Fox and Friends Profiled from an Atlanta Point of View

Rodney Ho of the Atlanta Journal Constitution has profiled the morning show of Fox News, 'Fox and Friends, and also interviewed each of the three presenters.  The show, which easily beats its cable news rivals in the time slot continues to grow across the US, and is beginning to challenge for local audiences of local news operations.

Ho writes;

Last month, “Fox & Friends” averaged 1.1 million viewers nationally, triple CNN’s “American Morning,” from 6 to 9 a.m. weekdays, and up 20 percent year over year. Locally, it drew 62,000 viewers in Feburary, more doubling its 2007 average. Though it’s far behind WSB-TV, it has closed the gap with the local NBC and Fox affiliates (and beats WGCL-TV by a healthy margin.)

“It doesn’t surprise me,” said host Gretchen Carlson (above, in the middle), who has been on the show since 2006. “We get tons of emails and communication from Georgia.”

Michael Castengera, a media consultant and senior lecturer at the University of Georgia, is a bit baffled: “It must have something to do with Southern conservatism. And Fox knows how to play up emotional appeal.”

The hosts, for instance, don’t bother to hide their distaste for current health care reform and how the Democrats are trying to get the bill through without Republican support. “They’re shady,” host Steve Doocy said last Wednesday. “They’re doing this in a sneaky way.”

Read more here.

Acknowledgements: Inside Cable News