CNN has been trapped in the ratings cellar.
The network offloaded Brian Stelter and others, but viewers still stayed away.
And Stelter got a gut punch after promoting his new book.
Former CNN host Brian Stelter struggled to draw ratings on his comically named show Reliable Sources.
Stelter has also struggled to generate interest for not one, but two books attacking Fox News.
Stelter’s latest book, “Network of Lies,” sold under 4,000 copies despite aggressive marketing from major book publisher Simon & Schuster.
Liberal outlet Mediaite reported, “Stelter’s book sold 3,807 copies in its first week, according to Nielsen BookScan. Those numbers are down 82% from his previous book about Fox (Hoax), which saw first-week sales of 20,832 in August 2020, according to BookScan. Mediaite has learned that Stelter’s latest will not make the New York Times bestseller list. As of publishing, it is currently ranked 6,638th on Amazon’s Best Sellers list, despite his numerous appearances on cable news and several podcasts, including Mediaite.”
The one silver lining for Stelter is that he outsold Michael Wolff’s recent anti-Fox News book.
Wolff’s book, “The Fall: The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Dynasty,” sold only 3,219 copies in its first week.
Perhaps liberal readers have been inundated with screeds attacking Fox News.
Stelter’s second book about Fox News focused on the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit that the network settled for $787.5 million.
Ironically, the Democrats and their media outlets used the settlement to attack former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who was mysteriously let go not long after the settlement.
But Carlson immediately called shenanigans on the wild vote-switching claims of Sidney “Release the Kraken” Powell.
Weeks after the 2020 election, Carlson stated during a monologue that Powell – “never sent us any evidence, despite a lot of polite requests. When we kept pressing, she got angry and told us to stop contacting her. When we checked with others around the Trump campaign, people in positions of authority, they also told us Powell had never given them any evidence to prove anything she claimed at the press conference. Powell did say that electronic voting is dangerous, and she’s right, but she never demonstrated that a single actual vote was moved illegitimately by software from one candidate to another. Not one. Why are we telling you this? We’re telling you this because it’s true, and in the end, that’s all that matters.”
The Democrats’ near 30-year freakout over Fox News shows how they cannot handle any competition over media narrative.
Media Matters and other leftist organizations have threatened advertisers not to do business with Fox News.
Democrats in Congress even called for the network to be kicked off cable entirely.
When Stelter was still at CNN, his show Reliable Sources was dedicated to railing against Fox News.
Stelter was supposed to be the network’s media watchdog, but all he was watching was Fox’s primetime lineup.
After years of whinging about Fox News, Stelter’s audience seems tuckered out.