December 2, 2024 - 1:00pm
The American media landscape is experiencing a dramatic transformation in the wake of Donald Trump’s November victory, with Fox News emerging as the undisputed king of cable television. Capturing nearly three-quarters of primetime news viewers while its competitors haemorrhage audience share, Fox’s surge represents more than just a temporary ratings victory — it signals a continuation of the fundamental shift in how Americans consume their news.
The numbers tell the tale. While Fox’s viewership has exploded since the election, liberal stalwarts MSNBC and CNN spent the better part of Joe Biden’s term in office watching their audiences dwindle. The networks that positioned themselves as bulwarks against Trumpism during his first term must now face an uncomfortable reality: their viewers seem uninterested in four more years of anti-Trump programming, particularly given how futile it proved to be.
This realignment extends far beyond cable news. The Washington Post‘s sudden abandonment of presidential endorsements sparked internal rebellion and mass subscriber cancellations. The paper’s decision to spike its planned endorsement of Kamala Harris, while officially unrelated to any political pressure, speaks volumes about the shifting media landscape (owner Jeff Bezos took the time to congratulate Trump). Meanwhile, Comcast’s move to spin off MSNBC into a separate company amounts to a quiet admission that the liberal cable news model may be unsustainable.
Even Elon Musk has joined the fray, playfully suggesting he might purchase MSNBC through a series of provocative social media posts. While his sexually suggestive meme about the potential acquisition might seem like mere trolling, such activity reflects a broader truth: conservative media figures sense weakness in their liberal counterparts, and they’re willing to slug them while they’re down.
The transformation isn’t limited to American shores. In Britain, upstart Right-wing channel GB News has found ways to outperform Sky News and the BBC in daily ratings, suggesting this realignment of media power transcends borders. It’s not that conservative content isn’t political, but rather that it runs off anger rather than endless just-so proclamations from experts whose expertise took a significant hit during the pandemic and ceaseless Trump-related investigations and prosecutions of the past half-decade.
The liberal media’s current crisis is the writ large version of CNN’s own well-documented struggles under former CEO Chris Licht, whose attempt to steer the network toward more centrist coverage led to the departure of various liberal broadcasters and ended in his own ouster. His experience demonstrates the institutional resistance to change within traditional media organisations, even as market forces demand adaptation. CNN now routinely places third in the cable news ratings.
The transformation seems likely to accelerate. The incoming Trump administration has signalled plans to grant White House press credentials to podcast hosts and YouTube personalities, potentially sidelining traditional media outlets. Such a move would have seemed unthinkable a decade ago but now feels almost inevitable — not only are creators like Joe Rogan friends of the administration, but their reach far exceeds that of MSNBC and CNN.
The pressing question isn’t whether America’s media landscape will transform — that’s already happening. Rather, it’s whether liberal outlets can adapt to a world where their audience’s appetite for perpetual expert-driven resistance may have finally reached its limit. Fox’s soaring ratings suggest that, for now at least, the smart money is following populism, and there’s no sign that that is changing anytime soon.
Oliver Bateman is a historian and journalist based in Pittsburgh. He blogs, vlogs, and podcasts at his Substack, Oliver Bateman Does the Work
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SubscribeProgressiveRegressive socialism is on the wain internationally.The socialists and wokerista have had it time in the sun and are now fighting the effects of being subjected to the daylight of scrutiny. They are shrivelling and dying, as do slugs and other slimy creatures that cannot slide back under their rocks quickly enough.
Fox is Fox and everyone knows what is stands for. It was lukewarm towards Trump first time around as he essentially beat up the neo-liberal party Fox loves and imposed himself on it.
CNN was the trailblazer in its day, Turner was a visionary, and the credible go to channel in many respects as Fox was the outlier.
It t has become an utter joke. And I mean a joke. Lasted about 10 mins watching it on election night – straining every sinew on comparative figures for Harris v Biden and how she was doing great.
Watched NBC which was OK, not great but less TDS for sure. As for MSNBC it needs to be strangled – the sooner the deluded Maddows (Trump/Biden debate was a draw) is put out to pasture the better.
I think it was this site that suggested the death of mainstream news media is underway and Trump winning twice using unconventional methods – Twitter in 2016 and Podcasts this time – only hastens their demise,
Meanwhile, over here on the BBC News website, we have an article on Biden’s pardoning of his son which spends the majority of the piece “telling us” why this is no different from Trump seeking to evade “justice” whilst running for President.
Whilst true in a facile way, no condemnation of Biden’s move at all.
I am surprised they have room – they are usually fill up their website with tales of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and how we should all be White Guilting.
As per CCN as a news channel, the Beeb website for news was really good back 20 years ago. Mistrust of mainstream media here began with Iraq and Campbell’s bullshit. They refused to critique industrial scale immigration until forced to, didn’t probe the real issues with financial crisis and had no clue about subsequent austerity.
And Beeb hosts and C4 and Sky and ITV presenters to a man and woman looked like frigging ghosts on 24th June 2016 – Brillo being the notable exception.
I think in the UK it was Brexit, and in the US the first election of Trump, that sent the left-establishment media off of their orbits, from seeing themselves as reporting news to seeing their mission as making sure the news as reported met a certain worldview (and blocked others).
The Guardian until Brexit (including the run up) was always left, and everyone knew. Some good columnists, some not so good. But after Brexit it went off the rails completely. I was back in the US for the first time since COVID just earlier this year, in time for the decisive Biden debate, and I couldn’t believe how shamelessly biased CNN was. I hadn’t always agreed with it before, but it wasn’t even subtle. The BBC wasn’t the same after Brexit either, and really shat the bed when it decided to be a debate-stifling cheerleader for PRC-style lockdowns during COVID.
It’s as if a sort of rage blinded them, or at least blinkered them, into a path that had to be self-destructive in the end. You can’t sell news and information if people stop trusting you, never mind that this is accompanied by you showing contempt for their feelings, thoughts and ideas.
TDS?
Trump Deranged Syndrome.
E.g. He got NATO members to fork up some more of their own money for defence. Sensible – not for those with TDS. A terrible bully throwing his weight around.
I am no fan of Trump but the whole making stuff up – he wanted to shoot Liz Cheney etc.. is so effing tiresome.
Ahahahah, thanks.
Wait until Trump is in office before you write off leftist news stations like CNN and MSNBC. When he actually does something worth opposing, people will wander back to those networks. The long-term prognosis is terminal for all of them, but I’m sure CNN will get a ratings boost.
Funny how the author calls Fox content angry, and the leftist networks driven by experts. Apparently, he doesn’t actually watch any of it. People who call a political rally at MSG a Nazi rally are not experts. They’re angry ideologues.
‘populism’ — the clue is in the name. What sort of politics will be increasingly popular with a mass audience?
I’m a centrist. Everyone else is either to the right or left of me. All major US TV Networks are very boring and predictable. Fox just edges out the others. I must say though that Fox has the prettiest Weather Girls.