Miller Time's Up

Warning: this may start, for a moment, looking like the reciprocal back-scratching common among New York writers and book reviewers. Ignore that. I'm just agreeing with Mickey Kaus, despite the fact that he quoted me, about the demise of Dennis Miller's show. Whatever else was going on, you always knew you could be driven to Burbank, encounter some very nice production people, and, whatever the given topic, be schmuck-baited by Dennis into a discussion of Iraq. I'm going to miss those 113,000 viewers. That's enough to get DM cancelled, but a daily average of 250,000 viewers is enough to get MSNBC treated as a serious member of the national media club?

CNBC's memo about cancelling DM gives you the real clue, stating their recommitment to being a business news channel, an identity they fled from after the dotcom bubble burst. But now Rupert Murdoch, oblivious to the failure of the vanity channel CNN gave to Lou Dobbs a decade ago, CNNfn, is making noises about starting up a biz channel. That, more than ratings, might explain CNBC's desire to rebrand itself.

So, Dennis, blame Rupert. I know I do.