Spongebob More Popular than Bill O'Really!

[NoBorders]

With all of the gnashing-of-teeth that takes place around here about biased cable news shows, albeit well-deserved,
I thought I would try to gage how much impact these shows actually have on the general viewing public, or at least gage their reach.

Here are some findings based on the links below:
-Spongebob Squarepants is 3X more popular than CNN primetime. That's right: more people prefer to
watch an animated talking sea sponge than Wolf & Judy on CNN (there's hope for us yet!).

-Our little yellow sponge friend draws more viewers than Bill O'Really!

-None of the cable news networks make it into the top 20 overall.

My conclusions are: a) Cable news simply does not have that much impact on the vast majority of voters.
And b) With ratings so low, it's not suprising that they resemble professional wresting commentating more than actual news.

Granted, most of those Spongebob viewers may not be voters, but the thrust of this post remains true: these shows simply do not reach that many people--a couple million at best, a few hundred thousand on average.

I just wanted to put my mind at ease about all the BS we see on cable news.

Oh, and the TOP RATED SHOW ON TV? 60 MINUTES! (Sunday)

http://tv.yahoo.com/nielsen/

http://www.nielsenmedia.com/ratings/cable_programs.html

http://www.nielsenmedia.com/ratings/cable_programs.html

http://www.oreilly-sucks.com/politics/cablenewsratings.htm

[krkaufman]

1. Unfortunately, their absolute ratings don't necessarily relate...

... to the political impact of their rantings. The absolute ratings don't consider the percentage of political and media sources that cannibalize each other.

The right-wing echo chamber works because each of the shows spews the same nonsense non-stop until it becomes a de facto story, and so is picked-up by more mainstream sources. Eventually, their propaganda becomes so pervasive that it is taken as truth by the less-informed.

[NoBorders]

2. Cable news does play a part in driving the news agenda

And that is a problem, I grant. However, I think the mis-information is most concentrated at the cable news level.

[krkaufman]

4. Yes, the mainstream news...

... does have *some* level of resistance.

[bucknaked]

3. Awhile ago, I pointed out to a freep that reruns of Buffy have beaten OR.

Cable news is a "niche" market. People who seek it out, most likely have their mind made up on any given issue.

Secondly, if popularity was validation, then the likes of the Back Street Boys and Britney Spears would go down in history as musical genius.

In my opinion, the only way Bill has been effective, really has nothing to do with Bill O'Reilly. The problem lies with these lily-livered marketing types who freak out when they get a few anonymous emails vowing to never use a product, they (the composer of the emails) probably never even used in the first place!

[Lefty48197]

5. Spongebob isn't an idiot like O'Reilly

.

[21winner]

6. What a good post.

Cable "news" is pro-wresting. Its a scripted, fake conflict. Perhaps it has a more toney audience but the game is the same.

[CitySky]

7. Now if we can only get...

Spongebob to endorse John Kerry, we'll be on our way! B-)



(But then Krusty the Krab might endorse Shrub, who lets him pay his workers less... it could get ugly!)