Why do people watch Fox News?

[holiday]

It's the most watched news channel right?

But I do not believe that our country is conservative. Any polls you see of today's issues it is clear that most americans are center-left. So why is Fox News so popular? Why do they have the ratings?

[KittyWampus]

1. because when you are stuck in line or a waiting room, it's a diversion. Because it's free on cable

because they package things very slickly.

[Kingofalldems]

2. Blondes with short skirts

[madmax]

3. I don't know

but, I've noticed in places like Chili's and the like there is at least one tv tuned into fox. The others sports events or news. :shrug:

It drives me crazy because I hate both :evilgrin:

[safeinOhio]

7. For places like Chili's

http://www.makershed.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=MKCE1

for $18.00 you can drive them nuts.

[madmax]

40. Leave it to DU

That's so cool. :rofl: It's worth 18 bucks just to mess with some heads ;)

[safeinOhio]

4. Most people are to busy watching Comedy Central,

reading news papers online and books. FOX gets the rest.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

5. Two types of people:

1. Conservatives who swear up and down there is a liberal media and therefore turn to Fox News as their sole source of "information", just as Murdoch had intended it to be marketed.

2. Train wreck loving liberal masochists who loathe it, but cannot look away. (I've occassionally fallen victim to this mentality.)

[Bill McBlueState]

6. hardly anyone watches it

But Fox's "hardly anyone" happens to be larger than CNN's "hardly anyone."

Most people have more important things to do than sit around watching cable news all day.

[KingFlorez]

8. People like trash talk television

And I'm guessing more conservatives sit around all day watching it, while the more left to moderate people are out actually working and don't have time to watch television.

[NorthCarolina]

22. +1. and Soap Operas

The highly scripted, trash talk soap opera known as Fox *News*.

[HughBeaumont]

9. The angry, grizzled, fossilized sect who time has marched away from is larger than one thinks.

That's their audience: the angry grizzled, the racists, the reactionaries, the teabaggers and the scared. Easily led, still fighting the Cold War, blaming all of the wrong people for their problems.

[Rabrrrrrr]

10. But we have to look at real numbers, not just adjectives. "Most watched", maybe,

but still a small percentage of the American Population.

[wellst0nev0ter]

38. Yeah, Even Nickolodeon Gets More Viewers Than FAUX

eom

[GoCubsGo]

11. Because they tell people what they want to hear.

At least where I live, Fox preaches to the choir. Around here, the politicians fight to prove they are "more conservative" than the other guy. I suspect that most of their viewership comes from here in the Southeast.

[JamesA1102]

19. Exactly!!!

The majority of FOX viewers are white middle class and these people don't want their beliefs challenged by facts. Instead they want to hear that their lot in life is not caused by them voting against their own economic interests for the last 30 years by voting for Republicans but it is caused by those damn liberals, minorities, the poor, feminists and illegal aliens.

[Echo In Light]

12. A sense of familiarity: if the perception is that EVERYONE does, then it's considered good/normal

Horrifying

[Rabrrrrrr]

13. Plus, the people who watch Fox aren't looking for news - they're looking for ideology confirmation

[theoldman]

17. Who would want to hear something that they disagree with?

Birds of a feather flock together.

[Echo In Light]

18. As in, your govt are NOT the "good guys."

[DrDan]

14. "News" - it really is funny - this morning they had a spot about

a woman that swallowed her earring . . . and it was news as it was shaped as a fleur de lis - she was a Saints fan and they were her lucky earrings.

Now THAT is news.

[Berry Cool]

23. Hey, Keith Olbermann had that on Oddball.

But he covered it last week. What took Fox so long?

[DrDan]

26. did he have an interview? faux scored one with the swallower

[lpbk2713]

15. Like rubberneckers at a bad traffic accident.

It's horrible but still has a fascination about it.

:rofl:

[ncguy]

16. The obvious answer

is that there are a lot of people who enjoy fox's programing. If we want to operate in the real world I think it pays not to minimize that fact.

I think the question then becomes, why are there so many people who like it? I think it does ourselves a disservice to reduce the answer to name calling.

I think the real answer is, in fact, change. Our country has experienced a huge amount of change over the last 80 years. Some of it good. Some of it not so good.I think fox caters to a group of people who react to what they percieve as bad change in a certain manner.

[stray cat]

20. Because DU is clearly not the majority opinion in America

[Echo In Light]

25. On some issues, sure - but that directly reflects decades of pro-corporate propaganda M$M

It would be interesting to analyze common views minus that substantial, far reaching component.

[RaleighNCDUer]

37. Neither is Fox.

Look at a pie chart - 1/4 is Fox, 3/4 is 5 other news providers, none of which is larger than 1/4 of the pie.

In Fox reality, they are the majority. In real reality, they are 25%, far from the majority.

[seabeyond]

21. it tells them what they want to hear. nt

[randr]

24. Perspective is needed

Faux may claim to be the most watched, and even if they are, the fact remains that only a small percentage of all American voters claim to watch the news on TV.
The number that I see coming up again and again is the fairly steady 26% that claim to be repugs.

[Ganja Ninja]

27. FOX is part of the basic cable/satellite package.

MSNBC is a premium channel. More people have access to FOX than MSNBC.

[CrispyQ]

28. Because Fox tells them who to blame for their lot in life.

They are a group of people who have played by the rules most of their life. Suddenly, things start to fall apart. They lose their good paying job. Even with health insurance they can't afford to go to the doctor. They find themselves underwater on their mortgage, even though the banker assured them this loan was a great deal & their property value would go up. Their kids are living in their basement because the kids can't find jobs, and on & on.

They are looking for someone to blame, because after all, they played by the rules, so things should be going great for them. Although some of their misfortune may simply be bad luck, a good share of it is due to bad decisions that they made. This is the same group of people who screech about personal responsibility to poor people, but when it comes to their own misfortune, they want someone else to blame. Fox provides that for them. It's the liberals fault. It's the feminists fault. It's the brown people's fault. It's anyone's fault but their own.

By providing them with someone to blame, Fox assures that they never reflect on who is really to blame - our corrupt system which is designed to look after the elite.

[Froward69]

39. Agreed Crispy...

but also to add that fox is not just on "basic" cable and in every "basic" programming package. they have begun buying other stations. like here in this market, fox 31 now owns Channel 2 both free to the watcher. while 31 caters to the over 40 crowd. 2 caters to the under 40 bunch. same message but peppered with hip and happening rock and roll packaging.

the funny thing is the music they play on 2 to go to and back from commercials (if they listened to the words) contradicts the message contained in the "news".

[CrispyQ]

41. I didn't realize they'd bought channel 2.

Some of the shows on 31 surprise me - House, Lie to Me - two really smart guys who think for themselves & challenge the status quo. These don't seem like shows that Fox would promote. Now, 24 - that fits my impression of Fox.

[Kingofalldems]

29. I wonder if Cheetos is a sponsor?

[burning rain]

30. (1) Desire of conservatives for a handhold & confirmation bias.

(2) Fox is justly renowned for their hard news and hot reporting:

[L. Coyote]

31. "the most watched news channel" is NOT saying much

They don't watch it for the facts! They watch it for the conservative viewpoint.

[surrealAmerican]

32. Look at the demographics of who watches television news ...

... it's a pretty good match for fox. There are certainly more Americans whose world view is the opposite of what you'll hear on fox, but those are largely people who don't watch tv news.

[COLGATE4]

33. First, because Fox plays directly to the over 55 demographics.

(I believe the average age of Faux viewers was in fact recently reported to be somewhere north of 65). This groups tends to be more conservative on the whole than younger age groups and Fox directly targets them (e.g. Beck and O'Lielly). Secondly, for soft core porn, lots of T&A. Tune in Fox at any time and see lots of interchangeable blond buxom short-skirted "announcers". In addition, watch shows like O'Reilly where he makes a point of running somewhat salacious clips under the guise of "explaining them" or "attacking them". Third, there is the group (30 percent or so, according to recent polls) of uber-right wingers who see their every fear vindicated 24/7 by fox (Beck). Finally, there is the group like myself who consider it necessary to see what the enemy is thinking, and so stomach Fox in small doses.

[ginnyinWI]

42. FOX caters to the old and the under-educated.

My parents are 79 and 81 and don't trust any other news. Life long republicans, FOX speaks to their biases and prejudices and anger at the world. They'd love to turn back the clock to the way things were in 1950.

The under-educated will be attracted by the bright shiny objects on FOX and not realize they are being sold a biased view. CNN also has the shiny objects but is probably a little more fair. And every time I turn on CNN they are running a commercial--but I digress.

[izzybeans]

34. I watch it for shits and giggles and there is a whole lot of shit on the channel.

...which makes me giggle.

[slackmaster]

35. I think you've been selective in what polls you have chosen to pay attention to

One example:

If most Americans are center-left, why do a majority of Americans still oppose same-sex marriage?

[RaleighNCDUer]

36. Fox watchers are concentrated on Fox -

non-Fox watchers are divided between CNN, MSNBC, and the standard networks (not to mention, Comedy Central, where I get most my news).

It's not that they have such a high viewership, it is that they have identified and targeted THEIR audience, and play to that audience. If they were to actually deliver news, fair and balanced, they would lose market because that's what the other providers at least occasionally try to do so there would be nothing to differentiate them from the rest.

[JoeyT]

43. I can only speak of the people that I know personally that watch it

like my dad and his family.
They're idiots and they want an echo chamber. Fox is the only channel that caters to their stupidity enough that they never experience cognitive dissonance. If they could find a channel that did nothing but play a looping tape of "You're absolutely right and everyone else is wrong. You're a patriot and they're terrorists." 24 hours a day, they'd watch that instead.

[Winterblues]

44. The same reason gawkers stop and gawk at an auto accident

Or a crowd gathers when a fight breaks out..It is exactly the very same response..

[Marr]

45. Because their audience doesn't want to think. They want to have their beliefs reinforced.

I think this holds true for much of the country, by the way, not just the right. Left, right, and otherwise, a lot of people don't seem interested in hearing other views, or reexamining their own. I do think it's particularly pronounced on the right, but that attitude is everywhere.

[cayanne]

46. Fox Tells them what they want to hear

It's a confirmation of their bigotry and hatefulness.

[PassingFair]

47. Exciting Graphics.

Here in my neck of the woods, FOX owns
the channel "2", putting it at the beginning
of the channel surfing wave.