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FOX: Hottest name in news |
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Written by MCT
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Wednesday, 11 October 2006 |
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When media baron Rupert Murdoch announced in 1995 that he was creating the Fox News Channel, CNN founder Ted Turner smirked that he was “looking forward to squishing Rupert like a bug.” A few months later, when Murdoch hired Roger Ailes to run the channel, The New York Times sniffed that Fox News was just something for Ailes to play with — “less a toy than an imaginary friend.”
Now, as Fox News celebrates 10 years on the air, there won’t be any cracks about insects or Erector Sets: It’s the No. 1 cable-news network, as it has been for the past 58 months, with an audience almost as big as its two main competitors combined.
It took Fox News just five years to surpass MSNBC, with its powerful corporate backers, and CNN, which had a 16-year head start.
The top five cable news programs, and 13 of the top 14, are on Fox News. Its ratings rank it among the top 10 cable networks all day long.
Cable operators consider it a must-have — it reached the 90-million-subscriber mark faster than any cable channel in history, faster than MTV, faster than ESPN, faster than CNN.
Numbers be damned, Ailes grumbles darkly, Fox News has failed: “The other guys are still in business.”
That’s a joke, probably, though it’s never wise to underestimate Ailes’ competitive bloodlust. (When CNN beat him in a legal scrap for the services of anchor Paula Zahn, Ailes said it didn’t matter — Fox News could put “a dead raccoon on the air” opposite Zahn and still get more viewers.) But Ailes is serious when he says he expects his network to do more.
“Fox News hasn’t taken enough viewers away from the broadcast networks. It hasn’t yet ignited younger viewers. Those are goals we can work toward in the next 10 years,” he said.
Fox News, for better or (as its legions of critics insist) for worse, has remade the face of television journalism. Its brash delivery and breezy informality, its frenetic pace and dazzling graphics, its mixture of news and opinion shows, its sometimes tabloidish news sensibilities, its marriage of talk-radio with TV news — they reverberate through every newscast on television, broadcast and cable alike.
Fox News has both ignited and fueled an increasingly vitriolic national debate over the way political ideology influences (or doesn’t) news coverage. Whether you view the network’s slogan “fair and balanced” as an admirable mission statement or self-satirical buffoonery, it is entrenched at the center of an American culture war that, before Fox News came along, was largely waged underground.
“Whether it’s true or not, millions and millions of committed conservatives believed the other networks were liberal and Democratic-leaning,” says University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato. “You can argue all day long whether they’re right or wrong. But the ratings numbers speak for themselves, and speak very loudly.”
Fox News’ critics speak loudly, too, though they usually add some grudging words of respect for the way Ailes trounces them. “He’s a brilliant guy, in a kind of evil-genius way,” says Mark Feldstein, a former correspondent for ABC and CNN, now a professor of media and politics at George Washington University. “What he’s given us is partisan television, narrow-casting for the political right.” | Only registered users can write comments.
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|  | What is up FoCo?
I am a recent college graduate of Minnesota State University Moorhead. After recieving my B.A. in English and Mass Communications this past August I moved down to Colorado.
I enjoy long walks on the beach, candlelight dinners, and heavy metal. My hobbies include reading and writing, music, movies, and getting drunk. Some of my favorite contemporary authors include Bret Easton Ellis, Chuck Palahniuk, and Kurt Vonnegut. My top movies are anything directed by Kubrick. I enjoy listening to anything that rocks.
Right now I am just trying to get to know Colorado and FoCo better. Mostly in order to find the best drink specials on each day that ends in Y. So if you know where I can get a cheap drunk on, let me know!
--Drew | |
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|  | Ms. Giles currently lives in Colorado where she stars in her own private reality show. She writes aphoristic accounts of her life, taken completely out of context, and embellished with characters and situations disguised to resemble something close to interesting. | |
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| | My name is Michelle Turley and I'm 28 years old. I live in Severance with my hubbie, Brandon. We have 2 dogs and a cat. We enjoy camping, four-wheeling, and just being in the mountains. I like to cook, clean (go figure), flea market, and play poker. I have so much to say about poker... | |
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