Not that we don’t watch CNN, but, as Inside Cable News has noted, something seems fishy with TVNewser’s latest coverage of CNN’s ratings. The Mediabistro blog site curiously highlighted CNN’s “cume” numbers from one of the network’s recent ratings press releases — an interesting move since cumes hold no significance whatsoever.
Talking cumes has been CNN’s talking point for years now. However, the data holds absolutely no meaning; in fact, network insiders should be embarrassed to tout that point because all it really means is that they’ve truly become the dinosaur in cable news. That is, people have been conditioned to tune into them, but then they immediately tune out because it doesn’t interest them. They tune out so fast that Nielsen doesn’t even calculate it. The data, as many researchers have noted, holds little relevancy or meaning.
Meanwhile, TVNewser is supposed to be the must-read on cable news and doesn’t even point that fact out, but instead highlights it as a triumph for CNN? Stop the presses!
