Don't let its success fool you: Fox News is a mess

Fox News Channel should not be struggling right now. It has just completed its 17th year as the most-watched cable news channel, and its third year as the most-watched channel in all of cable TV. It prints money for its owners, the Murdoch family, as part of a cable division that earns more than $1.5bn every quarter. And as the Chinese and North Koreans like to say, it’s as close to the White House as lips and teeth.

There’s also no doubt that it is lurching from one self-inflicted crisis...