Thread by @brianstelter

Today is Fox News Channel's 24th birthday. Time for a #thread about how much has changed since Fox's founding on October 7, 1996...

Fox was #3 behind CNN and MSNBC. In a high school yearbook, it would have been voted "least likely to succeed." But as I write in HoaxTheBook.com, Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes converted the jeers into fuel. Ailes vowed that Fox would become #1.

Here's how CNN covered Fox's launch day:

"For Murdoch, Fox News is the culmination of a long-held ambition -- building a U.S-based global television-news network."

money.cnn.com/1996/10/07/com…

Fox News always had a conservative bent. That was a big part of its purpose. But in 1996 the channel wasn't all politics all the time. There were shows about health and travel and medicine and religion. There was a show called "Pet News" – the hosts even took pet owners' calls!

"For a network that would be defined by its decibel level, the premiere was surprisingly subdued," @gabrielsherman wrote in "The Loudest Voice in the Room." Instead of running with right-wing narratives and conspiracy theories, the producers ran lots of generic news headlines.

Allison Costarene and @LouisAguirre hosted the first show on the first day – "Fox X-press" – which went on to become "Fox & Friends." Aguirre was 29 and it was his first time hosting a national show. He says he was "completely oblivious that it would become what it is now."

"I was very not political at all," Aguirre told me, "but neither was the show back then." It was light-hearted – "much more pop culture sprinkled with the day's news." Things started to change when the Clinton scandal erupted. Every turn at Fox has been a turn to the right.

This was the evening lineup on launch day:

6pm: “The O’Reilly Report”
7pm: “The Schneider Report”
8pm: “The Crier Report”
9pm: “Hannity & Colmes”

The only show still standing is “Hannity.”

Look at him! "Each weeknight at 9pm Eastern," Hannity said on day one, "Alan and I will bring you an intelligent and passionate discussion of the major news issues of the day." Hannity is a Fox News original, a living connection to its past – though he tends not to look backward.

Fox always prided itself on being a lean mean machine - never investing in news gathering as much as CNN etc – but veterans like Carl Cameron say news coverage was a bigger priority in the 1990s than it was in the 2010s. "The news muscles atrophied a lot," he said.

Nowadays, ask 10 people who were there at the launch, and you'll get 10 different reactions about the Fox of 2020. Some OG's are disgusted by the Trumpier & Trumpier tilt; others make excuses for it; others are just proud to have been there in 1996, and don't watch much anymore.

Looking back at Fox's very first day in 1996, the channel's DNA is apparent. NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani, a friend and political ally of Ailes, was the very first in-studio guest, Aguirre recalled: "I remember the entire interview was scripted, which I found strange at the time."

Fox News is so much more than a cable channel now. It is an addictive substance. For its biggest fans, it is an identity. Almost a way of life. That's one of the main reasons why I wrote HOAX – so hit that button, BuyHoax.com, to read all about it 📚