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Fox News' Ratings Take a Nosedive

Posted Tuesday August 29, 2006 at 05:12 PM

Somewhere, Keith Olbermann is sticking pins in a Bill O'Reilly voodoo doll: Fox News' ratings, TVNewser reports, are down since August of last year. Like, way down. Like down 28 percent in primetime among all viewers, down 20 percent in primetime in the "money demo" (viewers aged 25-54) and down 7 percent in daytime viewership overall. In fact, the only place Fox is up is during the day, when they managed a ratings increase of just 2 percent, and even then only in the money demo.

And lest you think this is an industry-wide trend, consider this: over the same time period, CNN and MSNBC are up. CNN's up 35 percent during the day -- 46 percent in the money demo -- and up 21 percent in primetime overall, 25 percent in the money demo. MSNBC's ratings increases aren't quite as impressive -- up 6 percent in primetime overall, 8 percent in the money demo, and up 36 percent in the money demo during the day, 26 percent overall.

LINK

Darrel wrote:And lest you think this is an industry-wide trend, consider this: over the same time period, CNN and MSNBC are up. CNN's up 35 percent during the day -- 46 percent in the money demo -- and up 21 percent in primetime overall, 25 percent in the money demo. MSNBC's ratings increases aren't quite as impressive -- up 6 percent in primetime overall, 8 percent in the money demo, and up 36 percent in the money demo during the day, 26 percent overall.

DOUG
This is a huge story. I used to work in the television broadcasting industry. If other people are going up by 46% in the money demo and you only go up 2%, you're in for some major changes.

I wonder what changes Fox will institute. I doubt that they would change so much that they would start to tell the truth, however. I think they'd sooner go out of business.

They'll whip up another big "liberal scandal" - like hounding Clinton for 10 years - to pick the ratings up. Doug's absolutely right - they'd rather go out of business than tell the truth - but they probably won't have to.

Foxed Out

Roger and Rupert can't be too happy about this:

Fox News’s total audience fell 24 percent in the past year, to 1.3 million viewers from 1.7 million, and its key primetime audience, viewers ages 25-54, was down 7 percent in October on a year-to-year basis, to an average 363,000 viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research data.

In third quarter, Fox News suffered a 38 percent decline in 25-54s, to 409,000.

One explanation would be that Fox's mindless shilling for the Bush administration has finally turned off enough Democrats (21% of Dems polled in a June 2004 Pew survey listed Fox as their primary news source) and Independents (22%) that they're finally tuning out. Another, however, would be that Fox's trademark frantic flashing format and conservative ideological bias are both now the norm in the cable news universe -- giving viewers who wish to be ignorant and confused a much larger menu to choose from.

It's a little bit of both, I suspect, plus perhaps a general loss of interest in the news as we (minus Rick Santorum) exit the post 9/11 era of hyper-adrenalized fear and media panic.

link

that's funny, on Oprah the other day, Bill O'Really! said Fox News is the number one news show on television.....

Unfortunately, the latter (RW bias) are now the norm - but viewer perception is that CNN is still Ted Turner's really balanced news. Just like many "liberal" people still trust NPR. I knew they'd sold out based on their Clinton coverage in the 90s - report the scandals, but if you report the rebuttal at all "balance" it with a wingnut's opinion of it - and never, never, ever report that an accusation turned out to be false.

Barbara Fitzpatrick wrote:...if you report the rebuttal at all "balance" it with a wingnut's opinion of it...

DAR
Or two wingnuts. As has been documented by the folks at FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting) NPR has far more republican talking heads than democrats.

BETSY:
on Oprah the other day, Bill O'Really! said Fox News is the number one news show on television.....

DAR
I think he still is number one ON CABLE. Olberman's numbers are WAY up, but he is still behind O'Lielly. The big networks are still watched far more than the cable.

Any possible way to get rid of TV - just for 6 months or so, to wean the addicts off - and then put it back into the hands of "we, the people" - or at least enough "owners" to get real "across the spectrum" reporting. I thought not. sigh.

Barbara Fitzpatrick wrote:Any possible way to get rid of TV - just for 6 months or so, to wean the addicts off - and then put it back into the hands of "we, the people"

DAR
We have "we the people" TV. It's the CAT. A bit messy. Doug and Phil and I are taping a show next week.

I was interviewed for a CATV program that part of a new series called "Need to Know" - the moderators are VERY rightwing, which I didn't know when I showed up (Tim Smith called and asked if I'd like to do it after reading my letter to the editor about the Military Commissions Act). Unfortunately, the series doesn't start until next week & my episode won't be until after that. I won't say this was deliberate, because I don't know that, but it is interesting that a show on which two RW hosts and a very RW guest (a lawyer and law instructor for one of the local religious colleges) agree with a very NOT RW guest about the unconsitutionality and non-partisan nature of the MCA issue, taped a full month before the elections (and I haven't seen the edited version), is not being broadcast until two weeks AFTER the elections.