BIG CHANGES EXPECTED AT FOX NEWS

 

As the republican party continues to shrink, so goes the viewership at Fox News.

I have been writing for years how Fox News is not actually “News”, as is normally offered by organizations such as regular broadcast news, regular newspapers and CNN.  Roger Ailes, the so-called Genius head of Fox News made it clear from the beginning when he had first envisioned the conservative idea of a “GOP Channel” when he worked for the Richard Nixon White House.

The basis of Fox News has always been for all of their “reports” to reaffirm conservative political ideology.  Just as the programs of Fox’s, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Shepard Smith and the rest of the Fox crew, are for promoting that ideology.  Even the latest member of that night-time crew, Megyn Kelly’s, “The Kelly File” has shown that Ms. Kelly is just another conventional Fox News television anchor.  And Megyn Kelly is just more proof that Fox News isn’t about offering real news.

Some have stated that MSNBC is just another version of the FOX channel.  And yes, on both of these channels, one of the differences from hard news is that their anchors routinely join in “pontificating”.  In reality, these breaks with old-school journalistic practice are part of their overall viewer appeal.  This approach makes them seem “real,” and most viewers of TV news prefer this to the detachment displayed by real news journalists at the major broadcast networks and CNN. 

But when the MSNBC anchors or pundits such as Chris Matthews, Chris Hayes, Melissa Harris Perry or Rachael Maddow “pontificate” in their more liberal ideology, the viewer can 95% of the time believe the information they will be receiving.  More than once, Rachael Maddow in particular has corrected information she may have inadvertently given that was incorrect.

On the other hand, the cable news watchers have stated for years at least 40% of the statements made on Fox were incorrect.  And I personally have only heard of one time where a Fox News anchor came on the air to correct misinformation the cable they had been presenting, sometimes for weeks.

Yes, MSNBC is at the liberal end of the political spectrum and FOX is at the conservative end.  But at least on one of those channels, you usually can take the given information to the bank.  At the other end, almost 40% can be deposited in the waste basket.

The other difference between the two channels is the age difference of the viewers. 

FOX has had some very good cable ratings, but the age of their viewers is much older than that of MSNBC.  It has been said that Mr. Ailes put Ms. Kelly into the 9:00PM News Slot with the idea of attracting a younger audience.  The problem is that Megyn is still a conventional Fox News television anchor, and Fox News isn’t about nuance or complexity. These are the areas that the younger, more educated generation looks to for their news reporting and analysis.  (Those that watch Jon Stewart and Colbert at night would normally not be tuning in to hear Megyn Kelly.)

As an example of their different approaches, Rachael Maddow will dig into an issue from a different angle than Fox or most conventional news networks will take. 

But when watching Megyn Kelly’s show, you immediately realize that she’s just a younger, better looking female version of Bill O’Reilly.   She’s smart, engaging, and her “reports” reaffirm the conservative ideology of most of her older viewers.  But another issue is that “The Kelly File” covers so few stories.  In fact, it was shocking to understanding just how few subjects, sources and points of view “The Kelly File” presents.

Ms. Kelly’s show tends to take a conventional conservative point-of-view on all the issues, and she seldom shows both sides of an issue.  If Obamacare is the subject, the comments from Megyn will be about the negative aspects of the health care program.  You will never hear that because of Obamacare, the number of those in the US without health care coverage had dropped from 11 Million Americans to 6 Million Americans.  But you will hear that the initial roll-out of the Obamacare website had serious problems.

The reality is that Ms. Kelly’s program just isn’t very informative, even when she devotes the appropriate attention to the story.  With a handful of exceptions, virtually every story Kelly and her producers selects is very predictable.  As compared to Ms. Maddow, rather than exploring the story’s complexity, Kelly tends to dumb them down so that everything fits neatly into their older viewers’ conservative worldview.

FOX cable ratings have lately continued to drop as MSNBC’s have continued to raise.  The analysts say that the reason for this is that just as the Republican party is made up of older, white Americans, that is the same base of those that follow Fox News.  As the Republican party has been shrinking as their older white members pass away, the same phenomena is occurring with the viewership of Fox News. 

Word on the street is that Rupert Murdoch will soon be stepping down as the head of News Corp which is the parent of the Fox Cable Network.  Word also says that Fox's Roger Ailes will soon be reporting to Rupert’s two sons that are taking over, and that the sons do not like Fox News as it is currently structured.

Stay tuned, this could get very interesting.

Copyright G.Ater  2015