Heh

Why MSNBC is in trouble

Two facts: 1. Cable news is in trouble, across the board. The demand for 24-hour televised news is on the wane, and the audience — a paltry slice of the population to begin with — is old and getting older.

But, 2, MSNBC is in serious trouble. This data point, released by the Pew Research Center on Thursday, explains why (bold mine):

Public perceptions of two major news sources - MSNBC and the Fox News Channel (FNC) - are deeply divided along ideological lines. … One thing that differs when it comes to MSNBC is that it does not draw the same uniformly positive reviews from consistent liberals that FNC does from consistent conservatives. While nearly half (45%) of consistent liberals view MSNBC favorably, that’s not much better than how MSNBC rates among those with mixed ideological views (38%). Nearly half of consistent liberals offer no opinion of MSNBC. By contrast, the vast majority of consistent conservatives offer an opinion of Fox News, with 74% favorable and just 5% unfavorable.

Get that? In other words, 74 percent of Fox News’ target audience really likes Fox News, whereas just 45 percent of MSNBC’s target audience likes MSNBC.