Booking Wars
A few weeks ago, The Hotline reported the chances of seeing CNBC or MSNBC talent on FBN's "Imus in the Morning" are highly unlikely. According to the New York Observer's Felix Gillette, Don Imus is facing similar booking issues with CNN anchors.
At 6:06amET FBN's Imus teased: "Coming up ... Lou Dobbs from CNN."
And then at 6:37amET, the dam broke. Imus said: "I just got word on Friday that MSNBC and CNBC, particularly MSNBC, won't let anybody who works for them appear with me, because they're terrified they're gonna get their ass kicked. ... CNBC's already getting whooped, and we're in half the homes they are."
More Imus: "Of course, now I'm irritated. And then Lou Dobbs from CNN who has been on with us for years ... so now he can't appear. He was scheduled to be on in about an hour, now CNN tells him he can't appear. ... With the exception of Jack Jacobs, there isn't anybody at any of these places -- we weren't booking them because they were getting us big ratings, we booked these people because I like him. And it's just unfortunate that Lou Dobbs has no cajones."
Imus asked: "Why doesn't he just say 'Stick it?'"
Imus sidekick Bernard McGuirk answered: "He's got so many problems with that network. This is just one that he doesn't need right now."
Imus retorted: "One of his issues is he has no balls."
That comment echoed a similar statement Imus made when he learned that CNBC's Charles Gasparino canceled on the program for similar reasons and wondered when the CNBC anchor would "grow a pair."
Imus went on to spend substantial part of his show railing on CNN and Dobbs.
Imus: "They weren't complaining when we were over on 'Hee Haw,' on RFD. ... This is really going to kill us because we can't get the grassy knoll nut Lou Dobbs on to talk about who knows what."
He went on to describe Dobbs as having the "spine of a jellyfish."
When McGuirk floated the notion that Dobbs might be "legally, contractually prevented from doing this," Imus would not relent until the question was posed on how he might respond if FNC chair Roger Ailes restricted him from appearing on other nets: "It would depend."
Imus went on to call his CNN 6am-9am counterpart, "American Morning," "stupid" and added how "nobody wants to watch that. They were winning by default. Who are they kidding?"
And Imus' diatribe against Dobbs continued, as he wondered if Dobbs' cancellation happened because "maybe he's looking for the president's birth certificate" and Imus hoped that "we find out that Lou Dobbs' wife is an illegal alien."
A CNN spokesperson told the Observer: "Generally our anchors aren't appearing on other networks unless they are promoting a book or a CNN special or something of that nature. ... But it's on a case by case basis."
The gentlemen on Imus' show wondered if he would have problems booking personalities like CNN analyst James Carville. Other anaylists in CNN's stable, Dem strategist Paul Begala and GOP strategist Mary Matalin, had been appearing on the show since its FBN simulcast began. In fact, Begala was on the show as recently as 10/16.
However, because Matalin and Begala are contributors to CNN, they may appear on other nets. But don't expect to see MSNBC analysts on Imus, who include Mike Barnicle and Pat Buchanan, both of whom stuck with Imus during the darkest days of the Rutgers' girls basketball team controversy in '07.
In light of all this, it turns out Imus is doing pretty well on FBN.
Why does any of this matter? Even though Imus was dismissive of the threat, a great deal of his show's appeal, specifically in the political world, is his ability to book DC insiders.
During his MSNBC and RFD-TV runs, his booking lineup included anchors, correspondents and paid pundits from competing networks. Missing out on one or two stalwart guests might not matter, but a lack of tolerance from the front offices for this star-crossed booking practice could mean trouble for Imus. If the booking pool were to dry up on Imus, so would part of his appeal.
Even so, ABC and CBS appear to have no problem with their talent calling into the show, as ABC's George Stephanopoulos and Jake Tapper and CBS' Bob Schieffer and Jeff Greenfield have appeared on the show, as have personalities from FBN's sister net, FNC. And the rate of print writers, like New York Times' Frank Rich, has not slowed since the FBN move.
Adding to Imus' booking woes this a.m., Lynyrd Skynyrd canceled on him as well, instead, according to Imus, to appear on FNC's "Fox and Friends."
(ABBY LIVINGSTON)
The Imus', Limbaughs, Becks and Dodds in the world are being labeled as people who cause division in our society and do not make us whole but rather splinter us and cause us to turn on each other. People are moving away from this type of divisive personalies. The times are too great and we need each other in this world to overcome the many problems facing us today. We need wholeness and truth. There is a statement that there is no higher religion than truth and that only Truth will set us free! It is right for the Obama Administration to speak truth and to call Fox News exactly what it is, to severe the bonds of untruth and misconception they infuse into the consciousness of humanity in order to "muddy the waters"....
GOP politicians and operatives continue to dishonestly and deceptively say that they cannot support a public option, they claim, because they want to keep costs down for the American people! Really? They claim this all the while knowing a public option, therebycompetition is the only way to bring about true reform and to put a Halt to the “out of control” medical costs and premiums crippling people and Employers today, making it harder and harder for everyone to realize the American Dream. One must ask themselves, If you happen to lose your job today or tomorrow during this time when we do not have healthcare reform for all, who will pay you or your family's health care bills, that is if you are lucky enough to be able to see a doctor without insurance? This American Dream, which has slowly been slipping away, is in the last throes of dying, if we do not forge a new path ahead on toward inclusion and cooperation for all. This dream of America will die to be replaced with just another third world country -- becoming another failed experiment and promise, only to go by the wayside.
There is a reason that GOP always say Gov’t is the problem. They know that when you have a party of men and women in power who do Nothing for Main Street but say no or complain, to reform, then goverment is a problem! And so it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. As long as the GOP were in power or in control, the government has been a do nothing, problematic government for Average Americans and a big Boom and Bonus for the Rich and well connected. We must remember, this is Bush & the GOP’s recession. They had the power for 8 years and did nothing to uplift this country, only to rape it from Main Street, to add it to Wall Street. The GOP does not even like to raise the Minimum Wage! They care nothing if you are making it. People we must wake up now! Because look around you at the mess the United States is in and ask yourself over the last 10 years of GOP rule, what have they accomplised and what have they done for you lately? Or this country? Do you like what the United States has become? And ask yourself this, if we let them regain power again, how much more further will this country be destroyed until the United States will no longer be. That is a very frightening thought!
I recently upgraded to digital cable so that me and my wife could catch Imus in the morning. We were very upset when he was taken off of the air because of the Rutgers fiasco. I blame Al Sharpton, the racist gasbag. I hope no one ever again has the ability to dictate to me what I watch on pay t.v. I'm rooting for the I-man and all of his crew. It's great to have them back!!!
Don Imus gets ratings because his show is funny and insightful, not because of "his ability to book DC insiders". "DC insiders" blab all over the other networks. Nobody cares. Nobody.
Don Imus is a broadcaster. Like Johnny Carson, David Letterman and Jon Stewart. You tune in because he's interviewing the subject. Rarely for the subject themselves.