Roger Ailes and about 20 of his producers and executives — including experts in lighting, graphics and engineering — gather now and then in a conference room on the second floor of Fox News headquarters in midtown Manhattan and watch the channel for eight hours straight.
“Anybody can say anything about what’s on the air,” said Bill Shine, Fox’s executive vice president of programming, “from ‘We don’t like the color of the graphics’ to ‘We don’t like the clothing that the anchors are wearing’ to ‘Why did we pick that story?’ ‘Who stacked that show?’”
The marathon critiques are one way that Fox News tries to stay sharp despite 10 straight years as the cable-news ratings leader — a milestone the channel, which launched in 1996 as a distant underdog to CNN, celebrated this week.
“America has clearly embraced fair and balanced news,” Ailes, the chairman and CEO of Fox News, said in a statement.
Perhaps not all of America — Fox News has been a lightning rod for criticism from the left and has been blasted by many prominent Democrats, including top officials in the Obama White House, for the conservative bent of its morning and prime-time programming. More neutral observers fault Fox for setting the trend for more opinion on cable news, and Ailes himself is portrayed in some liberal circles as an omnipotent, Republican Svengali.
But even the channel’s most hardened critics would acknowledge that it has become a business, media and cultural juggernaut, lavishing airtime on conservatives like Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin and Karl Rove, while driving debate on subjects ranging from the rape accusation against Duke lacrosse players to the proposal for a mosque near ground zero.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), one of the most liberal members of Congress, is a frequent visitor to the Fox Washington bureau, near Union Station. “They’ve always been fair to me,” he said in a telephone interview. “There’s a misconception that the only people who watch Fox are right-wing Republicans. They have a large audience, and it’s important to reach. How can we ever change people’s thinking if we don’t try to talk to them?”
My comments are as always... FoxSnooze is a big fish in a little pond.
FoxSnooze always brags that they are the "most watched"... of course that isn't true. If you combine the entire news audience of FoxSnooze, CNN and MSNBC, that total wouldn't even finish in third place among the big three... ABC, NBC or CBS.
"Fox #1 in News" is BS. #1 in news among cable news is like saying that Volvo is #1 in Car Sales... then in fine print you read... "Volvo is #1 in sales" (in Sweeden)
Fox is a big fish in a small pond, but to hear them tell the story to very gullible Republicans... You'd think they actually were #1. They don't need to be factual or accurate... they just need to say it: "FOX IS #1"... their viewers will believe it!
YUP. Fox in NUmber 1.............................. ( if you limit the field to cable news.) Other wise Fox Might not even be #4.
And I am the Strongest MAN IN THE WORLD,.......................(if I limit the world to my house)
My point... Fox just says it... as if it were true. Their viewers don't care if it's true or not, they just want someone to reinforce their preconceived views. Fox tells em what they want to hear and they reward Fox by being loyal viewers. A comfortable situation for all concerned, unless you are concerned with the truth.
Nope! Just like FoxSnooze... I say it so it's so! No proof is ever offered at Fox... Just words!
(By your response, I assume you conceded to the FACTS that "Fox IS NOT#1. )
I am not giving in to anything, and I could care less what station is #1 and which one isn't. I'm not looking to buy any advertising, I'm looking to keep informed when I watch the news. It doesn't matter to me how many people are watching at the same time, as long as I can watch.
FoxSnooze Supporters are such uninformed viewers... But they seem to like it that way! Actual FACTS just seem to confuse them and get in the way of their opinions.
I've never seen a person with such a heart-on over a news network like boxes. His hysteria is amusing to watch.
A newspaper is a device for making the ignorant more ignorant and the crazy crazier. ~ H.L. Mencken Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard. ~ H. L. Mencken The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. ~H. L. Mencken
"Fox News #1" is MT's thread, not mine. He asked for a comment or I wouldn't have bothered.
Cicero's & Bumbles response is typical... I guess they had nothing constructive to add. When the facts show them to be totally in the wrong, they bail out on the thread and hide behind their favorite show: "TODDLERS AND TIARAS"... I've never seen the show, but I can guess it's content by the title. I'm sure Cicero and Bumble find it fascinating.
"Fox News #1" is MT's thread, not mine. He asked for a comment or I wouldn't have bothered.
What do ya mean? Every post that references a Fox news story you go off the deep end with you "Fox Snooze" blah blah blah...Blab blab blab...You can't help yourself, it's a left winger reflexive action...Kinda like the "blame Bush" reflex. You just can't help yourself.
A newspaper is a device for making the ignorant more ignorant and the crazy crazier. ~ H.L. Mencken Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard. ~ H. L. Mencken The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. ~H. L. Mencken
Logged
