Yes, it looks bad. Fox announced earlier today that it would not carry Barack Obama’s prime-time press conference on Wednesday, opting to air Lie to Me instead. Now, it is rare for a network to tell a president "no,” but before we accuse Fox of political bias, greed, or abandoning civic responsibility, we should take a look at the record on presidential interruptions — for all networks. In that light, Fox’s decision seems a lot less menacing.
The problem Fox faces is one of perception. Most viewers tend to think of the network as conservative, and think that FoxNews, home of Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity , slants pro-GOP. (MSNBC, by contrast, is widely thought to support Democrats). Plus, Fox was the only network not to air the Democratic response to then-President Bush’s address on Iraq in 2007. Add all that up and it looks like the network simply didn’t want to dish out any of its precious sweeps time to the Democrat in the White House. The thing is, it only looks that way.
For one thing, Obama is not the first president snubbed by Fox. The network didn’t air a 2001 speech by Pres. Bush, then took the same tack three years later, joining all networks in declining to air Bush’s May 2004 speech on Iraq. What aired instead? Fear Factor…on NBC. Plus, if we’re really getting specific, Fox didn’t air two of the 2000 presidential debates, and ABC was the only network that didn’t air then-candidate Obama’s campaign infomercial.
So is it just the almighty dollar, then? Is Fox putting the Tim Roth procedural, Lie to Me (currently trying to attract sweeps dollars even though its ratings are trending downward), ahead of the civic good? Perhaps. But a Fox insider points out that the network typically comes in dead last in the ratings when it airs presidential interruptions (even coming in behind FoxNews most of the time), largely because Fox has no internal news division. There’s no Katie Couric or Brian Williams offering analysis or talking to pundits — which is why most viewers turn to ABC, NBC, CBS, or the cable news outlets whenever the president invades primetime. And let’s face it, this president seems to enjoy interrupting our favorite shows, having already had three previous addresses/press conferences (and pre-empting Lie to Me before).
But we are in a recession. And two wars. And now we’re all freaked about swine flu. So yes, it would be nice if all the networks carried the president’s press conference. (We should note that an insider says Fox’s decision is not a signal from new network chief Peter Rice that Fox will abandon the president indefinitely.) It would also be nice if we all watched, but that doesn’t happen either. Unless and until all of us would rather hear what’s going on with the nation than watch Lie to Me, maybe we should cut Fox just a bit of slack.
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Pssst… We’re freaked about swine flu, not bird flu.
Obama sure likes to see himself a lot on TV!
Interesting unexpected article. Gave me some good insight. Thanks.
I heard this press conference was about Obama acknowledging his first 100 days in office. Kind of a waste.
Oops! Wrote too fast. Typo! Fixed.
Kudos to fox news about time a broadcast network isn’t on their hands and knees to the almighty socialist Obama. I know about the flu and don’t need a Spend happy liberal telling me my business.
What I don’t understand is why anyone believes all the networks need to show the press conference. It’s not like the viewers have no place to go. In fact, it’s exactly the opposite, if they all did … where would the ones who don’t want to watch go?
I applaud their decision, especially since Fox News is there to do the proper analysis.
Good…I won’t miss my show then. I don’t really care what political “slant” any TV channel may have. I’m alrady tired of listening to him take an hour to say something when it shouldn’t have taken him much longer than a commercial break to get to the point. Thank you FOX.
Why do we need Obama’s speech on more than one channel? Is it just so people can’t seek out other forms of entertainment while the President is talking? How about radio stations then? How about websites? I think ew.com should shut down and just show ONLY a live telecast of the speech for the duration.
Another fact that shows how racist Fox network is.
Who cares about Fox anyways
No reason for all cable channels to cover the exact same program content as three major national channels. And as far as I am concerned, enough dog and pony shows, lets see some progress, get to work.
I HAVE DROPPED FOX FROM MY SCHEDULE AS WELL.
We really do not need to hear what Obama thinks about his own first 100 days. I’m sure he thinks he is just doing just fine.
Who really cares about anyone like Obama anyhow! He is the biggest bullsh*^&%$ there is. He is pathetic!
Fox dropping Obama is not a big deal. Also not surprising. I stopped watching FOX. Not credible. Biased. Not balanced. Not helpful. Just an awful news channel.
The title of this article and the consideration that we should “cut Fox a bit of slack” are absurd and highly disappointing. Granted many Americans would rather watch garbage like American Idol than know what is going on with THEIR OWN COUNTRY. But does that mean that it’s right, or that we should be ok with that? The answer is no and by stating that it is ok this article and Entertainment Weekly are no better than Fox. Get your priorities straight.
I am happy to hear Fox said NO, its time someone showed guts. I for one am sick and tired of seeing obama, and hearing about him. Thanks Foxs its the only news I watch anyway.
Good job.
I wonder if “Mike” was also as disrespectful towards President Bush when he caused the country to spend tons of money on a pointless war and lied about the costs of the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit. Or is it only a waste of money when a “spend-happy liberal” is doing it?
Every day, the comments on these blogs show that conservatives are just as “treasonous” as they claimed liberals were for not supporting Bush’s war. The difference is that we support your right to speak your mind even if you don’t know what you’re talking about.
This is great news! I agree that it is nice to see a network refusing to show coverage of Obama. Frankly, I wish more networks would have the courage to follow Fox. Good work!
Who said anything about race? Get over it already. Why do we need to hear about his 1st however many days in office? He’s all we hear about..see on the covers of magazines..his wife..his new dog.. It’ll be nice to still be able to find one channel that I can sit & relax & enjoy instead of having to listen to him. IF he says anything important, they’ll recap it on the nightly news & I won’t have missed anything. So the big deal is….what….?
President Obama is a fast talking lawyer and people were taken in. Now all of us will pay his taxes and spending big time!! Why would he need to waste our time telling us what a good job we know he’s not doing. Way to go Fox News and that is why NBC, MSNBC,CBS,and ABC is DEAD LAST.
Haven’t watched Fox in years…that’s not going to change on Wed.
This isn’t an important speech…there is no real reason to be giving it in primetime. Plus, Lie to Me really needs the momentum if it wants to be strong into next season. I’ll probably watch the speech live, and Lie to Me on Hulu tomorrow…but I agree that the networks should pressure Obama to do these speeches in the afternoon. The point of doing it in primetime is to force everyone to watch the speech in its entirety and not allow the networks to sound bite it and the opposing side an opportunity to give a rebut until the next day. its just really playing politics and disrupting a lot of peoples lives in the process.
Kudos to Fox. I am tired of listening to Obama’s doubletalk. Since the speech is likely to be carried on ABC, CBS and NBC, it’s nice to have a channel that offers the viewers a choice.
Oh yeah, and I’m guessing this decision was made on the network level. The FOX News division wouldn’t have any say in this i’m guessing unless they want to divert all the FOX viewers to FOX News and not dilute their audience. The FOX Network really has nothing to do with FOX News, they air Family Guy for god sakes, if the conservatives at FOX news controlled FOX Network that show wouldn’t be on the air.
There must be something significant about the decision to air “Lie to Me”…We get lied to in either way….
I’m the biggest democrat there is, but damn, I am sick and bloody tired of Obama being on TV. He comes across as completely full of himself. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to watch Lie To Me… but given the option of that or the umpteenth time of Barack Obama – I think I’d take Tim Roth.
Either way you look at it…you’d be watching “Lie to Me”.
It is a recession and I’m glad Fox is making a business decesion to go after advertising dollars. Don’t know why we need all networks to air the address.