They has a sad

It seems fewer and fewer people are buying what they’re selling

There’s a lot of talk about MSNBC ratings being down accompanied by the usual gleeful triumphalism over on the right.  I don’t pretend to fully understand the reason for this, but I must point out that it’s not just MSNBC.  The online left has seen a steep decline in traffic since the election as well, which indicates to me that our audience in general is simply not interested in following politics at the moment.

……

We’ve been through a number of elections, crises, other ups and downs over the past decade but I’ve not seen anything like the drop in interest over the past few months.  If it was just me I’d attribute it to my little project having run its course but it’s happening across the liberal media spectrum. I don’t now what the answer is, but it isn’t that there isn’t a permanent audience. There was until very recently.  It’s that the liberal audience is tuning out and one can only  assume it’s because they don’t like what they see in our politics.

It makes me a little bit more concerned for 2014/2016 than I otherwise would be.

It is their business model that is at fault. There is only a small percentage of the population who is willing to deal with the constant messaging of doom, gloom, “The Republicans want you to die” and “we’re all gonna die because you don’t want to live in a cave”.

Which is why we at RNS, while knowing things are likely to get worse before they get better, try to keep things on the lighter side. I know this and I even make it a point to not treat this as a business.

As a frequent watcher of MSNBC, I can authoritatively state that the “feel good” stories run on that channel are, more often than not, about some mishap befalling their political opposites. The crop from last week were: Michelle Bachmann’s decision to not seek another term, mocking John McCain in Syria and Bob Dole being a RINO.

I watch MSNBC for two reasons: To see what is going to be on the leftosphere the next day and to get my discussion points in opposition built early. That is how I can stand to listen/watch regularly. Otherwise, I’m pretty sure that if I were “progressive-leaning” I too would be depressed and find some sort of escape to get away from the dour folks on that station, and I would definitely stop reading the hate that oozes from the pages of the leftosphere.

Which may be why they love government so much: They’re hoping that the regulators will get rid of the other channels and the only “news channel” will be the one that kisses the President’s ass the best.