Washington Post - If you had to guess which member of Congress would make light of how few Americans are watching television networks like CNN these days, you probably wouldn’t have picked Dick Durbin (D), the senior senator from Illinois.But that’s what Durbin did on Dec. 18 when parrying a question from CNN correspondent Manu Raju about whether lawmakers deserve a pay raise.
“People look at the performance of Congress and say, ‘Why should we give them more money?’” Raju asked.
“What about the media?” Durbin countered. “Half of your listeners are not there anymore, and you’re still getting the same paycheck. What’s going on?”
Television executives are also wondering what’s going on. The questions are particularly loud at CNN, which has seen a decline in viewership over the past few years, a trend that accelerated after the Nov. 5 election. Since the election, CNN has seen a 45 percent drop in prime-time viewership, down to only 394,000 total viewers. Overall, this year CNN has had its worst-ever performance among viewers in the key demographic.
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