Outrage At Mediate For ‘Lack Of Impartiality’: ‘Trusted’ Media Watchdog Fawns Over Its Owner Dan Abrams While Trashing His TV Rivals
May 23 2022, Published 2:35 p.m. ET
Online media blowhard Mediaite claims to be a “trusted source on the intersection of politics and media” but its recent bent has many in the television industry furious at its “deceitful coverage.”
An analysis of the website shows it wrote more than 20 stories considered negative about FOX News in a seven day period — all while offering praise for its owner, popular former Live PD anchor Dan Abrams.
Abrams is now the anchor on NewsNation, the subscription television network owned by the Nexstar Media Group. NewsNation also promises to its viewers to be a “trusted source for breaking news” with “unbiased” coverage.
“Talk about a colossal conflict of interest,” one cable news insider told RadarOnline.com.
“I can’t figure out if Dan is using FOX News as clickbait to win traffic to Mediaite, or create awareness for NewsNation by running advertising promoting the station alongside stories about FOX News, or whether he is using Mediaite to cover up for NewsNation’s rating failings.”
A second industry pundit said: “Something that could be attributed to the change of tone at Mediaite is the fact that founder Dan Abrams has a substantial conflict of interest.”
Dan Abrams Live, which airs on NewsNation at 9 PM/ET, has yet to get off the ground more than a year after it launched, averaging just 59,000 total viewers for the month of May, according to data from Nielsen Media Research seen by RadarOnline.com.
More troubling for Nexstar Media Group, its celebrity anchor Abrams — who is also chief legal analyst for ABC News — averages just 10,000 viewers in the all-important younger A25-54 demo.
“The program fails to make a dent in the audience and obviously it has an uphill battle with Tucker Carlson Tonight being the ratings success that it is,” the source added.
“Clearly, he’s trying to discredit FOX News in hopes the Mediaite readers turn to his NewsNation show, but given the abysmal ratings, it doesn’t look like that strategy is panning out.”
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In one example provided to RadarOnline.com by a bemused television source, Abrams used NewsNation airwaves to compare Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s participation on the Ukrainian version of Dancing With the Stars with FOX News host Tucker Carlson, who previously appeared on the American version.
In doing so, Abrams intertwined Mediaite by having it cover his commentary on NewsNation as a story, in another example of how he “trades off the back” of the Rupert Murdoch led television empire, according to a source.
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