Many news reports on television, for example, are merely follow-up stories about news that first appeared in newspapers. In other words, newspapers are often the first to break a story.  The top American newspapers all lean sharply to the left.  Newspapers like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times, often set the agenda for many other media sources.

The main broadcast media networks each have a news division that broadcasts a nightly news show. For the past fifty years, most Americans watched one or more of these broadcasts fairly consistently.  But, since the 1980s, cable news channels have chipped away at the broadcast networks.  In short, variety produces competition.  CNN and MSNBC both broadcast news around the clock. And because the cable news channels are always broadcasting news programs, many people who want to follow a story closely tune in to these stations first.  All major news outlets lean very far to the left in their reporting, save one.

The relatively new Fox network news program has drawn numerous viewers away from the big three networks.  Again, it’s an example of variety breeding competition.  For years all mainstream broadcast news media outlets were unabashedly biased toward the left.  Until recently, there was no competition.  Once the public was given the choice, their preference became clear.  As of July 2014, It has reached the 147th consecutive month at the number one spot in total viewers among cable news networks, in both total day and primetime.