Show an ad over header. AMP

Trump's election loss has upended America's news landscape

09 December 2020
Dan Ackermann

President Trump's election loss has upended America's news landscape, cementing a parallel universe on the right where even Fox News isn't Trumpy enough for millions of his diehards.

Why it matters: The coming diffusion of news across many easily-accessible streaming channels will likely cause Americans to become even further entrenched in their own, partisan filter bubbles. This could lead to the most profound change in news consumption that America has seen in decades.

After years of dominance in cable ratings by Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, CNN in the past few weeks has pulled ahead consistently for the first time since 9/11.

  • In the week ending Sunday, CNN averaged 1.73 million viewers in Nielsen ratings — more than double from a year ago, AP reports. Fox News had 1.56 million. MSNBC had 1.53 million.

What's happening: Fox News is facing unprecedented competition from a pair of insurgent conservative cable challengers that are finding a gold mine in pandering to Trump loyalists who want to believe he still has a chance.

  • On Monday, ratings for Newsmax passed Fox for the first time ever, CNN's Brian Stelter reports.
  • As the Biden era begins, MSNBC has seen ratings gains for some daytime programs and for Rachel Maddow's marquee 9 p.m. show.

So Fox News' powerful primetime lineup, which has led cable news ratings for years, now has a two-front war: upstarts Newsmax and One America News (OAN), and tougher competition from traditional rivals CNN and MSNBC.

  • Fox News still led all cable networks last week, with an average of 2.65 million viewers. ESPN had 2.45 million, MSNBC had 2.18 million, CNN had 1.92 million and Hallmark had 1.67 million, per AP.
  • Fox said it had its highest-rated November ever.

Our thought bubble: The inevitable transition from cable to streaming means that it's unlikely that three networks will dominate the political news landscape, as they have for the past 24 years.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

Section2

Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.