The rise of Donald Trump has been almost as disruptive to Fox News as it has been for the country and the world. Add in the disgrace and death of Roger Ailes, the firing of Bill O’Reilly, and the departure of Fox staples Megyn Kelly and Greta Van Susteren, and the faux news network hardly resembles its old self. The latest development drives home the contrast.
As Fox News moves further into the post–Roger Ailes era, the network is shedding one of its most iconic elements. According to network executives, Fox News has abandoned the marketing slogan “Fair & Balanced.” The decision was made last August after Ailes’s ouster by Fox News co-president Jack Abernethy, because the phrase had “been mocked,” one insider said.
Of course, the “Fair and Balanced” motto has been mocked from the beginning. What’s changed is some kind of self-consciousness about being ridiculous. The network will remain far right, at least for now, but it’s not going to go to such absurd lengths to pretend otherwise. What they’re going to do is stick with “Most Watched. Most Trusted.”
We could ask “most trusted by whom?” but a better challenge might be to examine if they remain the most watched.
The last time that MSNBC was No. 1 in prime-time cable news, Bill Clinton was president, Madonna led the Billboard charts and “Friends” still ran new episodes on TV.
Seventeen years and a few rebrandings later, the network is back on top — buoyed by a surge of interest in news and the channel’s stable of reliably liberal anchors, like Rachel Maddow, who have found their groove amid a time of intense anxiety for the political left.
The MSNBC resurgence — in May, it beat its rivals for the highest prime-time viewership on weeknights in the critical 25-to-54 age demographic, up an astounding 118 percent from a year earlier — is part of a newly shifting landscape in television news, and within the channel itself.
It’s still too early to mock Fox‘s “Most Watched” claim:
Fox News executives pointed out that their network won in weekday prime-time viewers over all — a less crucial statistic for advertisers, but a testament to the network’s continued influence. Fox was also No. 1 in May when weekends and all parts of the 24-hour broadcast day were measured.
But I won’t be surprised if they keep claiming to have the most viewers for years and years after it is no longer true.
Interesting.
I know that Fox is losing viewers, especially given that my rightwing family members claim that they have stopped watching Fox altogether. For one family group, it was because they got tired of the fear, fear, fear factor of Fox; felt that they were not being given a “balanced” view of the news (ya think?!); and were just tired of their format.
Another family group gave up Fox more recently with the revelations about Aisles’ and O’Reilly’s sexual harassment issues. Funny how it took that long for them to get sick of it. They did say to me that they had “gone of” O’Reilly some years ago and felt that he really wasn’t doing a good job anymore. I’m not sure what they would have viewed as a “good job.”
So they are loosing the first cohort of baby boomers, it appears, and the Silent Generation is moving towards dying out.
It’s rumored that Murdoch’s sons have wanted to change the format for some time now, but Rupert wouldn’t hear of it. Guess we’ll see what happens next.
I’m not a good reviewer, as I don’t own a tv, assiduously avoid any and all tv “nooz,” and especially run screaming from the room if Fox is on (I have tried to watch Fox with relatives in the recent past, and I couldn’t take more than 5 minutes of it; just pathetic).
So Fox’s new Tag Line is as much of a lie as its previous Tag Line. Not a surprise.
They still have some horribly biased shows (e.g., Tucker Carlson, Fox & Friends) but perhaps the network as a whole is trying to reform.
The news items do seem to be less overtly partisan than MSNBC or NBC for that matter. I was very surprised.
I prefer local WGN (actually also owned by FOX) but often the news gets bumped for a baseball or basketball game in overtime, so I’ve stopped tuning in at night.
I only watch the NewsHour, WRC, the NBC local news channel (long the best in the DC metro area) and, occasionally Hayes and Maddow. But I mostly don’t rely on TV for in-depth analysis (with some exceptions to the NewsHour.