Ten Years of Fox News

The LA Times has a piece on the 10th anniversary of Fox News:

FOX NEWS turns 10 this week, and it has every reason to celebrate. Launched by media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and former political consultant Roger Ailes as a refuge for viewers fed up with real or perceived liberal bias elsewhere in the media, Fox is the undisputed ratings champion of cable news. It's been trouncing CNN, MSNBC and CNBC for years, and it sometimes draws a fatter audience share than all its competitors combined, though viewership has slumped a little of late. Pugnacious Bill O'Reilly and conservative tough guy Sean Hannity have become two of the nation's most powerful broadcasters thanks to this kind of ratings pull. Fox is the news media success story of the last decade.

Liberals aren't celebrating the channel's birthday, though. Even before an angry Bill Clinton exploded at "Fox News Sunday" anchor Chris Wallace a couple of weeks ago, accusing him of "a nice little conservative hit job" after getting pressed about his record on fighting Al Qaeda, Democratic pols and advocates have relentlessly attacked the cable network, accusing it of being a Republican propaganda mill. Al Gore has likened Fox to a right-wing "fifth column." Leftist groups, including MoveOn.org, funded the documentary "Outfoxed," which purports to expose the channel's nefarious Republican agenda, and petitioned the Federal Trade Commission to ban Fox's use of its famous "Fair and Balanced" slogan as deceptive advertising.

"When a news outlet is allowed to blur the lines between opinion and journalism and call it 'fair and balanced,' I think it's confusing to consumers of information in this country, and it's dangerous to democracy," fretted an official at Common Cause, one of the organizations joining the petition. Hollywood celebrities never miss an opportunity to bash "Faux News." Comedy Central's witty "Colbert Report" is a nightly satire of the channel and of O'Reilly in particular.

What explains all this hysteria? Success, of course.

The article goes on to give examples of why the criticism of Fox is largely unfounded. While it's opinion shows tend to lean right, it's news programs, and especially Brit Hume's Special Report are demonstrably more balanced than anything on the other networks.

Although Fox has its share of silly detractors, such as Common Cause and MoveOn.org, but it has also received some serious threats as the article warns in its conclusion:

Nothing would please liberals more than to drag the nation back to the days when the New York Times and CBS News determined what was newsworthy. A group of congressional Democrats has warned Fox to end its supposed anti-Democratic bias - or else. Should Democrats retake Congress, an effort to shut down, or at least muzzle, Fox, is far from inconceivable, creepy and illiberal as that sounds.

Something Fox News doubtless is keeping in mind as it pops the champagne corks this week.

This all goes hand-in-hand with the desire of the Dems to reinstate the "Fairness Doctrine" and stifle criticism on talk radio. Why wouldn't they try to do the same thing with cable TV?

Fox does goof every now and then. In this post you can see where the Fox News crew accidentally labeled Rep. Mark Foley as a Democrat. Hey, he's gay and has a predilection for young boys. You can understand how they might have made that mistake.