ABC was the network most people favored for their news, according to a poll of 1,126 Americans conducted by research site CableTV.com, barely edging out Fox News Channel for second place though essentially a dead heat given the average margin of error of about 3% for that sample.

Poll participants were asked, “Which TV network do you prefer to get your news from?” Including both broadcast and cable network news, ABC was first at 20%, followed by Fox News at 19%, CNN at 15%, CBS at 13% and NBC at 10%.

Among cable news networks only, Fox was the winner, with 39.12% preferring that network. CNN was second with 30.14%, followed by MSNBC at 9.67% and CNBC with 4.65%.

When responses were broken out by census region, Fox News led in the Pacific, Mountain, West South Central, South Atlantic, and East South Central regions and tied with ABC News in the West North Central region.

According to CableTV.com, Fox News was tops with baby boomers polled (24% preferred the network) and Gen Xers (22%). ABC was tops with Gen Z (26%) and millennials (21%). ■

Your neighborhood, your city, your country — the need to know what’s going on at any given time is inextricably connected to our survival and even, one could argue, our very humanity. That critical need to be informed has given rise to a myriad of ways in which information — specifically, what is generically called “the news” — can be accessed and consumed. From robust social-media offerings to a spider web of ways to view television, both on a big screen and on our personal devices, we can now literally watch news wherever we go.

And we do. Looking at overall viewing, news continues to hold the top spot in viewing categories. In this category, people 25-34 watch more news than any other program genre, accounting for 11% of viewing share, and people 35-54 account for an impressive 15% share [1]. But the real winner in news viewing is the 55-64 demo which, while smaller in range of years, accounts for more viewership share than each of the other two groups with a 16% share [2]. The devotion to news viewership among adults 55-64 should be underscored — and valued for their loyalty.

Also: Nielsen Executive Shows Support For Expanding Age Demo to 25-64

Not only do older adults watch the most news, but the 55-64 demo brings an overall lift to impressions. By aggregating the 55-64 demo with the 24-54 key demo, total impressions from all sources — broadcast, cable, All Other Tuning (AOT [3]) and nontraditional viewing sources (non-households using television, or HUT [4] ) — increased by an impressive 56.5% in April 2022 [5] (up from an also impressive lift of 54.9% in April 2021). 

The way we view continues to evolve: Households viewing from non-HUT sources grew 8% on a year-over-year basis, with a disproportionate amount of that change coming from people 25-34, who shifted their viewing to non-HUT sources by 10%. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the reliable 55-64 news viewers switched to non-HUT sources the least, at 6% [6]. Importantly, let’s not forget that this 55-64 demo generally holds more net worth and has more discretionary income than the younger demos. ICYMI, check out this piece on the buying power of 55-64. 

And consider brand loyalty: Common guidance is that the battle of the brands is fought in the early years, making the younger demos the sought-after consumer. But current Nielsen studies show that the 55-64 demo, in addition to being the leading consumer of news, is also open to trying new brands. Looking at the sum of incremented, consecutive brand purchases [7], there is very little difference between repeat brand purchases among 55-64 compared to other younger groups. All groups are declining in this metric, and therefore open to new brands within a category. [8]

Digging deeper into an example of brand loyalty in a specific and ultra-important category — automotive — data shows that people 55-64 are more likely to own multiple brands of vehicles —- high-end, luxury, etc. The list goes on and just gets even more impressive. [9]

As we think and plan for the future of news and monetizing the news audience, the expanded demo of 25-64 illustrates a trusted, reliable, profitable part of the equation. Yes, the world will still turn, people will find new ways to stay informed, but the 55-64 demo will continue to robustly watch and spend. And the data has shown that they have the resources to do just that. ▪️

1. Nielsen, NLTV, viewing by genre, April 2022.
2. Nielsen: NLTV, viewing by genre, April 2022.
3. AOT - All Other Tuning: Content that cannot be identified by codes or matching audio signatures; therefore, cannot be assigned to a final distributor (and thus a station code). In order for content to be considered the unencoded/unmatched content must originate from a HUT (households using television) device such as a TV or set-top box. 2022 Nielsen Local Reference Supplement.
4. Non-HUT: Not a Household Using Television source — Alternate ways of viewing TV, memory stick, camera or portable/handheld game, as defined by HUT. 2022 Nielsen Local Reference Supplement.
5. Nielsen: NPower: Live-plus-same day, total day % of share by total use of television, April 2021 vs. April 2022.
6. Nielsen: NPower, Live-plus-same day, total day impressions, April 2022.
7. Nielsen Catalina Solutions: Brand Loyalty August 2018-July 2021.
8. Nielsen Catalina Solutions: Brand Loyalty August 2018-July 2021.
9. Scarborough USA Plus, 2021 Release 2: “Likelihood to own another car brand vs U.S. Adult.” 

President Joe Biden took some time during his press conference Wednesday (January 19), one of only a handful of solo outings with the White House press corps, to suggest that media coverage has become polarized, much as the two political parties have been.

He also ventured into some cord-cutting speculation that cable was “going south” in terms of viewership.

Also: Not All D.C. TV Stations Broadcast President Biden Press Conference

The president veered off into media speculation as he was talking about the reporting on his poll numbers, whose own southward turn has gotten a lot of ink and airtime.

He said that reporting one poll that had his approval rating in the low 30s missed the fact that the average was in the mid-40s, about on par with other recent presidents in their first two years in office.

He said the public was trying to "sift their way through what's real and what's fake."

He said he had never seen a time where the choice of what political coverage people turn to impacted as much on what they believed, “whether it's MSNBC or its Fox.”

He said he found “fascinating” and something that “will impact on how things move” was that “a lot of the speculation and the polling data shows that the cables are heading south; they're losing viewership,“ he said. “Fox is OK for a while, but a lot of the rest are predicted to be not very much in the mix in the next four to five years,” though he added he was not sure whether that was true.

But he said he did know that people had “put themselves in certain alleys.” He asked how many people who watched MSNBC also watch Fox News Channel. Conceding he was not an expert, Biden said what gets covered now is different from what got covered in the past.

The nature of the way things get covered has changed, he said, because of the internet and “the self-identified perspectives based on what channel you turn on.” ■

In his speech marking the anniversary of the Capitol insurrection, President Joe Biden talked Thursday about a statue of Clio, the Greek muse of history, looking down over the door to the rotunda and recording the ransacking of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. With apologies to Clio, it was in fact the cameras of broadcast and cable and C-SPAN and surveillance cameras and the video streams from cellphones that captured the attack on the Capitol and the rule of law.

Just as the cable and broadcast networks and streaming services covered speeches marking the anniversary by the president and Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday.

The president, speaking from the Capitol's Statuary Hall, made the point about the nation being witness to that troubling history when he said “[Y]ou and I and the whole world saw with our own eyes” the truth of what happened that day, which he said was rioters rampaging and trying to rip the country apart.

Also: The Capitol Siege: Images That Linger

Taking the gloves off, Biden said former President Donald Trump had rallied the mob to attack, then sat in a private dining room off the Oval Office and watched it on television. Former Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham said on CNN Thursday the then-president had watched, and rewatched, the footage — even as he was being asked to quell the violence of a crowd he had earlier urged to fight to have the election overturned. As Trump watched the TV, Biden said, he “did nothing for hours and hours” as police were assaulted and the Capitol besieged by an armed insurrection.

Earlier, Harris had said, “We all saw what our nation would look like if the forces who seek to dismantle our democracy are successful.”

It was journalists who chronicled the truth of that day and in doing so helped face down the violent mob by recording its ugly face for the world to see, and at some personal risk — rioters in the crowd trashed equipment and some talked about killing the journalists covering the insurrection.

Biden included reporters in talking about all who were “living with the trauma of that day.”

From the president’s speech about a stolen election that rallied a crowd to march to the Capitol, successfully breaching the building and disrupting the counting of electoral votes, reporters — who some in the crowd openly threatened to hunt down and kill one by one — kept reporting.

The president talked about a choice between living in the “light of truth” or the “shadow of lies.” Journalists have a critical role in shining that light, and a responsibility not to join, for ratings or political purposes, those throwing shade on that truth.

In a pro forma session that lasted only a few minutes but was carried by broadcast and cable networks, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called for a moment of silence in honor of the police officers who lost their lives following the attack.

According to CNN, the only Republican in the chamber for that moment of silence was Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), a member of the special committee investigating the insurrection, accompanied by her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney. C-SPAN's cameras, though controlled by the Congress, clearly showed the Republican side virtually empty, pretty much ensuring there would be silence from that side of the chamber during the moment of remembrance. ■

In a speech Tuesday (Dec. 21) carried on the Big Four major broadcast and cable news networks, President Joe Biden blamed vaccine resistance in part on dangerous misinformation on cable TV and social media.

While he said the vaccine decision is personal, he also said “purveyors of lies and misinformation“ about vaccines were “wrong and immoral” and called on them to “stop it, now.”

The Centers for Disease Control defines misinformation as “false information shared by people who do not intend to mislead others” and disinformation as that same false information “deliberately created and disseminated with malicious intent.”

The CDC has created a primer for stakeholders on how to monitor social media and traditional media for misinformation and disinformation.

The platforms it suggests monitoring are Twitter, Facebook/Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp and Google Trends.

Dr. Jerome Adams, former surgeon general, said on CNN that the media could certainly be doing more to put out positive messages, asking where all the PSAs were about how vaccines don't cause infertility or how people should get vaccinated even if they have had COVID-19. He said pushing for accurate information would be better than simply pointing fingers.

Dr. Peter Hotez of Baylor College of Medicine agreed. He said that the Biden administration was indeed pointing fingers at Facebook and conservative media, which was understandable, but that it did not have the appetite to actually go after the groups purveying that disinformation.

“The President’s remarks echo what our research has been exposing in this year of disinformation, with its devastating and deadly consequences," said Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). "President Biden is right to call out the scions of Big Tech who profit from the spread of vaccine misinformation on their platforms."

Following their finding of Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty on all charges, the judge in the trial of Rittenhouse for a shooting resulting in the death of two people told jurors they could talk to the media as much or as little as they liked, but were under no obligation to talk to reporters at all.

Following the verdict, Kenosha County (Wisconsin) Circuit Court Judge Bruce Schroeder praised the jury highly for its attentiveness and cooperation, then provided them with some instructions about dealing with the media. Rittenhouse was on trial for the shooting deaths of two unarmed men and the shooting of a third during police brutality protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August 2020. 

Schroeder said a number of outlets wanted to talk to jurors and that he would allow them to make presentations in writing. It was entirely up to jurors whether they wanted to contact those outlets, he said, but “they are not to contact you.”

He said jurors who are contacted and did not want to talk should say they are not interested in discussing the case, adding: “If anyone persists in doing so, report that to us and it will be addressed, I assure you.”

The judge had banned MSNBC from the court building earlier in the week after a freelance producer appeared to follow the juror bus after they left the court for the day, then got a traffic ticket that brought that fact to light.

Defense attorney Mark Richards was asked after the verdict about the trial being televised. He said he had never had a case televised gavel-to-gavel before and did not know at the start how big the case would be, but he said he did not think televising the trial made the jury or lawyers act differently.

CNN analysts suggested that TV coverage was helpful in preventing a potentially violent reaction to the verdict, given that people were able to see how each side made their case and see Rittenhouse's emotional testimony. ■

Former Republican presidential candidate, senator and CNN political analyst Rick Santorum has joined conservative cable channel Newsmax as senior political analyst and will hit the ground analyzing Tuesday (Nov. 2) with the network‘s coverage of a key election.

The Virginia governor's race between Republican Glenn Youngkin and Democrat Terry McAuliffe is razor-thin and considered something of a referendum on the continuing impact of former President Donald Trump, who endorsed Youngkin. There is also a key governor's race in New Jersey.

Also read: Newsmax Trumps Up News Team

Santorum joins Dick Morris, Betsy McCaughey and Mark Halperin on Newsmax’s election coverage team.

“I am looking forward to bringing my common-sense, blue-collar conservative voice to Newsmax and their viewers as we turn toward the critical 2022 midterm elections and beyond,“ Santorum said.

Santorum, then a senator from Pennsylvania, was the chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, as well as a presidential candidate in 2012.

According to Newsmax, it is currently in over 100 million homes, delivered by all the major cable operators, as well as on a number of over-the-top platforms.

Broadcast and cable primetime newscasts are the most gender-equitable news platforms, while print newspapers and wire services are the least, according to a new analysis by the Women‘s Media Center, that found, overall, a continuing media gender gap.

The center did not look at local broadcast news, only cable and broadcast network primetime newscasts as well as print, wire services and some major internet sites.

The survey found an even 50/50 split of women and men among the anchors and correspondents on the prime time weekday network evening newscasts, but from their the equity meter headed in the wrong direction. Of the online news stories studied, 57% were by men and 43% by women. For wire services, 63% of the bylines were men and 37% women.

Print remained the most male-centric, with 69% of the stories by men and 31% by women. Among the most male top-heavy papers was the Los Angeles Times with 81% men to 19% women.

Among the evening news broadcasts, the survey found that the majority of newscasts anchored by women — CBS‘s Norah O’Donnell, CNN’s Erin Burnett, MSNBC‘s Joy Reid and PBS‘s Judy Woodruff — tended to have more women anchors, hosts, correspondents and reporters. The exception was Fox News Channel‘s The Story with Martha McCallum.

But the newscast with the least percentage of women anchors, hosts, correspondents and reporters was ABC's World News Tonight (anchored by David Muir) with 28%, followed by NBC Nightly News (anchored by Lester Holt) at 34%, then Fox News‘s The Story with Martha McCallum at 39%. The network newscast with the highest percentage of women was The ReidOut on MSNBC (anchored by Joy Reid) at 70%, to 30% men.

But while MSNBC had the most women on the network newscast side, it had the least on its website, with 88% of the stories by men and only 12% by women. CNN was the most balanced with 54% of the stories by women to 46% by men.

Overall the outlets, the most male-dominated category of reporting is on sports, with 87% of the stories on broadcast, cable, print and wires by men and 13% by women. But that gap is much narrower in broadcast and cable, with women reporting 40% of the sports stories and men 60%.

The survey was based on an analysis of 62,002 "pieces of news content" Jan. 1-March 31, 2021, collected from the top 14 newspapers by circulation, seven primetime newscasts on “major broadcast and cable networks” two newswires and seven “major” internet sites. The networks were ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN. The internet sites were CNN.com, HuffPost, Los Angeles Times, MSNBC, New York Times, The Washington Post and Vox.

AT&T’s CNN said it plans to launch a streaming subscription service in the first quarter of 2022. 

The service, dubbed CNN Plus, will be a standalone, direct-to-consumer product separate from CNN’s current TV channels.

At launch CNN Plus is expected to have eight to 12 hours of live, daily programming featuring some of CNN’s best-known talent. It will also have new faces, CNN said. 

Also Read: AT&T’s Stankey Confirms CNN Plus Launch — How, Oh How Can He Screw This Up?

CNN Plus will also launch with a library of non-fiction, long-form programming including series like Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy, This is Life with Lisa Ling and United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell.

Starting CNN Plus continues the trend of media companies shifting their focus to direct-to-consumer streaming products from traditional pay TV as cord-cutting and other changes in consumer behavior slice into  wholesale distribution revenue.

CNN will also be developing original series for CNN Plus.

“CNN invented cable news in 1980, defined online news in 1995 and now is taking an important step in expanding what news can be by launching a direct-to-consumer streaming subscription service in 2022,” said Jeff Zucker, chairman of WarnerMedia News and Sports and president of CNN Worldwide. “On top of a television offering that has never been stronger, which remains at the core of what we do today, we will offer consumers a streaming product that grows the reach and scope of the CNN brand in a way that no one else is doing. Nothing like this exists.”

CNN Plus will be overseen by an executive team headed Andrew Morse, chief digital officer for CNN Worldwide, who will supervise content, product development and business operations.

Also on the CNN Plus team are Alex MacCullum, CNN’s Worldwide head of product, who will be GM of CNN Plus; Rebecca Kutler, senior VP and head of programming for CNN Plus; Courtney Coupe, senior VP of content strategy and operations for CNN Plus, and Robyn Peterson, CNN Worldwide’s chief technology officer. 

“For 41 years, global audiences have turned to CNN as an essential source of news and information, which is rooted in our deep commitment to quality journalism,” Morse said. “CNN Plus will be built on a foundation of world class reporting and storytelling and a commitment to meet our audiences wherever they are.”

CNN topped cable ratings charts during a busy news week that included the riot at the U. S. Capitol in Washington D.C. and the Georgia Senate election.

Also Read: Jake Tapper Gets Expanded Role at CNN

CNN averaged 4.1 million viewers in primetime during the week of Jan. 4 to Jan. 10, according to Nielsen. MSNBC finished second with 3.7 million viewers, followed by 2020 cable ratings champion Fox News with 3.1 million watchers.

Also Read: Fox News Revamps Daytime Lineup

HGTV finished fourth with 1.1 million viewers, with TNT moving into fifth place with 1 million viewers.

On a 24-hour basis, CNN topped the charts with 2.7 million viewers. MSNBC, Fox News, HGTV and Hallmark Channel rounded out the top five networks on the chart, said Nielsen. 

Over the past eight months since its February launch, Black News Channel has had to navigate through an extraordinary news cycle that included a ravaging COVID-19 pandemic, the manifestation of social injustice protests and a contentious Presidential election. 

Currently heading the network charge is its President and CEO Princell Hair, former CNN general manager who knows the cable news business and has positioned the network to fill a void in delivering news and pertinent information targeted to an underserved African-American audience.

Hair recently sat down with Multichannel News for an extensive video interview in which he talks about the Black News Channel brand as well as the shifting cable news environment. Hair also weighs in on the television's diversity and inclusion efforts.

The rise in retransmission fees has more than compensated for the COVID-19 hit on TV station revenue, at least in the early months of the pandemic. That is according to a new Pew Research Center analysis. The report also found that ad revenue for network news--ABC, CBS, and NBC--were actually up in 2Q 2020, while cable news revenue held steady, though only thanks to Fox, whose large increases covered declines at CNN and MSNBC.

The broadcast TV study was based on second-quarter ad revenue (the quarter ending June 30, 2020) for Sinclair, Tegna, Nexstar*, Gray and Scripps, compared to second quarter 2019 revenue. The overall report was based on financial data from the Securities and Exchange Commission for publicly traded companies, and data from Kantar.

While the stories of individual stations undoubtedly vary, Pew found that while ad revenue was down for 2Q 2020 from 2019, the increase in retransmission consent fees "more than made up for it."

The study said that across those five TV station group operators, which together have over 600 TV stations, retrans fees were up "sharply" in 2Q 2020, by 37% or a total $87.3 million in median revenue, more than covering the median ad revenue decline of 24% to $67.9 million. Sinclair represented the biggest boost in fees, a whopping 175%, with Scripps second at 55% and Tegna getting the median position at 37%.

The ad total for the three network nightly newscasts was up 11% in 2Q 2020 over the comparable 2019 quarter, with ABC pulling most of the weight, up a whopping 21% to NBC's 7% and CBS's 3%.

For the cable news outlets studied, total ad revenue was up 2% for the quarter, year over year, to $422 million, but Fox News was doing the heavy lifting to lift the average. Driven by big ratings gains, Fox news had its biggest Q2 year-over-year revenue increase in more than a decade, up 41%, while CNN ad revenue fell 14% and MSNBC 27%, despite higher ratings for both in the quarter, with CNN more than doubling its prime time audience over 2019.

*Because Pew is comparing revenues to second quarter 2019, before Nexstar's September 2019 merger with Tribune, former Tribune station revenues have been backed out of the Nexstar 2020 numbers so it is an apples-to-apples comparison.

It’s been a big year for politics in general, but in September things really started heating up. Not only was conversation around the 2020 election growing louder by the day, the month also brought the first presidential debate between President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. All of the surrounding drama has helped keep people glued to news networks. 

According to Vizio’s Inscape, the TV data company with insights from a panel of more than 16 million smart TVs, overall, nearly 60% of active TVs tuned in to the first presidential debate. (Read our full recap of the debate here.)

When news broke that President Trump had tested positive for COVID-19 — mere days after the debate — viewers tuned into cable news to get the details. 

Per Inscape, of all the live, linear minutes watched from Friday, Oct. 2 through Sunday, Oct. 4, 5.16% of the time was spent on Fox News -— slightly less watch-time than the previous weekend (5.17% from Sept. 25-27). CNN, on the other hand, more than doubled its share of watch-time, up to 4.61% vs. 2.20%. Time spent with MSNBC was up as well, with a 2.17% share duration this past weekend compared to 1.80% the weekend of Sept. 25-27. 

In this time of political polarization across our country, one interesting question is how many cable news viewers take a “fair and balanced” approach to TV news consumption by watching more than one of the major networks. Inscape examined viewership crossover in September among the big three: Fox News, CNN and MSNBC. 

The highest crossover: 54% of MSNBC viewers tuned into at least 10 minutes of CNN during September. The lowest crossover: only 12% of Fox News viewers tuned into MSNBC. CNN was the most evenly split, with 26% also watching Fox News and 34% also watching MSNBC.

Inscape also examined crossover for some of the Sunday morning news shows (NBC's Meet the Press with Chuck Todd, CBS News Sunday Morning, ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, CNN's State of the Union with Jake Tapper and Fox News Sunday). On the high end: 21% of State of the Union viewers tuned into at least 10 minutes of Meet the Press in September. The lowest crossover: 3.9% of Fox News Sunday viewers tuned into State of the Union.

But what do all these viewers have in common? They’ve all watched at least some of the below shows in September, and game shows and soap operas dominate the list (excludes sports/news/religious programming).

Fox News has re-signed veteran network on-air personality Brit Hume to a multi-year deal, the network announced Wednesday.

As part of the deal, Hume will remain in his current role as senior political analyst for the news network, as well as a commentator and panelist across Fox News’ daytime and evening programming, said the network. 

“Brit is an exceptional journalist who has played an integral role in our unrivaled political coverage — his extensive knowledge of the intricacies of Washington have made him a tremendous asset to our team and a popular favorite with our viewers,” said Suzanne Scott, Fox News Media CEO in a statement. “We look forward to his continued expertise for many years ahead.”

CNBC has signed former Fox News veteran and anchor Shepard Smith to lead a one-hour evening news program, the network said Wednesday.

Smith, who left Fox News last October after more than two decades at the network, will begin his stint at CNBC on July 13. The new show, The News with Shepard Smith, will launch in the Fall and will cover the most significant news stories of the day, according to network officials

“Information is coming at us from every direction. If we’re not careful life-altering decisions will be made based on half-truth, rumor, misdirection or worse,” said Mark Hoffman, Chairman of CNBC in a statement. “We aim to deliver a nightly program that, in some small way, looks for the signal in all the noise. We’re thrilled that Shep, who’s built a career on an honest fight to find and report the facts, will continue his pursuit of the truth at CNBC.”

Smith most recently served as Fox News chief news anchor of the network and managing editor of the breaking news division after servicing as anchor of news series Shepard Smith Reporting. Before joining Fox News Channel, Smith was a Fox News Edge correspondent based in Los Angeles.

Between the COVID-19 pandemic and the nationwide protests related to the death of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer, 2020 has been a virtually endless news cycle for the reporters tasked with covering these giant stories. Many have been on both with little to no time to rest in between. Covering either meant going into hazardous conditions, risking illness and injury.

RELATED: Enough Is Enough

While no story stays in the news cycle forever, news gatherers said they can’t quite envision more relaxed times arriving anytime soon for those on the front lines. “I feel like we lurched from one story of a lifetime to another,” said Scott Gordon, a reporter at KXAS Dallas-Fort Worth with 35 years in the game. “I’ve covered a lot of big stories in my time, but I’ve never seen anything like this. The sheer magnitude of what’s going on keeps me going. I want to be there to document the history that’s unfolding.”

Corona Crisis

The coronavirus story was elevated to headline news early in 2020 as the pandemic sickening spread, sentencing most people to their homes and shattering the U.S. economy. As one veteran reporter put it, it was the rare story that affected every person in America and beyond. In terms of daily coverage, the pandemic changed the rules of engagement for reporters. Successful reporting is based on the journalist forming a personal connection with sources, often in a matter of minutes. But reporters had to make do with their faces partially covered.

“It’s hard to communicate if you have a mask on,” Jeff Pegues, CBS News chief justice and homeland security correspondent, said. “In some ways, it changes the game for us, but you have to do what you have to do.”

Reporters have also had to contend with social distancing, which has also made establishing personal connections with sources far more challenging. “You can’t shake hands and you can’t put your arm around someone,” said Shimon Prokupecz, crime and justice correspondent for CNN. “It makes the job a whole lot harder.”

While many of us now work from home, reporters have been out in the field all the while, chasing down stories while trying their best to avoid an invisible enemy. “You play the day back: Was I safe, did I do everything I was supposed to do?” Prokupecz said.

Protests in Cities Large and Small

George Floyd was killed May 25, sparking perfervid protests in all corners of the country. In an online roundtable, former President Barack Obama said the protests are “unlike anything I have seen in my lifetime.” Many reporters shifted on the fly, stepping back from corona coverage to chronicle the protests, and at times the looting, in Washington, New York, Los Angeles and countless other cities large and small. “There was really no break in between, going from one massive, huge story, to another massive, huge story,” ABC News national correspondent Alex Perez said. “There really wasn’t time to think about them in between.” The days are long and reporters are exhausted. (“I can’t believe the impeachment was this year,” one said.) But instead of taking a few days off, they’re all over the latest giant story.

“This year feels like a decade so far,” said Bryan Llenas, Fox News national correspondent. “This is an exhausting time to be doing what we do; it’s physically and emotionally taxing. You feel like you can’t get out of bed, but there’s a lot going on and you hate to be on the sideline.”

Prokupecz said he and his crew walk 20 to 25 miles a day, covering the giant stories in New York. “The team is exhausted, but we feel it’s important to be out there,” he said.

Police Pushback

Making things even more challenging for reporters, many find themselves the targets of rough treatment at the hands of people on the street and even police. A mob of rioters turned on a Fox News crew, which included reporter Leland Vittert, pummeling the journalists outside the White House in late May. WAVE Louisville reporter Kaitlin Rust and photojournalist James Dobson were struck by pepper balls fired by police, causing Rust to exclaim on the air, “I’m getting shot!”

RELATED: BET'S Scott Mills on Providing a Platform

CNN reporter Omar Jimenez was arrested on live TV while working in Minneapolis. An Australian news crew on the street in Washington was attacked by authorities clearing demonstrators from the street near the White House. Freelance photographer Linda Tirado was shot in the eye by a rubber bullet in Minneapolis and is unlikely to regain vision in that eye.

Seven reporters contacted for this story said they’ve mostly been left alone by police and the public while doing their jobs, minus the occasional rocks thrown their way. Several did report people on the street approaching them to express their gratitude, which the reporters said is extremely uncommon in their line of work.

“People have said, I’m so grateful you’re able to tell our stories,” said Jericka Duncan, CBS News correspondent. “I don’t feel like we’ve met with a lot of tension.”

While some in the public echo President Trump’s cries of fake news, many more view reporters as vital to getting the facts out to the masses. “I feel like people are really seeing the value of what we’re doing,” said Garrett Haake, NBC News correspondent, who mentioned “unfailingly positive” feedback from people on the street. “It’s their story and they want it on TV.”

Normal Times Ahead?

Every news story loses its momentum over time, which suggests things may get back to normal for reporters on the front lines at some point in the future. Then again, the presidential election happens in less than five months, and the 24/7 news and social-media cycles are more a part of people’s lives with every passing day. “Like everybody else, I want to get back to normal,” KXAS’s Scott Gordon said. “But I’m not sure what normal is anymore.”

Much as they might like to spend a day in bed, resting after a breathless six months, the reporters on the street for these blockbuster stories said they’re getting by on adrenaline and a renewed sense of purpose. Haake spoke about journalists being there to write the first draft of history. He said, “It’s an honor to have the opportunity to tell this story, at this moment.”

Haake described it as “an inflection point” in the United States. “These stories matter and need to be told,” he said. “It’s a historical moment in this country. As a reporter, these are things you want to be part of.” 

As I wove among the thousands of protesters gathered in the streets around the White House over the past few days, I could easily pick out the journalists dotting the crowd. With press credentials hanging from their neck, a notebook in hand or a camera slung over their shoulder, they were there to chronicle the story of historic protests against police brutality sweeping the country.

Dozens of journalists rested on the front porch of the historic St. John’s Church, where just days before the attorney general had ordered peaceful protesters to depart, with chemical agents used to clear them out in advance of the president's photo in front of its boarded-up windows. It was pretty easy to pick out the journalists from the crowd, even with so many people wearing masks to protect themselves from COVID-19. We are currently in the midst of not just a historic civil rights movement, but also in the midst of a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, so we cannot afford to lose our storytellers.

Over the past two weeks, though, we have seen those charged with upholding the law clash with those practicing their First Amendment rights, from protesters exercising their right to freedom of association and assembly, to journalists embodying the right to freedom of the press. Despite the fact that journalists and citizens alike have a right to document law enforcement and newsworthy events, they have been targeted and attacked by the very people charged with upholding the law: Police were responsible for about 80% of the reported incidents during the first two weeks.

Reporters Singled Out

Since May 26, when protests in response to the death of African-American citizen George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, more than 11,000 people have been arrested. Alongside the protesters, it appears that journalists have been specifically targeted for arrest and attack. By June 8, the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, of which the Committee to Protect Journalists is a founding partner, had documented at least 327 press freedom violations. Among these were at least 54 arrests of journalists, the destruction of equipment and physical attacks on journalists with weapons like tear gas and rubber bullets.

For perspective, in 2019 the Tracker documented a total of 152 violations in the U.S. While the number of journalists affected may pale in comparison to the protesters, the implications are serious.

Journalists identifying as people of color are also particularly vulnerable. In the midst of protests about police brutality and systemic racism, among the earliest incidents reported was the on-air arrest of black Latino reporter Omar Jimenez, along with members of his CNN team. His white colleague, working one block over, was not detained. Journalists of color are forced to exist in a space of double jeopardy, targeted not only for their race, but now for their job as well. Journalism in the U.S. is still wildly uneven in representation, with the American Society of News Editors’ 2019 Diversity Survey revealing that only 21.9% of salaried newsroom staff are people of color. I won’t claim to speak for the experiences of these journalists, but our past reporting has shown that protests present additional threats for black journalists. We need their perspective; we cannot afford to lose their voices now.

The U.S. has long been a champion of press freedom, holding the First Amendment up as a model, a standard set for protecting and encouraging a robust free press. The Constitution protects both the right of civilians to protest, as well as journalists’ right to cover it. But as authorities across the country continue to disparage and allow for attacks on the press, that standing is now in jeopardy. And the
failure of U.S. leadership to protect even its own journalists will have direct consequences for journalists in danger around the globe.

Journalism Is Essential

Journalists are an essential service, and that’s a status explicitly confirmed by leaders around the U.S. and the world during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. They have a critical role to play in these historic moments. To bear witness and to bring information not only to their communities, but the world. And even in the face of mounting hostility, they have not backed down nor turned the camera away.

The world is watching. It’s imperative for state and city authorities across the country to show the same courage and conviction. Police departments must allow journalists to work and cover this story as safely as possible, and failure to do so must be thoroughly investigated and those responsible held to account. If they don’t, we run the risk of losing the thread on a vitally important story. Communities — and democracy — will suffer as a result. 

Courtney C. Radsch, Ph.D., is advocacy director at the Committee to Protect Journalists and author of Cyberactivism and Citizen Journalism in Egypt: Digital Dissidence and Political Change.  

Cable news networks are leading a surge in TV viewing as more people are staying home and tuning in because of the Coronavirus crisis, according to data from Comscore.

Comscore says that cable news viewing was up 73% in the week of March 16, compared to the same week a year ago. They are also up 39.8% from a month ago and 7.8% from the previous week.

The biggest increases for the seven news networks tracked by Comscore came in daytime and early fringe.

With the stock market plunging, financial news networks, in particular, were drawing viewers. The two highest networks were up 95% from last year, with an 137% increase in daytime. Comscore did not identify the two of the “highest rated financial news networks” it looked at, but they were most likely CNBC and Fox Business.

The Big Four broadcast networks have seen a 19% increase in viewing compared to a year ago, reversing a long-term trend of viewership erosion. In primetime, the broadcast networks are up 9.4% from a year ago and 3.5% from the previous month, but down 0.7% from the prior week.

The broadcast networks’ biggest gains were in early fringe and daytime. Overnight rating were down as the networks’ late night shows were mainly in reruns.

With most schools closed, children’s programming was up 31%, with a 30.6% gain in daytime. 

Upstart service Black News Channel recently pushed back its launch date to January from November in an effort to finalize additional carriage deals for the network, which currently has agreements with Comcast, Charter Communications and Dish Network for select markets representing around 33 million linear-TV homes, with additional contracts for mobile devices and smart TVs. Primetime anchors named so far include former CNNer Fred Hickman, Laverne McGee and Anthony Amey.

J.C. Watts, co-founder and chairman of the independently-owned Black News Channel, spoke with Multichannel News about the decision to move the network’s launch date into 2020. Watts, who served as a Republican House member from 1995 to 2003 and was a star college quarterback, also talked about the network’s mandate to launch in a crowded, competitive television environment. Here’s an edited transcript of their conversation.

MCN: Why delay the launch of Black News Channel until January?

J.C. Watts: We have a chance to make history with the number of households/devices that will carry our product, so we wanted to make sure we have everything together for our launch. In the next two to three weeks we’re going to announce some partnerships that will take us beyond where we are now. It makes sense business-wise and in terms of distribution to wait. We only get one chance to make a first impression, so we’re now going to launch on Jan. 6.

MCN: Are there potentially new distribution partners on the linear side, or are they some of the newer streaming services?

JCW: It’s both. When we started this years ago, digital wasn’t as big as it is today. The first question I received from our two biggest sponsors was, “what’s your digital strategy?” So we had not fully thought through that even though it was on our radar screen. Today, 98% of African-American millennials have cellphones, and 68% say that they get their news information from that cellphone. It has turbocharged itself over the last two or three years, so we’ll soon announce some partnerships that will allow us to be relevant where our audience gets its information from.

MCN: Do you have any sense of how many households the network will launch with in January?

JCW: I think, [in terms of] households, we’ll be in the 33 million range, but we’ll significantly increase our reach with some mobile deals. I feel comfortable in saying we’ll be able to announce those partnerships in the next three to four weeks.

MCN: How would you define the Black News Channel brand?

JCW: We are a brand that will be culturally specific to the African-American community. When you look at the landscape on linear television and even on the digital platforms, there’s very little news, information, educational and inspirational content that is culturally specific to us. The news channels today disproportionately talk about crime, athletics and entertainment more than news pertaining to us culturally. So that is our brand, and we say while those other things exist, there's more to the black community than what’s on the linear and digital platforms.

MCN: How important is the concept of Black News Channel given some of the developments we’ve seen recently on the political front, as well as in the culture?

JCW: I can say without exaggeration that the intensity and the relevance is more intense today than it’s been in the last 10 years. The culture of politics certainly has something to do with that. I testified before the Senate Commerce Committee a couple of weeks ago, and I said to them in all of the 200-plus channels that you can get on your TV dial, there’s not one place in that lineup that you can go to get content that educates and informs, and that is culturally specific to the African-American community.

We’re talking about current affairs, wellness, information on the HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) community — there's nowhere you can go for education and information. The community has recognized that for many years, and our research says that African-Americans will watch content that is culturally specific to us, and that’s who we are.

MCN: Why do you feel this is the best time to launch Black News Channel?

JCW: Today, compared to two years ago or 10 years ago, the intensity level for the service has actually grown. There’s nothing that would encourage us to believe by any stretch of the imagination that the service is not desired by the community. We already have carriage today with Charter, Comcast and Dish, and we’ll have our digital deals in place that give us an opportunity with the carriage and the capital to sustain where we need to be going forward.

Hardball with Chris Matthews marked 20 years on MSNBC Nov. 8, the longest-running program on the network. Host Matthews has had a colorful career. After working for the Peace Corps in Africa, he then went to work in the U.S. Senate, for Sen. Frank Moss of Utah. He was a speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter, then was an aide for Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill.

Matthews switched to journalism in the late ’80s, serving as Washington bureau chief for the San Francisco Examiner. He went on television in 1994, hosting the nightly show In-Depth on America’s Talking. Hardball premiered in 1997 on CNBC and shifted to MSNBC in 1999.

News analyst Andrew Tyndall called Matthews “an institutionalist and a centrist,” and a bridge between John McLaughin and The McLaughlin Group from the days of yore and all the political commentary on cable today.

Matthews recently got through a health scare, taking a few days off in mid-October to undergo surgery for prostate cancer. “Long ago I came to believe heartfelt prayers matter,” he tweeted to those who expressed support for him amidst his surgery. “Thank you for all the kind words.”

Hardball is averaging 1.53 million viewers in 2019, down a tick from 1.66 million a year ago.

“There is no one who loves politics and has a passion for it like Chris does,” said Tina Urbanski, Hardball’s executive producer. “He comes in every day and just loves what he does.”

As the 2020 election heats up, Matthews offers real authority on presidential politics. He spoke with Multichannel News about Hardball over the years, how long the red state-blue state rift will persist and who will win next fall’s monumental election. An edited transcript follows.

MCN: How has Hardball evolved over its 20 years?
Chris Matthews: What I hope hasn’t changed is, asking the right questions and being willing to hang on through two or three tries. I always thought my advantage over the Sunday shows is that I can be a little bit more difficult for a guest. When they do the usual avoidance, where they give you words but not an answer, I can say, “Well, answer the question,” and I can try two or three times. And then after the third time, I’m as limited as everyone else. You can only ask a question about three times before people say you’re badgering the witness.

People always say, “Keep at them, don’t give up, don’t stop.” They never say, “Be nicer.” Occasionally, they say, “Don’t interrupt.” But interruption means the person’s not answering the question and you’re saying, “Okay, now answer the question.”

At my best, I get the answer.

MCN: Who has been your most memorable guest over the 20 years?
CM: Trump, of course. I’ve known the guy for … my god, I was at his wedding. My wife Kathleen and I were a few of the people there that weren’t in the business world — Billy Joel, Pat O’Brien from Access Hollywood. I’d had Trump on the show four or five times. Interviewing him is always interesting, because he is vulnerable. He’s actually a person. When you’re with him in the room with maybe one other person, he’s not some big shot, yelling and pushing his way around the room. It’s different than you’d think.

All politicians are different in the room alone.

MCN: Viewers have a lot of options for political news and commentary. What does Hardball offer that nobody else does?
CM: Compared to my younger colleagues, who are all brilliant and very policy-oriented, I am the most politically-oriented. Just the politics, the gamesmanship, the way things work. The flackery, I think I cut through it pretty well. I stick to the focus of the battle. I focus more on the politics of it, the sheer personality of it.

[Former Washington Post executive editor] Ben Bradlee once said I write like a sportswriter about politics. I’m very proud about writing about politics as a sport, because it is a sport. Notwithstanding all the stakes, it’s a contest. People like Bill Clinton are good at it. People like Al Gore are not good at it. Dubya [President George W. Bush], for all his weaknesses in terms of his thinking, is really a good one-on-one politician. John Kerry: a really good guy, but not a great politician. Hillary Clinton: not as good as her husband, not in the same league. Barack Obama: totally aloof, but yet incredibly politically successful.

MCN: How do you see the future playing out in terms of this red-state, blue-state rift, this culture war in the U.S.? You see that subsiding?
CM: I think this is going to go on. I think that opinions are going to be stronger. The medium for expressing is going to get stronger. In the end, we all know the decision is going to be made somewhere on the 50-yard line. It comes down to the same three things all the time: The white guy who works in a factory, the white woman who reads the newspapers in the suburbs and the African-American vote, which is the Democratic base, which doesn’t seem to like some of these candidates. They’re going to decide this thing.

It’s not going to be the people that just watch [cable news]. It’s going to be decided by people who we call the Dancing with the Stars audience. The people who just want to be entertained at night, it’s 9 o’clock and they want a break from all this argument, they want to take it easy. They’re going to vote.

MCN: Who do you see winning the Democratic race?
CM: I really do believe Elizabeth Warren is the front-runner. She’s running the best campaign. She’s sharpest on the issues. She’s got to answer some questions, but she’s the sharpest and the most aggressive and she’s done just about everything right. I think she can win Pennsylvania and other states. If she wins Pennsylvania, she’s the next president. It’s as simple as that.

It’s a challenge for a woman in Pennsylvania. It’s a state that has never voted for a woman statewide. The same with some of the other states that don’t elect women, it’s just a challenge. States on the coast have been much better for women. My wife explained this to me, why trading areas are better for women as opposed to manufacturing areas.

It’s going to be one hell of a race. I think it’s going to be Trump versus Warren.

MCN: Who do you see winning that one?
CM: I pick Warren.

Last time around, Trump came in pretty clean. He had done Access Hollywood [Trump spoke lasciviously about women alongside then-host Billy Bush in 2005, with the tape surfacing in October 2016], but he was younger. He looked better. He’s getting old. He looks a little rough around the edges. He looks like he’s gained weight, all the usual things that happen when you get older.

He also was known as the guy that can solve problems because he’s a rich guy. I don’t think he has that edge anymore, that the rich guy can solve all these problems. He didn’t have the bad-language issues. Parents tell their kids not to talk like Trump. When you refer to your opponents in the Republican party as human scum, I’m sorry, that’s street corner. That’s worse than street corner.

[Some] people will be embarrassed to vote for Trump again. But I’m sure he’ll do a last-ditch effort, spend $2 billion attacking Warren. That’s why we have the election.

I think she’s going to win. I’m closer to the center than she is, but I just think she’s got it this time. We’ll see.

MCN: Does President Trump remind you of any other president that you’ve covered?
CM: No. There’s a bit of Gatsby in him, there’s a bit of Citizen Kane in him. There’s a bit of him that is just over-the-top American, and that’s something people like about him. It’s too much for the establishment, but the people that root for him, root for him because he sort of takes it all on. He’s got a bit of Sinatra in him.

I don’t think he has any political [peer]. Reagan was a gentleman. Kennedy was a gentleman. Eisenhower, of course. There’s never been somebody like Trump. Roosevelt was a gentleman. Their sense of humor, they were always sort of subtle, ironic. They never used trash talk. They didn’t talk like this guy.

Maybe Huey Long [former Louisiana governor, former U.S. senator], but I didn’t really know Huey Long. He was kind of like, I’m a hick, and you’re a hick, and admitted his loucheness.

I don’t think we’ve had anybody like Trump on the national stage.

MCN: What’s your main source for political news?
CM: I get up in the morning and make the coffee. I sit down quietly before my wife gets up and try to read two or three papers. I’m not just traditional. I also read Anna Palmer and Politico Playbook, NBC’s First Read and Axios AM Newsletter. I read all the newsletters. I’m not big on social. It’s mainly The [Washington] Post, The [New York] Times, and I read The [Wall Street] Journal Op-Ed page. If I get it at home I read Politico, which I love in print.

I try to get a lot of the conventional stuff. And then I get a lot of stuff from Mother Jones because of [D.C. bureau chief ] David Corn.

Then I come in and watch the network. My producers are fabulous. A job like this is so great. By mid-afternoon I have a pile of paper on my desk of stuff that’s moved that day. When I read the paper, it’s generally what we did the night before. So we are a half-day ahead. And then by the next day, we are a half-day ahead.

I have a tremendous advantage over Rachel [Maddow] and Chris [Hayes] and Lawrence [O’Donnell], because they have to do a lot of feature stuff, and a lot of news analysis and advanced journalism. All I have to do, in many cases, is break the news at 7, because so many stories are posted at 6:30.

The best nights around here are when something comes at 6 or so, and we throw out what we have and go with that. Because that means we are really breaking it, we are screaming the news, which is the best thing in the world. There’s nothing like being the one who gets to tell the story first, and then the shows after us have to do what we’ve already done. So that’s a tremendous advantage at 7 [o’clock]. We hate it when a story breaks at 8:05.

My show, and the shows after me especially, are the Op-Ed page. The old Sunday newspaper, the old afternoon newspaper. Before supper, a guy gets to go sit somewhere with a beer or a coffee. He sits down and reads the paper, and he’s reading the Op-Ed pages. He’s reading a take on today’s politics and news. I think that’s what we do — it’s a different way of doing the Op-Ed page.

MCN: Is there a guest that you’ve always tried to book that has never been on the show? Kind of a white whale?
CM: How about fricking Joe Biden? How about that one? I’ve known him for 1,000 years and I can’t get him on the show. [Biden appeared on Hardball as senator and vice president, but has not during his current presidential campaign.] You wouldn’t believe how hard he is to get on the show. I guess they have a strategy. It’s one thing for him not to do [the shows of ] some of my friends, who are a little more skeptical of him than I am. I’m not skeptical, I just want to see him come alive. Like everybody else. Come alive, show your stuff.

Winston Churchill would be my dream guest.

MCN: Have your health issues changed the way you go about your life?
CM: A life-threatening situation, there’s no doubt it has an effect on you. I’m going to love my friends a lot more, I think. And my wife.

MCN: What’s your next book project?
CM: I’m writing about my adventures. All those years in Africa, all of these incredible events, like the fall of the Berlin Wall and the first election in South Africa, the Good Friday Accord, the Pope’s funeral [ John Paul II]. All the adventures of a lifetime in journalism and politics. I hope it’s good storytelling — not about me, but the characters I’ve met.

MCN: How much longer will you do the show? Do you ever think about an end date?
CM: I think about it. I don’t know the answer. Part of me says I want to see the world with my wife while we’re both young. And the other part of me is, I just love coming in here every day. So I haven’t had another plan yet.

One advantage I have over the younger people I work with is, this is what I got to after years of politics in print. I got here at a time where I really enjoy it, and I’m not going to end up like Mickey Rooney 30 years after his prime, or Sid Caesar. These guys who were my heroes growing up and they spent 30, 40 years pining for what was.

I’ve got a really good relationship with the bosses here. I think it’s great.

Fox News has welcomed back television host Jedediah Bila, signing the former The View co-host to a contributor role.

Bila first joined Fox News as a contributor in 2013, appearing regularly on FNC’s Outnumbered and The Five, where she provided analysis on the top news stories, controversies and issues of the day.

Most recently, Bila served as co-host of ABC’s The View, which earned her two Daytime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Entertainment Talk Show Host, according to Fox.

“Over the years, Jedediah has built a strong relationship with our audience through her unique perspective on the big issues of the day,” said Lauren Petterson, Senior Vice President of Morning Programming & Talent Development for the network in a statement. “We’re excited to welcome her back to the FOX News family.”

Bila added: “I’m very excited to re-join the Fox News family, the place I started my TV career. I’m really looking forward to this new chapter and all that’s to come.”

WASHINGTON — CNN may have won a victory against the Trump administration’s systematic attempts to marginalize critics in the press corps, but the White House’s war against journalists may have moved to a new phase — requiring further legal input — with the release of what could be dubbed “Trump’s Rules of Order.”

The U.S. District Court judge who directed the administration to reinstate the press pass of CNN senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta did not say President Donald Trump couldn’t revoke the “hard” passes that allow reporters entry to the White House grounds and press room.

Instead, Judge Timothy J. Kelly focused on the Fifth Amendment issue of due process, saying there had been no clear process that would have given Acosta notice that his actions threatened his pass.

That left the president an avenue for crafting new rules for how reporters will have to act in his presence, reporters he has frequently attacked.

The White House immediately signaled it was already working on the kind of process the judge asked for. It made quick work of it.

CNN said the new rules are:

“Please be advised of the following rules governing future press conferences:

“(1) A journalist called upon to ask a question will ask a single question and then will yield the floor to other journalists;
“(2) At the discretion of the President or other White House official taking questions, a follow-up question or questions may be permitted; and where a follow up has been allowed and asked, the questioner will then yield the floor;
“(3) ‘Yielding the floor’ includes, when applicable, surrendering the microphone to White House staff for use by the next questioner;
“(4) Failure to abide by any of rules (1)-(3) may result in suspension or revocation of the journalist’s hard pass.”

That means the White House could theoretically revoke press credentials for reporters who were too aggressively pressing the president with questions he didn’t like, though that would almost certainly then be challenged again in court.

The White House also said it was fully restoring Acosta’s press pass, so CNN dropped its lawsuit.

In an interview with Fox News, Trump said that now with the rules in place, if Acosta “misbehaves” they would “throw him out” or perhaps pull the plug on the press conference altogether.

‘Decorum’ May Not be Enough

While George Washington University public interest law professor John Banzhaff agreed the judge’s ruling is no First Amendment victory, he also said those who dismiss its significance with the argument that “all the White House is now required to do is to provide Acosta [or other journalists] some kind of little hearing, perhaps just a trumped up one, and then he can be expelled” also miss the mark.

Trump also threatened to prevent reporters from appearing on camera, suggesting that would cut down on perceived grandstanding. “I think one of the things we’ll do is maybe turn the camera off that faces them because then they don’t have any air time, although I’ll probably be sued for that,” the president said, though that was not in the rules the White House put out.

As to the kind of persistent grilling Acosta was censured for: “You know, you can’t keep asking questions,” he told Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday. The new rules reflect that view.

But that is the near-term legal issue — the rules are now out, theoretically fulfilling that court directive. But if they prove too restrictive or are used to chill speech, back to court go journalistic organizations.

The government can only restrict speech if it serves a compelling government interest, and Banzhaff said it would be hard to convince a judge, Kelly or otherwise, that prohibiting follow-up questions — even if that wasn’t “decorous,” in the White House’s view — is such an interest.

“The White House Correspondents’ Association had no role in crafting any procedures for future press conferences,” WHCA president Olivier Knox said. “For as long as there have been White House press conferences, White House reporters have asked follow-up questions. We fully expect this tradition will continue.”

Compelling Reasons Required

The longer-term issue is that, as CNN and most other outlets argue, the president can’t deny access to the White House for other than compelling reasons, and persistent, even badgering, journalists trying to get the president to answer tough questions do not qualify as such.

They said the actions of the president, press secretary Sarah Sanders, chief of staff John Kelly and others in denying that access are unconstitutional. “The ability of the press to question vigorously and regularly elected officials and to report freely on the activities of these officials is fundamental to our democracy,” the WHCA said in an amicus brief supporting CNN.

In court, the Trump administration argued that reporters have no “right,” First Amendment or otherwise, to be on the White House grounds.

CNN attorney Ted Boutros pointed out on CNN’s Reliable Sources that if the president is concerned about people being rude — as he said to Fox’s Wallace in the interview — that Trump himself has set that tone.

That was seconded by Dan Shelley, executive director of the Radio Television Digital News Association: “We are in Nixonian times on steroids. If the White House insists on decorum, then it has to lead by example and observe decorum itself.”

After announcing its deployment on Comcast’s X1 in January, streaming news programmer Cheddar has launched its full integration into the advanced video platform.

In what Cheddar is calling “version 2.0” of the news service on X1, viewers will now be able to access the Cheddar live feed by simply saying “Cheddar” into the their voice remotes.

And within X1’s on-demand ecosystem, users will have access to the full range of Cheddar on-demand content.

Related: Cheddar Streams Onto Comcast's X1 Set-Tops

“Since Cheddar isn’t on the linear program guide, so it’s more of Netflix kind of integration,” said Daniel Schneider, VP of business development for Cheddar. “But this was always the vision. We wanted to launch [on X1] first. Then we iterated.”

Comcast ended the second quarter with north of 22.1 million video subscribers, more than 60% of them using X1, so full actualization of Cheddar’s wares is a key step for the start-up news service.

As of now, Cheddar has distribution deals with all of the top virtual MVPDs, as well as the Roku Channel and Pluto TV. But having only very recently signed deals with linear operators such as WOW and the National Cable Television Cooperatie (NCTC), the Comcast deal represents Cheddar’s biggest infiltration into the traditional pay TV ecosystem to date.

“We want to be everywhere,” Schneider said. “That’s the strategy we’re pursuing.” 

CNN’s New Day morning news co-anchor Chris Cuomo will test the primetime waters with CNN's launch of the Cuomo Prime Time series later this spring, CNN announced Wednesday. 

The series, which will feature Cuomo’s one-on-one interviews with politicians and newsmakers as well as analysis of the news of the day and breaking news, will air at 9 pm and go head-to head with cable news network ratings powerhouses in Fox News Channel’s Hannity and MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show. 

CNN’s John Berman will replace Cuomo as co-anchor of New Day alongside Alisyn Camerota, said the network.

Cuomo Prime Time will be sandwiched between AC360, hosted by Anderson Cooper, and CNN Tonight -- hosted by Don Lemon – as part of CNN’s primetime news lineup.

The Pew Research Center's latest analysis of how Americans get news confirms the well-known obvious: Viewership of cable TV news networks is generally down, and use of social media for news is way up. In fact, for the first time, Pew's survey found that more than half (55%) of Americans age 50 or older are getting their news via social media sites, up 10% from a year ago.

About two-thirds (67%) of Americans get at least some of their news via social media, according to Pew's survey, conducted in August. Of those, 45% get news from Facebook, 18% from YouTube and 11% from Twitter, according to Pew's data. 

In comparison, about 28% of adults said they watch a cable news channel "often," down from 31% in early 2016 when the presidential primary races were getting underway. The number of respondents to Pew's American Trends polls who said they "never" watch cable news has been relatively constant through recent years: 21% in 2013, 18% in 2016 and 22% this year. Similarly, about 27% or 28% said they watch cable news "sometimes," roughly comparable to the number of viewers who watch local TV newscasts occasionally.

Related > TV News Titans: The 10 Names to Know

The study also cross-tabulated how people who get their news from social media also look at "traditional news platforms." Among all social media site users, cable TV generally ranks equal to local TV and radio, and slightly ahead of broadcast network nightly newscasts (see chart). LinkedIn and Twitter users are the most likely to watch cable television news.

Americans in the 18-to-49 demo rely more on social media for news than adults as a whole (78% vs. 67%), consistent with last year.

Pew examined news access by Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, Snapchat, Tumblr, Instagram, LinkedIn and WhatsApp users. The study is loaded with demographic details, such as analyzing social media use by gender, race and education level. 

It found that Facebook and Instagram audiences tend to skew female, while LinkedIn and YouTube users skew male; Caucasians are less likely to consume news via social media than other groups; and reliance on social media for news increased last year among Americans with less than a bachelor's degree, but declined slightly among those with at least a college degree.

Doubling Up
Significantly, 26% of adults get news from two or more social media sites, up from 18% last year and 15% in 2013. Pew identified "interesting differences in where the overlaps occur." For example, it found that 40% of Snapchat users go to multiple sites, compared with 8% of LinkedIn customers.

"Facebook, with such a large news user base, overlaps with just about every other social media site," Pew said. Users of "about half ... (at least 48%) of each of the other sites studied also get news on Facebook."

However, beyond the raw data and the implications for the "fake news" political rhetoric, the blunt reality is that cable news and other "traditional news platforms" are facing strong competition in their target demographics. Again, that's not a surprise. But Pew's validating data may augur reconsiderations about how and where to develop news strategies as social media -- for good or ill -- play an increasingly important role in the public discourse.

The 17-page "News Use Across Social Media Platforms 2017" report by Elisa Shearer and Jeffrey Gottfried, published this month, is available as a free download.

Ad spending on national TV rose 0.9% in the first quarter, according to new figures from research company Standard Media Index.

The auto industry put the brakes on TV’s rate of growth, reducing its spending by 12.4% or about $143.6 million. Also cutting spending in the quarter was the consumer electronics industry, whose spending was down by $73.1 million, and the entertainment industry, down $69 million.

Categories that increased spending in the quarter included quick-service restaurants, up 12%, prescription drugs, up 17.1%, and insurance companies, up 10%.

Spending on cable was relatively flat, with SMI finding a -0.7% change from Q1 2016.

Among the best-performing cable programmers was Scripps Networks Interactive, whose HGTV was up 17.9%, Food Network was up 10.3%, and Travel Channel was up 16.5%. HGTV’s Fixer Upper generated 38.2% more revenue than a year ago. Discovery Channel was up 10%.

Related: The News Keeps Making News

Cable news also remained hot during the beginning of the Donald Trump administration. CNN, MSNBC and Fox News Channel together gained 16% in the quarter. But spending was down slightly from the fourth quarter, when the election was held.

Related: Fox News Channel Drops Bill O’Reilly

MSNBC is seeing the greatest gains, up 49.5% in spending, led by a jump in ratings for The Rachel Maddow Show.

WASHINGTON — While Donald Trump has been criticizing the media for reporting on statements he made about groping women, more (49%) of Republican presidential candidate’s supporters say the news media should emphasize a candidate's "offensive statements" than say they shouldn’t (45%).

Supporters of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, who’ve been having a field day with Trump’s comments, were even more enthusiastic about reporting offensive comments: 72% of Clinton supporters who responded to a Pew Research Center survey said such comments should be reported, while only 26% said they should not.

Of course, it’s up to individuals to decide which remarks they conclude are offensive and deserve calling out.

Pew’s survey polled 3,616 registered voters (1,396 were Trump reporters and 1,775 were Clinton supporters) from Sept. 27-Oct. 10. The margin of error for the Trump supporters was 4.7 percentage points and for Clinton fans, 4.2 percentage points.

Respondents were also overwhelmingly in favor of the media calling out candidates for false statements. More than four out of five Clinton supporters (83%) said that the media should "emphasize inaccurate statements," while only 16% said they should not. Almost as many Trump supporters (71%) said they should call out inaccuracies, while 25% said no.

On that subject, the majority (53%) of Trump supporters said it is a major responsibility of the news media to fact-check candidates, while only 24% said that is a minor responsibility and 10% said it’s not their responsibility at all.

Attention journalists preparing for next week's political conventions: Baggage handlers, security workers, and other in Philadelphia have voted to strike American Airlines during the convention — the carrier that handles 70% of the airport’s traffic, according to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

They have called on Democrats to support them.

“With the DNC fast-approaching, airport workers and their supporters are calling on the DNC to support their fight by demanding action by American Airlines,” the SEIU said. “American — which controls 70% of the traffic at PHL — hires and fires contractors at the airport and sets the standards for wages, benefits and worker treatment.”

The union said some 1,000 workers could walk off the job.

Thanks in part to the presidential race, viewership was up for the three major cable news channels in 2015, with the first bump in daytime news audience growth in three years for the top three cable news operations in terms of viewership.

That is according to the latest Pew State of the News Media report, issued Wednesday (June 15).

The total average viewership over a 24-hour period for Fox News Channel, CNN and MSNBC combined was up 7% in 2015 to 1.9 million over the year before, according to weighted data from Nielsen, and up 8% in prime time.

Fox News Channel continued to lead the way with 1.1 million average viewers, up 3%. CNN showed the greatest increase, up 23% to 490,000. MSNBC was up 2% to 352,000.

Related:Fox News Tops Weekly Cable Rankings June 6-12

In prime time, the key ad daypart, FNC, CNN and MSNBC combined for an average 3.1 million viewers. FNC remained the clear leader at 1.8 million, up 3% over 2014. CNN was the big percentage gainer in prime time, up 38% to an average 712,000. MSNBC was down 1% to 579,000.

Those viewership increases translated to a projected revenue increase of 10% in 2015 to $4 billion, with FNC claiming the lion's share of that at $2.3 billion, up 14%, followed by CNN, up 6% to $1.2 billion, and MSNBC, up 3% to $518 billion.

FNC was also projected to lead the way in terms of both increased subscriber fees, up 17% to $1.4 billion, and ad revenues, up 6% to $844 million.

CNN had the strongest growth rate in ad revenue, up 11% to $377 million.

FNC was way ahead in terms of profitability, at $1.5 billion, up 21%. CNN was projected to grow its profit by 17% to 381 million, while MSNBC was projected to be up 10% to $227 million.

FNC also led the way in terms of projected spending increases on news, up 3% to $828 million. CNN was not far behind, up 2% to $817 million. MSNBC was projected to be down slightly (1%) to $291 million.

Among financial news channels, CNBC was the revenue leader in 2015 with $733 million, up a projected 4% over 2014, followed  by Fox Business Network at $236 million, up 15%; and Bloomberg TV, up a projected 3% to $197 million.

Al Jazeera, which shut down in April, was projected to have increased its revenue by 17% in 2015, but Pew provided no dollar figure.

On the digital side, ComScore data suggests a large and mobile news audience. NBCU (which includes MSNBC digital), Turner (CNN) and Fox News Digital all were ranked in the top 50 digital media properties in the U.S., according to traffic data from January.

WASHINGTON — In a Feb. 18 interview on Sirius XM Radio, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said that CNN and MSNBC’s Morning Joe have treated him fairly, but that Fox News Channel continues to give him the “worst treatment.”

Trump famously sat out a Fox News debate after a run-in with the network over The Kelly File host Megyn Kelly, whose tough questions as moderator of an earlier debate rankled the candidate, who said they were unfair. Fox stood by Kelly.

But in the Sirius XM interview, Trump also said that Fox News chairman Roger Ailes continued to be a friend, but “doesn’t” do him any favors.

“Roger Ailes and I like each other, but he doesn’t do anything for me,” Trump said. “That I can tell you. He certainly doesn’t do anything. In one way, he’s very professional, he won’t lift his finger to help me. Roger Ailes will not lift his finger to help me. Which is fine, I mean he’s a professional and maybe that’s the way it’s supposed to be, but I get treated very badly by Fox.”

Trump took another shot at Kelly before repeating he thought Fox gave him the worst treatment.

But asked if he thought Fox was supporting his challenger, Trump did not hesitate: “They’re in love with [Sen. Marco] Rubio [R-Fla.]. Why, I have no idea, but they are in love with Rubio.”

Rubio has been getting more press attention generally as he has moved up to challenge Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) for second-place, though Cruz was the leader in at least one poll this week.

Fox News was sizzling during the dog days of summer, riding a record primetime ratings performance from its Republican Debate telecast to lead all cable networks in August.

Fox News averaged 2.4 million viewers to top all cable networks during the period of July 27 to Aug. 30, bolstered by the 25 million viewers the network drew for its Aug. 6 Presidential Primary debate, which was the most watched show of the month.

Disney Channel and TNT tied for second with a distant 1.9 million viewers each, according to network officials.

USA Network was fourth with 1.7 million viewers, followed by HGTV and History with 1.5 million viewers each, according to Nielsen. TBS (1.4 million viewers), Discovery and AMC (1.2 million) and ESPN, Fx and Lifetime (all tied with 1.1 million) rounded out the top 10.

Disney was the top choice among all networks during on a 24-hour basis, followed by Nickelodeon, Fox News, Adult Swim and Cartoon Network, according to Nielsen. 

Hispanic viewers are interested in watching news programming that discusses issues pertaining to them, but find little coverage of such issues on English language news networks, according to Telemundo and MSNBC news host José Diaz-Balart.

With the 2014 mid-term elections coming up and the issue of immigration resonating among Hispanics, Diaz-Balart – who hosts Telemundo news/public affairs shows Noticiero Telemundo and Enfoque, as well as MSNBC’s daily 10 a.m.- 11 a.m. timeslot -- says Hispanics are interested in legislation in Washington D.C.that affects their lives.

“Sometimes I think we’re living in the United States in two different worlds,” said Diaz-Balart during a video interview with Multichannel News. “The Spanish speaking audience is keenly focused on some key issues happening in Washington whereas maybe the English speaking media and certainly the television audience may feel as if we’ve seen that before and there’s nothing new.’”  

When asked how much coverage the mainstream news networks devote to Hispanic issues, Diaz-Balart responded “muy poquito” or very little. Catch the full MCN Multicultural Perspectives interview with Jose Diaz-Balart here.