On 7 October 1996, FoxNews had a relatively inauspicious debut in only a few American living rooms (it didn't even have a distributor in Manhattan). CNN had already established itself as the global leader and the media thought that if CNN was to be challenged, it was going to be from MSNBC, which had started only months before FoxNews. Ten years later and FoxNews is the undisputed leader in cable news in the US. Given that today FoxNews celebrates its tenth birthday, I thought it would be appropriate for me to critique the channel somewhat.
First up, a confession. I started watching FoxNews in 2000 in the lead-up to the 2000 Presidential election. I became addicted to it watching the Florida recount. When I lived in the US in 2003-04, FoxNews remained my cable news channel of choice and it was not uncommon for me to watch several hours of it a day. Although I don't have the time to watch too much cable news these days, when I have a choice I still watch FoxNews.
In my mind FoxNews has succeeded as a cable news channel for several reasons. First, FoxNews is eminently watchable. Its anchors, on Fox & Friends, FoxNews Live, and its evening shows are all personable, permitted to show their personality on air and to occasionally offer their opinions. Combine likeable people with colourful graphics and sets and a wide mix of stories, and you have entertaining news. News that is actually fun to watch, and I can't think of any other news channel anywhere in the world that has that quality. The show and anchor that best encapsulates this is the Fox Report with Shepherd Smith.
Second, FoxNews appeals to all of America. It doesn't believe that news is only for the elite, the educated, or the wealthy. This inclusive attitude and willingness to embrace all of America means that it is able to appeal to a broader audience than its rivals.
Third, talk and opinion is more engaging and interesting TV than "straight" news. FoxNews takes the news and gets people to take two different, usually opposing views on that news. This sort of talk not only gives the news some context, but it creates conflict. And conflict, as we all know, is good TV.
Fourth, FoxNews lives up to the cliche it has created - it really is "fair and balanced". Well, that is apart from two of its evening talk shows - The O'Reilly Factor and Hannity & Colmes - but those shows have never claimed to present the news. All points of view are covered on FoxNews, and all points of view are challenged. This is unique not just to US cable news, but to pretty much all news shows I have ever seen.
Fifth, the above reasons combine to create this cult effect that means you become a loyal and regular viewer. You want to the channel to succeed, you like the anchors and reporters as people, and you will willingly defend the channel to any non-believer. This also means you are content to watch it even in slow news cycles.
I believe that FoxNews creator Roger Ailes has created something unique. FoxNews has strong news values, but also has a strong sense of identity that people respond to. You sense that they have fun putting the news together and enjoy being number one, and so you have fun and are only too happy to do your bit in helping FoxNews remain number one. Plus, you feel as though you are appreciated.
I suppose what I'm saying is that FoxNews has created a community that will keep on watching for years to come.
I've read three articles in the last few days that support this conclusion. In the Los Angeles Times, Brian C. Anderson offers this defence of FoxNews:
The propaganda charge is unfair, at least when it comes to the network's presentation of news. In the 2004 presidential race, Fox pollsters consistently underestimated President Bush's support. In its final preelection poll, Fox had Kerry winning by a couple of points, one of the only polls to show the Democrat on top. I'm not sure a right-wing fifth column would do that.
A recent comprehensive study by UCLA political scientist Tim Groseclose and University of Missouri-Columbia economics professor Jeffrey Milyo found Brit Hume's "Special Report" — Fox's most straightforward news show — more centrist than any of the three major networks' evening newscasts, all of which leaned left.
The program is a model of smart news television.
And although it's true that the network's opinion shows (as opposed to its news shows) are, as they're supposed to be, noisily opinionated, it's equally true that Fox's biggest star, O'Reilly, is no mainstream Republican ...
Liberals troop into and out of the Fox studios every day — some of them, like host Alan Colmes and news analyst Marvin Kalb, affiliated with the channel. There's no doubt, of course, that Fox News is more conservative than CBS or CNN. But, after all, that was its founding mission.
Fox's real ethos is not Republican but anti-elitist — a major reason it connects with so many Americans and annoys so many coastal elites. "There's a whole country that elitists will never acknowledge," Ailes once observed. "What people resent deeply out there are those in the 'blue states' thinking they're smarter."
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Another aspect of Fox's anti-elitism: Christians, far from being seen as lunatics or curiosities — as too often is the case in the mainstream media — actually get some respect.
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What really frustrates liberals about Fox, though, is simply that, along with talk radio and the conservative blogosphere, it has helped shatter the left's near-monopoly on news and information. Fox's opinion-driven programming gives conservatives and liberals a chance to get a hearing for their ideas. But Democratic politicians and activists who go on Fox also must defend their views, often against tough questioning, something that happens less often on the networks, where most journalists are left-of-center, survey after survey has shown.
Even more significant, Fox came on the scene a decade ago as a professional news organization that could define and report news as something different from what the elite consensus says it is. To take one of many examples, the corruption of the United Nations' oil-for-food initiative in Iraq, initially downplayed by the mainstream media because of their sympathy for internationalism, was uncovered — deemed newsworthy — on Fox.
All this wouldn't matter if Fox News wasn't so influential. But it is. According to the Pew Research Center, more than 20% of Americans now claim to get news from it, and lots of them (37%) are Democrats or independents. The network's success has also sparked a "Fox effect," leading some competitors to become more open to right-of-center opinions: MSNBC's "Scarborough Country," hosted by former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough, is a prime example. Until a few years ago, Democrats never had to deal with all these mediatized conservatives.
Read more here.
And then Jon Friedman from MarketWatch attended the tenth birthday party (see photos from the event here) and noticed this:
On Wednesday morning, I gained a pretty fair insight into why Fox has been No. 1 in cable news since 2002.
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I was the only non-Fox journalist (as long as you don't count the crew from "Entertainment Tonight") invited to watch a taping of a primetime program that will air on Sunday night called "Fox News at 10: Thank You America." I watched as Fox anchors Chris Wallace and Martha MacCallum fired questions at what the network lovingly calls its Big 7 -- Bill O'Reilly, Neil Cavuto, Sean Hannity, Alan Colmes, Brit Hume, Greta Van Susteren and Shepard Smith. They swapped war stories and discussed Fox's ascent.
And, oh yeah, some guy named Roger Ailes joined the proceedings. He's the visionary who created the network -- with a lot of help from parent News Corp. and its ever-ambitious chairman, Rupert Murdoch -- and remained its driving force over the past decade.
The conventional wisdom (which I, among many others, have spouted over the years) is that Fox has ruled the roost because it shrewdly managed to exploit the red-blue state phenomenon in America and attract a very large, loyal and vocal audience of politically conservative viewers.
But it's hardly the whole (fair and balanced) story.
Competitive spirit
What the public may not appreciate is that Fox boasts a ferocious competitive spirit. Its will to win (read: crush CNN) is probably unmatched in TV journalism. For that reason, above all, Fox's rise is a case study which has relevance to a journalism or business school.
During the taping, I observed a unique spirit among the panelists -- and the dozens of their fellow Fox anchors and reporters in the audience. Their attitude, that we're all in this together, was admirable.
There is obvious good feeling among the professionals, bordering on affection. Their pride at toppling CNN and remaining No. 1 for nearly five years was evident. When Wallace and MacCallum exhorted them to applaud, I heard another Fox anchor, Juliet Huddy, kid that the audience members should give themselves a standing ovation.
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The panelists remembered that when they joined Fox, their friends thought they were crazy to throw away promising careers at established organizations. "A lot of people thought I'd entered the witness protection program," said Cavuto, who joined from CNBC.
The anchors ran down the reasons why Fox has become so popular with its audience.
"We don't waste your time," said Smith. "We bring you the most important news."
"We are the embodiment of fair and balanced," Hannity added.
"We're curious," Van Susteren said. "They're learning as we're learning."
Ailes said Fox's anchors are appealing because "each person is unique" and has "a will to win."
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The Fox taping reminded me of a pep rally for high achievers. All it was lacking was a sports crowd chanting, "We're No. 1! We're No. 1" I listened for it but didn't hear the strains of Queen's anthem, "We Are the Champions."
Maybe Fox wins because it doesn't tolerate any other result. Loyalty is everything. Ultimately, Fox has thrived because the all-for-one-and-one-for-all spirit inside the newsroom has spread to the audience and they want to belong to the Fox world.
Read more here. The final article was Paul J Gough's in The Hollywood Reporter:
There is no question that the Fox News Channel has exceeded all expectations since it signed on Oct. 7, 1996, long before the nation had heard of Monica Lewinsky, blogs, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton or Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Fox News executives remember the laughter and the barbs when plans for the channel were announced by News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch and Fox News CEO Roger Ailes. They recall being ignored by CNN, the longtime leader in cable news, and derided by others in the TV news business.
"This was a mountain that couldn't be climbed," said anchor Shepard Smith, who has been with the channel since it began. It took less than seven years for Fox News to overtake CNN, in the process becoming a part of the national conversation and frequently becoming a lightning rod for partisan passions on both sides of the aisle.
"We came on at the right time, there were a lot of big stories, the competition totally ignored us," senior vp programming Bill Shine said. "We literally sneaked up on them, we hired some very good journalists and shot past our competition."
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During the past 10 years, Fox News has become a highly influential news source among the power elite in Washington. It has been cheered and jeered for its tagline of "We report. You decide" and for calling itself "fair and balanced."
"We gave journalism a V8 moment where they had to slap their foreheads and say, 'Oh my God, maybe we haven't been covering both sides on some things, maybe we have been a little myopic and East Coast-oriented in some of the views and issues," Ailes said. "The fact that the American people rallied to the Fox News Channel, I think, made many people realize how out of touch with the country some, particularly the New York Times, are."...
Ailes points to Clinton's tirade against Fox News to show that they're not afraid of criticism.
"Where are they attacking us? They're doing it on Fox News. We give access to those who criticize us," Ailes said. "We don't pull the plug. We don't edit the tape. We don't give a damn. But other outfits wouldn't even book you if they knew you would criticize them."
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"What's different about Fox is the management," said Van Susteren, who joined Fox News in 2002 after 10 years with CNN. "They're supportive, you do your work without interference and worrying about constantly changing bosses. ... Our marching orders (are) to do the best damn job you can," she said.
Shine said about 300 people have been with Fox News since the beginning, a retention that he calls amazing. And he knows why.
"First, Roger is a great boss and a great guy to work for, and having the ability to work with him is something that you never want to pass up," Shine said. "Number two, it's a great company, and it's a great organization. The dirty little secret about Fox News is that it's fun."
Read more here.
Update: Johnny Dollar's Place has the video of the first faces and first voices of the Fox News Channel appearing on Fox & Friends this week - former Fox News Now co-hosts Allison Costarene and Louis Aguirre reminisce with Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade.
Update II: On the other side of things, Outfoxed wishes FoxNews a happy birthday:
I can't believe you like Foxnews. What is wrong with you?
Posted by: Mikael | Sunday, 08 October 2006 at 08:12 PM