By Ray Cardello for October 8, 2021 Season 6 / Post 18

FOX News was born 25 years ago with the foolish aspiration to go after CNN, the giant in the news business in the 1990s. People scoffed that there was no way a start-up conservative-leaning media outlet could ever challenge the mighty CNN. FOX News has had the last laugh.

I have been a fan of FOX since the beginning. I was looking forward to 8 PM every evening to sit down and watch Bill O’Reilly spin his craft. He was a narcissist, and you could feel his love of power, but his message resonated with Conservatives like me. Finally, someone on cable news was speaking my language. It was a validation. FOX News became a safe place, and the celebrities on air became friends and family.

Neil Cavuto has been one of my favorites from the beginning. Being Italian helped, but he made sense in his manner to give you the news, be it political or business. And his way of relating to every guest was terrific. He also showed incredible strength in surviving his battle with MS, Cancer, and Heart Disease should be an example to everyone. Never did he let these evil invaders impact the way he came to work each day.

The Network had its problems, but they dealt with all of it, and even the biggest moneymaker for FOX was beyond accountability. Bill O’Reilly fell under sexual allegations, and the company survived. Roger Ailes, who many celebrate for making FOX the success they are today, was shown the door for his horrible treatment of women at FOX. They survived.

A stable workforce speaks volumes for the character of an entity. In a business where people tend to go for the greener grass, FOX has over 160 staff members today who were there on day 1. These long-standing members of the team talk to the family that is FOX. Problems? Yes, but perseverance and success in the long run.

As the public faces of FOX share their memories of the time they have been working for FOX News or FOX Business, they all talk about the ability to be themselves. There is no “company line,” but there is a collection of individuals speaking their minds. This honesty shines through and makes every on-air personality likable and watchable. That is an excellent recipe for success.

The country needs FOX News. Without it, there would be no balance of opinion. If all we had were the networks, CNN, and MSNBC, there would only be one biased view of the day’s happenings. It is no longer a debatable fact that news networks are biased. They corroborated to get Biden elected in 2020, and as his polls tumble, so do theirs. FOX is the other side of the equation. I hope that they stay true to themselves and their principles. It has brought them to 79 quarters at number 1 in the ratings. It will carry them for another 25 years and more.