"WE REPORT THE NEWS, YOU SUCK IT UP" >> New 'Slow Burn' Season Reveals Real History of Fox News Network

On the Media

with Brooke Gladstone

WNYC’s weekly investigation into how the media shapes our worldview. 

Hosts Brooke Gladstone and Micah Loewinger introduce Slow Burn’s host Josh Levin. 

Levin spoke with the hosts, reporters, and producers who built Fox News, many who’ve never spoken publicly before. 

And you’ll hear from Fox’s victims, who are still coming to terms with how the channel upended their lives.

Further reading / listening: 

Slow Burn: The Rise of Fox News - SEASON 10

Crazy Like a FOX: 

The Inside Story of How Fox News Beat CNN, by Scott. Collins

Murdoch’s World: The Last of the Old Media Empires, by David Folkenflik 

How to Steal an Election: The Inside Story of How George Bush’s Brother and FOX Network Miscalled the 2000 Election and Changed the Course of History, by David W. Moore

The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News-and Divided a Country, by Gabriel Sherman

A portion of this episode originally aired on our September 25, 2024 podcast, OTM Presents Ep. 1 of Slow Burn's The Rise of Fox News: We Report. You Can Suck It

On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.

OTM Presents Ep. 1 of Slow Burn's The Rise of Fox News

Fox News: New Slow Burn season reveals the real history of the network.

THE MEDIA

How Fox News Became Fox News

Slow Burn Season 10 reveals the real history of how Fox became a political and cultural kingmaker.

SEPT 18, 20245:40 AM

Illustration by Slate. Photo by Getty Images Plus.

TWEETSHARECOMMENT

These days, Fox News—and its power—is a given part of political life. But Fox becomes top of mind each election season, when even casual politics-watchers have to pay attention to what the network has to say. (This Slate piece from last week, which focused on Fox News’ take on the presidential debate, was so widely read that it helped the site set a traffic record for the year.) So it makes perfect sense that on the eve of this year’s presidential election, the 10th season of Slow Burn, Slate’s lauded investigative history podcast, would focus on how the network became the Fox News we know today.

Slow Burn: The Rise of Fox News is a must-listen—not only to understand how the network’s identity was shaped in the early aughts, but also to process why attempts to prevent the network from gaining traction in its nascent years failed. For those of us who lived through the chaos of the 2000 election, the surge of patriotism after 9/11, the march to Iraq, the rise of the internet, and John Kerry’s humiliating loss to George W. Bush in 2004, this season is a reminder that it wasn’t at all a simpler time—and that there are plenty of through lines from then to now.

I asked host Josh Levin a few questions about the season over email. You can (and should!) listen to it here, here, or here.

Hillary Frey: Josh, where did the idea to dig into Fox News this way come from?

Josh Levin: I’ve worked on Slow Burn from the beginning in a behind-the-scenes role, starting with Leon Neyfakh’s exploration of what it felt like to live through Watergate and going all the way through Christina Cauterucci’s look at America’s first big political fight over gay rights. (I also hosted Season 4 on the political rise of David Duke. Check that one out when you’re done with Season 10!)

 VIEW TRANSCRIPT

• The Presidential Election That Put Fox News On the Map

  Oct 11, 2024

  When Fox News launched in 1996, critics joked about its incompetence. But just a few years later, the network proved itself to be a political force. On this week’s On the Media, hear ...