Fox News Keeps Wartime Coverage Lead

AP ^ | 3-25-2003 | DAVID BAUDER

[dangermouse]

Fox News Keeps Wartime Coverage Lead

By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer

NEW YORK - The first Gulf War (news - web sites) established CNN as a television news outlet to be reckoned with. The second may be just as important for Fox News Channel's reputation.

Through the first five days of the war, Fox News Channel has averaged 4.16 million viewers each day to CNN's 3.74 million. Fox's audience was bigger when the war began March 19, and every day through Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research.

While Fox has been the top-rated cable news channel for more than a year, industry experts wondered whether that lead would hold during a big breaking news story. CNN overtook Fox, for example, on Feb. 1 when the space shuttle disintegrated.

Despite CNN's overwhelming advantage in reporting manpower, more Americans — at least so far — want to watch the war unfold on Fox.

"I think it's a pretty big surprise," said Erik Sorenson, MSNBC president, on Tuesday. Because of CNN's experience with the first Gulf War, "I think people thought CNN would win, at least in its early stages. One of the executives there said they would own the story, and I don't think they do."

CNN spokeswoman Christa Robinson downplayed Fox's ratings advantage, saying Nielsen shows that more people at least sample some of CNN's coverage during the day. Fox's ratings are higher because its viewers watch for a longer time.

CNN also draws viewers to its Headline News and has a greater presence overseas than Fox, Robinson said.

"We're perfectly comfortable having the biggest audience in the world," she said.

A Fox News Channel spokesman didn't return a call for comment.

Fox's war coverage tends to be more uplifting, emphasizing the positive and trying to beef up morale and national identity, said Robert Thompson, professor of media and popular culture at Syracuse University.

The network usually maintains an American flag graphic on the upper left corner of its screen, and anchorman Shepard Smith wore a flag pin in his lapel on Tuesday.

Fox's fans seem to like the network's style more than the traditional news coverage of CNN, said Alex Jones, director of the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University.

The conservative ideology that drives its prime-time programming seems to be spreading more into its news coverage, he said.

"The Fox view is a useful one to have out there," Thompson said. "It's not as if they are hiding it or pretending that it's not there. You have three networks out there, they don't all have to be doing the same thing."

More viewers are watching war coverage with itchy fingers on their remotes, frequently shifting channels to find more action, Thompson said.

A survey released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that nearly four of every five people gave the press good marks for its war coverage. The survey found that people who agreed with the decision to go to war were happier with the coverage than those who disagreed.

During the busy first three months of the year, Fox's viewership has grown by 75 percent over the same period last year, Nielsen said. Fox and TNT are now tied for second behind Nickelodeon as the top-rated basic cable channel. CNN's audience has grown 53 percent year to year and MSNBC's 32 percent.

The war has provided a much-needed boost to MSNBC. The third-place cable network has averaged 1.76 million viewers for its war coverage.

MSNBC has played up its resources with the full NBC News team and, with NBC breaking into regular programming less frequently for war coverage, that has worked to MSNBC's advantage. MSNBC had 2.11 million viewers on Sunday, its best day since the war's start.

It dovetails with MSNBC's latest strategy, which is "to cover the news when it happens and analyze it when it's not happening," Sorenson said. The war is likely to delay the debut of former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura's new prime-time show, he said.

[KansasCanadian]

Patriotic Americans know a communist news network when they see one

Good post

[ambrose]

Quite frankly, the Fox pundits are a lot more interesting than the ones offered by CNN. The Colonel with the raspy voice is my favorite.

[TroutStalker]

Good news! Thanks for posting.

[KansasCanadian]

Actually, this will be known as the tv war the world never saw, because of all network's insistence on placing that annoying info graphic at the bottom of the screen

[ambrose]

Rick Leventhal's reporting has been fantastic, as has Geraldo's and Ollie North's

[Timesink]

Everybody in network TV - and I mean EVERYBODY - was saying that "Oh, once the war starts, CNN will go back on top again. They're just too good, too experienced, too impartial, too well-deployed, yadda yadda yadda." As such, this is probably the biggest, most imporant victory in the history of FNC. Just as Gulf War I put CNN "on the map" (though IMHO it was Challenger that sealed CNN's legitimacy five years earlier), Gulf War II will force the rest of the TV news business to treat Fox News seriously, whether they like it or not. They can't simply dismiss FNC as a "bunch of biased right-wing yahoos" any more.

[Vol2727]

Fox News has been captioned 24/7 since the liberation began. They are the ONLY news channel to do so. Hopefully they have gained some deaf viewers as a result of this.

I have been emailing them for a long time now asking and begging them to start captioning 24/7. So, it really pleases me to see this happening.

Email them if you don't mind with your thanks. Thank you!

[WKB]

as has Geraldo's

Yes EVEN Geraldo's !!

[ConservativeMan55]

Foxnews has had the best coverage. I trust Foxnews. I refuse to trust CNN or PMSNBC. How can you beat Rick Leventhal, Steve Harrigan, Brian Kilmeade, Greg Kelly, William Loganesque, Greg Palkot, Amy Kellog, Jennifer Eccelston. You can't beat that.
and yes even Geraldo has been doing a damn good job reporting.

[bigjoesaddle]

I like that Major Backula, Balakaula, Blakilula, whatever, guy with the black goate, gotee, go-tee, AH SCREW IT!!!!

[mickie]

I like the Colonel too, but my favorite is Gen. MacInnalley. And I'm glad that he was back in the Fox lineup last night.
The last time that I saw him, he had his map and his pointer all ready for his presentation......but several times he was interupted by 'breaking news'. Time and time again he was cut off in mid-sentence, and I don't think he ever did finish. LOL.

[ConservativeMan55]

Can't forget about Ollie North who turned over his videotape and reports to the US military when the helicopter crashed. Unlike Bernard Shaw in 1991 who said he was "independant"

[ConservativeMan55]

Bob Bevelaqua.

[GulliverSwift]

I remember one cnn (no caps) headline that blared across the screen for a long time during some "shock and awe shucks." During the bombing, they blared out "Ambulances in Baghdad ready." They wanted to focus on all the poor inoccent children Bush was trying to kill.

They love focusing on the poor refugees, the left-wing freak protests, and whenever something bad happens, like the POWs. They find that more interesting than stories aboiut the THOUSANDS of Iraqis prisoners.

Gee, I wonder why Americans so far don't like it? Even though it's available in more households.

[WKB]

I was dissappoited in Fox last night. As I turned it on Laurie Duhe was off and Greta V was coming on.

[GulliverSwift]

I agree, who wants to hear the stuffy Puppy Blitzer and Christiane A-manpower?

[k2blader]

Glad to hear.

Still lookin' for a reliable live internet feed from Fox!

[WKB]

forgive spelling. I have begged for a spell check for FR

[ConservativeMan55]

For some reason Greta gets higher ratings than average for Fox. I believe they have expanded her normal program to two hours.