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I see that the president is tweeting about ratings again. Time for a #thread...
In HOAXthebook.com, I describe how Trump twisted his "Apprentice" ratings to tell a persuasive story about his popularity even when his audience was slipping away. He used to send media reporters 🙋‍♂️ angry messages when we didn't buy his spin.
Billy Bush recalled a day when he called out Trump for this:

"Wait a minute, Donald, you haven't been #1 in 5 or 4 years, not in any category, not in any demo."

Trump: "Well, did you see last Thursday? Last Thursday, 18–49, last five minutes!"

Bush: "Nope, still not true."
After the cameras stopped rolling, Billy Bush says Trump remarked "Billy, look, you just tell them and they believe it. That's it: you just tell them and they believe. They just do."
Last night, talking with @DonLemon about the TV ratings for Trump and Biden's speeches, I acknowledged that this wouldn't normally be a topic on @CNNTonight... but Trump's ratings obsession makes the #'s more newsworthy. Sure enough, he's been tweeting...

cnn.com/videos/politic…
Nielsen is the industry standard for TV ratings. Here are the apples-to-apples results for the DNC and RNC for all 4 nights of the convention.
Since Dems had a bigger TV audience, Trump is shifting to "Online Streaming Numbers," claiming the GOP had a bigger online audience. But there's no industry standard metric for streaming. Different sites measure views very differently. TV and streaming #'s are 🍎 and 🍊's.
The DNC did a version of what the RNC is doing now — combining TV 🍎 + online 🍊. RNC is essentially saying it reached more people with its programming. Maybe, but there's no real way to know. Bottom line: Trump is litigating the #'s because Biden beat him in the TV ratings race.
Postscript: Someone texted me just now, "What is this 147.9 million #? It doesn't make any sense." I don't think it's supposed to make sense. It's just supposed to be a comforting # so that Trump can claim victory.
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Brian Stelter
@brianstelter
Thread: Fox News normally has a big, steady daytime audience. Example: Wednesday's 9am and 3pm hours both had 1.7 mil viewers. But Thursday was different — because many, many Fox viewers changed the channel during the John Lewis funeral. (1/3)
Fox had nearly 1.9 mil viewers in the 9am hour, but once the funeral began, viewership collapsed: 825,000 viewers in the 11am hour, 540,000 in the 1pm hour. CNN & MSNBC gained audience, which is normal during a big event (2/3)
After Obama's eulogy for Lewis, Fox viewers started to come back... The network averaged 595,000 viewers in the 2pm hour, 1.1 mil at 3pm, 1.4 mil at 4pm. Yet more evidence that Fox has totally demonized Democrats? (3/3) cnn.com/videos/busines…
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Brian Stelter
@brianstelter
This is a thread about Trump's "delay" tweet, democratic backsliding, and the importance of believing your own eyes & ears. It begins on Sunday, January 22, 2017, the first weekend of the Trump presidency. (1/14)
Anchoring a weekly news program can be strange sometimes. You get one shot a week. Gotta make it count. So in late 2016 and early 2017 I repeatedly brought up Trump's authoritarian tone. Right wing blogs piled on the ridicule. (2/14)
"This is what strongmen do. This is what happens in authoritarian regimes." I second-guessed myself from time to time, like any journalist should... I probed my own scripts and arguments for weaknesses. Was I describing the situation correctly? (3/14)
Read 14 tweets
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Brian Stelter
@brianstelter
This must-read by @ErikWemple, about Tucker Carlson's false accusations against the NYT, contains a statement from Times editor Dean Baquet that's worth quoting in full... washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
Carlson "misled his viewers into believing we would publish his address when he was aware that we had no intention of doing so & when the network was specifically told we would not reveal his home. Many wrongly think that we did publish his address & even a picture of his house."
Tucker's lie "inspired the exact same kind of personal harassment against others which he so indignantly & falsely claimed to be a victim of himself. Hours after the broadcast someone attempted to break into the home of a photographer who doesn't even know where Carlson lives..."
Read 4 tweets

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