Media Critic: CNN, MSNBC 'One Trick Ponies'

The second quarter of 2021 saw viewers ditch CNN and MSNBC in droves as experts wonder if the liberal networks can ever recover from a “serious credibility problem” they created by relying on former President Donald Trump for success while ignoring internal gaffes and scandals, reports The NYPost. 

“CNN and MSNBC were one-trick ponies, and that trick was bashing Trump,” Cornell Law School professor and media critic William A. Jacobson told Fox News. 

“Now that Trump no longer is president, they have tried to keep up the mania, but it’s hard. The audience has disappeared because it never was loyal to CNN and MSNBC hosts, it was loyal to Trump hatred,” Jacobson added. “It’s not hard to imagine executives at CNN and MSNBC saying nightly prayers that Trump runs for president in 2024.”

MSNBC averaged only 847,000 viewers during the second quarter and CNN settled for a dismal 654,000. By comparison, Fox News averaged 1.2 million during the same time period to finish No. 1 in all of basic cable. CNN failed to crack the one-million viewer threshold during the primetime hours of 8-11 p.m. ET, while MSNBC lost to CNN among the key demographic of adults age 25-54. 

Fox News contributor Joe Concha thinks a significant credibility crisis at CNN and MSNBC is going to keep vanishing viewers. 

“Q3 will be even worse in looking at the trends for both networks, if that’s possible. The numbers are where they are because of two things: Their myopic ratings hook, Donald Trump, isn’t around anymore. But more importantly, these networks have a serious credibility problem,” Concha said, noting that left-wing stars from each network have recently generated negative headlines but went unpunished. 

“When [CNN host] Chris Cuomo, for example, a primetime anchor, provides advice to his brother and his staff on how to beat back multiple allegations of sexual harassment, and the network does nothing in terms of reprimand and even awards him more airtime, that resonates with viewers,” Concha said. 

“When [MSNBC host] Joy Reid refers to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as Uncle Clarence, that’s blatant racism on a national platform,” Concha added. “And when the network does nothing, that also tells viewers – the sane ones – to perhaps look elsewhere.” 

CNN also shocked viewers when it welcomed back chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin after an embarrassing scandal of his own. Concha feels “trust will never be restored,” because “that would require these networks and the egos that occupy them to stop making themselves the story and report more than opine.”

Meanwhile, Fox News reports CNN personalities are getting defensive after former President Trump mocked the liberal network's dramatic ratings free fall. 

If I had incited and inspired a deadly insurrection and attempt to undo American democracy I might not be out there bragging about how many viewers it had. On any channel.

But maybe that’s just me, I’m a different breed of cat. https://t.co/6tE6pC3B74

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) June 29, 2021

Tapper, who is widely regarded as CNN's most professional journalist, retaliated with a swipe against the former president.