Dear CNN & MSNBC,

I’ve been worried about you — a lot.

It’s just that it seems like you’ve been out of touch recently and I don’t think you realize just how bad it’s been. Oh, sure, FOX News is rife with scandal these days and it’s great that you point that out along with the other two or three news stories you talk about every week, but I don’t think you realize that you’re not reaching your audience like you seem to think you are.

Let’s just get to the point: FOX News is the most watched cable news network. I know. It sucks. But we’ve got to stare it in the face if we’re going to make any progress here.

And look, ordinarily there’s nothing wrong with being “second best” or even “third best” so long as your give your all, but we don’t need Steve Kornacki standing by with his big board to break down just how far behind you’re trailing:

In January of this year, compared to FOX News, MSNBC had nearly half the total number of viewers for both the prime-time slot and total viewers daily; CNN has just over a third the number of viewers for the prime-time slot and total viewers daily. In February, MSNBC still had half the audience of FOX News in both the prime-time and day-long viewership, but CNN has under a third of FOX News’ ratings for day-long viewers and a quarter of viewers for the prime-time slot.

You’re also losing your ground with younger viewers, aged 25-54. In January this year, CNN had 60% the viewers that FOX News had during the prime-time slot and day-long viewership. But MSNBC had less than 45% the viewers of FOX News’ audience for both prime-time and day-long viewers. In February, CNN’s younger audience dropped to 40% of FOX News Millennials and Gen Z viewers during prime-time, and under 50% for day-long viewers. But MSNBC had dropped to less than 40% among this demographic during prime-time and just over 40% for day-long viewers — which is, tragically, less than MID.

This has been going on for months now.

Look, I know the line you tell whomever’s still around is that it’s all “Right-Wing propaganda” and “moral panic,” and someone, somewhere, is clutching their pearls so hard that it’s magically willing people watch the “dangerous, evil” FOX News network despite your best efforts to warn them. And, while it’s true that FOX News is involved in a defamation scandal, making the news about the news has shot you in the foot when it comes to ratings.

The thing is, you are out of touch. Your audience would like to know what else is going on in the world besides the two or three news stories you keep reporting on each week. What’s more, you are not talking about important issues with the sort of nuance that your audience needs and wants to hear.

Women, for example, make up roughly half of the world population and you’re not listening to their genuine concerns about what’s going on in the world besides abortion access — which is incredibly important, but it’s not the only hit we’ve been taking to our health and safety in this country.

Do you realize, for example, that women are genuinely concerned about Self-ID laws that allow any man to simply declare himself a woman and no one’s allowed to ever question it? Ever?

What’s that, you say?

It’s not a problem?

And it’s “transphobic” I’m even bringing it up?

Well, remember last November when the Colorado Nightclub shooter, 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich, came out as “non-binary” and claimed to use they/them pronouns after “they” got caught? Or the Wi Spa incident in July 2021 where Darren Agee Merager, a repeated sex offender who identified as a woman, was partially erect around four women and a minor? Or the bearded male pedophile who's being housed in a women’s prison in Washington? Or how intact males are being housed in California’s prisons where assaults and rapes are happening to incarcerated women right now? Or how Dana Rivers murdered a lesbian couple and their son in 2016?

Well, this is only a sampling of what women have been putting up with since “the decent thing to do” is to never question one’s gender identity, even when it’s abundantly clear there are predatory men taking advantage of laws and policies meant to accommodate trans people. Now, instead of discussing this on live TV, and airing out the very real concerns and dangers Self-ID poses to women and children so that we can come to a solution that protects all of us, it’s been crickets on your side. Why, just bringing this to your attention gets you labeled a “transphobe.”

But the problem is, calling someone a “transphobe” doesn’t make those bad things go away, or make them any better. Also, calling a concerned person a “transphobe” for talking about these predatory men is claiming they are actually representative of trans people as a whole, so you are maligning a minority when you shut down the conversation, instead of continuing to come to a reasonable solution. It’s not the women maligning trans people for talking about what’s been happening to them — it’s the predatory men taking advantage of these laws and policies that are the problem. We need to have a serious discussion about that!

CNN & MSNBC, the women who used to trust you to bring reliable news coverage know you’re not “being kind” to them by assuming we must have the worst intentions when we voice our concerns and dismiss us as “right-wing.”

So, let’s get one thing straight here and now: women’s rights are a non-partisan issue.

Some of us are progressives. Liberals. Registered Democrats living in the bluest states across this country. And we vote. Frankly, some of us don’t know how we’re going to vote next cycle when “our side” is unwilling to champion our health and safety outside of abortion care – which, by the way, is barely a “band-aid” solution if you’re in prison housed with a violent man. (Though to be fair, California correctional institutions have been providing condoms and contraceptives among prisoners who might be impregnated since the passage of S.B. 132. So, there’s that, too.)

Outside of prison, women are being silenced and forced to comply because you are participating in creating a hostile environment for women and girls to speak up about these things. Women risk losing their jobs, their opportunities, their friends, and even their families if they speak up about how these policies and practices impact our lives. We are being doxed, harassed, threatened, and even assaulted for questioning what’s been going on.

And we’re not tuning into FOX News because we suddenly agree with them on everything. We’re likely watching Radical Feminists like Kara Dansky on the platform that has twice, three times, even four times your viewership because she speaks on things that may be inconvenient to your narrative but which address our very real, material concerns. And we’d really like to hear some of that on the networks that claim to champion women’s rights.

So, if you want to be competitive against FOX News, then it’s time for you to get back in touch with the real world. We need a genuine, nuanced discussion about these policies and laws concerning Self-ID. It’s time for you to return to reason and ask a Radical Feminist to join your panel.

Sincerely

Left by the Left