Is Fox News' 30th Birthday Something to Celebrate?

Fox News (Right bias) marked its thirtieth anniversary on Wednesday, begging the question, is the achievement something to commend or condemn?

While one writer elated, "Fox News Channel can look forward to 30 more years. Or – who knows? – 200 more," another lamented, "For the good of the country and history, Fox News can—and will—lose."

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'Anything But' Fair And Balanced: "Fox News has spent the past 30 years airing a nonstop stream of bile, misinformation, bigotry, and stupidity," contended opinion writer Oliver Willis for Daily Kos (Left). Willis called the network a "unique beast" that is "not to be underestimated" and classified it as "arguably, the most vocal advocate of Republican war plans," a "misinformation clearinghouse for COVID-19," and "a global embarrassment in the aftermath of the 2020 election." He denounced Fox's influence on elections through its conservative bias and "vilif[ication]" of Democrats.

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Willis also wrote of the network's "death grip" on the Republican Party: "There's no better evidence for this than the number of Fox News figures, like Pete Hegseth, Jeanine Pirro, Dan Bongino, and Kimberly Figueroa, who have gone on to serve in the Trump administration" – a policy he said "makes perfect – and unethical – sense." He criticized, "Fox billed itself as 'fair and balanced,' but the network has been anything but."

'Vibrant, Colorful And Often Controversial': "Fox News Channel is 30 years young today, and America – and the world – will never be the same," wrote Steve Cuozzo in a more favorable opinion for New York Post (Right), which News Corp. notably owns. Cuozzo called Fox "a vibrant, colorful and often controversial foil to the liberal and leftist voices that dominate broadcast and cable news." He contrasted Willis in writing, "Alone among televised media, Fox News Channel's reporters and commentators shed doubt on the widely believed animal-spillover theory of COVID-19. They gave well-earned air time to Wuhan lab-leak proponents and stood their ground when assailed by The New York Times [Lean Left] and the rest of the mediasphere."

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While Willis accused Fox of smearing the left, Cuozzo framed the network as "routinely scoop[ing] its competitors on subjects they prefer to ignore." He contended, "[Fox] clobbers its rivals in the ratings and helps set the daily agenda in corridors of power from City Hall to Washington, DC, to the Kremlin."

For Context: Fox News Channel launched on October 7, 1996, under the leadership of Rupert Murdoch, establishing itself as the third cable news network in the world and juxtaposing CNN (Lean Left) as the first conservative 24-hour broadcast channel. Fox is now the most widely streamed cable news network, reaching over 60 million US homes and over 90 countries. It reached its widest-ever margin between CNN and MS NOW (Left) in late September.

In a rare moment of cross-partisan media solidarity, Fox joined CNN, MS NOW, ABC News (Lean Left), CBS News (Lean Left), NBC News (Lean Left) and Politico (Lean Left) in the White House press pool boycott in September, after the Trump administration banned CNN, MS NOW, and Politico over alleged slander and libel.

RELATED: Fox News Joins ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC in White House Press Pool Boycott | AllSides

Written by the AllSides staff (of humans). Learn more. Support our mission. Suggest an improvement to this summary. Image Credit: Nielsen; chart by Christine Wang/Axios; via Axios.