Before the days of Nate Silver and 538 there was Reader’s Digest. Readers Digest had accurately predicted every presidential election and then came the 1936 election. They proudly announced that Al Landon would be the next president of the United States. In fact, it wasn’t going to be particularly close. They did a simple poll of all of their readers that had a home phone. Oops.

CNN didn’t make as big a blunder as Reader’s Digest, but they are facing the same kind of cruel reality. See, they are beginning to rebrand themselves as a more conservative outfit. Obviously, they can’t outfox Fox News and they certainly don’t want to go crazy like OAN or Newsmax, so they will struggle to find their place in the landscape.

See, most networks focus their attention on the 18-49 demographic group. They are usually the group with the most disposable income, children in school, and make up a majority of the population. Fox learned a long time ago that they weren’t the key demographic to focus on. They focused on the 50+ crowd. Two things are happening that impact the traditional way that television networks look at news coverage. First, the under 50 crowd doesn’t watch nearly as much news. We consume television differently. It’s hard to say whether that will change for us as we approach our fifties. Maybe we will be different from our parents.

The second factor is one area where we will never go back. We cut the cord over ten years ago and is it turned out we were slightly ahead of the curve. As it turns, the under 50 crowd makes up a huge majority of those cutting the cord. Cutting the cord may or may not impact network shows. Essentially, streaming services like Hulu, Paramount Plus, and Peacock offer those shows after the fact.

So, CNN is learning the hard way that there are fewer and fewer people in that key 18-49 group there to watch their network. That leaves the over 50 crowd and the over 50 crowd skews conservative. So, of course they will try to do the same. It’s probably the same reason that talk radio has always been conservative as well. It’s simple demographics.

It makes perfect sense when you think about it. Watch the commercials on network television the next time you actually have access to it. During the day, it is focused at people that likely aren’t working. Why aren’t they working? Personal injury? Need more training? Let’s show a Jim Adler commercial or a ITT Technical Tech commercial. If it’s something like Fox then maybe it’s alternative investing options like gold or reverse mortgages. Maybe it’s one of those apparatus’ that puts on your socks for you. Advertisers have figured it out. It was only a matter of time for CNN.

This is both scary and hopeful at the same time. On the hopeful end, nothing will ever be as bad or scary as it seems. The mainstream media will seemingly have us believing that the world is more dangerous and more right wing than what we think. If the only real options are right wing news then that will be who gets to shape the narrative. The American public is actually more progressive than those sources want you to believe.

The bad news is that people do not remain stagnant. They will change based on the information they receive. If they only receive information skewed to the right then they will also shift to the right. MSNBC has cast their lot. Fox, Newsmax, and OANN have cast their lot. CNN will need to be creative to find their niche in the market. Fox unfortunately has a head start.

I was going through social media yesterday minding my own business when I came along this little nugget. As most people know, OAN is basically Fox News if Fox were underfunded, less talented, and somehow even more extreme. Well, it seems Verizon has decided to cut ties with them which means they will not be on any cable packages and they currently don’t have anyone to stream them. What comes next is truly bizarre.

OAN host makes an urgent plea to liberals to help save the network after Verizon dropped them: “It is absolutely crucial that, for once, we defy the powers that be, we all come together, set aside our differences in a unified effort.” pic.twitter.com/JifUTD5PCI

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) July 27, 2022

Listen, I could go in any number of directions here, but I suppose I’ll play the straight man for now. Exactly what do we get for this assistance that we would give? I would have to assume this would be somehow transactional because you honestly aren’t making the “the world is a better place with all of us in it” argument are you? Are you talking détente? Is this a truce? Exactly how long would that last?

What you are seeing above is this same Steinberg having a meltdown over a pride flag in Huntington Beach. Yeah, I suppose she can claim it was when she was young and naïve. She’s matured now and is ready to reach across the isle. The picture from this video came on June 22, 2022. It happens to be the Carraway’s anniversary and it wasn’t that long ago. I could add more here, but you get the idea of who we’re dealing with.

A couple of years ago they found a gator in the green space behind our house. Fortunately, it never came close enough to us for us to see firsthand, but we do know that we’ve lost three cats since we’ve moved here. Maybe it wasn’t the gator. Maybe it was one of the owls. It could have been the wild pigs, armadillos, raccoons, or possums. These things deserve to exist on their own and I won’t go out of my way to get rid of them. I’m also not inviting them into our backyard. Wild animals don’t reciprocate or change their nature because you are nice to them. I wish Ms. Steinburg and her colleagues the best in the same sense that I don’t wish death and destruction on anyone. I’m not going to go out of the way to help those wild animals. Those wild animals would surely kill my other cats, dog, and my family if given the chance.

One of the things I’ve noticed on social media lately are the cries from conservatives that liberals were apparently rooting for Donald Trump to die when he had COVID. Yet, they are all adults and none of them have wished death on Joe Biden. See, they are the adults and those that believe in civility unlike all of these nasty liberals. Of course, they forget that we have receipts.

Unhinged One America News anchor Alison Steinberg suggests Joe Biden’s covid is a false flag to perhaps get people to accept vaccine boosters or to install Kamala Harris at president. #OANN pic.twitter.com/yJYU4Rc0pu

— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) July 22, 2022

I know many of you do not follow Twitter, so I need to add to this little gem. Steinberg later went on a private twitter video off air where she gleefully asked her followers if Joe Biden would die. Naturally, I first saw this in one of my social media echo chambers and the comments got pretty sarcastic when it came to her fashion and beauty choices. I’m just a simple guy, so I won’t get into any of that.

I only have two points when it comes to all of this. First of all, my memory may be a bit fuzzy, but I don’t remember anyone on MSNBC, The Young Turks, or any prominent member of the progressive media wishing death on Donald Trump. Of course, I don’t spend all my waking hours watching those channels or networks. Hell, I don’t watch a whole lot of television to begin with. So, maybe someone could help me out there. If I’ve missed a major progressive politician or news anchor wishing death on Donald Trump please provide the receipts.

We had an election where over 150 million people voted. More than 80 million voted for Joe Biden and against the former guy. There is absolutely a non-zero chance that a few of those 80 million people might have uttered those sentiments out loud. There’s a decent chance it was more than a few. I’m not answering for them. I refuse to. What I will do is apply pressure on any elected official or prominent talking head to clean up their act. However, I tend to doubt that I will have to do that.

Furthermore, this ignores the irony that the former guy gaslit the nation about the dangers of the virus and then ended up getting it. He spread it to others and allegedly attempted to spread it to more (including Joe Biden) knowingly and on purpose. More than a million people are dead and the vast majority probably didn’t need to die. I certainly don’t condone wishing death on anyone, but many of those people probably lost family members to the virus and maybe some close friends. Maybe those family members and close friends neglected to wear masks or vaccinate because their commander in chief said that was okay. I can’t condone anything, but under those conditions I certainly understand it.

First, here’s the good news – since the election, CNN is beating Fox News in average viewers.  Now the bad news – Fox and CNN both are losing to Newsmax.  Why?  Fox isn’t “Trumpy” enough for the red hats, but still unwatchable for normal people.  Newsmax and an even worse OAN have taken over the alt-right folks who are abandoning Fox in droves as more of their anchors have acknowledged that Trump has no chance of stealing the election from Biden.  If you’ve never watched Newsmax and OAN, don’t bother.  By way of description, if Fox News is manure, Newsmax and OAN are nuclear waste.  They have created a Superfund site of toxic and deadly conspiracy theories, gross exaggerations, and freeform lying.  And Trumpists lap it up. Since the election CNN has averaged 1.73 million viewers, more than double a year ago. Fox News Channel averaged 1.56 million and MSNBC 1.53 million viewers.  More important, Newsmax, a safe haven for delusional Trumpists to hide from gravity and arithmetic, Newsmax beat Fox for the first time ever.  Newsmax commentators, even today, continue to peddle the lies that Trump is going to prevail over Biden.

Newsmax and OAN (as well as some remaining Fox programming) engage in prodigious lying, creating toxic propaganda that has now made it impossible for normal people to engage their viewers in any kind of productive debate.  In recent days, I’ve attempted discourse with several people, and it’s like arguing with an audio recording that’s running backwards.  These folks have bought in to the Dominion fairytale, the suitcases full of ballots narrative, and even the new “Office of the President-Elect” story ignoring the decades of the use of that term.  Even talking to these folks is exhausting because you simply can’t make any progress.

Even though Trump will soon be hiding at Mar a Lago and fighting criminal and civil charges in New York, the damage he inflicted and made recovery of our democracy even more remote.  I personally don’t see a route to recovery.