Fox News Channel ( FNC ), commonly referred to as Fox or Fox News , is a major American cable news and satellite entertainment channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation. As of April 2009, it is available to 102 million households in the U.S. and further to viewers internationally, broadcasting primarily out of its New York City studios.
The channel was created by Australian-American media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who hired Roger Ailes as its founding CEO. The channel was launched on October 7, 1996 to 17 million cable subscribers. The network slowly rose to prominence in the late 1990s. In terms of regular viewers (Nielsen ratings), Fox News rates as the United States' number one cable news network.
Many observers say that Fox News Channel's programming promotes conservative political positions. Fox News Channel denies any bias in the channel's news reporting, and says there is a distinction between its news coverage and editorial programming.
History
Main article: History of Fox NewsEarly years
In May 1985, Australian publisher Rupert Murdoch announced that he and American industrialist and philanthropist Marvin Davis intend to develop "a network of independent stations as a fourth marketing force" to compete directly with CBS, NBC and ABC through the purchase of six television stations then owned by Metromedia. In July 1985, 20th Century Fox announced that publisher Rupert Murdoch had completed his purchase of 50 percent of Fox Filmed Entertainment, the parent company of 20th Century Fox Film Corporation. A year later, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. earned $5.6 million in its fiscal third period ended May 31, 1986, in contrast to a loss of $55.8 million in the year-earlier period.
Prior to founding FNC, Murdoch had gained significant experience in the 24-hour news business when News Corp.'s BSkyB subsidiary started Europe's first 24-hour news channel, Sky News, in the United Kingdom in 1989. With the success of his fourth network efforts in the United States, experience gained from Sky News, and turnaround of 20th Century Fox, Murdoch announced on January 31, 1996 that News Corp. would be launching a 24-hour news channel to air on both cable and satellite systems as part of a News Corp. "worldwide platform" for Fox programming, reasoning that "The appetite for news — particularly news that explains to people how it affects them — is expanding enormously."
In February 1996, after former Republican political strategist and NBC executive Roger Ailes left America's Talking (now MSNBC), Murdoch called him to start the Fox News Channel . Ailes worked individuals through five months of 14-hour workdays and several weeks of rehearsal shows before launch, on October 7, 1996.
At launch, only 10 million households were able to watch FNC, with none in the major media markets of New York City and Los Angeles. According to published reports, many media reviewers had to watch the first day's programming at Fox News studios because it was not readily available. The rolling news coverage during the day consisted of 20-minute single topic shows like Fox on Crime or Fox on Politics surrounded by news headlines. Interviews had various facts at the bottom of the screen about the topic or the guest. The flagship newscast at the time was called The Schneider Report , with Mike Schneider giving a fast paced delivery of the news. During the evening, Fox had opinion shows: The O'Reilly Report (now, The O'Reilly Factor ), The Crier Report hosted by Catherine Crier, and Hannity & Colmes .
From the beginning, FNC has placed heavy emphasis on visual presentation. Graphics were designed to be colorful and attention grabbing and to allow people to get the main points of what was being said even if they could not hear the host, through the use of on-screen text summarizing the position of the interviewer or speaker and "bullet points" when a host was giving commentary.
Fox News also created the "Fox News Alert," which interrupted regular programming when a breaking news story occurred.
To accelerate its adoption by cable companies, Fox News paid systems up to $11 per subscriber to distribute the network. This contrasted with the normal practice, in which cable operators paid stations carriage fees for the programming of channels. When Time Warner bought out Ted Turner's Turner Broadcasting, a federal antitrust consent decree required Time Warner to carry a second all-news channel in addition to its own CNN. Time Warner selected MSNBC as the secondary news network, instead of Fox News. Fox News claimed that this violated an agreement to carry Fox News. Citing its agreement to keep its U.S. headquarters and a large studio in New York City, News Corporation pressured Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's administration to pressure Time Warner, one of the city's two cable providers, to transmit Fox News on a city-owned channel. City officials threatened to take action affecting Time Warner's cable franchises in the city.
A lawsuit was filed by Time Warner against the City of New York claiming undue interference with, and inappropriate use of, the city's educational channels for commercial programming. News Corporation countered with an antitrust lawsuit against Time Warner for unfairly protecting CNN. This led to an acrimonious battle between Murdoch and Turner, with Turner publicly comparing Murdoch to Adolf Hitler while Murdoch's New York Post ran an editorial questioning Turner's sanity. Giuliani's motives were also questioned, as his wife was a producer at Murdoch-owned WNYW-TV. In the end, Time Warner and News Corporation signed a settlement agreement to permit Fox News to be carried on New York City cable system beginning in October 1997, and on all of Time Warner's cable systems by 2001, though Time Warner still does not carry Fox News in all areas. In return, Time Warner was given some rights to News Corporation's satellites in Asia and Europe to distribute Time Warner programming, would receive the normal compensation per subscriber paid to cable operators, and News Corporation would not object to the continuation of Atlanta Braves baseball games being carried on TBS (which could have expired because of the Fox television network's contract with Major League Baseball).
Recent history
On May 1, 2008, Fox News launched high definition channel simulcasts of its programming in selected regions of the United States. Time Warner Cable is carrying this channel in New York, NY, San Antonio, TX, and Kansas City, MO, while Cablevision is making it available in New York, NY and on Long Island.
On Friday, October 17, 2008 at 6am ET, DirecTV launched the high-definition channel. This launch was the first national launch of the network in HD. On January 9, 2009, Cox Communications added the HD channel and on February 3, 2009 Dish Network did also.
Fox News switched from a 4:3 aspect ratio to a 16:9 letterbox ratio for its standard definition channel at 6 am ET on September 28, 2009.
Outlets
FNC maintains an archive of most of its programs. This archive also handles the Fox Movietone newsreels. Licensing of the Fox News archive is handled by ITN Source, the archiving division of ITN.
Television
Main article: Fox News Channel programmingFNC presents a variety of programming with up to 15 hours of live programming per day, in addition to programming and content for the Fox Broadcasting Company. Most of the programs are broadcast from Fox News headquarters in New York City in their street-side studio on Sixth Avenue in the west extension of Rockefeller Center. Audio simulcasts of the channel are aired on XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio.
In an October 11, 2009 article in the New York Times , Fox articulated that its hard news programming runs from "9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. on weekdays" and "are objective" but makes no such claims for its other programming, which is primarily editorial and opinion journalism in nature.--
High Definition
Fox News Channel HD is 720p high definition simulcast of Fox News Channel that launched on May 1, 2008. Most of the programs available in HD ( Fox & Friends , America's Newsroom , Happening Now , The Live Desk , Studio B with Sheppard Smith , "Your World with Neil Cavuto", Glenn Beck , Special Report with Bret Baier , Fox Report , The O'Reilly Factor , Hannity , and On the Record with Greta Van Susteren ) are shown in 16:9 widescreen. Fox News Channel began producing its standard definition programs in letterboxed format on September 28, 2009; therefore high definition and standard definition viewers now both see the same picture and stylized pillarboxes are no longer needed.
Radio
Main article: Fox News RadioWith the growth of FNC, the network introduced a radio division entitled Fox News Radio in 2003. Syndicated throughout the United States, the division provides short newscasts and talk radio programs, featuring personalities from both the television and radio divisions. In addition, the network has also introduced Fox News Tal
Larry Klayman, Conservative Attack Dog, Slams Fox News And Bush ...
Both conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats can agree on one thing: When Larry Klayman calls, start sweating.
Fox News - SourceWatch
The Fox News Channel (FNC) is a cable news channel owned by Rupert Murdoch 's News Corporation. Considered largely conservative in its projections and perceptions, it occasionally ...
Anatomy of a Conservative Political Uprising, Starring Fox News - Jon ...
Have you seen the videos of angry conservative activists disrupting the hell out of health care reform town hall meetings? Well, as the Daily Show points out, some of their ...
SHOCKING NEWS: People think FOX News is conservative!
Posts: 2237 Joined: 8/6/2008 Status: online: ha ha ha ha ha The Fox News Channel is viewed by Americans in more ideological terms than other television news networks.
The Most Biased Name in News
With the ascendance of Fox News Channel, we now have a national conservative TV network in addition to the established centrist outlets. But like the mainstream networks, Fox ...
Conservative author slams Fox News ‘cheerleading’ tea parties ...
In his books, conservative author Bernard Goldberg rails against left-wing bias in U.S. media. But, as evidenced by a recent appearance on Fox News, he's still got an eye for overt ...
FOX News' Coverage of the Conservative Political Action Conference ...
Check out all of FOX News' coverage of CPAC, the nation's premier event for conservative politicians, policy makers and pundits.
Conservative-Funded Study: Fox News Gives Most Balanced Coverage
A study released this month by the Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA) at George Mason University found that Fox News Channel's evening coverage was more "balanced" than ...
News Corpse » Walter Cronkite On Fox News: Beyond Conservative
The once-mighty 4th Estate has been consumed by a governmental-corporate complex whose interests are best served by a compliant media that obeys its masters. News Corpse is ...
Fox News Boycott » Conservative Site Calls Glenn Beck ...
Fox News Boycott - Boycott Fox News and boycott Fox News sponsors and advertisers of Bill OReilly, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck.