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President Biden opined on cable news ratings during his press conference highlighting his first year in office, while acknowledging he wasn't certain if what he was saying was true.
Toward the end of his marathon press conference on Wednesday, Biden was asked if the issue of Democrat-imposed school closures could become a political issue Republicans can run in the 2022 midterm elections.
Biden initially responded by saying "it could be," but went on a tangent about how voters are becoming aware of the "motives" of political parties and that they wouldn't easily believe the "outlandish things" that are said. He then knocked what he suggested was the media's selective coverage of his latest poll numbers, which have cratered in recent months.
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"The American public are trying to sift their way through what's real and what’s fake," Biden said. "And I don’t think as I’ve ever seen a time when the political coverage -- the choice of what political coverage the voter looks to has much impact on what they believe. They go to get reinforced on their views, whether it's MSNBC or whether it's Fox."
President Biden answers questions during a news conference in the East Room of the White House on Jan. 19, 2022, in Washington, D.C. With his approval rating hovering around 42%, Biden is approaching the end of his first year in the Oval Office with inflation rising, COVID-19 surging and his legislative agenda stalled on Capitol Hill. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
"And one of the things I find fascinating that's happening, and you all deal with it every day -- and it will impact on how things move -- is that a lot of the speculation and the polling data shows that the, um, that the, uh, cables are heading south. They're losing viewership," Biden said. "Fox is OK for a while, but it's not great. And a lot of the rest are predicted to be not very much in the mix in the next four to five years. I don't know if that's true or not. But I do know that we have sort of put everybody in -- put themselves in certain alleys, and they've decided that, you know, how many people who watch MSNBC also watch Fox another politician trying to find out what's going on in both places."
"Again, I'm no expert in any of this, but the fact is, I think you have to acknowledge that what gets covered now is necessarily a little bit different than what gets covered in the past," the president added.
Well, as he acknowledged, Biden is no expert about cable news ratings, particularly the success Fox News Channel has had during his presidency.
President Biden answers questions during a news conference in the East Room of the White House on Jan. 19, 2022, in Washington, D.C. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Year over year, Fox News surged 11% in total day viewership last week and secured 73 out of the top 100 cable telecasts. Fox News also marked 22 straight weeks defeating the ratings of CNN and MSNBC combined.
Meanwhile, MSNBC is down 62% in total day viewership compared to the same week in 2021. CNN had even a rougher time, plummeting nearly 80% in total day viewership since a year ago.
Fox News finished off 2021 as the most-watched network across all of basic cable for the sixth straight year.
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Fox News averaged 1.3 million viewers from the start of 2021 through Dec. 13, while no other basic cable offering cracked the one-million viewer barrier. MSNBC finished second with an average audience of 915,000 and CNN settled for third place with 783,000.
Fox News dominated the primetime hours of 8-11 p.m. ET, averaging 2.4 million viewers compared to 1.7 million for second-place ESPN. MSNBC averaged 1.5 million viewers to finish fourth, as CNN held off HGTV for the fourth spot by averaging 1.1 million primetime viewers. Fox News was the only cable network to finish with over two million viewers in primetime and one million in total day.
Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.
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