Fox News agreed to a roughly $15 million settlement with a female former host who complained about gender-based pay disparities at the cable news network, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post. Although the kind of sum won by Melissa Francis, an on-air personality for several shows on Fox News and Fox Business Network from 2012 to 2020, is unusual in television news, it underscores perennial concerns that women do not prosper as well as men in this industry — an issue Francis says she personally attempted to investigate by researching what her peers earned at Fox.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson swatted away suggested ties to white supremacist ideology when pressed about the rhetoric on his nightly show during a tense interview at an event on Thursday. “I’ve never had a white supremacist work for me. I don’t think I’ve ever talked to a white supremacist,” Carlson said during event hosted by Semafor, a new media company founded by journalist Ben Smith and media executive Justin Smith. “I’m not sure what that means. I know it’s a slur and the worst thing that a person can be. I don’t really understand the terms.”
Discovery in the case could reveal bombshell messages among the Trump White House, Fox personalities, and even Rupert Murdoch.
NEW YORK (AP) — Fox News Channel is airing the Jan. 6 committee hearings when they occur in daytime hours and a striking number of the network’s viewers have made […]
A Delaware judge on Tuesday rejected a motion by the parent of Fox News Channel to dismiss Dominion Voting Systems Inc.’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit over the network’s 2020 presidential election coverage. Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis, who last December said Dominion could sue Fox News Channel, said the voting machine company can also sue Fox Corp. on a theory it was directly liable for statements on the network.
Exclusives
COMMENTARY BY MARGARET SULLIVAN
Chris Stirewalt Lost His Job At Fox News. But He Knows He Was Right
The politics editor behind the Arizona call in 2020 that enraged Trump brought his journalism bona fides to the House Jan 6. hearing.
At Fox News, there was little drama over the decision to project Joseph R. Biden the winner of Arizona. But the relationship between Trump and the network was never the same.
Those tuning in on Fox’s coverage of Monday’s hearing experienced a somewhat awkward moment as the focus turned to the network itself and the testimony of a former politics editor there, Chris Stirewalt, who helped with coverage of the 2020 election.
“So many bombshell scoops,” said CNN’s Jake Tapper about the committee’s revelations. “Absolutely nothing new, multi-hour Democratic fundraiser,” said Fox’s Sean Hannity.
Fox News Channel Won’t Carry Jan. 6 Hearing And Instead Will Move Primetime Coverage To Fox Business
Fox News’ audience continued to grow in May while its main cable news rivals saw viewership declines. The network drew 2.27 million total viewers in primetime, up 4% from May, 2021. MSNBC averaged 1.02 million, down 32%, while CNN averaged 660,000, down 28%.
COMMENTARY BY MARGARET SULLIVAN
A Racist Theory May Have Driven Buffalo’s Tragedy. The Murdochs Thrive On It
The demented ideology flows from many sources. One of them is Fox News.
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is demanding that ownership and executives at Fox News stop what he says is the “reckless amplification of the so-called ‘Great Replacement’ theory” on the network. “Proponents of this white nationalist, far-right conspiracy theory believe that a complicit or cooperative class of elites are advancing a plot designed to undermine the political power and culture of white Americans,” Schumer wrote in a letter Tuesday to top news executives at Fox and the Murdoch family, which owns the cable news giant.
COMMENTARY BY NICK COHEN
Fox News Deals In Kremlin Propaganda. So Why Not Freeze Rupert Murdoch’s Assets?
Nick Cohen: If NewsCorp’s owner were Russian, there would be no hesitation in applying sanctions.
Greg Gutfeld has owned the libs all the way to the top of the ratings.
A New York Times examination of the host’s career and singular influence at Fox News shows how his trajectory traces the transformation of American conservatism itself.
Fox News again topped the cable news ratings for April, as its total day audience and primetime audience grew while other news networks saw erosion. Fox News averaged 1.52 million total viewers during the month, up 25% compared to the same month in 2021, compared to 668,000 for MSNBC, down 30%, and 582,000 for CNN, off by 26%. In the adults 25-54 demo, Fox News averaged 248,000, up 16%, compared to 132,000 for CNN, down 35%, and 75,000 for MSNBC, down 46%.
The narratives advanced by the Kremlin and by parts of conservative American media have converged in recent months, reinforcing and feeding each other. Along the way, Russian media has increasingly seized on Fox News’s primetime segments, its opinion pieces and even the network’s active online comments section — all of which often find fault with the Biden administration — to paint a critical portrait of the United States and depict America’s foreign policy as a threat to Russia’s interests. Tucker Carlson was a frequent reference for Russian media, but other Fox News personalities — and the occasional news update from the network — were also included.
An April 2023 jury trial has been scheduled in Dominion Voting Systems Inc.’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit accusing Fox News of trying to boost its ratings by falsely claiming the voting machine company rigged the 2020 U.S. presidential election against former President Donald Trump.
COMMENTARY BY ERIK WEMPLE
CNN’s Brian Stelter Blindsided By Co-Author Of Fox News Study
Benjamin Hall, the Fox News Channel reporter who was injured last month while newsgathering outside of Kyiv in Ukraine, has shared an update on his condition. And while he lost a foot, half a leg and the use of one eye, “All in all I feel pretty damn lucky to be here,” he said.
“Everything you see in the field of me from Ukraine, every single frame of me in the field, was shot by Pierre,” Yingst says.
Jenner, the former Olympic decathlete, ran an unsuccessful campaign for California governor last year. The network said she’ll offer commentary and analysis across various Fox News Media platforms beginning Thursday night with an appearance on Hannity.
The broadcasters are writing a new playbook for live coverage of a war where embedding isn’t an option, connectivity can be disrupted at any time and safety is a constant concern. Above: TVU Networks has used three cellular carriers in support of customers covering the conflict in Ukraine: KyivStar, Vodafone and LifeCell.
In the hours after three journalists working for Fox News in Ukraine took fire on March 14, staffers from rival news organization CNN stepped up to assist the cable network. Clarissa Ward, chief international correspondent for CNN, and Trey Yingst, a foreign correspondent for Fox News, worked in CNN’s makeshift newsroom in a Kyiv hotel suite, calling morgues and hospitals to track down Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski and Oleksandra “Sasha” Kuvshynova, a consultant for the network, according to people familiar with the situation. In addition, journalists are coordinating on an array of challenges, including travel routes, evacuation plans and access to supplies.
Fox News topped the March ratings as well as the first quarter of 2022, while CNN saw its ratings rise in the past month, dominated by coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Fox News averaged 2.86 million viewers in primetime, up 19% from the same month a year earlier. MSNBC averaged 1.28 million, down 29%, and CNN averaged 1.22 million, up 1%. In the 25-54 demo, Fox News averaged 529,000, up 41%, while CNN posted 366,000, up 25%, and MSNBC was at 183,000, down 23%.
The most-watched program at the Fox Corp. cable outlet for the past two quarters hasn’t been one of the opinion hours hosted by Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity or Laura Ingraham. Instead, the Fox News show with the biggest overall audience is The Five, a panel program that producers believe airs views from the right (four of the five co-hosts) and left (a single host, who rotates among three regulars). The show, which airs at 5 p.m. — not typically a bulwark of top viewing in the TV business — lured an average audience of around 3.68 million for the first three months of the year.
As he starts a new streaming show at CNN, the longtime TV anchor reflects on his decision to leave Fox News after 18 years.
Benjamin Hall, the Fox News reporter who was injured when the vehicle he and colleagues were traveling in just outside of Kyiv, Ukraine, was struck by fire, has been transferred to a hospital in Texas. Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott updated staff on Hall on Friday morning, revealing he had undergone “multiple surgeries.” Hall was seriously injured in the incident that left two of his colleagues dead.
A veteran videographer and a 24-year-old Ukrainian journalist working for Fox News were both killed when their vehicle came under fire outside of Kyiv, the network said on Tuesday. Pierre Zakrzewski, 55, and Oleksandra “Sasha” Kuvshynova were traveling Monday in Horenka with Fox News reporter Benjamin Hall, who remains hospitalized. “Today is a heartbreaking day for Fox News Media and for all journalists risking their lives to deliver the news,” the network’s CEO, Suzanne Scott. said in a staff memo.
He was killed in Ukraine on Monday when the vehicle he was traveling in was struck by incoming fire. Zakrzewski was a veteran war photographer who had covered conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria for Fox.
A Fox News journalist, correspondent Benjamin Hall, was injured while reporting on the war in Ukraine, anchor John Roberts told viewers on Monday. Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott, in a memo to employees, said that “we have a minimal level of detail right now,” but that Hall was hospitalized.
