***The complete post is on NewsBusters***
As NewsBusters previously reported, comedian Jon Stewart dedicated an entire episode of his Apple TV show, The Problem With Jon Stewart to how the media overplayed their hand with the Mueller report and filled their coverage with “bulls***,” and effectively turned it into a “noose-tightened, closed-walled, family-style jail-gasm.” But there was more to the show as he brought on media insiders to discuss the problem and surprisingly sat down with former Disney CEO and ABC News boss, Bob Iger.
“The reason why I chose the Mueller Report to kind of do the autopsy on was they talked a lot about the disappointment in the Mueller Report. But that disappointment was the fruit of the seed that they planted…” he deduced as he brought on his panel of former Fox Newer Chris Stirewalt, Sean McLaughlin of EW Scripps, and former CNNer Soledad O’Brien,
Stirewalt immediately diagnosed the real problem as the perverse incentive structure created by the use of an outdated rating system. “That's the problem. The death knell is if your numbers go down, that's why we only get one story at a time,” he said.
O’Brien agreed and blew Stewart’s mind when she informed him that major media networks have access to a “minute-by-minute” breakdown of their ratings almost in real-time and they were instrumental in determining what to air.
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