Posted on 06/03/2012 5:50:37 AM PDT by New Jersey Realist
CNN in May suffered its worst month for ratings in nearly 20 years, according to Nielsen figures, and has lost 50 percent of its audience in the past 12 months.
The cable network pioneered 24-hour news in the 1980s and for years was the top-rated news channel, but it has lost audience to Fox News and MSNBC in recent years and now lags both competitors in attracting viewers.
CNN’s average audience in May fell to 388,000, with only 113,000 in the 25-54 age bracket that advertisers covet. Fox’s average was 1.65 million, and MSNBC’s was 658,000.
“It’s really a bloodletting — there’s no other way to describe it,” said Robert Thompson, professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University.
“They are trying to stick to old-fashioned, unbiased news broadcasting when their rivals have worked out that to draw an audience when there aren’t major stories breaking you need to do the opposite.”
Piers Morgan, who was hired 18 months ago for the 9 p.m. hour, drew an average of 417,000 viewers in May, the worst ratings for that slot since the early 1990s, according to The Independent, a London-based website. When he took over in early 2011, his predecessor in that slot, Larry King, was averaging around 600,000 viewers.
CNN anchor Anderson Cooper has lost a quarter of his viewers in the past 12 months, and ratings for Wolf Blitzer’s two-hour “Situation Room” are down by more than half.
Piers Morgan was a known insufferable twit before being moved into the Larry King slot. Who could have guessed that decision would go wrong?
And unbiased? Who are they kidding?
CNN is simply an also-ran in a wide selection of Liberal-leaning news media.
CNN is UNBIASED? Who knew?
Wow! What kind of reality does this guy live in???
Why would American communists watch CNN when MSNBC is available?
A guy pretty much has to be an intellectual to say something this dumb.
Lol, about as objective as most things being said by college professors the past few decades.
You are much too kind, I prefer, "don't let the door hit you..." !
I wonder how many of their viewers are captive viewers, sitting in airports etc. where the only choice is CNN.
The only time I am forced to hear CNN is when they have it on at the airport. DFW is a great offender in that respect. They have that crap propaganda station playing on the monitors at almost all of the terminal gates.
Someone must be getting payed to have that “news” station playing.
Biggest laugh I have had in a long time.
Does the fool that wrote that really believe it?
Lets form a FReeper corporation, raise a healthy sum and wait for the proper moment to buy up all their stock and change the name to Free Republic Network (FRN). Then we hire the real conservatives as producers. I personally know a major conservative that is a producer of NBC sports.
And no,we do not want Hannity.
Virtually all American news outlets are garbage. Hopefully MSCNN goes dark sooner than later.
I’m glad I get my news from FR and overseas.
Robert Thompson, professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University.
My, what a useful degree!
Seriously, the only reason CNN lasted this long is that Airports had it tuned in on the wall mounted televisions in their empty passenger waiting areas.
I don’t know? Can you be lost, yet driven away by crappy, biased reporting?
Afterall, there are many good reasons they’ve become known as the “[C]linton [Ne]ews [N]etwork.
It all went right over her head. She pretty clearly thought he was a jerk talking gibberish.
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