shotbanner.jpeg

July 22, 2004

Franken: Lying Liar

I was listening to Al Franken today. He was crowing about his "ratings victory" over Bill O'Reilly.

Franken noted on the air that while O'Reilly beat him in overall listeners, Franken had better numbers in the key 25-54 age bracket - the wealthiest, most advertiser-coveted demographic in talk radio.

Unusually for Franken, he had a point. As usual for Franken, he's right if you are ruthlessly selective with facts.

What Franken failed to mention to his "nationwide" audience was that:

  • the numbers were only for New York City - a city where liberals far outnumber conservatives. If Franken, flush with novelty and relentless media overkill, didn't slam O'Reilly in New York (and San Francisco and Portland and Los Angeles), it'd be a major defeat.
  • In any case, Limbaugh clobbered Franken,
  • He beat Bill O'Reilly - the Fast Eddie Schultz of the right, a man saved from the title "most worthless right-wing talk show host" only by the existence of Michael Savage
  • Limbaugh still clobbers Franken, even in New York, both in overall listeners and in 25-54.
For all the carping about straight talk you hear on the Franken show, you certainly don't get much.

Posted by Mitch at July 22, 2004 02:45 PM | TrackBack
Comments

Hey Mitch... I refer to this victory as the XFL factor. 25 million people the first week then ending up canceled because everyone realizes it's a piece of crap.

Posted by: Chumley Wonderbar at July 22, 2004 03:06 PM

I thought that people quit watching when they did the “bait and switch” with the cheerleaders. ;)

As far as Franken goes, I caught a bit last night on my way home. It’s amazing how terrible he is but only until you listen to the rest of the “talent” on the station.

Posted by: Thorley Winston at July 22, 2004 04:40 PM

What I'm about to write is in no way a defence of Franken or Air America.

That being said, Franken is doing what every other media radio and TV station does every day of every year: that is, they scan through their ratings to find the single category where they surpass the others, and then crow about it.

Do repeats of your terrible little show lead among insomniacs over 60 in the 1:00 AM - 4:00 AM timeslot? "We're Number One!"

This is why every local news station and every radio station can all claim to be "Arbitron Rated Number One!" With an asterisk you can't see, of course.

But Franken can't even say that. What a shame. Makes me all teary-eyed, actually.

Posted by: Pious Agnostic at July 23, 2004 08:13 AM

O'Reilly has a radio show? Who knew?

Posted by: Kris at July 23, 2004 08:37 AM
hi