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Fox News)
The Fox News Channel is a highly-rated U.S. cable and satellite news channel. It is owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, and is a subsidiary of News Corporation, under major shareholder and chief executive officer Rupert Murdoch. As of January 2005, it is available to 85 million subscribers in the U.S. and to further viewers internationally, broadcasting primarily out of its New York City studios.
An audio simulcast of the channel is played on XM Satellite Radio channel 121 and Sirius Satellite Radio channel 131. Fox also produces Fox News Talk for both satellite radio services, with talk radio programs syndicated by and featuring Fox News personalities.
The network was launched on October 7, 1996 to 17 million cable subscribers. The network quickly rose to prominence in the late 1990s as it started taking market share away from competitor CNN. As of 2005, Fox News' ratings exceeds those of competing news channels for long-term viewers (Nielsen's Points ratings), although CNN outnumbers Fox News in terms of numbers of individual viewers (Nielsen's Cume ratings).
History
Fox News Channel Iraq war coverage
Rupert Murdoch established Fox News to counter a news media that he believed was predominantly liberal.[1] Murdoch had significant experience with cable news after starting the Sky News rolling news service in the United Kingdom.
In February 1996, after Roger Ailes (who would later become the president of Fox News) was relieved of duties at America's Talking, in preparation for conversion of the network to MSNBC, Murdoch called Ailes to start the network. A group of Ailes loyalists who followed him throughout the NBC empire joined him at Fox. From there, the CNBC expatriates, who joined a team already in place at Fox News, created the programming concept and proceeded to select space in New York. Ailes worked individuals, often agitated and verbally abusive, through five months of grueling 14 hour workdays and several weeks of rehearsal shows before launch, on October 7, 1996.
At launch, only ten million households were able to watch Fox News, with none in the major media markets of New York City and Los Angeles. According to published reports, many media reviewers had to watch the first day's programming at Fox News studios because it wasn't readily available. The rolling news coverage during the day consisted of 20 minute single topic shows like Fox on Crime or Fox on Politics surrounded by news headlines. Interviews had various interesting facts at the bottom of the screen about the topic or the guest. The flagship newscast at the time was called The Schenider Report, with Mike Schneider giving a fast paced delivery of the news. During the evening, Fox had opinion shows: The O'Reilly Factor (then called The O'Reilly Report), The Crier Report hosted by Catherine Crier, and Hannity & Colmes. From the beginning, FNC has also had a number of different slogans it included in daily broadcasts including: "America's Newsroom", "The Most Powerful Name in News", "FOX Means Business", "Fair and Balanced", and "We Report, You Decide"
Fox News Alert title card
From the beginning, Fox News has had a heavy emphasis on the visual presentation of news. Graphics were designed to be colorful and attention grabbing, and to allow people to get the main points of what was being said even if they couldn't hear the host, through the use of on-screen text summarizing the position of the interviewer or speaker, and "bullet points" when a host was giving commentary. The network differentiated commentary from interviews with a constant graphic reading "COMMENTARY" during features such as Bill O'Reilly's Talking Points Memo. Fox News also created the Fox News Alert, which interrupted regular programming when a breaking news story occurred. Each News Alert was designed to be attention catching with a swooshing graphic filling the screen and a piercing chime instead of the regular news music. At the beginning of FNC, the Fox News Alert was used fairly rarely, giving the chime more cachet, but currently it is used regularly to announce scheduled events or repeat existing news instead of only breaking news stories, with Fox News Alerts sometimes several times each hour instead of just a few times a day. Fox News was also the first network to put up the American flag after the September 11, 2001 attacks, a feature in the upper left hand corner that has persisted to this day.
To accelerate the adoption by cable companies, Fox News paid systems up to $11 per subscriber in subsidy to distribute the network. This contrasted with the normal practice, in which cable operators pay stations carriage fees for the programming of channels. When Time Warner bought out Ted Turner's Turner Broadcasting, a federal antitrust consent decree required Time Warner to carry a second all-news channel in addition to Time Warner's own CNN. Time Warner selected MSNBC as the secondary news network, instead of Fox News. Fox News claimed that this violated an agreement to carry Fox News, and Ailes used his connections to persuade Mayor Giuliani to carry Fox News and Bloomberg Television on two underutilized city-owned cable channels, which he did.
New York City also threatened to revoke Time Warner's cable franchise for not carrying Fox News. A lawsuit was filed by Time Warner against the City of New York claiming undue interference and for inappropriate use of the city's educational channels for commercial programming. News Corporation countered with an antitrust lawsuit against Time Warner for unfairly protecting CNN. This led to an acrominous battle between Murdoch and Turner, with Turner publicly comparing Murdoch to Adolf Hitler while Murdoch's New York Post ran an editorial questioning Turner's sanity. Giuliani's motives were also questioned, as his then-wife was a producer at Murdoch-owned WNYW-TV. In the end, Time Warner and News Corporation signed a settlement agreement to permit Fox News to be carried on New York City cable system beginning in October 1997, and to all of Time Warner's cable systems by 2001. In return, Time Warner was given some rights to News Corporation's satellites in Asia and Europe to distribute Time Warner programming, would receive the normal compensation per subscriber paid to cable operators, and News Corporation would not object to Atlanta Braves baseball games being carried on TBS (which normally would not happen because of the Fox television network's contract with Major League Baseball).
Management
The CEO, Chairman, and President of Fox News is Roger Ailes. After he began his career in broadcasting, Ailes started Ailes Communications, Inc and was successful as a political strategist for Presidents Nixon and Reagan and in producing campaign TV commercials (the Willie Horton ad is a notable example) for Republican political candidates. His work for former President Richard M. Nixon was chronicled in the book The Selling of the President: 1968 by Joe McGinniss. Ailes withdrew from consulting and returned to broadcasting in 1992, including Rush Limbaugh's television program during 1992-1996. He ran the CNBC channel and America's Talking, the forerunner of MSNBC for NBC. More recently, Ailes was named Broadcaster of the Year by Broadcast and Cable Magazine in 2003.
Fox News Channel Programming
Fox News presents a wide variety of programming, with up to 15 hours of live programming per day. Most of the programs are broadcast from Fox News headquarters in New York City with its street-side studios on Sixth Avenue (1211 Avenue of the Americas) in the west extension of Rockefeller Center.
The following is the usual weekday lineup (as of March, 2006, all times Eastern):
- 6 a.m.: Morning programming begins with Fox & Friends First, hosted by one or more of the Fox & Friends hosts with rotating co-hosts Lauren Green, Juliet Huddy, Andrew P. Napolitano and others.
- 7 a.m.: Fox & Friends, hosted by Steve Doocy, E.D. Hill, and Brian Kilmeade, is similar to other cable news network programming in the mornings, such as CNN's American Morning with Miles O'Brien and Soledad O'Brien and MSNBC's Imus in the Morning.
- 9 a.m.: Late morning and early afternoon programming starts with Fox News Live, a show featuring news, guest analysis, and interviews. Like other American cable news stations, there is news mixed with feature-like stories, as well as commentary and short debates between people on opposite sides of issues, usually between associates of candidates and officials, think tank members and journalists. Usually hosted by Jon Scott, Brigitte Quinn and Bill Hemmer.
- 1 p.m.: Mike Jerrick's and Juliet Huddy's talk show with a live audience, DaySide.
- 2 p.m.: Another hour of Fox News Live hosted by Martha MacCallum.
- 3 p.m.: Shepard Smith's news program, Studio B.
- 4 p.m.: Fox's flagship business program, Your World, hosted by business managing editor Neil Cavuto.
- 5 p.m.: John Gibson hosts The Big Story, a news/commentary program.
- 6 p.m.: Primetime starts with the political news and discussion show Special Report with Brit Hume, hosted by Washington managing editor Brit Hume from Washington, DC.
- 7 p.m.: Shepard Smith broadcasts The Fox Report with Shepard Smith, FNC's evening news program similar to programs offered on ABC, CBS, and NBC, a newscast-of-record, offering coverage of national and international news, and FOXCAST weather.
- 8 p.m.: The network's top-rated show, The O'Reilly Factor. The taped broadcast features commentary from Bill O'Reilly, formerly of Inside Edition.
- 9 p.m.: Conservative Sean Hannity and liberal Alan Colmes debate political issues of the day with guests and analysts during Hannity & Colmes.
- 10 p.m.: Greta Van Susteren broadcasts On the Record with Greta Van Susteren. This program has an emphasis on stories pertaining to legal matters or human interest.
- 11 p.m.: Reruns of previous programs are shown until 6 a.m. the next day.
In addition to the regular weekday programming, FNC also has weekend programming including Fox & Friends Weekend, The Cost of Freedom business block, Weekend Live with Tony Snow on Saturdays, Weekend Live (hosted by Brian Wilson on Sundays), Fox News Live (hosted by Jamie Colby), Studio B Weekend (hosted by Trace Gallagher), The Big Story Weekend (hosted by Julie Banderas), The Beltway Boys, Fox News Watch, The Fox Report with Trace Gallagher, War Stories with Oliver North, Heartland with John Kasich, The Lineup, The Big Story Primetime, and The Journal Editorial Report.
Fox News also produced several newsmagazine shows for its Fox network affiliates including Fox Files and The Pulse, although both were cancelled after short runs due to poor ratings.
Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace currently airs on many Fox affiliates and is similar in format to other Sunday morning political discussion programs, and is rebroadcast on FNC at 6 p.m. ET Sundays. The Fox network does air Fox News's live coverage of events such as the State of the Union Address. However, the live event coverage on the Fox network is different than Fox News Channel's live event coverage. Fox News also produces national news segments to air on the local Fox affiliate's news programs.
There are rumors that Fox News will start a evening newscast and/or a morning news programs for the Fox Network. It is unknown when will these possible shows materialize. However, Fox News and the Fox broadcast network is thought by news insiders to be using its new syndicated newsmagazine Geraldo at Large (which airs in prime slots on all of Fox's O&Os) as a test run of rolling out a national newscast. Fox News chairman Roger Ailes is now also chairman of the Fox Television Stations division, and has been pushing for the network's O&O stations to have a more uniform image and presentation in their newscasts.
Fox News is confirmed to produce a program called On Scene (focusing on crime-related stories) on Fox's soon to be launched sister network, My Network TV, also under Roger Ailes's control.
Fox News Radio
In 2003, Fox News began syndicating one minute radio updates to radio stations. On June 1, 2005, Fox News Radio expanded to a full service news operation, employing sixty people and providing five minute newscasts at the top of the hour and one minute newscast at the bottom of the hour. Fox News Radio is hosted by both FNC television personalities and others working solely for radio. At launch, sixty stations participated in the network, with more joining under a deal struck between Fox and Clear Channel Communications converting many Clear Channel stations to carry Fox News Radio newscasts and allow Fox News Radio to use news content produced by Clear Channel and distribute it nationally.
Fox News Channel personalities on radio
Fox News Radio also syndicates radio programs hosted by its TV personalities.
Two other radio programs hosted by Fox News Channel personalities are distributed by other companies. The Radio Factor hosted by Bill O'Reilly is syndicated separately by CBS-owned Westwood One (the show began in 2002); however, satellite rights are held by Fox News Talk. The talk radio program hosted by FNC's Sean Hannity is syndicated by ABC Radio (show started in 2001). Both were grandfathered, as their shows began before Fox News Radio begun.
Aside from Hannity, the Fox News Channel radio hosts also appear on the Fox News Talk satellite radio channel, along with the satellite-only program Fox Across America hosted by Spencer Hughes. Hannity's program appears on the ABC News & Talk satellite channel under terms of the deal with Citadel Communications, which is until 2009. (In 2006, Citadel Communications purchased the radio arm of Disney.)
Personalities
Regular guests & contributors
Former personalities
Ratings
Fox News currently leads the cable news market, earning higher points ratings than its chief competitors CNN and MSNBC combined by average viewership. Measured by unique viewers, however, CNN achieves 11% higher ratings than Fox News. Many commentators attribute this to Fox's somewhat longer duration "talk" programs interspersed with news updates which cause viewers to tune in for longer periods as compared to CNN's generally shorter news segments. Others claim that Fox News garners more loyal fans than CNN, MSNBC, and others due to being the sole network to appeal to conservatives by openly rejecting the supposed bias of the "mainstream liberal media".
The BBC reported that Fox News saw its profits double during the Iraq conflict, due in part to what the report called patriotic coverage of the war. By some reports, at the height of the conflict they enjoyed as much as a 300% increase in viewership, averaging 3.3 million viewers daily [2].
In 2004, the perceived gain in ratings began to become more apparent. Fox News' coverage of the Democratic National Convention in Boston ranked higher than that of its two closest cable competitors combined. In September, Fox News Channel's ratings for its broadcast of the Republican National Convention beat those of all three broadcast networks. During President Bush's address, Fox News notched 7.3 million viewers nationally, while NBC, CBS, and ABC scored ratings of 5.9, 5.0, and 5.1, respectively.
In April 2005, however, CNN sent out a press release stating that Fox's viewership of adults between the ages of 25 and 54 had dropped over a period of six months since the peak of the November 2004 elections (to a total drop of over 58% [3], [4]). Fox still held eight of the ten most-watched nightly cable news shows, with The O'Reilly Factor and Hannity & Colmes coming in first and second places, respectively. Since then Fox's ratings have surged. [5]
Controversies and allegations of bias
- Main article: Fox News Channel controversies and allegations of bias
Since its conception, the network has been among one of the most heavily criticised media associations for its supposed conservative political bias. The network, however, prides itself for what it claims is its neutrality in reporting, while most personalities working for Fox News claim it to be the most objective news channel in the United States. Fox News has adopted the slogans "We Report, You Decide" , "Fair & Balanced" and "Real Journalism", rejecting all allegations of bias. However, Bill O'Reilly has personally admitted that he believes "FOX does tilt right." [6]
Some critics accuse Fox of "dumbing down" its news coverage by blurring the line between news and opinion.[7]
Trademark disputes
Keith Olbermann and Al Franken discuss Fox News' Trademark Dispute.
In the late 1990s, as Fox News reached most major cable markets, a handful of observers began to use world wide web to mock FNC's putative bias, triggering the first publicly aired trademark disputes between Fox News and its critics. In late 2001, Faux News Channel.com created the "Faux" Fox News logo[8].
In 2003, Penguin Books published Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, by the liberal comedian and writer Al Franken. The book criticized many conservative individuals and institutions on grounds of inaccuracy; it included Fox News among the media outlets described as biased. Before the book was released, Fox brought a lawsuit, alleging that the book's subtitle violated Fox's trademark in the promotional phrase "Fair and Balanced". On that basis, Fox moved for a preliminary injunction to block the publication of the book. The United States District Court Judge hearing the case denied the motion, characterizing Fox's claim as "wholly without merit, both factually and legally". Fox then withdrew the suit.
In December 2003, the Independent Media Institute brought a petition before the United States Patent and Trademark Office seeking the cancellation of Fox's trademark in the phrase "Fair & Balanced" for being deceptively misdescriptive.[9] After losing early procedural motions, the IMI withdrew its petition and the USPTO dismissed the case.[10]
International transmission
The channel is now available internationally, though its world programming is the same as its American programming, unlike CNN International, which airs regional programming that is largely independent of its U.S. broadcasts.
United Kingdom
Fox News is also carried in the United Kingdom with global weather forecasts instead of most advertisements, by the British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) satellite television network, in which News Corporation holds a 38 percent stake. It is a sister channel to BSkyB's Sky News, which is more popular in the region. Fox News is usually broadcast as a VideoGuard encrypted channel but during major news stories it may be simuilcasted on Sky News Active, which is free to air. A fault in certain Pace Micro Sky Digibox receivers, notably the DS-430N which was Sky's default issue for some years, has left them able to decrypt the channel with no active subscription card since March 1, 2006; although no reason is known as to why.
Canada
On December 14, 2000, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approved Fox News Canada on behalf of the Global Television Network, for broadcast in Canada. Fox News Canada was to be a domestic Canadian version of Fox News. [11] The channel, or specialty television service, was never implemented by Fox, and the deadline for commencement of the service expired on November 24, 2004. That same day, a similar licence was granted to Rogers Communications for "MSNBC Canada", which went to air in September, 2001. During this period, it was stated by supporters of Fox News that the station was being "banned in Canada," when in fact, the opposite was the case. The CRTC's previous refusal to grant Fox News an outright license had been contested by some Canadians, as well as American fans of the channel, who believed the decision to be politically motivated. However, it is rare for any American cable network to be licensed in Canada, especially when there is a Canadian alternative.
On June 18, 2003, the Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association (CCTA), an organization representing approximately 90 cable companies in Canada, applied to add Fox News, ESPN, HBO, and other non-domestic programming to the CRTC's Lists of Eligible Satellite Services on a digital basis. In their application the CCTA duly noted that, absent a change in CRTC policy, some of the channels were likely to be ineligible for addition to the lists as some were partially or totally competitive with licensed Canadian programming. Some Canadian channels additionally might hold exclusive rights. In a lengthy response, the CRTC stated that "the Commission considers that CCTA has not raised sufficient question as to the validity of the existing policy, or sufficient argument or evidence as to the benefits of its proposed approach, to warrant a policy review at this time" and noted that "CCTA has not provided the information generally required for the Commission to consider requests to add services to the Lists. Accordingly, the Commission is not in a position to examine whether it would be appropriate to authorize for distribution any of the specific services noted in CCTA’s request" ([12]).
The CCTA applied on April 15, 2004 solely to add Fox News, along with the NFL Network. [13] CCTA's acting president Michael Hennessy said that the previous "bulk approach... ...was just too big", adding it raised "significant issues" with respect to broadcast rights and competition with existing domestic services ([14]) On November 18, 2004 the CRTC announced that a digital license would be granted to Fox News ([15]). In its proposal, Fox News stated, with reference to Fox News Canada, that "Fox News does not intend to implement this service and therefore will not meet the extended deadline to commence operations" ([16]). On December 16, 2004, Rogers Communications became the first Canadian cable or satellite provider to broadcast Fox News, with other companies following suit within the next several days.
Australia
In Australia Fox News Channel is broadcast on the three major Pay-TV providers, Austar, Optus Television and Foxtel. Foxtel is 25% owned by News Corporation. The Australian syndication previously featured some local programming, including a John Laws current affairs programme in place of "Fox & Friends". Currently, it is a direct feed of the US broadcast.
Brazil
Since 2002 Fox News has been broadcast to Brazil, but the commercials are replaced with weather forecasts (except for their own ads). It is broadcast by Sky Brazil (satellite operator, a joint-venture between News Corporation and Globopar) and in the digital packages of NET (cable television operator, a joint-venture between Telmex and Globopar).
New Zealand
In New Zealand, Fox News is broadcast on the Prime terrestrial network's nightime period. Because of the late time zones in the U.S., Fox News only gets to broadcast their late night programming, notably "Fox and Friends." Local advertisements and weather maps replace U.S. advertising. The weather map temperatures are, of course, presented in degrees Celsius.
Other countries
Fox News Channel is also carried in more than 40 countries including Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Cambodia, Cayman, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Finland, Grenada, Germany, Guam, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Iceland, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Macau, Malaysia, Maldives, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Peru, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Saint Kitts, Saint Lucia, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela. (Service to Japan stopped in the summer of 2003 it can be seen at Americable (Distributor for American Bases http://americablejapan.com, Mediatti (Kadena Air Base) http://www.mccokinawa.com/cable and Muracam TV http://www.muracam-tv.com.)
References
- ^ "Broadcast News". The New Yorker. URL accessed on November 29, 2005.
- ^ "War coverage lifts News Corp". The British Broadcasting Corporation. URL accessed on November 29, 2005.
- Collins, Scott. Crazy Like a Fox: The Inside Story of How Fox News Beat CNN. ISBN 1591840295.
External links
- Official Site
- The Ladies of FOX & Friends
- News Corporation - Fox's parent company.
- Museum of Broadcast Communications: Ailes, Roger
- News Hounds - Watchdog blog critical of Fox News Channel.
- Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism - The critical documentary's website.
- Outfoxed streaming Dutch VPRO documentary by Tegenlicht. Introduction, several seconds, in Dutch with story itself in English and Dutch subtitles; 50 min. Broadband internet needed.
- Guardian Unlimited special report: Fox - the naked truth, October 5, 2004, Zoe Williams, The Guardian
- Fox executives funnel cash to Santorum, GOP
- The Fifth Estate: Sticks and Stones, CBC - Bob McKeown investigates Fox News for The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 45 min.
- "The Most Powerful Smell in News" - Origin of the "Faux News" logo.
- If Fox News Had Been Around Throughout History Humorous look at Fox.
The content of this page is retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_News under GFDL
