PUMP UP THE VIRUS, PUMP UP THE RATINGS

This is the Associated Press headline from 1 July:

“Hot news cycle leads CNN to best ratings in 40 years.”

For the three-month period ending in June, CNN attracted its largest audience since it first went on the air 40 years ago.

No surprise. Go back to 10 March and take a look at our Trends Journal cover: COVID-19: PRESSTITUTES & PUPPET MASTERS PEDDLING HYSTERIA.

It paid off.

We noted back in March that when CNN and other major media began hyping the coronavirus, their ratings – like the corporate pimps who run the operations and the Presstitutes who get paid to put out for them – were in the toilet.

Now, CNN’s weekday, primetime audience is up 120 percent compared to the same time a year ago, with close to two million tuning in.

In response to the rising ratings, CNN’s chief executive Jeff Zucker crowed, “All of our research shows we are the most trusted name in news. Others may not believe that, others may scoff at that, the president of the United States makes fun of it, but it’s true.”

He added, “We are a news organization that is built for this kind of time.”

TRENDPOST: As we used to say in the Bronx, “Bullshit has its own sound.”

As we wrote in the 21 April Trends Journal, Zucker seized on the virus to keep pumping up sagging ratings:

Ratings Soar, Ads Vanish at CNN

Pandemic coverage boosts viewership

“On a recent conference call, CNN chief Jeff Zucker urged editors and producers at the network not to shift focus from coronavirus new updates despite weeks of wall-to-wall coverage of the pandemic.

‘You need to stay on the news,’ Mr. Zucker said, according to a person who listened. ‘People are coming to CNN for the news right now.””

TREND FORECAST: This is a time for OnTrendpreneurs^® to fill a large market gap.

For those of good fortune or skilled in financing, investing in new media outlets – broadcast, social media, print – if programmed to meet untapped consumer needs and desires, will reap great personal and financial rewards.

Indeed, just as data we reported in the Trends Journal this year showed broad public dissatisfaction and distrust with political parties, so, too, is distrust with mainstream media.

Moreover, while it was made a big deal in the AP article that CNN ratings went up and at best two million people tuned in, it is a tiny audience, considering there are 210 million Americans over 18 years of age.