No-Spin Zones

The rise of the American cable news magazine and Bill O'Reilly

Bibliographic Data

ID7511560
AuthorsChristina Peters (0000-0002-5813-1674, corresponding author), Chris Peters
Year2010
Volume11
Issue6
Pages832-851
Publication date2010-04-17
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournalism Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1461-670X • E-ISSN: 1469-9699
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14616701003658390
OpenAlexW2136984553
LanguageEN
Citations received21
References cited22

Over the past decade a new breed of television journalism, what I term the cable news magazine, has risen to become the highest-rated programming on the cable news networks. Despite their popular appeal, and arguable status as the definitive genre of cable news, such broadcasts receive scant academic attention. This paper analyses the most prominent of these cable magazines, The O'Reilly Factor, on Fox News. I argue that through performing belief, The Factor “re-makes the news” in a manner that lowers the threshold demanded under journalism's traditional rules of truth. Yet surprisingly, the show also adheres to, or at least lauds, many traditional tenets of the objectivity regime. What is novel, and what possibly accounts for its popularity, is the wilful intertwining of belief, journalistic involvement, and truth-claims in a brazen fashion; a dramatic departure from the cool style which epitomised twentieth-century journalism

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