Fox News will only suffer if it loses anti-establishment shine

Fox News Channel’s twentieth anniversary celebration has hardly gone as planned. The lofty ratings posted during the past twelve months have been overshadowed by high profile departures of on-air talent such as Megyn Kelly and Bill O’Reilly, and top executives Roger Ailes and now co-president Bill Shine. The media world now waits to see if the tumult chases the FNC viewers away.

Odds are that FNC will still be the leader in cable news ratings a year from now, but it will take some work.

{mosads}FNC came out of nowhere twenty years ago and passed CNN in ratings within six years. FNC won its niche in the broadcast news world by not being CNN, the CBS Evening News, ABC’s Good Morning America, or any other traditional outlet. Fox’ slogan, “Fair and Balanced” was a rhetorical stroke of genius that essentially accused mainstream media of being in the establishment tank. Viewers responded and the channel became a huge profit center for the Murdoch family and parent company, News Corp.

Viewers will observe closely to see if the purges at FNC are only to address the harassment culture that has been alleged to exist at FNC, of if perhaps the changes are designed to alter the editorial/content direction of the channel. Loyal FNC viewers will understand personnel changes to address workplace climate. They won’t stay put, however, if there is a sense the Murdochs want to join the media mainstream. Ultimately, the News Corp brass will decide to maintain the healthy profit flow from FNC. Journalism, after all, is still a business in the United States. 

Competing media outlets in both broadcast and print have delighted in reporting every allegation and every personnel upheaval at FNC. Honestly, the commotion at FNC is noteworthy to media insiders, but just not that newsy to most other Americans, who just want some news that affects their lives. Even at its prime time best, FNC gets just four million viewers. Hardly Super Bowl numbers. The departure of an FNC executive doesn’t change the life of a factory worker in Indiana.

Still, FNC needs to get out of the daily news cycle. Loyal FNC viewers want content, not controversy. FNC viewers have been quite willing to welcome new faces on to the channel. In fact, FNC saw ratings improvements when familiar talent such as Megyn Kelly and Greta Van Susteren departed. Same with Glenn Beck several years ago. Tucker Carlson has maintained much of Bill O’Reilly’s audience at 8 PM. That trend could be disrupted, however, should the channel keep playing musical chairs.

As a result, Sean Hannity has become the focal point of attention. He is the throwback to FNC’s roots. His departure now would fuel FNC viewer fears that the channel has lost its non-mainstream niche. Hannity is tight with the now-departed Shine, but Hannity would be smart to focus on his own future, which is more lucrative and powerful by staying at FNC than bolting for other venues. Hannity teased in his show last night that he might address his future at FNC, but then made no big announcement. That would suggest he is staying put.

The rumor mill in media circles is now filled with speculation that former FNC executives and talent will seek to create another news channel or website to compete for the Fox News audience. That would be a stiff challenge. The media landscape has changed greatly since FNC made its surprise entrance two decades ago. Any new cable channel would have an almost impossible task of getting carriage on cable distributors. In this era of cord-cutting, cable companies are looking to reduce prices and carriage, not expand with unproven channels. Further, the startup costs of such a venture today would be much higher than when FNC began. A Web-based initiative would likely be the only option for a venture of Fox refugees, but the Web is highly crowded and not likely to generate sufficient audience numbers to make a financial or content difference.

Ultimately, the main competition for Fox is itself. If the network could stop digging its own public relations holes, the audience would stabilize and the channel could get back to doing its “We report, you decide” thing.

Jeffrey McCall (@Prof_McCall) is a professor of communication at DePauw University.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.