Fox is not hugely popular with the "American masses". Sponge Bob Square Pants and pro wrestling have far more viewers. And the numbers are skewed because people who watch Fox news have a habit of leaving it on non-stop. That pumps up their raw numbers, but they have fewer unique viewers than other cable news stations. Nor has Air America vanished.
[WS:] OK, you have a point about the numbers, but the same bias would apply to every show, so even if the absolute numbers are off, they would still reveal the relative ranking of shows. And by those standards, Air America is (unfortunately) no match for Fox or even conservative talk shows.
As to the 'unique viewer,' does not Fox watching, talk show listening, pro-wrestling, monster trucks, NASCAR, SUV driving, gun ownership, flag waving, etc. form a broad noxious mix of "American national identity" that votes Republican, supports "our troops," cheers bombing other people to the stone age (provided "we" do not get "our" asses kicked as it happened in Vietnam and is now happening in Iraq), bashes immigrants, hates 'the gummint,' thinks Hilary Clinton is a socialist, and considers liberal bashing a blood sport? Was not it one of the main messages of "Idiocracy?"
But more seriously, I think it is time that liberals realize that they are a minority in this country and that the left is a rather small minority within the liberal minority. It would clear their thinking by curing them from delusions of grandeur, populist fantasies, and blaming Democrats, and focus them on developing strategies that are more appropriate for the actual strength of their hand.
Wojtek