At Fox, Rupert Murdoch Is Reportedly Stepping In To Right The Ship

[Zorro]

As the network’s ratings fall behind those of CNN, the nearly 90-year-old Fox cofounder is apparently taking a special interest in programming changes designed to get Fox back on top. Will it be enough?

From the Drudge Report’s online takeover and Rush Limbaugh’s radio dominance during the Clinton years to the rise of right-wing digital powerhouses like the Daily Wire and Breitbart News as opposing forces to Barack Obama, modern Democratic presidencies have typically seen outsize success for the era’s conservative media du jour. But with the country transitioning into the Joe Biden era, Fox News has not been able to capitalize on the current Democratic administration. For the first time in two decades, the network is losing the cable-news ratings war to its mainstream and left-leaning rivals. Fox’s streaks as the most watched cable-news network overall and in prime time ended in January; CNN is now the reigning ratings champ. Fox not only lost its throne, but it didn’t even place second, as MSNBC also averaged more viewers last month. This leaves Fox News in third place among monthly cable-news prime-time viewerships for the first time since September 1999.

The ratings slide hasn’t gone unnoticed by Rupert Murdoch, who cofounded the network, and his eldest son, Fox Corp. chief executive Lachlan Murdoch. “Rupert is watching to see what these interim moves can accomplish,” one source told The Washington Post. Fox News has responded to the slump by rolling out a swift series of programming changes, including moving Martha MacCallum from her prime-time slot and filling the 7 p.m. hour with yet another opinion show that features a rotating cast of hosts––presumably because Fox’s nightly conservative opinion shows have always been the network’s bread and butter. (Last month MacCallum’s show was bumped down to the 3 p.m. hour.) The network also reportedly laid off at least 16 staffers, including political editor Chris Stirewalt.

The Fox cofounder reportedly supported the dismissal of Stirewalt, who, according to the Post, “was laid off for his part in what Murdoch viewed as the mishandling of the network’s aggressively early—but ultimately accurate—election-night projection that Joe Biden would win the state of Arizona.” However, Murdoch told the Post that “Stirewalt’s leaving had nothing to do with the correct Arizona call by the Fox decision desk.” He added, “Lachlan, myself and [Fox News CEO] Suzanne Scott have complete confidence in [Fox News president] Jay Wallace.”

On Inauguration Day, when CNN led with an average of 7.9 million viewers and MSNBC brought in 5.3 million––with a respective 10 million and 6.5 million viewers tuning in for Biden’s address––Fox News lagged behind with an average of 2.2 million viewers in the same five-hour block. These numbers mark a 77% decrease for Fox when compared to the last Inauguration Day, when it rang in Trump's presidency by topping all cable and broadcast ratings with 8.8 million viewers throughout its coverage and 11.8 million during Trump's speech. On the day of the storming of the Capitol building, CNN had a record day and beat out its rivals with an average of 5.9 million viewers, while MSNBC followed with 4.5 million viewers on average. But only 3.4 million viewers on average watched Fox’s January 6 coverage.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/02/fox-news-rupert-murdoch-stepping-in

[OAITW r.2.0]

1. Sounds good. When really good stuff starts happening for the majority of Americans, you can explain

why it's bad for....???

[struggle4progress]

2. "Tonight! A Ouija Board discussion between Marjorie Greene and Julius Streicher!"

[Mike 03]

13. ...

[NNadir]

15. That is hilarious. N/t

[hatrack]

17. Bwa-hahhahhah!!!!

[Celerity]

20. +2

[SunSeeker]

3. Fuck Rupert Murdoch and his sinking ship.

[Blue Owl]

4. +1

Fuck him with a space laser

[EarlG]

5. It's not just viewers moving to Newsmax and OANN, it's also that the Republican base is spent

Key phrase from the article: "...modern Democratic presidencies have typically seen outsize success for the era’s conservative media du jour."

This makes sense. When your party is out of power, you're energized. You don't want to be walked all over by the party in power, and you want to throw out that ruling party as soon as possible.

On the other hand, when your party is in power it's harder to stay focused. You feel like you can take a break because you won the election, and now you can leave your elected officials to get on with it.

But now look at what Trump did. From the moment he announced his presidency he riled up his base into a frenzy. It turned out to be enough to get him all the way to the White House, but once he was elected, he kept them riled up. He had them foaming at the mouth all the way through the election, and then non-stop for the next four years, culminating in an ultimately humiliating attempt to overthrow the government.

They must be exhausted. Now that Trump has disappeared from the scene, it's no wonder they're tuning out in droves.

[LeftInTX]

6. The GOP is so crazy that they're the news!

Wanna watch crazy, go watch MTG on another station. Fox doesn't wanna show the GOP train wreck. Biden is too normal. All the conspiracy theories about China etc are old and worn out.

As the saying goes, "If it bleeds, it leads". And the GOP is bleeding.

[hatrack]

18. Beyond that, there's just not enough old angry white people any more . . .

.

[Bluesaph]

7. Grain of salt

When Hillary lost I couldn’t watch political TV for almost a year. I imagine that’s how MAGAts feel.

[lindysalsagal]

8. I think you're right. Biden's not sensational. No scandals.

No emotional payoff.

[regnaD kciN]

9. "...stepping in to far-right the ship, as usual..."

[blogslut]

10. Here's my (probably fantastical) theory on why FOX lost its grip on the ratings

Even among the network's most loyal viewers, I'm betting a majority of them are as locked-down as the rest of us. Like the rest of us, they're worried about COVID, the economy and the future. And maybe, just maybe, they're getting damned tired of Uncle Rupert's WALL OF FEAR© channel.

[Mike 03]

14. This is what I kept hoping for

That the Fox News people would finally become insatiably curious to find out why, if COVID is a hoax, why are so many people dying and being hospitalized? Might they just possibly, conceivably, change the channel?

[eShirl]

11. Fox's #1 series, Trump Trump Trump, got cancelled

And now their ratings are in the dump, dump, dump

[redstatebluegirl]

12. Trump will take credit for killing Fox.

His followers have just moved on to OAN and Newsmax.

[DeminPennswoods]

16. Fox News' audience split up

The cultists went over to Newsmax or OANN. A better metric of rw viewing would be to combine the audiences of those three cable news channels. Add to that that Biden's probably seen by these viewers as a non-threatening, old white guy, no real reason to tune in to Fox News.

[Maxheader]

19. The wingers have so abused us with shit for brain "leaders"

Maybe the country will go through an anti conservative

fad. Like to understand the country's colleges "young republican"

clubs attitude right now.

https://www.texastribune.org/2016/09/22/texas-college-republicans/

[Klaralven]

21. On an average day, each network is pulling about 1% of the population

Compared with social media, I'm not sure they matter anymore.