Broadcasting & Cable: Ailes Cracks Whip as Fox News Slips

[DeepModem Mom]

Ailes Cracks Whip as Fox News Slips
By Staff -- Broadcasting & Cable, 6/26/2006

Slackers at Fox News Channel, you’re on notice! Your boss is not pleased. Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes is on the warpath following his network’s recent ratings slump, and he won’t hesitate to clean house to turn things around.

So far during the second quarter, the No. 1 cable news channel’s primetime schedule has dropped 22% in its core 25-54 demo and 8% in total viewers. The first quarter was even worse.

Chief rival CNN has also dipped in recent weeks, but less dramatically, off 18% in the demo and 2% in total viewers.

Insiders say that, even though Fox News remains No. 1, Ailes is fuming over the complacency he senses among staffers.

Production values are slipping, and bookers aren’t competitive enough, relying too heavily on the same pool of faces and settling for authors or actors after they’ve already been on CNN or … gasp … MSNBC....

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6346894.html

[w4rma]

1. Fox will never again be as popular as they are today. It's all downhill.nt

[Tempest]

4. Faux will follow the GOP

Into the dustbin of history.

[Jack from Charlotte]

24. Fox will run Coulter naked or perhaps....

Coulter post lung implants, naked. That should help their ratings.

[Tempest]

27. I did not need that image in my head

Now I'll have to watch the Dukes of Hazzard movie over and over just to cleanse my brain.

And I hate Jessica Simpson.

[Tempest]

2. Ailes will have to face up to the real issue

Americans are tired of the rightwing spin and propaganda Faux News spews forth.

CNN is suffering as well ever since they started emulating Faux News and took a hard turn to the right.

[TexasLawyer]

17. Pravda

No one wants to watch Pravda. As the discrepancy between what is actually going on and what is getting reported on Fox grows ever larger, people are catching on.

You can't fool all the people all the time.

[cantstandbush]

34. Slipping? Nobody should be watching these lying MFs! nt

[madrchsod]

3. To much credit is given to fox news

they do not have enough viewers to be creditable difference in changing the american public ideas about anything. after all who watchs fox news? freepers and people in nursing homes...

[Tempest]

7. Faux has been influential to the media

Look at how MSNBC and CNN both went to the right and tried to emulate them.

And they're suffering as well.

[maxrandb]

12. More than that. They are an integral part of the Right-Wing Noise Machine

Faux helps amplify the right-wing noise machine. They run BS right-wing stories that no one else gives credibility to. Then, their enablers on hate radio and the "internets" bitch and moan and say the story is being ignored by the "liberal media". Their fanatic watchers then make phone-calls and e-mail "respectable" news outlets demanding that they cover this "important" story.

The "respectable" (and I use that term lightly) news organizations, crucified for the last 20 year over a "perceived liberal bias", then cover the bogus story to avoid being labeled as "liberal".

It doesn't matter how many Tucker Carlson's, Joe Scarborough's, Rita Cosby's, or Glen Beck's you put on, you'll never convince the "true believers" that there is not a liberal bias. They simply must continue the lie of a liberal bias in the media or they know that their reign of terror on America in OVER.

If Faux had existed in the 1940's, telling good stories about Hitler would have been described as being "Fair and balanced".

[llmart]

37. Great post.

[KansDem]

19. Fox chose the president in 2000, or at least Bush's 1st cousin did...

Bush Cousin Calls Presidential Election

by Michael I. Niman
Special to Buffalo Beat (December 14th, 2000) - AlterNet Syndication (December 14th, 2000)
<contact www.alternet.org for syndication rights>

The US presidential election was a celebration of the triumph of media over matter.

To an objective observer, two facts are clear: Gore won the nationwide popular vote, and according to a recent Miami Herald analysis, he was also in all likelihood the favorite of Florida voters as well.

George W. Bush’s claim to victory initially had a shaky basis in objective reality. The Florida race, or even the national race, was a statistical dead heat — a tie. There was no clear winner. Factor in the bizarre antiquated 19th century vote tabulating technology used in much of the US and the wide margin of error inherent with these machines, and the difficulty of determining a winner was clear.

For most Americans, and for much of the global television audience, however, Bush was always either the presumed "winner" or at the very least, the likely winner. Al Gore was always seen as trying to either "catch-up" to Bush, or "overturn" the Bush victory. The Bush claim to victory always had the veneer of legitimacy while the Gore claim effused a certain stench.

This perceived Bush victory, the perception that the horse race finally boiled down to one stallion breaking through the finish gate, was a network news fabrication. We saw it on TV. The networks called the election for George W. Bush, projecting him the winner — in effect declaring him the President Elect. CBS News’ Dan Rather boldly told us late on election night, "Sip it, Savor it, cup it, photostat it, underline it in red, press it in a book, put it in an album, hang it on the wall — George W. Bush is the next president of the United States." The networks anointed a President and no recount of actual votes will ever be able to undo that coronation.

--more--
http://mediastudy.com/articles/jellis.html

[dubyaD40web]

5. Keith on MSNBC is the way to go now.

n/t

[reprobate]

18. He's the only network news I watch now. Apart from FreeSpeach TV and LINK

[madmusic]

6. The Fat Lady is playing "Taps" n/t

[Bush_MUST_Go]

9. Fox sold its soul to the devil. They're nothing but whores for the govt.

[saigon68]

10. Even whores won't associate with Karl Rove

He has the Clap

[AndyA]

8. Perhaps people are finally "getting it" and

are sick of the lies and censorship. Regardless of party affiliation, I still believe that when people sit down to watch the news, they want to see the news. Not have someone's views forced upon them, not a censored version of what the powers that be want them to hear.

They want it all: the whole story. And they aren't getting that on network or cable news. And that is finally showing up in the ratings. Lou Dobbs on CNN has been gaining market share dramatically during this time, and Lou is hammering the Bush Administration/GOP on the Dubai Ports deal, election fraud, and other topics that people want to know about. OK, he's overdoing the immigration thing, but he has had some great shows lately.

Get a clue, people. Stop reading the GOP version of the news, and tell it to us straight.

[rooboy]

11. Fox News is the channel that cried wolf... and nobody's listening. n/t

[Maraya1969]

13. The chairman should realize people do not want to hear the likes

of O'Reilly and Hannity anymore. They are so transparent as to their particular weird beliefs you cannot even begin to call them "news" reporters.

[grilled onions]

14. Where Is The Real News...

..with all news all the time? Not the constant babble of Hollywood-who is getting married,who's living with who...not the non news of the latest fashion trends or how to boil water--but the real news with issues you could sink your teeth into. There is a part of the population that is craving for such news--fair news--not leaning in favor of sponsors,lobbyists or political favors. We need a no nonsense studio too. We don't need those backdrops where you can see the morons in the background waving signs,showing their navels,acting like Bozos. We don't need the newscasters outside in director chairs worrying more that their hair is out of place then telling is what is going on 'round the world. We need less time wasted while on the air. Eons ago a newscaster would read his script and get right to the news. Today you have a social club where the news people talk to each other about what they did over the weekend,a new tie, a new hairdo--this is not news!! Also there are certain news shows that actually read the news to the viewer by reading the story from a newspaper. If I wanted my news from a paper I would get one(or read on line). I don't want to "see" the news this way. Am I the only one that has similar gripes?????

[alcibiades_mystery]

15. I think they're all going down because people are sick to death of spin

It's a never ending stream of bullshit from ALL the political shows; only TDS aqnd Colbert really call them on it. The vast majority of what passes as political discourse in America, from all sides of the aisle, is trite, condescending, over-researched, over-practiced, utterly inauthentic, positively stupid, and completely detached from reality. And the more that reality encroaches, the more intensely it asserts itself into every nook and cranny of lived experience, the more these shows - all of them, yes ALL of them - take on the appearance of what they really are: nonsense. Who can sit through even 20 minutes of O'Reilly, or Hardball? Nobody with a lick of sense, I'll say that. They are utterly devoid of any value, produced by poor charlatans for poorer imbeciles. I'm increasingly convinced that the so-called "political junkies" of America are actually the least well-informed, and perhaps even the least political, in the true sense of the term. And that goes for people on this board as well. They have what they think is the "right" information, but usually it's just spin, and spin they like. It was once said that you knew the French Revolution was in the offing not when the minor politicos of Paris wrote their tracts, but when the local peasants stopped lifting their hats to a passing aristocrat. The lesson might hold for America as well. It is not the politicos or political junkies that lead the way: they're all watching the wrong ball, bickering like petty officials over the content of last night's Hardball, or some other such idiocy.

[Bush_MUST_Go]

16. Watching BBC World News reminds us that American media is pure crap.

[951-Riverside]

20. Watching CNN International also reminded me of that too

[Javaman]

21. The wind has changed in this country and fucks just don't understand...

why their bullshit propaganda water carrying for moron* double speech isn't working any longer.

Rather than hiring Progressives to champion the new feeling in this country, they will continue with their same old tired rhetoric until it drives them into the ground.

This is the basic difference to those who survive and those who die in TV land, those who survive, listen to their audience, those who die, dictate to their audience.

We are watching the slow death spiral of fucks news. Couldn't happen to a better bunch of mother fuckers.

[daleo]

22. The commercials are part of it too

I don't know about Fox, but I timed CNN once. Here is the breakdown of a typical half hour:

News 8 minutes
Commercials 3 minutes
News 3 minutes
Commercials 2 minutes
News 6 minutes
Commercials 2 minutes
News 4 minutes
Commercials 2 minutes
---------------------
News 21 minutes, Commercials 9 minutes.

[underpants]

23. You know what that means.. MORE LEG!!!!

:bounce:


Up go the hemlines!!!

[Old and In the Way]

25. Roger, you need new lipstick for the pig.

A more vibrant red, white, and blue should do the trick.

[KurtNYC]

26. This could be bad news for Gary Condit

perhaps they will start insisting that he killed that blond girl in Aruba. Or they may try digging up Terry Schiavo and getting Frist to say it is medically possible to reanimate her.

[newspeak]

28. if Faux wants to improve their ratings

then they'll need to do more UFO stories, Ghost stories or some other sensationalized shite. "I was the bride to a wolfman", or "women who are abducted by sex crazed aliens." They're already over the top with their faux reporting, may as well go all the way. Now I'd tune in just for a good laugh. Or, maybe they could do one of those Geraldo specials like Capote's vault. Or another one of those Roswell dissections. I'm sure they can pull some bogus info out of their butt, cause they've been doing that for awhile now.

[Up2Late]

29. Fox Sucks! eom.

:argh:

[SoCalDem]

30. People have "battle fatigue"... They are just plain tired of

being lied to AND of being shown the awful truth, as well..

Even the most "foxified" viewers are probably getting the message after 5 years....Things are NOT better..we are MORE divided than ever and even those folks are probably getting weary too..

and it's summer time.. Perhaps people have found different things to do, besides gluing themselves to Fox news..

The thing that's really funny about their ratings dip...they have forced FOX down everyone's throts...even at grpcery stores , offices and restaurants...and people are more tired of them than ever :)

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

31. Let us not forget...

... Study: Fox News Viewer's Most Uninformed / Ignorant on Iraq War http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/special_packages/iraq/6918170.htm http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1072 http://mediamatters.org/items/200512130002

[rocktivity]

32. Translation:

Production values are slipping, and bookers aren’t competitive enough, relying too heavily on the same pool of faces and settling for authors or actors after they’ve already been on CNN or … gasp … MSNBC.

People are tired of being manipulated by the production values, and bookers are forced to recycle guests because they'd RATHER got the CNN or MSNBC before Fox--if they want to go there at all!

:headbang:
rocknation

[Yavin4]

33. They're Losing The Young Demo 25-54 Because Young People

are not as conservative. They tend to be more open-minded than previous generations about issues, and it's young people who are most against this war.

[samsingh]

35. i hope fox news takes the entire news corp into bankruptcy

[MagickMuffin]

36. The #1 A-Hole has spoken

Commenting through a spokesman last week, Ailes left no doubt: "Anyone who displays launch-type intensity will continue to have a job at Fox News. Those who don’t will not. And that includes talent."

So, what does his quote really mean?

That if you don't launch more RW BS, then you are outta of job?

Will be interesting to see who is the first to go!