A ratings downer for Fox News

[sabra]

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-et-channel8may08,0,3342006.story?coll=cl-tv-features

A ratings downer for Fox News

<snip>

First, Nielsen Media Research reported that Fox News' overall prime-time lineup dropped 17% last month compared with a year ago (MSNBC grew 16% during the same period, while CNN plummeted by 38%).

Late last week, a reliable television industry website, TVNewser.com, reported that in April, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly had his worst month in nearly five years among viewers age 25 to 54, the most coveted audience in TV news.

Although the network still churns out ratings light-years ahead of competitors' and O'Reilly remains cable news' No. 1 host, Fox News' explosive growth appears to be, like the president's 90% approval rating in the days following Sept. 11, a relic from the first Bush term.

...

"When the stock market was through the roof in the '90s, people used to sit around and watch CNBC and slap high fives and say, 'I made another hundred bucks today!' " said MSNBC host and O'Reilly foe Keith Olbermann, adding that CNBC's ratings quickly went south when the tech bubble burst.

"I think the same psychology applies to Fox. They'll always have their hard-core audience that wants to hear, 'Everything's great! doing a great job.' " But less-partisan viewers are drifting away, Olbermann argued.

[Ezlivin]

1. Are the lap dogs shaking off their Pavlovian conditioning?

Fox News is on and they are no longer salivating.

Good news.

Now if we can only get them to stop pissing on our Constitution.

[Bush_MUST_Go]

3. the admin. better start pumping more money into their personal news outlet

[Orsino]

20. Wrong way around.

Murdoch had better start pumping more money into his personal political outlet, and start giving his Administration better instructions.

[NJ Democrats]

2. Good News!

[noel adamson]

4. They are just moving their propaganda operation ...

...directly into the White House

Why any sane human being would swallow one minute of their swill is beyond me.

Since this quote from Abe Lincoln is still in my clip board and seems to be appropriate especially as it concerns the hard core Bush/Fox loyalist (you can even fool some of the people all of the time) I will place it here as well as in the low bush ratings thread;

"You may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time."

[Bush_MUST_Go]

7. Abe Lincoln wasn't a power hungry leader.

"You can fool some of the people all of the time and those are the ones you want to concentrate on."
-- gw bush, Washington, DC March 31, 2001

[noel adamson]

33. Maybe not compared to Bush and other post Teddy Roosevelt Republicans...

...but I don't believe he cared one whit about the African Americans enslaved in the south; his interest was in "preserving the union", AKA the empire. The anti-slavery thing was, by and large, the property of the New England liberals who had that pesky interpretation of the bible that actually corresponded to what it says... love one another, do unto others etc. etc... Lincoln was compelled to cater to them in order to "form a more perfect union" by warring with the south. Freeing the slaves was not legislated until the (un)Civil War was almost over. Lincoln also suspended all civil rights before the first shot fired on Ft. Sumter had cooled. While the modern day proponents of flying the confederate flag etc. may have a point it is certainly negated by the fact that, far from being for "states rights", they are very much in favor of cramming their hateful crap down everyone else's throat, calling it "morality" and then blaming others when everything goes to hell. Not to mention that when you talk to any of them it becomes immediately apparent that they are indeed racists of the most hate filled sort (as opposed to racists who do not <i>hate</i> those who, in their arrogance, they consider to be inferior).

Even still, I would rather have a succession of Abe Lincolns than one more minute of these evil clowns.

[DainBramaged]

18. Why any sane human being would swallow one minute of their swill

You answered your own question. These people aren't sane. These are the people who shoot deer for trophies, lie about fishing (something about dick size there)think smoking in a restaurant is ok, and kill ants with a hammer.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

27. smoking in a restaurant? are you serious? n/t

[noel adamson]

36. Smoking in restaurants is obnoxious but...

...not in the same league with killing innocent animals just for fun. I didn't realize how noxious until I quit. Prior to that I could not understand how people even knew I smoked. After I quit I could smell a smoker across a large room and it smells toxic. Banning smoking in bars seems particularly strange to me. I wonder if people about to be executed are allowed a last cigarette any more...

[SlavesandBulldozers]

38. i used to smoke too. dont anymore. yet i think its outrageous that

people can tell a bar owner that he can't allow people to smoke in his/her bar.

[noel adamson]

42. not to mention the irony...

...of allowing the drinking of alcohol, which is not exactly health food and can lead to drunkenness. I was a menace when I drank and drove my GTO in the 60s if you were out and about at 2:01 AM....

freedom is not safe and I love the saying (Ben Franklin?) "Those who give up freedom for security deserve neither" or something close to that.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

46. exactly re: the alcohol.

[noel adamson]

35. Matching wits with animals.

You are right about my answering my own question and I agree with you about the "sport" hunting and fishing. Matching wits with a lion or tiger for sheer personal aggrandizement has to be the "sport" of the loser. That Bush chose to site his winning a battle of the brains with a perch as his greatest achievement, or what he most wanted to be noted for is certainly an example of that and Cheny's passion for being known for killing Quail, which can not fly and, in the case of canned hunts that he goes on, have been raised in cages, drugged and released just prior to his arrival, absolutely shameful. Not to mention that he still screwed that that up and shot his friend in the face. I suspect that the quail tricked him into doing that.

As for smoking in restaurants I don't think it should be subject to legislation as it is here in California but left to the policy of individual establishments and individual people. I have not smoked for a long time, though I started when it was more that just socially acceptable and smoked up through the time when it was understood that it caused cancer, emphysema etc. (I quit in 1976) and had no trouble going outside to smoke.

[DainBramaged]

37. I'm sorry some didn't realize the sarcasm in part of my post

I should have inserted cigar, oh crap that is very bad, sorry, shit I really screwed up, no smoking a cigar when NOT in a cigar bar is obnoxious, yea that's the ticket, and I forgot, chaining their pets to trees just to prove they have the capability to "own" a pet.


I'm not going near the smoking discussion, but when dealing with lemmings use lots of lemon juice.:silly: :silly: :silly: :hide:

[noel adamson]

44. The sorrow is all mine DainBamaged...

...I could not resist responding to that response concerning the seriousness of your inclusion of smoking :smoke: prohibition in targeted venues. Now as for chained animals .... :kick:

[xultar]

5. CNN Paula Zhar and Larry King have got to go!

[regnaD kciN]

6. Happy Happy Joy Joy!

:bounce:

[depakid]

8. CNN plummeted by 38%

and what will you bet that the trend continues?

Fox may have a "core audience" of previously propadandized idiots- who like being lied to- but CNN's become worthless to just about everyone.

[sendero]

10. This is very telling....

... their blatant attempt to emulate Fox has failed and now they don't have credibility with the BushBots and they don't have credibility with folks with functioning minds either.

Sucks to be them.

[BillZBubb]

11. That's the one I like the best! CNN tried to become Faux II.

They wanted to fight Faux over the 30% wingnut viewership, instead of going for the 70% non-wingnuts. That was a disaster waiting to happen. The morons won't tune away from Faux, and CNN has lost everyone else by turning disgustingly rightward.

I hope CNN goes under, or sinks so far they bring in real management. Then they've got to clean house and get rid of rightard apologists and lackeys like Leslie and Paula and a host of others. You date Lush Rimjob, you don't deserve to be on a serious news channel.

[DainBramaged]

14. MSNobodyCares needs to do the same

Tweety's Hot Shots, all Con-Jobs all losers. And speaking of losers, Tweety can't draw flies either. I wonder how he keeps his show.


http://www.variety.com/VR1117942664.html

Fox News Channel and CNN are two of only three leading basic networks (the other being the Hallmark Channel) whose median viewer age is over 60. Headline News rings in next at 59.9, and MSNBC is still on the rickety side at 57."

The cable nets' older profiles have also yielded absurd exchanges about demographic superiority, such as the boast that more young adults view MSNBC's Keith Olbermann than CNN's Paula Zahn. Whichever midget is taller, the truth remains that the vast majority of young adults have no interest in either.

[depakid]

15. ...CNN goes under, or sinks so far they bring in real management

Their current management really gets it. Listen to their lame excuse:

Jonathan Klein, president of CNN/US, agrees. "Maybe this is part of the deal with the devil you make when a supposed news network allies itself so closely with one point of view," he said.

It's a deal with the devil alright- that part he got right.

Send in your softball right wing sycophants every night and let people on your network who outright lie to people- and eventually your former "centrist" viewers will just roll their eyes whenever your name comes up.

They've lost that good will- and I don't see them turning that around. Good riddance as far as I'm concerned.

[rocktivity]

30. I know that no one likes an "I told you so"

But, damn, CNN, did I tell you so!

They'll be lucky if they break even. They might pick up a few of Fox's non-hardcore viewers, but that will be offset by the loss of their more moderate ones. Since this obviously can't be a business-based decision, the pressure on CNN to steer further right must be coming from elesewhere--the Bush White House, perhaps?
--Rocknation, 1/20/06

[cliss]

34. This is really good news.

Hit them in the pocketbook.....where it counts. Maybe more people are just tuning them out.....for good.

I hauled my TV away a few years ago....only because I couldn't stand to look at Bush, not one more day.

I've heard that millions are tuning in to the Internet to get their news.....where I get mine.

[high density]

47. CNN airs about one good hour of coverage a day...

And that's at noon when they simulcast the "Your World Today" CNNi program! Everything else is so turgid. When they're not airing local news stories they're airing Bushco propaganda. It's such a waste of time because there isn't even an entertainment factor in any of it.

[TheCowsCameHome]

9. Nothing like a fair and balanced downslide. He,he.he

[MessiahRp]

12. Dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1130180

Rp

[DainBramaged]

19. Thanks, and this was fun , rasberries

[DainBramaged]

13. I did a thread the other day about my neighbor

who refuses to watch any more news. When all the news is bad, when you have no spare change, and when everyday brings more misery, listening to the court jesters becomes intolerable.

[RamboLiberal]

16. Faux median audience age is also 60+

http://www.variety.com/VR1117942664.html

<snip>

In that context, Fox and CNN's content sounds more like retirement-home residents lamenting what's wrong with kids today than catering to their audience. It also proffers a skewed vision of teens and young adults, whom the network newsmags also present as being either constantly threatened by Internet miscreants (see "Dateline's" "To Catch a Predator" series) or determined to kill themselves (witness "20/20's" "binge-drinking coeds" expose).

Pedophiles, in fact, have become the de facto star of the May rating sweeps, low-lighted by KCBS-TV in Los Angeles promoting a piece about child molesters living near Disneyland. It's the most cynical kind of scare tactic ("Your children might be in danger!") designed to reel in young women, mirroring Fox News host Greta Van Susteren's obsession with the Natalee Holloway case.

Admittedly, such appeals are easier and cheaper to do than substantive reporting. Just don't put lipstick on the pig, as Van Susteren did last year by calling missing persons "an epidemic." It's only an epidemic, frankly, if you glean all your news from her nightly police blotter and sister of woe Nancy Grace on CNN Headline News.

The cable nets' older profiles have also yielded absurd exchanges about demographic superiority, such as the boast that more young adults view MSNBC's Keith Olbermann than CNN's Paula Zahn. Whichever midget is taller, the truth remains that the vast majority of young adults have no interest in either.

[RamboLiberal]

26. Check out the ratings for Daily Show and Colbert

Hah - Airing at 11PM and 11:30PM for part of the country and 10/10:30 these are damn good ratings. I'd love to see what they are doing in '06 - bet still gaining.

But 2005 has proved to be even better. The Daily Show audience is up 20%, to 1.4 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research.

“I think his influence is not just in the size or demographics of his audience. He's part of the daily diet of decision-makers in Washington and New York,” says Michael Cornfield, senior research consultant at the Pew Internet & American Life Project. “You can't measure that in numbers. You measure it around the watercooler.”

An unpopular war and an unpopular president have continued to energize the show, which uses a news format to lampoon current events. One recent show included a “Burn Bebe Burn” segment on the riots in France, in which the ersatz correspondent concluded that the French look down on anyone who can't conjugate correctly. There are also regular features such as “This Week in God,” which satirizes religion.

Mr. Stewart's influence spread further last month with the debut of “The Colbert Report,” starring former Daily Show regular Stephen Colbert as a faux Fox News personality. The Comedy Central show, produced by Mr. Stewart's Busboy Productions, has been attracting 1.2 million viewers and has just been renewed.

http://www.newyorkbusiness.com/news.cms?id=12265

[arcane1]

17. "O'Reilly remains cable news' No. 1 host"

what a sick, twisted, fucked-up world we live in

[stanwyck]

22. but not with the most desired

demographics for advertisers. Olberman and Colbert get the juicy 20-40 yr. old sought-after category which spends the most money.
O'Reilly gets the angry old men on the porch.

[truthisfreedom]

24. naw, it's because 65% of his viewers love to hate him. KNOW THINE ENEMY.

it's what's for dinner.

[Zorra]

21. People are catching on that Fox is State controlled propaganda

designed to misinform and brainwash them into voting against their own interests.

Spread the word.

[Jane Austin]

23. How many times can O'Reilly say stupid things like the State of Jalisco is

on the border with the US? He's wrong more than he's right, and little by little people are realizing he's full of shite.

And how many times can Hannity screech that Al Gore is screeching, while blaming Democrats from everything from gas prices to the Bush deficit?

Some people are that dumb, but not enough to keep them on top forever.

[Stinky The Clown]

25. Hahahahahahahaha

Aaaaaaahhhhhhhh hahahahahahahaha


Hahahahahahahaha


Haaaaaaahahahahahahaha

[SlavesandBulldozers]

28. i think it's wishful thinking to suppose that people are waking up.

it takes a special kind of retardation to watch Oreilly for news. the kind that isn't fixed by a change in the political winds.

[6000eliot]

29. Since The Colbert Report started

it's a wonder O'Rielly has any audience left.

[DainBramaged]

39. There is a portion of America, that doesn't get Comedy Central

Mostly folks that look like this simply because they don't get it.

[BrklynLiberal]

31. It will be a great day when O'Lielly is a bald, fat, forgotten has-been

who never really was.
I hope the rest of the RW/FAUX News lieing blowhards go down the toilet with him.

[sofa king]

32. Do I welcome these recent departees?

So the polls are dropping and Fox News is taking a sympathetic hit. I am of two minds as to what to do with the people who are just coming around now.

The great mathematician Archimedes reputedly didn't like to take baths. As Jim Paul described it, Archimedes smelled like "a goatherd." One day, the despot of Syracuse decided to have Archimedes take a bath, the first he'd had in who knows how long.

That bath led Archimedes to a brilliant epiphany regarding buoyancy and density. Either that, or Archimedes really didn't like taking baths, and was holding onto the idea for a time like this. At any rate, armed with the truth and absolutely nothing but, he ran through the filthy streets of Syracuse shouting, "Eureka! Eureka!," which means either "vacuum cleaner" or, "quick, find some shit for me to roll in!"

Part of me wants to believe that these people are simply misguided and are looking for a calm, rational voice to tell them the truth. Part of me wants to be that voice of the truth, and lead these people to the ideals of honesty. Part of me wants to believe that I will find and meet these people and lead them to a new understanding of the world and their place in it. Part of me hopes that amongst these recent convertees there is a beautiful, lithe female Archimedes, a nonsmoker aged 25-40 looking for fun times and a dip in the hot tub of veracity--after which she will go running naked through the streets yelling, "I repent from my evil agenda, and liberals are kinky and attentive lovers--especially that one in the hot tub over there!" Yeah, and I want to believe they'll all vote Democratic from now on, too.

However, another part of me knows that many of these people who are waking up after five years of transparent corruption and deceit are small minded, apathetic, easily manipulated, and pretty much doofuses. They don't have the critical thinking skills to sort out the problem--particularly when their leaders and Fox News are feeding them confusing disinformation. They wouldn't know the truth if it slapped them in the face. In fact, they are being slapped in the face by the truth right now, repeatedly, over and over and over, until one by one the Recently Disaffected Bushbots finally say, "duh, ow."

Being a Recently Disaffected Bushbot (or RDB, or "straw man") is also kind of like being unwashed, encrusted with five years' worth of the slime and bullshit and baboon feces which they gleefully threw. Do I want to share the Hot Tub of Truth with that guy? Fuck, no!

Fuuuuuck, no. That guy can take his own bath. And when he's in there, the best I can hope for is that the jerk has an Archimedes-type epiphany, and then sneaks home naked muttering, "I'm too damned stupid to vote--I'll never do it again."

[jbm]

40. Your post made me laugh..

I have no advice to offer when it comes to dealing with the ex-FOX people, but I did enjoy your post.

[progressivebydesign]

41. Are people tiring of the hate?? n/t

[0007]

43. What did they say about Comedy Central? And The Stephen Colbert

show should be rocking with high numbers, 'eh?

[stepnw1f]

45. How ABout Non-Partisan News?

Gee.... what a phenominal idea. And of course one or two shows a day with pundits yelling at eachother and telling the masses how to think.

"Just the facts Mam."

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

48. you mean you don't think glenn beck will save cnn?

i wonder just how low his debut numbers were