Local Wendy's just installed a big screen TV!

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33. Actually, Fox paid many cable systems to carry its news channel when it first launched

Couple of different things going on:
First, back in the mid-1980s, Murdoch wanted to start a broadcast network to compete with NBC,CBS and ABC. As an anchor for that network, he wanted to purchase some stations, but to do that he needed to become an American citizen and he needed it done in a hurry. As you suggest, with a little "help" from friends in the Reagan administration, he got his wish and the way was cleared for the creation of the Fox network in 1986 or thereabouts.

Fast forward a decade to 1996. Murdoch decides to launch a satellite delivered news channel to compete with CNN. His naturalization as a US citizen is unrelated to this, since there are no foreign ownership rules governing cable networks. But he was having trouble getting on cable systems, so he offered major "launch" fees to systems that would add his channel to their line up. Around the same time that Fox News was launching, CNN was being sold, along with the rest of the Turner media services, to Time Warner. As part of a consent decree allowing that transaction to move forward, Time Warner agreed to carry a second news channel. Originally, it looked like that channel was going to be MSNBC (which also had just been launched out of the ashes of a channel called "America's Talking&quot . But after additional litigation, a settlement was reached that resulted in Fox News being added to the bulk of Time Warner Cable's systems over a five year period.

Fast forward again. During the Bush years, Fox News' ratings surge and it becomes a channel that most cable and satellite companies feel is a 'must have' channel (along with channels such as CNN, ESPN, etc etc). As the original carriage agreements come up for renewal, the shoe is on the other foot -- instead of being paid by Fox, cable and satellite companies now have to turn around and pay, dearly, to keep Fox News on their line ups. Fox (like other companies that own both broadcast and non-broadcast networks) also takes advantage of its right to demand payment for carriage of its broadcast network (with popular sports and entertainment programming) by bundling those rights with rights to channels like Fox News to further ratchet up the payment.