Is FNC’s “Explosive Growth” Just “A Relic From The First Bush Term?”

“Fox News’ explosive growth appears to be, like the president’s 90% approval rating in the days following Sept. 11, a relic from the first Bush term,” Scott Collins writes in today’s Los Angeles Times.

Citing TVNewser’s data documenting Bill O’Reilly‘s decline, he asks: “Could it be mere coincidence that O’Reilly, populist scourge of both Clintons and countless left-wing causes, is seeing his still-formidable nightly audience of 2.1 million or so start to shrink in tandem with the Bush/GOP’s rapidly fading grip on the electorate?”

“MSNBC host and O’Reilly foe” Keith Olbermann says the same psychology that applied to CNBC during the stock market boom and bust also applies to Fox. “They’ll always have their hard-core audience that wants to hear, ‘Everything’s great! [Bush is] doing a great job,'” but less-partisan viewers are drifting away, Olbermann says…