Friendly Fire at Faux News

[Dill]

(03-23-2018, 08:39 AM)michaelsean Wrote: Rush isn't with Fox.  There is no data that I know of that says they are shaving off 3-5% of independent voters. If everyone who watched Fox voted, and voted for a Republican, that's 2 percent. People seek out Fox.  Fox doesn't convert.  And it's still a drop in the bucket to the 3 major networks which probably get 25-30 million between them.  

How many people from the 3 major networks are on the current president's cabinet and national security council?  Which of the 3 major networks does Trump tune into everyday, once he pushes aside his "boring" PDB?

To repeat, assessing nightly audience numbers and then translating them into a proportion of voters is not a very accurate or useful way to measure the influence of a news network--especially Fox.

You know of no data showing Fox shaves off independent voters? There have been a number of studies of Fox's reach and effect on viewers. Here is one, which found that in some markets its introduction correlated to a 3-28% boost in Republican voters. https://eml.berkeley.edu/~sdellavi/wp/FoxVoteQJEAug07.pdf

Rush is carried by Fox affiliates nationwide, not to mention the coverage he gets as a guest commentator on Fox.
http://insider.foxnews.com/tag/rush-limbaugh/   He is a disseminator of Fox talking points, extending their reach.

I am surprised you speak of Fox in terms of "converting" or not.  All they have to do is continually keep alternative, disinformational narratives in the public sphere to create doubt and diversion, even among marginal viewers.  As you have phrased it, it would appear news media have no affect on viewers worldview at all. Where do people get their political views, and can the latter remain unaffected by the kind news information they do or don't get on a daily basis?