May 2018 – CNN’s viewership dropped in the past year – down by 30% of its primetime viewers and 23% of its daytime viewers, as of February 5, according to Adweek.com’s Basic Cable Ranker report.
CNN did not make the top 10 for cable primetime viewership. Fox News ranked number one, and MSNBC second. CNN’s decline may be attributed to concern over fake news as well as the network’s subversive left-wing bias.
A Barna study in April 2017 found that viewers’ distrust of fake news traced back as early as September 2016, when 38% believed media was inconsistent in coverage. Three in ten say the problem of fake news lies with viewers in misinterpreting or media exaggerating actual news. Twenty-five percent say the problem arises from mainstream media, and 13% blame conservative media.
