Since Donald Trump left office, it seems, not even liberals are buying what CNN is selling.
Continuing a trend that’s only getting more dismal for Chris Cuomo & Co., Nielsen ratings released Tuesday showed the “most trusted name in news” has lost almost 70 percent of its viewers in the past few months, according to the Daily Caller.
It’s the kind of drop that should alarm even the most committed progressive at Jeff Zucker’s network. And it isn’t hard to see why it’s happening.
During former President Donald Trump’s four years in office, CNN abandoned even the pretense of journalism, devoting itself entirely to becoming the mouthpiece of the anti-Trump left.
Then-CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta’s regular buffoonery basically personified the animus that animated the mainstream media’s approach to covering the Trump administration.
The stars of CNN’s evening programming — Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon — regularly engaged in self-aggrandizing attempts to smear the duly elected president of the United States.
Lemon would brand Trump a “racist” on the air, as though he were bravely speaking truth to power, rather than pandering to his largely liberal audience (the kind that probably get their real dose of news from “comedians” like Stephen Colbert).
Cuomo, CNN’s resident tough guy, would call Trump witty names like “Dirty Donald” – while getting his own feelings hurt for being referred to as “Fredo.”
His latest disgraceful role in the scandals surrounding his brother, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and his lame apology for it, hasn’t helped the network’s credibility, either.
CNN's @ChrisCuomo apologizes: "I put my colleagues here, who I believe are the best in the business, in a bad spot. I never intended for that, I would never intent for that, and I'm sorry for that." pic.twitter.com/IeLtmcUT8g
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) May 21, 2021
Now, the circus has left town, and CNN’s audience has left the network.
CNN has lost about 67 percent of its total viewers since January, the Daily Caller reported, citing Nielsen figures. In the demographic of 25-to-54-year-olds, coveted by advertisers, the network was down by 71 percent, according to the Daily Caller.
The fellow-traveling MSNBC also posted a steep decline of almost half — 49 percent, according to the Daily Caller.
Fox News meanwhile, also saw a drop, but not nearly on the scale of its liberal competition, losing about 12 percent of its total viewers and 15 percent in the 25-54-year-old demographic.
This week’s reports aren’t an outlier. CNN’s troubles have been on view since the network that devoted itself to ousting Trump from office actually got its wish. MSNBC ratings have been in a similar decline.
In a Twitter post, independent journalist Glenn Greenwald summed it up succinctly:
Story cited here.
