CNN Fails to Stop Fall in Ratings

I recall Bernard Shaw in a blacked out hotel room in Baghdad during the initial aerial assault of the Persian Gulf War. At the time, it felt new, immediate, and fresh.

Now we get Anderson Cooper grandstanding in Haiti...now it feels somehow "staged" - news in the background, anchors in the foreground.

CNN's best days are long behind them.

The rise of cable news is probably one of the worst things that has ever happened to this country. It turns news into entertainment and sport. No mystery why Fox News is popular. The echo chamber of cable news has also dragged down the quality/substance of the network news programs as well. That's where the overwhelming majority of people get their TV news. Even newspapers are not immune. It's terrible that this small but rabid viewership of cable news is allowed to have such a disproportionate impact on the entire news industry. I think CNN would be wise to position themselves as a more serious substantive alternative. I don't see how they beat Fox News at entertainment/sport. I'm actually surprised MSNBC hasn't pulled ahead of CNN yet since they indulge in most of the same gimmicks as Fox News. That probably speaks more to the demographics of these rapid cable news junkies.

I wonder how much of these news ratings are a reflection of the changing preferences of their primary audiences. Though I think CNN attempts to be as neutral as possible, I have always considered it a somewhat liberal network. Fox, on the other hand, has always come off as very conservative to me.

As a young (26) libertarian/liberal I don't even own a TV, I get my news from nytimes.com, BBC and NPR driving around and links from my social circles. I think if I had a TV I would watch CNN. My father on the other hand has a TV, and its on Fox.

I think the cnn audience is ( used to be ) generally younger and more progressive and therefore has made the jump to online news earlier. This can probably not account for all of the decline however.

Incredible that Fox News is doing so well even when so many companies have joined a boycott on the channel. The market is definitely sending signals to CNN.

People don't want to think. They prefer to go with like minded individuals and groupthink which is easier, hence Fox's popularity. There was a time when it was fashionable to figure it out yourself but that went the way of Martha Stewart. While I get all of my news from the Naked News (.com) network I believe what was best about CNN was Lou Dobbs. At least you knew where he stood and if you liked that you would tune into it. It's just as easy to filter out the one-sidedness of news as to get something generic and make your own opinions.

Well I'm glad that it isn't a race to the bottom for ratings by everybody. Of course the cure for CNN is a couple of reality shows.

Does anybody know a good source for the actual rating numbers?

When visiting friends who have CNN on, I don't find it to be news. It's hours worth of talking heads repetitively speculating and emoting on whatever is the "topic du jour" -- chosen for salaciousness (or similar, primitive appeal) rather than salience. The actual news content is pretty close to zero.