Why has Fox News has been 'legitimized' for so many years?

[young_at_heart]

It began in 1996....and when Roger Ailes came along it became the highest-rated cable news network. The only problem..... it ISN'T legitimate! At age 83 I can remember many years of "real" news broadcasts and I just cringe when I see excerpts from this sham program. I'm guessing that Rupert and his "friends" are capable of causing on-going stress in many households. Evidently, there is no such thing as shame at that network. Are they finally getting what they deserved 27 years ago?

[elleng]

1. Because it called itself 'news,' and others followed?

[Funtatlaguy]

3. The legitimate news afraid was afraid of them.

[TheRealNorth]

2. Because the MSM thought...

That be legitimizing Faux News, it would somehow convince right-wingers that the MSM does not have a liberal bias (which is how Faux sold itself). It doesn't make any sort of logical sense, but it is what it is.

[brooklynite]

4. So you believe that Secretary Buttigieg and other Democrats shouldn't appear on Fox...

...to defend the President's policies?

[young_at_heart]

5. I wish I had a clear feeling about that

I just hate the idea of any Democrats appearing on their show because, to me, it gives an appearance of legitimization. Maybe they can refute the lies, but my hunch is that the "regulars" won't listen to them or believe them.

[Initech]

6. They became legitimized when they stole the 2000 election.

Remember when every single network called Florida for Gore except one? That one was... wait for it, Fox News! And they've stolen many elections from us since then. They've also stolen SCOTUS, they divided the Senate and now they're trying to weaponize the House and local municipal governments against us. Bottom line: Fox News is fucking evil.

[young_at_heart]

7. Yes, evil describes them very well

They equal Trump in their ability to lie whenever it suits them (some more than others). How many of them went along with all of Trump's lies, seemingly without a single qualm?

[Initech]

8. Their lying precedes Trump by decades.

Trump is just a symptom. Fox / News Corp is the real problem. Trump got to where he is by playing this crowd like a fiddle. He knows exactly what to say and how to say it so it triggers the MAGAs to make him their savior and the other side (us), the enemy. Ron Desantis is borrowing from that exact playbook. John Oliver showed that Desantis wouldn't be where he is without Fox News. They've stolen elections before and they'll steal them again. Conservatives are nothing without their media presence.

[onenote]

9. Actually, all major networks, including Fox, initially called Florida for Gore.

Fox called Florida for Gore at 7:52 pm based on information from VNS, a consortium owned at the time by NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox and CNN. CNN and CBS were the first to retract that call 9around 10 pm ) and within 15 minutes the other networks, including Fox, also retracted the initial call for Gore. At that point, all five were describing the election in Florida as too close to call. Four hours later, shortly after 2 am, Fox is the first network to call the race for Bush, followed moments later by the other networks.

I'm not saying Fox isn't evil. Just that facts are facts, and Fox, like the other networks, was relying on VNS and based on that data initially called Florida for Gore and then, like the other networks, retracted that call and after several hours of describing the race as to close to call, was the first, by mere minutes, to call the race for Bush.

[andym]

10. An old trick: they called themselves "news" just as the Soviets called their propaganda arm Pravda

Pravda means "truth," which or course was often almost entirely missing from their newspaper.

[young_at_heart]

11. How many Americans truly believe Fox jibberish is real news?

Is it in the millions? I've never had a clear picture of this....makes me nervous to think about it!

[Kaleva]

13. About 1% of the adult population watches Fox News

There are over 260 million adults in the country. Tucker Carlson averages about 3 million viewers each night

[andym]

14. Fox News influences about 40% of Americans especially when it comes to politics according to Pew

though it is true their viewership at any one time is much lower as you state. In aggregate they have far more reach.

Pew Research in 2020:
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/04/08/five-facts-about-fox-news/
"Around four-in-ten Americans trust Fox News. Nearly the same share distrust it. Among all U.S. adults, 43% say they trust Fox News for political and election news – similar to the shares who say they trust CBS News (45%) and PBS (42%), according to a November 2019 survey. At the same time, 40% of adults say they distrust Fox News – the highest share out of the 30 media outlets asked about in the survey, ahead of CNN (32%) and the Rush Limbaugh radio show (29%).

The vast majority of adults (94%) have heard of Fox News. And as of last November, 39% said they had gotten political news there in the past week – tied with CNN among the outlets asked about."

Republicans trust Fox News more than any other outlet. Democrats distrust it more than any other outlet. Around two-thirds of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (65%) say they trust Fox News for political and election news. No more than a third of Republicans say they trust any of the other news organizations asked about in the survey, including network sources such as ABC News (33%), CBS News (30%) and NBC News (30%). Conservative Republicans are especially likely to say they trust Fox News: Three-quarters say this, compared with around half of moderate or liberal Republicans (51%).

As of November, six-in-ten Republicans said they had gotten political news from Fox News within the past week. This, too, was far higher than the share of Republicans who said they had recently gotten political news from other sources.

Among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, 61% say they distrust Fox News for political news. That’s considerably higher than the shares of Democrats who distrust other outlets, including the Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity radio shows (43% and 38%, respectively) and Breitbart News (36%) – though this also reflects the fact that Fox News is more well-known to the public than these other outlets. Liberal Democrats are far more likely than conservative or moderate Democrats to say they distrust Fox news (77% vs. 48%).

While most Democrats distrust Fox News, that doesn’t mean they universally tune it out. Around a quarter of Democrats (23%), including 29% of conservative or moderate Democrats and 15% of liberals, said in November that they had gotten political news from Fox News in the past week."

[Kaleva]

15. Thanks for your post

It has some very interesting info!

[Kaleva]

12. Broadcast news has far more viewers then Fox

CBS, NBC and ABC News each alone have over twice the viewers as Fox

We should also be aware that cable is declining as more and more people stream. Cable has lost over 20 million subscribers in the past few years. I subscribe to Hulu, Netflix, Peacock and Prime. None carry Fox.