Rachel Maddow really came down hard on Fox News for their role in the Shirley Sherrod affair. And Bill O'Reilly fired back.
O'Reilly didn't question the facts, but shot back about Fox News ratings dominance over MSNBC, stating that what Fox News does is
"kicks your network's butt every single night, madam"
Rachel had a great comeback and concluded with
"You can insult us all you want about television ratings, Mr. O'Reilly, and you'll be right that yours are bigger for now and maybe forever. You are the undisputed champion. But even if no one watches us at all, except for my mom and my girlfriend and people who forgot to turn off the TV after Keith, you are still wrong on what really matters and that would be the facts, your highness."
Her rebuttal, classic Maddow, did get me thinking about how many viewers actually watch Fox News. I knew compared to the network news shows, Fox is a distant 4th. In the evening news race, NBC typically gets over 7 million viewers. Even third place CBS brings in over 5 million. How about Fox? An average of slightly over one million.
Think about it. The big Fox noise machine gets less viewers than
DEADLIEST CATCH
THE CLOSER
RIZZOLI & ISLES
BURN NOTICE
HANNAH MONTANA
WWE RAW
COVERT AFFAIRS
TRUE BLOOD
PAWN STARS
FAMILY GUY
CAMP ROCK
SPONGEBOB
to name just some of the the cable shows.
Well, you get the idea. Yes they beat MSNBC, and yes they beat CNN. But when SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS gets more than twice as many viewers as you, perhaps you're not the big shot you thought you were.