John Timpane of the Philadelphia Inquirer takes an in-depth look at Fox News “in the Age of Obama,” for a front-page story today. The conclusion — FNC is “thriving.”
“Fox News fits our world, where there’s so much access to information, through people’s iPods, their portable laptops, cell phones” says Michael Clemente, SVP for news. “You get in a taxi and there’s a video screen telling you what’s going on. We have an extraordinary number of stories of national concern, and we feel like we’re having an ongoing conversation with viewers about it, and bringing that into our coverage.”
And programming SVP Bill Shine says Fox News is now focusing on an NBC Universal cable channel (but not MSNBC). “We’ve been No. 2 in all of cable for the last nine weeks. and we’re keeping an eye on USA,” he says.
FNC’s main “news” personalities are quoted in the story — Shepard Smith and Bret Baier. Says Smith: “Why would so many people be watching us if they didn’t think we were doing something right?”