Bill Hemmer Makes New York News
Did you see the Bill Hemmer profile in the New York Observer? About how he joined Fox News Channel in 2005 after leaving CNN? http://www.observer.com/2007/hemmer-time
You've read most of the info on this blog before, but it's nice to see him get some publicity. In the story, Hemmer says ratings for his 9-11 a.m. "America's Newsroom" show on Fox have increased by 15%, while CNN's "American Morning" ratings have fallen 16% since he left two years ago.
A few other nuggets:
--He tells a great story about arriving in Baton Rouge to cover Katrina, his first story for Fox, and encountering 15 CNN staffers eating pizza. The story, he says, shows that CNN had grown plump and was no longer hungry. "At Fox we do more with less," says Hemmer, a Delhi Township native who left Channel 9 for CNN in 1995.
--Look for FNC to send the versatile Hemmer and "America's Newsroom" on the road to cover the presidential campaigning in Iowa and New Hampshire next year. (I'm not surprised. He's very good at covering lots of things, particularly politics. Remember his "Chad Lad" days covering the 2000 Florida recount for CNN?)
3 Comments:
I don't know...the pizza story with CNN sounds to me like CNN beat them on the story and Bill with Fox News were a little late because they must have caught a ride into town on Air Force One. Perhaps CNN had been working 12 hours straight- does Fox News eat?
Bill is a right-wing hack. No doubt about it. He actually refered to environmentalists as "tree huggers" on the air recently.
He also seems arrogant. Is he suggesting that he has such a following that an entire audience group followed him to another channel? I highly doubt that.
News people love to think THEY are the reason people watch the news.
“People ask me all the time what the difference is between CNN and Fox,” said Mr. Hemmer. “It’s day and night. We’re a business. Viewers count. Ratings count. The store has got to stay open. We need customers.”
and with this quote lies the problem with Fox and the majority of the mainstream media. Viewing reporting "news" as a business instead of an opportunity to inform the public. Because of this is why we get a skew towards stories of a sensational nature (celebrity gossip, sensational trial coverage). It is also why we are seeing the continuing trend of taking the "official word" as the fact, do you think that the mainstream media (being a business) is going to take a critical look at the deregualtion issues before the FCC when it is in their business interest to have more cross-ownership? I think not. Mr. Hemmer states it himself, they need customers.
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