On just about any day’s the entire year, year in year out, Fox News draws more viewers than CNN. More than MSNBC. Often, Fox News draws a lot more than both of them combined. Even though many major media have been in decline, losing audience because of competition from social media and new media, Fox News keeps setting records.
We are visiting a flight to quality. Non-Fox news fares poorly since it is mediocre – timid, politically biased and untrustworthy. Fox fares mainly because it’s meritorious – unafraid, politically balanced and trusted, as advertised. Unlike its competitors within the U.S. or, for instance, in Canada, Fox doesn’t distort world events through a politically correct lens; it brings events into focus with expert commentary and news-breaking reportage, and is rewarded with viewers’ trust.
A nationwide Suffolk University/USA Today poll last month, like those who work in previous years by Pew Research Center yet others, sums it up. When asked, “What TV news or commentary source can you trust probably the most?,” Americans chose Fox over third-place finisher CNN by greater than a two-to-one margin, plus they chose Fox over fourth-place finisher CBS by more than a three-to-one margin. The second-place finisher? Tellingly, the most common response within the poll by people who didn’t choose Fox was “Undecided.” When Fox doesn’t come to mind as the most trustworthy source, no other news source stands out: The responders just shrug, typically replying with some variation of “I have no idea.”
Fox News won plaudits – because of its aggressive questioning of Republicans.
Also tellingly, MSNBC, which many pundits think about a left-wing counterpart to Fox, has little credibility with the public, arriving near the bottom, just in front of Comedy Central like a trusted news source.
The recent debates for the Republican and Democratic nominations show why viewers placed their rely upon Fox for impartial coverage. Fox News won plaudits all around, including from liberal commentators, for its aggressive questioning of Republicans that focused on their vulnerabilities. Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner, so resented Fox’s Megyn Kelly that he made her departure a condition of his participation in a subsequent debate (Fox refused Trump’s request, leading to his withdrawal).
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The other networks, in contrast, received mixed reviews for their questioning of the candidates, specially when it found pressing Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton on her behalf many scandals: her role in Libya’s Benghazi affair, which led to the death of an American ambassador; allegations that they used her position as secretary of state to obtain millions of dollars on her family and for their Clinton Foundation; and her possible indictment on criminal charges for her failure to use a secure email server, that is believed to have compromised the lives of agents in the field. Within the seven Democratic debates to date, neither Democratic candidate received just one question about their approval of late-term abortion, which the great majority of Americans oppose.
The Democratic Party, knowing it would face a grilling by Fox moderators, denied them their requests for hosting a debate. Knowing that another news networks would pull their punches, the Democrats gave all of them hosting opportunities. The MSNBC Democratic debate was this type of love-fest that moderator Rachel Maddow followed it by hugging the contestants.
Why do so many think that Fox provides biased, right-wing news coverage? To begin with, that is what they listen to Fox’s competitors, who are almost positioned on the left from the political spectrum, and identify positions to the right of them – including positions in the middle – as being right wing. For an additional, Fox does tilt conservative in its opinion shows, most notably in Sean Hannity’s 10 p.m. slot, which serves little but red meat to an overwhelmingly conservative audience.
But Fox’s other prime-time opinion hosts show no partisan political bias, consistently interviewing leading Democrats in addition to leading Republicans. Greta Van Susteren, the 7 p.m. host, is a liberal, while Fox’s biggest ratings draws, Bill O’Reilly at 8 p.m. and Megyn Kelly at 9 p.m., are both independents. Chris Wallace, the host of Fox News Sunday, is really a registered Democrat.
As for Fox’s hard-news coverage, that is all upright the middle, and unparalleled, too, in its investigative journalism. Those who just want the reality, without any spin, regardless of their political leanings, have nowhere else to visit. That explains why more Democrats and Independents – not just Republicans – watch Fox than watch the other news networks.
LawrenceSolomon@nextcity.com
