Fox News celebrates its 25th anniversary

Fox News

The Rupert Murdoch-owned conservative cable news channel launched on Oct. 7, 1996, three months after the debut of MSNBC. "It was a bold innovation, everybody laughed, nobody thought it would be successful. Not only did we very quickly become No. 1 but we’ve been able to maintain that No. 1 position for a long period of time," Sean Hannity said this morning on Fox & Friends. Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott told staffers in an email today: "25 years ago today, FOX News Channel went live for the very first time. After months of hiring and construction, and weeks of rehearsals, we had our first show at 6:00 AM ET. Critics didn’t give us much of a chance. After all, we were going up against Microsoft, GE and Time Warner, and were available in fewer homes. They predicted we’d give up within months and quickly flop."

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• How Fox News changed America: "For all the rightful scrutiny of Facebook in recent days, let's recognize that Fox is corrosive too -- maybe even more so," says CNN Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter. "Fox is spawning so many copycats, like One America News, that it's easy to picture an entire right-wing media universe with Murdoch's creation as the foundation. So Fox's quarter-century anniversary is a chance to consider its impacts on the country. The network will be in full-blown celebration mode on Thursday, with a birthday-themed edition of Fox & Friends full of surprises. Promotional vignettes will keep airing all week long. A one-hour special premiered last Sunday. But for the families that feel like they've been torn apart by Fox, this is not a happy anniversary."
• Fox News has spent 25 years making everyone's lives progressively crappier
• The Daily Show celebrates Fox News' anniversary with "25 Years of Sexual Harassment"