Here is the untold story. While the media has largely focused on Fox News' ratings, they have missed the real story behind the cable news wars. I watched Meet the Press and Chris Matthews Show on the Sunday, October 18th, and listen to Joe Scarbourough, Tavis Smiley and others discuss Fox news ratings as "shooting through the roof" as a result of the White House's attack on Fox News. I thought it ludicrous to make such claims so soon after the attacks, and suspected that these commentators were simply repeating the unsubstantiated claim. I decided to review and track the ratings for Fox News and the other cable shows to see if I could determine a change in cable news viewership.

The following graphs displays the results of cable news program ratings trends over a 5 week period starting on September 28th, 2009 and ending October 30th, 2009. This time span encompasses the White House's recent criticisms about Fox New's right wing bias. The 5 week span begins two weeks prior to Anita Dunn's

"the reality of it is that Fox News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party. And it is not ideological... what I think is fair to say about Fox, and the way we view it, is that it is more of a wing of the Republican Party."

The following charts exclude weekends.

Daily Ratings - Dates are the Monday of each week.

As you can see the trends in daily ratings are rising for MSNBC. Both Fox News and CNN ratings are trending downward.

Prime Time Ratings - Dates are the Monday of each week.

Likewise the trends in prime time ratings favor MSNBC. Both Fox News and CNN ratings are trending downward.

Obviously, these graphs represent a ratings snapshot and cannot be predictive. What they do suggests is that the White Houses calling out Fox News has not lead to the ratings "boom" that Fox News has claimed and the many in the media have assumed to be the case.

Finally I plotted the 5 pm to 10 pm cable shows to look at the ratings trendlines over the same period of time. The following chart displays the changes in the trendlines from the beginning to the end of that period of time.

MSNBC is clearly doing better during the past 5 weeks.

The discussion about the effects of the White House's attacks have been largely concentrated on Fox News ratings. You might remember that the White House met with Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann on Monday the October 16th right in the middle of the White House's coordinated attack on Fox. No ones talking, so we don't know what transpired, but you have to wonder if these coordinated attacks, that fly in the face of "conventional wisdom," and defied conventional wisdom(it would help Fox News), may have benefited MSNBC in the end.

If you found this post of interest, provocative, or believe others might benefit from reading it, please recommend. Thanks.

You know it's coming. 

It's the story that keeps on giving. Miss California pageant officials got a hold of the film several months ago. Apparently, the film convinced Carrie to withdraw her law suit against them. Gay marriage bad, XXX good? I wonder how the religious conservatives, right wing nuts, and Donald Trump will spin this?