NSA Story Boost Guardian's Traffic; Catches up to New York Times

Earlier today I wrote a response to those media critics claiming that CNN’s move into tabloid TV is merely an act of giving the American people what they want. In that article, I point out that CNN gaining under a million viewers in a country of over 300 million is hardly proof that the cable network is giving the American people what they want. The Guardian, however, is giving a lot more Americans what they want: real reporting. A huge spike in traffic is proof of that.

According to just-released traffic stats, The Guardian’s ongoing reporting surrounding NSA leaker Edward Snowden and President Obama’s wildly hypocritical surveillance state has not only boosted the British paper’s traffic to where the publication now rivals The New York Times, but in a single day The Guardian earned a record 7 million unique visitors. In the U.S., The Guardian’s traffic leapt 41% through desktop computers and 66% from mobile users.   

The Guardian is currently enjoying a huge boost in U.S. traffic for the same reasons Fox News regularly crushes its cable news competitors: people are hungry for legitimate reporting, especially as it pertains to those in power. In other words, people are interested in the kind of  journalism the mainstream media now refuse to do. 

Currently, and unfortunately, there is a Narrative Plantation within 95% of the media, which, by accident or design, ensures that most every news outlet in America reports on the exact same stories in the exact same way. Moreover, there is almost always a strong left-wing bias in this reporting that consistently results in media protecting government (and those who enlarge it, like Obama and Democrats) as opposed to the kind of reporting that exposes government excess and corruption. So…

Simply for the sake of variety, people tune to Fox News (and the Internet). But they also tune in to alternative media because they want to know what is happening outside of what Chuck Todd, Scott Pelley, Brian Williams, David Gregory, and Diane Sawyer are telling them.

Now that the left-wing Guardian has bolted from the Narrative Plantation and engaged in some legitimate reporting, they too are benefiting from a huge increase in customers. Even some Democrats are hungry for this kind of reporting. How else to explain Fox News winning more Democrat viewers than its cable competitors?

The mainstream media blame their slow-motion demise on many things, but the success of Fox News and The Guardian can be a template for their return. Unfortunately, the media proved long ago that they prefer a slow suicide over doing their duty. 

 

Follow  John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC