Fox News Ad Targets CNN's Heavily Democratic Audience

The Fox News Channel has taken out an ad in Monday's Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and trade publication Multichannel News highlighting recent findings from a study by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, which found that Fox News' audience is more balanced along party lines than either CNN's or MSNBC's.

The ad, exclusively obtained by the Huffington Post, targets CNN specifically, inserting the word "partisan" into CNN's "CNN = Politics" logo to read, "CNN = Partisan Politics" and declaring Fox News "The Only Fair & Balanced News Network." This may prove to be a particularly damaging charge, as CNN has sought to define itself as the independent alternative to partisan programming on its competitors (which, in addition to the fact that MSNBC trails both Fox and CNN in the ratings by wide margins, is presumably, why the ad targets CNN with no mention of MSNBC).

The study found that 51% of CNN's regular viewers are Democrats, compared to 18% Republicans. Fox News' audience leans Republican but is more balanced overall, with 39% of regular viewers declaring themselves Republicans compared to 33% declaring themselves Democrats. MSNBC's regular audience is 45% Democrat and 18% Republican.

See the ad below:

Excerpt from Pew study below (download the entire report here):

The general public has become more Democratic since 2006, and this is reflected in the audiences for leading TV news outlets. The audiences for CNN and MSNBC, which were heavily Democratic two years ago, have become even more so: fully 51% of CNN's regular viewers are Democrats while only 18% are Republicans. MSNBC's audience makeup is similar - 45% of regular viewers of MSNBC are Democrats, 18% are Republicans.

The regular audience for nightly network news also is now about two-to-one Democratic (45% vs. 22% Republican). In 2006, 40% of the regular viewers of nightly network news were Democrats compared with 28% who were Republicans.

The regular audience for the Fox News Channel continues to include more Republicans than Democrats. Currently, 39% of regular Fox News viewers are Republicans while 33% are Democrats; in 2006, the margin was 38% to 31%.

Comments

[MrWampler]

Is this the first time a network/cable attacked another? I cannot recall ABC running an ad that said, "NBC sucks." Or Cartoon Network disparaging Nickelodeon.

[OB08]

The reason why FOX is behind all of the other networks in the ratings is because they are the most biased and deliberately lies to its audience. Besides who wants to turn in and hear Hannity and that BO clown rant and rage their anger towards President Obama because they cannot bear to see a black man running for president. You can sugar coat it all you want, most people out there who claimed they don't want to vote for President Obama because of some excuse is hiding behind the fact that they do not want a black man to win. Let me remind you President Obama is half white and half black.

[OsamaBinLimbaugh]

All that this says is that Conservatives are loyalist and lockstep. No news here.

[thecanadian]

Fox you say - Oh this just has to be a buddy of McCains - maybe his twin!
Very funny - check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tJjNVVwRCY&NR=1

[Concerned1]

I stopped watching FOX because it is so ANTI-OBAMA and Hannity puts so much hate when he speaks his name. FOX is not fair and balanced. He spews hate and old garbage news that was already talked about.

[ConcernedAboutRFuture]

If I may correct you please.....Hannity spews NO news.....just lies and spin from the crooks in the white house.

[NCIndependenthinker]

The Pew study talks about VIEWERS not CONTENT; therefore, the entire ad is illogical. One can be partisan about one's content, not who is watching the content. But, hey FAUX, don't let the facts get in the way of a great story.

[trinidadgirl]

Start with Msnbc.keith O at 8.00 p.m and then rachel maddow at 9.00 p.m.
All the rest are people cynical, snide, and slanderous, stuck in the times with broad based entertainment for news which recycles itself every hour on the hour,
On another note, what has happened to Anderson Cooper. Why is he always sounding so incredibly vacuous? Is this what cloning does?
These guys have no spine and need some re training to authenticity.

[boogygran]

Right on, I'm for keith and rachel as well, and as far as A Cooper, I used to enjoy his show a few years back when he was fresh and seemed to speak for himself, but not any more. Can't deal with their talking heads like borger etc. Lou dobbs the fomenting egocentric was the first cnn show I quit watching, and now the only person I miss from that station is Jack Cafferty.

[YouDisgustMe]

nobody cares who the viewers are....the question should be about news coverage and whether its skewed to one side or not

fox is a joke

[BobsNotWorking]

CNN is worse than FOX because they attempt to hide their right-wing bias.

[Kim445588]

Good point.

[metys]

I watch Fox ...

- to know what the right wing extremists are saying
- because I'm open enough to hear others point of view
- when I want to laugh

Fox "fair and balanced" ? please ... let's get serious a sec.

That survey merely states the obvious : dems are less narrowminded than repubs. period.

[Nofuzzydreams]

The fact is CNN and MSNBC are biased towards Obama and Fox is biased towards the Republicans but at least a lot less so this year. Between Hillary and Obama Fox was stunningly neutral. For CNN and MSNBC, well we know "a chill running up their legs" when talking about Obama. They are definitely and clearly biased.

[metys]

MSNBC ? ok you got that.
CNN ? hmm ... I don't recall haven't heard anyone there saying they got "a chill running up their leg". Your generalization seems a little too hasty.

[trinidadgirl]

Huh? Fox,neutral for Obama?

[drumz]

You may not dream fuzzy but your logic sure is.

[Kim445588]

Huh? A month of Rev W. "Terror. fist bump"

Do you jest?

[Norsky]

THis is what we really need. Attack ads for pseudo news organizations. God, They have all been watching the political campaigns too closely and now they think this is the way to go.

What a bunch of self absorbed rubes.

[suuzie]

F@@k Fox and CNN

[cdwsr78]

YEEEAAAAAHHH!!!!!!!

[PatriciaB]

All the Repubs I know watch FOX because they say it tells their side of things--I would call that they think Fox is biased!!!

[KISSman]

This is like a Republican smear campaign that omits the facts. Studies have proven their partisan reporting even if the audience isn't as lop-sidedly partisan.

The fact that IS clear in this study is that Republicans don't watch nearly as much cable news as Democrats do (as they prefer to remain ignorant). Democrats are starving for knowledge and some are even desperate enough to watch Fox News.

It's pretty sad (but not surprising) that Republican viewership doesn't equate to 40% on ANY of the three networks even though our nation is generally evenly divided between Reps and Dems. They're probably too busy watching mind-numbing reality shows instead.