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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowAs a Democrat who immersed himself in political news during the presidential campaign, Ziad Aunallah has much in common with many Americans since the election. He’s tuned out.
“People are mentally exhausted,” said Aunallah, 45, of San Diego. “Everyone knows what is coming and we are just taking some time off.”
Television ratings—and now a new poll—clearly illustrate the phenomenon. About two-thirds of American adults say they have recently felt the need to limit media consumption about politics and government because of overload, according to the survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Smaller percentages of Americans are limiting their intake of news about overseas conflicts, the economy or climate change, the poll says. Politics stand out.
Election news on CNN and MSNBC was taking up too much of Sam Gude’s time before the election, said the 47-year-old electrician from Lincoln, Nebraska. “The last thing I want to watch right now is the interregnum,” said Gude, a Democrat and no fan of President-elect Donald Trump.
Poll finds more Democrats than Republicans stepping away from news
The poll, conducted in early December, found that about 7 in 10 Democrats say they are stepping back from political news. The percentage isn’t as high for Republicans, who have reason to celebrate Trump’s victory. Still, about 6 in 10 Republicans say they’ve felt the need to take some time off, too, and the share for independents is similar.
The differences are far starker for the TV networks that have been consumed by political news.
After election night through Dec. 13, the prime-time viewership of MSNBC was an average of 620,000, down 54% from the pre-election audience this year, the Nielsen company said. For the same time comparison, CNN’s average of 405,000 viewers was down 45%.
At Fox News Channel, a favorite news network for Trump fans, the post-election average of 2.68 million viewers is up 13%, Nielsen said. Since the election, 72% of the people watching one of those three cable networks in the evening were watching Fox News, compared to 53% prior to election day.
A post-election slump for fans of the losing candidate is not a new trend for networks that have become heavily identified for a partisan audience. MSNBC had similar issues after Trump was elected in 2016. Same for Fox in 2020, although that was complicated by anger: many of its viewers were outraged then by the network’s crucial election night call of Arizona for the Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden, and sought alternatives.
MSNBC had its own anger issues after several “Morning Joe” viewers became upset that hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski visited Trump shortly after his victory last month. Yet while the show’s ratings are down 35% since Election Day, that’s a smaller drop than the network’s prime-time ratings.
CNN points out that while it has been suffering in the television ratings, its streaming and digital ratings have been consistent.
Will political interest rebound when Trump takes office?
MSNBC can take some solace in history. In previous years, network ratings bounce back when the depression after an election loss lifts. When a new administration takes office, people who oppose it are frequently looking for a gathering place.
“I’ll be tuning back in once the clown show starts,” Aunallah said. “You have no choice. Whether or not you want to hear it, it’s happening. If you care about your country, you have no choice but to pay attention.”
But the ride may not be smooth. MSNBC’s slide is steeper than it was in 2016; and there’s some question about whether Trump opponents will want to be as engaged as they were during his first term. People are also unplugging from cable television in rates that are only getting more rapid, although MSNBC believes it has bucked this trend eating away at audiences before.
The poll indicates that Americans want less talk about politics from public figures in general. After an election season where endorsements from celebrities like Taylor Swift made headlines, the survey found that Americans are more likely to disapprove than approve of celebrities, large companies and professional athletes speaking out about politics.
Still, Gude is among those discovering other ways to get news to which he does want to pay attention, including on YouTube.
MSNBC is also in the middle of some corporate upheaval that raises questions about potential changes. Parent company Comcast announced last month that the cable network is among some properties that will spin off into a new company, which will give MSNBC new corporate leadership and cut its ties to NBC News.
Advice for networks who want to see the viewers return
Some of the Americans who have turned away from political news lately also had some advice for getting them engaged again.
Gude said, for example, that MSNBC will always have a hard-core audience of Trump haters. But if the network wants to expand its audience, “then you have to talk about issues, and you have to stop talking about Trump.”
Kathleen Kendrick, a 36-year-old sales rep from Grand Junction, Colorado, who’s a registered independent voter, said she hears plenty of people loudly spouting off about their political opinions on the job. She wants more depth when she watches the news. Much of what she sees is one-sided and shallow, she said.
“You get a story but only part of a story,” Kendrick said. “It would be nice if you could get both sides, and more research.”
Aunallah, similarly, is looking for more depth and variety. He’s not interested “in watching the angry man on the corner yelling at me anymore,” he said.
“It’s kind of their own fault that I’m not watching,” he said. “I felt they spent all this time talking about the election. They made it so much of their focus that when the main event ends, why would people want to keep watching?”
The poll of 1,251 adults was conducted Dec. 5-9, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
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It is important that all pay attention to the news and as appropriate, disinformation being disseminated. Whether the president-elect a fascist is debatable; however, actions paralleling those implemented in Germany several decades ago are indisputable. One must watch and pray and be vigilant. Beware of the false prophet.
Is the president-elect a lamentable choice for president — probably. More than anything, the behaviour in 2021 where then president trump allowed mayhem and hooliganism to continue in an effort to overturn an election he squarely lost was and remains inexcusable and shameful as history documents. However, the people have spoken and the transition, questionable appointments notwithstanding, is in full fateful swing. Will inflation fall immediately — unlikely. And, should it fall, that will be due to the tough measures undertaken in the Biden administration.
Are all policies of the ex-president/president-elect bad, of course not. A strong US and a strong policy toward China and adversaries is essential. But suppression of free speech is undesired. Attacks on false information and suing for defamation is the US way — for those with funds to do so. More worrisome is the perception of purchased positions granted wealthy donors and supporters who expect pet projects be assured and, apparently, the musk/trump administration appears amenable to consider actions that please monied supporters. This may not serve the administration and certainly not most citizens well.
The hypocrisy regarding the debt ceiling will be on full display in a few months. Massive tax reductions for businesses — corporate welfare run amok — will massively increase the deficit that so-called fiscal conservatives have long called to be reduced. The previous tax cut did however result in stockholder benefits and company net worth but few benefit trickled down to the masses of ardent president-elect supporters. Nor did jobs with long-term sustainable wages and benefits occur. The border should be secured and funds should be made available for physical, control, and administration measures to ensure immigrants are vetted, and that includes all immigrants be they from lands south of the US, Asia, and Europe. But how will construction occur cost effectively in Texas, for example, once so-called low-wage illegal workers disappear. And in the meat processing centers in the Midwest and South, for example, who will replace the [many] workers without legal residence.
Do we face a national crisis? Should the US become more isolationist and will this render the US great. Will the axis Washington-Moscow control the world. Will Ukraine cease to exist. The administration has much to do. But Congress has much to check.
You can detach from the news if you paid attention on history classes, because much of what’s going to happen the next four years happened in the past, and the outcome during the Trump administration just isn’t going to be different.
I am just amazed that people who saw the exhausting chaos of the first administration and … signed up for more.