MSMath: CBS News' Scott Pelley claims Fox News has fraction of actual viewership; Tweeters mock

Doug P. | 6:46 PM on June 16, 2013

In an interview with Deadline Hollywood, anchor of the CBS Evening News Scott Pelley said the following (transcript Newsbusters):

DEADLINE: So for you, other outlets especially the cable news networks do center on just one segment of the political spectrum in their reporting?

PELLEY: Certainly. It’s no surprise. Fox is associated with the right and MSNBC is associated with the left and they’ve done that because it is a business model. It’s a strategy. They’ve decided to bite off one small part of the viewership and be happy with that 200,000 viewers, 300,000 viewers that they have. But when you are talking to 7 million viewers across the country, man you have got to represent everybody’s views and have got to give them the impression that you are being as honest as you know how to be.

People more familiar than Pelley with cable news ratings took to Twitter to offer a viewership education to the anchor who prides himself on giving Americans nothing but the facts:

CBS Evening News host Scott Pelley is either stupid or convinced lies work. He recently claimed Fox News has 10% of its actual # of viewers.

— NetNewsRightNow (@NetNewsRightNow) June 16, 2013

Scott Pelley worlds worst at math. RT @newsbusters: CBS's Scott Pelley: Fox News Only Has 200,000 to 300,000 Viewers http://t.co/ndAkteiD1J

— Dave Carlson (@Carlson_Dave) June 16, 2013

CBS' @ScottPelley thinks FOXNEWS only has 200 – 300K viewers,out of touch Pelley is on for 22 min/night & has very high opinion of hinself.

— #NeverTrump – LAKC (@StCloudVikings) June 16, 2013

Can't fix stupid…CBS's Scott Pelley: Fox News Only Has 200,000 to 300,000 Viewers | NewsBusters http://t.co/MSFHwkoQiG via @sharethis

— Doug Angstrom (@champa911) June 16, 2013

Perhaps a little professional jealousy?CBS's Scott Pelley: Fox News Only Has 200,000 to 300,000 Viewers | NewsBustershttp://t.co/UF8MNtaOXW

— David Vineyard (@DavidVineyard9) June 16, 2013

Fox News continues to dominate the cable news environment, but HLN actually finished second, apparently as a result of wall-to-wall Jodi Arias coverage. HLN sister network CNN finished third, but second place in prime time. In evening prime time, Fox News had 1,973,000 total viewers, up 17 percent from last May, but down about five percent in the 25-54 cohort. CNN improved to 660,000 total viewers in prime time, up an impressive 70 percent from last year at this time. MSNBC had comfortably been in second place.

When we read that Pelley believes his job is to give viewers the “impression” he’s being honest, we were reminded of the words of Jean Giraudoux: “The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you’ve got it made.”