Sen. Bayh Taking a Page From Palin?

Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Indiana) announced last week that he's not seeking a third term in Congress. And I have to say, the man has never been more popular. He's been making the media rounds about his decision to not run again.

But he is getting a lot of questions about why he's retiring - mostly, "Why Now?" And I'm proud to say that the media is holding his feet to the fire.

He says, "I have had a growing conviction that Congress is not operating as it should. There is too much partisanship and not enough progress - too much narrow ideology and not enough practical problem-solving ... the peoples' business is not being done."

He blames "tribal" politics for bills not getting passed and work being accomplished. Bayh, who's father is a former congressman, should work together like they did in the "good old days." Bayh

says both the House and Senate ... Democrats and Republicans ... should take a step back, refocus and most importantly listen to each other. (I think everyone can agree with this, or at least they should agree with this.)

This morning on "The View," the co-hosts made great points: (1) He's starting to sound like Sarah Palin, (2) Nothing has really ever been accomplished without partisan politics, (3) His move to not run for re-election is almost like running away from the problem instead of trying to fix it.

-daniel

CBS Hates the Gays

First it was the mancrunch.com ad ... now it's a PSA promoting gay acceptance.

CBS is going to have a hard time proving they don't hate the gays. I kind of understood their rejecting the mancrunch.com ad. But then again, they were willing to pay (and it wasn't even a good ad).

CBS is now being blamed for rejecting a PSA from the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. And that's just janky!



The ad is pretty funny. And has star power (if you classify Hillary Duff as star power ... but she is looking pretty good ... another topic for another day). CBS would have been smart to just let this ad run ... because they probably won't win the court of public opinion.

Going Elsewhere for News?

This isn't good news. My future employer (hopefully) is looking like a bleak place to work. It's actually aggravating because people are flocking to FOX and MSNBC ... both admit to being one-sided. What ever happened to fairness, accuracy and balanced news? CNN is learning that it just ain't working.

From: By Chris Ariens (mediabistro.com)

CNN hit new low viewership totals during prime time Friday night (8-11pm) in both Total Viewers and A25-54 viewers.

Up against NBC's Olympic Opening Ceremony coverage, CNN averaged just 85,000 A25-54 viewers during Campbell Brown (8p), Larry King (9p) and Anderson Cooper (10p). An average that low has not been seen since May, 23, 2001. And the Total Viewer average of 382,000 was the lowest since Dec. 23, 2005.

And while all the cable news channels saw reduced viewing levels due to the massive audience that flocked to NBC -- only CNN saw its audience cut in half from Thursday night in both younger viewers and Total Viewers.