July 15, 2004

Both Sides Claiming Victory

So the spinning continues. In the statement finally released by Don't Count Us Out today -- the coalition is also, unsurprisingly, claiming victory too. Here are a few highlights from their own press release "Senate Communications Sub-Committee Finds Serious Flaws With Nielsen's Local People Meter System":

    Having opened the doors on Nielsen’s practices, the truth is now being revealed, and it is a disturbing picture. Today’s hearing clearly demonstrated that Nielsen has moved forward with its new local people meter rating system despite overwhelming evidence that it is deeply flawed and severely undercounts African American and Hispanic viewers. These flaws were discussed at length by all the panelists as well as both Senators. In fact, only Nielsen CEO Susan Whiting denied that the system significantly undercounts certain communities.

    --
    The Don’t Count Us Out Coalition is pleased that both Senator Burns and Senator Boxer clearly indicated that today’s hearing is only the beginning of what will be a long process. At the end of the day the coalition is convinced that this process will lead to government oversight that will ensure a rating system that meets the needs of all communities and counts all viewers.

There's no question what Fox News Corp's agenda is now: government oversight of the ratings business. While this is surely hypocritical of Rupert Murdoch, won't this strategy also return to bite them in the ass? Since we already know Nielsen's sampling methodology is based on the same approach used by Census Bureau bean counters, does Fox think federal regulation over the broadcast ratings will produce a superior alternative?

Or, maybe it's that News Corp's figures an overriding government body will be easier to manipulate? After all, they've already pushed the issue this far into the Senate. To quote Fox themselves: I report, you decide!

Posted by thomas at July 15, 2004 01:10 PM | TrackBack