“2 To 1 At 5 O’Clock,” But Not In The 25-54 Demo On Thursday

On Thursday afternoon, John Gibson responded to Jack Cafferty‘s remarks about Fox News by declaring: “Why don’t you just shut up? What are you losing, 2 to 1 at 5 o clock? I know that: it’s 2 to 1.”

“I always find it interesting that whenever FNC is disparaged by one of their competitors, inevitably the FNC defense winds up with a dissertation of their ratings margin over whoever is criticizing them,” a Madison Ave. observer writes to TVNewser. “Bill O’Reilly did that when Keith Olbermann called him out a few weeks ago (which KO responded with his flies can’t be wrong comment). Rarely do they address the actual issue at hand.”

And here’s where it gets ironic. A tipster writes: “Dear John Gibson: sorry to break the news to you, but on the very day of your tirade against CNN and Jack Cafferty, CNN actually BEAT your program at 5pm in the key demographic. Who should shut up now?”

> Update: 11:15pm: In January, Gibson averaged 235,000 viewers in the demo, compared to The Situation Room’s 128,000…