The channel was created by Australian-American media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who hired former NBC executive Roger Ailes as the founding CEO. The channel was launched on October 7, 1996 to 17 million cable subscribers. The channel grew in the late 1990s and 2000s to become the dominant cable news network in the United States. In 2010 the network took the top 10 spots in the age 25–54 demographic and the top 12 spots among total viewers.
Some critics have asserted that Fox News Channel promotes conservative political positions. Commentators, news anchors, and reporters at Fox News Channel respond that news reporting and political commentary operate independently of each other, and deny any bias in the news reporting.
History
All about: History of Fox News
Early years
In May 1985, Australian publisher Rupert Murdoch announced that he and American industrialist and philanthropist Marvin Davis intend to develop "a network of independent stations as a fourth marketing force" to compete directly with CBS, NBC and ABC through the purchase of six television stations then owned by Metromedia. In July 1985, 20th Century Fox announced that publisher Rupert Murdoch had completed his purchase of 50 percent of Fox Filmed Entertainment, the parent company of 20th Century Fox Film Corporation. A year later, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. earned $5.6 million in its fiscal third period ended May 31, 1986, in contrast to a loss of $55.8 million in the year-earlier period.
Prior to founding FNC, Murdoch had gained significant experience in the 24-hour news business when News Corp.'s BSkyB subsidiary started Europe's first 24-hour news channel, Sky News, in the United Kingdom in 1989. With the success of his fourth network efforts in the United States, experience gained from Sky News, and turnaround of 20th Century Fox, Murdoch announced on January 31, 1996 that News Corp. would be launching a 24-hour news channel to air on both cable and satellite systems as part of a News Corp. "worldwide platform" for Fox programming, reasoning that "The appetite for news—particularly news that explains to people how it affects them—is expanding enormously."
Saint Anselm College Quad with the "Fox-Box", where the network reported live during the 2004 and 2008 New Hampshire primary.
In February 1996, after former US Republican Party political strategist and NBC executive Roger Ailes left America's Talking (now MSNBC), Murdoch called him to start the Fox News Channel. Ailes worked individuals through five months of 14-hour workdays and several weeks of rehearsal shows before launch, on October 7, 1996.
At launch, only 10 million households were able to watch FNC, 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 was not 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 facts at the bottom of the screen about the topic or the guest. The flagship newscast at the time was called The Schneider Report, with Mike Schneider giving a fast paced delivery of the news. During the evening, Fox had opinion shows: The O'Reilly Report (now, The O'Reilly Factor), The Crier Report hosted by Catherine Crier, and Hannity & Colmes.
FNC's Newsroom
From the beginning, FNC has placed heavy emphasis on visual presentation. 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 could not 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.
Fox News also created the "Fox News Alert," which interrupted regular programming when a breaking news story occurred.
To accelerate its adoption by cable companies, Fox News paid systems up to $11 per subscriber to distribute the channel.[16] This contrasted with the normal practice, in which cable operators paid 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 its own CNN. Time Warner selected MSNBC as the secondary news channel, instead of Fox News. Fox News claimed that this violated an agreement to carry Fox News. Citing its agreement to keep its U.S. headquarters and a large studio in New York City, News Corporation pressured Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's administration to pressure Time Warner, one of the city's two cable providers, to transmit Fox News on a city-owned channel. City officials threatened to take action affecting Time Warner's cable franchises in the city.
A lawsuit was filed by Time Warner against the City of New York claiming undue interference with, and 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 acrimonious 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 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 on all of Time Warner's cable systems by 2001, though Time Warner still does not carry Fox News in all areas.
Recent history
On May 1, 2008, Fox News launched high definition channel simulcasts of its programming in selected regions of the United States. Time Warner Cable is carrying this channel in New York, New York, San Antonio, Texas, and Kansas City, Missouri, while Cablevision is making it available in New York City, New York, and on Long Island.
On Friday, October 17, 2008 at 6am ET, DirecTV launched the high-definition channel. This launch was the first national launch of the channel in HD. On January 9, 2009, Cox Communications added the HD channel and on February 3, 2009 Dish Network did also.
Fox News switched from a 4:3 aspect ratio to a 16:9 letterbox ratio for its standard definition channel at 6 am ET on September 28, 2009.
FNC dominated the cable news program ratings in 2010 taking the top 10 spots in the A25-54 demo and the top 12 spots among total viewers.
Outlets
FNC-branded airport newsstand at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport.
FNC maintains an archive of most of its programs. This archive also handles the Fox Movietone newsreels. Licensing of the Fox News archive is handled by ITN Source, the archiving division of ITN.
Television
Fox News Channel programming
FNC presents a variety of programming with up to 15 hours of live broadcasting per day, in addition to programming and content for the Fox Broadcasting Company. Most of the programs are broadcast from Fox News headquarters in New York City at 1211 Avenue of the Americas, in their street-side studio on Sixth Avenue in the west extension of Rockefeller Center. The other programs are broadcast from Fox News's Washington, D.C. studio, which is located on Capitol Hill across from Union Station in a secured building shared by numerous other television networks, including NBC News and C-SPAN. Audio simulcasts of the channel are aired on XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio.
Sixth Avenue headquarters
In an October 11, 2009 article in the New York Times, Fox articulated that its hard news programming runs from "9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. on weekdays" and "are objective" but makes no such claims for its other broadcasts, which are primarily of editorial and opinion journalism in nature.
High definition
Fox News Channel HD is 720p high definition simulcast of Fox News Channel that launched on May 1, 2008. Most of the programs available in HD (Fox & Friends, America's Newsroom, Happening Now, The Live Desk, Studio B with Shepard Smith, Your World with Neil Cavuto, Glenn Beck, Special Report with Bret Baier, Fox Report, The O'Reilly Factor, Hannity, and On the Record with Greta Van Susteren) are shown in 16:9 widescreen. Fox News Channel began producing its standard definition programs in letterboxed format on September 28, 2009; therefore high definition and standard definition viewers now both see the same picture and stylized pillarboxes are no longer needed.
Fox News Radio
With the growth of FNC, the company introduced a radio division entitled Fox News Radio in 2003. Syndicated throughout the United States, the division provides short newscasts and talk radio programs, featuring personalities from both the television and radio divisions. In addition, the channel has also introduced Fox News Talk in 2006, a satellite radio station which features programs syndicated by and featuring Fox News personalities.
Online
Introduced in December 1995, the Fox News website features the latest coverage, including columns from FNC's assorted television, radio, and online personalities. Video clips are also available on both Foxnews.com and Foxbusiness.com. FOX News does not dominate its biggest rivals CNN and MSNBC online like it does in television, as at the end of August 2010 Foxnews.com was averaging an estimated 24 million unique visitors per month, versus 47 million for MSNBC.com and 48 million for CNN.com.
In September 2008, FNC joined other channels by introducing a live streaming segment to its website called The Strategy Room, designed to appeal to older viewers. It airs weekdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and takes the form of an informal discussion, with running commentary on the news. Regular discussion programs include Business Hour, News With a View and God Talk Hours.
In March 2009, The Fox Nation was launched as a website intended to encourage readers to post and comment on the news.
Fox News Mobile is a part of the FNC website that is dedicated to streaming news clips that are formatted for video enabled mobile phones.
Fox News Channel personalities
Producing a variety of different programming, FNC has a number of different program hosts, news anchors, correspondents, and contributors who appear throughout daily programming on the channel. FNC has a number of different signature hosts, including Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Greta Van Susteren, Mike Huckabee, Shepard Smith, and Neil Cavuto all of whom host programs which are on the list of the top ten most watched programs on cable news. In January 2009, former CNN commentator Glenn Beck was added to Fox's weekday lineup whose last FNC show was June 30, 2011.
Ratings and reception
FNC's Hannity production area
FNC saw a large jump in ratings during the early stages of the Iraq conflict. By some reports, at the height of the conflict Fox News had as much as a 300 percent increase in viewership, averaging 3.3 million viewers daily.
In 2004, FNC's ratings for its broadcast of the Republican National Convention beat those of all three broadcast networks. During President George W. 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 late 2005 and early 2006, FNC saw a brief decline in ratings. One notable decline came in the second quarter of 2006 when Fox News lost viewers for every single prime time program, when compared to the previous quarter. The total audience for Special Report with Brit Hume, for example, dropped 19 percent. However, several weeks later, in the wake of the North Korean Missile Crisis and the 2006 Lebanon War, Fox saw a surge in viewership and remained the #1 rated cable news channel. 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.
FNC ranked #8 for all cable channels in 2006 and #6 in 2007. The news channel surged to #1 during the week of Barack Obama's election (November 3–9) in 2008 and reached the top spot again in January 2010 during the week of the special Senate election in Massachusetts. Comparing Fox to its 24-hour news channel competitors, for the month of May 2010 the channel drew an average daily prime time audience of 1.8 million versus 747 000 for MSNBC and 595 000 for CNN.
In September 2009, the Pew Research Center published a report on public views toward various national news organizations. This report indicated that 72% of Republican Fox viewers rated the channel as "favorable", and 43% of Democratic viewers and 55% of all viewers share this opinion. However, Fox had the highest unfavorable rating of all national outlets studied at 25 percent of all viewers. The report goes on to say that "partisan differences in views of Fox News have increased substantially since 2007".
As of January 2011, the Democratic Party-affiliated Public Policy Polling reports that Fox News Channel is the second-most trusted television news network in the country, with 42% of respondents reporting they trust the network, compared to other major news channels (behind PBS which stands at 50%, and ahead of NBC at 41%, CNN at 40%, CBS at 36%, and ABC at 35%). Simultaneously, Fox News Channel is also ranked the most distrusted news channel in the country, with 46% of respondents reporting they distrust the network (behind PBS at 30%, NBC at 41%, and CNN, CBS, and ABC each at 43%). Overall this represents a combined -16% drop among respondents from the year before and places the channel fourth among Americans in terms of trust/distrust (behind PBS, NBC, and CNN, and ahead of CBS, and ABC). Most of this drop is the result of a strong increase of distrust among moderates and liberals. While conservatives largely held the same view of the network as the year before (moving from 75% who trusted the channel last year to 72% who trust it this year), moderates and liberals increased heavily in their distrust of the network, with levels of distrust raising 48% to 60% among moderates and 66% to 82% among liberals. Of the poll's respondents, 18% identified as liberal, 41% as moderate, and 40% as conservative, while 40% identified as Democratic, 37% as Republican, and 23% as independent/other.
Slogan
Fair & Balanced graphic used in 2005
"Fair & Balanced" is a trademarked slogan used by the broadcaster. The slogan was originally used in conjunction with the phrase "Real Journalism." Comedian Al Franken used the slogan in the subtitle for his 2003 book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. In the book, he cites examples of what he claims to be Fox News' bias. On August 7, 2003, Fox sued based upon its trademark on the phrase. Fox News dropped the lawsuit three days later after Judge Denny Chin refused their request for an injunction. Chin denied the injunction and said that the case, Fox v. Franken, was "wholly without merit, both factually and legally". He went on to suggest that Fox News' trademark on the phrase "fair and balanced" could be invalid.
In December 2003, FNC found itself on the other end of a legal battle concerning the slogan, when AlterNet filed a cancellation petition with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to have FNC's trademark rescinded as misdescriptive. AlterNet included the documentary film Outfoxed as supporting evidence in its case. After losing early motions, AlterNet withdrew its petition and the USPTO dismissed the case.
In 2008, FNC used the "We Report, You Decide" slogan, referring to "You Decide 2008" which was FNC's original slogan for reporting on matters involving the election, and the candidates.
Fox News Channel controversies
Assertions of conservative bias
Many observers and critics of the channel have said that it has a bias favoring the political right and the Republican Party at the expense of neutrality.Fox News has publicly denied such assertions. Murdoch and Ailes have reacted against assertions of bias, with Murdoch saying that Fox has "given room to both sides, whereas only one side had it before." In 2004, director Robert Greenwald produced the documentary film Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism, which argues that Fox News has a conservative bias. The film includes clips from Fox News as well as internal memos from editorial Vice President John Moody directing Fox News staff on how to report certain subjects.
A leaked memo from Fox News vice president Bill Sammon to the News staff during the height of the debate over Health care reform in the United States has been cited as an example of the pro-Republican party bias of Fox News. His memo asked the staff to "use the term ‘government-run health insurance,’ or, when brevity is a concern, ‘government option,’ whenever possible." This memo was sent shortly after Republican pollster Frank Luntz advised Sean Hannity on his Fox show that: "If you call it a public option, the American people are split," he explained. "If you call it the government option, the public is overwhelmingly against it."
A Pew Research poll released on October 29, 2009, found that Fox News is viewed as the most ideological channel in America. 47% of those surveyed said Fox News is "mostly conservative," 14% said "mostly liberal," and 24% said "neither." In comparison, MSNBC had 36% identify it as "mostly liberal," 11% as "mostly conservative," and 27% as "neither." CNN had 37% describe it as "mostly liberal," 11% as "mostly conservative," and 33% as "neither." In 2004, the Pew Research Center survey showed that FNC was cited unprompted by 69% of national journalists to be a conservative news organization. The same survey also showed that 34% of national journalists describe themselves as liberals, compared to 7% that describe themselves as conservative.
A poll by conservative-leaning Rasmussen Reports found that 31% of Americans say Fox News has a conservative bias and 15% say it has a liberal bias. The poll also reported that 36% believe Fox News delivers news with neither a conservative or liberal bias, compared to 37% who said NPR delivers news with no conservative or liberal bias and 32% who said the same of CNN. A 2007 study looked at the introduction of Fox News into local US markets between 1996 and 2000, and found that in the 2000 presidential election "Republicans gained 0.4 to 0.7 percentage points in the towns that broadcast Fox News." The study's estimates "imply that Fox News convinced 3 to 28 percent of its viewers to vote Republican, depending on the audience measure."
A 2010 study conducted by Professor Sean Aday comparing Fox News Channel's Special Report With Brit Humes and NBC's Nightly News coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan during 2005 found that both underplayed bad news, but concluded that "Fox News was much more sympathetic to the administration than NBC, suggesting that, "if scholars continue to find evidence of a partisan or ideological bias at FNC...they should consider Fox as alternative, rather than mainstream, media." Aday also pointed out, however, that the data used in his study may have come late enough in the war to be consistent with accepted practices.
Accusations of misrepresentation of facts
The progressive media watchdog group Media Matters for America has cataloged what they claim are the ten most "egregious examples" of "distortion" by both Fox News and its TV personalities. The criticisms include several examples of cropping quotes from President Obama, Vice President Biden, and Vice President Gore so they appear out of context, using image manipulation software to edit the appearance of reporters from The New York Times, and using footage from other events during a report on the November 5 "Tea Party" rally in Washington DC. They claim the intention is to make it appear as if a larger number of protesters attended the event.[63] Media Matters also called attention to the December 4 edition of Fox and Friends and accused the show of misleading their viewers with a "questionable graphic" that showed the results of a Rasmussen Reports climate change poll adding up to 120%.
In November, 2009, Fox News anchor Gregg Jarrett told viewers that a Sarah Palin book signing in Grand Rapids, Michigan had a massive turnout while showing footage of Palin with a large crowd. Jarrett noted that the former Republican vice-presidential candidate is "continuing to draw huge crowds while she's promoting her brand-new book", adding that the images being shown were "some of the pictures just coming in to us.... The lines earlier had formed this morning." The video was actually taken from a 2008 McCain/Palin campaign rally. Fox senior vice-president of news Michael Clemente issued an initial statement saying, "This was a production error in which the copy editor changed a script and didn't alert the control room to update the video." Fox offered an on-air apology the following day during the same "Happening Now" segment citing regrets for what they described as a "video error" with no intent to mislead. Fox also apologized for fabricated quotes attributed to John Kerry in an article which appeared on its website during the 2004 presidential campaign observing that the piece was a joke that accidentally ended up on the website for a period of time Friday.
Obama administration conflict with Fox News
In September 2009, the Obama administration engaged in a verbal conflict with Fox News Channel. On September 20, 2009, President Obama appeared on all the major news programs except Fox News, a snub partially in response to remarks about the President by commentators Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity and general coverage by Fox with regard to Obama's Health Care proposal.
In late September 2009, Obama senior advisor David Axelrod and Roger Ailes met in secret to try and smooth out tensions between the two camps without much success. Two weeks later, White House officials referred to FNC as “not a news network", communications director Anita Dunn asserting that “Fox News often operates as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party.” President Obama followed with "If media is operating basically as a talk radio format, then that's one thing, and if it's operating as a news outlet, then that's another," and White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel stated that it was important "to not have the CNN's and the others in the world basically be led in following Fox."
Within days it was reported that Fox had been excluded from an interview with administration official Ken Feinberg, with bureau chiefs from the White House Pool (ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN) coming to the defense of Fox. One of the major bureau chiefs stated, "If any member had been excluded it would have been the same thing, it has nothing to do with Fox or the White House or the substance of the issues."Shortly after this story broke the White House admitted to a low-level mistake, but that said that Fox had not made a specific request to interview Feinberg. Fox White House correspondent Major Garrett responded by stating that he had not made a specific request, but that he had a "standing request from me as senior White House correspondent on Fox to interview any newsmaker at the Treasury at any given time news is being made."
On November 8, 2009 the Los Angeles Times reported that an unnamed Democratic consultant was warned by the White House not to appear on Fox News again. According to the article, Anita Dunn claimed in an e-mail to have checked with colleagues who "deal with TV issues" and had been told that nobody had been instructed to avoid Fox. Patrick Caddell, a Fox News contributor and former pollster for President Jimmy Carter said he had spoken with other Democratic consultants who had received similar warnings from the White House.
International transmission
The FNC feed is available internationally, while the Fox News Extra segments provide alternate programming.
Fox Extra
Initially, US advertisements were replaced on FNC with viewer e-mail and profiles of FNC anchors set to music. In 2002 these were replaced with international weather forecasts. In 2006, the weather segments were replaced with 'Fox Extra' (originally 'Fox News Extra', prior to the international launch of Fox Business) segments, various narrated reports from Fox reports on a variety of topics. These reports are generally on lighter issues not related to current news events, and the segments are repeated. FNC also shows international weather forecasts when the Fox Extra segments run short. In the United Kingdom, after a period when local commercials were inserted into breaks, 'Fox Extra' is now filling most breaks.
Australia
In Australia, FNC is broadcast on the three major Pay-TV providers, Foxtel, Austar and Optus Television. Foxtel is 25 percent owned by News Corporation. Sky News Australia is Fox's sister channel.
Brazil
Since 2002 FNC has been broadcast to Brazil, but the commercials are replaced with Fox Extra. It is available in the digital packages of NET.
Canada
In 2003, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) rejected a Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association (CCTA) application to bring Fox News to Canada because Fox News U.S. and Global Television were planning to create Fox News Canada, a combination of U.S. and Canadian news. However in 2004, after a Fox U.S. executive said there were no plans to create the combined channel, the CRTC approved an application to bring Fox News to Canada.
Fox News Channel is currently offered by Access Communications, Bell TV, Cogeco, Eastlink, Manitoba Telecom Services, Rogers, SaskTel, Shaw Cable, Shaw Direct and Telus TV. A notable exception is Vidéotron, Canada's third largest cable company, which has not added Fox News Channel to its lineup.
France
Fox News is available on cable with the French Internet provider Free and Orange.
Ireland
FNC is also carried in the Republic of Ireland by the British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) satellite television network (Sky) which is 40% owned by FNC's parent News Corporation. It is run as a sister channel to BSkyB's popular Sky News. FNC is usually broadcast as a VideoGuard encrypted channel but during major news stories it may be simulcast on Sky Active, which is free to air. As of September 2006 the channel has carried UK specific advertising, along with headlines and weather provided by Sky News during its breaks. These run under the brand of Fox News International.
Due to the shared ownership of Fox and Sky, Fox News and Sky News routinely share bureaus and reporters for breaking news stories from around the world.
Israel
In Israel, FNC is broadcast on Channel 105 of pay-tv cable operator YES digital platform. It is run as a sister channel to BSkyB's popular Sky News, which is broadcast on Channel 103.
Italy
In Italy, FNC was launched on the now defunct Italian digital satellite television platform Stream TV in 2001. Part of its programming was translated in Italian and broadcast on the defunct Italian news channel Stream News. In 2003 was moved on SKY Italia with U.S. commercials replaced by Fox News Extra segments and now is available on 4,600,000 subscribers and 160,000 hotel rooms in Italy.
SKY TG 24 is one of the sister channels of Fox News.
New Zealand
In New Zealand, FNC is broadcast on Channel 092 of pay satellite operator SKY TV's digital platform. It was formerly broadcast overnight on free-to-air UHF New Zealand TV channel Prime, owned by SKY, but this was discontinued in January 2010, cited due to an expiring broadcasting license.[80] No reason has been given for its abandonment. Fox News parent corporation, News Corp, has a stake in both SKY and Prime.
Pakistan
In Pakistan it is available on PTCL Smart TV and a number of cable, IPTV operators e.t.c.
Philippines
FNC was available on cable operator Global Destiny on channel 21.
Scandinavia
Between 2003 and 2006, in Sweden and the other Scandinavian countries, FNC was broadcast 16 hours a day on TV8, with Fox News Extra segments replacing U.S. advertising. Fox News was dropped by TV8 and replaced by German news channel Deutsche Welle in September 2006.
Singapore
In Singapore, FNC is broadcast on Channel 702 of pay-tv cable operator StarHub TV digital platform. It also broadcasts its sister channel, Sky News.
South Africa
In South Africa, FNC is broadcast on Channel 405 of pay satellite operator TopTV's digital platform.
United Kingdom
FNC is also carried in the United Kingdom by the British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) satellite television network (Sky) which is 40% owned by FNC's parent News Corporation. It is run as a sister channel to BSkyB's own Sky News. FNC is usually broadcast as a VideoGuard encrypted channel, but during major news stories it may be simulcast on Sky Active, which is free to air. As of September 2006 the channel has carried UK specific advertising, along with headlines and weather provided by Sky News during its breaks. These run under the brand of Fox News International. From Winter 2011 most breaks resumed airing 'Fox Extra'.
Due to the shared ownership of Fox and Sky, Fox News (and Fox Business) and Sky News routinely share bureaus and reporters for breaking news stories from around the world.
Other countries
Countries where Fox News is provided
Fox News Channel is also carried in more than 40 countries. Although service to Japan stopped in the summer of 2003, it can still be seen on Americable (distributor for American bases), Mediatti (Kadena Air Base), and Pan Global TV Japan.
No comments:
Post a Comment