MSNBC Has Biggest Black Prime Time Audience on Cable, Fox News Isn’t Even in the Top 10

Posted by Mark NC on January 9, 2018 at 1:04 pm. NO Comments :

Last year was a banner year for MSNBC as it ratings surged to unprecedented new highs. Much of this was driven by the soaring popularity of Rachel Maddow, but the rest of the network’s roster enjoyed similar success. Many of the programs achieved their highest ever ratings in 2017, a year that suffered through the painful presidency of Donald Trump.

There is speculation that Trump’s historically low approval ratings fueled some of the growth at MSNBC as viewers sought out news related to the latest Trump scandal. But that’s far too simple an explanation. Trump’s yammering about what he called “fake news,” but was actually just any news he didn’t like, didn’t fool the American people. They were more interested in credible journalism that relied on facts and honest analysis.

MSNBC benefited from that trend in the information marketplace. But they also benefited from a commitment to producing well-rounded coverage of a diverse nation. As a result, the latest report from Nielsen shows that MSNBC drew more African-American viewers during prime time than any other cable network. That’s not just any other cable news network, but any network of any type. Here are the rankings:


2017 rank	Network	(000)	’17 vs. ’16
1	MSNBC	483,096	50%
2	VH1	467,189	7%
3	ESPN	458,651	3%
4	OWN	330,729	-21%
5	TNT	322,525	6%
6	BET	322,330	3%
7	Nickelodeon	312,574	7%
8	CNN	306,359	5%
9	USA	286,537	-7%
10	Adult Swim	212,464	-28%

An especially notable omission from that list is Fox News. Their appeal to African-Americans wasn’t even enough to land them in the top 10. So if you ever wondered how Fox News gets away with filling their schedule with such brazenly racist programs and commentaries, these Nielsen numbers might provide the answer.

This certainly was not a new development for Fox News. News Corpse reported in 2014 that Fox’s share of the black audience was a pitiful one percent. This can explain why Fox News doesn’t worry about the consequences of broadcasting overtly bigoted content and dismissing all allegations of racism as “race hustling.” After all, they have little to lose by offending a segment of the television universe that doesn’t watch their programs anyway.

There’s no reason to expect any of this to change in the foreseeable future. Fox News is just as devoted to inciting racial animus and division as ever. And their defense of Trump, along with his blatantly prejudiced views and policies, will only exacerbate the situation. If anything, Fox’s prime time lineup has become more racist with Sean Hannity’s hate-speech being joined by white nationalist Tucker Carlson and notorious xenophobe Laura Ingraham. So look for MSNBC to continue its rise in the ratings while Fox News grows more narrowly focused on the all-white, alt-right viewers who represent their dwindling audience.

Rachel Maddow Dominates an Increasingly Hysterical Sean Hannity as 2017 Winds Down

Posted by Mark NC on December 29, 2017 at 1:40 pm. 10 Comments :

This has not been a particularly good year for Fox News. After the disaster of 2016 that saw their founder and CEO, Roger Ailes, fired for multiple instances of sexual harassment and abuse, 2017 was supposed to be a year of rebuilding. However, their problems escalated as their biggest star, Bill O’Reilly, was also terminated for the same deviant reasons. Several other Fox News hosts and executives were likewise jettisoned, and they faced lawsuits for both gender and racial discrimination.

That left Sean Hannity as the default face of Fox News. He was moved up to the 9:00 pm slot and expected to carry the primetime schedule with newcomers Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham. He would also be airing head-to-head against MSNBC phenom, Rachel Maddow. Surely the most embarrassing outcome for Fox News would be for Hannity to lose to a left-wing lesbian on a liberal network. But as the year comes to a close, that’s precisely what happened.

In the first half of December, Maddow outright beat Hannity nine out of eleven days in the coveted 25-54 year old advertiser demographic. On four of those days she also won in total audience. Her demo margin of victory was an impressive average of 656,000 viewers, more than 50,000 above Hannity’s average. And Maddow helped to carry her colleagues to wins over Fox News. Lawrence O’Donnell took five of eleven nights, and Brian Williams took six of the eleven. [Note: The second half of December is not included in this analysis because most of these programs had guest hosts].

What’s more, Maddow has been steadily pummeling Hannity throughout the year. The annual figures for these programs put Maddow in close contention with Fox’s long-running leaders. In total audience, Maddow grew an astonishing seventy-seven percent. In the 25-54 demo she was the number two program (after Hannity) following a seventy-four percent growth surge. And among younger viewers (18-49) Maddow was number one.

Along with those achievements in ratings, Maddow also won two News and Documentary Emmys this year, something Fox News has never done. Which shouldn’t surprise anyone. Fox News is not regarded as an especially reliable source for news. They exist only to pump disinformation into the muddled heads of Republican partisans and Donald Trump cultists. Their coverage of any issue is predictably focused on advancing right-wing politics and defending Trump for whatever outrageous thing he did or said that day.

And Hannity is the worst of the lot. He openly colludes with Trump, who he reportedly speaks with almost every day. He has appeared in campaign ads for the President. There is simply no more brazenly brown-nosed Trump-fluffer than Sean Hannity. Not even Trump’s TV babysitters on Fox and Friends. And as his fortunes decline, Hannity gets ever more extreme. He is outdoing Alex Jones’ Infowars for crackpot conspiracy theories. This year he has spent hours on pure nuttery like Pizzagate, the Seth Rich murder, Hillary Clinton’s email (still?), and most recently, his fetish for smearing special counsel Robert Mueller. Hannity has led the charge to slander Mueller as a corrupt, dishonest, charlatan determined to stage a coup against Trump. Never mind that Mueller is a decorated Marine veteran with a long and distinguished career in law enforcement. And a life-long Republican to boot.

2018 may bring even greater rewards for Maddow and her MSNBC colleagues. She has the intelligence and the insight to make some very dry subjects both interesting and educational. And there is clearly an audience for smart, honest news analysis. The country yearns for programming that is more light than heat. And that’s what Maddow specializes in. She never books hostile adversaries simply to provoke on-air fights the way Fox and CNN do. Her mission is to inform, not infuriate. And when truth is on one side of the debate, lies are never presented just to have a perception of balance. That’s the Maddow model, and the rest of cable’s newscasters should seek to emulate it. It’s obviously a winning strategy, with the added benefit of having journalistic integrity.

Check Yourselves: Fox News Complains that MSNBC Stars Are ‘Cashing In’ on Trump’s Tax Scam

Posted by Mark NC on December 22, 2017 at 4:57 pm. NO Comments :

Shortly after Donald Trump and his Republican cronies passed a tax reform bill that gives away millions to to the rich, a few greedy corporations jumped into the media circus to lavish praise on the president who just made them all much richer. AT&T, Boeing, and Wells Fargo were among the companies licking at Trump’s boots by pretending that they were passing on savings to their employees because of the tax reforms. Never mind that some of them had planned to give bonuses long before this bill was passed, just as they do almost every year. Most of the companies have ulterior motives for exalting Trump. Particularly AT&T who is currently battling the administration in its efforts to acquire TimeWarner.

Also on this list of sycophants is Comcast, the parent company of NBC. And that connection was all that Fox News needed to invent a story about MSNBC personalities “cashing in” in on the legislation. Fox’s media correspondent, Brian Flood, published a story on the Fox News website with the absurd headline, “NBC star journalists already cashing in on the tax plan they hate.” The article accuses Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell, and others of selfishly taking advantage of a tax bill that they opposed. The article stated that:

The first thing that’s wrong with the headline is that Fox has no evidence that any executives or on-air talent are going to receive a cash bonus. So the whole story is based on an invented premise. Flood says that “the cable company’s generosity presumably extends to seven- and eight-figure stars.” Presumably? Apparently that’s enough to be the foundation of a critical article by the standards of Fox News. However, these sort of bonuses are almost never extended to executive personnel who have a different scale of compensation benefits. What’s more, the average amount of company bonuses (about 1,800.00) is much greater than the one these companies are now touting.

Additionally, the article notes that Comcast’s incentive to provide these bonuses was only partly due to Trump’s corporate tax cuts. It explicitly cites “the FCC’s action on broadband.” Otherwise known as the killing of Net Neutrality. Comcast was likely thanking Trump for eliminating a regulation that will net them billions in profits at the expense of a free and open Internet.

But the most startling logical lapse by Flood was his complaint that it would somehow be improper for MSNBC’s stars to take the money since they have been hammering Trump’s tax scam for weeks. WTF is he talking about. The fact that these hosts would criticize a bill that promised them a significant windfall is proof that they are motivated by principle, not greed. They opposed a bill that would put more money in their own pockets because they knew that millions of other Americas would suffer. Most people would regard that as admirable.

For Fox News to imply that there would be something untoward about them getting a bonus that they campaigned against is stretching the boundaries of reason beyond recognition. They didn’t want it, they didn’t ask for it, and they aren’t even known to be getting it. But Fox is determined to create scandals where none exist because they haven’t got anything truthful or honest to report. And yet, this is remarkably sloppy, even for Fox News.

Roy Moore’s Alabama Trainwreck Was a Disaster for Fox News and a Big Win for MSNBC

Posted by Mark NC on December 14, 2017 at 9:25 am. 1 Comments :

Alabama’s senate race became a national event due the the unique circumstances that marked the election. Roy Moore’s campaign was emblematic of a new movement to hold sexual predators accountable. And his anachronistic racial and religious rigor was reminiscent of the Spanish Inquisition. Donald Trump also figured into the southern soap opera. Despite his sudden amnesia with regard to Moore, the outcome would be a referendum on the President whether Fox News liked it or not. And they really didn’t like it.

You’ll never guess who else didn’t like it. Fox News viewers voted with their remotes Tuesday. As the election returns came in, the ratings for Fox News fell off a cliff. And by the time the race was called for Doug Jones they had lost more than half their audience. In the 9:00 hour Fox’s coverage of the race was pretty strong with about 3.8 million people watching (831K in the 25-54 demo). For much of that time Moore was still leading. Rachel Maddow wasn’t far behind with 3.1 million viewers (760K in the demo).

However, the race was called (first by Fox News, oddly enough) at about 10:30. And that saw a drop off for Fox to about 3.5 million (889K demo). But, Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC took off scoring 3.745 million (1.0M demo). And CNN also spiked with 3.5 million (1.5M demo). And by the 11:00 hour, when it was clear that Jones was victorious, Fox News was pitifully defeated. They ended primetime with just 1.8 million viewers (470K demo). That’s less than half the total audience they had before the returns were in That compared to MSNBC’s 3.7 million (947 demo), about twice Fox’s numbers, and CNN’s 3.2 million (1.4M demo).

Clearly Fox News viewers were too upset to continue watching television. Seeing the pedophile they supported lose to an honorable Democrat was just too painful. Never mind that by the next morning most of them were insisting that Moore was never a viable candidate, they never really liked him, and that they are better off without him in the senate making the GOP look bad. That’s pretty much the view taken by Fox News and, not coincidentally, many Republicans and Donald Trump. Not to worry. They still have sexual predator and Russian collaborator (allegedly) Trump and his devoted Deplorables to make them look bad.

On the other hand, Doug Jones’ victory inspired viewers to tune into MSNBC and CNN en masse at the conclusion of the race. This isn’t because the Democrat won. Americans tuned in to the networks where they thought they would get truthful reporting of the results, without the desperate spin of losers trying to make excuses. That’s why the numbers didn’t increase for Fox News even when there was actual news to report. And the Fox cultists who had tuned in early weren’t going to subject themselves to what they considered bad news. A few more nights like this and Fox News will have to cease broadcasting.

Fox News Issues Rare (And Obnoxious) Correction To Fake Story About MSNBC

Posted by Mark NC on December 5, 2017 at 8:42 am. NO Comments :

Sunday morning’s episode of Donald Trump’s favorite cable news show, Fox and Friends, contained a flagrant error intended to smear their competition at MSNBC. Co-host Pete Hegseth reported that MSNBC failed to cover the verdict in the Kate Steinle murder trial. This story has been a staple of Fox News propaganda aimed at demonizing undocumented immigrants. The not guilty verdict became a rallying cry at Fox News to their millions of racist viewers who believe that all immigrants are criminals.

There was just one problem. MSNBC did cover the story when it broke and for two days thereafter. The false reporting by Hegseth was uncorrected for at least twelve hours despite the network being informed of the error. Hegseth’s assertion that “MSNBC did not cover the verdict one time” was first broadcast and then disseminated tens of thousands of times across the Internet. And uncorrected references are still being retweeted.

On Monday Fox News finally got around to issuing a retraction, but not without taking a sarcastic swipe at the network they were lying about. This is what they tweeted from the Fox and Friends Twitter account:

Make no mistake, the reference to “2 minutes and 15 seconds” in a “48 hour span” was intended to belittle the coverage that MSNBC provided. In reality that is sufficient time to report the salient details of the story during time periods when viewers are awake to see it. But Fox News was more interested in mocking MSNBC than they were in sincerely correcting their dishonest reporting.

Nevertheless, getting a retraction from Fox News is so rare we might want to just be grateful for the effort no matter how grossly disingenuous. However, after acknowledging that MSNBC covered the Steinle verdict, they deleted the story and the video evidence of their lies. A copy of the clip can be seen here. What’s more, they have still not issued a correction on the air at Fox and Friends where the false report originated. To the contrary, Fox and Friends hosted Trump shill Kellyanne Conway Monday morning who actually brought up the fake MSNBC criticism (on Fox News video here at about 6:45). She repeated the lie that:

None of the “Curvy Couch” potatoes bothered to inform her that what she was referencing was already determined to be untrue. That’s because it serves the interest of Fox News to allow bullshit to be freely disseminated. It’s especially repulsive considering the big deal they made out of a recent reporting error by ABC’s Brian Ross. Ross was suspended without pay for four weeks. At Fox News their lie was allowed to roam free and no one was punished. And that’s the real difference between professional journalism and Fox’s deliberately malicious fake news.

Fox News Wins the First Annual Trump Trophy for Fake News – Rasmussen Poll

Posted by Mark NC on November 30, 2017 at 2:01 pm. 3 Comments :

Donald Trump’s relentless campaign against the free press has been in progress for a couple of years now. At every opportunity he disparages news organizations and reporters as dishonest, corrupt, sleazy, and even called the media “the enemy of the American people.” It’s a transparent attempt to make people distrust what they see and read in the press so that any bad news about Trump is dismissed as fake.

Earlier this week Trump posted a proposal on Twitter to have a contest to determine the most dishonest television network. How ironic that the former reality TV game show host thinks this would be an appropriate method of establishing journalistic credibility. Needless to say, his proposal was somewhat skewed by his prejudices:

Let’s just set aside his delusional suggestion that he is our favorite president (He’s not). The idea of competing for a fake news trophy is as silly as any of the childish notions that infect Trump’s cartoon brain. Nevertheless, it was taken up by Trump’s favorite pollster, Rasmussen Reports. Rasmussen is a notoriously right-wing outfit that exists to provide biased data to Republicans and conservative political operations. Which makes the results of this survey all the more interesting.

Rasmussen asked the respondents which network should win the hypothetical Fake News Trophy postulated in Trump’s tweet. They ignored his insistence on leaving Fox News out of the competition. And the results point to why that might have been. According to Rasmussen:

So Fox News was the runaway leader in the Fake News pageant. A distant second place went to CNN with only twenty-five percent of the vote. Rounding out the field were MSNBC with nine percent, and ABC, CBS and NBC each received less than 5 percent. The partisan breakdown by party was also notable. Not surprisingly, a majority of Democrats (53%) voted for Fox News to take the honors. However, a sizable chunk of Republicans (24%) felt the same way.

This poll affirms what many previous polls have found. Fox News is not regarded as a credible news source. And despite Trump’s attempts to smear the media, most Americans continue to trust the press more than they trust the President. It’s not even close. Trump’s record of distortions, dodges, and deliberate lies has demonstrated his malice for the truth. Or worse, his inability to distinguish truth from lies, or reality from delusional fantasies.

Rachel Maddow Crushes Trump-Fluffer Sean Hannity in November Ratings War With Fox News

Posted by Mark NC on November 29, 2017 at 3:13 pm. 1 Comments :

Two months ago Fox News moved Sean Hannity’s program to 9:00 pm. It was the latest schedule change resulting from the terminations of Fox anchors (Bill O’Reilly, Eric Bolling) accused of sexual harassment and abuse. For Hannity it was a promotion to a more desirable time slot with a potentially larger audience. He must have been excited for the opportunity.

He very likely regrets it now. The latest Nielsen ratings report for November 2017, has some depressing news for Hannity and Fox News. In the new time period Hannity has been losing to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on a regular basis. The programs are not really competing for the same viewers, but the bragging rights for being number one are important for both promotion and advertising revenue. Hannity is especially hurting on the latter as a result of his support for the pedophile senate candidate in Alabama, Roy Moore. Advertisers have been fleeing the program and a successful Stop Hannity campaign was launched.

The Nielsen ratings results for the month of November reveal another bitter loss for Sean Hannity. With the pressure of going up against Fox’s top program, Rachel Maddow managed to score an impressive victory. That makes her the number one program in all of cable News in the coveted 25-54 year old demographic. Her ratings improved year-over-year by forty-eight percent. Fox News was down eighteen percent.

On the strength of Maddow’s popularity, the rest of the MSNBC lineup benefited as well. It was the only cable news network to grow its total audience from last year, rising thirty percent. Meanwhile CNN and Fox News both declined (-49% and -31% respectively). The MSNBC primetime was a strong contender across the board, finishing either first or second.

For early risers, Morning Joe took second place and delivered its best numbers in the twenty-one year history of the network. It was also the only show in the time period to grow its audience. In the 25-54 demo Morning Joe advanced twenty-two percent. CNN was down just three percent. And the “Curvy Couch” potatoes at Donald Trump’s favorite show, Fox and Friends, fell by twelve percent.

This has to be a satisfying victory for Maddow and MSNBC. Having suffered a year of Donald Trump’s infantile whining about fake news and low ratings, the network can boast that it handily outperformed Fox News (aka State-Run TV). It’s an indication that the country is hungry for real, in-depth reporting and analysis that doesn’t talk down to them. And, more importantly, doesn’t lie or engage in humiliating episodes of fawning over and defending the ignoramus in the White House.

As we go forward we will likely see more of the same as Trump’s star falls ever further and the legal noose around his neck gets tighter. Hannity and his Fox News colleagues will undoubtedly ramp up the crazy (just as Trump is doing) in a desperate attempt to keep from becoming totally irrelevant. But their desperation will result in even more ludicrous conspiracy theories and lunatic outbursts. Who knows? This might actually end up being kinda fun to watch.

Rachel Maddow Pummels Hannity and Fox News in Primetime Ratings Victory

Posted by Mark NC on October 24, 2017 at 12:53 pm. 1 Comments :

A few weeks ago Fox News was forced to make some drastic programming changes. They had to terminate Bill O’Reilly due to multiple allegations (and settlements) of sexual harassment. They should have seen that coming since they renewed his contract with knowledge of a massive $32 million payoff. And there was another $13 million to half a dozen other victims. Fox News also fired Eric Bolling, the host of the newly launched The Specialists, for sexual misconduct. Do you notice a pattern?

With these cancellations there were holes in the schedule that needed to be plugged. Consequently, Fox News decided to move Sean Hannity’s 10:00 pm show into O’Reilly’s slot at 9:00 pm. This put him into a head-to-head battle with MSNBC star Rachel Maddow. It also firmed up Fox’s primetime as three hours of fawning Trump-fluffing, beginning with Tucker Carlson, then Hannity, and the all new Laura Ingraham Angle. It’s been four weeks since Hannity’s move and the ratings already have a story to tell.

Hannity is, without a doubt, Donald Trump’s most cloying sycophant on Fox News. He serves as an advisor to the White House and relentlessly defends any and all Trump atrocities. As for Trump, he posts frequent promotional tweets about Hannity (seventeen just since the inauguration) and has sat for three interviews as President.

Hannity front loaded the first week in his new time slot with high profile guests chosen to spike ratings. They included Fox favorites like Steve Bannon, Bill O’Reilly, and Rush Limbaugh. The second and third weeks, however, were skewed by coverage of the tragic shooting in Las Vegas and its aftermath. But now, as the new schedule settles in, Maddow has returned to the top spot. The hopes Fox News had for toppling Maddow by moving Hannity into direct competition have not succeeded, at least so far.

One of the consequences of that failure is that other Fox News programs are getting scared and beginning to attack Maddow in an effort to blunt her success. For example, Fox and Friends did a whole segment on Maddow’s analysis of the death of four Green Berets in Niger. They never laid a glove on her. In fact, they never even bothered to substantively counter anything she said. They just made catty comments about her demeanor and complained that she has opinions. But just the fact that they talked about her is evidence they are scared. If they didn’t think that Maddow was having an impact, Fox would have ignored her. And she is definitely having an impact.

For the week of October 16, Maddow decisively beat her new competition, Sean Hannity. In the critical 24-54 demographic, she won three days out of five outright, and took the whole week’s average. On Wednesday she had the highest rated program on all of cable news. Her powerful leadin helped The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell to win his time period as well. Even Brian Williams’ The Eleventh Hour came out on top. As a result of these victories MSNBC won the entire week in primetime.

Television ratings are a fluid measure of popularity and can be influenced by many factors. Breaking news, popular guest bookings, and competing programs across the dial can shuffle the numbers. But the performance of Maddow’s show after being put to the test by Fox’s highest ratings draw is significant. It shows that quality journalism will find its audience. And even if Fox News has a built-in cult status for tunnel-blind partisans on the right, it isn’t enough to overcome well produced, researched, and presented reporting that is honest and touches the lives of all Americans.

Trump Confidant Alex Jones Spins INSANE Conspiracy Theory About the Las Vegas Massacre

Posted by Mark NC on October 2, 2017 at 4:06 pm. 4 Comments :

The news yesterday of the massacre in Las Vegas was both horrific and predictable. It is unbearably sad that Americans are still being slaughtered by madmen with weapons that should only be available to soldiers at war. And yet, too many of our national leaders continue to resist common sense methods to keep such deadly artillery off the streets. So once again we are mourning the dead and sending out thoughts and prayers to their loved ones.

Just as predictable is the fantastical fiction of conspiracy theorists and others seeking to exploit tragedy. Chief among them is Alex Jones, a devoted supporter of Donald Trump whom, he claims, he’s in frequent contact with. Trump has has appeared on Jones’ Infowars program praising his “amazing” reputation. And an Infowars “correspondent” was actually granted a White House press pass.

Consequently, you have to wonder whether the President thinks the latest hallucinatory ramblings of Jones are also amazing. Within hours of the Las Vegas shooting, Jones was disgorging his deranged analysis. It consisted entirely of invented “facts” and lunatic outbursts. The wild ride begins here (video below):

Perhaps the reason other news outlets are reluctant to report it is because there’e no proof that it’s true. The report by the Associated Press includes the disclaimer that ISIS “has a history of exaggerated or false claims.” Even so, Jones’s media bashing was wrong. A tweet by CNN’s Brian Stelter explained that CNN and others ought not to cover the claim by ISIS because there isn’t “a shred of evidence” to support it. And NBC’s Pete Williams did discuss the claim on MSNBC, also noting that it wasn’t believable.

Jones then preposterously asserted that Al Gore was allied with ISIS and Al Qaeda. He connected that to a thoroughly made up claim that two months ago Gore and former CIA Director John Brennan had predicted a terrorist attack and the overthrow of Donald Trump within two months (i.e. now). Jones said that this was because October 1st was the 100 year anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. As nutty as that conspiracy theory is, it was also historically wrong. The Russian uprising against the tsarist regime actually began in February of 1917 and concluded in late October with the Bolsheviks assuming control of Parliament. There was no significant event on the first of October that would have warranted an anniversary remembrance. But then Jones really flew off the rails:

Really? Simpson was released in the dead of night specifically to avoid any media coverage. And it worked. There was a single fixed camera at the prison that caught Simpson’s release. Jones also alleged that Democrats and communists were planning to “go violent and start shooting and killing police, conservatives, whites, you name it. And that white genocide needs to be carried out.” According to Jones, this was reported by national news organizations. It wasn’t. And even Saturday Night Live was accused of being a part of the plot to “cause a civil war in this country.” And before he was done, Jones regurgitated the debunked story that Democrats or unions refused to deliver emergency supplies to the victims of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.

This is the level of depravity that Alex Jones sinks to on a regular basis. He previously said that 9//11 was an inside job. He charged that the mass murder of the children at Sandy Hook was a hoax staged by actors. And he still doesn’t believe that Barack Obama is a U.S. citizen. Nevertheless, he has the respect of Donald Trump who promised that “I will not let you down.” And given the quantity and quality of his lies, Trump is surely keeping that promise.

https://youtu.be/r2UMTEMQJQ8?t=3m41s

Rachel Maddow Tops All Cable News Programs in 3rd Quarter – And Donald Trump is Nervous

Posted by Mark NC on September 29, 2017 at 3:20 pm. 1 Comments :

The rapid rise of MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow has stunned many in the cable news business. Her show has risen from modest beginnings to dominate her field. And she has achieved something that was thought unthinkable a couple of years ago: beating Fox News. And she has been doing that handily for several months.

There is a segment of television news consumers who are clearly interested in thoughtful, well-researched journalism. Maddow’s brand of intelligent, fact-based discourse is proving to be more popular than Fox News style blather, bellowing, and bullshit. The negativity and ultra-conservative bias that defines Fox News might be wearing thin. Plus, they have the unenviable job of defending Donald Trump’s infantile outbursts, humiliating ignorance, and unpopular positions on nearly everything.

With all of that in mind, it isn’t that surprising that Maddow has taken the cable news crown. What’s surprising is the scope of her victory and its continuing acceleration. Forbes reports the newest Nielsen numbers saying that:

The numbers for Maddow were reflected throughout the MSNBC schedule. Their total day growth was “up +41 percent in viewers and up +27 percent in the demo.” That contrasts with a Fox News decline “year-over-year in total viewers, down -3 percent in total day and down -12 percent in total viewers.” Ironically, Fox’s best performing program was “Shepard Smith Reporting” which was up +19 percent. Lately Smith is the sole voice of sanity on Fox and a frequent critic of Trump. Which is to say that he reports truthfully.

Speaking of Trump, he isn’t taking this news well. In fact, he’s avoiding the reality of it entirely. On Thursday he retweeted his friend Bill O’Reilly congratulating Sean Hannity for a short-term ratings bump.

The disgust of seeing the sexual predator Trump, promoting fellow deviant O’Reilly, was jarring and repulsive. Particularly since this was O’Reilly’s first time back on Fox News since he was terminated for sexually harassing his colleagues and guests. As for Hannity, he just moved to a new time period directly competing with Maddow. So he front-loaded his first week with a bevy of right-wing icons like Steve Bannon, Paul Ryan, Rush Limbaugh, and O’Reilly. He can’t be expected to keep up that pace and his ratings will likely sink back to their prior levels. So any boasting about the numbers for a couple of days is premature and pales in comparison to Maddow’s quarterly trouncing of Hannity and Fox.

But this is all that they have to hang on to. Maddow is a certified success who is putting Hannity to shame. And the fact that Trump is lowering himself to posting TV ratings results is further proof of his unfitness for the presidency. The nation is juggling multiple crises including hurricane catastrophes in Puerto Rico, Florida, and Texas. Trump’s third attempt to kill ObamaCare just went down in flames. He’s now peddling a tax reform scam that will benefit the wealthy and hurt everyone else. He seems intent on starting a nuclear war with North Korea. Our elections systems have been compromised by foreign enemies.

Trump himself is at risk for prosecution and possible impeachment for his involvement with Russia, both politically and financially. And now he’s interrupted his racist posting on the NFL to lie about television ratings. We don’t have a president anymore. We have a traitorous, wannabe tabloid hack who would be better suited as a correspondent for the Russian version of TMZ. And even that would be a stretch for him.

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