Fox News Channel may drive blood pressures to record highs among liberals but the right-wing cable channel just finished its best ratings year ever and easily tops CNN and MSNBC with viewers.
The only cable channels that do better than Fox News are entertainment ones. MSNBC and CNN aren't even in the top 10.
In fact, ratings are falling for more liberal-oriented MSNBC and CNN. Even the darlings of the "progressive" community -- Keith Olbermann and Rachael Maddow -- face erosion of viewers while their favorite targets -- Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck -- watch their numbers rise.
Does this surprise you? It doesn't me. I think it supports those accusations that Fox isn't so much a news channel as an entertainment one. The only other way I can explain it, it to liken the widespread interest in Fox News to slowly driving past a terrible highway wreck where bloody bodies are strewn across the pavement. It's hard to turn away from something like that.
What's your opinion? Is the success of Fox News a proper gauge as to its quality? Liberal Viewer has produced over 100 videos documenting their bias. Is that what people like so much?
Please leave a comment.
I imagine it's because most liberals are younger, thus spend less time watching TV and more time on the internet spreading their factpinions on HuffPo, DailyKos, Crooks and Liars, and the various other fauxgressive cesspools.
ReplyDeleteFox News is number one for the same reason conservative talk show hosts dominate the radio waves--it is simply what people want to hear.
ReplyDeleteMurdock was a genius when he created Fox News. There were already networks catering to liberals and the conservative majority was turning away in droves. Fox was designed with conservatives in mind. Fox is marketed to draw in conservatives that were tired of CNN (or also known as Clinton News Network). MSNBC might as well be state owned and controlled since not only will they only show the President in good light, the bulk of their broadcasts centers around him. The rest are, at best, left leaning.
The majority of people that care enough about the country to reverently watch the news every day or to call in and listen to talk radio are conservatives. As to liberals, aside from the die-hards, the majority could care less about the world except what they are spoon fed in small doses--they have a short attention span. They would prefer to talk about Michael Jackson or listen to Green Day then sit through political talk.
That is also why this year's election will see the House overturned. The number of conservatives that are tired of Congresses' nonsense will exceed the hard corp liberals at the polls. Without the Obama race to draw in the herds, there will be a smaller turnout than 2008. The liberals will not have the budget to hire voters or bring in the dead like Acorn did and the masses will be disinterested.
The same is with FOX News audience. It is not that there are more people that call themselves conservatives in this country, it is just that there are far more that give a shit on the right than on the left.
It is all a simple matter of market share. I bet if it could be broken down simplisticly, it would look something like this:
For every one hundred Americans, 10 watch Fox News, 5 watch MSNBC. 15 are divided among the other networks and 70 would rather watch a reality show or American Idol.
Another possible reason for the surge in FOX News is the attacks upon it, especially by the White House.
ReplyDeletePut another way:
"If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine."
Pretty funny people are quoting fictional movies to explain why Fox News is so popular. Maybe that is why Americans who watch Fox News and other weapons of mass distraction media outlets are so ignorant of geo-political and domestic American political issues. I for one have not watched any television for the past five years. I read my news and am more informed because of it.
ReplyDeleteNo scroll bar at the bottom of the screen, American flag waving in the corner of the screen, time and temps for cities I am not traveling to, and the short attention paid to each "news" story. Sound bites, eight to ten minutes on a story and then distracted by commercials and then on to another trivial "news" story.
As a political analyst, it is fascinating to see the correlation between political power and the type of media used. I discussed this is an Empire and Communication posting a few months ago.
FishyJay, Did you study Latin. I frequently drive past a building in Rome which houses their version of the VA. On the facade there are latin expressions taken from classical literature. My favorite is "Concussus surgo," which I'd translate as "Having been struck down, I rise."
ReplyDeleteNo wonder Obama says Fox isn't real news. He has to attack them because they're popular.
ReplyDeleteFox News isn't.
ReplyDeleteFWN, That'a a good analysis of why Fox is so popular. It reminded me of the thing we've talked about a few times, that pro-gun folks are more likely to be passionate than gun control people. Maybe the same applies to conservatives and liberals.
ReplyDeleteMikeB,
ReplyDeleteI think you or we are right. There is no real grass roots support for the Anti Gun Loons while us Gun Loons trip over ourselves with grass roots, be it at a gunshow, on the internet or at the local range or gun club.
There are no anti gun shows as there are no antithesis to Tea Parties. Grass roots for liberals do not exist.
I remember a few news stories in the weeks following the 2008 elections. There were flared tempers as Obama election supporters were waiting to be "paid" for their work during the last weeks of work up until the election. In contrast, most of your conservatives were volunteers.
Does anyone really think that even a fourth of the Obama voters that turned out for the election will show up for 2010? How many of them read liberal blogs or watch the news? How many of them can even name the Vice President for that matter?
Fox News has their audience and "Dances With the Tards" has theirs.
No Grass roots for liberals? Tell John McCain and Hilary Clinton
ReplyDeletethat.
The reason a lot of liberals don't watch Fox--or MSNBC--is because they'd rather gather information, sift through it, then form their own opinions. Conservatives (reactionaries, really) who watch Fox avoid all that heavy lifting and just have their opinions read to them by Mr. O'Reilly and his fellow Paytriots.
Wait?! Did you really just put MSNBC in the same category as FOX? Seriously? Are you inferring that MSNBC is actually Conservative? If so you're even less in touch with reality than I thought.
ReplyDeleteGrass roots for liberals do not exist.
ReplyDeleteWhile that's true of anti-gunners it's certainly not true of Liberals in general.