Fox News Election Coverage: Style Over Substance

Fox News went big on election night in more ways than one. Its coverage was littered with electronic bells and whistles meant to impress, along with a plethora of big-name panelists lined up at its election central desk. This was court-packing on a media scale, with pundits and experts crammed into a seemingly endless row of humanity that spilled over to other studios at the Times Square headquarters. However, the ostentatious scale of its midterm coverage was so grandiose that Fox appeared to forget the basics of election coverage – which is the business of informing those who are watching.

There is such a thing as over-correction, which appears to be the virus that overwhelmed Fox executives. In 2020, the Murdoch-run cable network took heat from its viewership in calling the state of Arizona for Joe Biden early in the evening. It was a fair criticism. One can only surmise that Fox head honchos decided to lavish its viewers with smoke and mirrors in the hopes that they wouldn’t notice the restaurant had run out of food.

As the digitally-projected giant clock on the studio floor ticked to the top of the hour – when the critical races are either called or updated – Fox viewers were often left staring at empty graphics. Folks at the network appeared to be living in fear of calling any remotely close race – so much so that they forgot to put up basic information like how much of the vote was in and the percentages of the candidates. It was a theater of the absurd.

At one point, a race had been called by the other news outlets, the loser had conceded, and still, Bret Baier could be heard yelling off camera, “No, no, we have not called that race.” After a while, it seemed the most intelligent thing to do was hit the mute button and watch the results at the bottom of the screen. But even those numbers were cycling through at such a rapid pace, the viewer had to have remote in hand to halt the DVR broadcast to read the information.

Meanwhile, the Fox News Panel Sat Idle

Fox’s election coverage moved at such a frenetic pace, it felt like someone with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder had choreographed the program. Instead of having a few heavyweights who would be given precious airtime to inform viewers, Fox underutilized its panel of experts. Like him or not, Karl Rove and his trusty whiteboard work because he knows the voting history of every county in every state. Likewise, Katie Pavlich is very well-informed and could have brought much to the discussion if she had been permitted more than 15 seconds to speak. Then there was Kellyanne Conway, who couldn’t get a word in edgewise because she had to compete with many others. With so many experts, the discussion became disjointed, leaving viewers with less content rather than more. A Georgia resident and loyal Liberty Nation reader wrote, “My husband said that all the commentators were too much and all over the place – so much so that he found it hard to follow.”

It was as if Fox executives got drunk one night trying to determine who to have on the election panel and just decided to hell with it – why not just have everyone? But all commentators are not created equal. As one Liberty Nation reader commented, “Sometimes I took a short nap when Brit Hume was talking.”

Lord, Save Us From the People Panels

Someone upstairs at Fox believes viewers love watching regular folks across America. It’s a bit of a hokey schtick that pretty much went out of style in the 1980s. They take their viewers to diners playing country music at 6 a.m. They orchestrate focus groups that are supposed to represent “ordinary Americans” and station Fox anchors at bars with US flags painted on the walls. What network execs seem to forget is that those who watch Fox are ordinary Americans. They are talking to people that their viewers already speak with regularly. What they don’t seem to comprehend is that their loyal followers tune in to hear from folks who are not sitting on the opposite side of the dinner table.

One Washington luminary told Liberty Nation that he refuses to go on Fox any longer because he would spend a ton of time getting ready for and traveling to the DC studios and then get less than one minute on-camera. “It’s a total waste of time,” he asserted.

One does wonder, what’s the hurry? Fox News has a 24/7 broadcast. Why get a VIP in the studio to reduce their on-camera presence to 90 seconds? What horrible thing would happen if experts were permitted to have enough time to go beyond the superficial?

Moreover, Fox would be wise to stop the stereotyping of its audience. Not everyone who watches the cable outlet has a Dixie flag and a gun rack on the back of their truck. Some don’t even hang out at diners or listen to country music. And on election night, viewers are not tuning in for Spielberg-style gizmos like flying cameras mounted on jibs. Executives might be well advised to take some ADD meds, present the news and information accurately, and stop all the corny gimmicks.