Why Fox News is “Overrated”
“If you try to tell an aggressive right-winger that although they might be loud, their views are in the minority, one of the first things they usually bring up are the ratings for FOX News,”
He grants that Fox may have slightly better ratings that some other network, but gives some good context to the numbers.
The first is diffusion. If you have a right-slanted, paranoid, government and liberals are evil view of the world, pretty much the only place on tv you can find people saying things you like is on FOX. If your view is anything else (like most Americans) you can go many other places like CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS or PBS. So really, if you wanted to find out what percentage of people prefer FOX’s slant, don’t compare FOX and MSNBC, compare FOX to everything else.
He also goes into the demographics of FOX viewers.
One quibble, MSNBC’s two left of center talking heads don’t provide anything near the kind of echo chamber that Fox News does. The simple fact is, from an infotainment perspective, that liberals enjoy critical thinking and actual debate, while conservatives enjoy being petted.
What are Jon Stewart’s and Stephen Colbert’s ratings compared to Fox?
I loving ScottP too. Thanks Scott, I hope you keep visiting.
Mrs Isotope asked:
You are trying to compare individual shows to a total network rating. However, for the last week, Fox News was the number four rated cable network. Not cable news network, but network, period.
Note that none of the other cable news networks even made the top twenty, which means that CNN was beaten by the Cartoon Network, the Food Network and the History Channel.
As for the comedians you mentioned, the Comedy Channel came in at #20.
All network news is entertainment centered and while Fox may get your dander up the CBS, ABC, NBC variety and most cable is pretty weak.
I purchase two news services so I get facts, not drama.
Mike Protack
Newspapers are probably the best source of information around, once you get past the fact that the dead-trees editions are already out-of-date by the time you see them. I very much prefer to read the news rather than get it over radio or television, because you can see behind the fluff easier, and if there is something you didn’t catch or sounded odd or whatever, you can go back and read it again.
The only broadcast news programs I watch regularly are the 0530 shows on WBRE (for the local weather) and WPVI, while I’m getting ready for work in the morning. I read The Philadelphia Inquirer dead-trees edition at work — as time allows — and update on various news websites.
I can’t believe I’m about to type this, but Protack’s right. All mainstream tv news IS entertainment. If they were legitimate journalists, they would spend more time exposing the patently false right-wing talking points, and less time just repeating them as if they were a valid side of the debate.
It all comes back to caveat emptor. The viewer has to know what he is watching and understand the braodcaster’s motives. Is it to inform with real facts, to entertain with the juiciest storyline that is only tangentaly related to the facts, or to use some partial facts and some outright lies to forward an agenda. The problem is most FOX viewers DON’T know the difference and don’t care to.
From Dana’s list, I guess America loves it wrastlin’ and NCIS a lot more than their news.
“If you try to tell an aggressive right-winger that although they might be loud, their views are in the minority…”
Their ‘view’ of BO is in the majority…see the polls. Most Americans disapprove. Soooooo one-and-done. Another Jimmy.
callerRick, you’re a liar and not a good one at that. Most Americans approve — so keep on watching FoxNews, but please don’t continue bringing your lies here.
Nemski wrote:
Could be that more people get their news from other sources than television.
But even if you look at it your way, the 24 hour cable news channels are really giving you 30 minutes (maybe!) of news, endlessly repeated. You could get all of the news they’re going to present, and watch one episode of NCIS, and you’d have spent twice as much time watching NCIS as you would have the news.
Could be that more people get their news from other sources than television.
Like newspapers? LOL. I know you mean the web.