The quick red Fox
The tea-partiers' favourite news channel wins the ratings war in America's elections
By The Economist online
TURNER NETWORKS has just sent out an e-mail to the press boasting that CNN, which it owns, drew more viewers to its election night broadcasts than did MSNBC, a rival cable-news network. The figures, which reflect tentative results from Nielsen, a research firm, also reveal a more striking fact: the Fox News Channel beat the competition by a mile.
During prime time (8pm to 11pm), CNN notched up an average of 2.4m viewers. The Fox News Channel, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, drew 7m viewers. Conservatives not only took back the House of Representatives with a mighty swing; they also soundly defeated liberals (MSNBC) and centrist non-partisans (CNN) in the television ratings.
It is a terrific result for the cable-news channel and yet another worrying sign for CNN, which has struggled in the past couple of years. CNN routinely draws fewer prime-time viewers than Fox, but tends to do well during big news events, when its superior on-the-ground reporting sets it apart. Not this time, apparently.
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