Fox News Has No Future

Fox News, the network known for turning the nation's white dads into unfeeling racist monsters, has been having a bit of a rough time lately. First, the (recently deceased) brains behind the (evil, immoral) operation, Roger Ailes, was forced out after a host of sexual-harassment allegations. Then the network lost its two biggest stars: Megyn Kelly left because she got a better offer from NBC. Then Bill O'Reilly left because of revelations he spent years sexually harassing women, only to have those claims quietly settled by his company. And now, as the rest of the media world covers the...well...the news, Fox News has gone from a news network with a penchant for the occasional conspiracy theory to a conspiracy-theory network with a penchant for the occasional news story.

Over the past few weeks, as the world has been horrified about the ever-unfolding scandal surrounding the Donald Trump campaign's ties to Russia and his apparent (and shockingly transparent) attempts at obstruction of justice, Fox has spent a ton of airtime on the conspiracy theories involving the death of former DNC staffer Seth Rich. Forget that stories claiming Rich was the Wikileaks source have been debunked over and over again. Forget that, had Rich even been the DNC source, he wouldn't have been the source for the John Podesta e-mails, and therefore the theory makes no sense. We've reached the point where Rich's parents are begging people to stop with the conspiracy theories, and yet the network's biggest star, Sean Hannity, can't stop talking about it. And the result is apparently terrible ratings.

On Thursday, Fox News came in last place among the three cable news channels among viewers between the ages of 25 and 54. And it wasn’t a fluke.

In a development that has sparked murmurs throughout the cable news business, Fox News in recent weeks has regularly finished in last place among advertising-friendly viewers between the ages of 25 and 54, or “demo” viewers, as they’re known in the industry. (In terms of total viewers, Fox News does better, thanks to its large stable of viewers over the age of 54.)

“For first time this century, they aren’t in first place,” noted MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough last week. “In fact, for the first time this century, they are in third place.” Added CNN’s Brian Stelter, “This is an extraordinary moment in the cable news race.”

In what might be the surest sign that Trump is losing the country, Fox News' numbers are tanking. On a certain level, that makes sense—without a foil like Obama, Fox News can't do what Fox News does best. And it doesn't help that they're not picking up any new, younger viewers.

Now, it doesn't matter how much Fox tries to defend the president, and again, they're deep in "conspiracy theories are our only hope" mode because people aren't watching. As Trump's behavior has gone more and more beyond the pale, Americans who in the past have been susceptible to the Fox News spin seem to be seeing it for what it is. Could this be a sign that the evil empire is crumbling? Perhaps. Whatever it is, it doesn't look good.