WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2024
The cable news ratings are IN: Go figure!
For unknown reasons, the people at Nielsen Media Research release their monthly viewership numbers before the month in question is over.
In accord with that puzzling procedure, Nielsen has already released its average viewership numbers for the month of November.
Go figure! At any rate, the Fox News Channel has been on a well-buttered roll during the current month. At Mediaite, Alex Griffing's report begins exactly as shown:
Fox News Scores Record Share of Total Cable News Audience...
The 2024 election season brought surging ratings to Fox News as it dominated the competition and scored a record share of the overall cable news audience while marking its 45th straight month at number one.
In November, Fox News accounted for an unprecedented 62% of the total viewership across the industry, according to Nielsen Media Research. Post-election that number soared as Fox News captured 73% of the cable news audience in prime time for the second to last full week of the month. MSNBC scored 16 percent, while CNN had 11 percent of cable news viewers during prime time.
So it has gone as an army of Stepfords continue to churn the malarkey.
Now let's get down to brass tacks! Griffing lists the five top-rated shows at our nation's "cable news" channels, along with their average number of viewers for the (current) month:
Most-watched "cable news" shows, November
The Five: 4.4 million viewers
Jesse Watters Primetime: 3.9 million
The Ingraham Angle: 3.32 million
Gutfeld!: 3.30 million
Special Report with Bret Baier: 3.26 million
That's right! All five most-watched shows come from that same "news channel." For the record, the nation's most-watched cable news program, The Five, increasingly goes by an alternate title:
The Bar Scene from Star Wars, plus Tarlov
By the one name or the other, Fox News has been cleaning up! That said, what are the top-rated shows from MSNBC and CNN? According to Griffing, you can read 'em and weep:
Most-watched shows, MSNBC and CNN
Deadline: White House: 1.4 million viewers
Erin Burnett OutFront: 680,000
The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell averaged 1.2 million viewers this month. The show got scorched by Gutfeld!, the dumbest and most squalid show in the history of "cable news."
A certain malaise is afflicting Blue America's cable. The Fox News Channel is indefensible, but is it possible, in some possible way, that Blue cable has earned its way out?
We'll have more on that in the days ahead. For today, we'll pose this question:
At such programs as Deadline: White House, were we Blues well-served by the astonishing focus on trying to lock him up?
How can someone actually watch what appears on Fox and then claim that a malaise is affecting blue cable? Somerby seems overly impressed by quantity of viewers today. We have always known that the more low-brow the show the bigger the audience. Is Somerby really blaming blue cable because Fox viewers laugh at Gutfeld's poopy pants and sexist jokes?
ReplyDeleteIt may just boil down to Fox viewers wanting to have fun watching TV, instead of caring about being informed. Is blue cable competing for that audience -- the bros and the cretins? Fewer people care about what is broadcast on blue cable, but fewer people go to museums than baseball games too.
Somerby says: "is it possible, in some possible way, that Blue cable has earned its way out?"
What does this even mean? Different people like different programming on TV. Does Swan Lake deserve to be ignored by the large mass of humanity, or is there a niche for such efforts?
Is Somerby really saying that we should be more like Fox viewers and laugh at the bizarre things they consider humor, or is he saying that blue cable should drop its current programming and compete for that Fox audience?
Presumably the goal of these cable organizations is to make money. Blue cable does that by appealing to a niche audience, just like Fox does. If Somerby is hinting that blue cable would have more viewers if it were more centrist, what is the evidence for that? Our nation appears to be polarized, with a slim center, but perhaps blue cable would do better if it appealed to the more progressive left? It is hard to tell what Somerby thinks we should do, except he strongly dislikes blue cable's current programming. Because he watches Fox 24/7, it seems likely he finds Fox more to his tastes, like that bigger audience he cites.
But cable viewership is not how we decide our elections. Not even social media does that. People have to vote. I don't know why blue voters didn't support Harris, but I doubt it had anything to do with blue cable programming.
Somerby's final hint about what he finds wrong about blue cable refers to their coverage of Trump's trials. I doubt that caused any blue voters to stay away from the polls. I'm sure it infuriated red voters. But blue cable merely covered an ongoing current event -- the prosecution of Trump for his crimes. They didn't put Trump on trial. They did try to explain what was happening to viewers, but apparently not enough watched to let them understand why Trump was not being selectively prosecuted or persecuted by the DOJ or whatever the claims are on the right. It was right for blue cable NOT to echo the lies and fake info on the right.
Many of us are dismayed that Trump's prosecutions are now being dismissed. Failure to cover his trials would have alienated a lot of blue viewers. Trump should never have been elected, given his convictions for real crimes that he committed. That he was, is the fault of red media, not blue cable.
Somerby's contention that we shouldn't prosecute people for their crimes, if their supporters wouldn't like it, is ridiculous. And his suggestion (implied) that by covering a criminals misdeeds, we somehow make him more popular or electable, is also ridiculous. Red voters knew about Trump's crimes and they didn't care. Blaming the messenger (cable) doesn't change the reality that red voters elected a criminal to our highest office and now we are stuck with him, again. Cable is not to blame for that, but they may be responsible for Somerby's decline in rationality and his current wrongheadedness. Or perhaps Somerby too has dementia.
Anonymouse 1:33pm, it’s more than amusing that you write all this crap in service to saying that it’s more important that you’re here disputing Somerby on this blog than it is that the rest of the media counter and repudiate Fox News
DeleteIt’s freaking anonymouse karma.
You are talking gibberish again.
DeleteAnonymouse 2:01pm, oh, you get it.
DeleteWhat does the rest of the media countering and repudiating Fox News look like?
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteAnonymouse 2:42pm, it’s more than looks like push back. It look like people on panels talking about the news coverage. It looks tv does now, but with an added focus.
DeleteAnonymouse 3:18pm, that argues for the media to offer more coverage as to what Fox is reporting, not less. You seem to take it for granted that the not-Fox media is SUPPOSED to speak only to you and to leave those other people alone, but that isn’t their job. By the sheer number of outlets, Fox watchers get more inadvertent expose to mainstream news sources than you get as to FNC. Why shouldn’t the media care and take that opportunity as to challenging some of the info on Fox?
DeleteAgain, you’re here doing that on a blog that you simultaneously call irrelevant and also worth challenging as to what you feel is perfidy on Bob’s part. Fox News isn't a blog hounded by a coven whose priestess got her feelings hurt or her butt kicked by Bob, it’s an institution. As usual, you make no sense in your arguments.
Respectfully, Cecelia, your comment makes no sense.
DeleteIn reality, the majority of the people that watch news media voted for Harris, which argues for their irrelevancy in Harris losing.
Even so, whatever news media is doing, it is generating more votes for Harris than Trump.
In reality, media is full of challenges to Fox News, but again that circumstance was largely irrelevant in this election.
You seem to be having a bit of a meltdown because Somerby is being challenged, which is resulting in your nonsensical word salad.
Anonymouse 4:20om, no, disagreeing with you isn’t a meltdown. You’re having a meltdown in logic in thinking that it makes sense to say that the media garners more votes for Harris than for Trump, but that’s rather irrelevant because brilliant Democrats are going to vote for her anywho…
DeleteSo why should the mainstream media take on Fox tropes or misinformation? Well, because that’s a big part of the media’s job, and Fox viewers will encounter their headlines/stories, links to their stories (for background) on conservative blogs. That’s why. People can change their minds and many of them can just stay the hell home instead of voting for Trump. . .
You could have been a Comma La campaign manager.
Now tell us why you’re here going after Bob.
If the “mainstream media” had done what Somerby had asked and rounded up carefully selected panels of experts to discuss Trump’s mental illness, would that have swayed any voters?
DeleteIf the mainstream media had spent massive amounts of time (because it would have taken massive amounts of time) to debunk all of right wing media misinformation, would that have changed the outcome? Right wingers don’t pay attention to “mainstream” sources.
Anonymouse 4:52pm, yes, particularly if the context was FNC malfeasance in not properly relaying info as to Trump. People who watch Fox are not all diehard Republicans or MAGA. Your older folks in particular. It also might have slowed down the steam Trump was gathering in the minority communities too.
DeleteAnonymouse 4:52pm, so why are anonymices here going after an “obscure” blogger?
DeleteCecelia your claim to having a coherent argument completely fails.
DeleteWhatever news media is doing already generates a majority of votes for Harris. Harris did not lose because of news media, duh.
Somerby's "analysis" is absurdly ignorant, if the goal is to generate more votes for Harris. Obvously that is not his goal. People come to this blog because Somerby gained his audience through pointing out how corporate media functions primarily as a stenographer for Republican talking points, but has now reversed course and become himself a stenographer for Republican talking points.
Furthermore, there IS an entire cottage industry in media devoted to covering Fox News, it exists, and frankly it gets more views than Fox News does by a wide margin.
Republicans like Cecelia only agree with Somerby to the extent they do because he his voicing the same viewpoints they themselves hold.
It is laughable that to the extent anyone can tease out a coherent point from the fanboys like Cecelia, that it should be heeded by Dems, since Dems are the enemy of Cecelia and the other fanboys. Cecelia is full of hate and anger towards Dems, due to a tragic life full of wounds.
The fact remains, that the fanboys, Cecelia et al, are only here to "own the libs", and as such their comments are generally nonsensical and incoherent.
Anonymouse 5:23pm, pulling something from your butt doesn’t constitute a logical argument.
DeleteIt’s the media’s job to police its own ranks and to hold itself (in all its forms) accountable as to being truthful and accurate.
Most people do not see the work that is offered up by cottage industry blogs. They DO see headlines/links to stories in mainstream blue media in a way that your side is not exposed to FNC links.
No one has said that Comma La lost solely due to the media. In fact, when Bob offers up other ideas as to ways the campaign could have been better, that’s also sacrilegious to your zealot’s ears.
It’s the height of irony that you spend so much time and pixels here going after Bob and then argue that it’s basically irrelevant if the mainstream media police’s it’s own.Thats less important than the bullshite you’re paid to do here on this internet site.
The fact that Bob has fans from both sides ought to tell you something about playing it honestly, but that not something you care about in the media, let alone a blogger. How you think you can fool a soul as to being able to say a creditable word as to anything, is beyond me. You can’t. You sold out to utter militancy and insanity a long time ago.
The unanswered question is why misinformation is so pervasive on right wing media. Why isn’t it the job of right-thinking conservatives to demand something better? Why does it fall on the shoulders of the mainstream media to keep them in line? Would it work? Would Fox News suddenly toe the line if “mainstream media” spent massive amounts of space and time calling out their bullshit? I would ask why Fox viewers, like DiC and Cecelia, aren’t demanding that Fox tell the truth. Is it that they like the outcome, and give a wink and a nod to Fox for strategically using misinformation ? And then come here and pile on liberals and the mainstream media for not being fox’s parent?
Delete"It’s the media’s job to police its own ranks and to hold itself (in all its forms) accountable as to being truthful and accurate."
DeleteNo. It's the audience's job to not watch lying media. Corporate media's job is to maximize profits.
"I would ask why Fox viewers, like DiC and Cecelia, aren’t demanding that Fox tell the truth."
DeleteThey're too busy trying to own the libs.
This seems to show that viewers aren't as interested in politics as in the clown-show on Fox. What is new about that?
ReplyDeleteHow can Somerby write about this topic without ever mentioning the word "hate"? Fox sells hate and people gobble it up -- not all people, just people who like that stuff. The same can be said of Trump's performance compared to Harris.
Who are the people who gobble up hate? This year it was youngish men without much education or job prospects. Tucker Carlson aimed his ball tanning at that demographic. Gutfeld aims his sexist jokes at those guys. The bros keep Fox alive.
One finding from the election was that Harris attracted a larger share of older voters. Retirees used to be a large part of Fox's demographic, because they skew conservative, but not any more. Now old people admired Biden and didn't find him as repulsive as everyone else (including Somerby) and they liked Harris for her loyalty and her adherencre to political values that characterize past decades. Somerby talked all around this for weeks without pinpointing it, maligning Harris for being unlike JFK instead of realizing that she was more like JFK in the eyes of voters than in Somerby's own mind. Notice how Somerby abandoned all talk of JFK once the election was over, despite the anniversary of his assassination this past week -- other Dems were remembering him, but Somerby was done using him.
Elsewhere, Dems are talking about building up our own media network to rival red social media. Podcasts and substack essayists are being listed and encouraged. Crickets from Somerby about any of that. He isn't done blaming blue cable yet, his backdoor entrance to blame all of us blue voters, for being lame, not for staying home.
Somerby is a goon. Even his approximations of political discussion make no sense. I suppose we should have given Trump a medal for his crimes. Or we should thrive on outrage the way the right does, or did Somerby misunderstand the outrage we are all feeling now, as Jack Smith's hard work is being discarded while Trump smirks (or he would, if he were still appearing in public).
Somerby seems to think the media invented Trump's prosecutions. He never acknowledges that there were grand juries, indictments, trials and juries involved, who were not Trump haters but included Trump supporters among them. These fair and impartial judges and juries convicted Trump of various crimes, not the media. The media covered these events as newsworthy because of Trump's political involvement, they reported on them.
ReplyDeleteSomerby may not care that Trump is a convicted criminal and fraud, but the people deserved to know about it.
Somerby's point is they didn't deserve to know about it ad nauseum.
DeleteLike they did about Biden's age.
DeleteWhy is that the salience and intelligence of a comment seems to be inversely related to its length?
DeletePP, I am sorry you are angry, good luck next time.
DeleteI’m bemused, not angry.
DeletePP, I am sorry you are confused about your anger, good luck next time.
Delete3:33 - Seems like you may be projecting again.
DeleteWhy?
DeleteI'll wait....
DeleteGiven MSNBC and CNN's significantly lower viewership numbers, it makes sense to ask if their focus on trying to "lock him up" has served liberals well.
ReplyDeleteFox News has landed at number 1 for 22 years. It’s not a recent phenomenon.
DeleteI see. The issue is Fox's number one ratings.
DeleteMSNBC and CNN watchers seemed to have disappeared along with millions of Democrats who voted for Biden. It’s a puzzle.
DeleteHarris showed up on Twitter drunk off her ass.
Delete2:33,
DeleteI won a prop bet saying she'd show-up on Twitter drunk, before anyone could find a Republican voter who isn't a bigot.
Good to see your prejudice against people on the basis of their membership of a particular group worked in your favor!
Deletehttps://abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/trump-cabinet-picks-appointees-targets-bomb-threats-swatting/story?id=116277824
DeleteI find paying attention is a pre-requisite to betting.
DeleteThis blog is dead.
DeleteConsidering MSNBC and CNN's loss of viewers, it’s worth questioning whether their emphasis on "locking him up" has benefited liberals.
DeleteTrump beat Clinton on a "lock her up" campaign, and beat Harris on a campaign of promising to go after his political enemies, and the nebulous "enemy within". Trump only lost to Biden because of universal mail in ballots and because Biden is also a White male.
DeleteIt does seem to be a winning strategy when executed properly. Republicans spent the entire Biden presidency doing little else than trying to lock him and his family up - indeed Biden's son was prosecuted, and then sure enough Trump eked out a win.
What is clear from the evidence is that Dems failed to execute their efforts properly, appointing a milquetoast AG that dragged his feet.
To the extent that Dems were able to prosecute Trump and his cronies' corruption and criminality, it will likely go a long way towards diminishing the harm Trump can do.
2:58,
DeletePutin with a quick yank on the choke collar, to let them know who is still in charge.
"It does seem to be a winning strategy when executed properly."
DeleteThe % of time at Trump's rallies spent chanting 'Lock her up' was far less than the % of time blue cable news speculated on the possibility of Trump being locked up.
4:03 false. On to your next "cool story".
DeleteAnonymouse 4:03pm, did Hillary or Trump engage in 24/hr campaign rallies, let alone having them televised?
DeleteAs a business owner, I am excited for the Trump presidency, I will be able to raise my prices arbitrarily and reap in record profits - which mostly I will use towards stock buybacks and personal luxury.
ReplyDeleteAs a working class White male, I too am glad, since I can now feel like I am back in control and dominant over others, which helps ameliorate how shitty my wages and life are.
DeleteAnonymouse 3:31pm, that’s the Democratic motto now. You guys should out that slogan on all your water bottles, man bags, and keffiyeh.
DeleteCecelia 3:56 that is not the Dem motto, what are you on about???
DeleteI'm a Republican and that is how Trump won, by promising this feeling.
Too bad for you if you don't like it, go vote for those pussy Dems like Harris/Walz that talked about reducing inflation and housing costs.
I vote my feelings, I won, you lost, boohoo for you.
Anonymouse 3:31pm, you didn’t vote your feelings, you’re an anonymouse flying monkey trying to be cute.
DeleteYou're all butthurt because us White males are now dominant again.
DeleteWhining won't help you.
No, Anonymouse flying monkey 4:22pm, you’re butt-hurt because your ditsy candidate couldn’t pull off a win after never having to stump and to win a primary
DeleteCecelia,
DeleteAre you having a hard time changing the minds of Right-wing trolls?
Pro tip: Get used to it.
Anonymouse 6:19pm, the anonymouse flying monkey is not a right winger.
DeleteSorry about that anonymouse tin ear thing going on with anonymices. You’ll have to live with it.
What makes you think they aren't a bigot?
DeleteHarris won a bunch of elections, including the presidential primaries as Biden’s VP.
DeleteThe next Right-wing argument made in good faith, will be the first.
DeleteCites?
ReplyDeleteThe "mainstream" stations -- CBS, NBC, ABC, and PBS all tilt left. The only way for CNN and MSNBC to distinguish themselves is to tilt left a lot. FOXNEWS is the only station that tilts right. That's why they get the most watchers on cable. If they weren't such a shitty station they'd get a more significant share of all news -- mainstream and cable. Half the voters have values closer to FOXNEW's values than to any other news.
ReplyDeleteAnything is left compared to Fox. Mainstream stations think of themselves as centrist and are not trying to be left. CNN is actively trying to appeal to Republicans, not necessarily MAGAs. When nearly half the country votes Republican, why is it a surprise those voters have values similar to Fox? This is obvious. Mainstream media is not leftwing, it is only slightlly to the left of Fox. Go look at how Ground.com categorizes the media.
Delete@8:54 - I know that mainstream stations gave month after month, year after year coverage to the Trump Russia collusion story, which was bogus and fairly obviously so. I know that these stations censored reports of the Hunter Biden laptop, which were accurate,. I know that on two different debates the moderators fact checked the Republican, sometimes wrongly, but did not fact check the Democrats. These are serious and glaring examples of media bias.
DeleteDavid, you're repeating Fox falsehoods again. The Russia collusion story wasn't false. The Senate Intelligence Committee issued a thorough and extensive report that detailed Russia's efforts on behalf of Trump in 2016, the Trump campaign's awareness of those efforts, and their failure to report those activities to US intelligence agencies.
DeleteThe Hunter Biden laptop story wasn't "censored," unless you count Rudy Giuliani's unwillingness to give news media access to anything other than cherry picked copies of copies.
And if Republicans don't like being fact checked, they can do what Trump did--refuse to show up.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump campaign’s interactions with Russian intelligence services during the 2016 presidential election posed a “grave” counterintelligence threat, a Senate panel concluded Tuesday as it detailed how associates of Donald Trump had regular contact with Russians and expected to benefit from the Kremlin’s help.
DeleteThe nearly 1,000-page report, the fifth and final one from the Republican-led Senate intelligence committee on the Russia investigation, details how Russia launched an aggressive effort to interfere in the election on Trump’s behalf. It says the Trump campaign chairman had regular contact with a Russian intelligence officer and says other Trump associates were eager to exploit the Kremlin’s aid, particularly by maximizing the impact of the disclosure of Democratic emails hacked by Russian intelligence officers.
You do know that the intelligence agencies upon whose data that 1,000 page report were based were fully discredited by Putin himself. Trump found him more convincing than the CIA, and said so publicly, so enough said on that matter. This is another case of the MSM and deep state trying to discredit Trump. DIC, to his credit, sees through this smear campaign. Of course he doesn't do it on his own. As always, the truth is to be found exclusively in right wing web sites and Fox, whose unbiased reporting favor Putin's narrative for some inexplicable reason. And don't think that Trump's phone conversations with Putin as a private citizen during the last election campaign were anything but above board. To suggest the possibility that there might be some wrongdoing there that is illegal would be bogus and fairly obviously so. And would be rightly labeled serious and glaring examples of media bias.
DeleteDavid in Cal,
DeleteOnce the media made the collective decision to disappear the open bigotry of Republican voters as the reason Trump was elected President, stories like Russiagate were inevitable.
Of course the Russian interference stopped during the 2024 campaign. I wonder if Russia will be on Somerby’s list of reasons why Harris lost.
Delete12:10. Of course you are not serious of lying.
DeleteOR lying
DeleteWell ok, but at least that Hunter Biden stuff was on the up and up. Says the lynchpin of the Republican smear campaign against the Bidens:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.cnn.com/2024/02/20/politics/biden-former-fbi-informant-russian-intelligence/index.html
Either you are an ignorant tool, DIC, or more malevolently, have spewed this stuff knowing full well it is garbage.
Que no dos?
Delete
ReplyDeleteI love Gutfeld; the goodest humor, ever.
We liberals can't stop watching Gutfeld, and we lose whatever's left of our minds. Which is not much.
I'm the goodest bridge player. Somerby is an ass.
I am Corby.
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