Our friend Matt Lewis is taking stock of the media landscape following the election and the outlook is not brilliant to say the least. Surveying the cable news band, Matt finds that people aren’t watching nearly as much any more, and the reason is that the content just isn’t matching up with the audience.

Aside from Fox News (as evidenced by the ratings), MSNBC’s Morning Joe (as evidenced by its status as a tastemaker), and comedy shows like the Daily Show and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and HBO’s Real Time (by virtue of their place in the cultural zeitgeist), politics on TV doesn’t seem to be as good anymore. Maybe it’s just me. Then again, cable news ratings are down more or less across the board, and Americans find much of the media untrustworthy.

There are other exceptions, no doubt. But whether it’s cable news or the Sunday morning talk shows, something just doesn’t seem right. One gets the sense that they’re flailing, that the world has changed, but they haven’t. That they’re trying to figure out how to make it work, but so far it’s not coming together.

Matt argues that the only shows which are working these days are, for the most part, comedy shows. That sounds pretty bad on the surface, and we might have reason to be worried if most of the voters are getting their news from Jon Stewart and Bill Maher. But before we throw the baby out with the bathwater here, I think there are some cold, hard facts of competitive media and the tastes of Americans to take into account.

The first is that political news coverage is a marketplace where the networks are fighting for a vanishingly small slice of the television pie. Consider for a moment the morning shows that so many of us watch. The most recent ratings (from Monday) show that Morning Joe drew 409,000 viewers and CNN’s New Day attracted 293,000. The 800 pound gorilla in the room, Fox and Friends, pulled a respectable 1.07 million. But is it all that impressive? That same night, the Steelers game pulled in almost 12 million. The Big Bang Theory regularly snags 17 million. Even if we restrict our data digging to cable TV, the Discovery Channel’s show Gold Rush pulled 4 million last week.

Think about that for a second. Fox and Friends, like the other talking heads offerings, is discussing politics, government and the future of our nation. They were slaughtered at a four to one ratio by footage of people digging holes in the ground. I think this says a lot more about the American viewer than the current quality of cable news. People just don’t care, particularly when it’s not the week before an election. I’ve always felt that if you wanted to invest your money in a television show, you’d do far better betting on Sports Center than Chris Hayes.

Is the quality really all that bad in the first place? I suppose it could be better. Matt is correct to note that CNN suffers tremendously from the tendency to try to make every item, no matter how mundane, into World Shaking Breaking News. But they have their bright spots as well. Jake Tapper does a great job and has become the premium offering on the channel. While many of our readers don’t like Morning Joe, I find that it works because you can at least hear some of the argument from both sides of the aisle on any given issue. Fox and Friends is a winner because.. well, they just are. It’s good quality programming. It also shares a trait with the other two shows I just mentioned. There’s a lot of laughter. They mix in humor and fun things with the serious news, and people like to be entertained.

We should also remember the demographics of the potential audience these folks are fighting over. Why are so few people watching morning political talk festivals? Because most of the country is at work during those hours. You’re mostly drawing the retired, the unemployed, and those who are so wealthy that they set their own hours. (Another reason that FOX News does so well.)

I’m not going to despair over the quality of cable news. It could be better, sure. But for the most part they get the job done.