Monday, June 6, 2011

Thom Hartmann: Was Fox News a news bubble for angry white men?

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Is Jon Stewart single-handedly bringing down Fox News? According to the recent Nielsen ratings - the Daily Show averaged 2.3 million viewers - a 19% increase in the month of May alone - and a number that beats every single show on Fox except O'Reilly. But O'Reilly's hold on the top may not last long either. His viewership dropped 9% last month - along with most of the other shows on Fox - especially Glenn Beck's show that saw its ratings plummet 17%. Overall - Fox viewership is down 10%.

Fox had a Faux news bubble for angry white guys with their rants on guns, gays, and the war on Christmas. But now - those same angry white viewers are thinking about economic issues as they lose their jobs and homes - and Faux news' only solution is tax cuts for billionaires like Murdoch.

So even though the Daily Show is primarily a comedy show - as Jon Stewart himself often admits - more people are getting their news from Comedy Central than from Fox so-called News. It's a sad commentary on the state of American media when the battle for news dominance is between a right-wing propaganda outlet and a comedy channel.

-Thom

(What do you think will happen to Fox? Tell us here.)

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