-
Why Doesn’t Obama Ban Iranian Press TV? by Kenneth R. Timmerman
The Case of CH2M HILL: $2 Billion in Crony Stimulation by Rusty Weiss
The Truth about George Soros by AIM Staff
Lifting the Veil on WikiLeaks by AIM Staff
The Truth about Al-Jazeera English by Cliff Kincaid
Reaganomics and Obamanomics in the Media and in Reality by Malcolm A. Kline, Don Irvine and Spencer Irvine
How State Budget Battles Could Mean More Criminals Back on the Streets by Michael Tremoglie
Radical Muslims, Environmentalists and the Green Jihad by Mark Musser
Russian-Backed Propaganda Networks Claim Obama is a CIA Agent by Cliff Kincaid
Media Conceal True Nature of Flash Mob Racial Violence by John T. Bennett
NBC’s Mitchell Should Resign Over Telling Gaddafi’s Lies (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) by Cliff Kincaid
CASA de Maryland: The Illegals’ ACORN by James Simpson
Special Report
The Newswire
Take AIM Podcast
As the enthusiasm for Barack Obama has cooled down so have the ratings for MSNBC host Rachel Maddow who has see viewership drop from a high of 1.9 million to 1.1 million in March.
From the L.A. Times
When MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” debuted during the historic campaign of Barack Obama, the program’s ratings soared and made its host a breakout star on cable.
But as the president’s administration nears its 100-day milestone, Maddow’s show — like most cable programs that traffic in political talk and chatter — has seen its numbers cool. March was the lowest-rated month so far for Maddow with her numbers falling from an average high of 1.9 million viewers to just slightly over 1.1 million.
The road to regain viewers would seem an especially challenging one for Maddow. Politics, not to mention television, thrives on conflict, but how much of that will there be with a left-leaning host in a time of a left-leaning president? Maddow isn’t worried.
“My job of asking questions and being critical doesn’t stop depending on who is in the White House,” said the 36-year-old host. “My main concern is keeping the quality of the show high. We don’t debate the ratings very much.”
Such concerns are a long way from last September when Maddow’s show stormed onto the crowded political talk circuit and more than doubled her network’s viewership in her time slot. Audiences, and many critics, responded to the show’s mix of political analysis, offbeat news and Maddow’s stinging wit.
Some slippage was to be expected given all the Obama euphoria and desire to watch anything that praised him and based president Bush. But now that the newness has worn off Maddow must prove herself in a very tough medium. Maddow may survive given the paucity of any successful programming on MSNBC but much of what makes O’Reilly, Beck, Hannity and even Olbermann successful is that they mix theatrics in with their politcs and can be very entertaining at times. From what I have seen of Maddow’s program is that it lacks the entertainment value and that in the long run may be her downfall.
Share This
About the author
Don Irvine is Chairman of Accuracy in Media. He is active on Facebook and Twitter. You can follow him @donirvine to read his latest thoughts.
2 Comments for Maddow’s Ratings Slide
Of course, guys like Robert Novak, Bernard Goldberg and George Will are “real” journalists, right?
How about former carpenter, bartender, and two-time college drop-out Sean Hannity and his $100 million, 5-year contract with Fox “News”? Is he your idea of a “real” journalist on a “real” news network?
Keep in mind: Matthews, Olbermann, Maddow, O’Reilly, Beck, Hannity, et al – - ARE NOT journalists.
First, they’re entertainers; second, they’re commentators – - and their field of endeavor is NOT classical or traditional “journalism” but, rather, “infotainment” or, if you prefer, “news talk”.
Maddow is a left-wing socialist hack, a tool of the DNC, and an Obama acolyte. She wouldn’t know a journalist if one fell on her, and deserves to be boycotted like the rest of her corrupt, biased, so-called “news” network.