With all of the gnashing-of-teeth that takes place around here about biased cable news shows, albeit well-deserved,
I thought I would try to gage how much impact these shows actually have on the general viewing public, or at least gage their reach.
Here are some findings based on the links below:
-Spongebob Squarepants is 3X more popular than CNN primetime. That's right: more people prefer to
watch an animated talking sea sponge than Wolf & Judy on CNN (there's hope for us yet!).
-Our little yellow sponge friend draws more viewers than Bill O'Really!
-None of the cable news networks make it into the top 20 overall.
My conclusions are: a) Cable news simply does not have that much impact on the vast majority of voters.
And b) With ratings so low, it's not suprising that they resemble professional wresting commentating more than actual news.
Granted, most of those Spongebob viewers may not be voters, but the thrust of this post remains true: these shows simply do not reach that many people--a couple million at best, a few hundred thousand on average.
I just wanted to put my mind at ease about all the BS we see on cable news.
Oh, and the TOP RATED SHOW ON TV? 60 MINUTES! (Sunday)
http://tv.yahoo.com/nielsen/http://www.nielsenmedia.com/ratings/cable_programs.htmlhttp://www.nielsenmedia.com/ratings/cable_programs.htmlhttp://www.oreilly-sucks.com/politics/cablenewsratings.htm