OAN’s James Meyers
1:42 PM – Thursday, October 12, 2023
News Network MSNBC lost 33% of its primetime viewers since the deadly Hamas attack on Israel.
The news channel has been heavily criticized for their refusal to label Hamas assailants as “terrorists” during its coverage of the conflict.
MSNBC, which is home to progressive commentators like Rachel Maddow, Joy Reid, and Lawrence O’Donnell, had its total viewership drop 24% for the four days between October 7th and the 10th compared to the same period the week prior.
With the drop-off, media rival Fox News has seen a 42% increase in total viewership and CNN saw a 17% rise as new CNN boss Mark Thompson stepped into his position this week.
Fox won the ratings battle easily during the four-day period, averaging 2.1 million. According to Nielsen, MSNBC took second with 960,000 and CNN took in 760,000 viewers.
MSNBC reportedly angered viewers for continuously running a joint death-toll graphic that illustrated the number of all casualties together from both Israel and Gaza, differing from other networks who separated the number of Israelis killed from those killed in Gaza.
Earlier this week, NewsNation host Dan Abrams also called out anchors Ayman Mohyeldin, Ali Velshi, and Mehdi Hasan for saying that the Hamas attack was a result of the United States and Israel’s “failed policies.”
“Right. It’s Israel’s fault. It’s the United States fault,” Abrams said mockingly on Monday. “The policies that somehow justify or even explain the slaughter, rapes, and kidnapping of innocent civilians.”
“And that ridiculous commentary set the tone for much of MSNBC’s coverage throughout the weekend, where many hosts seemed determined to say, ‘Well, what about the Palestinians?’”
“Look, this is not a both-sides story, period,” Abrams said. noting that since Saturday, the network has made 441 references to Hamas terrorists or “the fighters”– in an effort to avoid calling them “terrorists.”
Additionally, veteran anchor Andrea Mitchell also faced scrutiny for distastefully asking an Israeli mother, whose 12 and 16-year-old sons were kidnapped by Hamas, about Israeli air strike retaliation in the Gaza Strip.
The mother was caught off guard by the question and extremely emotional, saying: “I can’t be sympathetic to animal-human beings — well, they’re not really human beings — who came into my house, broke everything, stole everything, took my children from their bedrooms and took them to the Gaza Strip.”
Meanwhile, Fox News reporter Trey Yingst has been commended for his heroic coverage of the war so far.
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