Pew: Evening News Aud. More Polarized

The audience for cable news is still “polarized along partisan and ideological lines,” just as it was in 2004. “But there has been a modest increase in partisan polarization for other news sources,” the latest Pew news consumption survey finds. “The gap between Republicans and Democrats in regular viewership of the nightly network news on ABC, CBS, or NBC is now 14 points, nearly three times as large as it was in 2004; currently, 38% of Democrats regularly watch compared with 24% of Republicans.” (See the chart, above right.) Some other examples of polarization:

> Regular viewers of Bill O’Reilly: 16 percent of Republicans, 5 percent of Democrats. O’Reilly’s audience is 64 percent conservative, 23 percent moderate, and 10 percent liberal.

> Regular viewers of Larry King: 3 percent of Republicans, 7 percent of Democrats. King’s audience is 35 percent conservative, 35 percent moderate, and 24 percent liberal.

> Regular viewers of Jon Stewart: 3 percent of Republicans, 10 percent of Democrats. Stewart’s audience is 19 percent conservative, 33 percent moderate, and 41 percent liberal.