Friday, November 11, 2005

Happy Birthday Aaron Brown-Belated


Aaron Brown turned 57 yesterday. I must admit I liked Aaron Brown and I miss his hour of news. I think Brown cared about journalism as a profession. He had a reverence for the print media....Headlines. He rarely brought on 2 people of opposing views to scream at each other. He wasn't glitzy and I liked that from the person serving up my news. I also liked his dry humor and here's some commentary reflective of that (from Mediabistro)
Good evening again, I'm Aaron Brown. Here's a depressing thought, I turned 54 over the weekend and that means I only matter for another 364 more days. That's right. On the day I turn 55, I am irrelevant. Not completely irrelevant of course -- some of you will still like me -- but to advertisers, irrelevant.

Advertisers, or at least the people who advise them, figured out that when you reach the ripe old age of 55 you are no longer willing to change your mind so you don't matter. If at 54, you decided you preferred Heinz over Hunts, well that's the way it's going to stay. At 54, you're willing to try new and improved Dawn. At 55, you stick with Palmolive.


But that seems too simplistic, Brown said. He concluded that in the next year, "I'm going to try everything this year, a new beer, a different car, dump my old insurance company, say goodbye to my barbecue sauce, my soap, all of it and live large while I can." His last sentence is a bit sad; "I want to make the most of being relevant for as long as it lasts and the clock, sadly, is ticking."
So what's left for me? Keith Olberman of course. I always fear they will pull him but given his numbers I feel safe for now at least that Keith will be there for me. It's tough for him in his time slot....

8pm: O'Reilly: 3,132,000 / Zahn: 791,000 / Countdown: 574,000 / Grace: 743,000 / Apprentice: 215,000

But he's beating out every other MSNBC show.......

7pm: Hardball: 522,000

8pm: Countdown: 574,000

9pm: Rita: 382,000

10pm: Scarborough: 370,000

11pm: Situation: 275,000

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