FOX News Channel

The stars of Fox News Channel aren't news anchors like Peter Jennings or Anderson Cooper, but pundits like Bill O'Reilly — and that seems to be just how the network wants it.

Rupert Murdoch, with the help of former political operative Roger Ailes, launched Fox News in 1996 as a counterbalance to what he saw as CNN's liberal bias. (Hence the network's most well-known slogan, "Fair and Balanced.") Like CNN and its other cable news competitor, MSNBC, Fox News features a mix of around-the-clock news updates and opinion shows. Although the network has at times provided newsmagazines and news segments to FOX's affiliates, it generally keeps its national news broadcasts and live event coverage separate from that of its sister network.

The network's news coverage has sometimes been criticized as flashy and/or biased, and some of the commentators — most notably Bill O'Reilly — have stirred up controversy for their opinions (and the inflammatory fashion in which they voiced them). Despite the criticisms, 11 percent of Americans, according to a 2006 Reuters/BBC poll, trust Fox News more than any other news source in the U.S., and the network continues to rival CNN and MSNBC in viewer ratings.

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-- A. Wu