Fox on the Horizon -- and Rising Fast, Says Media Critic
by Chad Groening
July 21, 2004
(AgapePress) - A media watchdog predicts that if trends continue, the Fox News Channel could challenge the "Big Three" networks in the news ratings within the next two years. The conservative media pundit believes people are tired of the liberal bias cast by ABC, CBS, and NBC.L. Brent Bozell is founder and president of the Media Research Center, which is based in Alexandria, Virginia, just south of the nation's capital. Bozell recently released Weapons of Mass Distortion: The Coming Meltdown of the Liberal News Media, which he claims makes "the most substantive case yet for the leftward bias of America's mainstream news organizations." Among the mediums discussed is television news.
Bozell says the Fox News Channel has already surpassed cable rival CNN because it lives up to its moniker: "Fair and Balanced." The MRC founder believes the other three major news networks -- ABC, CBS, and NBC -- are within sight.
"If there are steady gains, it is quite conceivable that by 2006, that Fox -- this little cable laughingstock of the media -- could be knocking on the door of the big three networks."
Bozell notes that even though Fox is not on the air in every region in America, its morning program, Fox and Friends, earlier this year had better ratings than its CBS counterpart, CBS Early Show.
"And the interesting thing is that the Early Show is on across the time [zones]; Fox and Friends isn't. And Fox hasn't saturated the market yet," he says. "Now the numbers have [since] gone down, but I think there are going to be steady gains."
In his book, Bozell makes the case that the major television, radio, and print news outlets not only distort the news, but try to dictate the national agenda. And he contends that the audience for liberal media outlets will continue to defect toward the emerging alternative news outlines that are more in tune for those individuals' perspective on the world. One reviewer says the book offers a "concise, easy-to-read portrayal of media bias without the vitriol that consumes many of today's popular commentary."
