Monday Edition: End of an Era

The era of cable news dominance is dimming, and a new media order is taking shape. (WSJ)

The death of #Resistance TV: The long-term decline of cable news has hit MSNBC and CNN particularly hard, as their anti-Trump strategy seems to be losing steam.

• Post-election, MSNBC's prime-time viewership fell to 603,000, a decline of more than 50% compared to earlier in the year.

• CNN’s audience fell 46%.

• The anti-Trump #Resistance took a symbolic hit last month after "Morning Joe" hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough — among Trump’s harshest cable news critics — met with the president-elect at Mar-a-Lago.

Superstar anchors lose their sheen: Some of the top talent in cable news — from MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow to NBC News’ Hoda Kotb to former CBS “Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell — has reportedly taken significant pay cuts in recent years.

• What one network agent told Variety earlier this year: “They obviously want to cut costs. … Those $20 million-plus salaries, they just don’t justify themselves anymore.”

New media stars: Stars of new media like podcasters and social media influencers are taking the place of cable hosts at the top of the media food chain.

• President-elect Trump’s podcast-heavy media strategy has been credited with exposing him to huge swathes of potential new voters.

• The president-elect’s son, Donald Trump Jr., said last month the incoming administration is floating the idea of replacing some journalists in the White House press briefing room with podcasters.

Punching back: Costly lawsuits — including most recently ABC News’ $15 million defamation settlement with Trump — have been another challenge cable news networks have faced of late.

Consumer habits: Over the past four years, the share of Americans who say they “often” get their news from TV has declined from 40% to 33%.

• Meanwhile, YouTube is increasingly filling the void left by traditional TV viewers: 9 in 10 U.S. teens report using YouTube, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

• Last year, streaming overtook cable as the most-watched viewing platform.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk caught a lot of flak last week when he declared, “Recycling is pointless,” but, according to the environmental group Greenpeace, he’s kind of right. (RealClearPolitics)

A 2022 Greenpeace report: Only 5% to 6% of plastic in the U.S. is currently being recycled.

• Shockingly, no type of plastic in the U.S. meets the 30% recycling rate required to be classified as "recyclable" under widely recognized industry standards, per Greenpeace.

• While 52% of U.S. recycling facilities accept plastic cups and containers (marked as "number 5s"), fewer than 5% of these items are actually recycled.

Zoom out: The overall recycling rate in the U.S. sits at 32% of all waste, but not all materials are equal.

• According to the American Forest & Paper Association, the recycling rate for paper is a robust 70%, and even higher for cardboard (93%).

• Meanwhile, nearly half of all aluminum cans end up getting recycled.

The impact: Recycling has gotten more expensive for local governments since a 2018 Chinese law banned imports of most "foreign trash."

• China imported $5.6 billion in U.S. recyclables in 2017, but imports dropped by 99% after the ban.

• According to a 2020 Manhattan Institute report, municipalities now often pay more to dispose of recyclables than regular garbage.

Bubba’s Two Cents

Recycling plastic is a lot like other environmental issues: everyone can get behind the intentions — whether that’s cleaner oceans or saving trees — but the solutions sometimes don’t make sense or fail to consider costs and tradeoffs.

According to the latest OECD Survey of Adult Skills, American adults as a group have gotten less proficient in both reading and math. (The Economist)

The numbers: Over a decade, the percentage of Americans who read at a fifth-grade level or lower has increased from 18% to 27%.

• When it comes to math, the share of Americans scoring at low proficiency levels has grown from 28% to 34%.

• Meanwhile, the share of Americans scoring at high proficiency levels in numeracy and literacy has mostly remained unchanged.

Zoom out: The U.S. generally performs worse than its fellow OECD nations, which are all relatively rich and developed countries.

• Average scores in literacy have declined in the majority of countries over the past decade, despite adults having higher educational qualifications.

• 1 in 5 adults in OECD countries have math and reading skills equivalent to those of primary school children.

Bubba’s Two Cents

Earlier this month, we brought you news of how U.S. fourth graders' math scores dropped 18 points on the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study assessment. We’ve repeatedly talked about how Americans’ confidence in higher education and the public school system has declined greatly, as well as the surge in alternative forms of education like homeschooling and private schools. We throw the word “crisis” around to talk about the border or fentanyl, but, for some reason, we don’t describe U.S. education this way. Maybe it’s time we start.