Since the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7, all the major cable news networks have provided coverage both on the ground and in studio. And while ratings for CNN jumped and Fox News soared, MSNBC’s ratings took a steep dive.
According to Nielsen Media Research, MSNBC saw a 33 percent drop off in primetime and a 24 percent drop in overall viewership. These ratings reflect the dates from October 7 to October 10 and are in comparison with the previous week’s ratings.
In stark contrast are Fox News, which saw a jump in total viewers by 42 percent, and CNN, which saw a gain of 17 percent.
MSNBC does not typically perform as well as CNN and Fox when it comes to major foreign stories. The network has also faced some criticism, as the New York Post posits, over its coverage the conflict.
NewsNation host and Mediaite owner Dan Abrams slammed the network for its coverage, accusing hosts Ayman Mohyeldin, Mehdi Hasan, and Ali Velshi of turning the blame on the political decisions of Israel and the United States and shifting the focus on to Palestinians, away from the Israelis victimized by Hamas.
Meanwhile, NewsNation saw its ratings increase by 48 percent.
On Monday, Jonathan Greenblatt, the director of the Anti-Defamation League, appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe and lambasted the network on camera, unloading on anchor Jonathan Lemire over the coverage and asking “[W]ho’s writing the scripts? Hamas?”
