This is a highly entertaining media tantrum:
Phil Griffin, president of MSNBC, says there’s something fishy about Tuesday’s ratings for the Fox News Channel, which were up significantly from a day earlier when Fox News debuted its new schedule. And he wants an investigation.
“Monday we had a really good day in the key demographic. On the night that Fox News debuted their three shows, we either tied or beat them in those hours,” Griffin said at a briefing, according to TVNewser.
“Tuesday — you guys should be doing some investigations; I have never seen it in all my years of cable — same overnight, same everything. And they doubled their ratings in a day? It is impossible.” Griffin continued, “I have never seen it. They did election-night numbers in the demo Tuesday.”
It’s entertaining because Griffin there is accusing Nielsen of deliberately altering the ratings in the second tier of news networks (cable news does not have the same reach as network news). Which would be one heck of a story, if true …if. Of course, if it were true then it would have leaked by now. People tend to do that sort of thing, when money is involved. And money is involved: Nielsen ratings figure in advertising fees. Continue reading MSNBC’s Phil Griffin: Fox News is spying on me! With RAYS! In My HEAD!