The Markets are “Killing” Fox News and the Free Press
Back on April 19, I wrote about the shocking decision by Fox News parent company Twenty-First Century Fox Inc (NASDAQ:FOX, NASDAQ:FOXA) to fire star journalist **Bill O'Reilly. The decision was a poor one from a number of perspectives. Primarily, it's a blow to conservatives and the institution of the free press. With Fox News sans O'Reilly, the liberal agenda will further proliferate its deadly propaganda.
The hard facts are undeniable. Last month, I said the following:
According to the Los Angeles Times, reruns of the O'Reilly Factor bettered the live broadcasts of rival networks. A high profile example is CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360," which draws about 1.4 million viewers on the initial broadcast. O'Reilly Factor reruns, on the other hand, average 1.65 million viewers, or an 18% discrepancy. That's pretty sad, demonstrating quantifiably the true unpopularity of the liberal agenda.
But without O'Reilly front-lining Fox News, the entire mainstream media conglomerate is now firmly leftist. Conservatives simply have no visible free press platform by which they can receive the real story. And don't get me started on the replacement shows for The O'Reilly Factor or The Kelly File . Fox News is now barely watchable.
This is further evidenced by growing rumors that Fox's old-guard Sean Hannity is about to be fired — or already has, according to the International Business Times. Advertisers are allegedly pulling out of his Hannity show, which if correct certainly spells the death knell. Nothing talks like the almighty dollar, and this was ultimately what booted Bill O'Reilly.
If Hannity is gone, I'm inclined to believe that this is part of a greater setup. Fox News would just be a caricature of itself, while the free press and ideological conservatives suffer an agonizing end. This gives the liberal agenda free reign to shape the hearts and minds of our nation.
Many will question what happened to Fox's cajones. A better inquiry, though, is the role that the markets have played in the destruction of the free press. None of these controversies at Fox News would have any weight were it not for the fact that its parent company is publicly traded. That is, it's really difficult to stay objective when you have sponsors and shareholders to please.
The role of the free press is to report the news — good, bad, or ugly. But how can the media stay objective when it has to cater to overwhelmingly strong financial interests? It's important to not be naive here. You can rest assured that certain stories are not being told because they do not align with either maintaining the false left-right paradigm, or the propagation of the globalist, liberal agenda.
Indeed, having media companies being publicly traded at all — either directly or through parent associations — is the exact antithesis of the free press. Certainly, it gives a new color to the phrase "fake news."