Fox News Is in trouble & for a Very Rough 2008

[EV_Ares]

By Eric Boehlert, Media Matters for America. Posted January 30, 2008.



From losing the election ratings race to CNN, to watching its favored son Rudy Giuliani fizzle in the primaries, Fox News is in for a bad year. My guess is that Fox News guru Roger Ailes has been reaching for the Tums more often than usual early in the New Year, and there are lots of reasons for the hovering angst.


Let's take an extended multiple choice quiz. Right now, which of the following topics is likely causing the discomfort inside Ailes' Fox News empire?


A) CNN's resurgence as the go-to cable destination for election coverage.
B) The incredible shrinking candidacy of Fox News' favored son, Rudy Giuliani.
C) The still-standing candidacy of Fox News nemesis and well-funded, anti-war GOP candidate Rep. Ron Paul.
D) The Democratic candidates' blanket refusal to debate on Fox News during the primary season.
E) Host Bill O'Reilly being so desperate for an interview from a Democratic contender that he had to schlep all the way to New Hampshire, where he shoved an aide to Sen. Barack Obama and then had to be calmed down by Secret Service agents.
F) Former Fox News architect and Ailes confidante Dan Cooper posting chapters from his a wildly unflattering tell-all book about his old boss. ("The best thing that ever happened to Roger Ailes was 9/11.")
G) The fledgling Fox Business Network, whose anemic ratings are in danger of being surpassed by some large city public access channels.
H) Host John Gibson's recent heartless attacks on actor Heath Ledger, just hours after the young actor was found dead.
I) Fox News reporter Major Garrett botching his "exclusive" that Paul Begala and James Carville were going to join Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign, and then refusing to correct the record.


I'd say it's

A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. (I doubt Gibson's grave-dancing or Garrett's whopper caused Ailes a moment's concern.)


Bottom line is that Fox News is in for a very rough 2008. And the umbrella reason for that is quite simple: Eight years ago the all-news cable channel went all-in on the presidency of George Bush and became a broadcast partner with the White House. Proof of that was on display Sunday night, January 27, during Fox News' prime-time, "Fighting to the Finish," an "historic documentary" on the final year of Bush's presidency. Filmed in HD and featuring "unprecedented access," according to the Fox News press release, the show was pure propaganda. (I must have missed Fox News' "Fighting to the Finish" special back in 2000, chronicling the conclusion of President Bill Clinton's second term and his "extraordinarily consequential tenure.")


The point is that Fox News years ago made an obvious decision to appeal almost exclusively to Republican viewers. The good news then for Fox News was that it succeeded. The bad news now for Fox News is that it succeeded.


Meaning, when the GOP catches a cold, everybody at Fox News gets sick. As blogger Logan Murphy put it at Crooks and Liars, "Watching FOXNews getting their comeuppance has been fun to watch. They made their bed, now they're having to lie in it and it's not too comfortable."


The most obvious signs of Fox News' downturn have been the cable ratings for the big primary and caucus votes this year, as well as the high-profile debates. With this election season generating unprecedented voter and viewer interest, Fox News' rating bumps to date have remained underwhelming, to say the least.


Link to the rest & 3 page article: http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/75359/

[C_U_L8R]

1. their audience is dying off

literally.
Faux is not attracting any young people
and their audience is getting greyer and greyer.
More importantly, their audience does not purchase much
(except possibly pork rinds and cheez doodles).
And unless you're the maker of pork rinds and cheez doodles.
you have absolutely no good reason to advertise on Faux.
The rest is academic.
Bye bye Faux.

[Nickster]

2. That karma is a real mother sometimes. :-)

[TheCowsCameHome]

3. Like Ru911dy, they put their eggs in one basket, even the rotten ones

Tough s**t.

[mwb970]

4. Fox "News" hitched their wagon to the bush star.

Then it went all supernova on them. Hahaha!

Fox Campaign Update: How's your BFF Rudy doing, Sean?

[NewJeffCT]

5. Murdoch will suck up the losses for a few years at least

just to help the GOP catapult the propaganda, as it were.

[lonestarnot]

6. Their aiding and abetting in the dismantling of America didn't help

the fuckers. Breaking middleclass America's back in the richies slave labor market while they chirp on about missing white women, yeah that helped them. LOL

[robbedvoter]

7. best news for us:

"The point is that Fox News years ago made an obvious decision to appeal almost exclusively to Republican viewers. The good news then for Fox News was that it succeeded. The bad news now for Fox News is that it succeeded.

[hatrack]

8. Yes, but doesn't the overwhelming success of the Fox Business Channel counterbalance these trends?

EDIT

Nielsen Media Research isn't ready to release its official audience estimates for the fledgling cable network, but figures obtained by this newspaper show Fox Business averaging 8,000 viewers over its first eight weeks, with 6,000 viewers in the business day and 15,000 viewers in prime-time. That's dwarfed by CNBC, which, in that same span, averaged 265,000 viewers.

"That's not very good,' said Derek Baine, senior media analyst with SNL Kagan. "I'm sure it will take time , but that doesn't sound very exciting to me."

Baine confessed that the channel is available to him, but he doesn't watch it. Another analyst, John Mansell of John Mansell Associates, said he doesn't even have Fox Business Network on his system, a typical problem.

EDIT

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-fri_phil_0104jan04,0,7781538.column

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