Fox News was the newcomer, having launched in 1996.

It positioned itself as the network "for the unrepresented, for the outsiders," according to Terry McDermott in the Columbia Journalism Review. McDermott also wrote, "There is a strain of resentment, of put-upon-ness that pervades almost everything Fox puts on the air."

The future of the new network was taken seriously from the beginning. In the early years, it was investing about $80 million annually on operation costs.

But in 2000, it was still operating with such loose production values that one of its reporters was caught picking his nose on camera.