Is The Tide Turning

Interesting that the Wall Street Journal ran an article outlining network plans to reduce the salaries of headlining stars to their news programs and talk shows in a cost-cutting measure. Such prominent faces as George Stephanopoulos, Robin Roberts, and Michael Strahan are currently receiving astronomical salary packages in the range of $25 million annually for their appearances on Good Morning America. MSNBC pays Rachel Maddow $30 million for her embarrassingly partisan rants on a program that airs only once a week. Today, show anchor Hoda Kotb announced her retirement but was said to have been facing a significant cut in her $20 million salary, a reduction that her co-host Savannah Guthrie may also be facing. Late-night stalwarts Fallon, Kimmel, and leftist darling Colbert have all had their appearances reduced by eliminating Friday night programming in a cost-cutting measure. Seth Meyers was also on the chopping block, reports the Journal, but the network elected to trim costs by firing his band instead. Even Norah O’Donnell, fresh off her partisan Vice Presidential Debate performance, is being removed as anchor for the CBS Evening News. Why the cost-cutting measures?  The Journal quotes former TV executive Joe Peyronnin, who now teaches journalism at NYU, as saying television is undergoing a shakeup in how it is “delivered and received” and that “the business is going through a major struggle to grow and retain revenue.” They conclude that “legacy cable and broadcast TV” are facing diminishing returns and “streaming services aren’t generating the revenue to make up for the shortfall.”  However, to blame more viewing options, competition, and streaming services alone does not in itself explain why the popularity of programs anchored by these exorbitantly overpaid talking heads has tanked. The most obvious answer is to analyze what these elite media superstars have in common besides their preposterous inflated salaries. They are all liberals, and in the case of Stephanopolous, Maddow, and Colbert, they are radically partisan mouthpieces for the left. Could it be that in a politically divided America, one that polls almost equally divided between conservative and liberal, that half of the country has effectively boycotted the liberal programming anchored by this cadre of left-wing radicals?  How else can you explain the late-night rating success of the abrasive and only modestly talented but conservative Gutfeld over the big-name but thoroughly progressive programming offered by Kimmel, Fallon, Colbert, and Meyers, especially given their stream of high-profile Hollywood guests? If you choose to alienate half of your viewership with your less-than-inclusive reporting and entertainment offerings then your ratings are going to suffer.  Surprise. The left likes to call that a boycott when they do it. It's nice to see them get a taste of their own medicine finally. It’s about time. And it couldn’t happen to a more reprehensible, condescending bunch of elitists who are finally getting hit in the pocketbook for their partisan disservice to the viewing public.