The Morning Rant: Buck Shots – 6/20/2022

Get Woke Go Broke – ‘Live PD’ Is Coming Back, But Not on A&E Network

In the wake of the George Floyd incident in 2020, the woke executives at the A&E cable network decided to demolish their network to show solidarity with the “Defund the Police” movement.

To show that they hated the police just as much as other good leftists, A&E executives canceled its flagship show, “Live PD,” which was one of the most popular shows on any network, broadcast or cable. The show broadcast live footage of police officers at various police departments across the country responding to calls. Dan Abrams played the role of host, with two sidekicks providing commentary.

Live PD is coming back to cable this summer but on a different network (Reelz) and with a new name, “On Patrol, Live.” But it will otherwise be mostly the same show, once again hosted by Dan Abrams, with Sean “Sticks” Larkin adding commentary.

How damaging was A&E’s decision to suspend its ratings juggernaut? It was catastrophic.

Immediately after the network canceled ‘Live P.D.,’ the cable channel’s primetime viewership declined 49% — or pretty much by half. That’s no surprise since at the time of its cancellation, ‘Live P.D.’ was A&E’s highest-rated program and occupied multiple evenings on the schedule.

Since then, things have been a bit better — but barely. For the…second quarter of 2021, A&E was down 42% in total viewers from the same time in 2020, averaging 495,000 overall primetime audience members compared to 852,000 the year before.

A&E was the 20th most watched network (including both broadcast and cable) in 2019. By choosing to run off half its audience when it canceled Live PD, A&E fell to 28th place for 2021.

Reelz is currently the 89th ranked network. For now. It should pass A&E soon.

By the way, did I mention that A&E is owned 50% by Disney? There are plenty of woke executives in corporate America, but have you ever seen a company whose executives are so willing to destroy the business they run, just to burnish their woke cred?

David Brooks – Sportsball Fan

Appearing on PBS News Hour, the New York Times’ faux-conservative columnist, David Brooks, said that Nancy Pelosi’s J6 committee “has moved the ball from the 95 yard line to the 99 yard line.”

Mr. Brooks really dunked the puck in Trump’s face with that comment. If this weren’t PBS, where decorum matters, Brooks might’ve followed with a touchback dance right there in the studio, followed by a theatric spike of the hockeyball.

More Fake Journalism from the Associated Press

It’s not even been a month since the Washington Post was forced to issue multiple corrections for a Taylor Lorenz piece that was riddled with falsehoods, including the outright lie that the subjects of her smear declined WaPo requests for comment, when in fact the Post never even tried to contact them before publishing the article.

Now the Associated Press has been busted for the same type of false reporting.

AP called out for publishing interview with radio host who died years ago, issues correction [Fox News – 6/11/2022]

The Associated Press published a report Thursday about Miami conservative radio hosts objecting to the Democratic Party’s push to buy up Spanish radio stations in the area, and somehow featured a recent interview with a famous radio host who actually died in 2020.

The AP issued this comically awkward correction:

MIAMI (AP) — In a story published June 9, 2022, about the purchase of Spanish-language radio stations, The Associated Press erroneously identified a woman as Martha Flores, former host of a show on Radio Mambi in Miami, one of the stations in the proposed deal. Flores died in 2020. The woman’s identity was unclear but she attended an event expressing concern with the sale held by a coalition called the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance.

In other words, a random old Cuban lady at an event held by an anti-communist organization in South Florida declined to talk to an AP reporter. That was all the info needed for the AP - an elite, left-wing, disinformation-pushing media outlet - to try to smear one of its ideological opponents, who they didn’t realize had passed away.

Ron DeSantis’ press secretary never misses a chance to give some well-deserved mockery to the media outlet that she refers to as “American Pravda.”

This morning’s Rant has been brought to you by “Widow Maker” the rodeo bull.

(buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com)

posted by Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM

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