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# CNN is a Now Distant Third. Is that a Symptom of a Bigger Problem?
- URL: https://tvrev2beta2.ghost.io/cnn-is-a-now-distant-third-is-that-a-symptom-of-a-bigger-problem/
- Published: 2026-11-01T16:11:31.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-01T16:48:29.000Z
- Author: Jason Damata

It’s election week in America! That means by Wednesday you can stop getting flooded with direct mail, $11.6B worth of political TV ads and the relentless text messages from politicians you can’t seem to block away will pause. Which is good. But the spin won’t stop, nor will the sources of corruption driving the politics of our great country. 

In search of a scapegoat, people like to blame the news for where we are. Soundbite journalism and stories about one horrible crime or sensational story often take precedence over the focus on deep investigative journalism about the systematic problems at the root. And while some of it is totally fair criticism, much of it is misplaced. News is crunched by fragmented attention eating away at attention share, walled gardens with personalized algorithms and just more stuff to pay attention to– so they have to balance what’s important to know with what people will actually pay, click and subscribe to. It’s messy and complicated.

I wondered however, just how much ad dollars are influencing coverage might have an impact in this election cycle. So, I took to the[ iSpot](https://ispot.tv/?ref=tvrev2beta2.ghost.io) dashboard to investigate from Sept 1- Oct 31, just how much our prime time cable co-horts might be co-opted by big pharma, big oil, big insurance and big tech–only to find a better than expected scenario. 

Turns out, each network has a broad mix of industries and brands supporting news coverage. That data shows it’s fair to deduce that no single advertiser or category invests enough to have a big sway on what these newsrooms cover.

That doesn’t mean holding companies run themselves free of ownership agendas and political considerations not seen on TV, of course–just follow the 60 Minutes conversation and its scary. However, as far as evidence goes, cable news ad inventory looks a lot like all of TV– only with much less fast food than other categories and currently, much more window installation services going hard in time for Super El Nino, but I digress.

There was one other surprise that ran contrary to the memes of the day that say Republican faithful have lost enthusiasm. While Tues. night will reveal if that is true or not, one things we don’t have to wait to know is that FOX News continues to pummel the prime time cable news competition, with 60% of ad revenues since Sept 1 and 64% of ad reach. Its reach into living rooms remains supreme.

But that’s not what surprised me, it was how the remaining 35% of viewership was split. The 22% for MSNow left only 14% for CNN, which purports to be the middle.

Does that mean the left and center are just less likely to watch cable news? Probably. FOX News viewers tend to be older, TV always-on types. And there will be lots of viable nuanced cultural reasons why these numbers are the numbers.

Notwithstanding, the 14% share in the category does portend a potential crisis for leaders at CNN, where balancing political perspectives in round table formats just isn’t keeping America as engaged. 

And that kinda sucks. Not because I love CNN per se, (though John King is an electoral map legend), but because with all the fragmentation of media, these stats might suggest a bigger problem. 

Americans are now consuming algorithms of perspectives they want and not engaging in content they disagree with but can grow from. And it turns out, collectively gobbling short form clips of things we are interested in like the cookie monster might come at the cost of mostly ignoring all the crazy things both parties and we, the people, are accountable for. 

On Tuesday we will have some incremental change in one way or another. But will it be the kind of change we need to bring vibrance back to the reasonable middle and infuse a sense of respect for all view points and shared responsibility for tackling the hard issues of our times? 

Sorry, I’ve got alerts coming in from some reels my friends just sent from Halloween, I don’t have time to guess.