Did America really tune into Pelosi’s primetime production? Nope!
If you were to have tuned into MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” you would have seen the Joe, Mika and the panel of parroting pundits spend the first half hour talking about the GREAT viewership for Pelosi’s primetime Select Committee production. They noted that some 20 million viewers were watching the proceedings with intense attention. Not sure how they knew the intensity, but panelist Mike Barnicle assured us that they were glued to the screen, as they say.
They compared the 20 million viewers to the ratings for a baseball championship game (about 4 million viewers) and even Trump’s old “Celebrity Apprentice” show (about 7.6 million viewers).
What you really saw was how political propaganda is produced. Their presentation gives credence to the old saying that figures do not lie – but liars do figure. Let’s take a look at a real in-depth analysis of the ratings for a better understanding of the scoop of MSNBC’s deception.
Following Pelosi & Co.’s primetime prosecutorial presentation – not a hearing – there was a lot of reporting on the size of the audience. The left-wing media – not just MSNBC — gloated that the show garnered 20 million viewers while FOX News – which did not provide gavel-to-gavel coverage — had three million viewers in comparison.
That sounds impressive if you do not properly analyze or understand television ratings. In a previous commentary, I had predicted that Pelosi’s one-sided Select Committee would get high ratings on the first night – although the numbers fell far short of my expectation.
There are some practical reasons why the Committee garnered 20 million voters. First of all, it was one of the most promoted media events in television history. There were repeated promises of new information and explosive revelations. While there were a few new facts, it was mostly a repetition of what had been reported repeatedly in the news for the past year and a half.
We already knew that former Attorney General William Barr had told President Trump that there was no evidence of sufficient vote fraud to flip the election. We knew that police were injured. We knew the Proud Boys were on the scene. We had already heard the false claim that multiple officers died in conjunction with the riot.
As far as the videos were concerned, we saw new footage that looked a lot like the footage that we had seen virtually every day for the past year and a half. The “new” footage was a distinction without a difference. What America saw was the best effort by a prosecutorial team to lay out a series of allegations without rebuttal or cross-examination. The entire production was a one-sided re-run.
According to reports, many of the 20 million viewers were disappointed. The show did not live up to the pre-show hype.
Another thing that contributed to the 20 million viewers was the fact that more than 20 television outlets had preempted their normal programming featuring their most popular shows. The opportunities for alternative viewing were drastically limited. It had the feel of the kind of “state television” event we usually associate with countries like Russia, China, and North Korea. Democrats and the media allies could not block all alternative broadcasting, but you had the distinct impression that they would have if they could have. They even suggested that FOX be removed from the White House press corps.
Now, let’s look at the numbers in context.
The 20 million reported viewers is a rather mediocre number by televisions standards – especially for a highly promoted special stand-alone event. What Joe Scarborough & Co. did not tell viewers is that eleven Super Bowl broadcasts exceeded 100 million viewers – more than five times the Democrat dog-and-pony show. The last show of M.A.S.H. got more than 100 million viewers – and since the aforementioned were aired on only one network, they had less exposure and a lot of competition. The 2016 presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton was viewed by 84 million Americans – four times the Select Committee production.
Embarrassingly for Pelosi, the “Beverly Hillbillies” was the first to break the 20 million household mark in 1963 – when there were a lot fewer Americans and a lot fewer television sets. By the 1970s, a number of primetime shows were garnering more than 20 million households … routinely. That included “All in the Family,” “Happy Days,” “Laverne and Shirley,” and “Marcus Welby.” By the 1980s, all the major network top shows had ratings in excess of 20 million – with “The Bill Cosby Show” breaking into the 30 million household category.
NOW HERE IS A VERY IMPORTANT FACT. The ratings in the early days were based on “households.” That evolved to actual “viewers” in the 1990s by the rating industry based on new technologies. If you compare apples to apples, the 20 million VIEWERS reported for the Select Committee performance is … well … rather anemic. One might even say pitiful.
Yes, Pelosi’s multi-channel production did better than FOX News in those time slots, but the real story is the number of Americans who simply tuned out – turned off their televisions and spent time with the kids.
For a television special with such hype, the Pelosi political circus was a bust. I am sure that Madam Speaker and Democrat strategists see past their superficial claims and understand that the ratings are not good news for their primary mission. That was to break through to the American public with a political infomercial (negative political advertising) – and a primetime retrospective on their 18 months of obsessive reporting – in order to improve the Party’s chances in the 2022 midterm election. Unfortunately for the Democrats, America essentially tuned out.
If Democrats had hoped that this political kangaroo Committee was going the take the Party out of the political doldrums ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, they will be sorely disappointed.
Yes, the “Morning Joe” clan can create a propagandized analysis to give heart to the left-wing base, but it does not change reality – and reality is what Democrats will have to deal with in November.
So, there ‘tis.
We already did this one Larry, try to keep up :>)
Perhaps you guys repeat yourselves when under stress, repeat yourselves when under stress :>)
Think Joe did it, I retorted the 20M, he pushed back it was chump change, and I said “ooops, you be right.” Think I did toss in Foxes 3M that night when they spent all their time telling viewers why they weren’t showing it and then spent their hour in the spotlight talking about it……. So, Fox really sucked pond water that night.
I think the Committee using it’s website to release shocking materials is both untraditional and highly effective. Almost the effectiveness of the Trump-tweet machine or your partisan blogosphere, these website releases go global in nanoseconds.
I am pretty sure they are getting a good audience. I have not watched. I just catch the reader’s digest sound bites later.
Farce , Democrats are just out to destroy this Nation. How many times are they going to check into the Jan.6th protest. Wast of tax payers money. I,am at the point that i can not trust the Democrats, to many Lies. Biden lies to us daily.
Good luck on that Good Luck. When we get to the Republican all-time record for over 33 hearings and investigations by Congress on Benghazi including:
– the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
– The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
– the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
– The House Committee on Foreign Affairs
– The House Committee on the Judiciary
– The House Committee on Armed Services
– The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
– The House Select Committee on Benghazi.
Kevin McCarthy even admitted to Fox the political nature of these investigations against the political future of Hillary Clinton. History agrees with him.
Frank …. your only response is whataboutism?
Sorry, slow response, was watching the Pelosi show.
I prefer “serves you right to suffer.” 🙂
Or. hypocrites gone wild. .
You are right though, not to worry, won’t repeat, not our style , it’s your style. Besides, there’s always a new crime with Trump! The grifter that keeps on grifting.
Larry, you are really getting boring. Until you have something interesting to say, why don’t you go bake yourself on the tennis court in Boca, instead of feeding us nonsense that even your MAGAT’s really don’t care about…
Most people are tired of hearing and looking at old nasty pussy and her comrades But her party will be flushed in November
Pelosi is not on the committee.
Bad Ben. She appointed the Committee. Duh!
Mike …. The usual personal childish attack, but nothing intelligent to say about the facts in the commentary. Its not boredom, Mike, You are just too old to concentrate.
Larry, I merely pointed out that you had nothing new to say. You sound like Trump-all about the ratings. Shame on you! You sound senile…
Mike you and your piece of shit commie party think that everyone who calls you out are senile. Not working. Red wave is coming. Learn how to swim
I’ve been watching the re-runs of the 1.6 Red Wave you are talking about. What a swell bunch of folks. Loved the sharp-tipped flag poles, just like the patriots carried. “Pence, Pelosi, we’re gonna drag those motherfuckers right into the street.” Ah, just a couple o bad actors, surrounded by tourists screaming: “ain’t this fun!” It’s easy to see the BLM Trumpist plants though :>)
After hearing and seeing these…..fine people…..one more time….just amazing. Amerika, land of the ?????? I honestly don’t have the adjective for this.
Think the best part yesterday was seeing Pence’s Attorney eyes when he realized for the first time that the Pence entourage, that he was part of, was 40 feet from the insurrectionists and they were crying “murder Mike Pence.” The look in his eyes, the diagrams: priceless. I just wish the committee would have asked: “so, what do you think now?”
Actually the best part is realizing who we are hearing from. It’s not the panel. It’s the witnesses —– all Republicans I think….
Pence the wimp, Pence the pussy, as Don calls his Vice President, is the hero for doing the right thing. Too bad he’s an antihero, he caved and did it the wrong way. If he had stood up a month earlier and announced he was going to do the right thing, because it was the legal thing, announced he would do his job, certify the vote —— there probably would not have been a 1/6 event that has now culminated in the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack. Trump’s belief and furtherance of this illegal act frosted the cake. We know now there was the Eastman plan calling for illegality, Trump knew it, they all knew it, and they rolled it out anyway.
Can’t wait for the Trumplicant response to Judge Luttig’s scathing, yet measured, retorts. He’s SCOTUS material, a true conservative.
Would love to be a fly on the wall at Eastman’s and Loudermilk’s, must be really squirming now. These boys are going to jail.
Hearing that Pence called out the National Guard, who had been begging to be turned lose, NOT the Commander in Chief, Donald J. Trump. Wonder what would have happened if Pence hadn’t overridden his boss. I wonder if he was praying when he hid in the Capitol garage and basement for over four hours because he didn’t want the nation to see the Vice President flee the mob destroying the Capitol.
Ivanka turns her father in one more time — that never gets old. Eric gets her bedroom at Mara Loser, Thanksgiving gonna be extra special this year. Priceless again.
Hope we get into where Trump has spent your money, all $250M raised since 1.6. Really want the suckers to see what they invested in. Lawyers and a lot of golf no doubt. Plus he’s got all the GOP $$$$ for legal too. Just spending you all into the toilet bowl. Helps the economy though, keeps it churning.
And Ghouliani, what can I say, Mr. Shoepolish head never gets old either, heck, the older the better. We got shoe polish, flop sweet, spitting, drooling, oh what a spectacle.
Man, what a show, what a spectacle, what a bunch of loons. I think they have proven the greatness of democracy because if we were truly a third-world shithole country, our insurrectionists would have acted completely differently.
Here’s a hint kids: if you are attempting a coup, don’t film yourself because you think this is a patriotic moment that should be memorialized. If takeover goes bad, video evidence won’t help. Even the Boston Tea Party insurrectionists knew that as they dressed, unconvincingly, as Native Americans, probably because of their independent spirits.
It used to be about Make America Great Again. Today it’s Missed It by That Much Again. Let MITMA rule!!!
Next on The Pelosi Show or TPS, we have:
Trying to use the government to spread his lie. (AG replacement plans)
Pressuring state legislators. (Can you say: “I need a favor, I need 17,000 votes)
The words the “Don” used to “stimulate” the crowd (fight, fight, fight). Will also include “what Don didn’t say” Commander in Chief moments
Be there, or be square, as the kids say. But I digress, about those lowly ratings….
Nothing you just said makes sense. Are you back on the LSD again?
I don’t know Joe, are you still beating your wife with your ugly stick?
Stupid wordsmithing loaded question bullshit that you love to pull.
If you ever want to discuss actual issues, you know, not just word-game-bullshit, have at it. Asking me about LSD, which you accuse me of taking, is just your re-direction.
Of course it does not make sense to you. Trumplicant Big Lie believers will be the last to discover what they can’t bear to see. Do you want me to source back to the Republican that said it, under oath, under perjury penalty, with no hope of pardon like the ones asked for by Team Trump because they are innocent, every single fucking fact in that piece?
To paraphrase a Trumpian useful idiot: look it up yourself, idiot, it is now common knowledge, it’s freakin on tape, pictures Joe, you can handle pictures, can’t you? They even have sound telling you what you apparently have severe difficulties comprehending.
Actually you admitted to the LSD in another thread.
I always discuss issues when they are addressed intelligently. Still waiting for you to come up with something.
“I always discuss issues when they are addressed intelligently. Still waiting for you to come up with something.”
Well, my memory fades, and you’re too cheap to provide a search function, so I will trust you. But I am sure I never said I was “on the LSD,” as you slyly alluded to, again using some word tricks to change an experiment into an addiction as in “Mother, he’s on the LSD again, ba da ba boom,” hummed Bing Crosby. The 70’s were some time back you know. I think you were older then, you’re slower than that now.
But your posts do cause some flashbacks to the anti-long-hair commie-hating, leftist-baiting pricks of that day, four dead in Ohio and all that. And then you saw the light, changed your tune, and grew your hair. That’s when I cut mine and joined corporate America as part of the greatest economy and GDP growth in our history —- THE CLINTON YEARS. Best GDP growth since Johnson, and the all time great — Roosevelt. Democrats all. Worst GDP growth —- TRUMP, only Hoover rates lower and he was negative. Ah, the memories.
Your general dismissals are the coward’s escape.
Tell you what, pick one item you fail to comprehend and we can hammer one out. Otherwise, keep your stereotyping generalizations to yourself, they further not the discussion, nor entreat anyone to even try.
Or, rinse, spin dry, repeat.
Mike … Nothing new to say? This commentary is about the LATEST poling and the LATEST claim by the left that 20 million viewers is a great example of public interests. I used the FACTS of past ratings to show that the current claims are an overstatement. And you response is childish insults — saying things you know NOTHING about. And then you double down on you ignorance and childishness with more of the same. I do not know if YOUR problem is from some diminished capacity or your are just that shallow of a guy. You need to either grow up … get a life … or get of doctor.
Larry, The childish comments seem to all be coming from one Larry Horowitz of Boca (childish insults you know nothing about??? double down on you (sic) ignorance and childishness with more of the same???? I do not know if YOUR problem is from some diminished capacity or your (sic) are just that shallow of a guy??? You need to either grow up….get a life…or get of (sic) doctor????) Besides stopping with the childish replies-you really need to proof read your writing… I stated that your topic was boring, that ratings are not what anyone should be obsessing with (but we both recall someone who does obsess over ratings, and you are sounding more and more like him with your name calling…) I realize that you are reaching for something to demonize democrats with, but I repeat you are boring your readers (sometimes it is best to say nothing if you have nothing of interest to say….)
Mike … I see you are back to expressing your anti-Semitism by gratuitously changing my name to an obvious Jewish name as part of your insults crude insults. But you are correct that I should proof my comments. I tend to type faster than I should — and I think I am already wasting too much time on brain-locked people like you. Maybe I should just ignore your urge to obsessive comments that have little contribution to intelligent and civil discussion.
Larry does do that, by the way, bake himself on the tennis court in Boca. Fortunately, his Nigerian heritage keeps him from getting a bad sunburn.
That’s got to be some fun genealogy, explains the Knox College, but now he will lose 30% of his readership round here :>(
Ben …. Not sure what you mean about “fun genealogy” … or how whatever it is “explains the Knox College” Very little your write ever makes sense of deals with the issues intelligently, but this one I found particular weird. Love to hear a rational explanation, if this is one.
You know, for a guy who points the finger at me for taking the low road, you can be a real dick. “very little…makes sense” a very bad sentence, but dick-ish too.
Joe said you are from Nigeria.
Given you last name, Horist, meaning: http://m.sevenreflections.com/name-numerology/horist/ nice. However, I would not hazard the guess that it’s your real name, comes from any specific region, but is certainly not Nigerian, at least in it’s present form. So, yeah, I figure, a guy with Nigerian heritage, at least that’s what Joe said, who goes to a college renown for it’s early stand on abolition, who has adopted other folks with African heritage, has a very interesting family tree.
Mine too, being Slavic-Irish-German-English-Scandinavian-Jewish heritage. Although, ancestry changes me a tad every few months or so. The big one was those Vikings mixing up that UK blood…. I knew nothing of my heritage a few years ago, but thanks to the pandemic, and free Ancestry, I know a lot now. I think we may have invented the strip mall in Scranton, too bad it burned down and we were uninsured. “he was a hard working miner starting his burned business in Kingston.” Some claim to fame. Then, my own namesakes, ruled Norristown PA with three of us, same name, running the streets at the same time. Only one left from the end of those generations. So yeah, weird, but I like family histories, especially the American immigrant story.
Didn’t mean to creep you out, sorry, and yes—- it’s an obsession, in a good way.
Open a thread on your family history, and I will tell you some fascinating stories like the guy who joined up on 12.7; met his wife on the Panama Canal, she was a Chiquita girl from NJ, and they live the life of “An Officer and a Gentleman.” Or my wife’s 34-year old civil war veteran from Kingston, NY, probably had a black servant (or slave?), who first was sent, untrained, to Gettysburg (not the battle) to chase Jeb Stewart, thank God they didn’t find them. Went through the South surviving the travel, the camps (which killed a lot), gets decorated, and suddenly sent home for stomach distress just as his outfit gets wiped out.
Discovered all, and more, and yes, I am obsesses with the stories. Love to hear yours.
I’m just glad that when Democrats loot and destroy, their protests have been “primarily peaceful”.
I am glad the George Floyd protest were “primarily peaceful” too. Given the amount of criminal violence, that’s a lot of peaceful……
I am glad that Trump rallies were “primarily peaceful.” Given the amount of criminal violence at the 1.6 Trumplicant-led Capitol Insurrection, that’s a lot of peaceful too.
Investigate, arrest, and convict all the criminals in any of these events, or any event in America. For America.
George Floyd got himself killed
Chris, you are either severely misinformed or a racist. Which?
Derek Chauvin was found guilty on three murder/manslaughter charges for murdering Floyd was by pressing his knee on Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds. Minneapolis ponied up $27 million to the Floyd family on the wrongful death lawsuit. Chauvin was fired and charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, guilty, guilty, guilty, got an expanded sentence after the judge allowed for a greater prison sentence for the “particular cruelty”.
Your statement is shameful, misinformed, and a nice piece of published disinformation. It is not a valid opinion.
BUSTED
This is not Frank Stetson. Joe can’t control his website.
Sure Frank. You forget who you are sometimes
Frank is being frank to say, frankly, Frank is not frank about Frank.
It’s real easy to monitor and control Joe, you already do it on your name.
Hang On to Yourself, apologies to David Bowie
Oh, he’s a tongue tweeting storm
Comes to the rally tonight
Praying to the money machine
He wants my dollars not my holler’s
He’s a funky donation collector
Livin’ on the ‘Big Lie dream
Come on, come on
We really got some good donations going
Come on, come on
If you think we’re gonna make it
You better hang on to yourself
We can’t dance, we don’t talk much, we just scream kill Mike Pence
Then we move in Congress like tigers on Vaseline
Well, the bitter comes out better on a sharpened flag pole
You’re the blessed, we’re the MAGAts From Mars
Come on, come on
We really got donations going
Come on, come on
If you think we’re gonna make it
You better hang on to yourself
I have not seen a black man called a coon since the 1970’s. Where do these “people” come from to dredge out such historical racist words? what’s next, this one or that one. I like that Joe;s concept of free speech not only allows the words to be used, but used in the specific manner that racists, white supremacists, and people-dumber-than-a-brick intended.
Here’s the whole list of approved racial slurs for the site: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_slurs_and_epithets_by_ethnicity
Come on racists, try to see if you can use ten or more in a sentence.
Apologies to David Bowie, Panic in Detroit.
He looked a lot like Joe Filbertson, drove a diesel van
Kept his gun on the dashboard, not a humble man
The only survivor of the MAGA People’s Gang
Panic in DC, I asked for an autograph
He wanted to stay home, I wish someone would phone
Panic in DC
He laughed at accidental sirens that broke the evening gloom
The FBI had warned of repercussions, they followed none too soon
A trickle of excited tourists were all that were left alive
Panic in DC, I asked for an autograph
He wanted to stay home, I wish someone would phone
Panic in DC
Putting on some clothes, I made my way to a Texas school
I found my teacher’s concealed carry in his overalls
I screamed and ran to shoot my favorite voting machine
And jumped the silent cars that slept at traffic lights
Having scored a trillion stimulus dollars, made the run back home
Found him slumped across the table, the gun and me alone
I ran to the window, looked for an excited tourist or two
Panic in DC, he’d left me an autograph
“Let me collect dust, ” I wish someone would phone
Panic in DC
Panic in DC