For years, NewsBusters has argued that MSNBC is not a news network.
Americans appear to agree, for last week as our nation was rocked by bombings in Boston and a fertilizer plant explosion near Waco, Texas, relatively few citizens turned to MSNBC for information about these horrific events.
TVByTheNumbers.com shared data Friday (through Thursday):
4-DAY AVERAGE TOTAL DAY
FNC: 1,647,000 total viewers (421,000 in the demo)
CNN: 1,048,000 total viewers (403,000 in the demo)
MSNBC: 515,000 total viewers (162,000 in the demo)
4-DAY AVERAGE PRIMETIME
FNC: 2,783,000 total viewers (682,000 in the demo)
CNN: 1,619,000 total viewers (674,000 in the demo)
MSNBC: 975,000 total viewers (333,000 in the demo)
So MSNBC garnered roughly one third the total day viewers of Fox, and half of CNN.
The station also got trounced in the all important demographic of 25-54 year olds and demolished in primetime.
As NewsBusters reported last month, the Pew Research Center found that fully 85 percent of MSNBC's reports are commentary and not news.
Apparently Americans agree with this assessment and choose not to watch MSNBC when they're looking for real information about breaking news events.
Maybe it's time cable and satellite television providers realized this and took appropriate action by moving MSNBC away from real news channels in their station guides.
