As of noon today, there’s absolutely no mention anywhere on FoxNews.com’s homepage.
Which marks a seismic shift from ten years ago today:
(Jan. 30, 2016) Twenty years ago today a brand new cable news channel — FOX News Channel — was announced in a press conference held by Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes.
“I would just like to say how delighted I am that we have now reached this moment, and we can firmly announce the starting of a FOX News Channel and a much greater effort on the buildup of Fox News in every area,” Murdoch told the assembled media in 1996.
About eight months later, Fox News debuted on Oct. 7, 1996. Few knew it at the time, but it would soon obliterate CNN, becoming America’s most-watched cable news network.
And in the process, it revolutionized the news business, leading to the rise of 24/7 conservative media.
Historically speaking, it’s one of the most important anniversaries in the news business. A decade ago, NewsCorp’s mighty PR machine made a huge deal about it, including placing this glowing story in Ad Week:
Fox News is poised to win its 14th straight year as the No. 1 cable news channel when January ratings are released tomorrow.
The winning streak began in January 2002, when Fox News topped CNN for the first time for a full month. It has won every month since among total viewers. We talked with Fox News CEO & chairman Roger Ailes in November, when Adweek named him 2015 Media Visionary. One of the quotes that didn’t make it into our story was about the launch of Fox News in 1996, and how it all began with a phone call from News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch.
Ailes: Rupert said, “Can you build a network that’ll beat CNN?” Now at that time, you had GE and Microsoft were going into MSNBC. You had CNN which was a worldwide brand. They both had unlimited resources. And then Rupert with a kind of half-baked little operation without the money and he said, “Can you beat these guys?” and I said, “Yeah.”
TVNewser: Did you tell him how long it would take?
Ailes: I said, “It’ll take 5 years. In the 6th year I’ll beat them. It’ll cost $900 million or a billion dollars and I could lose it all.” And he never asked me for a business plan. Somehow he trusted me. Or he lost his mind. We did it.
Nowadays, of course, FNC would rather forget about its Jan. 30 anniversary date, preferring to focus on Oct. 7. And its motive is simple: Fox News doesn’t want to remind viewers of Roger Ailes’s involvement in the network, because of the sexual harassment scandals that sunk his career in the summer of 2016.
In recent years, quite a few large businesses have dealt with similar challenges. The WWE is a multibillion-dollar brand that had to separate itself from the shocking allegations against its ex-owner and driving force, Vince McMahon. Papa John’s divorced itself from its ex-CEO (and/or father figure), John Schnatter, after its marketing agency, Laundry Services, leaked Schnatter’s use of the N-word. And decades before that, Ray Kroc’s dubious role as “founder” of McDonald’s effectively erased the contributions of actual McDonald’s founders, Richard and Maurice McDonald.
(Random anecdote: The “real” Ronald McDonald lives in Tampa Bay; we partnered together on a book concept a while back. Ronald is the nephew of Richard and Maurice McDonald and helped his uncles launch the restaurant chain — and he swore me to secrecy so I can’t talk about it yet, but when he passes, I’ll share his story about how Ray Kroc really wrested control of McDonald’s. It’s a doozy.)
About 10 months after resigning from Fox News, Roger Ailes slipped and hit his head in his Palm Beach home. He died eight days later at age 77.
Today, because Ailes’ contributions have been memory-holed, one of the biggest, most significant anniversaries in conservative media has been mostly ignored. In fact, if you didn’t read it here, you probably had no idea.
But 30 years ago today, the media landscape changed forever.
And despite how it all ended, Ailes’s contributions deserve to be remembered.
Related: Bill Belichick — Arguably the Greatest Coach in NFL History — Is Snubbed by the Hall of Fame
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