Leaked Fox News Internal Ratings Show "Catastrophic" Loss of Audience

At the National Pulse.

Last Friday's ratings for the supposedly "conservative" outlet were less than both CNN and MSNBC for the first time in years, according to an internal Fox document containing viewership analytics.

I saw a couple of commenters noting that Bret Baier had made the inarguable statement that Biden hasn't been elected by the electoral college yet. They seemed to take this as "Fox is getting the message."

No it's not.

They're in a corporate crisis. Yes, there will be attempts here and there to continue Conning the Rubes, and some people will be tasked with Outreach to the Rubes.

But this is not a decision recently made. Fox -- the News Division -- has been trending hard left for years and years, and have ignored our protests and complaints about it.

Remember Chris Stirewalt making the very, very early call that the Democrats had won the House in 2018 -- while people on the West Coast were still voting? Costing Republicans in highly competitive House seats the election, as marginal voters, dispirited by the early call, decided not to vote?

And remember him explaining to viewers -- who were already registering their anger about this -- that Fox News' "brain room" (that's what they really call it, and it's a murderer's row of smug but stupid liberals) could make this call "because we're just that damned good"?

If anyone can find that clip, please post it in the comments.

Anyway, we screamed about that two years ago.

And what happens Tuesday night? The same thing, but this time on steroids.

This time, Fox News made the startlingly early call that the Democrats would keep the House -- and gain at least five seats!

They're sticking by that call. Even though there is some doubt the Democrats will keep the House. Certainly they're not gaining any seats.

But they're on Team Democrat.

Have been for years.

The guy making all these calls is a registered Democrat and a big donor to Obama and Hillary.

Fox News knew what they were getting when they hired him. Fox News got what it wanted out of the hiring.

They decided to do this. This is a plan they are executing. Even if one or two of these people make some very weak noises about Trump still having lawsuits in play -- which, again, is an inarguable statement; we should not credit these assholes for managing to report that which is inarguably true -- it's simply an attempt to con you into sticking with them as they continue their metamorphosis from ugly conservative pupa into beautiful liberal butterfly.

It's no secret that corporations punish Fox, refusing to advertise on the station. That's why you see so many smaller companies advertising there.

And it's no secret that our Social Media Overlords rank Fox News very, very low in their search queries.

Or at least -- they did until now. Note that "asshoe" reports:

89 Googled "Trump lawsuit" first hit is from Fix Noise. Google has no deemed Fix to be one of the good media places.
Posted by: Asshoes

This costs Fox money. That's true.

The liberal Murdoch boys and their liberal socialite useless wives have decided to reposition Fox as a leftwing channel.

They think they can keep most of their unfashionable, racist current audience -- we're too stupid and sheeplike to object or change our habits! -- while making more money, as they get more advertising revenue from left-leaning megacorporations, and Google starts allowing their articles to appear on the first page of search results.

The plan depends on "keeping most of their unfashionable, racist current audience," plus picking up some liberals. Liberals who apparently want CNN-style liberalism but with Shrieking Eagle graphics and country music in the bumpers.

In other words: They want to keep the current audience by giving the current audience what it does not want, and attract a Phantom Audience of leftwingers who want their CNN-style leftwing bias with a Fox News branding, for some reason.

The plan depends on whether we're stupid and sheeplike enough to continue watching them even while they stab us in the back.

Early indicators say: We're not that stupid and sheeplike.

It says a lot about Fox that they even thought we might be.

They hate you. They hate your fucking guts. They might even hate you more than CNN, because they hate that they've had to pander to your ignorant uncultured racist asses lo these many years.

And now corporate leadership is telling reporters they can be as nasty as they wanna be on the air, and people like Sandra Smith, Chris Wallace, Chris Stirewalt, and Neil Cavuto are jumping at the opportunity to tell you how deeply they hate even the thought of you.

Soon they will begin pressuring the few people on the network with conservative credibility -- like Tucker, Hannity, Laura, and Mollie, to start trying to sell viewers on the idea that Fox is evolving, but it's still your Fair and Balanced Friend.

Just like they pressured people to not criticize Chris Wallace. Remember that? Remember the strange way that hosts like Tucker Carlson could not criticize Wallace himself, but had to bring on guests who would do it?

But that even those guests brought on to criticize Wallace would only do so gently?

And that those guests would not even criticize Wallace by name, but would resort to strange locutions like criticizing "the moderation" -- not even the moderator, but "the moderation," as if the moderation sprang up independently of the sole moderator, Chris Wallace?

That was not just Tucker Carlson being nice.

Fox News personnel were specifically warned that they were not to criticize their leftwing hero Chris Wallace.

That's not a speculation. I am telling you that is a straight-up fact.

By the way: A while ago I recommended boycotting Fox except for the evening opinion hosts, who are in fact good conservatives. Even if you don't like Hannity, you have to admit, he's conservative.

But that won't work. Because Fox makes barely any profit from its News Division shows, which is basically everything except the opinion hosts and Fox and Friends.

It's the opinion hosts and Fox & Friends that generate the big ratings in prime time (and in morning "prime").

The rest of their schedule is just a loss leader.

So they don't care if you boycott Outnumbered. It's not making much money if you watch it, and it won't lose much money if you don't watch it.

It's like trying to send a signal to ABC by boycotting their news show but watching all their entertainment shows.

ABC could give a fuck if you watch their news -- if you're watching their profitable entertainment programming, then they have you in the only way that matters to them.

So yeah, while I hate saying "boycott Tucker too," it's the only way to hurt Fox.

Fox is bizarre: Their "news division" makes little money but their "news" division gets to censor the opinion hosts who do make money.

And the "news" division gets to, you know, make absurdly early calls about who our president is to be.

Sure, Tucker can rant about populism -- but it's the "news" division that gets to install a fraudulent president in the White House.

And then the lowly opinion hosts -- who make almost all the network's money-- get told that that they are forbidden to even broach the subject of election fraud.

None of this is just an "oopsie."

This is a calculated corporate repositioning coming from the Murdoch Bois and then, a bit further down, Paul Ryan and Chris Wallace and the rest of the "Brain Room" crew.

They have decided to betray you -- but they think so little of you that they think they can hang on to a substantial number of you by occasionally having Brit Hume on to say something vaguely conciliatory.

Yes, they are realizing that their plan of taking a hard left turn but keeping their assumedly stupid and sheeplike audience isn't quite working, so they'll consult some corporate crisis response professionals who will advise them how to make some soothing noises during this transition period.

But they have no plan of deviating from the plan to become CNN With Country Music.

They thought about this plan. They previewed this plan for the past three years.

They're now executing this plan.

The only way that Fox stops the plan is if the Murdoch bois are forced to sell their stock in the company to someone with more credibility with conservatives.

But the only way that happens is if their ratings fall so low as to constitute a bloodbath.

And, as I've said: Who cares if that even does come to pass? Fox News is just a brand. It's not even a good brand.

Once Fox goes down, there will be replacements.

As Roger Ailes observed: Fox News -- the conservative-leaning fair and balanced version of it -- discovered an overlooked niche audience -- "Half the country."

The current ownership of Fox and its suburban Karen liberal directors like Paul Ryan have forgotten that. They want to compete for leftwing eyeballs.

Well, they're welcome to try!

But there will in fact arise a new, big, conservative alternative.

And whether the new alternative is Newsmax or OAN or a merger between them or some new network entirely -- the new alternative won't need Fox News' poisoned brand dragging it down.

posted by Ace at 06:30 PM

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