Mainstream media is once again running to the hills following a second presidential election victory for Donald Trump, leaving audiences to wonder how and why network anchors seemingly didn't shoot straight with them in their coverage.
With networks seemingly (and nonsensically) taking forever to call the election for Trump, a feeling of distrust in mainstream media seemed ever-present as votes rolled in on election night. Case in point: CNN didn't call the election for Trump until well after 5 a.m. Eastern Time.
The reality of a Trump victory seemed like it was never going to set in for network anchors on election night, and despite an obvious shift in priorities among the American public, broadcasters went steadfast past midnight as if Kamala Harris still might become president.
CNN's Jake Tapper was shocked to learn how much Vice President Harris underperformed, despite the Harris campaign's platitudes and non-answers.
According to "The View," Harris even ran a "flawless" campaign despite falling millions of votes short of Trump.
Over on MSNBC, blame for the loss quickly shifted to "white women" and "racism" on the part of Latino voters, even though they came out in record numbers for the Republicans.
At the same time, cable news' blatant disregard for public sentiment has been painfully obvious to one man in particular: Elon Musk.
"You are the media now," Musk posted on X just after 1 a.m.
Musk later noted, "the future is gonna be fantastic," as he continues to drive traffic to X, citing record usage of the platform on election night.
— (@)
Watch more mainstream media meltdowns here.
"News should come from the people. From those actually on the scene and those who actually are subject-matter experts!" Musk said, echoing what has become one of the most popular forms of modern journalism.
Musk has pushed a free-speech mantra on his platform, leading to a steady flow of content creators and journalists jumping ship with the assurance that the vast majority of content on the X will not be de-ranked in any way.
— (@)
'The mainstream media has always been a hub of misinformation.'
Social media coordinator and on-the-ground journalist Yaakov Pollak told Blaze News that if it weren't for Musk, it would be "a lot harder to get the truth to people."
He added, "Trust in the mainstream media is at an all-time low and has been super low for a while now. I do think that the [mainstream media] will continue to play a roll in calling elections; however, I do think more and more people are turning to X and other alternative media."
"Some independent journalists and will play a bigger role in the future," Pollak added.
This sentiment was shared by Oren Levy, whose viral news videos have broken dozens of stories around migrant hotels and the mayor's office in New York City.
"The mainstream media has always been a hub of misinformation," he said. "It's always had a political agenda with some of them. Some stories they won't touch, even when it's big issues. They're losing a lot of trust."
Levy added that he believes mainstream media are forced to turn a blind eye to some stories due to their donors, who "don't want you to see everything that actually happens."
Musk agreed in another statement, saying that the reality of the election was "plain to see" on his platform, despite what mainstream media said.
— (@)
Musk continued, saying "legacy media lied" while repeating his new tagline, "You are the media now."
At the same time, though, Levy warned that misinformation is everywhere on social media platforms, even X.
"Some people are turning into the mainstream media themselves. More and more people are showing up to these [protests], but they have a clear agenda. Independent media has definitely been infiltrated," he concluded.
For now, Musk pushing for further video integration and even news articles seems to be making his platform look more and more like a replacement for networks, especially given that it comes with and offers recurring payments.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Tucker Carlson, who previously hosted a popular primetime program on Fox News, said that the cable news business is "controlled" and that he believes it "has a limited future."
"I really do think the cable news business has a limited future," Carlson opined two weeks after his show was suddenly dropped from the Fox News Channel lineup, according to Chadwick Moore, author of the upcoming book "Tucker."
"It's too obviously controlled. It's like Google — it's just become too clear that there’s a certain selection of stories that are allowed, and a very thick file of stories that are not allowed. And I think people have come to understand that, and it's just not sustainable," Carlson said, according to Moore.
"I see these clips of people on podcasts or just taking video of themselves on Twitter, and you can tell when someone's really telling the whole truth," Carlson said. "It's obvious right away. Maybe I don't agree with the person, but I can see this person is not lying, he's saying what he really thinks, and that’s immediately perceptible. You can tell when someone's lying to you or when someone’s shading the truth or trying to spin you. And there's a lot of artifice in television."
Carlson launched a new show on Twitter last week. The tweet containing the first episode has amassed a whopping 115 million views so far, while the tweet containing the second episode has surpassed 55 million views.
Fox News reportedly sent the media personality a cease-and-desist letter.
"Doubling down on the most catastrophic programming decision in the history of the cable news industry, Fox is now demanding that Tucker Carlson be silent until after the 2024 election," Harmeet Dhillon, who is involved in representing Carlson, said in a statement, according to Axios. "Tucker will not be silenced by anyone ... He is a singularly important voice on matters of public interest in our country, and will remain so."
Justin Wells said in a tweet that Carlson is planning to release a new episode on Tuesday responding to the federal indictment of former President Donald Trump.
\u201cNext Episode of Tucker on Twitter coming Tuesday: Tucker\u2019s response to the indictment of President Donald Trump\u201d— Justin Wells (@Justin Wells) 1686519817
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
The ratings of Fox News continue to crash following the firing of Tucker Carlson.
In its first week without Carlson, Fox News Channel’s prime-time viewership tumbled 29.6% from the previous week.
The Los Angeles Times reported, "Fox News Channel averaged 1.449 million viewers for its prime-time programming between April 24 and Sunday, third among cable networks, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen on Tuesday."
Carlson's 8 p.m. time slot has been replaced with "Fox News Tonight," which was hosted by Brian Kilmeade last week and Lawrence Jones this week.
Approximately 1.48 million viewers tuned in to "Fox News Tonight" on Tuesday. By comparison, Carlson averaged over 3 million total viewers per night from April 17 to 21 – the final week of "Tucker Carlson Tonight" airing on Fox News.
In Carlson's final week before being fired, episodes of "Tucker Carlson Tonight" accounted for the five most-watched programs on Fox News.
On Tuesday, "Fox News Tonight" lagged behind in the key 25-54 age demographic against the direct competition of MSNBC's "All in with Chris Haynes" and CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360."
Blaze Media CEO Tyler Cardon noted that Fox News Channel's 25-54 demographic ratings have crashed by a whopping 75% since Carlson was fired by the cable news network compared to the first-quarter ratings of this year.
\u201cSince firing Tucker Carlson, Fox News Channel\u2019s ratings in the all-important 25-54 demo have fallen off a cliff: \n\n\u20226pm ET: -42%\n\u20227pm ET: -62%\n\u20228pm ET: -75% \n\u20229pm ET: -70%\n\u202210pm ET: -66%\n\u202211pm ET: -49%\n\nOof.\u201d— Tyler Carditis (@Tyler Carditis) 1683139052
Former Fox News star Megyn Kelly called the ratings of her former employer a "bloodbath."
"Bloodbath. Not even Bud Lite (which is currently giving away its beer in an effort to get ppl to pls pls drink it) lost this much of its customer base," Kelly tweeted on Wednesday.
\u201cBloodbath.\nNot even Bud Lite (which is currently giving away its beer in an effort to get ppl to pls pls drink it) lost this much of its customer base.\u201d— Megyn Kelly (@Megyn Kelly) 1683149946
Last week, Kelly said that Fox News is "clearly determined to destroy" Carlson.
The few bright spots for Fox News in the key demo were the "The Five" hosted by Greg Gutfeld in the 5 p.m. time slot with 301,000 viewers and "Gutfeld!" in the 11 p.m. slot with 216,000 key demo viewers.
Some of the disgruntled Fox News audience may have migrated to Newsmax.
"On the day Carlson was fired, Newsmax's 8 p.m. offering — hosted by former Fox News host Eric Bolling — drew a competitive 531,000 total viewers, five times larger than a week earlier and only 200,000 behind CNN's 8 p.m. hour," according to the Washington Post. "Bolling's show got up to 562,000 on Tuesday night but then dropped to 456,000 by Thursday."
A new poll shows that Tucker could have an immediate audience if he were to launch his own independent show.
According to a Redfield & Wilton Strategies survey of 1,500 eligible U.S. voters conducted on April 30, 36% of Americans would be "significantly likely" or "likely" to watch an independent online show hosted by Carlson.
Carlson's popularity was evident in a video released on Twitter after his termination. The video went viral with over 80 million views and was liked more than 970,000 times.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Charles Barkley and Gayle King announced that they would be hosting a new CNN primetime TV show. The legendary NBA player promised that the new cable TV show would be "non-political."
"King Charles" will be a one-hour live CNN TV show that will air on primetime on Wednesdays starting this fall and running into 2024.
Barkley and King said they weren't looking for another TV job, but the couple saw the opportunity to work together as worthwhile. King appears on "CBS Mornings" and Barkley is with Warner Bros. Discovery Sports.
King said on Saturday, "What I think is so great for the both of us is that it’s live TV. To me, live TV is like working without a net. So whatever happens, happens. I like that."
Gayle noted that she and Barkley are "curious people."
When Barkley is asked what the show will look like, the sports broadcaster answered, "I want it to be non-political."
King abruptly interrupted Barkley, "But we'll talk about politics."
Barkley fired back, "We will, but we don't want to say we're a liberal, conservative, Republican, Democrat. That's one of the things that's already ruined television in general."
Barkley said he and his new co-host are both "straight shooters."
The basketball legend said, "All I want is people, even if I disagree with them, to be honest with me. I don't want them saying things to get clickbait. That's what drives me crazy about people in our profession right now."
Barkley said, "I know she's going to be fair and honest, you know I'm going to do the same thing."
King added, "Everyone I know has an opinion about something. I just think we have to figure out a way to have a good conversation without tearing each other down, I think we can do that."
When asked about what would be the topic of his show if it started today, Barkley said he would talk about mass shootings in the United States.
"You guys know I'm a pro-gun guy, but it should not be easy to get guns," Barkley said. "We got to start doing better."
King told a story of friends who are allegedly considering moving out of American because they're scared of their children being victims of gun violence in schools.
Barkley's current coworker, Shaquille O'Neal, jokingly warned King that Barkley is "very moody" and to buy him Krispy Kreme donuts to butter him up.
CNN CEO Chris Licht said in a memo, "This show will be an exciting new way we are delivering culturally relevant programming and unique perspectives to our audience, from two incredibly dynamic personalities."
Licht has struggled to find a primetime show to excel in the ratings after Chris Cuomo was fired by the network in December 2021.
CNN's ratings have tanked in recent years. Primetime ratings for CNN collapsed 61% in March — the steepest drop in viewership among the big three cable TV news networks, according to Nielsen.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
\u201cComing this fall, King Charles with Gayle King and Charles Barkley will air weekly on CNN in primetime running into 2024. Hear Gayle and Charles talk about their new show on @NBAonTNT.\u201d— CNN Communications (@CNN Communications) 1682184462
Newsmax defeated CNN in Friday's prime-time ratings to become the nation's third-highest-rated cable news channel.
When he could have stayed on script and let his popularity carry him along, he instead continued taking ever-larger risks and angering powerful people.
The RNC should think long and hard before allowing organizations that regularly marginalize conservative voices to host presidential debates.
www.theblaze.com
www.theblaze.com
thefederalist.com
Tucker Carlson More Popular Than Fox News: Poll