The End of an Era: Fox News Is No Longer "Fair and Balanced"

A security guard looks out of the the News Corp. headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, Wednesday, April 19, 2017. Bill O'Reilly has lost his job at Fox News Channel following reports that five women had been paid millions of dollars to keep quiet about harassment allegations. 21st Century Fox issued a statement Wednesday that "after a thorough and careful review of the allegations, the company and Bill O'Reilly have agreed that Bill O'Reilly will not be returning to the Fox News Channel. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Fox News is no longer “fair and balanced.”

Who knew?

Actually, as reported by New York Magazine today, the cable news network is dropping its long-held slogan, “Fair & Balanced.”

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In a decision that was made last August, the network will be switching gears – new slogan to go along with the new lineup and new leadership.

The slogan was actually a creation of Roger Ailes, the former CEO of Fox News, and had been in use by the network since the beginning, back in 1996. The notion that it should now be replaced follows the ouster of Ailes. Some have also pointed out that it has been widely mocked.

Inside Fox, Ailes held “Fair & Balanced” seminars with staff members. “He would call a group of senior producers and make you watch the channel and he’d point out stuff, like a banner that’s slightly liberal,” a senior producer told me. “He would say, ‘The news is like a ship. If you take hands off the wheel, it pulls hard to the left.’” Ailes also used “Fair & Balanced” when making hiring decisions, such as saying a job candidate “wasn’t ‘fair & balanced,’” because the person went to a college he didn’t like.

A Fox News spokesperson confirmed that the network is dropping the slogan but said the branding change won’t affect programming or editorial decisions.

The new slogan isn’t actually new. It operated as sort of a backup for years.

The new Fox News slogan to remember is: “Most watched. Most trusted.”

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