Abstract
Take a quick scan of satirical coverage of the mainstream news and it won’t be long before you’ll see the Fox News Channel as the butt of the joke. From Stephen Colbert’s Twitter hashtags poking fun at Fox News to Jon Stewart’s media appearances with Fox News figures like Chris Wallace and Bill O’Reilly, there seems to be an ongoing connection between the news channel and satirical comedians. Unquestionably Fox News is more often the center of satire fun than CNN or MSNBC. Is Fox News just being unfairly picked on by satirists or is there more to the link between Fox News and today’s satire? Well, to trope on Fox News’s own tagline, we’ll report; you decide. One thing is clear though: in order to fully understand how satire is shaping news today, we have to start by telling you the story of Fox News. Without Fox News (and friends) it is unlikely that satire would be playing such a major role in shaping the way that the public perceives news. In many ways it has been the presence of Fox News that has provided the backdrop for much of our satirical alternatives. As we will explain in detail in this chapter, there are a number of shifts that have taken place across all forms of news media that have changed the way that we receive information about the world, but Fox News deserves special attention.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Williams, Scott. “Murdoch Names Ailes to Launch 24-hour TV News Channel.” AP News Archive. 30 Jan. 1996. Web. http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1996/Murdoch-Names-Ailes-to-Launch-24-Hour-TV-News-Channel/id-08ff251f11de3a8ccc5ee108c77e7281
Sherman, Gabriel. “The Elephant in the Green Room.” New York Magazine. 22 May 2011. Web. http://nymag.com/news/media/roger-ailes-fox-news-2011-5/
Corn, David. “Did Chris Wallace Really Say Fox News Isn’t Fair and Balanced?” Mother Jones. 20 June 2011. Web. http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2011/06/chris-wallace-j on-stewart-fox
Decker, Henry. “5 Examples of Fox News’ ‘Fair and Balanced’ Obama Coverage.” The National Memo. 29 Jan. 2013. Web. http://www.nationalmemo.com/5-examples-of-fox-news-fair-and-balanced-obama-coverage/
Decker, Henry. “Sean Hannity Breaks The Bank for Insane Anti-Obama Painting.” The National Memo. 3 April 2012. Web. http://www.nationalmemo.com/sean-hannity-breaks-the-bank-for-insane-anti-obama-painting/
Easley, Jason. “Fair and Balanced Fraud Exposed: 94% of Fox News Viewers Are Republicans.” Politicus USA. 8 July 2013. Web. http://www.politicususa.com/2013/07/08/fair-balanced-fraud-exposed-94-fox-news-viewers-republicans.html
Auletta, Ken. “Vox Fox: How Roger Ailes and Fox News Are Changing Cable News.” Ken Auletta. 26 May 2003. Web. http://www.kenauletta.com/voxfox.html
Dudak, Gary. “11 Direct Effects 9/11 Had on the Sports and Entertainment Industries.” Mandatory. 11 Sept. 2012. Web. http://www.mandatory.com/2012/09/11/11-direct-effects-9-11-had-on-the-sports-and-entertainmentindus/2
Edwards, David. “Fox Nation Readers Confuse Onion Article with Real News.” The Raw Story. 26 Nov. 2010. Web. http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/26/fox-nation-readers-confuse-onion-article-real-news/
Fickling, David. “Geneva Conventions Vague, says Bush.” The Guardian. 15 Sept. 2006. Web. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/sep/15/usa.davidfickling1
Daley, David. “Paul Auster: “I Think of the Right-wing Republicans as Jihadists.” Salon. 19 Aug. 2012. Web. http://www.salon.com/2012/08/19/paul_auster_i_think_of_the_right_wing_republicans_as_jihadists/
Farsetta, Diane, and Daniel Price. “Fake TV News: Widespread and Undisclosed.” PR Watch. 6 Apr. 2006. Web. http://www.prwatch.org/fakenews/execsummary
Miller, Geoffrey. “Rev. of The Best of the Awful Truth, dir. Michael Moore.” DVD Verdict. 8 Sept. 2006. Web. http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/bestawfultruth.php
Mitchell, Amy, et al. “The Role of News on Facebook: Common yet Incidental.” Pew Research Journalism Project. 24 Oct. 2013. Web. http://www.journalism.org/2013/10/24/the-role-of-news-on-facebook/
Mitchell, Amy. “The State of the News Media 2013: An Annual Report on American Journalism.” The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. Web. http://stateofthemedia.org/
Moran, Douglas. “Why We Trust Jon Stewart.” Random Blather. 10 Aug. 2009. Web. http://open.salon.com/blog/douglas_moran/2009/08/10/why_we_trust_jon_stewart
Chris Raphael, “Politically Incorrect: A Eulogy.” The Big Story. June 3, 2002. Web. http://thebigstory.org/ov/ov-politicallyincorrect.html
Hamm, Theodore. “Reading The Onion Seriously.” In These Times. 26 June 2008. Web. http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3778/
Narr, Bill Moyers. “Buying the War.” Bill Moyers Journal. 25 April 2007. Web. Transcript. http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/transcript1.html
Lieberman, David. “Jim Cramer Takes his Lumps on ‘The Daily Show.’” USA Today. 13 Mar. 2009. Web. http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/media/2009-03-12-jim-cramer-appears-on-jon-stewart-show-daily-show_N.htm
Fallows, James. “It’s True: Jon Stewart has become Edward R. Murrow.” The Atlantic. 13 Mar. 2009. Web. http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2009/03/it-apos-s-true-jon-stewart-has-become-edward-r-murrow- updated/9731/
Copyright information
© 2014 Sophia A. McClennen and Remy M. Maisel
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
McClennen, S.A., Maisel, R.M. (2014). Some of the News That’s Fit to Print: Satire and the Changing News Cycle. In: Is Satire Saving Our Nation?. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137405210_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137405210_3
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-42796-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-40521-0
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political Science CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)