1. LIVE TV OBAMA ASSASSINATION PLOT FOILED
OBAMACSI.COM: As the L.A. Times headline from the 2008 Democratic National Convention foreshadowed, "Plot Unfolds To Assassinate Obama On National TV". With history as our guide, it is highly likely that Barack Obama will assassinated on Live TV.
Title: Plot Unfolds To Assassinate Obama On National TV
Date: August 26, 2008
Source: L.A. Times
Abstract: More details emerging from Denver as we write this in the predawn hours on the now-suspected plot to assassinate Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama with a high-powered rifle on national television during his outdoor acceptance speech at Invesco Field on Thursday night.
Authorities have reported a fourth arrest in the unfolding plot that The Ticket first wrote about here a few hours ago at the end of Monday night's Democratic National Convention events at the Pepsi Center.
We knew then that authorities in suburban Aurora had stopped a pickup truck for swerving between lanes early Sunday morning in what they thought was a routine drunk driving incident.
But in the rented vehicle of Tharin Gartrell, a 28-year-old convicted felon (see photo), they found two high-powered scoped rifles, ammunition, sighting scopes, radios, a cellphone, a bulletproof vest, wigs, drugs and fake IDs.
According to Brian Maass of Denver's KCNC Channel 4, under questioning Gartrell implicated two other men -- Nathan Johnson. who is 32, and Shawn Adolph, who is 33 -- and Johnson's girlfriend, Natasha Gromack. Johnson also reportedly confirmed the plot to FBI and Secret Service interrogators. One of the men, Adolph, reportedly wore a ring with the Nazi swastika. He was injured when he jumped out of a hotel window fleeing Secret Service agents. All are now in custody on drug and weapons charges.
U.S. Atty. Troy Eid declined to elaborate on Monday but said there is no credible threat to the party's convention or to the freshman Illinois senator, who was campaigning in Kansas City on Monday and traveling to Montana today.
But the television station reports that under questioning the men admitted there was indeed a plot to kill Obama during his speech before some 70,000 supporters and a nationwide television audience.
More details are expected to emerge later today when Eid holds a news conference at 4 p.m. Denver time (L.A. Times, 2008).
2. OBAMA'S TV RATINGS
OBAMACSI.COM: Due to Obama's fame and celebrity status, it is highly likely that if Obama is assassinated at a public poltical event, there will be a massive TV audience ranging somewhere between 75 and 100 million in place to witness the assassination.
Title: Obama Acceptance Speech Believed To Set TV Record
Date: August 29, 2008
Source: Reuters
Abstract: Over 38 million Americans tuned in for television coverage of Barack Obama accepting the Democratic nomination for U.S. president on Thursday in what is believed to be the most watched convention speech ever.
Obama's TV audience, reaching nearly a fourth of all U.S. households, was by far the largest of the four-day Democratic National Convention, surpassing the addresses by his running mate, U.S. Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, and his onetime rival for the nomination, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York.
It also easily eclipsed the acceptance speeches of either of Obama's two immediate Democratic predecessors or the 27.6 million viewers President George W. Bush drew on the fourth night of the Republican National Convention in 2004, when he was nominated for a second term.
Obama's historic address, by the first African American chosen to lead a major political party in the race for the White House, averaged 38.4 million U.S. viewers across all major networks, Nielsen Media Research reported on Friday.
That figure is the highest for any single night of any major party convention going back to 1996, the last election cycle for which Nielsen keeps night-by-night data.
The 1992 conventions as a whole garnered higher household ratings in prime time than this week's Democratic gathering in Denver, meaning a larger percentage of homes were tuned in to those earlier events. The same is true for most conventions held from 1960 to 1984.
But because today's household ratings translate into a larger number of individuals based on population growth, Nielsen analyst Anne Elliot said Obama's audience tally is probably the biggest for any televised convention speech in history.
By comparison, 24.4 million viewers saw the 2004 Democratic nominee, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, give his acceptance speech, and fewer still, 21.8 million, tuned in for the final night of the 2000 convention when then-Vice President Al Gore was nominated as the party's standard bearer.
The robust total for Obama, who delivered his speech in a football stadium packed with 84,000 cheering supporters, was yet another sign of the excitement generated by the Illinois senator's charisma and message of change.
The prime-time TV audience for all four days of the convention, averaging 30.2 million viewers, also easily topped the 24.4 million total for 2004 and 20.6 million from 2000.
Still, comparisons with previous election cycles are not precise matchups due to different Nielsen metrics.
In 2004, for example, Nielsen measured viewership across six networks -- the Big Three broadcasters ABC, CBS and NBC and cable news networks Fox News Channel, CNN and MSNBC -- whereas this year Nielsen added four smaller networks -- BET, TV One, Univision and Telemundo.
Moreover, Nielsen is now including time-shifted viewing by people watching later the same day through digital video recorders -- data not included in previous cycles.
The Republican National Convention kicks off in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Monday. Presumptive Republican nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain, is hoping his bold pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate, will raise the excitement level for his campaign (Reuters, 2008).
Title: Record TVs Tuned To The Obama-Biden Victory Over McCain-Palin
Date: November 5, 2008
Source: L.A. Times
Abstract: With a precision that can only come from the knowledge that none of us are doing our own count, The Nielsen Co. just announced that 71,478,000 of us in 47,508,000 households watched the election returns on TV during normal prime-time hours last night.
This compares with audiences of 59.2 million in 2004 and 61.6 million in 2000, both Bush victories. You remember those numbers, don't you?
As The Times' Matea Gold points out over on the Show Tracker blog, this year's election night viewers far outnumbered previous quadrennial elections. In fact, almost one in four U.S. TV sets were tuned to the results.
Actually, the election reports were very hard to avoid, unless you can stomach Capt. Kirk or country music videos.
The high ratings confirm what any political website, like The Ticket, has known for weeks -- American news consumers were very much into this election cycle, more so with each passing day.
Even on days when online traffic is normally slow, hundreds of thousands clicked their way through virtually anything of interest on the campaign and prospects.
As The Ticket reported earlier today, traffic on LATimes.com set a new one-day record above 3.36 million. And many newspapers including The Times are printing thousands of extra copies of today's editions to meet consumer demand.
As Jay Leno used to say about Doritos, "Eat all you want. We'll make more."
The Nielsen numbers showed that even when the viewing hours were expanded past midnight in the East to include the concession speech by Sen. John McCain and the acceptance speech by President-elect Barack Obama to a joyous Chicago throng, the audience didn't fall off as much as you might expect.
The number of people watching then faded only to 59.2 million in 40.5 million households.
ABC scored the best by claiming 9.1 million of the earlier audience and about 8.8 million of the later audience. NBC, CBS and Fox Broadcast came in next, followed by Univision and Telemundo. On cable, CNN was followed by Fox News, then MSNBC, BET and CNBC and BBC-America, according to the Nielsen Wire blog.
Title: Barack Obama Inaugural May Set TV Ratings Records
Date: January 16, 2009
Source: L.A. Times
Abstract: To the historic nature of Barack Obama's swearing-in as the 44th president Tuesday, we may add this: The telecast will probably set TV ratings records.
Live coverage will run throughout the day on the broadcast and cable news networks, as well as on CSPAN, BET and even Comedy Central. And the intense interest in the new president virtually guarantees high numbers.
The most-watched presidential inauguration was the 1981 ceremony for Ronald Reagan, which totaled nearly 42 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research.
The lowest audience was the 15.5 million viewers for George W. Bush's second inaugural in 2005. Nielsen says that first inaugurals tend to do better than second ones — which proves that in politics, as in entertainment, viewers gravitate toward the new.
One wild card for the Obama viewership, however, will be online viewing, which is not included in Nielsen's TV measurements (L.A. Times, 2009).
Title: Nearly 37.8 Million Watch President Obama’s Oath And Speech On TV
Date: January 29, 2009
Source: Nielsen
Abstract: Nearly 37.8 million Americans watching at home viewed President Barack Obama’s oath of office and inaugural speech between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. ET on January 20, 2009. This is the most viewed inauguration since the record of 41.8 million viewers who watched Ronald Reagan’s 1981 inauguration (Nielsen, 2009). https://sites.google.com/site/csiobama/ASSASSINATION-ON-LIVE-TV
