The channel was created by Australian-born American media mogul Rupert Murdoch in 1996 to appeal to a conservative audience, hiring former Republican media consultant and CNBC executive Roger Ailes as its founding CEO.[12][13] It launched on October 7, 1996, to 17 million cable subscribers.[14] Fox News grew during the late 1990s and 2000s to become the dominant United States cable news subscription network.[15] By September 2018, 87 million U.S. households (91 percent of television subscribers) could receive Fox News.[16] In 2019, it was the top-rated cable network, averaging 2.5 million viewers in prime time.[17][18][19] Murdoch, the executive chairman since 2016,[20][21] said in 2023 that he would step down and hand responsibilities to his son, Lachlan.[22]Suzanne Scott has been the CEO since 2018.[23]
Fox News has been involved in multiple controversies. It has been identified as engaging in biased and false reporting in favor of the Republican Party, its politicians, and conservative causes,[24][25][26] while portraying the Democratic Party in a negative light.[27][28] Researchers have argued that the channel is damaging to the integrity of news overall,[29][30] and acts as an expanded part of the Republican Party.[27][31][32][33] Multiple critics, commentators, and researchers have characterized it as a propaganda organization.[a] The channel has knowingly endorsed false conspiracy theories to promote Republican and conservative causes.[34][35][36]
After Dominion Voting Systems initiated a defamation lawsuit against Fox regarding their reporting on the 2020 presidential election, Fox's internal communications were released. The communications showed that its presenters and senior executives privately doubted claims of a stolen election, while Fox continued to broadcast such claims.[37] Other communications showed Fox CEO Suzanne Scott stating that fact-checking such claims would alienate Fox viewers.[38] Fox settled the lawsuit in 2023 by agreeing to pay Dominion $787.5 million and acknowledging the court ruling that Fox had broadcast false statements about Dominion.[39][40]
According to Pew Research Center, in 2019, 65 percent of Republicans and people who lean Republican trusted Fox News.[41]
^Jamieson, Kathleen Hall; Cappella, Joseph N. (February 4, 2010). Echo Chamber: Rush Limbaugh and the Conservative Media Establishment. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19539-860-1. Archived from the original on June 12, 2020. Retrieved May 11, 2018. We do this to illustrate the ways Fox News, Limbaugh, and the print and web editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal play both offense and defense in service of conservative objectives. As these case studies will suggest, the big three reinforce each other's conservative messages in ways that distinguish them from the other major broadcast media, CBS News, NBC News, ABC News, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC and major print outlets such as the Washington Post and New York Times.
^Skocpol, Theda; Williamson, Vanessa (September 1, 2016). The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 5, 8, 86, 123, 125, 130–140. ISBN978-0-19063-366-0. Archived from the original on May 14, 2020. Retrieved May 11, 2018. ... the challenge of spreading and germinating the Tea Party idea was surmounted with impressive ease because a major sector of the U.S. media today is openly partisan—including Fox News Channel, the right-wing 'blogosphere,' and a nationwide network of right-wing talk radio programs. This aptly named conservative media 'echo chamber' reaches into the homes of many Americans ... Towering above all others is the Fox News empire, the loudest voice in conservative media. Despite its claim to be "fair and balanced", multiple studies have documented FNC's conservative stance ... Fox News's conservative slant encourages a particular worldview.
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