I am writing this column in a Washington hotel room at midnight. Whenever my room is upgraded, I always watch two TV sets, one with CNN on in the bedroom and another with Fox News on in the living room. Why do I do this? Because those two channels seem to represent completely different groups of American constituents.
When I have only one TV set in my hotel room, I try to watch CNN and Fox News semi-simultaneously by changing channels every 10 to 15 minutes. If you compare the ways how those two channels report the same news at the same time, you might feel as if you were in one country with two contradictory systems.
Of course, this is nothing new. According to Nielsen Media Research, the Fox News Channel, established by Rupert Murdoch in 1996 to attract conservative viewers, allegedly became the dominant subscription news network in the United States as early as in 2008. The market trend has reportedly not changed much since.