Misinformation Continues to Plague Media Matters
Continuing its pattern of publishing fallacious and misleading information (as noted frequently on this site), a May 1, 2006, post by Media Matters has published yet another false statement.
Media Matters falsely claims, "according to Nielsen Media Research, Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor averaged 2,274,000 viewers a night in the first quarter of 2006."
In fact, those Nielsen numbers are for the single 8pm airing and do not include additional nightly re-runs and the show’s significant international audience.
Here’s the left-leaning Media Bistro’s TV Newser, highlighting some cable viewer numbers from April 27, 2006:
And these numbers do not include even later re-runs which add hundreds of thousands more to the Factor’s viewer total. In addition, the O’Reilly Factor enjoys significant viewership in Canada, Europe, and around the world. Media Matters fails miserably to consider this in accounting nightly viewership.
Quite simply, Media Matters’ statement is flat-out wrong.
