Underdog Fox News wins war ratings race

Atlanta Journal-Constitution ^ | 03/30/03 | CAROLINE WILBERT

[Larry381]

"FOX is the best, but CNN and MSNBC are also doing a good job and I find myself switching around a lot, getting differnt angles, different camera shots, different sets of stories and events"

I have to agree about MSNBC's Iraq coverage-very professional-with one exception, Keith Olbermann. This guy is so stupid I would almost prefer a toothache to listening to his dumb questions. For example, the night a missile landed in the Kuwait shopping center he asked the reporter on the scene if this would cause the Kuwait government to lessen their support for the war. The reporter delicately told the clueless Olbermann that since support for the war in Iraq was actually supported by a higher percentage of the Kuwait population then even in the US all the missile was likely to do is further piss off the Kuwaitis who already hate Saddam Hussein's guts. and by the way....isn't Keith Olbermann the same moron who once claimed that John Ashcroft reminded him of Heinrich Himmler?

[Right_in_Virginia]

Fox may be winning the ratings race, but its patriotic tone goads some detractors. "It lacks skepticism," said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

Oh, get over yourself Mr. Rosenstiel. Fox rules!!

[sweetliberty]

"Maybe you don't need 50 Humvees in the field," said Bill Shine, network executive producer. "Maybe you need good journalists on the air."

WooooooooooHooooooooooo!!!!!!!

.

[tame]

GOOOOOOOOOOO FOX!!!

[sweetliberty]

"CNN is the most trusted."

Yeah, by liberals who react to bits of truth like the wicked witch of the west to water!!

"I'M MELTING!"

[sweetliberty]

" I think it really goes a long way towards making everybody's reporting a little more fair and balanced (though FOX is the best)."

Absolutely! Nothing like a little dose of reality to adjust one's perspective.

[johnb838]

You are right on the money. I'm pretty sure Warner Cable doesn't carry Fox. Imagine the margins by which they would be whuppin' CNN if they were available across the spectrum. I call it censorhip, nothing less. Yet they are winning.

[sweetliberty]

"O'Reilly actually had some idiot professor on the other night complaining that Fox was to Patriotic and that it wasn't right."

That was SO infuriating! Here is a thread about it.

[sweetliberty]

Good morning! You stayed up late last night.

[sweetliberty]

"I think the left calls this "balanced reporting".

They think that just reporting on the war instead of on Susan Sarandon's opinion of the war makes it balanced. They think that if they mention that there a few pro-America rallies that it balances their constant anti-war coverage.

[sweetliberty]

That is rapidly changing though. I stay in hotels frequently and have for the past 4 years and I have seen a steady rise in the availability of Fox news. The fact that many hotel lobbies are tuned into CNN is more a matter of the personal ignorance preference of the proprietor or clerk.

[sweetliberty]

"I've given hotels that don't carry Fox News a hard time."

Same here.

[sweetliberty]

"so now, they make excuses about why they are losing viewers, instead of facing reality."

And doubtless, much like their biggest sponsors subscribers, the DNC, ACLU, Clinton cronies; Hollywood, etc., the way they think this little "problem" should be dealt with is likely by finding ways to silence or prevent access to balanced and honest news rather than by balancing their own coverage. I am reminded of a variation on a saying, "If we want you to have an opinion, we will give you one."

[ReleaseTheHounds]

Pokey, my wife and I are "throw away the remote" FNC fans... Just watching those shots of our soldiers getting to say "hi" from the front to loved ones back home (and then "you're watching Fox & Friends" or whatever), you have to believe that Fox is getting 95% share of the relatives of the soldiers in theater... That's good enough company for me.

[Vinnie]

I'm pretty sure Warner Cable doesn't carry Fox

I'm on Time Warner cable and yes we have had Fox for about a year.
Just request it , over and over. Get friends to do so also. They can be turned.

ABC,NBC,CBS,CNN all have the same problem that the dems have.( why wouldn't they, all of them being dems). They think that their view is center, mainstream. Anything to the right of that is conservative. They just don't get it.

I refuse to watch Rather because of a specific event that happened just befor the Greneda 'invasion'.
Mr Rather critiqued a Ronald Reagan speech (unrelated to Greneda) before Reagan delivered it. That unfair (in my eyes)blast was the last time I watched Rather.
Bernard Shaw's refusal to be debriefed by the military when he got back from Baghdad during GW I swore me off CNN ( along with Peter Arnett).
I can't watch that fine patriotic Canadian Peter Jennings either.
The woman on GMA, can't think of her name, is so drippy she sounds like she is going to burst into tears at any moment. Drives me nuts!!

Give me Steve, E.D., Brian, Neil, Brit, Sean, and ,yes, I'm even warming up to Shep. O'Reilly, sometimes.

[mewzilla]

Craig Allen, coordinator of broadcast news at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, said that kind of flag-waving plays well in Middle America.

Plays well in a lot of other places, too, Mr. Allen...And just what is Middle America, anyway? A place? A state of mind? A figment of your imagination and biases perhaps...?

[SamAdams76]

And it's not because it has great news coverage, because it really is a grade C operation.

Why would you call FoxNews a grade C operation? I just don't get that impression. Now perhaps FoxNews doesn't have the "whiz-bang" graphics and the multi-million dollar sets of the rapidly fading CNN but that's not what I tune in for.

I haven't watched much television these past 20 years but FNC gives me something to watch. They probably have the best prime-time lineup I've ever seen. The Bill O'Reilly Show is great. So is Hannity. And I've even warmed up to Greta Susteran. It's the best three hours in television. After those three hours, you are fully informed on the issues of the day. It's the next best thing to Free Republic!

My only beef with FoxNews is that they have too much repeated material and not enough fresh material (outside of prime time). But I see that as a short-term problem. Now that they are the top-rated cable news channel, I expect that the money will begin flowing into the FoxNews coffers and they will be able to offer round-the-clock original programming. Hell, the morning crew might even get new chairs!

[Spirited]

"We're all walking commercials for FOX News, every time there's an opportunity. And it's not because it has great news coverage, because it really is a grade C operation. But it's because it has been the only place on TV you could hear our side of the story."

Well put except that I do not think I hear "our" side but I do hear additional facets not obtainable elsewhere. FOX is not a conservative network so far as I am concerned. We have no such place.

Is it "fair and balanced"? I do not think they achieve quite that much but they have given us some crumbs and we are jumping up and down cheering while Murdoch does not ever intend for you to see truly "fair and balanced".

Please note that liberals have eight tenths of the control and are the "squeaky wheel" with their lies about conservative control of media. They are not pacified by possessing most control they intend to excercise full control.

Elitists regard us as impaired intellects...to the extent that we seize on the crumbs and call it the loaf, we are.

[SamAdams76]

Recently I went to a business convention in Orlando. I checked my hotel on the Web to see if it carried FoxNews using the "FOX NEWS hotel checker" that some Freepers made me aware of. The hotel wasn't on the list so I e-mailed them my complaint that they didn't offer FoxNews. Well, I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived at the hotel last week and saw that FoxNews was on the TV menu. I'd like to think that my e-mail had something to do with it but I'm sure I wasn't the only one.

[Spirited]

Thank you for posting this....I almost posted to question her about that because our subdivision had a policy of no dishes until it was made apparent to them that they had no right..