Thursday, June 10, 2004

Reagan's death is drawing people to TV, but not like a real news story, according to The New York Times:

Beginning Saturday, the day Mr. Reagan died, and continuing for three days afterward, Fox News drew an average of 828,000 viewers, 11 percent over the same period a year ago and 10 percent over its average viewership last month, according to figures from Nielsen Media Research provided by Fox and CNN.

During the same four-day period, CNN was watched by an average of 477,000 viewers, an increase of 12 percent from a year ago and 7 percent from May. MSNBC's coverage was watched by an average of 231,000 viewers, roughly the same number who watched during the same period a year ago and an increase of 5 percent over May.

During the three days that began with the capture of Mr. Hussein, by contrast, Fox News drew nearly twice as many viewers (1.6 million) as it has the last four days, CNN drew more than twice as many (1.1 million), and MSNBC's viewership was more than 50 percent greater (388,000), according to Nielsen figures provided by Fox.


A nation grieves? Well, maybe not an entire nation....

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