CNN, MSNBC Continue Ratings Slide

BUCK: CNN ratings down, what was it, Clay, 40%, is that right, second quarter?

CLAY: Yes. I’m just reading from it. During the commercial break I was telling Buck. Let me make sure — Joe Flint, who I believe is at the Wall Street Journal. So he is sharing some of these numbers. Trump was the golden goose for MSNBC and for CNN. Prime-time viewership in the second quarter, CNN down 31% over last year, MSNBC down 40%. Fox News down just 2%. That’s 25- to 54-year-olds. The reason why I mention that is you lose 40% of your audience in anything, you’re not having a good time.

BUCK: People start getting fired, which has already happened over at CNN. Look, everything that I’ve been saying for… We have different CNN experiences, right? I left because I couldn’t stand the place anymore and thought that it had become just a disgrace. Even to cable news, it was a disgrace, never mind to journalism, and obviously you a moment there, well known, and got banned. Like I said, it’s like being banned from North Korea.

It’s a badge of honor to be banned from CNN. But when we said that they had effectively destroyed whatever credibility they had as a news-gathering organization under Jeff Zucker’s time, that was the truth. That’s why Jeff Zucker got fired. And when I told everybody that they’re bad people that you cannot trust who are running that place and some of the biggest-name talent, that was the truth. They’re not good people. Look at what’s happened there.