For decades, Fox News thrived because the people behind it understood what their audience wanted and were more than willing to deliver: television news—or what Fox called news—from a populist perspective.
Fox is consistently the most-watched cable news channel, far ahead of competitors like MSNBC and CNN. That’s in large part due to people like Tucker Carlson, whose show “Tucker Carlson Tonight” has been one of the highest-rated in cable news. But on April 24, Fox announced that Carlson is leaving the network, and while no explanation was provided, it’s safe to say it wasn’t a lack of viewers.
Carlson’s departure came on the heels of Fox News’ $787.5 million settlement of the Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit over the network’s promotion of misinformation about the 2020 election. Dominion had cited claims made on Carlson’s program as well as on other shows as evidence of defamation, and Carlson was expected to testify if the case had gone to trial. The settlement reveals Fox’s biggest strength and weakness: the network’s incredible understanding of what its audience wants and its unrelenting willingness to deliver exactly that.
More Real Than Elites
I’m a journalism scholar who studies the relationship between the news industry and the public, and I’ve long been interested in understanding Fox’s appeal. As media scholar Reece Peck observes in his book about the network, Fox’s success is less about politics than it is about style. Fox’s star broadcasters like Carlson embraced an authenticity-as-a-form-of-populism approach and found enormous success.
They presented themselves as more “real” than the “out-of-touch elites” at other news organizations. Journalists have traditionally emphasized their professionalism and objectivity to earn audience trust and loyalty, while people like Carlson emphasized an us-against-them anti-elitism to earn it, where expertise is more often a criticism than a compliment.
Reporters surround Dominion Voting Systems lawyers during a news conference in Wilmington, Del., after the Dominion against Fox News defamation lawsuit was settled April 18, 2023. AP Photo/Julio Cortez
As Peck notes, Fox broadcasters present themselves as “ordinary Americans … challenging the cultural elitism of the news industry.” So the allure of Fox is not