Although I appreciate the sentiments of the letters written about Fox News, printed in last week’s newspaper, it’s important to correct an oft-trumpeted “big lie.” Fox News Channel does not, and never has, had anything near “high ratings.” In any given 24-hour period, fewer than 1 million households nationwide sample Fox at any time. Fox also got pasted by the broadcast competition, and by CNN, during the recent Democratic National Convention.
CNN’s convention coverage was declared “master of the domain” this year by Broadcasting and Cablecasting Magazine. CNN got 2.66 million viewers on the last night, compared to a 2.51 million for Fox. Of course, you can’t really call it convention coverage on Fox, since they ignored the actual convention and used it merely as a backdrop set for their usual partisan attack shows.
But with 85 percent of Americans having access to cable channels, the truly tiny size of the Fox audience becomes apparent. Nielsen says a total of 20.41 million people watched the final night. Fox got only 2.51 million of those. That means only 1 in 10 TV viewers watched the junior web. Add in the Internet, PBS, NPR, and other non-measured audiences, and the pipsqueak nature of the mouse that roars is evident.
Ratings are a relative thing, and if Fox wants to claim some sort of legitimacy based on its ratings, it should be honest about its status. And relatively speaking, please note that the daily audience for Air America (the new liberal talk radio network) on weak AM stations in just two markets alone (New York and Portland) nearly equals the Fox News Channel’s total nationwide TV audience.
Fox News Channel is a ratings midget.
Hans Laetz