The next time your grandfather wags his finger at you and says, “… but Fox News is fair and balanced,” you can correct him. According to The New York Times, the cable news channel confirmed yesterday that it had dropped its famous “Fair and Balanced” motto. (A second motto, “We Report, You Decide,” has also been nixed.)
It’s part of Fox News’ attempt to distance itself from its old guard—the one marred by sexual harassment lawsuits, Bill O’Reilly‘s fall from grace, and the late Roger Ailes (the motto dates back to his tenure at the network).
As the Times points out, the slogan was sort of a call-to-arms for conservative-leaning views, who assumed a liberal bias in the TV news media. But it also “… caused conniptions among liberal critics of Fox News, who viewed [the motto] as an intentional needling of anyone who might question the network’s view of the news.”
The channel’s new motto? “Most Watched, Most Trusted”—which ironically, was only half true last month, as MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow sat atop the cable news ratings (Fox News was third).
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