Trump has gleefully denounced as “Concast”), corporations that could face intense public pressure not to associate with Mr. Starting a new network requires approval from cable distributors like Charter Communications and Comcast (which Mr. Trump sustained in the wake of the riots - and his abandonment by allies and donors - has severely hurt his ability to get a viable Fox News competitor off the ground. Industry experts say the reputational damage that Mr. Trump TV, which could have posed a significant challenge for Fox News in 2021, now appears less of a threat. Murdoch and his son Lachlan, who is the executive chairman of the Fox Corporation, had no comment, a representative said. After this week’s Capitol riots, the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal made a case for Mr. In November, another Murdoch organ, The New York Post, proclaimed Mr. Trump, he has other platforms on which to do so. Murdoch ever feels the need to distance himself more formally from Mr. For all of the hype over Newsmax, its ratings have fallen back from postelection highs.Īnd if Mr. Hannity are also on long-term deals, according to a person with knowledge of the network’s inner workings. Ingraham revealed a new multiyear contract in December, and Mr. Only CBS and NBC ranked higher.įox News’s biggest stars, meanwhile, are staying put. That was not just cable news it was all of television. But in 2020 as a whole, Fox News was the third-most-watched network in the country in prime-time on weekdays. The network’s ratings fell after Election Day, and it has lost badly to CNN in the ratings since the riot at the Capitol. You need a defender.” It was not hard to deduce whom he had in mind.Īs repulsive as such rhetoric may be to liberals, it is part of a formula that has rarely failed Fox News, which remains the profit engine of Mr. “Tens of millions of Americans have no chance they’re about to be crushed by the ascendant left,” Mr. Trump’s increasing isolation within his own party, Fox News is finding a path forward: sympathize with the grievances of a Trump-adoring audience that has finally acknowledged its tribune has fallen. Now, in the wake of violence at the Capitol and Mr.

The prospect of Trump TV, a rival media venture led by the president himself, also loomed. 7.Įxecutives at Fox News are unfazed by the lamentations of liberal critics, but the defection of conservative viewers to fringier pro-Trump outlets like Newsmax was more concerning. Trump’s lies and the reporting on Fox News, which declared Joseph R. But privately, senior figures at the network acknowledged a struggle to thread the needle between the president’s bogus ( and possibly defamatory) fraud claims, and the demands of an audience that was increasingly confused at the discrepancies between Mr. Carlson and Sean Hannity spoke darkly of possible voter fraud and irregularities.

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