My most intense of many pet peeves is the way so many frustrated internet voices assume that cable news blather is "believed" by hordes of benighted fellow citizens. Such blather does get echoed across cyberspace, which is my gripe. They pay Rachel Maddow millions of dollars per month to pump out hard-nosed political advocacy for some reason I don't quite understand. Just as I do not understand why anybody takes cable news seriously, on any level.

For whatever reason, the movement of Neilsen numbers for cable news after the farcical election has lately become a topic of discussion. This is from something called AdWeek:

Cable News Viewership

This is TVNewser’s basic cable network ranker and cable news report for the week of Nov. 18, 2024.
All three cable news networks continued to see week-to-week declines in both total viewers and the Adults 25-54 demo in the period following the 2024 presidential election.
However, Fox News remained the most-watched of the three major cable news networks, stomping over its rivals as it continued to command a 72% share of the primetime audience and 67% of the total day share.

MSNBC and CNN received below 20% of the share across both dayparts, a trend that has remained constant since Election Night.

NETWORKS:

Nielsen live plus same-day data for the week of Nov. 18 saw FNC average 2.692 million total viewers and 323,000 A25-54 viewers during primetime. The network was down a respective -9% and -10% in both measured categories relative to the week prior.

Across total day, Fox News averaged 1.699 million total viewers and 206,000 A25-54 viewers for week-to-week declines of -9% and -13%, respectively.

Among all basic cable networks, Fox News was the No. 1 cable network in total primetime viewers, and finished second in the primetime demo. In total day, it led in total viewers and stayed at No. 2 position in the demo.

MSNBC’s primetime lineup averaged 658,000 total viewers and 60,000 A25-54 viewers for respective declines of -4% and -8% compared to the week prior.

During total day, MSNBC averaged 484,000 total viewers and 42,000 A25-54 viewers for week-to-week declines of -1% and -7%, respectively.

/snip/

CNN averaged 415,000 total viewers and 79,000 A25-54 viewers in the demo during primetime for declines of -11% and -10%, respectively.

Total day audience average -–

Fox 1.699 million
CNN 415 thousand
MSNBC 658 thousand

Total 2.772 million

USA total population 335 million

The average total cable news network daily audience is Well below one percent of the population.

We live in a culture that was shaped by television in the last century when there was one big national audience for network broadcasting, including news. Technology has split the national audience into an infinity of shoppers -- net surfers primarily. A talking head looks and sounds just like Walter Cronkite or Chet Huntley, and now they don't have any namby-pamby journalistic ethics to keep them from marketing to a specific niche. The "free" market works its magic and we now have flavors of news.

I just don't know why any reasonable person would give a shit about cable news, or who gets to make the most money for advertising to a couple million people out of 335.

Nor do I understand why anybody takes their market exploitation efforts seriously -- or of having any real world significance.