The Cable Gamer has sometimes been critical of TV Newser, but despite its flaws, it is a trove of information.
For example, last Saturday TVN took note of the ratings for the dueling television addresses of President George W. Bush and Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) about Iraq policy last Thursday night.
The inaccurate stereotype of Fox News Channels viewers, of course, is that they are all right-wing nuts. But in fact, Fox watchers appear to be a) more numerous, of course, but also b) more curious about both sides of an argument. And the proof is in the ratings:
On Fox, 745,000 people watched Bush, but then the 813,000 watched Reed. That's a jump of nine percent! So whatever the politics of Fox watchers, they obviously want to see/hear the pro and the con.
By contrast, on second-finishing MSNBC, 455,000 people watched Bush, and then 446,000 watched Reed, a drop of two percent. (Now what does that say about the open-mindedess of MSNBC viewers?)
Finally, on CNN, 454,000 watched Bush, and then 507,000 watched Reed.
Update, 9/19/07: Reader JM from Canada notes that the increase in Reed viewers relative to Bush viewers on CNN was actually larger than the increase on Fox. It was 11 percent on CNN, compared to Fox. JM is right, of course.
But at the same time, it's less newsworthy that CNN viewers would like the Democrat, because of CNN's well-established liberal leanings.
And in addition, it's worth noting that because FNC's audience is so much larger, the aggregate increase on FNC, Bush to Reed, was 68,000, compared to 53,000. Still, JM is not wrong in what he says.
