Underappreciated: How Thoroughly Fox News Trounced CNN, MSNBC on Election Night
The politicians who received more votes than their opponents weren't the only winners on Election Night.
Fox News's dominance on Election Night was overwhelming. If the competition between Fox, CNN, and MSNBC had instead been an electoral contest, they would have called it 30 seconds after the polls closed.
The graphic that follows illustrates just how big Fox's gains were in 2010 compared to 2006, after a mediocre 2006 compared to 2002:
(Sources: Media Bistro -- 2010, 2006)
Fox had over 60% of the total cable news Election Night audience, and not far from 60% of the 25-54 demographic. CNN's audience share dropped almost 16 percentage points (over 13 points in the 25-54 demo), while MSNBC's share dropped by over 7 points (9.5 points in the demo).
It looks like lots of viewers preferred their election coverage fair and balanced. After some of the Election Night shenanigans reported at NewsBusters relating to MSNBC, I can't say I blame them.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
- Tom Blumer's blog
- Login to post comments
Comments
Not fair and certainly not balanced
Submitted by CO2Maker on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 4:29pm.
Disparate impact! Disparate impact!
Fox should give some of its audience to MSNBC and CNN. But I suppose that doing so would be unfeasible, so Fox should give a proportionate share of its revenues to MSNBCNN.
Oh, right.
NOT!
Fox dominates its competition...
Submitted by PrairieSky on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 4:40pm.
which is why it is so hated and slandered. Based on what I briefly saw at CNN and MSNBC that night, CNN was a giant snooze-fest (although I do have to admit I think I like their graphics better), and MSNBC was just plain embarrassing, with its imbecilic hosts and their asinine comments, insults and unbelievably, giggling. Fox News won out over all that? Say it ain't so!!
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction...It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them (our children) to do the same." ~President Ronald Reagan
Non news shows always do
Submitted by Marat on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 4:43pm.
Non news shows always do better than news shows!
If that were the case...
Submitted by onewiseguy on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 5:06pm.
....MSNBC should have blown all others out of the water since MSNBC is ANYTHING but a news show as evidenced on Election night.
I think we might have found
Submitted by Scuba Dude on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 8:11pm.
I think we might have found the winner for "The Dumbest Post Of The Day".
viewers are idiots too?
Submitted by jon_torlin on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 4:44pm.
I guess that means that not only were the voters idiots, the viewers who chose Fox News overwhelmingly like this are idiots. Using their line of thinking that is.
Works for me.
God knows we get called everything in the book by these liberals despite the facts.
-Jon
We must all be racists.
Submitted by Thoreau on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 4:57pm.
We must all be racists. Wait, they don't have black people on MSNBC. Oh well.
Maybe we're all morons. I mean, I didn't go to an agriculture school.
Maybe Pelosi needs to do some advertising for them so that we can just understand how brilliant and non-psychotic they are. How can we not love communism and islam as they do? What's wrong with us?
And maybe it's our fault since we can't wipe the drool off our faces from our lack of mental accumen. If we were only degenerate's like our silver haired hosts, our jaw muscles would be so much more toned.
And maybe I'm a Chinese fighter pilot.
FNC Has a Monopoly
Submitted by BW222 on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 5:04pm.
Fox dominates not because it's good but because it has a conservative monopoly. It appeals to the 40%+ who have conservative values while everyone else is battling for the 20% liberal share.
Let's not kid ourselves. Every network's election coverage was horrid. I finally switched to CNN when Karl Rove and Juan Williams were on giving "expert analysis" for the 38th time election night.
Greta has a pretty good show, but there are many night's when BORe and Hannity are unwatchable. The Factor is like formula radio and Hannity's Great Great Great American Panel has to be the lamest 15 minutes ever. Rove and Morris are on every night. It's just a question of whose show they will appear on.
Your premise is flawed, FNC
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Thu, 11/11/2010 - 7:22am.
Your premise is flawed, FNC is fair and the other nets were not. If the other nets were more fair then they might have more share. The election results are the same whether or not they are on FNC or MSNBC or Cartoon Channel. The key is the fairness and insights of the coverages.
BTW the other nets can change their model but would it help them get viewers?
exactly the opposite
Submitted by troglodyt on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 5:12pm.
It looks like lots of viewers preferred their election coverage fair and balanced.
What you can infer from those stats is that people watch those channels close to their political affiliation and do that in proportionately high numbers when they think their side is winning. Nothing new here.
That doesn't explain ...
Submitted by Tom Blumer on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 7:26pm.
... 2002.
If I remember
Submitted by troglodyt on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 8:26pm.
correctly Republicans won that one too. It just wasn't that sweeping.
That's the point
Submitted by Tom Blumer on Thu, 11/11/2010 - 12:28am.
FNC was only 4.5% ahead of CNN on Election Night 2002 on a very good night for the GOP which was also pretty much expected to be a good night, as they gained seats in Congress and the Senate despite the incumbent being GOP, a rare feat.
8 years later, it's a total trounce in better but very similar circumstances. There's more going on than people wanting to see their side win and those who expect to lose staying away ... much more. Like CNN's audience falling by about 20% from 2006 while Fox far more than doubles.
Looked at another way, FNC picked up 80% of the increased audience from 2002 to 2010. That's far more than the "homer" effect.
Mr. Blumer
Submitted by troglodyt on Thu, 11/11/2010 - 7:00pm.
To make that argument worthwhile one had to compare all this to how the average ratings developed in the last 8 years. Though, what you can see is that in big swing elections like 2006 and 2010 the network closer to the winner had audience gains. If you take into consideration presidential elections this phenomenon becomes even more apparent.
Looked at another way, FNC picked up 80% of the increased audience from 2002 to 2010. That's far more than the "homer" effect.
As FNC has, to some extent, diversified its programming in the last years I think this is not too surprising.
Well sure, as long as
Submitted by Guttermouth's Return on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 5:16pm.
Well sure, as long as conservatives continue to believe Fox is fair and balanced, why go anywhere else for news?
Refreshing insight...
Submitted by The_Barrel_Guy on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 7:18pm.
I don't often find DK's comments worth a second thought... However, on this one I shall hope that (s)he is right on... That idea that over 60% of the viewers out there have finally seen the light and consider themselves conservatives is entirely too wonderful to contemplate...
Good thought, DK...
Can't wait for "Butt Kicking - The Sequel" in 2012...
Tell us more about half the country nwahs.
Submitted by The Vet on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 10:44pm.
You are our resident expert on what conservatives do. Tell us more.
Must be a day ending in Y. nwahs has another judgemental post on what conservatives do, are.
Do you even own a TV? I've
Submitted by Guttermouth's Return on Thu, 11/11/2010 - 7:45pm.
Do you even own a TV?
I've seen you post on scores of pages, and never once have you mentioned the media in a scrap with me. I take that to mean you pay no attention to the news, which is pretty much the premise of this site.
Care to discuss anything relevant?
Wow! Boy this one flushed
Submitted by ML Stovall on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 5:53pm.
Wow! Boy this one flushed the libnut clabber-whacks out like wharf rats! And judging by the responses to this post, I see that cold, hard facts are STILL hard for all of you to swallow. Poor babies. Never fear, November, 2012 is right around the corner. We'll put you all out of your misery in about two years if you can hang in there that long. lol!
ratings
Submitted by Herbster on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 5:51pm.
.......And the truth shall set ye free! It will also give you top ratings!.
I got one question....
Submitted by c5then on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 7:18pm.
How many $millions a month is GE/NBC throwing into MSNBC to keep it afloat???
With their viewership they can probably not charge enough for ads to pay their operating costs.
Reminds me of the economics of Air America
Madison and Jefferson and Franklin built a Republic - Roberts killed it!
Like Air America
Submitted by needle on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 8:48pm.
Exactly, except on a much larger scale.
I got rid of all of my GE stock a year or so ago. Immelt is a toady sycophant of Obama and trendy Democrats, slavering for governmental favors and handouts, an absolutely abysmal CEO.
- Looking forward to the self-annihilation of the Manipulated Stories Machine.
Back in the day, when it was
Submitted by gopsteve on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 7:41pm.
Back in the day, when it was just the Evening News at 6:30, the bottom two networks never went after the first...they all were the same anyways...they were a troika of liberalism and all was right with the world.
I really wonder how the Reagan '80 and '84 landslides (and, dare I say, the Nixon '72 landslide) ever happened without fox, the web and talk radio.
Maybe they each would have won 57 (sic) states instead of the 49 (Reagan '84, Nixon '72) they did!
The “troika of
Submitted by needle on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 8:59pm.
The “troika of liberalism” was biased, but much less blatantly, 30 and 40 years ago. What goes on today was unthinkable then. In general the media pretty much told the truth. THe idea of simply not reporting inconvenient major stories had not been nearly so well developed then.
- Looking forward to the self-annihilation of the Manipulated Stories Machine.
It would have been even higher but....
Submitted by RedNeckinaBlueState on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 9:43pm.
how many of us watched the LSM just to revel in a little shadenfreude.
Keith, Tingles and Rachel looked like they swallowed a cow...!!
Some say Tingles swallows,
Submitted by stratman on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 11:28pm.
Some say Tingles swallows, Keith spits, and Madcow wouldn't know.
Greta is the best show on Fox
Submitted by pbthinker on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 11:34pm.
Greta is, by far, the best show on Fox. She does a great job of keeping it different, or as different as possible considering the topics being discussed. She has interesting guests and tends to let them talk. She's not afraid to ask the tough questions and give them a chance to answer them.
I see her ratings are going up and she's not breaking the 2 million mark. Just think, CNN had her and let her go. Apparently, they didn't think she was capable of doing anything other than the law.
And CNN got ...
Submitted by Tom Blumer on Thu, 11/11/2010 - 12:30am.
... Paula Zahn. Wow.
Gretta is not that
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Thu, 11/11/2010 - 7:30am.
Gretta is not that interesting and she did that stint for a year on that blonde bimbo lost in Aruba and then a spate of lost bimbos. It was tiring to say the least. Gretta is not primetime.
cable news news
Submitted by vcb-tn on Thu, 11/11/2010 - 1:33am.
...and we're teaching our kids..., the difference, the angle amongst..., and they understand!
Those were the days
Submitted by NCMike on Thu, 11/11/2010 - 8:58pm.
Though the lefties fuss and whine about Fox, it's obvious from their general comments that they've actually never watched the network, or watched it long enough to comprehend what's actually being said. The lefty is a slave to conformity, group think, and self-stroking of their self esteem. Being fundamentally driven by emotions and moral relativism, these viewers require the affirmation and positive head nods of the lefty media to validate themselves. Hearing non-conformist ideas is too disrupting to their self-image; "fair and balanced" places them in a mental quandry. Lacking skills like analysis, reason, or logic, navigating through controversial or ambiguous commentary that doesn't fit into the stereotypical template causes emotional distress. And we sure can't have that happen. It's much more comforting to have the parroting echo chamber of predictability and conformity. Life seemed so much happier then, when teacher controlled the behavior of others, calling names was preferable to hitting, and mom told me how special I was.
What else is there?
Submitted by BigMackie on Fri, 11/12/2010 - 9:05am.
Fox News has it all: news, commentary and opinion..
If a libtard watched Fox for just a few days, they'd see that Fox rolls-out far more liberal commentators than MSNBC or the "moderate" CNN does with opposing views. (Yeah, CNN's moderate...what a joke).
Case in point: an old friend of mine is a huge progressive liberal. She flipped out on me when I asked her to watch Glenn Beck, but as a friend, she promised to do it.
Now I see her posting "must see" Beck shows on her Facebook page and watch as her Moonbat friends' heads explode! But she watches Fox quite a bit now and agrees that MSNBC is MORE BIASED than Fox!
The only thing I truly hate at Fox News is how they interview each other. (Why do we need O'Reilly interviewing Geraldo?)