Posted on 12/17/2004 10:36:54 AM PST by Phsstpok
We know that Fox, among others, has people who regularly scan FreeRepublic for items of interest. I want to take advantage of that to try to get some ideas in front of Roger Ailes and crew.
I'm going to lay out my ideas below, but I have a feeling that not only will others have their own equally good, or better, ideas, but that there will also be folks who think my ideas are way off base. So be it. That's the idea behind posting this here, so that there can be open discussion of what is of interest to folks "like us," Freepers, pajamahadeen, et al. Maybe some bits and pieces of a discussion like this will actually get to the powers that be at Fox and have some impact. FR tends to give one delusion of grandeur anyway, so why not?
So, here goes...
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Daytime:
Fox & Friends (weekdays) - a little too silly at times, but the three main folks are fine. E. D. Hill sometimes goes rambling off on topics she obviously doesn't know anything about or hasn't thought through, but hey, she's a blond (incoming!@!).
DaySide with Linda Vester - lame Oprah like format with audience participation. Very disposable.
Fox News Live - Generic news reader presentations. This is interchangeable with CNN, CNN Headline and MSNBC's versions of this format, though Fox does a better job.
Studio B with Sheppard Smith - Largely the same format as Fox News Live, but more personality driven. I generally like Sheppard Smith. Generally. Sometimes he can really grate on me, though. I could do without some of what he passes off as humor.
Your World with Neil Cavuto - I don't like business news shows. I like most of what Neil does with this show, however. He has a very fresh outlook and isn't afraid to express his opinions, but he doesn't present his views as stone tablets brought down from the mountain top.
The Big Story with John Gibson - Excellent blend of news and punditry. I would not change this show so much as add to it. Gibson has carved out a particular niche in presenting and critiquing the news as delivered in other countries, particularly the BBC and now, with his Breaking Point special, the Arab press. This would be an excellent permanent addition to the structure of his show. (see the end of this post for a variation on this idea).
Special Report with Britt Hume - The perfect evening news. Thirty minutes of headlines with some background on the more significant news, plus thirty minutes of excellent analysis. As everyone I have my favorites on the panel. There are times I want to slap Juan, and there are times I want to slap Fred, but I've almost never heard something from Charles that didn't make me think, even if I disagreed with him. Mort and Mara are too predictable to be enjoyable. It's interesting to watch Jeff Birnbaum present liberal agitprop when he's obviously embarrassed by how lame some of the arguments he's forced to make really are.
Fox Report with Sheppard Smith - pretty much an update and repeat of Studio B. Same likes and dislikes. Usually I flip over to reruns of CSI.
Prime Time
The O'Reilly Factor - What can I say. This would probably be a good show, without O'Reilly. Pompous, arrogant, intolerant of others, horrible interviewing style, random opinions with usually no logic except "I'm right, I'm always right." This show may have the highest ratings on the planet, but it brings down the level of the whole network.
O'Reilly should not host his own show. He should be moved over to an Andy Rooney style two minute essay and be done with it. I have a feeling that within two years he'll have one or two more personal scandals and this may actually be the outcome. he jumped the shark quite some time ago, but the irrational Dan Rather defense was way too much for him to retain any credibility.
Hannity And Colmes - This used to be an excellent show, but both hosts have gotten so canalized and doctrinaire because of the election that they no longer discuss issues, they simply shriek at each other and their guests. I hate to say it but this is turning into Crossfire. Maybe move it into the Studio B timeslot and put a real news show here instead. Better yet, add Ann Coulter as a permanent panelist on the right and Jeff Birnbaum or Mara Liason on the left and the show might get a bit more interesting.
They can save this, but they need to work on their formula, particularly Colmes. His cheap shot talking points ambushes are getting really tiresome. And Hannity appears to be so sure that everyone agrees with him that he doesn't feel the need to actually lay out a logical argument anymore. He just drop cliché's into the argument, then says how much he loves the person who, by the statements he just made, should be taken out and horsewhipped.
On The Record with Greta Van Susteren - All tabloid trash, all the time. Jon Benet, Scott and Laci, Michael Jackson. Trash. I hate these topics with a passion and think they could all be covered in one 5 minute piece, once, and then never covered again, but NO! And what really bothers me is that, the few times Van Susteren has covered straight news she's actually done a decent job, though she's not good at time management and gets short with her guests under those circumstances. This could be solved by changing the interviews to taped segments and then edit them for time. I think this show needs a total makeover to be saved.
Weekends
Fox & Friends Weekend - This is Fox News attempt to prove that there are liberal idiots working for them, too. The team doesn't work.
Bulls and Bears - I don't like business shows. The Saturday morning ghetto remains of no interest to me.
Cavuto on Business - I don't like business shows. The Saturday morning ghetto remains of no interest to me. Bumping into Neil making some observations as I flip past sometimes makes me stop and look, but it's never enough to keep me.
Forbes on Fox - I don't like business shows. The Saturday morning ghetto remains of no interest to me. Steve Forbes is no Neil Cavuto. And he does think his pronouncements should be treated like stone tablets from the mountain top.
Cashin' in - I don't like business shows. The Saturday morning ghetto remains of no interest to me.
Weekend Live with Tony Snow (Saturday) - Good two hours. Almost as good as when Tony hosted Fox News Sunday. I miss Tony.
Weekend Live with with Brian Wilson (Sunday) - Good two hours. I like Brian Wilson, though he's not as interesting to listen to as Tony Snow or Britt Hume, he may be one of their better journalists. He always has excellent command of the topic.
Fox News Live Weekend - Generic news reader presentations, though a bit more in depth on the weekend.
The Beltway Boys - Pretty good pundit show. Both Kondracke and Barnes fail to provide needed context for some of the things they say. They talk with each other so much about these topics that they forget that the rest of us weren't there when they laid some of the groundwork for things that they pronounce on air.
Fox News Watch - Even more than CNN's Reliable Sources, this show has become a running apologia for bad journalism. This is not a critical look at the failings of journalism. Instead it is a hate fest trashing any who dare to question the priesthood. Surprisingly I think this show should be expanded from a half hour to an hour as the best way to remedy this problem. Of course, that's only part of the fix. The rest is to enlist MRC orAIM on the right and FAIR or some similar group on the left to pick the topics and do the initial criticism. Then the 'pros' can try to spin a defense or critique the critique, but the points will get made. Perhaps a 15 minute presentation at the beginning of each half hour by one side or the other followed by 15 minutes of in studio discussion of the presentation.
Fox Report Weekend - Shepard Smith's weekend gig. Same good, same bad.
Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace - the repeat showing of the Fox Sunday morning inside the beltway gab fest. It was better with Tony Snow. I'd prefer to have Britt Hume as host rather than Chris Wallace. Wallace shares the inside the beltway "let's not offend the Democrat (or RINO) guests" disease with his counterparts at the three networks. He fails to ask some very obvious and basic questions and he never, ever, challenges even the most ridiculous statements, so long as they come from left of center. Since it's basically the same panel as Britt Hume's show it's pretty good. They should lose the "Power Player of the Week" segment, or make it really meaningful, instead of an afterthought.
Heartland with John Kasich - this should be better than it is. John Kasich seems to be channeling Chris Matthews on a bad day.
The Big Story Weekend with Rita Cosby - I really can't speak to this show as I never really watch it, or when I do it doesn't make an impression. That could be good, but it's probably bad.
War Stories with Oliver North - Excellent program. This may be looked at in the same fashion as Victory At Sea in the future. I think he's just hitting his stride and I'll be very interested to see where he goes with this.
At Large with Geraldo Rivera - All the things wrong with Van Susteren's show, and none of her redeeming qualities. Send him back out on the boat. Those reports were actually interesting. Maybe he could sail around the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean and give us some insight on those places. That's a serious suggestion, by the way.
Fox Magazine - this is real close to a good idea. Taking a closer look at the most significant stories of the week is a critical need for taking the next step in cable news. Unfortunately this show tends to focus on the personalities and not the news.
After Hours with Cal Thomas - Never watch it. I'm already in bed and it doesn't interest me enough to record it.
Other Suggestions:
Besides the individual suggestions listed with each existing show, I think there needs to be a couple of new shows added to the Fox line up.
Weekly Review - there needs to be a weekly review of the stories from the previous seven days that have more than just headline value. This should be a serious version of That Was The Week That Was (though I wouldn't mind some Tom Lehrer thrown in for nostalgia's sake). It should be a one hour format, minimum and probably makes the most sense on Sunday night. It should be easy to either repurpose the Sunday night version of Fox Report or replace that show with this one with a new host. This show needs to concentrate on providing context to the major events and pointing out the ones that are going to need following. This does not include tabloid trash like Scott and Laci.
Other News, Other Views - John Gibson did an excellent job of pointing out how distorted the view of the United States in Arab countries because of what is being presented on their news programs. He did this in a one shot special on the Breaking Point program, Hating Us, but clearly the issue won't go away and it's not limited to the Arab media as well. Look at the attacks on Gibson by the BBC for his daring to challenge their clearly distorted reporting.
The American press also does a horrible job of reporting stories from the rest of the world. While we devote thousand of hours and column inches to Scott Peterson there are millions dying in wars, famines and epidemics around the world that aren't even worthy of mention. Fox should reach out to the other media of the world and start to form alliances for extended reporting of world events. This is one thing that CNN has been doing aggressively, but they've also been captured by (or they've fostered) the monolithic anti-Americanism in so much of the propaganda press. Try watching CNN International without thinking of Orwell's Ministry of Truth. It can't be done.
I would recommend that Gibson would be the logical host for a weekly review of foreign news, perhaps paired with the Weekly Review proposed above. In addition a formal inclusion of a look at foreign news issues that are not otherwise covered by the American press as part of his weekday show would tie things together nicely.
So. That's my screed on the topic. Have at it. Knowing this crowd there will be some excellent ideas out there, if only I can tease them out with something as lame as this vanity.
Oh, and Mister Ailes, if you decide you want to hire me to put any of these ideas into practice, just Freepmail me <g>.
More Laurie dHUE
Ping!
Fox News babe bikini Jell-O wrestling.
I got sick of listening to O'Reilly and Hannity hawking their books and crap all the time. I won't watch either show because of this.
I would agree with most of that but I would settle for one thing: Bring back Tony Snow.
I also think they could/should have done better with Dennis Miller. I really enjoy him but his CNBC show is a mess. I don't want to see the monkey and I don't want to see him in a dorky chef's hat. I would watch a show where he has one or two guests in the first half hour for in-depth conversations and the second half be the varsity panel.
Get rid of Bill O'Reilly.
I have a suggestion.
Start your own cable news outlet and then you can do whatever you want.
Fox news will do whatever it takes to make money.
I think, though, that Fox does things pretty well right now. I'm surprised that some FReepers despair because it's not MORE conservative, not understanding that Fox can't trumpet "fair and balanced" if it tilts too much to one side. For such a comparatively young network, Fox has come a long, long way.
Dump Julian and Mike on F&F weekend, and put Jane Skinner, and Juliet Huddy in the End Chairs, with Tony Snow in the Middle
Oh, and I agree with Aggie -- bring back Tony Snow!
More bashing of libs/dems, more of their hot women like Laurie Dhue and Megyn Kendell!
Get rid of Dari Alexander. The woman can't read a simple sentence without three errors, and that isn't even counting her unnatural breathing pattern.
Fox & Friends Weekend reeks. I cannot stand Mike What's-his-name with the "blonde" hair. He is disgusting. I wonder how many other female viewers feel that way about him? Juliet Huddy is a bimbo. Julian is a nice guy, but unfortunately liberal.
I love Ollie North's program. After he has covered all the WAR STORIES, I would like him to do historically relevant events.
i.e. The French Revolution and France's decendancy into barbarism.
Stuff like that.
And now the most “_________” two minutes in television, the latest from the political grapevine:
Except for Fridays when Jim Angle hosts, every night Britt uses a different adjective to introduce the Grapevine. I've counted 11 different adjectives he uses, if anyone knows of more let me know.
1. Compelling
2. Engrossing
3. Absorbing
4. Scintillating
5. Captivating
6. Fascinating
7. Engaging
8. Telling
9. Intriguing
10. Interesting
11. Riveting
How about Juliet Huddy?
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