Pudits justified CNN as saying they were just after ratings.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/18181/just-how-badly-cnn-collapsing-look-these-numbers-james-barrett

How does Jeff Zucker still have a job?
How do they justify spending so much on non-talent?
Will they ever even hit a million viewers again since they are still going down in ratings?

They don't need to. They make enough revenue through carriage fees. This allows them to be a partisan group. They may only average about 1 million viewers for their best shows however nearly 100 million people pay for CNN through their cable bill. Each cable subscriber pays about $1.00 a month for CNN regardless if they watch it. That means CNN is making between 90 and 100 million per month through carriage fees. When was the last time CNN was not on in an airport?

It's the same for MSNBC.

Remove the carriage fees and they would either go out of business or be forced to do a complete overhaul.