Fox News is the most trusted news network in the United States, according to a new poll [.pdf] of 1,151 Americans conducted by Public Policy Polling (a polling firm with a mostly Democratic and progressive list of clients), the most trusted news network among Americans is FOX News, which was trusted by 49% of respondents (beating out CNN, MS-NBC, CBS, NBC, and ABC (though PBS was not included in the survey)). The pollsters conclude: “A generation ago you would have expected Americans to place their trust in the most neutral and unbiased conveyors of news,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “But the media landscape has really changed and now they’re turning more toward the outlets that tell them what they want to hear.”
posted by washburn on Jan 26, 2010 - 126 comments

Forty years before Fox, America had ABC, CBS, NBC and the DuMont Television Network.
posted by LinusMines on Jun 15, 2004 - 6 comments

Did Max Bickford get a v-chip implant? "...the FCC ruined television throughout the 1990s by allowing mega corporations and multinationals to gobble up TV networks and distribution outlets, including cable and satellite companies..." Now that the big corporations own the content, they obviously have the right to change it. It's capitalism, pure and simple, but it may also mean bad TV. Does the goverment have the right, responsiblity, or obligation to to re-regulate the industry, just so the quality of programming improves?
posted by bingo on Feb 15, 2002 - 14 comments

Phew, It's About Time! I'm sure CBS was starting to feel a bit left out. First, American Media gets Anthrax, then NBC, then ABC, . . . Imagine how bad it would've looked if CBS didn't get a letter. Or if FOX got Anthrax before CBS. Or, god forbid, WB or UPN. Anthrax equals significance. If you get it sent to you, you must be important enough to be a threat: newsworthy!
posted by jacknose on Oct 18, 2001 - 29 comments

How do you censor terrorists in the 21st Century? Bush has got networks to agree not to run raw bin Laden footage over fear of transmitting instructions. But how do you get every publication in the free world not to run the text of statements?
posted by darren on Oct 12, 2001 - 6 comments

We're getting some new cable channels in Canada, and one of them is PrideVision, the world's first gay, lesbian, and bisexual television network. Even ten years ago, would anyone have thought we'd someday see programmes like Closeted Hollywood, Dyke TV, Queer as Folk, and Metrosexuality on North American television? And as a category 1 service, Canadian cable companies are required to make PrideVision available as part of their digital service.
posted by tranquileye on Aug 31, 2001 - 14 comments

Television networks are changing their election night coverage techiques. Both NBC and CBS have announced their changes for how they cover national elections in the future so as to save face with the audience. If this was Japanese TV, they would have dropped the show producers in a vat of acid by now. Oh well.
posted by Brilliantcrank on Jan 4, 2001 - 11 comments