After its disgraced founder Roger Ailes died in 2017, Fox News dropped its often-mocked slogan “Fair and Balanced”, switching to “Most Watched, Most Trusted”. But now Fox’s new motto is no more truthful than the old: last month Fox News dropped to third place in cable news channel ratings, behind CNN and MSBNC. This is the first time since 2001 that Fox News has ranked so low.
In “Fox lurches further to the right to win back ‘hard-edge’ Trump supporters”, the Guardian’s Adam Gabbatt reports today that the cable channel is trying to recover some viewers by aggressively moving rightward. Gabbatt gives some examples of the recent shift:
- Tucker Carlson complained about Democrats’ calls for a crackdown on white nationalists and domestic terrorists, telling his viewers “They’re talking about you.”
- Carlson and his colleague Laura Ingraham stood up for QAnon supporters.
- FNC’s biggest host Sean Hannity sowed doubt on the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, thus helping to sabotage public health in the US.
- FNC daytime anchor Bill Hemmer asserted a false equivalence between Marjorie Taylor Greene and Ilhan Omar.
Gabbatt quotes Jonathan Kaufman, journalism professor at Northeastern University, as saying:
They were moving away from conspiracy theorists, they were moving away from Trump and hoping to turn the page. But like the Republican party, Fox is discovering that Trumpism, and conspiracy theories, have taken deep root in the Republican party and in their viewers.
In yesterday’s “It’s Time for Fox News to Admit It’s Not a News Channel”, Variety’s Michael Schneider gave a similar analysis, writing:
Fox News has sprinted even further from the last vestiges of being a news outlet.… it’s time for the network to admit it’s not a news channel and stop claiming to be so. You don’t refer to TLC as “The Learning Channel,” now that 90-day fiancés have long since replaced documentaries on Roman architecture….
That last remark has gotta hurt, given that TLC’s 90 Day Fiancé gives a more realistic view of America than FNC’s The Sean Hannity Show. Come to think of it, even TLC’s Dr. Pimple Popper conveys more useful information than Hannity.