johnny dollar's archive: sept-oct 2008

Two months ago, when Fox haters erupted over the hiring of Howard Wolfson, we repeatedly heard a common smear:

Democrats can pretend that there are "independents" watching Fox News, but the data is clear -- it is the most reliably Republican outlet in the nation.

Our analysis shot down that canard. The numbers showed that more Democrats watched Fox News than either MSNBC or CNN. But Pew has a new poll out with a slightly different breakdown in news channel viewership, and of course ratings always fluctuate. So it's time to update our analysis to see if FNC still has the most "fair and balanced" audience.

We go first to the latest findings from the Pew Research Center, whose work is respected throughout the media. Their annual survey of cable news audiences now shows:

• FNC: 39% Republican, 33% Democratic, 22% Independent
  
• CNN: 18% Republican, 51% Democratic, 23% Independent
  
• MSNBC: 18% Republican, 45% Democratic, 27% Independent
  

Compared to last year, all three channels have a slight uptick in their Democratic precentage, while CNN shows a 4% drop in its GOP audience. Now we correlate the new Pew findings with the latest primetime quarterly cable news ratings, issued on October 1:

• FNC: 2,198,000 viewers
  
• CNN: 1,342,000 viewers
  
• MSNBC: 867,000 viewers
  

Breaking these down according to the percentages reported by Pew, we find the following:

• FNC: 857,000 Republicans
• CNN: 242,000 Republicans
• MSNBC: 156,000 Republicans
  

• FNC: 725,000 Democrats
• CNN: 684,000 Democrats
• MSNBC: 390,000 Democrats
  

• FNC: 484,000 Independents
• CNN: 309,000 Independents
• MSNBC: 234,000 Independents
  

As in our previous report, we relied on the primetime audience ratings. This time we'll also do the math with total day viewership to see if the patterns still hold:

• FNC: 438,000 Republicans
• CNN: 128,000 Republicans
• MSNBC: 85,000 Republicans
  

• FNC: 371,000 Democrats
• CNN: 364,000 Democrats
• MSNBC: 213,000 Democrats

• FNC: 247,000 Independents
• CNN: 164,000 Independents
• MSNBC: 128,000 Independents
  

The results could not be more clear. In both total day and primetime, the Fox News audience is far more balanced ideologically than those of the other news channels. And once again, more Democrats watch FNC than either MSNBC or CNN. fox bias fnc