Democrats have been completely and thoroughly devastated by the triumph of President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican Party as a whole in November 2024, as it finally got the point across to them that the vast majority of Americans are center-right and sick and tired of being victims of left-wing extremist policies. In fact, the loss has hit them so hard that 7 out of 10 Democrats say they have taken a break from consuming news product. Which, honestly, is probably a really healthy thing for them to do at this point.
It’s critical to note that presidential election news cycles are very intense and so it’s not a shock there are quite a few folks in the country who need to take an extended break to recuperate from the stress. Americans woke up en masse to the fact that the vast majority of mainstream news media push narratives that lean to the Democratic Party instead of telling the truth and the facts, which led, according to a Gallup poll, a new low in trust of major media outlets.
The AP reported its survey findings and noted Democrats’ declining appetite for news following President-elect Donald Trump’s sweeping victory:
The poll, conducted in early December, found that about 7 in 10 Democrats say they are stepping back from political news. The percentage isn’t as high for Republicans, who have reason to celebrate Trump’s victory. Still, about 6 in 10 Republicans say they’ve felt the need to take some time off too, and the share for independents is similar.
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After election night through Dec. 13, the prime-time viewership of MSNBC was an average of 620,000, down 54% from the pre-election audience this year, the Nielsen company said. For the same time comparison, CNN’s average of 405,000 viewers was down 45%.
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A post-election slump for fans of the losing candidate is not a new trend for networks that have become heavily identified for a partisan audience. MSNBC had similar issues after Trump was elected in 2016. Same for Fox in 2020, although that was complicated by anger: many of its viewers were outraged then by the network’s crucial election night call of Arizona for the Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden, and sought alternatives.
“People are mentally exhausted,” Democrat Ziad Aunallah of San Diego said in a conversation with the AP. “Everyone knows what is coming and we are just taking some time off.”
“It’s kind of their own fault that I’m not watching,” he then continued. “I felt they spent all this time talking about the election. They made it so much of their focus that when the main event ends, why would people want to keep watching?”
The poll in question surveyed a total of 1,251 Americans between the dates of December 5-9 and features a 3.7 percentage point margin of error.
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