This summer I was visiting my grandfather when my cousin's husband came by with his kids. While I had turned on CNN earlier, he switched it to FOX News. I questioned this change and I was told, "I watch it because it's funny." I guess less people are laughing these days at the right-wing clowns that populate the 24-hour news network. Ratings are in sharp decline for FOX's 10-year anniversary. In August, FOX's daytime programming lost 7 percent from a year earlier and the primetime ratings, Bill O'Reilly's turf, lost 28 percent.
At the same time, CNN is seeing an increase of 35 percent overall and 21 percent daytime. Nine years ago, FOX surpassed the world's first 24-hour news network in the ratings, a year ahead of the expectations of the network's founder, former Republican think-tanker Roger Ailes. "Fair and Balanced" isn't as attractive as "The Most Trusted Name in News" these days. While FOX is still beating both MSNBC (whose Keith Olberman has seen an increase in ratings of 55 percent in the last year) and CNN, the gap is quickly narrowing and for the first time ever, FOX is declining in viewership.
To be honest, I don't see this as surprising. As I write this, I'm watching "FOX and Friends." The main story is the Amish School shootings where they have interviewed three people in the last 20 minutes. Each person gets asked the same series of questions. On CNN, there is a series of analysts explaining the situation, going over all the angles and trying to calm people down. FOX is going nuts. People from all over the heartland and South are calling in and sending in e-mails about how they are afraid that there will be a shooting at their children's school today. One caller quoted Billy Graham saying, "When we had prayer in school, we didn't have guns."
Most critics point out these differences as why FOX is in decline. CNN tends to report much better, usually from where the story is, whereas FOX usually commentates on the news. Also important is the obvious bias presented by FOX and its newsmen. Tony Snow spent years on FOX News doing the news before President George W. Bush pulled him back into politics as his press secretary - (he was a speech writer for Bush's father.) After 10 years of a hard right slant, people have gotten tired of such a bias and a blind following to the Republican right.
This is the news, not some scarf and cape show meant to misdirect the viewer. FOX's biased commentators detract something from the stories. After the Clinton interview there was a roundtable of FOX's Sunday commentators criticizing Clinton without the former president … wait, what the hell is this fresh crap? The talking heads are going nuts over this new drink "Cocaine" … "Genocidal Jelly," what the crap? Who cares. I thought the phrase "Fear and Loathing" went out with Hunter Thompson's brains. This is insane, pure and simple. No one cares about this kind of stuff when there is a war going on in the real world. Bill Frist just suggested bringing the Taliban into the Afghan government, North Korea is preparing another nuclear test, Iran is asking France to enrich their uranium to satiate the U.N. and U.S. Why aren't they reporting on these things?
It's frustrating, but this seems to be what the right wing likes to do. Donna Brazile, Al Gore's former campaign manager, said it best, "They can make us worry about inconsequential things, and the Democrats can't make people worry about terrifying things." I'm sure that right now FOX is getting calls over Cocaine energy drink and how it's reprehensible to market a drink named after a drug to children. I think it's reprehensible to act like it matters, I think it's reprehensible to ignore the actual news in favor of human interest stories and miniature horses. There is real hard news out there and you are in a sharp decline as a news network - maybe you should get back to reporting actual stories without the spin. It's not too hard - just send someone out in the field, have them report on what they see and put it on the air. Like Anderson Cooper. Watch him, copy what he does. During the Israel-Hezbollah conflict this summer, Cooper decided that the best place to report from was the battle lines. You can even wear the bulletproof vests and helmets you love so much in the field.
I think that's the major problem with FOX, is that it has lost its ability to report without putting some sort of spin on the story. It's hard to put a spin on a war when you are on the front lines. So they sit back in their chairs in the news rooms, try to tune out O'Reilly harassing an intern in the next room and make the attempt to ignore the feeling in the pit of their stomach. It's the kind of feeling you get before something goes totally wrong. They could save themselves if they weren't stuck on their collective one-track mind, but FOX has never been about change, they've been about insisting they were right. FOX may still be winning in the ratings, but their inability to break news without a slant is only going to make their situation worse, and for anyone with sense, this is a good thing.
Staff Columnist Brandon Nadeau is a 6th-semester anthropology major.
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