LESS THAN REPUTABLE MEDIA OUTLETS CONTINUE TO GROW

 

                    … Newsmax chief executive and Trump ally, Christopher Ruddy

 

Fox News: losing viewers since agreeing that Biden won over Trump

 

We are starting to see where Donald Trump is headed after his recent re-election loss.  No, it’s not involving Fox News.  In fact, the president has launched a campaign against Fox News and he is encouraging his allies to tune into more extreme, and less truthful, conservative news outlets that will support the president’s lies.  This means, tuning into media outlets such as Newsmax and One America News (OAN).

Trump still harbors a grudge after Fox News called and agreed to the states presidency votes for Joe Biden.  Trump has expressed admiration for those less reputable media outlets such as Newsmax and OAN’s more ridiculous coverage of his baseless voter-fraud allegations.

A new survey suggests these: “Trump supportive outlets”, are having a serious impact.

The surveys from both Gallup and the Knight Foundation shows an increase in the number of Americans who name Newsmax and OAN as being among the news sources they rely most upon.

Newsmax in particular has risen significantly in the consciousness of American news consumers.  In the same survey in July 2019, precisely zero of the respondents cited Newsmax.  But in the latest survey, conducted shortly after the 2020 election, 7% named Newsmax. That’s greater than the Associated Press at 5% and nearly on par with The Washington Post  at 8% with CBS News at 8%.

Combined, Newsmax and OAN gained 11 total mentions per 100 people.  That’s up from just 1 per 100 in that July 2019 survey.  Fox was mentioned by 27 out of 100 people, which is their second-lowest rating in 11 surveys.

Other conservative outlets, including the Daily Wire, Breitbart, Rush Limbaugh’s show, and the Blaze were also mentioned as much, or more than in previous surveys.  If you combine them with Newsmax and OAN, they’ve risen from 6 mentions per 100 people in July 2019 and early 2020 to 19 in 100 people today.

The survey did show that many people who watch Fox say they are not fully committed to Fox alone.  It asked people what they would do if their news source “decided to change its reporting and commentary to try to convince people it does not favor one party over the other.” Four in 10, or 41%, said they would continue to rely upon Fox less, while 21% said they would no longer use Fox at all.

The biggest decline was in people’s reliance upon local news. The data shows a particular decrease when it comes to local TV, but also a drop in the number of people citing local newspapers, which continue to struggle to survive.

As with the increasing reliance on conservative outlets such as Newsmax and OAN, this has been particularly pronounced over the past two months in the surveys regarding the election.

The low rating data on local TV news, it combines people citing local TV programs more broadly and those specifically citing local ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC affiliates.

It all suggests the election is spurring significant increases among viewers when it comes to those questionable outlets they rely upon. This has been in particular to the benefit of Newsmax, which is also borne out by its higher ratings.

The data suggests that many Trump supporters are in the market for unquestioning coverage of his voter-fraud claims.  In a recent interview with the New Yorker’s Isaac Chotiner, Newsmax chief executive and Trump ally, Christopher Ruddy, made it clear that he sees broadcasting baseless claims as being good for business.

“Well, I think before we even make the [voter-fraud] claim, we should say: ‘Hey, look at this vote anomaly. Why is this the case?’ And then we start asking about it,” Ruddy said. “But you know what? At the end of the day, it’s great for news. The news cycle is red-hot …”

Ruddy added: “I would never do something that I thought was wrong or untrue. I didn’t create the news cycle … Donald Trump did.  He created this whole thing. He could have accepted the results, but I’m saying, ‘Look at the amazing stuff that’s done for the news business.’ ”

Well, at least for one business in particular.

.Unfortunately, the reality is that for a democracy to survive, that requires that everyone hears or reads the same “truthful information”, and then they are able to make their decisions, based on that “real” data.   That is impossible with a so called “leader” such as Donald Trump, who has lied to the American public over 20,000 times.

Having less-than-truthful media outlets such as Newsmax and One America News may be the beginning of the end of the greatest nation on earth.

Copyright G. Ater 2020