If you’re at all like me then you don’t take cable news seriously. Despite what CNN, MSNBC and FOX want you to think, not a whole lot of Americans pay them much mind either. They average in the low millions of viewers at best and certainly have nowhere near the audience that network news anchors, whose stations are available in many more American homes, like Brian Williams or Katie Couric have. It’s easy to say that since CNN, FOX and MSNBC are on cable they will therefore automatically have less viewers. This is true to an extent but even FOX’s highest rated shows usually garner less viewers than cable dramas like The Walking Dead (as opposed to CNN’s next desperate show The Sitting Dead with Larry King) or Justified.
So why then does cable news seem so prevalent? I found myself asking this question a little while back and an answer came to me fairly quickly. Cable news stations have this very odd habit of reporting on their competitors. Half of FOX News’ talking big-heads rant on about the “liberal” media and how MSNBC is out to get them. Guests like Sarah Palin are always at the ready to complain about how the “gotcha media” is targeting poor America loving conservative attention seekers like herself. For its part, MSNBC is consistently at the ready to report whatever outrageous thing Glenn Beck or Bill O’Reilly has said this week. Even with Keith Olbermann gone, who was FOX News’ biggest enemy at MSNBC, MSNBC still often brings up Beck and O’Reilly. You’d think there’s nothing else to report about. Yet another segment on how Charlie Sheen has once again lost his mind would be more productive than the news reporting on the news.
What makes it all the more repugnant is that it’s obviously a ploy on the part of each network to keep its viewers by demonizing the other channel. Apparently their argument isn’t that we should watch them because they have excellent reporting and analysis but rather because the other channel is full of idiots. Now the latter is clearly true but it’s not exactly an excellent argument about why I should watch MSNBC or FOX News. I could instead just turn it off and try to seek out actual news, news that isn’t obsessed with trying to eat its competitors. NBC Nightly News may have its flaws but at least Brian Williams doesn’t open up the show by saying, “You wouldn’t believe what that nut job Katie Couric said. We’ll have more on that at the end of the show.”
So how then does cable news survive? Well it’s inaccurate to say that the war between the networks hasn’t worked at least a little in regards to keeping viewers. I think quite a number of cable news viewers truly believe they’re hearing the word of God from Bill O’Reilly or Chris Matthews. But in reality they are fairly irrelevant as the majority of Americans do not watch them and will continue to be so until they decide to report on actual events instead of sticking their tongues out at each other while desperately hoping we take them seriously.