Fox News Channel (FNC)

The Fox News Channel (FNC), often called Fox News or just Fox, is a US-based cable television network that broadcasts news and informational programming twenty-four hours a day. The network was created in 1996 by Australian media tycoon Rupert Murdoch to combat what he saw as a liberal political bias in news reporting. Fox News instituted a philosophy of covering stories from a different perspective than other media outlets and presenting the news as a form of entertainment as well as information. Critics contend Fox News manipulates its coverage to fit a conservative ideology and has even knowingly broadcast false or misleading information. Despite such criticism, Fox News quickly rose to the top of the cable news ratings and remained popular for decades. The network had a major impact on the American media landscape and also had significant broader influence on politics and society.

History

In 1980 the Cable News Network (CNN) first went on the air and introduced a brand of round-the-clock news that changed the way television viewers got their information. By the mid-1990s, CNN had established itself as the leading news outlet in the world, routinely covering stories live that the major broadcast networks could not afford to dedicate as much air time to. CNN's success spawned a series of competitors looking to cut into the network's market.

Rupert Murdoch, head of the media conglomerate 20th Century Fox, saw an opportunity to take on CNN. In the mid-1980s Murdoch helped found the Fox Broadcasting Company, a challenger to the three major US broadcast networks of the era—ABC, CBS, and NBC. Fox started slowly and eventually gained traction with entertainment and news programming that often bordered on the sensational and controversial. In 1993, Fox bought the rights to televise the National Football League's (NFL) NFC Division games. Murdoch wanted a Sunday night news show that could follow the NFL broadcasts and serve as a rival to CBS's highly rated 60 Minutes, a news program that had followed NFL games on the network for years.

During planning discussions for the new show, Murdoch brought in former conservative political strategist Roger Ailes as a consultant. Ailes had worked for US presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Regan, and George H.W. Bush and served as head of the Consumer News and Business Channel (CNBC). Fox executives soon began to think about creating a new network rather than just an hour-long show. They wanted this channel to be different from existing news networks and conceived it as an alternative to the liberal bias they felt existed in other media outlets.

To increase its credibility, Fox hired several established journalists and producers from news organizations such as Time magazine and rival networks CNN and ABC. They also hired Bill O'Reilly, the controversial former host of TV news program Inside Edition, and conservative radio host Sean Hannity. The Fox News Channel signed on for the first time on October 7, 1996. The network featured a daytime lineup of news programming and a prime-time roster of talk shows with a decidedly conservative flavor.

From the start, the network focused on the entertainment aspect of news. Its graphics were flashier, its topics more sensational, and its on-air personalities presented as celebrities as well as journalists. Another Fox News strategy was to target viewers who may have felt alienated by the perceived liberal viewpoints of major news sources, such as the New York Times or CNN. The network framed news stories in a different way to differentiate itself from its competition and attract a more conservative audience.

This philosophy caused problems for Fox News upon its launch. Time Warner, the parent company of rival CNN, at first refused to carry Fox News on its cable system in New York City, the nation's largest media market. However, after Republican Mayor Rudolph Giuliani hinted that he would pull Time Warner's cable franchise in New York, the company relented. Fox News began making inroads with viewers, seeing healthy rating gains with its coverage of the 1998 impeachment proceedings against then-President Bill Clinton, the disputed 2000 presidential election, and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. By January 2002, Fox News had overtaken CNN as the top-rated cable news channel.

From early on, critics often contended that Fox News was little more than a media arm for conservative Republicans. Watchdog groups compiled numerous examples of biased or even factually incorrect reporting by the network. Yet Fox News officials maintained that they never altered the truth of a story, and always attempted to report events in a "fair and balanced" manner, as the network's slogan said. And despite frequent criticism, Fox News continued to enjoy significant popularity over the years.

Fox News' success had a large impact on cable news. In 2008, rival news channel MSNBC copied the Fox News blueprint and began focusing on news with a more liberal perspective, increasing its ratings. Other networks also sought to emulate Fox's success. Even CNN, which maintained a "middle-of-the-road" approach politically, began to imitate Fox News by scheduling more personality-driven and flashier news programming. Many observers suggested that Fox News' growth and influence went hand in hand with deepening political partisanship in the United States; the network both reflected this broader twenty-first century trend and contributed significantly to it, not only by promoting one side but also by demonizing the other. Fox News' close relationship to sensationalized politics was seen in its ongoing success. For example, its broadcast of a Republican presidential primary election debate in August 2015 set a ratings record for the network and was considered the largest non-sports telecast in cable history with 24 million viewers.

Yet despite the network's success, Fox News faced serious challenges by the mid-2010s. A series of sexual harassment lawsuits were brought against Ailes by former Fox anchor Gretchen Carlson and other women who had worked at the network. Older accusations dating back to the beginnings of the Fox Network also resurfaced. The growing scandal portrayed the entire network's culture as sexist and misogynistic, and led to Ailes's ouster in the summer of 2016. He was granted a payout of an estimated $40 million from Fox, but his career was over and he died in May 2017 at the age of seventy-seven. The scandal also contributed to Fox losing two of its biggest stars. Host Megyn Kelly left in January 2017 after publishing a book that detailed her own sexual harassment by Ailes. Bill O'Reilly was implicated in a sexual harassment scandal himself, and he was fired from the network in April 2017.

Meanwhile, the 2016 US presidential campaign and election, and its aftermath, further amplified the partisan divide between Republicans and Democrats while also drawing increased public attention—largely negative—to the role of the media in politics. Fox continued to be lambasted for its conservative bias, with critics accusing the network of promoting fake and misleading stories and defending attacks on the media by Donald Trump, the eventual winner of the election. Notably, before leaving Fox for NBC, Kelly had high-profile quarrels with members of the Trump campaign. Fox also contended with attacks from critics even further to the right, with radical conservative media outlets like Breitbart attacking the network as "mainstream." Ratings and viewership declined somewhat, though the network remained a leading cable news outlet. Fox entered a tumultuous period for leadership, with Murdoch serving as CEO and promoting business as usual while his sons and others pushed changes to revamp the network.

Over the next several years, Fox continued to be criticized by other media outlets for publishing misinformation and outright false claims while staunchly defending Trump and his allies. During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic that began in 2020, Fox News commentators made many controversial claims, including calling the pandemic politically motivated or a hoax, advocating the use of certain drugs as treatment against the advice of the scientific community, and promoting anti-vaccination views. Meanwhile, longtime commentator and anchor Ed Henry was fired from the network in July 2020 upon another wave of sexual misconduct allegations. The 2020 presidential election also became a major source of controversy for Fox. Although the network was actually the first major news outlet to call the election for Joe Biden over Trump, many of its hosts and programs subsequently endorsed Trump's unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud and a "stolen" election. Fox News' promotion of lies about the election led to multiple defamation lawsuits from voting technology companies. Critics warned that the amplification of Trump's efforts to overturn the election represented a severe threat to democratic norms. Nevertheless, Fox News still attracted a large audience during this period. The network set several viewership records in 2020, and by the end of the year it had achieved a historic year-long primetime average audience of 3.62 million. Two of its programs, Hannity and Tucker Carlson Tonight, ranked as the most popular cable news programs throughout the year.

Fox News further generated scrutiny for false, misleading, and inflammatory claims about such topics as the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol; the Russia-Ukraine war that broke out in 2022; mass shootings; and transgender issues, among others. In April 2023 there was much media attention to a defamation lawsuit from the company Dominion Voting Systems over the network's false claims around the 2020 election. The proceedings brought to light strong evidence that top Fox executives and hosts knowingly allowed false claims of election fraud to be aired, but a settlement was ultimately reached just before the case went to trial. The reported $787 million payout was believed to be the largest ever in a defamation case. In the wake of the settlement, Fox News also prominently dismissed top host Tucker Carlson, who had become well known for his far-right views and combative style.

In the wake of Carlson's departure Fox experienced a drop in viewership due to the intense following Carlson had attracted during his time at the network; Fox also continued to face declining ad revenues. In late September 2023 Murdoch announced he would step down as chairman of News Corp. and Fox Corp and ceding these positions to his son, Lachlan. Meanwhile, Fox began covering the 2024 US presidential election and in August and September 2023 hosted two debates featuring leading candidates in the Republican Party primary. However, former president Trump, who at that time was the most popular Republican candidate by a large margin, did not participate.

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