Liberal advocacy groups have long pushed for the likes of Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity to be forced off the air, depriving American conservatives of their sole source for right-wing political commentary — but not if Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott can help it.
In a candid interview with Variety, Scott insisted she “fully support[s]” the network’s primetime talent and won’t surrender to leftist boycotts and smear campaigns.
Undeterred
Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham represent the core of Fox’s highly successful opinion coverage, and each host has endured malicious attempts to ruin their careers and sabotage their ratings. But Scott, who took over as CEO last May, says that she values the input of viewers over the network’s naysayers.
“Our audience is deeply connected to our primetime shows,” Scott asserted. “We are the only ones with conservative talent in primetime. We believe in free speech. We fully support our primetime talent, and we’re not going to let the voices of the few impact our business.”
And it seems Scott has made the right call: even in the wake of multiple organized boycotts, Fox News’ primetime lineup continues to rule the roost. Last year was the cable network’s highest-rated primetime performance in its 22-year history, attracting 2.5 million primetime viewers, more than MSNBC and CNN’s audiences combined.
“We became No. 1 under President Bush. We stayed No. 1 under President Obama. We are still No. 1,” Scott told Variety. “My focus is on business.”
Fox News’ success has only improved following the conclusion of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and President Donald Trump’s apparent exoneration. While Carlson and Ingraham attracted record audiences last week, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow experienced her lowest-rated week ever.
Ratings rivalry
Unfortunately, Fox News’ distinction as the king of cable news has attracted more than just praise and plaudits. Liberal advocacy groups like Media Matters for America have organized demonization campaigns to drag the network’s reputation through the mud and discourage sponsors from advertisers on its shows.
The effort to take down Fox News personalities started long before Scott’s tenure. Last year, for instance, Media Matters created the website stophannity.com and purchased a plane to drag an anti-Hannity banner through New York City airspace.
Commenting on the aerial insult, Hannity said the media watchdog dislikes him purely because of his politics.
“There’s nothing that I did, nothing that I said, except they don’t like my positions politically,” he said. “They’ll try to ratchet up the intensity of their rationale. It does not justify an attempt to get me fired. And that’s what this is. This is a kill shot.”
In December, Carlson experienced an advertiser boycott after he argued that bringing undocumented immigrants into America would make the country “poorer” and “dirtier.” He was referring specifically to an interview earlier in the show wherein a Tijuana official complained about the mounds of trash and human waste left behind by a Central American migrant train, but the context was lost on social justice advocates who pressured sponsors to pull out from the 8 p.m. show.
However, Fox News executives stood by their man, writing in a public statement: “We cannot and will not allow voices like Tucker Carlson to be censored by agenda-driven intimidation efforts from the likes of Moveon.org, Media Matters and Sleeping Giants.” They went on to remind critics that, just a month earlier, Carlson’s family was intimidated at home by Antifa-affiliated vandals.
The bottom line
The bottom line, however, is that all of the left’s efforts to demonize and disparage Fox News haven’t affected the cable news channel’s bottom line. Marianne Gambelli, Fox Corp.’s president of ad sales, said that the boycotts have only had a temporary effect on the company’s ad revenue.
Americans are starving for an alternative to the dogmatic establishment media, and Fox News is a breath of fresh air in that regard. Advertisers come and go, but Fox News has attracted a loyal fan base that is here to stay.
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