Dull and useless
: At lunch with Jay Rosen the other day (aren’t you jealous?), he and I agreed that the import of FoxNews and Bill O’Reilly is complicated. People who look at Fox and say it’s just America right-turn signal are missing so much more.
Fox changed the very business of TV news (by getting rid of expensive produced pieces and the producers who produce them and by going to live discussion, which is not only cheaper but livelier).
Fox brought opinion to news and, via the ratings, we see that the audience embraces that because it’s simply more compelling and, in some ways, it’s more honest to reveal your perspective as you report the news. (The great irony is, of course, that Fox and O’Reilly deny their perspective when asked, but in every other way are in-your-face upfront about it; there’s a touch of Kafka to this story).
And, Jay writes, Fox and Bill O’Reilly bring something new to the alleged art of anchoring:
He brings forcefully to the surface and makes explicit what had been buried for so long in the journalist
