Daily Beast: “Signaling a seismic shift in the media landscape as defeated former president Donald Trump hibernates in strangely silent exile at Mar-a-Lago, Fox News’ two-decade-long winning streak came to an abrupt end Tuesday while rivals CNN and MSNBC claimed the No. 1 and No. 2 rankings, respectively, in all of cable television. Fox News’ embarrassing third-place showing is the continuation of a downward trend in which the right-leaning outlet lost 2020’s fourth quarter to CNN and alienated Trump-supporting loyal viewers by calling Arizona early for Joe Biden during its election-night coverage.”
“This unwelcome development is predictably prompting internal panic among staffers, who fear it will result in additional job losses after recent layoffs – and gloating among detractors. ‘Fox has seen ratings dips before and has always come back. But there’s no denying this is disastrous for them,’ said a former on-air Fox News personality, asking not to be further identified. ‘They were out-crazied on the right,’ said television entrepreneur Jonathan Klein, the former president of CNN, noting that two of Fox News’ farther-right competitors benefited from viewers’ post-election anger. ‘One America News and Newsmax were more willing to provide the heroin that conspiracy addicts were looking for.’ Klein added: ‘For years Fox has been denying climate change, denying that social inequity exists, denying that Obama was a citizen. So they’ve bred a sizable chunk of viewers who routinely deny the truth – and those viewers punished Fox News the moment they reported that Biden won Arizona, and they haven’t stopped. It’s like when that chimp you raised from a baby tears your face off. Now the question is what is Rupert Murdoch willing to do to get them back?'”