Why Fox remains No. 1 in cable news

[question everything]

Why Fox remains No. 1 in cable news

Commentary: Right-wing embrace + start-up spirit = success
By Jon Friedman, MarketWatch
Last Update: 10:32 AM ET Oct 6, 2006

(snip)

Primarily, Fox is identifiable with conservative politics and anchors whose various personality styles go from chatty to confrontational. I was the only non-Fox journalist (as long as you don't count the crew from "Entertainment Tonight") invited to watch a taping of a primetime program that will air on Sunday night called "Fox News at 10: Thank You America." I watched as Fox anchors Chris Wallace and Martha MacCallum fired questions at what the network lovingly calls its Big 7 -- Bill O'Reilly, Neil Cavuto, Sean Hannity, Alan Colmes, Brit Hume, Greta Van Susteren and Shepard Smith. They swapped war stories and discussed Fox's ascent.
And, oh yeah, some guy named Roger Ailes joined the proceedings. He's the visionary who created the network -- with a lot of help from parent News Corp. and its ever-ambitious chairman, Rupert Murdoch -- and remained its driving force over the past decade.
The conventional wisdom (which I, among many others, have spouted over the years) is that Fox has ruled the roost because it shrewdly managed to exploit the red-blue state phenomenon in America and attract a very large, loyal and vocal audience of politically conservative viewers. But it's hardly the whole (fair and balanced) story.

What the public may not appreciate is that Fox boasts a ferocious competitive spirit. Its will to win (read: crush CNN) is probably unmatched in TV journalism. For that reason, above all, Fox's rise is a case study which has relevance to a journalism or business school.
During the taping, I observed a unique spirit among the panelists -- and the dozens of their fellow Fox anchors and reporters in the audience. Their attitude, that we're all in this together, was admirable.

(snip)

But CNN, it could be said, was on cruise control after its impressive coverage of Desert Storm in 1991. The disastrous takeover of its parent, Time Warner by AOL in 2001 was a huge distraction for the entire company. Once a company has shaken off its start-up dust and become a dominant force in its industry, the employees could become complacent, even jaded. But the mentality at Fox doesn't allow for a shred of overconfidence.

(snip)

The Fox taping reminded me of a pep rally for high achievers. All it was lacking was a sports crowd chanting, "We're No. 1! We're No. 1" I listened for it but didn't hear the strains of Queen's anthem, "We Are the Champions." Maybe Fox wins because it doesn't tolerate any other result. Loyalty is everything. Ultimately, Fox has thrived because the all-for-one-and-one-for-all spirit inside the newsroom has spread to the audience and they want to belong to the Fox world.

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/7938Wc5GZMZtCWDgJS1fG3X?siteid=yhoo&dist=TNMostRead

(He is not a RWer, based on this comment):

A READER RESPONDS: "I've read a few of your pieces recently, including your 'I Hate the Media' article, and I haven't read anything you've written that was worth the time to read. I voted for Carter once also, back when I was young and liberal. I wince now at the thought of that vote and the disgrace that that little creep drags the presidency through every time he panders to the Europeans with criticism about Bush. After all, this is the sniveling little man that gave Chavez the good housekeeping seal. The question I can't answer is why Dow Jones hires people like you with your smug left wing views. You can't possibly think deeply about the world, it's just not possible. If you did, you couldn't be a liberal." William Fahey

Jon Friedman is a senior columnist for MarketWatch in New York.

[sandrakae]

1. I heard their ratings are in the toilet.

[brmdp3123]

4. You heard wrong.

Their ratings have been falling, but so have CNN's and MSNBC. Fox stills pulls about twice the audience that CNN does. The article was in USAToday last week. Sorry, I don't have a link.

[Arugula Latte]

16. I just read an article that said Fox News' ratings

have fallen while CNN's have risen. Fox, however, still has twice as many viewers as CNN overall.

I'm trying to find a link to the article; it was in The Oregonian newspaper, but might have been a wire story ...

[WCGreen]

5. The rating have truly dropped....

Almost as precipitously as GWB's....

And remember, Roger Ailes cut is teeth in politics with Lee Atwater and George "I'm above the fray, out of the loop" H. W. Bush....

In other words, Ailes is a POS republican operator who has been given a very large megaphone from which he spews Right Wing Bull Shit disguised as news...

[CatholicEdHead]

23. Alies is also behind the creation of CNBC

So that was Faux News before Faux News. Their coverage proves it, espically scheduling Kudlow and Company. :puke:

[WCGreen]

24. CNBC is part of NBC......

He may have had a hand in the old Financial News Newtwork that merged with CNBC....

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. Shorter version:

Internally, Faux is just like a cult.

[zoeb]

3. I thought they were filing bankruptcy this month!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[slingsam]

6. They did....

Moral Bankruptcy.....the judge handed it to them without any witnesses being called......:rofl: :rofl:

[zoeb]

9. lmao...I thought about that after I had posted!!!

but it was a jab at BOR for picking on AAR.

[Ksec]

7. I disagree with this guy

Fox is number one because Liberals watch and listen to conservative media..period. Its our fault.

Conservatives dont listen to Liberal media.

[zoeb]

11. I believe if Dems take congress

they should never appear on Faux...if people want to know what congress is doing they will have to
find an alternative news sources like MSNBC and CNN...well Cnn has been a let down for the most part but you gotta love Keith O.

[vi5]

12. A-Men!!! Finally someone else said it....

Conservatives don't watch or listen to liberal media. They don't listen to Keith Olberman or Randi or whatever else. They listen to their own.

Shit, the amount of people who are under the idiotic delusion that them watching Fox or Tweety or Imus or whatever and posting about it ad nauseum on here are doing some kind of service is enough to make me scratch and shake my head in disbelief.

Cue the inevitable responses of "It doesn't matter, if you don't have a Nielson Box then your ratings don't count so I'm going to keep watching Fox news and posting about it." I still call bullshit. There are still plenty of other things that any liberal, dem, or non Bushbot can do with their time than watching Fox news. Unless you work at Media Matters, you watching Fox does nothing.

[Ksec]

14. Libs have Neilson boxes too

If they werent watching, the ratings would show that. They say about half of conservative media watchers/listeners are Liberals. Thats why Fox is number one imo.

[OwnedByFerrets]

15. This Liberal Doesnt. nt

[Ksec]

20. neither do I

But many Libs do and they watch which helps their ratings. Its not debatable.

[question everything]

28. I think that I watched Faux News once, when Edwards was a guest

of O'rally.. (using Olbermann's pronunciation)

I never click on links here on DU that would send me to any RW site, including Fox. Why give them more hits so that they can charge more for ads?

There is a site, I do not remember the name, where the motto is: we watch Fox so that you don't have to.

[AlCzervik]

29. we have liberal media on television? What channel?

[hsher]

8. Because nobody's done THIS yet

:::New York and Washington, DC, taxi cab drivers boycott FOX employees::::

FOX employees in New York City and the Beltway depend on cabs to get to and from their bureaus. This is especially the case in New York. As retaliation for the "Mark Foley (D)" propaganda attack, I call upon the cab drivers of New York and Washington, DC, to boycott FOX employees and refuse to transport them. Indefinitely.

NEW YORK:
If anyone gets in your cab requesting Sixth Avenue and 48th Street, or surrounding areas within a three-mile radius, refuse to take them there.

WASHINGTON:
If anyone gets in your cab requesting Third Street, or surrounding areas within a three-mile radius, refuse to take them there.

This will have an immediate negative effect on FOX News broadcasting because it will damage writing, staff meeting and broadcast schedules. Regular citizens who don't work for FOX may get caught in this boycott dragnet, but ist tut mir leid. Find another way to get where you need to go. The FOX punishment boycott needs to start with the taxis. The next step is for regular wage workers at the services FOX employees and their families enjoy to refuse to serve them and refuse to sell to them: even on punishment of termination of employment. If you are fired for not serving a FOX employee, then spend your free time distributing leaflets containing anti-American FOX literature to your replacements as they arrive. Stand just off employer property to do so, on county-owned right of way. Usually that is the sidewalk or just inside it ("outside it" is the street). Inside includes varying widths of asphalt or grass. If necessary, distribute leaflets translated into Spanish about FOX News sympathy towards the Minutemen and their activities.

Turn this nation back around.
Time for the drastic measures.
I'll be back with more ideas later. Feel free to copy, print and distribute this.


www.yourmorningleibowitz.blogspot.com
Yer Daily Show comic strip

[Dick Diver]

13. Let's see...

"NEW YORK:
If anyone gets in your cab requesting Sixth Avenue and 48th Street, or surrounding areas within a three-mile radius, refuse to take them there."

This would mean that cab drivers in NYC couldn't take any fare to any spot from approximately Wall Street in the South to 105th Street in the North, the Henry Hudson on the West and the FDR on the East. I assume the person who actually said this was a comedian and not an idiot, right?

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

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[Dick Diver]

38. You know, I've given this some thought and I'm ONBOARD...

I really want to help you publicize this. IT'S IMPORTANT and a BRILLIANT IDEA.

In preparation, I've done a bit of research and found the following:

1. The taxi industry in NYC generates approximately $1.6B in direct revenues (i.e., fares) each year
2. Approximately 90% of those fares (in volume) are in the three-mile radius you've defined
3. Approximately 70% of those fares (in revenue) are in the three-mile radius you've defined
4. I've been unable to directly quantify the taxes applied to these, but let's assume it's 20% on $1.1B (70% of $1.6) or $220M
5. Indirect revenues, e.g., business taxes of those businesses within your radius, direct revenues generated by businesses, such as commuter services, entertainment, retail, food, etc., are also difficult to quantify. I would think that direct numbers might be $100B with proportional taxes

So, given those numbers and the revelation that this cause is so much more important than mere revenue numbers, I've drafted the following to be sent to the office of the Mayor:

Dear Mayor Bloomberg:

I bring your attention to the following idea proposed by Ms. Karen McCoy (now Ms. Heather Ferreira, having discovered her Jewish and Portugese ancestry) on the following website (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=post&forum=364&topic_id=2341638&mesg_id=2341742):


:::New York and Washington, DC, taxi cab drivers boycott FOX employees::::

FOX employees in New York City and the Beltway depend on cabs to get to and from their bureaus. This is especially the case in New York. As retaliation for the "Mark Foley (D)" propaganda attack, I call upon the cab drivers of New York and Washington, DC, to boycott FOX employees and refuse to transport them. Indefinitely.

NEW YORK:
If anyone gets in your cab requesting Sixth Avenue and 48th Street, or surrounding areas within a three-mile radius, refuse to take them there.

WASHINGTON:
If anyone gets in your cab requesting Third Street, or surrounding areas within a three-mile radius, refuse to take them there.

This will have an immediate negative effect on FOX News broadcasting because it will damage writing, staff meeting and broadcast schedules. Regular citizens who don't work for FOX may get caught in this boycott dragnet, but ist tut mir leid. Find another way to get where you need to go. The FOX punishment boycott needs to start with the taxis. The next step is for regular wage workers at the services FOX employees and their families enjoy to refuse to serve them and refuse to sell to them: even on punishment of termination of employment. If you are fired for not serving a FOX employee, then spend your free time distributing leaflets containing anti-American FOX literature to your replacements as they arrive. Stand just off employer property to do so, on county-owned right of way. Usually that is the sidewalk or just inside it ("outside it" is the street). Inside includes varying widths of asphalt or grass. If necessary, distribute leaflets translated into Spanish about FOX News sympathy towards the Minutemen and their activities.

Turn this nation back around.
Time for the drastic measures.
I'll be back with more ideas later. Feel free to copy, print and distribute this.


www.yourmorningleibowitz.blogspot.com
Yer Daily Show comic strip

Mayor Bloomberg, I hope you understand the importance of the above. Despite the fact that it may cost in the city billions to accomplish, may completely distrupt the business of the city, shutting down financial institutions (Wall Street. the major investment banks, the Federal Reserve), transport (Penn Station, Grand Central, the Port Authority), media (ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC), and the NYC entertainment industry, it is imperative that we destroy the influence of Faux News. I'm sure that your sacrifice will be appreciated by the True Believers and, if any financial renumeration is required, please contact Ms. Ferreira (I'm also sure she's good for it).

We are awaiting your response as we are eager to proceed to the second part of our planned action, i.e., denying Faux employees access to business services, e.g., restaurants, pharmacies, etc. This will, of course, Mayor Bloomberg, require that all business operators ask for IDs from all customers to ensure they are not serving a Faux employee. We understand that some might think that this might constitute a civil rights violation, but we all know that any Faux employee certainly does not deserve any protections under the constitution. We also understand that this might be an inconvenience to both employees and customers, but, hey, gotta do what you gotta do.

Please respond directly to Ms. Ferreira, at her website address above. Should we not hear from you within ten days of this correspondence, we will assume you are complicit in perpetuating the evil that is Faux News and devote our resources and efforts accordingly.

Sincerely yours,
Dick (the converted) Diver

On edit: when having drinks with Lionel this afternoon, I also informed him of this and will be sending him a copy in order to publicize this BRILLIANT IDEA.

[Monkeyman]

10. Fox only news you get White House an Rove talking points

Banded in my home. KO is my news

[cynatnite]

19. My Grandpa watches it because of his bad eyesight...

he says the letters are bigger so he can read it. He's also a hardcore Christian, too.

[conscious evolution]

21. I thought Diebold made the Neilson boxes

[Malikshah]

22. Who buys the TVs for Doctors Offices, and the general waiting rooms

All "public area" TVs I see in businesses tend to be turned to Fox...

The only place I don't see that is in airports

What's up with that... Are these TVs programmed to only carry FOX??

[WCGreen]

25. Tell your doctor you are gonna go elsewhere if they continue

to show faux...

[question everything]

30. And they have "stores" in airports! (nt)

[Berry Cool]

26. This article fails to mention another thing about Fox.

They actively promote hatred and nastiness aimed at their competition. They not only insist on winning, they insist on branding their competition as losers. One of their favorite tactics is personal attacks on anyone who criticizes them, cast in the vein of false sorrow. ("We're sorry the person who so unfairly ripped us is so mentally unhinged. Perhaps if his wife hadn't left him and he hadn't failed at every job he has ever had, he wouldn't feel the need to be so bitter toward us for our obvious superiority. We hope he's able to get the psychiatric help he so obviously and desperately needs. We wish him well.")

I'd hardly call that something you want to teach in journalism or business school.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

27. Ratings are not everything

Just because you are getting a lot of viewers does not mean that they are the kind that are desirable to advertisers. Compare the types of ads on Fox with those on CNN. Notice the difference. On CNN you will see ads for stock brokers and luxury cars. I am sometimes forced to view Fox News (muted) at my gym. High school completion and trade school programs, DUI attorneys and personal injury law firms (so much for the anti-litigation spirit of RWers, huh?) hawk their wares. This is not a comment on different socio-economic groups by me. I'm merely pointing out that CNN will continue to generate more ad revenue than Fox because of the demographic difference.

[Ms. Clio]

31. Yes, the average viewer is well beyond the desirable 18-49 demographic

I read that O'Lielly's average viewer is about 70.

[agincourt]

32. Fox news hasn't turned a profit except for 2001-2.

otherwise it's been a money losing proposition. It's just some fat asshole Murdoch blowing out noisy RW propaganda instead of quiet RW propaganda to make the sheeple stupider.

[BlooInBloo]

33. Talk about overengineering an explanation....

... all to ignore the elephant in the room...

Fox news is #1 because Americans are stupid. fin

[gulliver]

34. It should not be considered in the "news" category.

It's more like "GOP TV."

[napi21]

35. I've read articles similar to this, and wasn't sure their deduction was

correct. I NOW have to agree! Here is a list of places I've been just in the last 3 weeks.

Hospital Emergency room.

Sports Bar

Ford Dealership.

3 Doctors offices.

Emergency room AGAIN different hospital.

EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM HAD FOX NEWS ON THEIR TV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've been toldthings like this before andI was very skeptical, but I now know they were right! I don't have a reason,but they ARE right!

[lonestarnot]

36. There is more bullshit on the boards than I can shake a stick at

tonight. Think I'm gona have to just... keep fighting. This is bullshit. FOX has been and their stupid friends have been outted as ignorant, people are getting embarassed to admit they watch that shit, and more are just not watching it period. I never go there. I can get a spoon of epicac and puke and find it cleaner.

[Mountainman]

37. Why would anyone with half a brain watch Faux News anyway?

Who gives a shit if they are number one in a bunch of crappy shows. CNN, Fox, MSNBC are not news channels they are entertainment channels. News went out the window the day the corporations made it profit making entity. I think that the numbers of people watching these shows are in the 100's of thousands and compared to nearly 300 million people in this country, those numbers don't even register.