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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (42117)	5/4/2004 1:32:59 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793843

I chased LB's red herring. I post a joke, and I get a theology session! :>) The way I took it was that Kerry thought "Love thy neighbor as thyself" was one of the original 10 commandments.

To: Lane3 who wrote (42117)	5/4/2004 2:03:57 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793843

Post's TV Column 'Nightline' Ratings Rise For Roll Call of Iraq Dead By Lisa de Moraes Tuesday, May 4, 2004; Page C01 ABC News's "Nightline" scored nearly 30 percent more viewers on Friday night than it did the rest of last week, according to preliminary numbers. An average of about 4.5 percent of the TV households in the nation's largest markets watched the controversial telecast, in which anchor Ted Koppel read the names of approximately 700 U.S. servicemen and -women who have been killed in Iraq. Final viewer figures will be out later this week. The preliminary rating is about 22 percent higher than the show had done the previous Friday in the metered markets. In fact, it's the biggest metered-market rating for "Nightline" during a May sweeps since 2002. And it's all the more impressive because "The Fallen," as "Nightline" called its Friday program, aired in only 52 of those 56 metered markets. Stations in the other markets preempted the controversial show, including all of the ABC stations owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group. Sinclair executives, who previously chastised the "liberal media" for their coverage of the war in Iraq, derided the "Nightline" broadcast as an antiwar statement -- a charge Koppel denied at the end of the 40-minute telecast. The early numbers may have come as something of a surprise to Koppel and "Nightline" Executive Producer Leroy Sievers. During their Outraged Virtue Tour last week -- launched after The TV Column said it might appear unseemly to run this program during a competitive ratings derby, and after Sinclair pulled the show from its ABC stations -- the two men consistently said they did not expect many people to watch the broadcast. The tour included CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360," ABC's "Good Morning America," PBS's "NewsHour With Jim Lehrer" and NPR's "Morning Edition" and "On the Media." National ratings come out later in the week. Industry executives say that because of the unusual nature of the "Nightline" broadcast, it's difficult to estimate how many people watched nationwide based on the limited market sample, but most predicted the final numbers would be in excess of what the program usually draws. ABC News "specialed out" the program, running it without national advertising, which means the ratings will not be included in the May sweeps average for "Nightline." A spokesman for ABC News said, "This was never about a rating, never about a number -- it was always a tribute to the fallen. . . . We thought it spoke for itself." Still, pulling in a number like this has to be encouraging for a show that just came off its weakest February sweeps in more than a decade in total viewers and among the 25-to-54-year-olds who are the currency of news programming. Oh, that was the wrong thing to say, wasn't it, "Nightline" folks? Try to forget it. Put it out of your minds. <snip>