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There's an interesting article here in the New York Times. Basically the gist of it is that Fox News has been partisan all along (since 2001 at least, which is the earliest they looked at) but got more so during the Bush administrations. However other news outlets, originally pretty much even in Democratic vs Republican viewers, by 2008-2009 were about 50% Democratic to about 25% Republican (very roughly; see the article for the exact numbers.)
They take this as evidence of increasing partisanship on the part of these news outlets.
However, remember this article I posted about earlier? The one about how nearly two thirds of Republicans believe that Obama is part of a conspiracy to deliberately destroy the United States of America? And how they think people who don't share their belief are the enemy?
What if they decided they weren't going to watch news programs from "the enemy"? Let's run a quick set of numbers
2004-2005
Fox News MSNBC
51% 40% Republican
31% 42% Democratic
18% 18% Other
Suppose we have 100 viewers for MSNBC. Now suppose that 2/3 of the Republican viewers quit watching MSNBC because that news corporation does not seem to share the belief that Obama is part of a conspiracy to deliberately destroy the country, and why watch news from the enemy; it will only be lies anyway. MNSBC had 40 Republican viewers so 2/3 of that would be about 26, leaving 14 Republican viewers who haven't abandoned MSNBC. Now MSNBC has 14 Republican viewers, 42 Democratic viewers and 18 viewers who are neither (Independents I guess) for 74 total viewers. 14/74 gives 19% Republicans. 42/74 gives 57% Democrats and 18/74 gives 24% Other.
Suppose those 26 Republicans went to Fox News.--wait I can't do that because that contains the implicit assumption that Fox News viewership and MSNBC viewership started out equal and I don't know that's the case. Hmm. We can still look at MSNBC, though.
2008-2009
MSNBC (article) (2004 minus conspiracy theorists)
28% 19% Republican
57% 57% Democratic
15% 24% Other.
So the shift in viewership could be explained by some (not even all, which is interesting) of the right-wing conspiracy theorists refusing to watch a news channel that didn't play up to their, um, nonstandard beliefs.
At the very least it shouldn't be taken as an indication that MSNBC has departed from reality and is now a mouthpiece for propaganda without actual evidence of biased reporting on MSNBC's part.
They take this as evidence of increasing partisanship on the part of these news outlets.
However, remember this article I posted about earlier? The one about how nearly two thirds of Republicans believe that Obama is part of a conspiracy to deliberately destroy the United States of America? And how they think people who don't share their belief are the enemy?
What if they decided they weren't going to watch news programs from "the enemy"? Let's run a quick set of numbers
2004-2005
Fox News MSNBC
51% 40% Republican
31% 42% Democratic
18% 18% Other
Suppose we have 100 viewers for MSNBC. Now suppose that 2/3 of the Republican viewers quit watching MSNBC because that news corporation does not seem to share the belief that Obama is part of a conspiracy to deliberately destroy the country, and why watch news from the enemy; it will only be lies anyway. MNSBC had 40 Republican viewers so 2/3 of that would be about 26, leaving 14 Republican viewers who haven't abandoned MSNBC. Now MSNBC has 14 Republican viewers, 42 Democratic viewers and 18 viewers who are neither (Independents I guess) for 74 total viewers. 14/74 gives 19% Republicans. 42/74 gives 57% Democrats and 18/74 gives 24% Other.
Suppose those 26 Republicans went to Fox News.--wait I can't do that because that contains the implicit assumption that Fox News viewership and MSNBC viewership started out equal and I don't know that's the case. Hmm. We can still look at MSNBC, though.
2008-2009
MSNBC (article) (2004 minus conspiracy theorists)
28% 19% Republican
57% 57% Democratic
15% 24% Other.
So the shift in viewership could be explained by some (not even all, which is interesting) of the right-wing conspiracy theorists refusing to watch a news channel that didn't play up to their, um, nonstandard beliefs.
At the very least it shouldn't be taken as an indication that MSNBC has departed from reality and is now a mouthpiece for propaganda without actual evidence of biased reporting on MSNBC's part.
