President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Karen Pence and others stand as the US Army Band performs and the US Navy Blue Angels flyover at the end of an Independence Day celebration in front of the Lincoln Memorial, Thursday, July 4, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Maybe shooting off mouths like a firecracker was a bad choice?

Last week we witnessed a great deal of contemporary distemper from the news networks. Many of the characteristics we have now accepted as norm from them came together. Derangement with the President, and avoidance of facts, and the desire to make themselves the centerpiece of the news all came together in a curious bout of illogic.

When President Trump announce the level of military presence he desired for the celebration festivities in D.C. for the 4th of July the press reacted like howler monkeys. They made all manner of imbalanced comparisons, from Russian style missle parades to tanks rolling over dissidents in Tiananmen Square. All that, over the desire to include the military in a celebration.

In a wholly unneeded response the news came from the news networks that they were making the decision to not broadcast the celebration, in response to…well that part was a touch unclear. But the news nets, apart from Fox News, all declared they would not show what they deemed to be “Trump’s Military Parade”. While may in journalism circles and across social media loudly applauded the decision Fox News quietly turned around and pumped its fist.

And it was for good reason. The ratings for the event have come in and to little surprise Fox News dominated the day. Not just dominated; it trounced the virtue-signaling competition. As the network covered the day’s events the measured audience in the 6:30-7:30 segment was massive. Fox enjoyed an audience of 4.65 million viewers. The numbers were especially stark for a number of metrics.

For one, that number nearly tripled the combined total from both CNN and MSNBC in that segment. CNN relented only slightly, and showed some of President Trump’s speech, while MSNBC was obstinate and played re-run content. They saw an audience of just 1.5 million, and 374,000 respectively.

That 4.65 million figure for Fox was not just huge, but historic. It held onto a large audience at a time when there is actually a downfall during the holiday. Instead Fox saw a continued audience surge through the night, experience an average of well over 2 million viewers, matching its usual audience in that slot. That means Thursday was setting a primetime record for the network on the July 4th holiday.

This means that as the competitors were petulant with a “That’ll show him” attitude, Fox decided to show the event, and it reaped the rewards in the process.