The latest USA Today/Suffolk poll shows that only a third of Trump voters now consider Fox News as their “most trusted source of news.” That is down from 58 percent back in 2016. David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, was blunt: The switch from Fox to Newsmax and One America News Network (OANN) is “a seismic shift in the landscape of trusted news sources for conservatives.”
That shift has been coming for a long time. Careful observers were aware of the shift when Rupert Murdoch (a long-time member of the globalist Council on Foreign Relations) turned over control of Fox News to his sons, James and Lachland. James was also CFR, and when James stepped aside the odor of globalism remained under Lachland.
Pro-Trump viewers were upset when Fox News anchor Chris Wallace ganged up on Trump during a presidential debate with Joe Biden, clearly taking sides and exposing the network’s leftist and anti-Trump bias.
When Fox News called Arizona for Biden early, viewers were outraged.
Soon thereafter, following the contested presidential election, Neal Cavuto at Fox deliberately cut off White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany while she was reviewing the status of the investigation into voter fraud. What offended Cavuto, and exposed his bias, was her comment that Republicans wanted “every legal vote to be counted, and every illegal vote to be discarded.”
Cavuto took umbrage. Turning to the camera he said: “Whoa, whoa, whoa — I just think we have to be very clear. She’s charging the other side with welcoming fraud and welcoming illegal voting. Unless she has more details to back that up, I can’t in good conscience continue to show you this.”
Upon shutting McEnany down, Cavuto added, “That’s an explosive charge to make, that the other side is effectively rigging and cheating. If she does bring proof of that, of course, we’ll take you back.”
Viewers are finding new homes at Newsmax, OANN, OneNewsNow (ONN), JustTheNews.com and The Christian Post. In addition, viewership is up substantially at the Epoch Times, WorldNetDaily (WND), American Thinker, and The New American.
Perhaps the greatest beneficiary of the shift away from the CFR influence now obvious at Fox is Greg Kelly. He hosts Greg Kelly Reports on Newsmax TV in the vital weekday evening slot. Prior to the election, his audience barely registered at Nielsen Ratings, drawing only about 10,000 viewers in the coveted age 25-54 demographic, and just 100,000 viewers overall.
He now draws a million.
Fox has instituted its first major programming shift since 2017 in an attempt to stem the bleeding, to little avail. It’s learning that loyalty is hard to win and easy to lose. Changing faces isn’t likely to stem the outflow.
A warning to those beneficiaries: Your viewership will remain loyal as long as you remain true to your calling — that is, reporting the news without bias or subterfuge. Your viewers have learned their lesson. Stay on course, treat the reporting of the news respectfully, and your audience will remain steadfast. If you don’t, your new audience will find another home.
Related articles:
Collapse of Fox News Viewership Reflects Its Leftward Shift
Newsmax Viewership Gains Force Fox News to Reshuffle Its Programming
