There was a time just a few months ago when Fox News was one of the most powerful forces in the media world. They had nearly unlimited access to the then-president, Donald Trump, and were able to set the media agenda and constantly see their ratings skyrocket.
Now, however, according to an eye-opening report from The Daily Beast, it’s clear that Fox is hemorrhaging viewers and in serious financial trouble, with reporter Justin Baragona noting that to distract from their own trouble, the network is trying to suggest that channels such as CNN and MSNBC are also doing poorly, which isn’t exactly true.
Baragona explains how Fox has been using smokescreens in a desperate attempt to cover up the collapse of their own pathetic ratings:
“If you’ve been on Fox News’ digital news site or bouncing around the right-wing media ecosphere in recent weeks, you’ve no doubt come across an article or three about the recent collapse in viewership at CNN and MSNBC. And the tanking ratings have largely been tied to the ‘credibility’ issues the two networks supposedly have in covering President Joe Biden’s administration following Donald Trump’s exit from the White House. Lost in all this coverage, however, is one stubborn fact: Fox News has also suffered a precipitous drop in its viewership.”
But while the ratings dip in cable news is largely a result of Trump no longer keeping the airwaves full of anger, divisive language, and heartless policies, Fox’s problems when it comes to attracting eyeballs go back even further, which suggests the once-mighty conservative network is becoming irrelevant:
“One noticeable thing, however, about the large audiences that CNN and MSNBC pulled in during that month is the massive growth it experienced from the same time the previous year. Fox News, on the other hand, actually suffered a year-to-year drop in viewership, despite the historic news cycle. The shocking third-place finish by Fox News in January and the erosion of its audience was largely chalked up to disgruntled Trump supporters who not only felt Fox News wasn’t sufficiently loyal to the soon-to-be ex-president but also blamed the conservative network for Trump’s electoral loss.”
Fox has become the enemy to many conservatives and right-wingers. And that could be the kiss of death for a network that has built its business model around one political figure who’s now irrelevant and up to his eyebrows in legal trouble.
Since Fox cannot possibly admit their own anemic ratings without looking vulnerable, they’ve tried to change the subject:
“It’s a given that Fox News would push a negative narrative about its competitors, and of course the broader media context is lost on the right-wing outlets that boost it. But the reality is that all of cable news is slumping—and ultimately Fox may want to avoid talking about anyone else’s ‘credibility gap.'”
Fox News is learning the hard way what political strategist and author Rick Wilson has been saying for years:
“Everything Trump touches dies.”
