Fox Noise

This is the same point I always try to make. You have these ratings queens who gloat about Fox's ratings, but there are good reasons why the ratings are what they are and one might have to do with Fox being accessible to about 25 million more viewers, of which, by the way, a piddly 1-2% of said audience tunes in. More cable providers offer Fox in basic package and MSNBC is often only included in premium packages, plus Fox has some type of deal or setup (Dish Network, I think which is owned by Murdoch) that virtually guarantees it being the only news available in bars, airports, etc. package. I've heard that in some areas of the country, MSNBC isn't even available.

On a sheer quality front, you have to ask how many people buy Bjork compared to Hootie and the Blow fish or watch predictibl

­e Hollywood box office hits compared to quality independen­t films. How many more eat at Applebee's than the authentic neighborho­od mom and pop's? I watch PBS too, which doesn't have great ratings. It's always about quality for me. Also younger, better educated folks tend to get News from a variety of sources and may watch Maddow, et. all online, which doesn't figure in Nielson's ratings. And polls have revealed that the more ignorant and older Fox viewer' tend to get their only source of news from Fox's propaganda machine. So, now, I'm done belaboring this inane rating argument once and for all.