VIA DRUDGE, THE WAGES OF LOST CREDIBILITY:

ELECTION REJECTION: NETWORK NEWS SLUMPS; VIEWERSHIP FADES

As the shouting from the trail and the frantic spinning from the anchor desks intensify, the audience is voting with their remotes.

All 3 evening news shows experienced audience drops year-to-year for the week of Oct. 13-19, 2008.

CBSNEWS w/ Couric shed a half a million viewers, falling from 6.4 million to 5.9 million; ABCNEWS dropped from 8.1 million to 7.6 million; NBCNEWS slumped from 8.2 million to 7.8 million.

The “frantic spinning from the anchor desks” is the key part, I think. Turn off a big chunk of your audience and you lose a big chunk of your audience.