CNN's Trump Ratings Bubble Collapses
Also this week: Mardi Gras without the parades and a recipe for butter chicken.
On the menu for today: CNN’s ratings have been carried by coverage of Donald Trump for years, but that bubble appears to be collapsing. Also, what are south Louisiana families doing with no Mardi Gras parades? Plus, a recipe for butter chicken. As always, be sure to subscribe and share!
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In the world of economics, there are sometimes events that we call “bubbles.” This event, as defined by Wikipedia, is “a situation in which asset prices appear to be based on implausible or inconsistent views about the future.”
“It could also,” the site goes on to say, “be described as trade in an asset at a price or price range that strongly exceeds the asset's intrinsic value.”
For a while now, CNN’s ratings have been bolstered largely by the existence of Donald Trump in mainstream American politics. Like many networks, CNN propped up Trump as a viable candidate until it was clear he would become the nominee, and then they relentlessly launched attacks on him from that moment to the end of his presidency, and even beyond. They made it clear their relationship with Trump is an adversarial one, and they relished in the ratings spike that came with it.
That ratings spike appears to be the “price range that strongly exceeds the asset’s intrinsic value.” We are now more than a full week into Joe Biden’s presidency, and the bubble has officially burst. Via Variety:
In the first week of the Biden administration, the AT&T-owned news channel saw the audiences that had been flooding into primetime recently drop precipitously on Jan. 25-29 compared with the highs of previous weeks. Meanwhile, rival Fox News Channel saw its own ratings only dip slightly after weeks of registering its own sharp declines.
Another network that has been characterized as left-leaning, MSNBC, has also seen significant declines but nowhere near as steep as what has hit CNN: Variety Intelligence Platform’s analysis of the viewership data across two key metrics—the target news demographic for people ages 25-54, and the total audience watching—shows that CNN ended the final week of January with ratings dropping roughly 44% for total audience versus the prior week across all three hours of primetime.
In all fairness, this is one week into it, and short-term data is not always the most reliable. But, this dip was anticipated by most media observers, and it’s a large part of the reason networks are still so focused on Trump, his impeachment, and stories regarding the last days of his presidency. They are trying to keep that high going.
It’s also why they are laser-focused on politicians like Marjorie Taylor-Greene. Not because it’s abnormal for politicians to hold weird or controversial views, but because they want to tie those views to the larger Republican base. The Democratic Party is all-too-happy to take advantage and keep the spotlight on these issues, but at this point they are all fairly moot.
CNN has been one of the biggest disappointments of this era. While CNN has always had a left-of-center lean, they had good folks on the air and several who genuinely tried to stay relatively balanced. But as the editorial edicts came down, it was clear that there was a marketing decision that was made to make everything as much about Trump as possible, and there was more than enough leeway given to otherwise balanced guys like Jake Tapper to absolutely let loose with all their biases. It has been tragic to see.
Journalism has overall suffered because of the media’s devotion to making everything about opposing Trump. Slogans like “This is an apple” and “Democracy dies in darkness” were marketing campaigns and nothing more. CNN had to retract major stories because they wanted to nail Trump, truth be damned.
Now, we see what their slavish devotion to opposing Trump has been. People watched for the freak show, and now that it’s gone, they have little reason to keep the TV on. I think the trend we saw over the last week will hold, and I think media organizations will have to scramble to try and keep Trump relevant OR find the “next Trump” to try and pick the ratings back up.
Homestyle: House Floats and Mardi Gras
In this week’s episode of Homestyle, my co-host Leigh Guidry and I discuss how Louisiana families are surviving without Mardi Gras parades due to COVID.
The answer? Turning their homes into floats.
It’s like decorating the house for Christmas or Halloween but way more personal to the people of south Louisiana, and some of the ideas we’ve seen so far are pretty cool. Leigh and I talk about our own ideas, as well as the resiliency of Louisiana’s people during these tough times.
If you want to hear more, you can always go back and listen to previous episodes, and we’d love to hear your feedback. Subscribe, rate, and review the podcast here, and if you have cooking, crafting, or family activity ideas, you can find us on Facebook and on Instagram (@Homestylepod).
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The Homestyle Podcast is a joint venture between myself and one of my best friends, education reporter Leigh Guidry. Throughout each episode, we discuss cooking, crafting, and other hobbies as well as how we make sure to spend time with our families despite how insanely busy life can be. The goal of the podcast has always been to take a moment to focus on what’s really important because, at the end of the day, family and life are more important than whatever distractions are going on in the world around us.
Recipe of the Week: Garam Masala and Butter Chicken
I love Indian food but I don’t ever seem to have the opportunity to get out and get some locally. So I finally decided to pick out a few recipes and make them myself. But before you can start cooking Indian food, you have to make sure you have the right spices.
I was able to find most, but the one I struggled to find was garam masala. I eventually picked some from Amazon, but that didn’t arrive in time to satisfy my craving, so I borrowed this recipe from AllRecipes. Just mix the following:
1 tbsp. ground cumin
1 ½ tsp. ground coriander
1 ½ tsp. ground cardamom
1 ½ tsp. ground black pepper
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. ground cloves
½ tsp. ground nutmeg
As far as the butter chicken went, I borrowed from a few places, but the bulk of it came from the same place as last week’s pumpkin hummus recipe - Tasty.
Their recipe is pretty simple:
1 ⅓ lb boneless, skinless chicken breast
½ cup plain yogurt
2 tbsp. ginger garlic paste
2 tbsp. chili powder
1 tbsp. garam masala
1 tbsp. salt
1 tbsp. turmeric
1 tbsp. cumin
SAUCE
¼ cup butter
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp. tomato puree
2 tbsp. ginger garlic paste
6 cardamom pods
¼ tbsp. ground cloves
2 tbsp. chili powder
1 tbsp. coriander
1 tbsp. garam masala
1 tbsp. turmeric
1 ¼ cups cream
On a cutting board, slice the chicken into bite-size pieces.
Combine the chicken with the yogurt, ginger garlic paste, chili powder, garam masala, salt, turmeric, and cumin, and mix to coat well.
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Preheat the oven 430˚F (220˚C).
Thread the marinated chicken pieces onto bamboo skewers, then place them over a baking tray lined with parchment paper, making sure there is space underneath the chicken to help distribute the heat more evenly.
Bake for about 15 minutes, until slightly dark brown on the edges.
Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat, then sauté the onions and tomato purée, until tender but not browned.
Add the garlic ginger paste, cardamom pods, cloves, chili powder, coriander, garam masala, and turmeric and fry for about 30 seconds to release their aromatics and flavor, stirring constantly.
Pour in the cream and mix well with the onion and spices.
When the cream mixture is bubbling, add in the chicken and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
Final Thoughts…
EA Sports announced that college football video games are returning, and I couldn’t be happier. I loved the NCAA games growing up. However, someone on Twitter pointed out that licensing and player image issues could very well make this a very different game than we’ve seen in the past. I am hoping for the best, though.
I am also hoping for a PS5 to play it on but… well, here’s hoping, anyway.