Topic: Media Research Center
CNN is not the only channel whose allegedly low ratings the Media Research Center engages in unseemly gloating over. The MRC attacked Norah O'Donnell when she took over as anchor of the CBS Evening News, then cheered that her ratings were not high. The low-ratings gloating continued in an Oct. 24 post by Nicholas Fondacaro that parroted a gossipy attack piece from the right-wing New York Post:
In 2019, NewsBusters reported that in her first six weeks at the helm of CBS Evening News, anchor Norah O’Donnell was floundering in the ratings. A couple of years later and things weren’t much better. And according to a Sunday report by The New York Post, she was “in danger of losing” her job “as cost-slashing execs at the broadcasting giant quietly search for her replacement,” and internal frustrations and backbiting mounted.
According to The Post via reporter Alexandra Steigrad, O’Donnell’s contract was “in the ballpark of $8 million a year” and the new network executives (co-presidents Neeraj Khemlani and Wendy McMahon) were getting tired of the newscast being “stubbornly stuck in third place” behind ABC’s World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News, respectively.
Fondacaro was too busy gloating to disclose the New York Post's right-wing -- and, thus, anti-CBS -- bias. He went on to regurgitate the article's quoting of "CBS insiders" -- read: anonymous sources that the MRC hypocritically loves when trashing liberals but hates when criticizing conservatives -- attacking O'Donnell's purported "diva-like behavior" and elitist mentality."
Fondacaro didn't mention that O'Donnell's purportedly low ratings were still higher than any program on Fox News, nor did he provide any evidence that the Post tried to balance its gosspiy tone by talking to anyone who wasn't an anonymous critic. But liberal-bashing is clearly Fondacaro's and the MRC's idea of "balance."
