Serious discussion bad for ratings

Politico: Health care talk sinks Obama press conference ratings

MSNBC host Dylan Ratigan said Thursday morning that while President Barack Obama has “elevated the conversation” when it comes to health care, there’s a downside for cable executives and his fellow hosts: “Health care is bad for ratings.”


Discussing the previous night’s low-key news conference, Ratigan
said that “cable networks’ ratings go off a cliff” during the health care debate, which eventually “forces the conversation out of the TV.”

. . . Fox’s decision not to air the presser paid off: The network won the 8 p.m. time slot with an episode of “So You Think You Can Dance.”

. . .
In trying to not get bogged down like President Bill Clinton in the ’90s, Obama decided to take the health care fight to a prime-time audience last week. But perhaps the biggest story coming out of the press conference had nothing to do with health care. Instead, it was Obama’s statement that the Cambridge, Mass., Police Department acted “stupidly” in its arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Yet, save for his emotional response to a question about Gates in the event’s final minutes, Obama got lukewarm reviews for his talking points on health care. “Snooze conference,” was the Philadelphia Inquirer headline; “Snoozer conference” was the verdict from MSNBC’s First Read.

I can't stand it. I just can't stand it.