Fox News is not for liberals

Fox News is not for liberals

Greg Smedberg, Staff writer

Liberal: favorable to progress or reform.

Conservative: holding to traditional attitudes and values and cautious about change or innovation.

The idea of liberalism is something that is quite appealing to most people who live up north. It is the way society is evolving, and almost nothing can stop what is happening. Many say that Springfield is rapidly becoming one of the most liberal places in the country.

In comes Fox News Channel. The 17-year-old news channel has become a powerhouse in cable news ratings and yields a considerable amount of power within the world of conservative politics. Despite the likes of Massachusetts and Connecticut being predominantly liberal states, ratings have shown that a conservative news channel like Fox News still has pull within a liberal community. Lets take a look at five crucial facts about Fox News Channel, as noted in a recent study by the Pew Research Center’s Journalism Project.

Fox News was very tough on the last Democratic candidate for President. Towards the end of the last presidential election in 2012, then-candidate Barack Obama received far more negative coverage compared to the Republican candidate Mitt Romney. Seeing as that Fox News is a predominantly conservative news channel, these statistics really should not shock most people. Especially since MSNBC was even harsher on the Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, with 71% of its coverage being negative in tone towards the candidate compared to Fox News’ 46% being negative in tone towards Barack Obama.

The Fox News audience skews more ideological than that of its two main competitors. Sixty percent of Fox viewers describe themselves as conservative, while 23% are moderate, and 10% being liberal. This is compared to CNN with 32% being conservative, 30% moderate, and 30% liberal and MSNBC being 32% conservative, 23% moderate, and 36% liberal.

Fox News is expensive. Cable subscribers pay about 89 cents per month for the Fox News Channel. Cable news channels generate their revenue from license fees. Fox aggressively negotiated its licensing fees and now claims one of the highest average rates per subscriber.

That being said, Fox News leads in viewership among cable news channels. Viewership as a whole has declined 6% within the last year, but with 1.7 million viewers each evening Fox News draws a bigger audience than CNN, MSNBC, and HLN combined. It passed CNN in 2002 for overall viewership and has not looked back since.

Fox News also outspends its rivals. In 2012, the most recent election year, Fox News spent $820 million on newsgathering. This being compared to CNN ($682 million), and parent NBC News ($240 million.)

What does this tell us? USA Today recorded that in 2012, Massachusetts was placed as the most liberal state in America. Yet Fox 25, the Boston division of Fox, reports that viewership since the 2012 election has increased.

AIC senior Britt Flynn said he appreciates Fox news for its conservative slant.

“Living in New York all my life in a fairly conservative household, I know that Fox News is usually the news channel to watch,” Flynn said.

The key to the viewership ratings are the moderates. One who does not consider themselves liberal nor conservative. Not only do moderates hold the key to ratings, but they also hold the key to winning an election. How can they be persuaded to vote for a certain candidate?

Fox News continually brings in the ratings for said moderates. It just goes to show that despite the community we live in, and its dominant beliefs and views, an outlier can still stand strong. In this case, that would be a conservative news channel in a liberal society up north.

It now comes down to you, a college student here at American International College located in the most liberal state in America reading this article, to choose what exactly you want to view and support.

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