CNN called out for using out-of-date story to hide ratings collapse: 'Can't get more fake news than that'
Liberal network promotes three-month-old story touting brief ratings spike
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
CNN’s website was called out as "fake" on for misleading viewers about the network’s ratings collapse by running a three-month old story touting the liberal network’s brief post-election spike.
CNN has been hemorrhaging viewers since President Biden took office, with ratings down more than 50 percent in multiple categories since Inauguration Day – but anyone who relies on CNN’s media team would be clueless about the staggering drop.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
CNN’s media page, which is constantly updated, featured a story from Jan. 16 by in-house media pundit Brian Stelter boasting the network’s ratings were "soaring" amid a realignment in TV news. The three-month old story occupied key real estate on CNN’s media page, even getting a photograph to accompany the story placed next to recently updated top stories.
The out-of-date analysis claims CNN’s ratings were surging to historic levels, but it doesn’t inform readers the network has since taken a nosedive.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
CNN averaged 2.2 million viewers during the first three weeks of 2021, but it has averaged just one million viewers since Biden took office, a decline of 54 percent.
CNN’s struggles are even more prominent among the key advertising demographic of adults age 25-54, with a drop of 60 percent. It averaged 617,000 demo viewers from Dec. 28 through Inauguration Day but only 244,000 since Biden entered the White House, a few days after Stelter wrote the now-stale piece.
CNN editors have updated the page, as a Monday segment on the network’s morning show is among the other stories prominently covered. But the out-of-date ratings piece remained, and RealClearPolitics founder Tom Bevan called CNN out.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
"CNN media page (i.e. the page where all Brian Stelter and Oliver Darcy's work appears) still featuring a story from January 16 touting their 'soaring' ratings vs. Fox's 'sagging' ratings," Bevan wrote. "Can't get more fake news than that!"
Fox News is on pace to be the most-watched cable news network for the second month in a row among both total day and primetime viewers.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
CNN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.