Fox News–A 21st Century MEDIA Titanic? by Larry C Johnson

Once a Titan, now a Titanic?

Just as the Captain of the Titanic has gone down in history bearing a heavy share of the blame for that ship’s fateful collision with a rogue iceberg on her maiden voyage, the Rupert Murdoch’s spawn are teeing themselves up as reckless buffoons who are driving a once thriving media property into a ratings collapse. Since Fox News fully unmasked itself as a new bastion of anti-Trump hatred on Election Day, Tuesday, November 3rd, its conservative base of viewers have fled Fox’s daytime line up. Fox News, like the Titanic, is sinking.

If the Titanic had the equivalent of Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity it might have stayed afloat. These two are keeping FOX NEWS from sinking into a well-deserved oblivion. I know that some of you reading this have given Fox the total boot. Others, however, are staying away from their daytime propaganda but still tuning into Tucker and Sean.

Take a look at the numbers for yourself (I’m publishing the ratings from Adweek below) comparing Friday, August 28, 2020 to Wednesday, November 11, 2020.

In August, Fox ruled the day over CNN and MSNBC with a “Total Day” number of 2,278,000. CNN and MSNBC combined had a total of 2,629,000. The picture is quite different today. Fox still “won” the day (barely) with 1,998,000 but CNN and MSNBC combined dwarfed Fox with 3,831,000. Fox has gone from having almost as many viewers as CNN and MSNBC combined to now being half the number that its competitors are drawing. That is a shrinking audience.

Look at the specific shows:

Neil Cavuto, who stupidly cut away from the President’s Press Secretary, has shed almost 200,000 viewers.

The Five, with the intolerable Juan Williams, lost almost 600,000.

Bret Baier is not doing much better–he has 330,000 fewer viewers.

Martha MacCallum’s 7pm show fell by almost 400,000 “fans.”

Laura Ingraham, who is still pushing back against Fox’s shift to the left, still lost 491,000 viewers compared to August.

Last, and also hemorrahaging, is Shannon Bream. She’s down by 450,000 watchers.

Those are significant numbers and should worry any news executive keen on putting butts in seats and eyes on screens.

Now for the good news for Fox. Tucker and Sean are still crushing it. Tucker exceeded his August numbers by a monster increase just shy of 400,000. Similar numbers for Sean–he’s up by whopping 505,000 over August.

The Murdoch children, with the help of RINO Paul Ryan, are trying to push Fox into the hate Trump camp. This is a stupid, short sighted move. The conservative core that once were a dependable constant under-girding Fox’s cable news supremacy. But those conservatives justifiably feel like the husband who has walked in on his wife who is copulating with his boss. That is a betrayal not easily or quickly forgiven.

It remains to be seen how long Tucker and Sean will be able to push back against the ideological shift to the left at Fox. Meanwhile, other news outlets–i.e. NewsMax, One America News and the Blaze, are gathering new viewers, which translates into new revenue streams. The left may want to crush the right, but their ham-handed moves appear to be breathing new life into alternatives in cable and social media. Let freedom reign.

Friday August 28, 2020

Total Viewers (Live+SD x 1,000)

Total Day: FNC: 2.278 | CNN: 1.076 | MSNBC: 1.503
Prime: FNC: 3.915 | CNN: 1.363 | MSNBC: 2.240

	FNC	CNN	MSNBC:
4PM	Cavuto: 1.733	Tapper: 1.386	Wallace: 1.765
5PM	Five: 3.618	Blitzer: 1.298	Wallace: —-
6PM	Baier:  2.661	Blitzer: 1.216	TheBeat: 1.583
7PM	MacCallum: 2.520	Burnett: 1.208	Reid: 1.874
8PM	Carlson: 4.273	Cooper: 1.513	Hayes: 1.846
9PM	HntySpcl: 3.755	Cooper: 1.308	Maddow: 3.017
10PM	Ingraham: 3.716	Lemon: 1.267	Last Word: 1.856
11PM	Bream: 2.243	Lemon: 1.137	Williams: 1.510

Wednesday, November 11, 2020

Total Viewers (Live+SD x 1,000)

Total Day: FNC: 1.998 | CNN: 1.903 | MSNBC: 1.930
Prime: FNC: 4.051 | CNN: 2.639 | MSNBC: 2.773

	FNC	CNN	MSNBC:
4PM	Cavuto: 1.592	Tapper: 2.226	Wallace: 2.497
5PM	Five: 3.036	Blitzer: 2.468	Wallace: 2.344
6PM	Baier:  2.337	Blitzer: 2.158	Melber: 2.444
7PM	MacCallum: 2.125	Burnett: 2.442	Reid: 2.485
8PM	Carlson: 4.667	Cooper: 2.744	Hayes: 2.442
9PM	Hannity: 4.260	Cuomo: 2.904	Maddow: 3.198
10PM	Ingraham: 3.225	Lemon: 2.268	O’Donnell: 2.678
11PM	Bream: 1.798	Lemon: 1.571	Williams: 2.348

Reader Interactions

 

Comments

[Deap]

I don't watch TV news. Occasionally get a link to Tucker Carlson who is great, but "news" in sound bites and substance free visuals, or daily opinion pieces does rehashing the same ground does not leave me enlightened; it leaves me only exhausted.

Hannity is the worst. We watched election night, with the sound off. C-Span for occasional live hearings with blessedly no commentary. A culled internet website collection is my go-to for the "news". VIP member Townhall collection, RedState the favorite.

Confirmation bias is my guilty pleasure.

[rg]

If Trump does not get the 2021-2025 term as President, he might start his own cable news station, as some have suggested, maybe including Trump himself. I would expect him to be the primary on-air star, but he will recruit Tucker Carlson, who will be very high-profile. Trump's channel will complete the process of wrecking Fox, which is underway, as documented here by Larry. Maybe Trump will buy out Fox on the cheap. In any event, Trump's channel, and Fox if he buys it, will be the vehicle(s) by which Trump attempts to thwart and torment the Democratic administration of 2021-2025 and by which he runs for a second term to be secured in the 2024 election.

[Fred]

"The Murdoch children, with the help of RINO Paul Ryan,...."

Ryan is getting richer grinding his axe, the Murdoch children are already rich and can piss away a FOXnews level of wealth for years. They don't care about the money or future revenue, they want the influence and power that comes with putting Kamala and Joe in office.

[BillWade]

China Joe Biden might also have his Titanic event, the Supreme Court judges can't be happy about his "packing the court" idea. And, Judge Thomas must be looking forward to this after how Biden treated him with the Anita Hill thingy.

[fakebot]

Fox is trying to fill the hole left void by CNN which has shifted to MSNBC-style coverage. I read Trump is looking at a digital service that can rival Fox's. Maybe we'll see Megan Kelly and Bill O'Reilly on a Trump media brand.

[Deap]

Trump is a smart man. He learned the pen is mightier than the sword - or mightier than any "warm bucket of spit" elected office.

Jeff Bezos was smart when for a trifle he bought the hometown paper, which let him use this media exposure as his own private bully pulpit.

Trump Media would fill a huge media void and be just the umbrella that can collect recently liberated Trump era lost souls, who will soon be yearning to breathe free again.

The trick will be to make it troll proof. And good reason to leave Section 230 intact for the time being. Yup, sign me up. Suddenly i know I now need a safe space. I have seen what the curdling Democrat cancel culture does to a culture.

[Yeah, Right]

The Dirty Digger has a long history of changing political allegiance. Not just in the USA but also in the UK and Australia.

He simply has no political allegiance at all.

What he does is sniff when someone is about to lose and then he changes sides, all the better to claim that it was that switch that caused this politician to lose.

It's a neat con, and one that he has played time after time after time.

And as for your argument, from Rupert's PoV the current bleed of audience is a nothing thing: he'll go about picking up a liberal audience to replace the conservative viewers he is losing now, and he has four years to do it.

Winners are grinners, and ol' Rupert likes winning even more than Trump does.

[TV]

Father creates an overwhelming business success, sons/daughters turn it into an embarrassing mess.
This is quite common - second generation totally f***s up father's business.
The lucky ones are the businesses in which the kids have no interest and instead are content to become trust funders with the usual excess of liberal "white guilt."
Unfortunately for Fox News - and its audience - the dimwitted Murdoch spawn and their whore wives think that they can actually run a business.

[Fred]

Deap,

If you think leaving section 230 alone is going to somehow be beneficial to opponents of the leftists you didn't pay attention during the Obama years.

[Christian Chuba]

Thanks for publishing the ratings.
Pro-Trump:
1. Laura Ingraham: -11%
2. Sean Hannity: +13%
3. Tucker Carlson: +6%
4. The Five: -30%
5. Bream: -19%
---
6. Martha McCallum: don't know her bias, she's where vanilla ice cream goes to get vanilla ice cream.
--- Anti-Trump territory
7. Baier: -15%
8. Cavuto: -6%

The Five is pro-Trump because they surround Juan Williams with 3+ pro-Trump people, especially the hyper-partisan Jesse Watters.

Trump himself will now become the most insignificant force in the Republican Party. One-term Presidents do not become kingmakers. Someone else will take up the mantle of populism. I don't know who that is but it will not be Trump.

[Fred]

Christian,

Yep. Guys who lose because an election is rigged disappear, just like Nixon when he "lost" to JFK.

[TeakWoodKIte]

Gone are the halcyon days of when, as reported by Valerie Plame saying nothing but Fox News was on at Langley...

"James Murdoch's wife Kathryn tweeted 'we did it!!!!' and shared anti-Trump posts after Joe Biden's historic win Saturday."

If by that you mean screwed the Fox and the hen house out of "fair and balanced" that you did!
****

LJ, given the growing monolithic nature of the propaganda being thrown at us has it changed the way you approach open source analysis?

Or is the truth to be pushed out of the public square entirely or castigated into being tin foil at the margins of our awareness?

Best to you and yours....I would gladly rather get schooled by "Old Tree" than endure this Mad Tea Party.