Who Owns Fox News?
Fox News was created by Rupert Murdoch; but, it is now owned by the Fox Entertainment Group.
Fox News is a cable station that was created in 1996. It is primarily a conservative cable station, and usually supports Republican and conservative ideals, viewpoints, candidates, and opinions. However, the station denies that it promotes any one party, or one viewpoint. As of 2010, the channel is available to over one hundred million households in the United States, and even more households internationally.
Fox News was launched by Rupert Murdoch in 1996; but, as of 2010, Fox News is owned by the Fox Entertainment Group. This Fox Entertainment Group is a subsidiary of News Corporation.
The headquarters of Fox News is located in New York City, and most of the shows that air on Fox are broadcast from the New York studios.
Creation of Fox News
The station was created in 1985 when Rupert Murdoch announced that he wanted to start a news station which would compete against some of the three other big news stations—ABC, NBC, and CBS. He purchased six different television stations that were owned by Metromedia.
In July of 1985, Murdoch purchased fifty percent of Fox Filmed Entertainment, which was the parent company of 20th Century Fox. In January of 1996, Murdoch announced that he wanted the news station to be a twenty-four hour news station. After working at a twenty-four hour news station in Europe and seeing how successful it was, Murdoch believed that twenty-four news could be successful in the United States.
The station officially launched on October 7, 1996. When the station initially launched, it was only available to approximately ten million households. Furthermore, it wasn’t available to households in major cities such as New York or Los Angeles.
Initial Broadcasting at Fox News
Initially, during the day, Fox News ran twenty minutes single topic shows. For example, Fox News initially ran Fox on Crime and Fox on Politics during the day. At nighttime, Fox ran a series of opinion shows that would last either an hour or a half of an hour. Some of the initial opinion shows on Fox News were The O’Reilly Report, and The Crier Report. If a breaking news story occurred, Fox interrupted the programming with what was referred to as the “Fox News Alert.”
Fox News became available to more and more households when it paid cable systems eleven dollars per subscriber to distribute the network. This was unusual for a cable station, and it reversed the standard practice of viewers paying for the extra station that they wanted.
Programming at Fox News
On May 1, 2008 the station launched a high definition version of the station. As of 2010, the majority of programming on Fox News is available in high definition. Some of these programs include the following shows:
- Fox & Friends
- America’s Newsroom
- Happening Now
- The Live Desk
- Glenn Beck
- Special Report with Bret Baier
As of January of 2010, Fox News was the highest rated basic cable channel in primetime. In 2009, Fox News had the highest ratings of any cable news station, as well as the highest ratings in the history of the channel itself.
Controversy Concerning Fox News
Fox News has been accused of being a biased station, and individuals assert that the station promotes conservative ideas. This contrasts the slogan of the station, which is “Fair and Balanced.” A large percentage of individuals consider Fox News as “mostly conservative.” Since Fox News is a news reporting station, the fact that it might lean to the right causes individuals to question its objectivity.
Fox News has further been accused of misrepresenting facts in its reporting. The station has been accused of cropping quotes from President Obama and Vice President Biden. The station has also been accused of using quotes from individuals of out of context.