Fox Weather was announced last year. I viewed it as part of a bigger story Fox is telling via the press – portraying CEO Suzanne Scott as an expansionist, leading Fox into new lines of businesses like lifestyle (they produced a Christmas movie) and weather and podcasts and books.
"But," I wrote in HoaxTheBook.com, "these experiments belied the fact that Fox was more dependent than ever on its propaganda players." Sure, Fox News Media has lots of arms, but its face is Tucker Carlson. The profits come from Carlson, Hannity, "The Five" – rage TV.
Adding a streaming weather service is pretty easy for Fox, since it's tapping into the company's local TV stations. It's also "hiring a throng of meteorologists and weather data analysts," as @grynbaum wrote. But other streaming weather options already exist. Others are coming.
Tweeters are understandably raising concerns about whether Fox Weather will distort the public discourse about climate change, but will it get the public's eyeballs? That's my Q. Fox can market the new venture on TV and Fox's homepages, but to what effect?
The Weather Channel is the reigning champ on TV but it averages 150,000 viewers at any given time, only spiking during big storms. Plus there's AccuWeather. And WeatherNation. So the marketplace is crowded, but rather small. That's one of the main reasons I'm skeptical of Fox Wx.
Will some people watch? Of course. Will it be as profitable as "Fox & Friends?" Of course not. And that's why I come back to the point about Fox's "expansionist" messaging: They can add more arms, but they're still Tucker Carlson TV.
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Today is the launch day for HOAX in paperback. It's the final edition of a book I have been writing for years. You can order a copy at BuyHoax.com. But this is more than a promotional thread, I promise! This is the "story behind the story," as I like to say on TV
I started blogging about cable news in 2004. Which means I've been studying Fox News for a long, long time. When Trump became the "Fox president," I felt compelled to write it all down. We were going to call the book WINGMEN, until the pandemic hit, and @jcheiffetz coined HOAX.
The Trump age was really the "hoax" age. This was clear when the hardcover edition came out last August. But the story wasn't over yet. I asked to add a few more chapters. Then, after the election, a few more. After the riot, a new prologue. Eventually I added 20,000+ new words.
Is there an "information lag" about Covid-19? I perceive that reliable info about the *reasons* for relaxed Covid guidelines and rules is lagging behind the announcements and adjustments. Short thread here...
For example: How many American adults know the facts about (virtually nonexistent) outdoor transmission of the virus? Are they relying on one-year-old guesses rather than the latest research? Are news outlets doing enough to amplify the newest info?
"Information lag" may explain why some public outdoor spaces in blue states are still posting "wear a mask" signs. And it may explain why some red states are lagging far behind in vaccinations. cnn.com/videos/busines…
As you read this interview with Tucker Carlson, about how much he hates "the media," remember that he works for a major media company that employs hundreds of journalists. outkick.com/tucker-carlson…
Carlson is right that "journalism should always be upward. We should be doing the tough stories on the people with the most power." But he's clearly not reading much, because that's what journalists ARE doing. He claims "there's no scrutiny on Jeff Bezos," for example. Really?
Carlson touts his new streaming docu-series, "45 minutes or an hour on one topic," and says it's "basic journalism. That's almost groundbreaking today. It doesn't really happen anymore." Huh? Tell that to the 1000s of folks who are part of a decade-long documentary renaissance!
Well this is a mouthful: CBS is merging its national news division with its local TV stations and naming two execs -- Neeraj Khemlani and Wendy McMahon -- to jointly run it all.
The pitch for this new structure: "It speaks to our ability to scale newsgathering, production, technical and operational resources to serve both national and local, linear and digital, with the agility to deliver trusted information to every platform." businesswire.com/news/home/2021…
CBS says "Susan Zirinsky will continue as President of CBS News until the new leadership has started and will assist with the transition. The Company is in discussions with Zirinsky for a significant role at a new CBS News Content Studio to be launched later this year."
Just announced: "Former VP Mike Pence will publish his autobiography with Simon & Schuster." It's part of a two-book deal. "The first book is tentatively scheduled for publication in 2023," the publisher says.
A peek behind the curtain: We'd been working on a story about this book deal for the past day, and were waiting for Simon & Schuster to respond to requests for comment when PR pulled the trigger on the press release. Exclusive details coming shortly...
Fox led the opposition to Obama 12 years ago, but network execs fought that portrayal. Resisted it. In January 2009 Bill Shine told me they would "cover the news in a fair and balanced way and put on a very good product."
When I wrote about Fox as the "voice of the opposition" for NYT, Fox execs denied it: nyti.ms/3sNM65U