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Non Gaming Discussions => Off-Topic => Topic started by: fastson on March 29, 2003, 05:33:03 PM
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http://media.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4634141,00.html
Fox challenges CNN\'s US ratings dominance
Jason Deans
Thursday March 27, 2003
The Guardian
The first Gulf war was the making of CNN but this time around its arch rival Fox News may win the ratings battle.
Fox News has proved more popular than CNN over the first five days of the Iraq war, according to US audience figures.
This will confound the expectations of many pundits, who thought CNN, with its superior international newsgathering operation, would overturn the ratings lead Fox News has enjoyed for the past year.
Fox News, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch\'s News Corporation, has attracted an average of 4 million viewers each day since the conflict began, rising to 5.6 million during evening prime time.
CNN\'s average has been 3.6 million, with 4.4 million tuning in during prime time.
"I think it\'s a pretty big surprise," said Erik Sorenson, the president of MSNBC, the third most popular news channel in the US with an average of 1.7 million viewers.
"People thought CNN would win, at least in [the] early stages [of the war]. One of the executives there said it would own the story and I don\'t think it does," Mr Sorenson added.
However, CNN claims it has more viewers watching overall - its total reach of 90 million viewers during the first five days of the war compares favourably with 67 million for Fox News.
The reach figure is a measure of the cumulative total of viewers who watch a channel, even if only for a few minutes, during any given period.
The higher reach figure suggests although more people are watching CNN, Fox News viewers stay with the network for longer.
Fox News\' success during the war so far suggests its rightwing, pro-war stance may be more in tune than CNN with public opinion in the US, where a majority back the war.
CNN takes a more traditional broadcast news approach, placing an emphasis on objectively and balanced reporting in contrast to Fox News\' more partisan agenda.
The Murdoch-owned network\'s pro-war stance has plunged Fox News into controvesy.
Last year the Fox News chairman, Roger Ailes, was criticised after it emerged he sent President George Bush a note immediately after the September 11 attacks offering him advice.
Mr Ailes, a former Republican strategist, urged President Bush to take a tough stance against terrorism.
Fox News\' dramatic news presentation - which comes with terror alert updates and an American flag in the corner of the screen - is striking a chord with the American public.
The AOL Time Warner-owned news channel is considered to have a more liberal voice.
Fox News\' coverage tends to be more uplifting, emphasising the positive and trying to raise morale, according to Robert Thompson, professor of media and popular culture at Syracuse university.
"The Fox view is a useful one to have out there. It\'s not as if they are hiding it or pretending it\'s not there," Mr Thompson told Associated Press.
It is also extremely aggressive in chasing ratings. Last year Fox News took the unusual step of sending former daytime host Geraldo Rivera to cover the search for Osama bin Laden in Tora Bora, Afghanistan.
Audience figures have rocketed for all three leading US news channels since the war began.
Fox News\' audience was up by 379% compared with the same week last year, while CNN has enjoyed a 393% ratings boost and MSNBC is up by 651%.
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The little I\'ve seen of Fox News was pretty laughable, they seemed lacked any form of objectivity.
More like an entertainment channel for the pro-war folks than a real newschannel if you ask me.
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Haven\'t seen any Fox News so I can\'t judge. Sounds like they\'re doing a good job though. I watch CNN for about 1.5 hours a day and they have lousy war coverage.
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Nice post fastson...
I watch FOX all of the time and I like the way they have been covering the war. I tune into CNN at times but I don\'t really like their coverage as much. And I can\'t stand Wolf Blitzer.
Even before the war started I always watched FOX news. They just seem to hold my interest longer than the other news stations. Just like the article said.
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I flip between the three. Usually end up on Fox more than the others...
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I stick with MSNBC mostly.
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i prefer cnn, i like some of their indepth reporting alot, another good news channel is "sky news", tho i find my self watching more of "al-jazeera" or "abu-dhabi news channel" the most, coz they show alot more stuff than any of the american or british news channels.
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I remember a few days ago when Fox was reporting that two Al-Jazeera reporters were barred from the New York stock-exchange-whatever because of their war coverage and how Al- Jazeera said it was hypocritical due to Iraqi POWs being shown on CNN and the Fox news anchor reporting this and seeming professional and objective made a short angry little rant along the lines of "Oh yeah, at least CNN isn\'t parading their corpses around!" I\'m not well acquainted with Fox, so far all I know, it could have been a show like the O\'Reilly Factor or something and not a typical objective news broadcasting program, but it seemed more like the latter. I thought it was pretty funny.
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I like BBC myself. War isnt the topic 24/7 and they are much less biased vs cnn and fox.
Out of fox and cnn..Ill hit fox first/
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MSNBC is my usual liking..
CNN is always on though, although its a bit chunky, I can get some information.
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I watch BBC News 24 or Sky News.
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BBC and Sky for me (and Rapport, Aktuellt, Nyheterna our own news channels).
Sometimes CNN, but Im not fully satisfied with their coverage.
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all thanks to this man. I agree he has the best news show on television
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CNN is too liberal, Fox is too conservative, MSNBC is just about right. I usually go with them.
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Originally posted by Clowd
all thanks to this man. I agree he has the best news show on television
I think this might be the guy I was talking about.
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I prefer Fox News over MSNBC and CNN. Yes, it has a conservative leaning bias with all of their commentators. But, IMO, they are more "fair and balance" then the then the liberal leaning bias of CNN and MSNBC which pretty much quiets conservative views (though MSNBC is trying to out fox Fox by getting all these conservatives. They are still relatively conservative? Nooooo...liberal [edit] correction).
Now, recently I haven\'t been watching any of the coverage on any of the stations. 24/7 of the war is a bit much IMO. Still, any news channel I watch would be Fox News.
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Fox isnt so bad, i just wish Bill Oriley and Sean Hannity(Sp?) would stay off my tv screen so I didnt feel like punching it :-P
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Wow, more people like Fox in here than I thought. My wife and I watch Fox 95 percent of the time.
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I can\'t believe they think CNN is objective. Oh well. I tend to read up on CNN and FOX online, but I trust CBC more than either.