The era of the old media is over. CNN had the lowest rated month in eleven years in April; the last time CNN had ratings this bad, the date was August 2001. CNN had a grand total of 357,000 viewers, and just 108,000 in the crucial 25-54 age group. That puts them off 21% in total viewership and 29% in the 25-54 age group for the year. Fox News, by contrast, was up 2% to 1.1 million viewers overall and 1% to 273,000 viewers in the 25-54 group. MSNBC held steady with 425,000 viewers and 139,000 in the 25-54 age group.
All of CNN’s shows have taken a massive hit. John King USA lost 41% in its 25-54 age group. The shining star of the group was Piers Morgan, which was down only 14% at 9 p.m. In primetime, CNN was down to a two-year low. Fox News was even from last year, and MSNBC was down slightly.
So why is CNN falling apart, while the other networks seem to be holding steady? The other networks make no bones about their worldview. Everyone knows that Fox slants slightly conservative; MSNBC slants heavily liberal. CNN, however, pretends that it is down-the-middle when it is obviously slanted to the left.
The old media is done in the sense that the old media pretends objectivity when everyone can see their obvious bias, and they pay the price for that big lie. Fewer and fewer people are getting their news from television; more are getting it from the internet.