Fox News Crushes Cable News Channels

[Augustus]

my mission is complete........the tails have been twisted and the subjects are squealing.

I didn't realise political discourse in the US had actually reached the point where gloating over cable TV news ratings is actually a thing actual people do.

Apparently it seems to be quite the fashion though.

I just read that article, it's hilarious. The author writes about Fox News with the fanaticism of an 11 year old writing about One Direction when they just beat Justin Bieber to #1 in the charts.

*dramatic voice* [preferably the one that did 1980s action movie trailers]

"
No one has ever done what Fox has done and no one will ever repeat it. Because total ratings domination is rare. There is always an ebb and flow to these things. Fox, however, does not play by the normal laws of TV gravity.


What goes up keeps going up and there is no end in sight for this ratings juggernaut.
For 61 consecutive quarters, Fox News has finished number one among cable news networks in total day and primetime viewership. That’s domination not seen since we invaded Grenada...

This is domination. Never before seen in television history. This is a major breakthrough and shows how utterly terrible and discredited the mainstream media really is among average Americans.

There is no end in sight for Fox’s domination either. Because President Trump is a ratings machine and as only Fox treats him fair he will be appearing more and more on that network."

On behalf of foreigners everywhere, your country is *really* strange at times. I'm pretty confident that there is no other country in the world where people get genuinely excited and find emotional validation in cable news viewing figures.

 

[Quetzal]

On behalf of foreigners everywhere, your country is *really* strange at times. I'm pretty confident that there is no other country in the world where people get genuinely excited and find emotional validation in cable news viewing figures.

I am not sure what it is like elsewhere. But in the US it is very common to associate who you are with something that you relate to. This is evident in politics. This is why people get upset and passionate in political debates. They feel that they are being attacked because they associate themselves with the subject of discussion on a personal level. By the same token, if someone is able to inflate the importance of something they feel reflects their views and political position, they, in turn, are inflating themselves. That explains the prideful tone in the article and the reaction of Fox viewers. They believe that because Fox is doing well in the ratings, their opinion is validated. Therefore, they are validated and they, themselves, are superior for their efforts.

 

[columbus]

Therefore, they are validated and they, themselves, are superior for their efforts.

It isn't just them though.
Some of what I read on super liberal sites like Daily Kos(just before the election) wasn't very different.
Tom

 

[Quetzal]

It isn't just them though.
Some of what I read on super liberal sites like Daily Kos(just before the election) wasn't very different.
Tom

Absolutely, thanks for bringing up the other side of the coin. No one is immune to this idea. I do it, you probably do it. Heck, even non-emotional shells of human beings like @Revoltingest do it! (Well, rumor has it, anyway.) No matter your political alignment or position, this can and probably will happen. I have found that simply being aware of it helps.

 

[Augustus]

I am not sure what it is like elsewhere. But in the US it is very common to associate who you are with something that you relate to. This is evident in politics. This is why people get upset and passionate in political debates. They feel that they are being attacked because they associate themselves with the subject of discussion on a personal level. By the same token, if someone is able to inflate the importance of something they feel reflects their views and political position, they, in turn, are inflating themselves. That explains the prideful tone in the article and the reaction of Fox viewers. They believe that because Fox is doing well in the ratings, their opinion is validated. Therefore, they are validated and they, themselves, are superior for their efforts.

I understand the identity part, but cable tv news??

It reminds me a bit of when I was a kid and you used to argue with your friends about your favourite sports teams.

After you had got through all of the meaningful stuff like players, trophies, famous victories over your friend's team and marginal things like best stadium or jersey, you ended up arguing over trivial things like who has the best sponsor or the best celebrity fans.

After you had got through the trivial stuff you would get to the ridiculous things like who was the first to get floodlights or undersoil heating.

Getting genuinely excited that an extra 0.3% of the population watches your preferred cable tv news station is like getting genuinely excited about your sports team having undersoil heating a year before your rivals did.

 

[Quetzal]

I understand the identity part, but cable tv news??

I never said it made sense.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Well it appears that Fox News has once again crushed their cable news rivals.

OMG. More people are entertained by right wing drivel than by news. If there was a science network you can be damn sure that Fox News dominance would be even greater. That you draw encouragement by such things is but one more piece of evidence.

 

[Augustus]

It isn't just them though.
Some of what I read on super liberal sites like Daily Kos(just before the election) wasn't very different.
Tom

That's why I said your country is *really* strange at times.

I suppose you do end up with that level of visceral hatred and rabid partisanship when the difference between centre-left and centre-right is recast as the antichrist versus Hitler.

 

[suncowiam]

Well it appears that Fox News has once again crushed their cable news rivals.
https://www.worldnewspolitics.com/2017/03/29/fox-news-makes-history/

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The site you were looking for couldn't be found.

 

[Augustus]

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The site you were looking for couldn't be found.

Cached version

 

[Stevicus]

Well it appears that Fox News has once again crushed their cable news rivals.
https://www.worldnewspolitics.com/2017/03/29/fox-news-makes-history/

I haven't had cable TV in years. I just couldn't see paying all that money when most of the channels pile on with the commercials. 100+ channels and there's still nothing on. Total waste of money. I get most of my news from the local networks and online; but there are also a few news channels I get through my Roku box.

I remember when I would flip between news channels, and the only reason why I'd end up on Fox is because CNN and MSNBC were either covering entertainment news or some other topic I wasn't too interested in. I used to watch Headline News quite a bit - back when it actually was headline news with the same format every half hour. But then that changed too. Why can't they have a news channel that has the news? It seems it's nothing but fluff, talk shows, and endless commentary about nothing.

 

[columbus]

I haven't had cable TV in years. I just couldn't see paying all that money when most of the channels pile on with the commercials.

Even before cable TV I found broadcast news a waste of time. I could get ten times as much information in the same amount of time with a stack of newspapers, magazines, and similar print media. Plus, the story stayed there, I could reread something until I understood it or check some facts and come back. It wasn't just a talking head telling me what some corporation wanted me to hear.
Tom