The problem with having a 24-hour news channel is that you have to find 24 hours worth of news to fill the day, every day. And that is what puzzles me about Fox.
For example - They have a "cousin" in Sky News. There are world stories they could share to fill up the time with new news rather than repeat the same stuff over and over. Weekends are a waste as they repeat the same shows 2 to 4 times a day. Then do it again on Sunday.
It is time for Fox to "grow up" and differentiate themselves from CNN rather than to move to the same format as CNN - Tragedy TV.
"Tragedy TV" is a term I first heard on Laura Ingraham's radio show, somewhere in between all her cutesy sound effects and her making fun of people's clothing and speech patterns (another good Conservative going into a slump). I agree with the majority here that Fox News isn't as good as it used to be. These days they will interrupt any interesting political discussion in favor of a view of anything, anywhere, that's on fire. They seem to be obsessed with live TV cameras on helicopters, showing a car accident or police standoff or warehouse fire that's always irrelevant to national news. Also, consider all of the local missing persons and murder victims who have become national news for no other reason than a desperate hope for lurid sexual details later:
Natalee Holloway - May, 2005
Jessica Lunsford - February, 2005
Lori Hacking - July, 2004
Dru Sjodin - November, 2003
Laci Petersen - December, 2002
Elizabeth Smart - June, 2002
Chandra Levy - What we were watching just prior to 9/11/2001
Matthew Shepard - October, 1998
JonBenét Ramsey - December, 1996
Polly Klaas - November, 1993
Take a look at the
Court TV Message boards - this stuff is immensely popular, but IMHO it's not really news. Look at the bottom of the message board main page and you'll see this:
"There are currently 223 members and 273 guests on the boards. | Most users ever online was 3667 on 12-13-2004 at 10:12 PM."
Ridiculous! These are all local stories, unworthy of national news coverage.
But what is this NWI of which some of you are speaking? Is this a different TV news channel? The only thing I see that may be of interest is
Newsworld International, but as far as I know that's not available on my cable system.
By the way, the link to the other FR thread about "Conservative Fox News Channel Up 32% (WOW) In August Ratings As Other Cable News Operations Crash" has been posted in #22, #48, #143, and #162. I think we've all seen it by now so it doesn't need to be posted any more.