CNBC Prepares for a Savage Beating as Fox Business Network Debuts

http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/fox_cnbc_business_news/2007/10/14/40801.html

Fox-CNBC War Starts Monday

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Anchorman Neil Cavuto is leading a new Fox News business channel into battle

against CNBC - with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. on his side.

The war for business viewers between Fox News and CNBC begins with the

Monday launch of the Fox Business Network - and Fox enters the fray with

plenty of ammunition.

There's Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto, who has spearheaded development of FBN

as Fox News' senior vice president of business news.

Cavuto was earlier involved in a Fox-CNBC clash of sorts when he was lured

away from CNBC by Fox in 1996.

Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, the mastermind behind the phenomenal success of

the Fox News Channel - who was also lured away from CNBC - is overseeing the

new venture.

Then there's Fox News' parent News Corp.'s recent $5 billion deal to

purchase Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal, a marriage that offers

limitless possibilities for the new television business channel.

And there's the power of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. itself, a media

behemoth with more than 47,000 employees and revenue of some $28 billion

last year.

Rumors about a possible Fox News-developed business channel have floated

around for years, but officials at the company didn't formally announce

plans to unveil the channel until this year.

FBN has been extremely tight lipped about their plans. Fox execs have

already claimed that when word leaked out they planned a reality show from

Wall Street's nearby bars, CNBC began poaching the idea.

''I have to be careful what I say about our plans, because anything I

mention, I'll see on CNBC this afternoon,'' Ailes was quoted in a Miami

Herald report. "One time I put it out that we were thinking of doing

business news in cartoon form only. I understand they had meetings about

that -- 'Jesus, if he goes to cartoons, what will that mean?' ''

But Ailes is promising big editorial differences with CNBC. He says FBN's

focus will be more "Main Street" than "Wall Street."

''They're very market-centric,'' he said. "They spend a lot of time on last

quarter's earnings. I watched damn near an hour one afternoon while they

beat up on some poor company over its quarterly report.

"Small business creates the most jobs in America. They don't do much with

small business. We'll do more than that. There will be differences in the

presentation aspects, too. . . . I think most people would agree that Fox

News is presented differently than CNN. Fox Business will be presented

differently than CNBC.''

FBN is expected to debut in at least 30 million households, about one third

of CNBC's reach and even less than Bloomberg TV's.

But the stakes are high. CNBC reportedly brings in $245 million a year in

advertising, and infomercial telecasts and subscriber fees from cable and

satellite TV distributors brought its total revenue to $680 million in 2006,

according TV Week magazine.

Officials at Fox News have been keeping their battle plans more or less

under wraps, but Rupert Murdoch has criticized CNBC for being too "negative

toward business" and said FBN would be more "business-friendly."

An early skirmish between FBN and CNBC is brewing following Murdoch's

purchase of Dow Jones. CNBC parent General Electric has an exclusive deal

with Dow Jones for business content that runs through 2012.

Insiders say that to the extent FBN seeks to capitalize on Dow Jones stories

and reporters, CNBC would likely consider this an intrusion on their

contract.

Murdoch has described the deal with GE as an "obstacle," but tells reporters

no talks are under way to buy out GE's interest. That makes it likely FBN

will see a lot of the Dow Jones brand on CNBC.

On another front, Fox has tried to lure Jim Cramer away from CNBC, according

to Business Week, and will probably approach Maria Bartiromo when her CNBC

contract expires in two years.

CNBC executives aren't worried about the looming battle of business

networks - at least outwardly.

"We've had competition before, we have competition right now, and we'll have

it in the future," CNBC spokesman Kevin Goldman told NewsMax.

"Competition has never been something we take lightly, but it's also never

been our focus."

But CNBC is already making changes to its lineup "in advance of the launch"

of FBN, Media Week magazine reported. The network has announced that on Oct.

10 it would pull the plug on the 7 p.m. Dylan Ratigan program "On the

Money," move "Fast Money with Dylan Ratigan" from 8 p.m. to 5 p.m., and

shift "Kudlow & Company" from 5 p.m. to the 7 p.m. slot.

Cavuto is aware of the tough battle ahead, but he's definitely psyched up

for the fight.

"I'm quite realistic about entrenched players like CNBC and Bloomberg," he

told NewsMax.

"I know full well what we're up against. I'm not arrogant enough to say we're

going to come out of the gate and do this or that. I just know that we've

got the makings of something very exciting."

Patriot Games wrote:

Analysis of these seven regimes reveals fourteen common threads that

link them in recognizable patterns of national behavior and abuse of

power. These basic characteristics are more prevalent and intense in

some regimes than in others, but they all share at least some level of

similarity.

1. Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism. From the

prominent displays of flags and bunting to the ubiquitous lapel pins,

the fervor to show patriotic nationalism, both on the part of the regime

itself and of citizens caught up in its frenzy, was always obvious.

Catchy slogans, pride in the military, and demands for unity were common

themes in expressing this nationalism. It was usually coupled with a

suspicion of things foreign that often bordered on xenophobia.

2. Disdain for the importance of human rights. The regimes themselves

viewed human rights as of little value and a hindrance to realizing the

objectives of the ruling elite. Through clever use of propaganda, the

population was brought to accept these human rights abuses by

marginalizing, even demonizing, those being targeted. When abuse was

egregious, the tactic was to use secrecy, denial, and disinformation.

3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause. The most

significant common thread among these regimes was the use of

scapegoating as a means to divert the people