LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - More than 49 million Americans watched President Barack Obama's first White House news conference on broadcast and cable television, according to ratings figures released Tuesday.
The one-hour, prime-time news conference on Monday was shown live on all four major U.S. broadcasters and on cable news channels, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News Channel and the Spanish-speaking Univision.
Nielsen Media Research said the news conference, which focused on the economy and efforts to pass the administration's $800 billion-plus stimulus package, drew a TV audience of 49.5 million people.
That figure was much lower than the 64.3 million Americans who watched President Bill Clinton's 1993 post-inauguration news conference on the economy, Nielsen said.
The audience size also was lower than some of the election debates, including the record 70 million viewers who tuned their TV sets to the vice-presidential contest between Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Sarah Palin.
But the news conference surpassed Obama's Nov. 17 appearance on TV news program "60 Minutes," which drew 24.5 million viewers just after he was elected, as well as the roughly 37.8 million Americans who watched a full day of TV coverage of Obama's inauguration.
Source: Reuters North American News Service
3 comments:
Just so refreshing to see someone who is qualified to be President speak,
We had such a bumbling idiot for the last eight years that took every speaking event with the press, like it was some kind of stand up comedy gig.
That is great but even the questions asked by the people in Indiana were more intelligent then those ask by reporters at the Press Conference. Looks like the new hired cheap Station reporters aren't that smart.
Seriously during the Gerbil years I would be rolling my eyes, and cringing, sighing with each mispronouced word, with each chuckle, with each stupid joke, with each stupid grin and hoping that other countries weren't watching because he was such an embarassment.
Post a Comment