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cable news
The development of cable news in the United States began with the launch of the Cable News Network (CNN) on cable television on June 1, 1980. Although CNN and its later competitors took years to gain a strong foothold in the U.S. broadcast news market, by the 1990s, the cable news channels or networks had become significant and powerful media organizations as viewership declined or stagnated for the evening news reports of the broadcasting networks (NBC, CBS, and ABC).
Cable news channels focus on news coverage all day, every day. In addition to breaking news reports, these channels often broadcast shows devoted to commentary, especially regarding politics, as well as longer specials or documentaries, some of which blur the lines between entertainment or advocacy and journalism. The networks have attracted criticism for their real or perceived political biases and emphasis on sensation stories, their use of outrage and conflict among commentators and invited panelists, and the ubiquitous, if not always distracting, crawls or news alerts (chyrons) across the lower portion of the television screen.
By the 2010s, although the U.S. market included several smaller niche players and specialized channels (e.g., weather and sports), cable news came to be dominated by three large media organizations and their affiliates: CNN, the Fox News Channel, and MSNBC (renamed MS NOW in 2025). After discussing each of these in turn, the entry continues with a discussion of the regional or niche cable news channels and other alternatives to the three dominant U.S. cable news organizations, concluding with a summary of the criticisms commonly leveled at the cable news networks.
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CNN, breaking news, and the rise of a new medium in American journalism
In the early years following its founding by entrepreneur Ted Turner, CNN struggled to find and maintain an audience and journalistic credibility. The new network had anchors, but at least during the early years, its focus consisted of the news and the reports of correspondents and not the personalities of the anchors. CNN quickly established bureaus around the United States and the world. In 1982, Turner and his Turner Broadcasting System started an affiliate, Headline News (renamed HLN in 2008 but shuttered as a live-news channel in 2022), which catered to viewers wanting quick news updates every 30 minutes. CNN International, with its emphasis on international reports, came along in 1985. By 1989, CNN was available in 65 countries, but the new network hardly disturbed the dominance of the major broadcast networks or newspapers for the first 10 years of its existence.
During the Persian Gulf War, the beginning of the military campaign by the United States and its allies against Iraq (known as Operation Desert Storm) on January 16, 1991, changed the fortunes of CNN and the status of cable news. As the campaign began, CNN alone had correspondents in and reporting from Baghdad. The live and riveting reports by such CNN reporters as Peter Arnett, Bernard Shaw, and John Holliman lacked live videography during the initial hours of the military operations, but nonetheless dramatically described the events much as famous CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow had described on radio the Nazi bombing of London early in World War II.
Even without the live images, countless other television stations and networks in the United States and internationally carried the CNN reports. This gave an estimated minimum of one billion viewers around the world an introduction to CNN and helped make CNN a respected news organization with which the broadcast networks had to compete. Combining this new credibility and image with the growth of prime-time talk shows such as Larry King Live and The Capitol Gang, CNN in the 1990s gained international prominence and strong ratings.
A new term, the CNN effect, captured this increasing prominence built on its path-breaking coverage of the Gulf War and the other crises of the 1990s. Coined by Pentagon officials and others in reference to the impact of real-time, 24-hour news coverage on global events and on public policy, the CNN effect also signaled the importance of cable news in the United States. Competition from Fox News, MSNBC, and others soon developed, and CNN experimented with other affiliated offerings and new technologies. CNN in 2007, for example, was the first cable news network to convert to high-definition broadcasting.
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Although the network would later see its ratings slip, its reputation for strong coverage of breaking events and crises remained relatively strong, though not necessarily in the lead, in the early 2000s. CNN was the first cable network to cover the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The network’s coverage of other major crises from the tsunami in Japan and NATO airstrikes in Libya in 2011 to its coverage of the U.S. presidential elections periodically boosted its ratings, but after 2002, Fox News was increasingly more watched than CNN among U.S. cable news networks.
In 2019, CNN occupied third place in terms of the ratings for the cable news networks, behind Fox News and MSNBC, with an average of 972,000 viewers. While at times critics suggested CNN sensationalizes its coverage of crises, critics coincidentally also derided CNN for its perceived attempts to be the politically neutral, balanced network—a criticism rarely, if ever, leveled at its chief competitors, Fox News and MSNBC.
The Fox News Channel and the Fox effect
News Corporation (founded by media titan Rupert Murdoch) launched the Fox News Channel in 1996 to appeal to a right-of-center, politically conservative audience. Fox News grew into the cable network with the highest ratings, previously marketing itself as the network for “Fair and Balanced” news reports and using such other slogans as “We Report. You Decide” and “Most Watched. Most Trusted.” Fox News, under the guidance of Murdoch, Roger Ailes, and Bill Shine, used its right-leaning programming to build a ratings juggernaut with its prime-time lineup of commentators that once included the likes of Bill O’Reilly’s The O’Reilly Factor and later included shows hosted by Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity. In 2019 Fox News was the top-rated U.S. cable news network, averaging a reported 2.5 million viewers.
Fox News climbed to the top of the ratings heap by innovating in terms of not only content but business strategies as well. To pick up space with more cable systems, it reversed the standard practice of requiring that cable systems pay stations carriage fees for using a channel’s programming, and instead it paid systems a per-subscriber fee to carry Fox News. Fox also enlisted the assistance of the now former mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani, to convince Time Warner Cable to carry Fox News in the city.
Just as CNN launched its various affiliated channels, News Corporation launched some of its own, including a financial news network called Fox Business Network, touted by Murdoch and others at Fox as an alternative to the channels that were not perceived as business friendly. Fox News converted high-definition broadcasting in 2008 and was providing service to 86 countries and territories by 2019.
In addition to its right-leaning, Republican Party–supporting programs, Fox News has from its start invested heavily in its colorful and dramatic graphics or visual presentations as a means of attracting viewers and holding their attention. Fox News launched the now common “Fox News Alert” to interrupt its regular programming when a breaking news story occurred and whenever the network wanted to emphasize an issue. The network also used on-screen text and bullet points to summarize and bring home its messages to the viewers. As the September 11, 2001 attacks unfolded, Fox News innovated again by using a news ticker on the bottom of the screen to update viewers with new information on a continuous basis.
As successful as Fox News has been at building viewership and a brand based on offering an alternative to what it sees as a liberal bias among other media, it has had its missteps and critics. In 2003, the network unsuccessfully sued comedian Al Franken (before he became a senator) over the title of his book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. Fox claimed Franken had infringed its trademark by using “Fair and Balanced” on the cover of the book. The cover also used an unflattering picture of O’Reilly, who complained vociferously about it, and included in its text serious criticism of Fox News. Three days after a federal judge denied the Fox request for an injunction and seriously questioned the entire basis of the suit, Fox dropped it. By that time, the publicity helped Franken’s book rise to the top of various best sellers lists.
In 2004, Robert Greenwald released a documentary film titled Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism, a thoroughly documented critique using footage recorded of Fox News news reports and commentary as well as leaked internal memoranda and interviews with former Fox employees to make that case that Fox News blurred the line between journalism and political advocacy to support the Republican Party and conservative causes.
In July 2016, Ailes resigned following a series of news reports about sexual harassment and misconduct allegations from Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson and several other women, including Megyn Kelly. Ailes received $40 million from 21st Century Fox (which was at the time the parent company of Fox News) as part of his separation. O’Reilly, who had been with Fox News since 1996 and had for many years hosted his very popular evening talk show, became the subject of media reports in The New York Times and then other news organizations about his multimillion-dollar settlements with various women who had accused him of sexual harassment. Fox terminated O’Reilly in April 2017.
Without question, the hallmark and central business strategy for Fox News has been its right-leaning news coverage and commentary. Executives with the network from Murdoch through Ailes and many others have made no secret of this approach. In the years following the departure of Ailes, many critics further assailed the network for eroding any line between news reporting and commentary and political advocacy.
For example, Fox News prime-time host Sean Hannity has had an acknowledged close relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump, one that began during the 2016 campaign and subsequently grew stronger. Hannity appeared at campaign events, repeated Trump’s attacks on the media and others, and unabashedly defended Trump in all matters on air. In April 2018, immediately after federal agents raided the office of Michael Cohen, President Trump’s personal lawyer, Hannity attacked the actions by special counsel Robert Mueller without disclosing that he had also been advised by Cohen. This relationship came to light days later and only after questions by the judge in a court hearing over the raid. Fox News expressed its strong support for Hannity.
Fox News grew to be a powerful influence in U.S. politics and media during the 2010s and 2020s. The term the Fox effect has entered the lexicon to signify that influence. Dating back to a 2006 working paper titled “The Fox News Effect: Media Bias and Voting,” subsequently published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, this effect signified the impact of Fox News on elections, voter share, and voter turnout in presidential elections. A later 2012 book, The Fox Effect: How Roger Ailes Turned a Network into a Propaganda Machine, by David Brock and Ari Rabin-Havt, further documented the growing influence of the network and its partisan orientation.
MSNBC and a third way in U.S. cable news
MSNBC and its companion website (msnbc.com) began on July 15, 1996, as a partnership between Microsoft and the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), which was then owned by General Electric. MSNBC and the website had separate business and news operations. The Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington, housed the website. The NBC headquarters in New York City housed MSNBC. Microsoft pulled out of the MSNBC channel in 2005 and msnbc.com in 2012. NBC used NBCNews.com as its news website and msnbc.com for the online version of MSNBC. In 2025 MSNBC changed its name to MS NOW to signal its separation from NBCUniversal (part of Comcast), which spun the network and several others off into a new company.
In 2019, MSNBC ranked second to Fox News among the U.S. cable news networks with an average of 1.8 million viewers. Many consider it to be a liberal-leaning alternative to Fox News, though it did not start that way. In the early years, MSNBC tended toward stories that were longer and more involved than those typically found on the other cable news networks. MSNBC drew on its ties to NBC News to report breaking news and air stories by affiliated news organizations. The network also quickly focused more and more on political news.
During its early years, MSNBC included a variety of serious journalists such as John Seigenthaler and liberal commentators and contributors, but also people decidedly to the right of center and now more likely to be found on Fox News or similar outlets (e.g., Laura Ingraham, John Gibson, Ann Coulter, and Tucker Carlson).
In late 2005, MSNBC began changing its apparent strategy as NBC acquired greater control over the network and changes in management occurred. The network at that time started overtly appealing to more liberal and progressive viewers with such hosts as Keith Olbermann, who became quickly known for his sarcastic, biting commentary on politics and Fox News and its conservative media personalities, especially O’Reilly. Olbermann was soon joined in the MSNBC on-air prime-time schedule by Chris Matthews, Rachel Maddow, and other liberal commentators and hosts.
Following the changes initiated in 2005 and revisions to its lineup of shows, the network had some ratings successes and some challenges as it vied with CNN for second place behind Fox News. In its 2013 “State of the News Media” report, the Pew Research Center concluded that MSNBC was the most opinionated news network. The study identified 85 percent of MSNBC’s programming as commentary or opinion and only 15 percent being factual reporting, on which the network spent much less than its two competitors.
Not long after this report, MSNBC shifted its strategy. To reinvigorate its ratings and market identity, the network in mid-2015 moved away from positioning itself as an opinion-oriented, more liberal alternative to Fox News and toward being a network that emphasized solid and in-depth news reporting. Although the network kept its early morning and prime-time opinion-oriented programming, it canceled daytime talk and opinion shows and replaced them with news marketed as NBC News shows. MSNBC gained ground in the ratings contest and in May 2017 achieved a first-place ranking for the first time among the U.S. cable news networks, though that title soon returned to Fox News, with MSNBC occupying a strong second place.
Niche cable news channels and other alternatives to the big three in the United States
Although Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC came to dominate the U.S. market for cable news during the 2010s, other media entities, smaller and regional or local, also exist. The availability of these cable channels varies widely by region and depending on the cable or satellite service used by the viewer, though as with the other networks just about all of them also operate online and through streaming services as well. Many cater to specific interests, and a few are international.
One of the innovative channels, NewsyTV, began in 2008 for the purpose of producing video-based stories that were compatible with mobile devices and the web, some of which Newsy sold to other media outlets. E.W. Scripps acquired the fledgling network in 2014, realigning some of its programming and helping to turn it into a national network aimed at younger adult viewers through various cable, online, and streaming services and devices.
Apart from the emphasis on national news, several regional or local 24-hour news networks operate in New York City, New England, the Pacific Northwest, Texas, Florida, and other U.S. metropolitan areas. None of these local or regional channels has built a significant viewership.
Other niche players have loyal and dedicated viewers based on their appeal to specific interests, from sports to the weather or finance. In the world of financial news, CNBC became the dominant player. Originally launched as the Consumer News and Business Channel (hence, CNBC) in 1989 by NBC and Cablevision, the network acquired in 1991 its then chief competitor, the Financial News Network, and solidified its grip on this segment of the market with its combination of daytime, continuous news about business and the markets, and evening business analysis, documentaries, and talk shows. It acquired strong competition in 1994 with the inauguration of Bloomberg Television and its many international channels, and in 2007 with the new Fox Business News. Along with MSNBC and other legacy cable networks, CNBC was spun off from NBCUniversal in 2025.
News about the weather and sports also provides the basis for several cable channels in the United States. The dominant entities in terms of weather include the Weather Channel and AccuWeather, with their combination of national and local or regional reports and longer climate-based stories or documentaries. In terms of sports news, in addition to the networks that carry sporting events, there is ESPNews, owned by the Disney Company and its subsidiary ESPN, and others focused on news about national sport, college athletics, and related issues.
Some smaller networks openly market themselves on the basis of their avowed ideological or political orientation. Glenn Beck and other conservatives, for example, launched the right-wing website called TheBlaze in 2010 and it eventually developed into BlazeTV.
Joining BlazeTV in the decidedly right-of-center cable space are two other conservative channels, Newsmax TV and the One America Network. Newsmax Media, which operates conservative-oriented websites and print media, launched Newsmax TV in 2014. This niche channel uses a rolling news format, conservative talk shows, and the occasional documentary. The family-owned Herring Networks, Inc., started the One America News Network in 2013 to cater to a right-wing audience with political news and unabashedly pro-Trump stories and to compete with Fox News. Various media watchers have criticized One America News Network for airing false stories and conspiracies as news.
Several international or foreign news entities have also operated through U.S. cable or satellite broadcast systems or through streaming services. Although these are not major players in the U.S. cable news market, they do serve niche audiences. These include several cable news offerings focusing on news from Russia, China and elsewhere in Asia, and the Middle East, each of which has varying levels of funding and editorial control from national governments. Lastly, there is BBC World News, which is not focused specifically on the United States. As the international arm of the British Broadcasting Service, this network is estimated to reach over 120 million viewers across the globe and to have some the highest viewer trust ratings of any network in the United States.
C-SPAN, a minimally filtered alternative among the cable news channels
The Cable Satellite Public Affairs Network, otherwise known as C-SPAN, offers the cable viewer a means of viewing congressional hearings, government agency hearings, some international coverage, and many other events directly and with no interpretation or filtering through news anchors or other on-air personalities. C-SPAN covers many of these hearings and events from start to finish. In 2019, an estimated 100 million-plus U.S. households had access to C-SPAN programming, and that number does not include the access provided through the network’s affiliated radio, websites, and streaming services.
C-SPAN came to fruition in 1979 with the founding of the nonprofit, independent, and private National Cable Satellite Corporation. Although the cable industry started the new network and retains seats on its board of directors, C-SPAN operates independently of both the cable industry and U.S. government. C-SPAN, which has three channels (C-SPAN 1, 2, and 3), carries no advertising, receives no federal funding, and does not solicit viewer contributions. C-SPAN is funded through a very low subscriber-based charge or fee paid by the cable companies and direct satellite broadcasters. Consistent with its emphasis on public affairs programming, the network also carries occasional shows about history as well as nonfiction book reviews. The network is headquartered in Washington, D.C.
Although liberal and media watchdog organizations have occasionally criticized the network for a conservative bias in its selection of guests for panel discussions and for underrepresenting people of color, the network has also been credited with enhancing the state of the public’s understanding of national affairs, for its educational value, and for its generally balanced, neutral coverage of government and public affairs.
Structural and journalistic concerns with 24-hour cable news networks
Among the most common criticisms leveled at the cable news networks are the inevitable difficulties and programming imperatives associated with broadcasting 24 hours a day, every day. The cable news networks must constantly search for stories and report conflicts to keep viewers watching. One concern is the impact this relentless drumbeat of on-air coverage has on policymakers, politicians, and the public. Another concern reflects the apparent movement by some networks, shows, and hosts to promote conflict among guests and in society as a means of building ratings. Several networks have, by design or otherwise, moved toward the coverage of political conflict as a form of branding and entertainment with little regard for actual news reporting or without regard for setting clear boundaries between opinion or commentary and factual reporting of the news. As the line between advocacy and reporting grounded in fact and the principles of journalism continues to fade, critics fear the public’s trust will fade as well.
The original version of this article was published by SAGE Publications in The SAGE Encyclopedia of Journalism.