CNN recently received troubling news when its primetime ratings plummeted by double digits in January. Reports indicate that CNN lost 14 percent of its already declining primetime audience compared to January of last year. The embattled network has been plagued with ratings struggles over the past few years, struggling to keep up with competing mainstream networks in the cable news market.
Shortly after President Donald Trump won the election in November, many of the mainstream news networks that have been characterized as left-leaning experienced substantial corrections in their ratings. Some commentators concluded that the viewers have grown tired of the apparent bias against Trump and Republicans that exists in the media.
AdWeek reported on the ratings update for CNN, “Year-to-year, CNN’s primetime numbers declined by -14% in total viewers and -5% in the demo. In total day, CNN was down by -9% and -7% in those respective categories.” However, MSNBC fared even worse than CNN. “Year-to-year, MSNBC was down -33% with total viewers during primetime and -41% in the primetime demo. During the total day, it declined -34% in total viewers and -42% in the demo,” AdWeek reported.
However, Fox News, which has consistently led the cable news market in recent years, experienced a major uptick in ratings. “Looking at Fox News’ performance alongside January 2024, the network was up by +40% in total viewers and an impressive +61% in the demo during primetime,” AdWeek reported. “On the total day side, it was up by +53% and +70% in those respective categories.”
Shortly after the election in November, The American Tribune reported on commentary from conservative CNN pundit Scott Jennings who called out his network as it became clear Trump would be the 47th president. “This is a mandate. He’s won the national popular vote for the first time for a Republican since 2004, this is a big deal. This isn’t backing into the office,” Jennings said.
He emphasized that the American people gave Trump a “mandate” to fix the country. “This is a mandate to do what you said you were going to do, get the economy working again for regular working-class Americans, fix immigration, try to get crime under control, try to reduce the chaos in the world this. This is a mandate from the American people to do that,” Jennings added.
Calling out the narratives pushed by the mainstream media, he said, “I think I’m interpreting the results tonight as the revenge of just a regular old working class American, the anonymous American who has been crushed, insulted, condescended to they’re not garbage, they’re not Nazis. They’re just regular people who get up and go to work every day and are trying to make a better life for their kids, and they feel like they have been told to shut up when they have complained about the things that are hurting them in their own lives.”
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Furthermore, Jennings suggested the election should serve as a wake-up call for the media. “I also feel like this election, as we sit here and pour over this tonight, is something of an indictment of the political information complex. We’ve been sitting around it for the last couple of weeks, and the story that was portrayed was not true,” he said.
Watch Jamie Raskin suggest opponents of Trump should take to the streets: