Fox News 'course correction' rankles some

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Politico:

As a white, male, middle-aged conservative talk radio host from Virginia, John Fredericks is something close to the Platonic ideal of a Fox News fan.

And until last year, he was one. But then Fox’s treatment of the Republican primary race — the presentation of Karl Rove as a political analyst despite his having “thrown in for Romney” and Sean Hannity’s clear ties to the Republican establishment — began to grate on him. So he changed the channel.

“I’ve gone from all Fox to no Fox, and replaced it with CNN, which I think right now is giving me a much fairer analysis of what’s going on,” he said. “I feel they’ve lost that independent conservative mantra that had drove people like me to them. I used to feel that I got it straight, and I got an independent conservative view. Now, what I get is some wholly owned subsidiary of the RNC [Republican National Committee].”

Across the Conservative Political Action Conference this year, there were similar grumbles among conservative activists that the cable channel was no longer speaking for them as it once did.

The grumblers were picking up on a strategy that has been under way for some time — a “course correction,” as Fox chief Roger Ailes put it last fall — with the network distancing itself from the tea party cheerleading that characterized the first two years of President Barack Obama’s presidency. Lately, Fox has increasingly promoted its straight-news talent in the press and conducted some of the toughest interviews and debates of the Republican primary season. Just last week, it hired the openly gay liberal activist Sally Kohn as a contributor.

All along, Fox watchers warned that it risked alienating conservative true believers as it inched toward the center.

Well, consider them alienated.

“To tell you the truth, a lot of conservatives see Fox News as being somewhat skewed on certain issues,” said Patrick Brown, who runs Internet marketing for The Western Center for Journalism, a conservative nonprofit that features stories questioning the president’s eligibility for office. “We actually did a poll recently that said, ‘Is Fox News actually conservative, or has it moved left?’ And some 70 percent of our readers thought it had moved left.”

“Left” is, of course, a relative term.

A casual Fox viewer might barely notice the changes since the network remains critical of the Obama administration and reliably conservative opinion voices, like Hannity and Bill O’Reilly, still anchor key spots in the Fox firmament. But the changes are there.

________

 

Maybe they really are worried about Media Matters digging up dirt?

[Argyle58]

These "changes" aren't really changes at all, they are just being noticed more now. FOX has always tracked with the Republican elite, which has, by and large, tended to be more "moderate" than conservative. The disdain that the MSM has held for FOX is its refusal to follow the trend to hide the faults of Democrat policies, not for its general Conservative reporting.

 

Having said that, I have found it distasteful and wrong headed for the general Romney trend that FOX has adopted. Romney is the one Republican in the race that can, and most probably will, lose to The "o" in a general election for the very reason that he offers no real comparison for voters to choose between.

[cudjo]

@Argyle58 -- agree Fox has always just seemed conservative compared to other networks. They have been for Mitt big time since before he even announced. I've tried very hard to like Mitt but just can't do it.

[Draggingtree]

Our local talk show host calls him mittens

[Valin]

Our local talk show host calls him mittens

 

I hated that in 08 when I was a supporter, and now that I am not I feel the same, I hate it.