Fox News is at a crossroads and other details in the latest cable news ratings battle - Poynter

[Steve Timko]

But these are the facts: When the Nielsen ratings for January came out this week, Fox News was third among the cable news bigwigs. This was a big deal. A very big deal. They were behind both CNN and MSNBC and that hasn’t happened since 2001.

https://www.poynter.org/newsletters/2021/fox-news-is-at-a-crossroads-and-other-details-in-the-latest-cable-news-ratings-battle/ 

[Tom Wolper]

On Fri, Feb 5, 2021 at 1:46 AM Steve Timko <steve...@gmail.com> wrote:

But these are the facts: When the Nielsen ratings for January came out this week, Fox News was third among the cable news bigwigs. This was a big deal. A very big deal. They were behind both CNN and MSNBC and that hasn’t happened since 2001.

https://www.poynter.org/newsletters/2021/fox-news-is-at-a-crossroads-and-other-details-in-the-latest-cable-news-ratings-battle/

Journalists I follow who watch Fox News say that the network lost a lot when they lost Ailes. In their short term that loss was hidden by the Trump phenomenon but it now emerges as Trump has gone silent. Fox News also broke lots of journalistic norms which gave it both ratings and political influence. The White House, the Democratic party, and FNC's journalist peers have all had time to assess the norm-breaking and make adjustments. If Fox News makes the same bold moves that they made in 2010 to oppose Obama the pushback will be less whiny and more effective.