Fox News Channel has been experiencing severe technical difficulty with the new network policy and transfer of network power from Rupert Murdoch to his sons, who now are the primary network management officials. Rupert Murdoch is apparently more focused on other business ventures and has turned the reins over to his obviously heir-apparent sons. The network has enjoyed the top position in the ratings during the O’Reilly and Sean Hannity time slots for many years. While their competitors at the corporate news media networks have followed the many accusations against Donald Trump, even down to his ice cream consumption pattern, the Fox News Network has routinely dismissed the scandal accusations as an orchestrated farcical conspiracy from a Deep State bureaucratic careerist coalition along with the establishment careerists in Congress and have given the so-called “scandals” little if any merit.
Since the replacement of Bill O’Reilly with Tucker Carlson, who by the way previously worked for MSNBC in the same capacity, both MSNBC and CCN have received boosts in their ratings for the same slot. The numbers for Carlson’s show have since seen a rebound, but the chaos that has occurred at Fox News Channel in the past two months has still taken its ratings toll. However, both Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network have refused to fall in line with even attempting to investigate the claims of Congress and the intelligence community that continue relentlessly, regardless of the absence of one iota of material evidence. While the left claim that they are using the court of public opinion, apparently thinking it requires no proof, the advocators of the right political divide that are the heart of Fox News reporting consider any investigation into the claims as a frivolous waste of time on a false narrative that holds zero merit.
CNN and MSNBC have still continued to see increased ratings numbers, potentially riding on the ratings gift delivered to CNN with an ill-thought Twitter post by Kathy Griffin, that amounted to a publicity stunt gone horribly bad, after supporters of Trump were eager to see what CNN’s response would be regarding their former employee. CNN has since released Griffin from her employment on the New Year’s Eve special she has co-hosted for several years. At the time of the Twitter post of Griffin holding a replica of Trump’s severed head she was still a CNN associate, but apparently all she truly severed was her career. The continuous coverage of the British bombings have now taken the oxygen out of the air for other stories, or “scandals” such as Trump withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Accord, and the ratings shift now appears to be stabilizing to some degree.
But, Fox News still faces a dilemma with respect to the advertisers that left due to O’Reilly’s indiscretions, as some of those ad buyers are potentially now focused on Sean Hannity. Even though Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network alike are both still refusing to provide in-depth investigation into Trump’s Russian insinuations by the Washington establishment, which Trump calls “the Swamp,” there is still a distinct possibility that the news channel will continue to see a decline in ratings until the issues with Donald Trump can be legally established as fact or farce, with a decline in advertising dollars being a definite probability.
It would be a mistake not to mention that all of the news networks vie for the position as the “go to” network for the sitting presidential administration, regardless of which side of the duopoly holds the majority of power in government. Although they all claim to be neutral in issue coverage, with the exception of MSNBC that is boastful of being partial to the left, the real truth about all national television news channels is that they are effectively all 527 advocates for their particular political leaning. And, even though Trump won the Republican nomination, he is by no means a member of either party. Trump’s “go to” network is his own Twitter account, and as long as it is the primary means of communicating his message, the ratings numbers will be continually volatile until a morsel of evidence can be found regarding the “scandalous” claims against him.