The Watchdog with David Bozell

Every month, Press Gazette publishes audience rankings for America's biggest news websites. Think of it as the media's monthly report card, except readers are the ones holding the red pen.

And lately, the grades haven't been great.

Poll after poll has found trust in the media near historic lows. Now many of the audience numbers seem to be following the same path.

Year over year, NBC News is down 46%. ABC News is down 38%. The Washington Post is down 20%. Newsweek is down 61%.

Every drop is a vote cast by a reader who chose to go elsewhere.

Then there's CNN. According to Press Gazette, CNN.com fell 48% year over year in September, to 179.9 million visits, and now sits behind FoxNews.com in traffic.

CNN spent years telling Americans whom to trust. Americans answered by telling CNN where to click, and the destination was FoxNews.com. Somewhere in Atlanta, a producer is booking a panel to explain why the audience is wrong.

What's remarkable is that many of these outlets seem determined to treat the numbers as somebody else's problem. If anything, they've doubled down. The anti-Trump headlines get hotter. The partisan framing gets more obvious. The outrage machine keeps running at full speed.

The audience keeps heading for the exits.

Take Newsweek. According to Press Gazette, it has now posted the largest year-over-year traffic decline among major news websites for six consecutive months.

At some point, a bad month starts looking like a verdict.

The media spend a lot of time attacking traditional values, dismissing conservative concerns, and promoting progressive causes. Press Gazette's rankings suggest fewer readers are sticking around for the lecture.

The numbers are revealing because they record what readers do. Readers don't have to answer a poll. They don't have to write a letter. They don't have to complain on social media.

They simply decide whether to come back.

Trust falls. Readership falls. Yet much of the media keeps insisting the problem can't possibly be themselves.

The report card suggests readers have reached a different conclusion.

Take it easy,David Bozell
President