Weekend Ratings Jump Undermines Trump Claim That Discreet Pregame Protests Are Destroying the NFL
By Ben Mathis-Lilley
After a weekend spent complaining about black NFL players, POTUS claimed Tuesday morning that the league's ratings have declined because patriotic Americans are so insulted when anti-racism protests take place during the national anthem that they stop watching games:
NBC's Pro Football Talk, however,
reports in a surprise development that it turns out Donald Trump might have made a claim that was not factually true:
For the weekend as a whole, ESPN and CBS were up, NBC and FOX were down, and on aggregate ratings across the NFL were up about 3 percent from Week Three last year.
The bump was especially influenced by Monday night's game, before which Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, a very white man, took a knee with his teamalbeit in the ambiguous name of
"unity" rather than social justicein the moments before the anthem was played:
Cowboys-Cardinals got a 9.3 overnight rating for ESPN, easily the highest-rated Monday night game of the year. ... The 9.3 overnight rating is way up from last years Week Three Monday night game.
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http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/09/26/nfl_ratings_up_slightly_despite_trump_kneeling_claims.html