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==Personalities == |
==Personalities == |
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Several FOX News anchors have right-wing backgrounds. Managing editor and host [[Brit Hume]] is a contributor to the conservative ''[[American Spectator]]'' and ''[[Weekly Standard]]''. Daytime anchor [[David Asman]] previously worked at the ''[[The Wall Street Journal|Wall Street Journal]]'' editorial page and the [[Manhattan Institute]], a conservative thinktank. Former ''Fox News Sunday'' host [[Tony Snow]] is a conservative columnist, radio host, and former chief speechwriter for the first [[George H. W. Bush|Bush]] administration. This perceived bias may have led to Snow's replacement by Chris Wallace in 2004. Alireza Jafarzadeh of the [[Mujahideen al-Khalq]] is a regular paid commentator. Fox has backed Jafarzadeh |
Several FOX News anchors have right-wing backgrounds. Managing editor and host [[Brit Hume]] is a contributor to the conservative ''[[American Spectator]]'' and ''[[Weekly Standard]]''. Daytime anchor [[David Asman]] previously worked at the ''[[The Wall Street Journal|Wall Street Journal]]'' editorial page and the [[Manhattan Institute]], a conservative thinktank. Former ''Fox News Sunday'' host [[Tony Snow]] is a conservative columnist, radio host, and former chief speechwriter for the first [[George H. W. Bush|Bush]] administration. This perceived bias may have led to Snow's replacement by Chris Wallace in 2004. Alireza Jafarzadeh, former speaker for ''National Resistance Council of Iran'', the political arm of the [[Mujahideen al-Khalq]] is a regular paid commentator. Fox has backed Jafarzadeh even though the Mujahideen al Khalq and its related organisations are now proscribed organisations in the United States and other countries. |
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FOX News anchors with liberal backgrounds include primetime host [[Greta Van Susteren]] who donates to Democratic candidates and whose husband advised Democratic presidential candidate [[John Kerry]]. FOX News also employs several liberal authors and politicians as former Democratic vice-presidential candidate [[Geraldine Ferraro]], longtime liberal and former daytime talkshow host [[Geraldo Rivera]], author [[Eleanor Clift]], ''Nation'' magazine correspondent [[David Corn]], and Democratic strategist [[Susan Estrich]]. |
FOX News anchors with liberal backgrounds include primetime host [[Greta Van Susteren]] who donates to Democratic candidates and whose husband advised Democratic presidential candidate [[John Kerry]]. FOX News also employs several liberal authors and politicians as former Democratic vice-presidential candidate [[Geraldine Ferraro]], longtime liberal and former daytime talkshow host [[Geraldo Rivera]], author [[Eleanor Clift]], ''Nation'' magazine correspondent [[David Corn]], and Democratic strategist [[Susan Estrich]]. |
Revision as of 08:27, 26 July 2004
The FOX News Channel is a American cable and satellite news channel launched in 1996. It is available to 80 million subscribers in the U.S. and to further viewers internationally, and broadcasts primarily out of its New York City studios.
Launched on October 7, 1996 to 17 million cable subscribers, the nascent network quickly rose to prominence in the late 1990s as it started taking market share away from CNN. Nielsen ratings show that though more individuals watch CNN, FOX viewers are likely to watch for longer periods of time. This results in higher ratings for FOX, so that it bills itself as the "most watched cable news channel" in the U.S.
Programming
Fox News presents a wide variety of programming. The following is the usual weekday lineup:
- 6 a.m.: Morning programming begins with "Fox and Friends," hosted by Steve Doocy, E.D. Hill, and Brian Kilmeade. This is similar to other cable news network programming in the mornings: CNN's American Morning with Paula Zahn and MSNBC's Imus.
- 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 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.
- 6 p.m.: Primetime starts with the personality-driven the news/talk shows Special Report With Brit Hume, hosted by political reporter Brit Hume from Washington, D.C..
- 7 p.m.: Shepard Smith broadcasts The Fox Report With Shepard Smith, offering various reports on the day's events.
- 8 p.m.: The network's top-rated show The O'Reilly Factor, is played. The taped broadcast features commentary from Bill O'Reilly.
- 9 p.m.: The right-wing Sean Hannity debates political issues of the day with guests and analysts during Hannity and Colmes. Moderate liberal Alan Colmes co-hosts.
- 10 p.m: Greta Van Susteren broadcasts On the Record with Greta Van Susteren. This has a heavy emphasis on human interest features stories, especially crime.
From time to time, FOX News also produces a newsmagazine show for its Fox affiliates called The Pulse.
The channel is now available internationally, but unlike CNN's international service, it tends to concentrate on American issues which might be seen as less newsworthy outside North America.
Ownership
Like the rest of FOX, it is owned by Australian-born media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. It is a sister channel to Sky News, which is based in the United Kingdom. It is also carried on the UK's British Sky Broadcasting satellite television network.
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 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. 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.
Personalities
Several FOX News anchors have right-wing backgrounds. Managing editor and host Brit Hume is a contributor to the conservative American Spectator and Weekly Standard. Daytime anchor David Asman previously worked at the Wall Street Journal editorial page and the Manhattan Institute, a conservative thinktank. Former Fox News Sunday host Tony Snow is a conservative columnist, radio host, and former chief speechwriter for the first Bush administration. This perceived bias may have led to Snow's replacement by Chris Wallace in 2004. Alireza Jafarzadeh, former speaker for National Resistance Council of Iran, the political arm of the Mujahideen al-Khalq is a regular paid commentator. Fox has backed Jafarzadeh even though the Mujahideen al Khalq and its related organisations are now proscribed organisations in the United States and other countries.
FOX News anchors with liberal backgrounds include primetime host Greta Van Susteren who donates to Democratic candidates and whose husband advised Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. FOX News also employs several liberal authors and politicians as former Democratic vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro, longtime liberal and former daytime talkshow host Geraldo Rivera, author Eleanor Clift, Nation magazine correspondent David Corn, and Democratic strategist Susan Estrich.
Allegations of bias
Views and Perspectives
FOX News asserts that it is more objective and factual than other American networks with promotional statements such as "fair and balanced" and "we report, you decide." Their commentators argue that other news channels are dominated by a liberal bias. Meanwhile, critics contend that FOX has a right-wing bias. Pointing to examples of what they consider to be skewed presentation, a large number of conservative staffers, and leaked memos, these critics paint a picture of an avowedly-partisan news organization that spins stories to the right while publicly claiming to be "fair and balanced." One example is New Yorker article VOX FOX where author Ken Auletta writes that the network was conceived as a platform for conservative opinion.
FOX News is widely regarded as one of the most pro-Bush television channels. Many consider their reporting to conform to the official position of the Bush administration and the Republican Party. While some would take issue with reports by CNN and others, FOX News is often considered to be particularly inflammatory to those with differing views. Of note is the use of stars and stripes imagery on news reporting. The station is also regarded as quite pro-Israeli. To give one example, unlike reports on the Arab-Israeli conflict from the BBC, and US channels such as CNN, Palestinian and other Arab militants are generally referred to on Fox News as "terrorists." Many other channels tend to use the generic word "militant," or descriptive words such as "gunman" and "suicide bomber." (Arab channels such as al-Jazeera often use the positive term "resistance fighter").
As an example, in early 2004 when the Hutton Inquiry had just closed Fox screened a section of a programme called "The Big Story" named My Word, in which the presenter John Gibson claimed that the BBC was insanely anti-American (his exact words were that the BBC supposedly had "a frothing-at-the-mouth anti-Americanism that was obsessive, irrational and dishonest") and that the BBC reporter, Andrew Gilligan, in Baghdad during the American invasion, had “insisted on air that the Iraqi Army was heroically repulsing an incompetent American Military”. This produced a massive outcry from the British, who immediately complained to their broadcasting regulator, Ofcom a total of 24 complaints were received by Ofcom regarding the incident. In their case, Fox pointed to a Google search for "BBC anti-american" as proof of bias and that the "heroic repulsion" quote was mere paraphrasing. Ofcom subsequently criticised Fox for not giving the BBC a chance to respond, and for outright lying.
Studies and Analysis
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) report
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), a progressive media "watchdog" group, released a report titled "Fox: The Most Biased Name in News." The report states that of the guests on the network's signature political show, Special Report with Brit Hume, 89 percent were Republicans, 65 percent were conservatives, 91 percent were male, and 93 percent were white, while, by comparison, on CNN's Wolf Blitzer Reports only 57% of the guests were Republican and 32 percent were conservatives. FAIR also found that since 1998, one out of every 12 episodes of The O'Reilly Factor has featured a segment on Jesse Jackson, usually with themes such as "How personal are African-Americans taking the moral failures of Reverend Jesse Jackson?"
Many commentators, especially on the right, regard FAIR as a far left organization, biased in its coverage of media issues.
Program on International Policy Attitude (PIPA) report
A study by the Program on International Policy Attitudes, sponsored by the Ford, Carnegie, and Tides foundations, reports that viewers of FOX News were more likely to hold misconceptions than viewers of any other network. The study lists three beliefs, which it labels "misperceptions", that FOX viewers are more likely to hold:
- That evidence of an link between al-Qaeda and Iraq had been found;
- That weapons of mass destruction had been discovered in Iraq; and
- That the U.S. had received wide international support in its decision to go to war.
Eighty percent of FOX News viewers held at least one of these three beliefs, more than any other radio or television news source. This trend persists even after adjusting for viewership and political preference. The report also states that the viewers who watched FOX more often tended to have more of these beliefs. [1]
Critics of this report such as columnist Ann Coulter condemned the choice of misconceptions as hand-picked "liberal talking points", "deceptive", and "designed to falsely portrary FOX News viewers as ignorant." [2]
Comments of former producer
A report in the Los Angeles Times on November 1, 2003, quoted Charlie Reina, a FOX News producer for six years, saying FOX News executives require the network's on-air anchors and reporters to cover news stories from a right-wing viewpoint and distributed a daily memo explaining what stories they wanted highlighted and what spin to place on them. Sharri Berg, vice president of News Operations at Fox News Channel said in response, "Like any former, disgruntled employee, Charlie Reina has an ax to grind." [3]
FOX responds
In addition, FOX News has been accused of placing an undue emphasis on conservative news stories. Left-wing critics claim that the network sometimes dedicates whole segments and shows to conservative stories they feel have been downplayed, and for a time had an entire show, Only On Fox, dedicated to doing just that.
Some of the differing opinions of FOX News might result from the perceived lack of a clear-cut line between straight-news programming and news analysis programming. One of the founding concepts of the channel has always been to provide strong, opinionated, and controversial news analysis, particularly during prime time. Some of the analysis of FOX News that alleges bias centers on the news analysis programs such as Special Report with Brit Hume, The O'Reilly Factor, and Hannity and Colmes, which are opinion shows and thus by their nature not intended to be objective. In fact, many analysts believe it to be the strong opinions expressed on these commentary shows that have led to the channel's overwhelming success. However, many critics maintain that much content on FOX is biased, from selection of stories covered to the anchors' animated delivery of news.
FOX and its supporters maintain that FOX is only perceived as being 'right of center' only because they are not 'left of center', as they claim the rest of the media is. They point to programs such as Hannity and Colmes as an example of the network's balance. On that program, Sean Hannity, a conservative radio talk-show host debates Alan Colmes, a liberal. Colmes was a self described moderate in 1995, prior to the creation of the Fox News Channel ("I'm quite moderate," he told a USA Today reporter; Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, page 84). Though in recent times, Colmes proudly claims to be a liberal, which can be seen by watching him on television or listening to his radio show "The Alan Colmes Show" or by watching him on Hannity and Colmes, where he often criticizes those who use the word "liberal" as a bad word (especially in the context of Presidential candidates). Colmes' 2003 book Red, White & Liberal: How Left Is Right & Right Is Wrong is viewed by critics as milquetoast.
Another prominent FOX program, The O'Reilly Factor, hosted by Bill O'Reilly, is also cited as a program with a heavily conservative slant, a charge O'Reilly denies, calling himself a populist, and pointing to his liberal positions on issues such as gay rights, the death penalty, abortion, marijuana, and gun control.
Ratings success
Regardless of the biases of FOX or its competitors, there is no question about the success of the channel. It currently dominates the cable news market, earning better ratings than its chief competitors CNN and MSNBC combined, although CNN still has more overall unique viewers. In addition to the increased conservative presence on its broadcasts compared to other networks, television observers also credit the success to FNC's better production values, better graphics and more personable hosts.
Its competitors have apparently noticed and have attempted to copy many of the stylings of the network. There is some doubt as to whether or not Fox will continue its success as Ailes is rumored to be toying with the idea of retirement.
External links
- FOX News
- News Corporation
- Fox: The Most Biased Name in News - Report compiled by FAIR
- Still Failing the "Fair & Balanced" Test - Follow up report by FAIR
- Ex-producer for Fox News says daily memo encourages biased reporting
- Museum of Broadcast Communications: Ailes, Roger
- VOX FOX
- ChronWatch: Roger Ailes and the Lying Liars who Hate Him
- BBC News: US channel's BBC remarks censured
- "OutFoxed": How Rupert Murdoch Is Destroying American Journalism
- Guardian Unlimited: Fox output compared to News Corp's regulated channel, Sky News
- Bob Woodward interview with Larry King in which he discusses Roger Ailes involvement with the Bush administration