The Fox is dying.
Fox News, that is.
For the past couple years, the cable news channel most conservatives trust has been hemorrhaging viewers, due in part to the fact that the average age of prime time Fox viewers is 68 (including President Donald Trump).
Most younger audiences are looking to alternative internet sources (like this one) for their news, shaking the strength of the trance the right-wing media cornerstone has previously enjoyed.
Now a transnational media company is doing something to reach out to impressionable audiences in their teens and twenties.
Meet Circa.
Circa is one of more than 170 media outlets Sinclair Media Broadcast Group owns or operates. As its reach expands, it is threatening to become a formidable challenger to Fox. Sinclair is fast gaining the nickname of “Trump TV.”
For months, multiple media organizations have noticed Circa‘s stories on the ongoing investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 election. One of the latest was Thursday, when it reported:
“[General counsel James A Baker was] the top suspect in an ongoing leak investigation, [having allegedly leaked] classified national security information to the media.”
The piece cited “multiple government officials close to the probe” who spoke “on the condition of anonymity,” adding that an FBI spokeswoman declined to comment.
Last Thursday, MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow examined how the story pandered to the Trump administration’s “counter-narrative” surrounding the Russia investigation. Maddow called Circa:
“[A] pro-Trump conservative media outlet…emerging as kind of a successor to Breitbart News.”
Maddow questioned why three FBI officials had been either fired or were coming under public attack when they might have served as witnesses in the investigation into the president’s potential interference in the Russia investigation when he fired former FBI director James Comey.
She said:
“Of the six potential witnesses against the president … three of them are now in the barrel.”
About the Circa story, Maddow stated it concerns her because:
“Whether it’s just a pro-Trump conservative media threat or whether it’s a true report of a real criminal investigation launched by Sessions and the justice department.”
Media Bias/Fact Check, a website dedicated to rating media partisanship, rates Circa as “Least biased,” right in the middle of a rating scale ranging from “Extreme Left” to “Extreme Right.”
This is interesting when we consider the types of stories Circa selects and what it chooses to omit, namely negative criticism of Donald Trump and his administration. Fox News also frequently features Circa reporters.
Could Circa be the new incarnation of Fox News?
Could it carry Trump’s water the way the others are “failing?”
Featured image from YouTube video.
