CNN's ratings will keep dropping as long as the cable news network continues to protect liberal ideology, says conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh.
"It is the primacy of the ideology," Limbaugh commented Thursday on his program. "
Liberalism can never be seen as a failure. Liberalism can never be seen as a drag financially. Liberalism can never be seen in a negative light. And so as far as CNN's concerned, there's nothing wrong."
CNN gave pink slips to more than 40 journalists last month as the struggling network seeks to restructure its news operations. Most of the layoffs were in the Washington, Los Angeles and Atlanta bureaus.
Jeff Zucker, the new head of CNN who came to the network a year ago from NBC, has instituted many changes to the programming lineup, adding more entertainment specials and documentary reality series, such as celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain’s show and the upcoming Chicagoland, a political reality series. But Limbaugh said the changes have failed to reverse a declining audience, adding that he finds it "stunning" that CNN, once the leader in the network news market, hasn't reacted more to its drastic drop in viewership.
"They don't act on it, and they'll be used by Time Warner as a loss leader, and the losses that they incur will be ate up elsewhere in the company," he said.
"May of 2012 was the lowest level since May of 2011, and May of 2011 was the lowest level since May of 2010. I mean, they have been in a steady nosedive," he continued.
Nielsen ratings show that the 25-to-54-year-old demographic, most coveted by advertisers, is increasingly tuning out on CNN. Last week, the network averaged just 78,000 viewers for the whole day, and 98,000 in prime time, its lowest level since May 2012.
"This is the one-year anniversary of Jeff Zucker, the 'mastermind' of the Today show and MSNBC, coming in to fix this, and they continue to stick to this template," Limbaugh said.
"The fact is they're just like anybody else in the liberal media, and they are celebrated, they are honored," said Limbaugh, who observed that in old days of television news "heads rolled and massive changes" took place when viewership dropped.
"The corruption of everything, achievement-wise, that the left touches, to me is just remarkable," he said.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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