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The Fox hunt: Cable news leader Fox News' success goes beyond its conservatism
WORLD ^ | 5/24/03 | Gene Edward Veith

Posted on 05/16/2003 12:57:22 PM PDT by Caleb1411

Now that viewers are no longer watching the war—like a hit TV show that has had its season finale—ratings for the news channels will probably return to normal. But just as CNN made its name with its coverage of Operation Desert Storm, Operation Iraqi Freedom has made a winner of Fox News.

Fox News has a reputation as the conservative news channel, and much of its success in beating rivals CNN and MSNBC is attributed to the way its "fair-and-balanced news" tilts to the right. But even setting aside its pro-American, pro-freedom, pro-family flavor—which the public clearly feels is refreshing—Fox News is still better than its competitors.

The anchors and reporters on Fox News just seem to have more personality, energy, and likability than their counterparts on CNN. Compare CNN's Aaron Brown, with oh-so-sensitive but ultimately sleep-inducing droning, to Fox's high-energy Shepard Smith. Or CNN's Larry King, asking softball questions to celebrities, to Fox's Bill O'Reilly, with his tough interrogations of guests.

Fox has assembled a pool of distinguished conservative journalists—Brit Hume, Fred Barnes, Tony Snow, Cal Thomas, Sean Hannity—but even Fox's liberal personalities, such as Alan Colmes, seem to have more pizzazz and are less annoying than liberals on other networks.

Fox risked its reputation in some conservative circles by hiring the liberal Greta Van Susteren from CNN, and the Clinton cheerleader Geraldo Rivera away from MSNBC. But Ms. Van Susteren seems much more conservative than she used to be, and Mr. Rivera was a rah-rah supporter of the troops he covered.

Even though he was ejected from the field for revealing his unit's location, Mr. Rivera has uncharacteristically been a staunch supporter of President Bush and the war in Iraq. This proves that journalists, like teenagers, tend to conform to peer pressure, and the newsroom in which they are socializing goes a long way to shape their opinions.

Mr. Rivera and Ms. Van Susteren were hired for their personalities, not their ideas, and MSNBC, the third-place news channel, has tried to compete with personality journalism of its own. In fact, its personalities—ex-governor and ex-pro wrestler Jesse Ventura; the abrasive Chris Matthews; the touchy-feely Phil Donahue —are more over-the-top than those on Fox. MSNBC has even assembled some name-brand conservatives—Mike Savage, Alan Keyes, Pat Buchanan—assuming that is the key to Fox's success. But for all of its efforts (and though the jury is out on some of these shows), nothing much seems to work for MSNBC.

Somehow Fox has assembled a group of TV journalists who connect with viewers, probably because they come across as normal people. Fox reporters almost never condescend to viewers. The other networks do so all the time, peering down on the vulgar masses from a social height (think Peter Jennings), or deigning to enlighten the public about things that only they understand (think Peter Arnett).

Thus, in the news vacuum after the war, we are having media-created stories that demonstrate how far removed are the mainline news outlets from the general public.

Sen. Rick Santorum's opinion that homosexuality is one of many other sexual perversions is arguably the view of most Americans. Yet the media tried to turn his remark into a Republican scandal. Time is uncovering the shocking truth that missionaries are trying to get people in other countries to change their religion, something most Americans already know and many support with donations.

Fox News lacks the sense of out-of-touch elitism that makes many Americans, whatever their politics, annoyed with the news media. Tom Brokaw's heir apparent Brian Williams on MSNBC dresses like a patrician, in those shirts with contrasting collars; MSNBC's Ashleigh Banfield, in her sophisticated glasses, comes across as a blue-blooded sophisticate. Shepard Smith and Laurie Dhue, on the other hand, come across as regular folks.

The latest coup for Fox News is that its morning show, Fox & Friends, has outperformed a network morning show. In April, it drew an average of 2.91 million viewers, whereas The Early Show on CBS only attracted 2.8 million. This is quite an accomplishment, since CBS is free over the air. Fox News is only available on satellite or cable, and even then not all cable operators carry Fox News.

But millions of Americans would rather wake up to the wise-cracking Steve Doocy ("the weather guy"), the outspoken lady E.D. Hill, and the down-to-earth Brian Kilmeade than to the glamorous stars on the network morning shows.

The great irony of the left is that it has largely become an upper-class affectation. The educational and social elite are more likely to lean socialist than Marx's "workers of the world," a good number of whom vote conservative and watch Fox News.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: cabletv; foxnews; media
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1 posted on 05/16/2003 12:57:22 PM PDT by Caleb1411
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To: Caleb1411
Regular guys:




2 posted on 05/16/2003 1:19:13 PM PDT by ILBBACH
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To: Caleb1411
I used to dislike Greta intensely when she was on CNN, but since she came with Fox, she seems so relaxed and comfortable with herself, and she is much prettier and smiles a lot more. She still controls a very interesting show and I find myself watching her more and more.
3 posted on 05/16/2003 1:19:17 PM PDT by Sangria
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To: Caleb1411
"wise-cracking Steve Doocy "

Steve has been on fire this week. He wanted to know when the Saudi's would hold a telethon for the bombers this week. And he commented about the mainstream media not carrying the news about Umm Qasr holding democratic elections because it was good news. Great stuff, that morning show.

4 posted on 05/16/2003 1:25:53 PM PDT by ican'tbelieveit
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To: Caleb1411
More Regular Guys:





5 posted on 05/16/2003 1:33:53 PM PDT by ILBBACH
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To: Caleb1411
Somehow Fox has assembled a group of TV journalists who connect with viewers, probably because they come across as normal people. Fox reporters almost never condescend to viewers.

Hmmm - I don't think they EVER condescend to viewers - that's what makes them so likable. Adorable Tony Snow pokes fun at himself all the time - he read my e-mail to him on the air one time where I asked him if his kids had been cutting his hair.

Fred Barnes and Mort Kondracke are like a couple of cranky old uncles bickering at the family reunion, and even the urbane Brit Hume gets his dander up as he rolls his eyes and gets a look of total disgust at Mara and Juan's inane liberal ramblings.

6 posted on 05/16/2003 1:35:59 PM PDT by Inspectorette
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To: Sangria
However, I find her competitor's show, Scarborough County on msnbc, consistently more interesting.
7 posted on 05/16/2003 1:49:01 PM PDT by fightinJAG
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To: Caleb1411
The difference between Fox and her imitators is that when the others add a (lone) conservative voice its a conscious affectation. It just doesn't come across as natural, because it isn't.

So Fox is going to continue to kill them in the ratings, because there is only one Fox, and the liberal audience is fragmented among all of the other news sources.

Now someone needs to finance a Euro-Fox channel, to break the leftist news monopoly there. And someone needs to kick off a Spanish language Free Republic. We need to shake things up a little.
8 posted on 05/16/2003 1:53:42 PM PDT by marron
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To: Caleb1411
MSNBC's Ashleigh Banfield, in her sophisticated glasses, comes across as a blue-blooded sophisticate

That's the only line in this article that I disagree with. She comes across as a snotty Tina Fey, trying too hard to be trendy.

9 posted on 05/16/2003 1:58:08 PM PDT by Dog Gone
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To: Sangria
She still controls a very interesting show and I find myself watching her more and more.

Greta is a winner for FNC and I believe that she is the second best interviewer on FNC (Brit is the best there is) and does well with lawyers and plain folks.

My wife really loves her show as I imagine most women do.

10 posted on 05/16/2003 2:04:39 PM PDT by Mike Darancette (Soddom has left the bunker.)
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To: ILBBACH
I wouldn't consider Kelly a regular guy, his father is police commishoner here in NYC.
11 posted on 05/16/2003 2:06:53 PM PDT by Sonny M ("oderint dum metuant")
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To: ican'tbelieveit
" the news about Umm Qasr holding democratic elections because it was good news. "

I don't have cable (therefore no Fox)., This is the first I've heard of this. I don't think it's even been on FR!

12 posted on 05/16/2003 2:10:36 PM PDT by cookcounty
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To: Sangria
I was converted from Greta-antagonist to Greta fan after a few weeks. Really, it started with that Dick Morris interview when he said "Greta, you're not at the Clinton News Network anymore," which is more of a paraphrase then an exact quote, I am sure. Anyway, that got me watching and then I stayed with the show pretty much and eventually relaxed and started to enjoy it.
13 posted on 05/16/2003 2:12:14 PM PDT by Duke Nukum ([T]he only true mystery is that our very lives are governed by dead people.)
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To: Caleb1411
Face it, Roger Ailes has a better eye for talent and personality than the other network news honchos.
14 posted on 05/16/2003 2:13:34 PM PDT by fat city
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To: Sonny M
Read Greg Kelly's bio. I think he's pretty well "grounded."
15 posted on 05/16/2003 2:18:56 PM PDT by ILBBACH
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To: cookcounty
I haven't seen it either, just the blurb on F&F about it.
16 posted on 05/16/2003 2:20:29 PM PDT by ican'tbelieveit
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To: Caleb1411
Is Fox making a programming mistake?

There's lots of people (like me) who don't pay much attention to TV (some news, some sports---that's all). We don't care about cable (If you get 100 channels, you'll waste even MORE of your life on the boob tube).

Nonetheless, I WOULD like to see FNC, but too cheap to pay $400 / year for it, go with out. Meantime, the local broadcast version of Fox is watched ONLY by people that ALL have cable, owing to the fact that they're the folks who think that TV is life.

So why doesn't Fox flip the two, making FNC the braodcast channel, and "Surviving-Back-Stabbers" the cable outlet? I think they'sd get more total viewership.

17 posted on 05/16/2003 2:21:58 PM PDT by cookcounty
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To: Caleb1411
The anchors and reporters on Fox News just seem to have more personality, energy, and likability than their counterparts on CNN.


18 posted on 05/16/2003 2:25:13 PM PDT by spodefly (This is my tagline. There are many like it, but this one is mine.)
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To: cookcounty
FOX broadcast gets tons of more viewers than FOX News ever could get. That's just the nature of the business. People get all obsessed with the cable news networks, but compared to network broadcasting, they're small potatoes.
19 posted on 05/16/2003 2:27:04 PM PDT by Mr.Clark (From the darkness....I shall come)
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To: spodefly
Now you're talkin' !!
20 posted on 05/16/2003 2:41:50 PM PDT by Vinnie
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