Rachel Maddow Keeps Her Audience, Sean Hannity Loses Half His

As a follower of politics and pop culture, it stands to reason that I have an interest in cable news and talk radio. I listen to liberal radio at work--via computer, it's hard to find on the radio in most markets--and I watch MSNBC at home, mostly The Rachel Maddow Show, and occasionally Hardball or The Last Word. But I also watch a sampling of the Sunday morning shows, as well as often listening to whatever's playing on our local right-winger radio station. You have to have balance, and know what's going on outside of your own particular bubble.

Though it's pretty much been banished in our house, I used to watch a bunch of FOX "News," particularly Hannity & Colmes (now just Hannity). And as a person who's as interested in the business and behind-the-scenes of my pop culture, I'd follow the ratings too. What you'll find when you do that is, CNN and to a lesser extent MSNBC have viewers and FOX has fans. FOX fans are very invested in their fandom, to the point of rudeness to all that is not FOX (or some other section of Right Wing World). They take particular delight in skewering MSNBC and Rachel Maddow, though they are never, ever as clever, original or funny as they think they are. And when you get past the "Rachel looks like a dude" and lesbian "jokes" the big thing they like to talk about is FOX's ratings dominance and that nobody watches MSNBC.

As a person who is a fan of Maddow, and also a gay person, some of the idiotic put-downs can grate, but I'm pretty thick-skinned in that area. But I'm not a "fan" of MSNBC. I don't take it personally when someone slams them. I'm a blogger though, and part of my mission was to take on inaccurate information. It's inaccurate--particularly now--to say "nobody" watches MSNBC, and it's false equivalence to say that the channel is the mirror opposite of FOX "News."  Some of that may be beside the point soon, if trends continue. Because MSNBC is doing fairly well in the ratings lately, and FOX is in a long slide. Which is cool. And also kinda funny.

[Excerpt]

Why Sean Hannity Lost Half Of His Viewers, And Rachel Maddow Didn’t

In the world of TV ratings, the first few weeks following a presidential election are a comedown for any news outlet: Viewership spikes prior to the big event and falls off just as quickly when it’s all over. . .

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