Posted on 12/01/2002 10:51:30 PM PST by Pliney the younger
LESLIE H. GELB, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, watches international news obsessively, skipping from channel to channel. "I never watch a commercial," he said.
He now considers Fox News Channel often to be a more reliable news source for international reporting than CNN or the nightly network news. Fox, he said, provides a "fairer picture, a fuller version of the different parts of the arguments" over world affairs.
Mr. Gelb said he makes a distinction between Fox's news coverage and its opinion programs, like "The O'Reilly Factor," which he considers biased. But even here, he finds himself drawn to Fox. "CNN's commentary tends to be less biased and less interesting," he said.
A lot of other people who do not fit comfortably into the right-wing stereotype of Fox viewers apparently agree.
Last week, Fox News reported that its prime-time viewership had grown 17 percent for the month, compared with November 2001, while CNN's prime-time ratings fell 31 percent, continuing a pattern of dominance by Fox in the cable news wars. In the 24-hour cycle, Fox has a solid lead over CNN, and has left MSNBC in the dust.
While the total viewership of the three major network nightly news programs dwarfs that of the cable news channels, a more important statistic may well be that cable news is now a leading source of news for over half the country, followed by newspapers and local television. Network TV news was ranked fourth, in a survey conducted in January by the Pew Research Center.
And if cable news is now the nation's main news source, Fox — the self-described maverick outsider — finds itself in the peculiar position of being, arguably, the most powerful television news organization in the country, playing a major role in defining what is important and what is not.
Like it or not, Fox has become the establishment, with critics now bemoaning not just what they say is its bias but its dominating influence.
Fox's importance as a powerhouse was underscored last week when Al Gore named it first in a list of conservative news media that he said function as a "fifth column" in the larger media world. In an interview with The New York Observer, he complained of the influence now wielded by Fox, The Washington Times and Rush Limbaugh, among others, calling them "part and parcel of the Republican Party."
Undoubtedly, the popularity of President Bush and Republican majorities in both houses of Congress only enhance the outsider-into-insider transformation of Fox News. In his new book, Bob Woodward revealed that Roger Ailes, the Fox News president, sent a letter to President Bush after the terrorist attacks offering his advice.
But if Fox News were merely a Republican Party organ, it would almost certainly not have achieved the stunning popular success it has enjoyed since its start in October 1996. It has won a huge audience in a centrist nation where a majority favor stricter gun control and 80 percent think abortion should be sometimes or always legal, according to recent Gallup and CNN/USA Today polls.
So, why is Fox News now sitting so high?
Without doubt, its claim to offer "fair and balanced" news appeals to many people. In a conservative time, a time of war, Fox viewers like their news from a strong American perspective, with flags rippling in graphics and a pugnacity toward the nation's critics — the people John Gibson, host of Fox's nightly "Big Story," referred to last week as the peanut gallery. Such blunt speaking is a point of pride at Fox, which, for example, reports on "homicide bombers" in Israel, rather than "suicide bombers."
For the most part, Fox News is what William Kristol terms "the news network of Bush's America," the majority that approves of the way Mr. Bush is doing his job, especially since Sept. 11. Indeed, since the World Trade Center attacks, the number of people who list cable news as one of their prime news sources has increased substantially, which has proved a boon for Fox especially.Mr. Kristol, a Fox News analyst who is editor of the conservative Weekly Standard, said that Fox's audience perceives what is often termed "liberal bias" in other television news, but what he says should more accurately be called "liberal presumption and liberal condescension."
"On Fox, you can actually get a debate on abortion," Mr. Kristol said.
From the left, though, the Fox style of fairness is viewed as little more than a fig leaf for relentlessly hammering a conservative agenda. "I see it as a propaganda outlet," said Ruy Teixeira, a co-author of "The Emerging Democratic Majority," who occasionally fills the liberal seat on Fox talk programs. "They're the mouthpiece of this administration."
Mr. Ailes, who is regarded as the engine driving Fox's success, has promoted his network brilliantly with its constant "we report, you decide" mantra.
"Television is all about energy, and Fox has a lot more energy than its competitors," said Joe Klein, the New Yorker staff writer, who often covers politics, "and I hear of a lot more people moving in that direction."
Fox is the first television news network in the nation to be based on a niche — or, it appears, on two niches, which overlap somewhat, but are not the same.
One niche seeks an alternative to the news style of the major networks and CNN. For this audience, Fox has assembled a vigorous corps of reporters who cover the White House and foreign affairs in a way that appeals to viewers like Leslie Gelb. For instance, Mr. Gelb said that when allegations of massacres by Israelis in Jenin were first leveled earlier this year, Fox, unlike many other television news organizations, framed its reporting as "we don't know what happened." As it turned out, there was no evidence of a massacre.
But the bulk of Fox's ratings success is not from its hard news coverage. It comes from the other niche that apparently wants to see attitude — just not liberal attitude — on television.
The restraint of the Jenin massacre coverage is largely absent from the opinion portion of the Fox News lineup.
BRIT HUME'S "Special Report," a mix of news and talk, is ranked fifth among all cable news shows. Mr. Hume, a former star at ABC News, asks pointed questions of liberals and conservatives, but the tone of his program is still to the right of the more factual news programming on Fox.
But that rightward step becomes a gallop later in the evening, with "The O'Reilly Factor," which is the top-rated show on cable news, and "Hannity & Colmes," a pair of hosts ostensibly representing right and left, but which is dominated by the conservative Sean Hannity.
Indeed, four of the five top cable news programs are on Fox, with only "Larry King Live" representing CNN.
Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, believes that Fox's strong and consistent personality is a huge part of its appeal, especially compared with what he views as CNN's floundering.
"There's no sense of uncertainty or experimentation on the air, like you now sometimes see on CNN," Mr. Rosenstiel said.
Fox argues that it is fair and balanced even in its opinion programming because it offers opportunities for liberals to express their views. Indeed, Mr. O'Reilly complains that he frequently has to beat the bushes to find liberals to argue with because so many are afraid to go on his show.
But Mr. Rosenstiel says he sees a core journalistic dishonesty in the Fox news style, as compared with other programs of opinion and analysis like CNN's "Wolf Blitzer Reports," Tim Russert's "Meet the Press" on NBC and Bob Schieffer's "Face the Nation" on CBS. The power of the host in such programs is enormous, because that person leads from topic to topic, and cuts off or extends debate.
"Blitzer and Russert and Schieffer are trying to cut it down the middle," Mr. Rosenstiel said. "Fox is not."
While Mr. Rosenstiel sees Fox as perhaps the forerunner of a more European style of broadcast journalism in the United States, he believes that there will remain a great opportunity for something that now does not exist in cable news.
"There is no newscast of record," he said.
Brit's program is both the best AND the most factual news program on television, period.
Both get the same amount of time, and interview/debate guests, not each other. If the show is "dominated" by Hannity, it's because Sean is right, and Colmes knows it.
Well, they certainly buried that one - and of course they didn't mention it was ABCCNNNBCCBS that jumped the gun and bought the propaganda there was a massacre when in fact there wasn't. The liberal networks are just dying to paint the palis as poor martyrs, unfortunately that story didn't pan out the way they had hoped.
PS - Attn, NYTimes. O'Reilly makes no bones about NOT being a news show - he is OPINION - Doesn't he ask people to OPINE?
JMO, but the 6:30 PM news broadcasts of old(Peter, Dan, and Tom) will be gone within 10 years.
Traditional broadcast channels make more money running sitcoms or local news in that time slot and the traditional networks are bleeding money from their news divisions.
In 10 years you will see CNN/ABC, MSNBC, and FOX as where people will get thier news over TV, with Fox leading the way.
That leaves CBS out of the cable loop, with ole Dan blathering.
Blitzer and Russert and Schieffer are trying to cut it down the middle,"....
The New York Times just dosen't get it, do they?
To think that consrvative news programs will dominate in good times is wishful thinking.
That is why we must keep this 'war' going at all costs.
For the chillrun.
. BUMP
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Tom Rosenstiel's capability for self-delusion and/or propaganda dissemination is substantial.
This is bull crap. Yesterday, Schieffer had Bob Woodward, Michael Beschloss, David Halberstam, and Garry Wills on his program to discuss presidents, Bush in particular. Does anyone believe that any of the four, or Schieffer or co-host Gloria Borger, has ever cast a vote for a Republican for president?
And Timmy Russert gave over most of his program to "Liveshot" Kerry.
Garry Wills, maybe. He used to be a conservative.
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