Take a close gander at the just-released nominations for the news and documentary Emmys and you'll observe something curious. The TV networks in the 24-hour news biz — CNN and MSNBC — have fewer bids than the National Geographic and History Channels. (Five and two, respectively, compared with 12 for National Geo and six for History.) And that the Fox News Channel has none.

Fox News Channel refuses to compete because it believes the Emmys are biased against them. CNN and MSNBC do enter the race and used to have broader participation than they do now. The reason: joining the contest can get pricey. It costs a few hundred bucks to enter each program in competition, so the TV news channels have scaled back in these more frugal fiscal times. Thus they have so few nominations today. By comparison, back in the 1990s, when CNN was flush with cash, the network budgeted nearly $100,000 annually for Emmy competition and had strong showings in noms and win, but now CNN tends to enter only its strongest programs.

To see the full list of bids — CLICK HERE!