Sep 26, 2017

ABC, CBS and NBC fight for ratings bragging rights

NBC logo at its headquarters in New York. Photo: Bebeto Matthews / AP

The networks will be out today with their final 2016-17 news ratings, and everyone (says they're) a winner.

ABC: "'World News Tonight with David Muir' won the season for the first time in ... 21 years [1996,] when Peter Jennings was anchor ... The program is the most-watched newscast in America averaging more than 8 million viewers per night."

CBS: "CBS THIS MORNING was the only broadcast morning news program to post year-to-year gains in viewers ... Over the last two broadcast years, CBS THIS MORNING posted its best viewer deliveries for a CBS morning news program since the advent of people meters" in 1987.

NBC: "All four NBC News broadcasts are #1 in the demo most valued by news advertisers for the 2016-2017 broadcast season ... TODAY, NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, Meet the Press with Chuck Todd and Dateline are ... #1 most-watched broadcasts among the coveted demo of younger viewers," age 18 to 49.

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Axios
Updated 7 mins ago - Politics & Policy

Coronavirus dashboard

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

  1. Politics: Axios-Ipsos poll: Federal response has only gotten worse — The swing states where the pandemic is raging.
  2. Health: The coronavirus is starting to crush some hospitals — 13 states set single-day case records last week.
  3. Business: Winter coronavirus threat spurs new surge of startup activity.
  4. Media: Pandemic causes cable and satellite TV providers to lose the most subscribers ever.
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Orion Rummler
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Ted Cruz defends GOP's expected return to prioritizing national debt

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told "Axios on HBO" on Monday that he wishes reining in the national debt was a higher priority for President Trump.

Why it matters: Trump pledged during the 2016 campaign to reduce the national debt and eliminate it entirely within eight years, though he also deemed himself "the king of debt" and said there were some priorities that required spending. In the fiscal year that ended in September, the deficit reached a record $3.1 trillion.

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Orion Rummler
2 hours ago - Politics & Policy

Federal judge blocks DOJ from defending Trump in Carroll rape defamation case

E. Jean Carroll in Warwick, New York. Photo: Eva Deitch for The Washington Post via Getty Images

A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed the Justice Department's attempted intervention on behalf of President Trump in writer E. Jean Carroll's defamation lawsuit against him, after she accused him of raping her in a dressing room in the mid-1990s.

Catch up quick: The agency argued that Trump was "acting within the scope of his office" as president when he said in 2019 that Carroll was "lying" about her claim.

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