Why are you all so down on the Huffington Post? Hear is what they said and then you can interpret it correctly.
"To a seasoned watcher of cable news ratings, there were other surprises. Rachel Maddow, for instance, came in 10th, beating "Studio B" and the 11 p.m. repeat of "The O'Reilly Factor." In January 2012, she came in 14th. It may not seem like much, but the top of the cable news field has been extremely stable -- and if Maddow were to continue creeping up the list, it would mean a real sea change. Overall, MSNBC -- perhaps powered by liberal euphoria over President Barack Obama's inauguration -- was the only cable news channel to grow its ratings from 2012."
So you see the Huffington Post
compared the ratings of Rachel Maddow and Shepard Smith. They didn't say that they competed with each other and if you read carefully, neither did I.