Trump says ‘fake news never wins’ as MSNBC, CNN, Morning Joe endure ratings tumble
President Trump on Thursday took aim at “Morning Joe” as well as other shows on MSNBC and CNN, calling them “fake news” and mocking their ratings plummets after the release of a summary of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.
“Wow, ratings for ‘Morning Joe,’ which were really bad in the first place, just ‘tanked’ with the release of the Mueller Report,” Trump tweeted. “Likewise, other shows on MSNBC and CNN have gone down by as much as 50%. Just shows, Fake News never wins!”
Rachel Maddow, who has consistently vied for the first or second top-rated cable news program, was sixth on Monday evening, down almost 500,000 total viewers from the previous Monday, as was MSNBC’s second top-rated program in primetime, The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell. Sean Hannity saw his ratings go up by 32 percent over his average.
The AP reported that ratings also went up for the prime-time Fox News programs hosted by Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham.
On Tuesday, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough delivered a lengthy monologue admonishing Trump supporters and media critics who used the Barr summary to discount major reporting by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and others on the Mueller investigation. He also acknowledged that while there were some “bad actors,” they didn’t represent the responsible journalism done around the report.
“What was the media supposed to do at that point? Shrug it off? No. You know the answer,” Scarborough said.