Survey: CNN, MSNBC Viewers Significantly More Stressed

Watching the major cable and broadcast news outlets during the coronavirus pandemic, Americans on lockdown are more than twice as likely to cry during MSNBC reports than during Fox News shows—specifically, 23 percent of MSNBC viewers have been wet-eyed and choking up versus just 10 percent of Fox News fans.

A far greater percentage of MSNBC viewers (67 percent) than Fox News viewers (45 percent) are living in fear during the lethal outbreak—which has so far killed more than 100,000 people in the United States—and the more hours they watch each day, the more terrified they become.

Fox News fans, meanwhile, are far less likely than MSNBC or CNN loyalists to follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines to wear masks, scarves, or bandanas over their faces when they venture outdoors. That is, 25 percent of Fox News viewers follow the example of President Donald Trump and go maskless, while only 14 percent of the folks tuned to MSNBC and CNN leave home without face coverings.

Those are just some of the results of the “COVID-19 American News Fear Index,” an extensive public-opinion survey of an online panel of 4,021 adults 18 and older (with a plus or minus 1.5 percent margin of error) that was released Thursday morning by Newsy, the 24-hour live-streaming news app that also reaches more than 40 million households via various cable and satellite television providers.

“Following the deadly spread of the novel coronavirus, Americans voraciously consumed news in March and April,” Newsy’s “Fear Index” reports. “And while some of the record ratings and blockbuster traffic is flattening, we’re getting a clearer picture of how heightened news consumption may have impacted our psyche, and how that impact differs depending on a viewer’s network of choice.”

The report asserts: “Upon breaking down the fear viewers feel in correlation to news networks watched, a trend emerges that those watching liberal-leaning sources tend to agree they’re significantly more scared.”

Yahoo! News reports the online survey, conducted during the final week of April by the YouGov global polling firm, determined that only 29 percent of Fox News fans feel more stressed-out and anxious than usual while watching their favorite programs, compared to a jittery 43 percent of CNN viewers. Overall, 65 percent of U.S. residents who watch the various broadcast and cable channels (namely ABC, CBS, NBC, BBC America, CNN, Fox, MSNBC, and Newsy) are worried about becoming infected with the virus.