The Whole World Isn't Watching: Rather Booted For Zero Ratings

Tim Rutten of the LA Times writes that Rather's downfall was due to a combination of 1) bloggers watching him and 2) only bloggers watching him, and PunditGuy digests it for you:

It had been more than four decades since any general election gripped the American public's attention in the way this one did. More than eight out of every 10 voters said they followed the contest between George Bush and John Kerry closely and of that group, 82% said television was their primary source of news. Nearly 85% of the Americans who cast a ballot said they closely followed the returns on election night and fully 97% of that group said they watched television news to do so. In fact, interest was so keen that 51% of the voters said they watched television news past midnight.

So where did the CBS coverage, which Rather anchored, rank? Dead last among the broadcast networks, all three of which finished behind Fox and CNN. Just 9% of those who cast ballots relied on CBS for their news, barely ahead of MSNBC, which was watched by 6%.

posted by Ace at 12:44 PM

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