Fox News

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Fox News is the television news subsidiary of Fox Broadcasting Company, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. It provides news content both as a cable television channel and directly to Fox television broadcast stations.

Of the major U.S. television news providers (ABC News, CNN, CBS News and NBC News), it is seen as most conservative. It has been supportive of the Tea Party Movement and hosts the web servers for the 9-12 Project, created by Glenn Beck, among its most controversial opinion broadcasters.

Relations with Obama Administration

The Obama administration has expressed considerable displeasure with its coverage, and has suggested that it will block Fox from some news opportunities. Former White House communications director Anita Dunn said “We’re going to treat them the way we would treat an opponent,...As they are undertaking a war against Barack Obama and the White House, we don’t need to pretend that this is the way that legitimate news organizations behave.” Her comments were focused on opinion broadcasters; she said Major Garrett, Fox's chief White House correspondent, is fair in his reporting. [1]

Other networks, however, refused to participate without Fox. [2]

Leadership

Its president, Roger Ailes, has long experience in working for Republican Party (United States) candidates, beginning with Richard Nixon and most notably Ronald Reagan.

Senior vice president for programming, Bill Shine, said of the White House criticism, “Every time they do it, our ratings go up.”[1]

Michael Clemente, senior vice president for news, has made the point that there is a difference, in traditional media, between editorial and news content. He has directed that Garrett and other reporters will not appear on the most opinionated shows, although this does not always appear to apply to Bill O'Reilly.

Opinion broadcasting

Fox features a number of conservatively identified opinion broadcasters, including Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Mike Huckabee and Bill O'Reilly. Unquestionably, they draw excellent ratings, but the confrontational style of some has been questioned.

Beck is probably most controversial, and there are boycotts of his advertisers. Writing in The Atlantic, Conor Clarke does not see this as a free speech issue: "It seems to me that the right to free speech does not give you the right to massive corporate underwriting. Glenn Beck can defend "the white culture" and call Obama a "racist" in poverty and in private." Clarke said he can accept, however, the Fox statement that "'While the advertising boycott has generated substantial media coverage', Fox News said it has not impacted the network's revenues or Beck's audience. 'The advertisers referenced have all moved their spots from Beck to other programs on the network so there has been no revenue lost,'"[3]

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