Fox News CEO on boycotts: We won’t allow ‘the voices of the few impact our business’
Fox News and Fox Business CEO Suzanne Scott said “we’re not going to let the voices of the few impact our business” with respect to boycotts of her network’s prime-time opinion hosts in an interview with Variety.
“We became No. 1 under President Bush. We stayed No. 1 under President Obama. We are still No. 1,” Scott told Variety. “My focus is on business.”
{mosads}“Our audience is deeply connected to our prime-time shows,” Scott added. “We are the only ones with conservative talent in prime time. We believe in free speech. We fully support our prime-time talent, and we’re not going to let the voices of the few impact our business.”
Scott was referencing recent boycott attempts against the channel’s highest-rated hosts, including Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, which were primarily driven by left-wing watchdog Media Matters. The network in each of those instances stood by their hosts.
Scott was named CEO in May 2018, almost two years after former chairman and CEO Roger Ailes was ousted from the network amid a sexual harassment controversy.
Ratings for the network have risen under Scott despite major changes to the network’s prime-time schedule, including the departures of top-rated hosts Bill O’Reilly, Megyn Kelly and Greta Van Susteren.
In the first quarter of 2019, Fox News won the cable news ratings race for the 69th consecutive quarter over MSNBC and CNN, according to Nielsen Media Research, averaging 2.45 million viewers. Under Ailes in the presidential election year of 2016 in the first quarter, the network averaged 2.37 million viewers in prime time.
In taking over the CEO role at Fox News and Fox Business, Scott became the first woman to run the cable news network.
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