Beck: Prez Cares More About Fighting Fox Than Afghan War

In January overall, Fox was third most watched cable channel

(NEWSER) - "Fair and balanced" might be cause for lively debate, but Fox News' status as the top dog in cable news isn't—the network scored the top 13 programs in total viewership and the key 25-54 demographic through January. Bill O’Reilly’s show tops the rankings, with Sean Hanitty and Glenn Beck behind him. In the entire cable spectrum, last month found Fox third in viewers, behind USA and ESPN, Mediabistro reports. Its competitors fell far behind: CNN's spot was 24, and MSNBC’s 29. More»

(NEWSER) - Glenn Beck today called President Obama “a racist,” Politico reports. The Fox News commentator accused the president of having a “deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture” during a discussion of the Skip Gates scandal on a Fox show. When his interlocutor pointed out that Obama is surrounded by whites in his administration, Beck backpedaled a bit—and then surged forward. More»

(NEWSER) - More evidence of Fox News' growing domination of cable TV: The network now has the top 10 programs in terms of total viewers, reports Mediabistro's TVNewser blog. Bill O'Reilly still leads the way, followed by Sean Hannity. Glenn Beck is in third, but his viewership of about 2 million is up a whopping 110% over last year, the most by far of any show. More»

It's part of Roger Ailes' 'course correction'

(NEWSER) - Is Fox News shifting to the center, relatively speaking? Politico thinks so, tracing it back to a "course correction" ordered by Roger Ailes last fall. He wanted Fox to move away from Tea Party "cheerleading" and to tone down the far-right rhetoric, writes Politico's Keach Hagey. "A casual Fox viewer might barely notice the changes since the network remains critical of the Obama administration and reliably conservative opinion voices, like (Sean) Hannity and Bill O’Reilly, still anchor key spots in the Fox firmament. But the changes are there." More»

Glenn Beck: Obama is 'clearly anti-cop'

(NEWSER) - Jon Stewart again smacked Fox News for its fury over Common’s White House appearance, pointing out last night that only huffers of “Foxygen”—“the heady mix of partisan hackery, character assassination, and manufactured outrage”—would be bothered by the rapper’s performance. From there, Stewart attacked Newt Gingrich’s attempt to “hook up with the new generation,” as CNN’s John King put it, by using Twitter and YouTube to announce his presidential candidacy. More»