The Foxification of the Republican Party

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Pew has one of their regular surveys of media consumption out today, and it has lots of interesting tidbits. Newspaper and radio news continue to decline, online news continues to prosper (in terms of audience, if not profitability), Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity appeal mostly to old people, and the New York Times and Wall Street Journal are the most popular destinations for in-depth reporting.

But the most interesting chart in the report is one showing how cable news viewing habits have changed since 2000:

  • Democrats: -3% (Fox), +1% (CNN), +3% (MSNBC)
  • Independents: +3% (Fox), -2% (CNN), 0 (MSNBC)
  • Republicans:
    +22% (Fox),
    -9% (CNN),
    -6% (MSNBC)

In other words, Democrats and Independents have changed their viewing habits only slightly while Republicans have flocked to Fox and dropped both CNN and MSNBC in droves. Back in 2000, it turns out, the viewing habits of all three groups were pretty similar. Since then, as Fox has steadily amped up its conservative branding, conservatives have decided that’s all they want to hear. The echo chamber must be getting pretty deafening over there.

Fact:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2024 demands.

payment methods

Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2024 demands.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate