Posted on 06/27/2006 9:27:22 AM PDT by doesnt suffer fools gladly
Ailes 'Fuming' at Fox News Channel
Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes is reportedly "on the warpath” about his network’s recent ratings slide – and has given notice to staffers that he’s willing to clean house, according to a report in Broadcasting & Cable.
The cable news channel’s overall prime-time ratings are off 8 percent in the second quarter of this year, and down 22 percent in viewers ages 25 to 54. The first quarter was also disappointing.
Rival CNN is also down, but only 2 percent overall in the second quarter and 18 percent in the 25-54 age group.
Ailes is said to be "fuming” over what he views as complacency among staffers, according to B&C.
He feels production values are slipping and bookers aren’t aggressive enough, relying too heavily on the same faces.
A full-page "Now Hiring” ad that ran recently in a trade magazine asked, "Can you make the cut?”
Broadcasting & Cable reports that a Fox staffer said the question was not addressed to outside applicants. "That was aimed inside.”
An Ailes spokesman declared: "Anyone who displays launch-type intensity will continue to have a job at Fox News. Those who don’t will not. And that includes talent.”
I am SICK of hearing leftists like Bernstein on Dayside today, bashing President Bush.
SICK of it. And that Dayside couple is stupid. And the weekend shows are all liberal. I'm sick of the libs on Fox.
I'll turn Fox off. I can always watch HGTV, and get all my news here.
Greta
Shep Smith
Geraldo
Julian
Juan
Mara
Fox & Friends Weekend edition (the pits)
O'Blowhard
Exactly! The crap special on Global Warming and the hiring of CNN rejects is causing the station to loose viewers. People tuned in because it was different. Now its becoming the same. The Natilie Hollow overkill caused me to turn them off. Only show now I watch religiously now on Foxis Brett Hume.
And give Mort Kondrake a job that he may be good at...I almost slip off the edge of the chair waiting for the words to jump out of his mouth...
By the time he's done commenting, I'm so happy he succeeded that I forget what he was talking about...
I always thought some of his positioning seemed a bit artificial and calculated.
But I love the way he's been hammering the leftist media as of late.
I stopped watching him after the Swift Vets ordeal. Haven't watched him since, so I'll have to take your word for it. Actually, I've stopped watching Fox altogether. I get my news from the net, and on TV, its military channel, discovery, DIY channel, that kind of thing. And I usually have a spanish soap opera going (probably more information than you wanted)...
Maybe if they didn't endlessly loop the same old nonsense stories all day they would have more viewers. I don't watch anymore.
I tune out at the sound of Alan Colmes voice, Susan Estrech, Wesley Clark, etc... I like intelligent, thoughtful guests... and I'm sick of Gretta's show...
That's a "fake tan?"
I thought she was on sime kind of all-carrot diet.
I used to watch on the weekends during the daytime, but it is become a Gretta-type of program all day long....uggggg, I want news. and the Beltway Boys have really ticked me off lately, so I don't watch them anymore and Neal Gabler . I can't really say what I think of Neal.
I ascribe the recent, but very significant, decline in the hours that I watch Fox News to anger about that lying cheap-shot artist, Neal Gabler.
Why watch a "news network" that actually PAYS someone to distort the news?
OTOH, if "NewsWatch" was replaced with a recap of the most egregious media errors from that week, that would be
"Must-See-TV".
Where did David Asman go?
I always thought some of his positioning seemed a bit artificial and calculated.
O'Reilly plays both sides of the street to keep ratings up. He reminds me of a jewelry salesman I once knew who wore a pendant with a Cross on one side and a Star of David on the other when he was selling in NYC.
We have the same group plus O'Reilly for me. Greta, E.D. and Sheppard drive me up a wall and I refuse to watch them on Fox. Weekend coverage is pathetic if something is breaking. They have trended liberal for sometime. Ailes should know places like this where we went to our local cable companies day after day and got FNC on the air are the reason Fox became successful. When they hired Greta and Geraldo, it started going downhill and more liberal.
Conservatives made Fox News Channel grow and looks like others like me that have almost quit watching them are decreasing their numbers. I am tired of same thing like Holloway over and over again and their Breaking News is a JOKE! Over and over again!
Ailes needs to CLEAN HOUSE like yesterday! Maybe we can all give him some suggestions! :)
How about giving their guests more than 2 minutes to get their point across? If you took away CNN's liberal bias, then I'd say that their interviews are a lot better than Fox. They usually spend quite a bit of time with the guests. Fox spends a couple of minutes and then their computerized operation makes them go to break. That's my main beef with them.
More Man Cow!
Don't forget to include Shep Smith on your list. During that same period he closed one of his shows by mentioning the Swiftvets and then saying "those liars".
Ditto on Greta and Sheppard.
Ever notice the frown on Greta's face when Hannity cuts to her promo after he's finished a good spanking of a liberal? I doubt there are more than a few thousand Hannity viewers who watch her.
Sheppard is just a joke.
Just into the background. They said he would be working on features and projects for the weekend, like Olly North. But I haven't seen them.
More Molly Hennenberg, More Laurie Dhue. I would watch either/both of them talking about anything.
A couple hints: Get rid of Greta, drop endless Natalie Hollaway coverage and other police blotter stories,
I agree. I used to be a regular watcher but slowly the police blotter stories (Hollaway and Aruba, Smith and the cruiseline etc) the endless alerts that shouldn't be alerts, Greta's pretending to be the star of the courtroom or the greatest cross examiner who ever lived and the same faces and voices constantly on have begun to bore me and I find I don't watch any channel anymore without the remote in my hand and thumb on the numeric keypad. Even O'reilly is beginning to be irritation and as time goes by he gets more pompus. I think he truly believes he has unlimited power to make things happen. The only show that I stay consistently interested in is Brit Hume. Hannity and Combs is too predictable and their bias, whether I agree or not, is becoming stale. Ailes is right. There needs to be some jabs at these performers.
Whatever the ratings might say if Fox is still ahead it's only because the alternatives are terrible.
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