Title: How Fox News and CNN Have Changed in the Last Decade
Headings: Fox News and CNN are 2 of America's biggest news sources — but they couldn't be more different. Here's how they've changed in the past decade.
Fox News and CNN are 2 of America's biggest news sources — but they couldn't be more different. Here's how they've changed in the past decade.
CNN's Jake Tapper and Fox News' Tucker Carlson.
CNN specializes in straight news and Fox News in opinion. But the trajectory of these two rivals is intertwined.
CNN began operating in the 1980s, with an aim of "making news the star."
Fox News was the newcomer, having launched in 1996.
But since 2002, it's been the highest-rated cable news channel in America.
CNN has always had a large editorial staff. In 2010, it had 4,000 employees, the most out of any of its competitors.
Fox News was the opposite.
CNN had the ability to be on the ground, reporting. But its commentary felt forced. Its strength was in news.
While Fox News's actual reporting, according to Mike Hoyt, a former editor of Columbia Journalism Review, was "a small island in a vast sea of very conservative commentary."
In February 2010, Fox amped up the feud when it lashed out at CNN's claim that said it was the most trusted name in news.
That was CNN's worst month in its recent history.
In May 2012, CNN reported its worst ratings in a decade.
CNN's inability to compete was summed up Fox News' Tamara Holder.
Holder was referring to a segment fought on Fox News for seven minutes, between liberal journalist Kirsten Powers and anchor Megyn Kelly, over alleged voter intimidation.
In mid-2012, CNN was experiencing one of its worst slumps ever.
Fox News continued to rise. It finished 2012 with an average of 2 million prime-time viewers.
In January 2013, the former head of NBC Universal, Jeff Zucker, became president of CNN Worldwide. It's hard to miss the irony.
But according to Cooper, Zucker was "the first president to actually watch CNN."
Zucker wanted to revamp CNN from a tired news station into something entertaining.
He wanted to break up CNN's daytime programming, which ran together as an endless breaking news cycle.
It was Zucker who brought back the tagline "this is CNN" as he tried to strengthen the network's identity.
He wasn't afraid to break from the brand, either.
Things were changing for Fox News in 2013, too.
One of the reasons for this change was that Ailes was concerned about its aging demographic.
In 2014, commentators noticed Fox News was also putting more left-wing analysts on air.
Another sign was former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's fall from favor.
Palin went on to start her own media organization.
Across the divide, despite Zucker's changes, CNN's viewers were down to 515,000 in the primetime slot in 2014. Even if it was sitting higher than MSNBC it was even less than its 2010 low of 564,000.
In 2015, CNN's news judgment was mocked for choosing to cover the White House Correspondent's dinner over protests for Freddie Gray, a black man who died while being held by police.
In 2015, Fox News saw a glimmer of the future when Megyn Kelly grilled Trump over his past sexist comments. Trump responded by refusing to go back on Fox News.
Fox News' management also reportedly killed a story about Trump's alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, because Murdoch wanted Trump to win.
Then in 2016, Trump was elected president.
For CNN, Trump provided a focus for all of its breaking news talent.
Yet CNN was heavily criticized for being one of the first major news outlets to give Trump a platform.
For Fox, it started as a mutually-beneficial relationship.
Fox News and Trump seemed to be intertwined, and any claim that it wasn't "mainstream media" was hard to swallow, considering its popularity and its positioning close to the president.
The changes were made even starker with the departure of Ailes.
Former Fox News contributor Bill Kristol told The New Yorker the network had become more propagandistic.
Things continued to change for Fox News in 2017. Megan Kelly and Bill O'Reilly were out of the network.
A revolving door between Trump's administration and Fox News became more and more pronounced.
One key figure who helped keep the revolving door spinning was former Fox News executive Bill Shine, who was Trump's director of communications for eight months.
Across the way, CNN was hiring more Trump supporters to defend Trump's views.
In 2017, the networks clashed when Fox News distorted comments made by CNN host Jake Tapper.
This clash between networks was becoming intense.
These clashes showed that CNN was no longer defining itself by sitting in the middle of the political spectrum.
Fox News didn't just attack CNN. It effectively attacked all media that didn't have a right-wing bias.
And in doing this — despite losing Ailes, Kelly, and O'Reilly — Fox News continued to thrive.
But in 2019, Trump's relationship with Fox News began to sour.
Even Carlson, a stalwart Trump supporter, criticized Trump for pressuring Ukraine's president to interfere in the 2020 elections.
In October 2019, Shepard Smith resigned, and the network's news focus seemed even more precarious.
Changes at CNN had become more noticeable, too.
By October 2019, CNN had settled into third place for viewers, falling behind Fox News and MSNBC for the 10th quarter in a row.
CNN also put on 20 of its own events to debate issues.
After 2020, Zucker told the Washington Post, he wanted CNN "to be a big and important part of the conversation."
While for Fox News, Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch's son and Fox Corp's CEO, is reportedly already looking at a future after Trump.
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Content: But its problem — a significant one by 2010 — was that while major breaking news provided ratings boosts, it wasn't enough to keep viewers coming back on a consistent basis. Fox News was the opposite. Chairman Roger Ailes and anchor Shepard Smith from "Fox News" speak during the 2006 Summer Television Critics Association Press Tour for the FOX Broadcasting Company
Frederick M. Brown / Getty
It had about a third as many reporters and editors. And other than an often-overlooked straight-shooting newsroom fronted by Shepard Smith, its great strength was in opinion journalism. It was more of a talk-show network than a news network, and it thrived by filling a void of conservative media coverage. CNN had the ability to be on the ground, reporting. But its commentary felt forced. Its strength was in news. Anderson Cooper
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While Fox News's actual reporting, according to Mike Hoyt, a former editor of Columbia Journalism Review, was "a small island in a vast sea of very conservative commentary." In February 2010, Fox amped up the feud when it lashed out at CNN's claim that said it was the most trusted name in news.