CNN is in the grip of a crisis. Variety reports that its prime time ratings slipped 21% in February, while the FNC juggernaut added 18% to its viewership. FNC now has just under two and a half times the audience of Ted Turner's baby. Extrapolating from the reported figures, FNC added 240,000 viewers, while CNN lost 123,000.

If these raw number changes in viewership continue for just one more month, FNC will have three and half times the audience of CNN. At that point, CNN starts to become an asterisk in  he marketplace.

The picture is not much brighter for MSNBC. Staring from a smaller base, it lost 14% of its prime time audience, and 15% of its overall audience.

Unquestionably, Fox News Channel has become the dominant force in its industry. As broadcast network news continues to decline, it will become the dominant news source in the United States. The rest of the industry has voluntarily relinquished their hold on the audience by fidelity to liberal ideology, in the face of a public becoming more skeptical and more conservative.

Thomas Lifson  3 02 05