Fox vs. the Watchdogs
I’m flying the South Carolina flag today. Although there’s a lot of talk about health care and the up-coming elections, not much is actually happening. It is interesting to watch the ongoing “war” Obama has started with Fox News … almost as much fun as watching a sporting event and with about as much historical significance!
Politically Quiet
Mediaite.com: We’ve written a lot about Fox News’ ratings. Here’s the deal – they’re on pace for their best year of all time in total viewers during prime time and total day. CNN and MSNBC, on the other hand, are headed the opposite direction. Here’s a look at the ratings from October, which officially came to an end yesterday.
Townhall - Cartoon by Glenn McCoy
Anita Dunn seems to have fired the first shot:
“The reality of it is that Fox News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party. And it is not ideological… what I think is fair to say about Fox, and the way we view it, is that it is more of a wing of the Republican Party. [Fox is] widely viewed as a part of the Republican Party: take their talking points and put them on the air, take their opposition research and put it on the air. And that’s fine. But let’s not pretend they’re a news organization like CNN is.”
Others piling on … of course, the usual suspects piled on right behind her opening shot, but we’ve come to expect this from Emanual, Axelrod, Gibbs and the rest of Obama’s merry band … who talked on every talk show except Fox about this.
And the result…HotAir
It’s a nine-percent bump [for Fox] in the two weeks since Anita Dunn’s whine heard ’round the world — in terms of overall audience. Among the coveted 25-54 demographic? A 14-percent bump. Good work, Barry. People keep telling me that this PR offensive by the White House benefits both sides but I don’t see how that’s true. If the goal is to contain Fox by framing the stories it breaks — Van Jones, ACORN, etc — as somehow illegitimate, then every tenth of a point that Fox’s ratings go up undermines that goal.
In August, Fox News was again in the top three for primetime in all of cable, which is seven of eight months this year. FNC was also in the top five in total day.
| Network | Total Day Rank |
Primetime Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Fox News | 5 | 3 |
| CNN | 20 | 22 |
| MSNBC | 28 | 25 |
The Bottom Line
This is almost fun to watch. The more the White House goes after Fox, the higher the Fox ratings go. Also, this week, CNN finally went to the total bottom of the media barrel … 4th out of 4 in viewers. When you see something like this happening, along with the extremely high ratings of Glenn Beck … you no long “wonder” if something is happening out there in the rest of the country. We felt it on 9-12 in Washington … an event the administration “hadn’t noticed.”
Townhall.com Cartoon by Chip Bok
“Watchdogs?” The sad part of this is the “rest” of the news media. The so called “watchdogs” … are sleeping! Looking back at the Van Jones affair (documented here on this blog) … note that only one outlet was covering the problem. The New York Times later admitted they were “behind the times” on getting on this story.
It is little wonder that Fox is so far ahead of the other news mediums. They are the ones carrying the stories … the only ones with real “breaking news.”
As we watch the circulation rate of major newspapers continue to fall, and coinciding with them the ratings of CNN and MSNBC, it is little wonder. Who cares about news that “isn’t?” All that you see in the “rest” (not Fox) of them is the same news the “left” has been preaching for years. There’s frankly nothing new there, its not interesting and people aren’t watching it.
Pulitzers Lost: It has been sad to watch the watchdogs sleeping as major stories pass them by. (Also covered HERE on this blog). There are Pulitzers waiting to be claimed. The American people are waking up … but the media still sleeps, (slowly going bankrupt between the snores).
