Will Fox News Swing Left With Obama in Office?

WASHINGTON — When the White House changes occupants this week, it may also change channels.Barack Obama’s inauguration on Tuesday marks the end of an era for the Fox News Channel, the cable news network of choice during the George W. Bush years.

Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary from 2003 to 2006, said in an interview last week that “a number of people viewed Fox as an outlet that would be more favorable” than other media groups to the Bush administration. He emphasized that this feeling applied to the network’s conservative commentators, not its correspondents.

The media world will watch carefully to see whether Fox receives the same treatment from an Obama White House that it received from Mr. Bush’s. And it will wait and see whether Fox can stave off its two primary competitors, CNN and MSNBC, in the 25- to 54-year-old demographic that matters most to advertisers.

Fox easily leads the other cable networks in that demographic on a total day basis. But for a couple of important hours, the gap has narrowed. On at least 10 days since the election, Fox’s 9 p.m. program “Hannity & Colmes” has been surpassed in the competition for viewers in that demographic by Rachel Maddow, the new MSNBC host.http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/19/business/media/19fox.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink