Fox News Repositions (to Take on Obama?)

by: tremayne

Tue Jul 08, 2008 at 09:03

We've previously discussed how Fox has lost some of the total cable news audience to MSNBC and CNN this year. It's not so much a decline in total audience as a decline in growth. While the others have seen substantial gains during this election year, Fox has hit a plateau. In the 1990s and up through recent years, being perceived as the "conservative alternative" to all other supposedly liberal channels served Murdoch's empire well. Despite joining the cable news game more than a decade after CNN it didn't take Fox long to shoot past it in the ratings.

So, what is an R-branded news channel to do when Republicans are clearly in disfavor among the majority of potential viewers? Hmmm. Not so many Republicans anymore but there are still a lot of.....white people! If Fox can expand its brand to encompass "white America" they might continue to rule the cable news ratings.

Fox News Exec: "I have an idea! Let's hire as many high-profile Hillary Clinton staffers as possible. This will add some non-Republican white folks to our audience AND some people well-versed in not-liking-Obama."

And so we have the news that Howard Wolfson has been hired as a contributor to Fox. Wolfson follows Clinton-backer Lanny Davis into the Fox News stable. With these two hires, Fox now has a veneer of bi-partisianship from which they can safely hurl anti-Obama smears. Plus, throw in recent additions Karl Rove and Mike Huckabee and you've got quite the white-guy quartet.

tremayne :: Fox News Repositions (to Take on Obama?)

Tags: Fox News, media, Election 2008, (All Tags)

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Fox News Repositions (to Take on Obama?) | 14 comments

Are there any .. (0.00 / 0)

Democratic operatives that believe in the cause? .. Or are they just in it to make a buck? .. no wonder we never win .. and most of the operatives believe in "centrism" .. I bet a lot of them are Republican leaning .. who work for Democrats because they don't drink enough of the Kool-aid

by: Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle @ Tue Jul 08, 2008 at 13:14:35 PM UTC

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I don't know how I feel about this (0.00 / 0)

On the one hand, Fox is the crazy outrageous "news" channel that is full of right-wing airheads and hence should be ignored.

On the other hand, it has a huge audience despite the discrediting and who really thinks that anything would stop them from smearing Obama if they had anything to smear him with? If Wolfson does his job well, (I can say nothing positive about the crazy Lanny Davis) maybe there will be a strong voice rebutting the insanities at Fox.

by: akriti @ Tue Jul 08, 2008 at 13:20:49 PM UTC

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Hmm (0.00 / 0)

Is there reason to believe Wolfson will be rebutting the insanities rather than joining Davis in reinforcing them?

by: KCinDC @ Tue Jul 08, 2008 at 13:31:10 PM UTC

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Well - Wolfson is not Lanny Davis (0.00 / 0)

I know this much. Wolfson may have angered many Obama supporters, since he made arguments for the Clinton campaign, just the way Axelrod irritates many Clinton supporters, but he is not Lanny Davis - far from it.

So I think Wolfson has the ability to push back on the right-wing non-sense. How well he will do, I cannot say. But I think it will entertaining to watch him battle Rove.

by: akriti @ Tue Jul 08, 2008 at 13:54:43 PM UTC

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Well - Wolfson is not Lanny Davis (0.00 / 0)

So I think Wolfson has the ability to push back on the right-wing non-sense. How well he will do, I cannot say. But I think it will entertaining to watch him battle Rove.

by: akriti @ Tue Jul 08, 2008 at 13:54:43 PM UTC

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Huge audience? .. (0.00 / 0)

in what sense? .. Do you know that O'Reilly's audience is mainly over 55? .. Do you know that Olbermann ties O'Reilly in the 25-54 demographic(which is what advertisers want mostly)

by: Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle @ Tue Jul 08, 2008 at 14:00:03 PM UTC

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"Audience" not "Demographic." Apples to Oranges. nt (0.00 / 0)

by: Jay Hazen @ Tue Jul 08, 2008 at 14:15:31 PM UTC

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In the sense of what matters to us, not the advertisers. (0.00 / 0)

Olbermann has very nice ratings but he only ties in the 25-54 demographic and has lower numbers in the in the over 55 demographic.

It's nice that Olbermann ties in the audience advertisers want, but we're not advertisers now are we? We're after people's vote, not their money. And yes the category that include the highest percentage of voters is the over 55 demographic.

So yes O'Reilly leads in viewing numbers and in the leading category that is interesting to us. He's unlikable, dishonest, etc. but he has the largest audience out there, closing your eyes to that is ignoring reality.

by: Ernst @ Tue Jul 08, 2008 at 14:23:34 PM UTC

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I wasn't closing my eyes to it .. (0.00 / 0)

just pointing out the disparity .. since O'Reilly has had close to a ten year head start

by: Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle @ Tue Jul 08, 2008 at 19:03:54 PM UTC

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Astute observation (0.00 / 0)

Funny, I was just reading Digby's latest notes on Chris Matthews stupidity and thinking "the right gets a lot of mileage out of these nominally Democratic media figures who operate as conservatives"

I guess Fox just upped the ante on that.

by: Daniel De Groot @ Tue Jul 08, 2008 at 13:40:35 PM UTC

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Except ... (0.00 / 0)

as you should know by now .. Tweety has admitted voting for Bush at least once(that can be proved .. and I am inclined to believe twice)

by: Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle @ Tue Jul 08, 2008 at 13:58:28 PM UTC

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I know (0.00 / 0)

Yet, we know that any past affiliation with Democratic politics is good enough for the "liberal media" myth propaganda. It is handy for them to say "look, even Jimmy Carter's speechwriter says Bush is so very manly" or whatever Matthews is yelling about.

That he voted for Bush also increases his "bi-partisan" Rational Adult credentials etc etc.

by: Daniel De Groot @ Tue Jul 08, 2008 at 14:06:31 PM UTC

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Thanks for the story (0.00 / 0)

It will also play well with Philadelphia primary voters should he make his crazy leap into the U.S. Senate race. Getting behind the eight ball already? Couldn't happen to a more steadfast Democrat.

by: Jay Hazen @ Tue Jul 08, 2008 at 14:19:37 PM UTC

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I don't see Tweety .. (0.00 / 0)

running for Senate .. just look at all the misogynistic things he's said since the primaries have started .. not only that .. but he can't shut up

by: Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle @ Tue Jul 08, 2008 at 16:32:56 PM UTC

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