Fox News Launches a Huffpo for the Right

Roger Ailes really ought to send Matt Drudge a thank you note.

For years, Drudge has curated headlines for conservative readers in a way that makes it reflects their rabid, all-consuming hatred of LIBERAL MEDIA BIAS. But he never gave his readers what they'd clearly appreciate more than anything: a forum where they could vent their anger/paranoia/conspiracy theories and argue with each other. That omission leaves Drudge-ophiles with no option but to carry on their discussions in the woefully overtaxed comment sections of other websites.

It's a gaping hole in the market, and Fox News is seeking to fill it with The Fox Nation, a news-and-commentary site that launched today. Fox's Bill Shine says the site is meant to be "a mix between the Huffington Post and Drudge" -- meaning the ideology of Drudge grafted to the community-fueled stickiness of Huffpo, whose success owes much to its obsessive commenter base.

Drudge and Huffpo are, of course, the two biggest standalone news sites on the web. There aren't a lot of parties that could plausibly claim to challenge them, but Fox News is one of them. It has the marks of an instant hit.

Or should that be hit job? While Fox News continues to cling to its "Fair and Balanced" mantra, if only to enrage its critics, The Fox Nation is less coy about its ideology. A few of the headlines on the site right now:

"Affirmative Action for Muslims in the White House?"

"Gore left lights on during 'Earth Hour'"

"Huffington Post to rummage through your trash"

"Limbaugh ratings skyrocket after Democrat attacks"

"CNN reporter arrested after climbing on dike"

Comments

[robert99:]

I can't stand FOX news, personally, but that's because I prefer to think for myself, rather than have my opinions fed to me through the idiot box. That said, I don't like the rest of the liberal media for the same reason. They all have their agendas to push, and I'd rather they didn't push them on me. However, one thing I can say for FOX news (and Rupert Murdoch) is that it's rise from the ashes has been amazing. Murdoch, the conservative-leaning media mogul, saw a need for a strong, vitriolic right wing source of 'news' for the conservative crowd, and he answered that need with FOX. Since FOX is already viewed as the right's main source of... power... in society, I would not be surprised in the least to see FOX's online push become incredibly successful.

If I were to buy one and only one media stock to hold for 20 years, it would probably be NWS.

As an aside, I cannot fathom how one can watch FOX news and buy the whole 'Fair and Balanced' bit.

Mar 31 04:36 AM

[JerseyMike:]

I know the left hates Fox and thinks that is is a right wing soap box. But, every review of major news outlet finds that Fox is the most balanced of them all. In our present culture of left leaning news outlets, if one presents a balanced outlook it is necessarily to the right of the left leaning competition. However, being in the middle does not make you right wing unless your measure of "balanced" is way to the left.

See: www.yelp.com/topic/new...



On Mar 31 04:36 AM robert99 wrote:

> As an aside, I cannot fathom how one can watch FOX news and buy the
> whole 'Fair and Balanced' bit.

Mar 31 06:14 AM

[gon4beer:]

It appears that Mr. Bercovici might benefit from Reading Bernie Goldberg's new book, "A Slobbering Love Affair", but he probably doesn't have time for that since he's too busy watching Keith Olberman re-runs. I will say that while I'm a huge O'Reilly fan (along with apparently millions of other Americans) I do flip over to MSNBC a couple of evenings a week, to watch Chris Matthews is saying. I have been pleasantly surpirsed to see that he has become much more balanced now that the election is over. Also ineteresting that Mr. Olberman seems to mention "Bill O" about every 5 minutes-gee Keith, are the ratings maybe getting under your very thin skin?

Mar 31 07:47 AM

[Obi-Wan:]

Anything to counter the blatantly obvious liberal media is welcome. If the liberal media ever wondered why we're tired of their non-mainstream, leftist agenda and took a look at their sagging ratings and newspaper distribution, they might wise up and take more of a 'fair and balanced' approach.
If they don't care, then let them go ahead and hire Sean Penn as their primary spokesman.....he'll fix things for them.....

Mar 31 10:33 AM

[TCK:]

The Libs have PBS, NPR, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, BET, MTV, CNN, Bravo, Oxygen, and Animal Planet

The conservatives only have FOX and Spike TV.

Get over it !

Mar 31 11:54 AM

[User 301768:]

I watch O'Reilly every night, but his claim that he's fair and balanced is simply not true. And this is bothering me the most. He's audience is probably 70:30 conservatives vs liberals. He is conservative commentator, clearly leaning to the right, why he just not say so. I must say I enjoyed the show much more when he was after pedophiles, bad judges, border control and especially events like the protest of Oakland folks who cherished the tug who killed 4 policemen.
Bill and Hanity with their Obama attacks drove me to vote for Obama and this is really sad since I honestly think that John McCain was a viable Republican candidate.
Well, I guess I'll have to wait for the next Republican administration so that political attacks stop and Bill returns to covering what he's best at - protecting children.

I have nothing against Republicans (I myself am a registered one - although in reality I'm an independent thinker) but they will for sure have to reinvent themselves and most importantly learn how to talk to opposition - their arrogant and abrasive approach can quickly turn people against them.

Mar 31 12:41 PM