Commentary
Everyone Loves High TV Ratings -- Even The NRA
- by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, February 23, 2018
In the wake of the mass shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, many TV viewers tuned in Wednesday to watch special programming focused on these issues.
CNN had a "Town Hall" special -- "Stand Up: The Students of Stoneman Douglas Demand Action" -- which pulled in 2.9 million Nielsen viewers. MSNBC and Fox News Channel were not left out. During the same time period, Fox News Channel averaged 2.45 million viewers and MSNBC averaged 2.31 million.
NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch had some quick analysis during a conservative political event about the recent tragedy: “Many in legacy media love mass shootings.” She didn’t go into specifics.
Then she clarified a bit:“Now, I’m not saying you love the tragedy. ... I am saying you love the ratings. Crying white mothers are ratings gold.” More research is required on this. Perhaps the NRA will offer up additional data.
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References to Loesch’s comment about "ratings" really means money. Higher viewing data can be used in many cases to sell national advertising at high prices.
Yes, TV networks like high ratings. But, as everyone knows, TV networks avoid running any advertising when covering real-time tragic events, such as shootings.
Of course, what Loesch neglected to mention is that the NRA loves ratings, too -- and TV advertising.
From February 2017 to February 2018, the NRA has spent $3.4 million on national TV advertising, according to iSpot.tv. And it spent most of its TV media budget on the most highly viewed cable TV network -- Fox News Channel.
Of that $3.4 million total, virtually all of it -- $3.2 million -- was spent on Fox News Channel for many of its highest-rated TV viewing shows, such as “Tucker Carlson Tonight," “Hannity” and “The Five.”
The NRA found its true TV love: high TV ratings.
Wayne Friedman is West Coast Editor of MediaPost. You can reach Wayne at wayne@mediapost.com.
There's more hypocrisy in the right wing attack on "mainstream media" than that, Wayne. First of all, the notion that you can be at once "the number one source of cable news (Fox)", and be out of the "mainstream" is literally impossible. You are the mainstream in that case.
Second, I've spent most of my life in the TV business. No one loves "wall-to-wall" tragedy coverage for lots of reasons. The business one being all the lost revenue from not running any spots during the coverage. You can never make back that revenue. The other main one, is that news people are also human and have kids, friends and families too.
Not sure 0.89% of the country watching the Town Hall should be considered a "win" for anybody except maybe the NRA, who probably didn't want people watching.