The ratings for the week of May 15th are now in and here's the bottom line:
between the three American cable news networks, the left-leaning MSNBC had the most viewers, followed by centrist CNN in second, and right wing Fox News in last. In fact, MSNBC was also the most-watched network on all of cable TV for that week with the sole exception of TNT, which aired the NBA playoffs. The highest-rated news show was The Rachel Maddow Show, which has distinguished itself in the last couple months by consistently focusing heavily on the Trump-Russia story (as in usually for the full hour). That is the opposite of the usual. Traditionally, Fox has enjoyed more than double the viewership of both CNN and MSNBC combined, with the latter invariably coming in last in the cable news ratings.
Similarly, the "alt-right" online paper Breitbart News, which has become better-known lately due to White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon's previous role there, has plunged in hits since Donald Trump took office.
Breitbart has dropped from being the 29th-highest ranked site on the Internet back in February, to being the 281st today.
It would seem that the public isn't very interested in media outlets that do nothing but defend what is now the status quo. It's as if the more you question, and the harder you question, the actions of the Trump White House, the more popular your material will be...and vice versa. (In Fox's case, losing both of your top two highest-rated shows (The O'Reilly Factor and The Kelly File) to scandal since the election doesn't help either.) This is America. We're used to a free press that acts like one. People don't want their news to sound like state TV.
My point is that, while the news media may not be popular, it is
more popular to the extent that it questions the status quo.
Originally Posted by IMPress Polly
The ratings for the week of May 15th are now in and here's the bottom line: between the three American cable news networks, the left-leaning MSNBC had the most viewers, followed by centrist CNN in second, and right wing Fox News in last. In fact, MSNBC was also the most-watched network on all of cable TV for that week with the sole exception of TNT, which aired the NBA playoffs. The highest-rated news show was The Rachel Maddow Show, which has distinguished itself in the last couple months by consistently focusing heavily on the Trump-Russia story (as in usually for the full hour). That is the opposite of the usual. Traditionally, Fox has enjoyed more than double the viewership of both CNN and MSNBC combined, with the latter invariably coming in last in the cable news ratings.
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