When we pull back the curtain, the evidence that Fox News created and sustained our current political moment appears rather circumstantial.
Recently, The New York Times purported to explain “How Rupert Murdoch’s Empire of Influence Remade the World.” This followed The New Yorker’s investigation into the “making of the Fox News White House.”
Like the Wizard of Oz, Roger Ailes inflated the image of his own potency and his network’s power. Recent events, such as the election of Donald Trump, apparently confirm the network’s influence. Similarly, in 2012, Mitt Romney won the Republican nomination despite not being supported by Fox News’ management. Those who point to Fox’s kingmaking powers seem to have forgotten that Rupert Murdoch strongly promoted Rick Santorum that year.
Journalists and scholars underplay the reality of Fox News’ small audience. On an average night in 2018, Fox News attracted about 2.4 million prime-time viewers.But the U.S. population in 2018 was approximately 327 million, which means that 99.3 percent of Americans weren’t watching Fox News on any given night.
With numbers like these, it’s no surprise that Fox News often chases its viewers rather than leading them. In other words: It’s more likely that Fox News caters to the preexisting partisanship of its small but loyal audience than that Fox News actually changes anybody’s mind. For example, as historian David Culbert revealed, when President Roosevelt wanted his most vociferous broadcast critic – a CBS commentator named Boake Carter - removed from the American airwaves, he simply had his press secretary instruct Carter’s sponsor and network to cancel the program.
It’s likely that similar conversations now regularly occur between President Trump and several Fox News figures.
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