• by Wayne Friedman , June 27, 2017

President Trump has offered false information regarding CNN’s recent viewership.

A Trump tweet this morning said: “Fake News CNN is looking at big management changes now that they got caught falsely pushing their phony Russian stories. Ratings way down!”

Trump is wrong about CNN’s viewership.

In the second quarter, CNN's ratings were up 10% in prime time (8 p.m. to 11 p.m.) to a Nielsen 1.1 million total viewers versus a year ago. CNN is in 10th place among all cable networks. CNN viewership is also 25% higher — to 787,000 viewers in total day measure.

Responding to Trump’s tweet, CNN tweeted: “CNN just posted its most-watched second quarter in history. Those are the facts.”

In the key news demo, viewers 25-54, CNN did even better during the period. The network is up 19% in prime time to average 370,000 viewers and 39% higher in total day viewing to 262,000.

Trump's reference to “management” changes is in reference to three staffers — a reporter and two editors — who resigned on Monday over a story linking a Russian investment fund with a Trump Administration transition team member.

CNN retracted the story on Friday night, June 23. An editor’s note said: "CNN.com published a story connecting Anthony Scaramucci with investigations into the Russian Direct Investment Fund. That story did not meet CNN's editorial standards and has been retracted.”

Scaramucci tweeted: “@CNN did the right thing. Classy move. Apology accepted. Everyone makes mistakes. Moving on.”

Overall, cable news networks continue to post higher ratings since the presidential election last November.

Second-quarter ratings for Fox News Channel were 19% higher to average 2.35 million viewers in prime time and 27% higher to 1.46 million in total day viewing. FNC took first place among all cable networks.

MSNBC grew the most among all cable news networks -- rocketing 86% higher in prime time to 1.7 million viewers in the last three months. It is up 57% to 884,000 in total day viewing. That's good for third place among all cable networks in both categories.