has done nothing wrong, which O’Reilly noted Gorka can’t possibly know.

Tucker Carlson: Joe Scarborough Was ‘Above The Law’ Amid Staffer’s 2001 Death

BNM Staff
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One of the responses from opponents of former President Donald Trump has been “no one is above the law”, in regards to the recent FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago residence pertaining to classified documents reportedly linked to nuclear weapons. Fox News host Tucker Carlson called out what he perceived as hypocrisy from Trump’s opponents, naming MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough as an example.

“There was endless huffing on television about something called ‘the rule of law” and how absolutely no one is above that, no one, not even a former president!”, Carlson said. “Keep in mind, no one is above the law. That was definitely the word from Joe Scarborough, a man who was accused of committing murder while serving as a member of Congress, yet somehow moved seamlessly to the MSNBC lineup without being charged or even investigated.”

Less than two months after Scarborough — who was the Representative for Florida’s 1st Congressional District in 2001 — had announced his upcoming resignation from his post, a 28-year-old aide named Lori Klausutis was found dead in Scarborough’s Fort Walton Beach office. Klausutis suffered from a heart valve condition, lost consciousness, and hit her head while falling, which led to her death. Scarborough — who was in Washington DC at the time — was never a “person-of-interest” in the investigation, and was never credibly accused of committing murder. T.J. Klausutis, the widower of Lori Klausutis, has previously denounced conspiracy theories regarding his wife’s death, telling Yahoo! News “It’s complete nonsense“.

Will Cain Pushes Against Fact-Checking Media Outlets

BNM Staff
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Fox News host and podcaster Will Cain pushed back against fact-checking media outlets which he referred to as “insidious.” Cain appeared Monday on “The Faulkner Focus” to discuss the impact of organizations that claim to hold themselves to higher standards. 

“I believe that our job to achieve objectivity is an aspiration,” he said. “But it’s not a status, you don’t arrive at objectivity, you target truth and honesty.”

Cain said one of the ways a journalist or commentator can do that is by being honest with the audience about his/her own opinions. 

“We all hold biases, and we try to give the audience information so that they have all the information about what is going on about the story and the storyteller. “Cain said. “There is no more insidious lie than the concept of a fact-checker.” 

“They are not unbiased, they are not objective,” Cain said. “PolitiFact is a joke and what’s insidious is that they do not own their own bias, they are not objective.” 

Will Cain is a co-host at “Fox & Friends Weekends” and the host of the “Will Cain Podcast.”  

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