I am going to tell you what I believe is happening, both with Fox and, to a lesser extent, with the rest of the money media. https://medium.com/@journalismprofs/open-letter-to-the-murdochs-9334e775a992

2. When I tweet about the billionaire-owned media, readers often respond with comments that all they care about is ratings and advertising, but I disagree.
I believe what the Murdochs and others care about is a successful propaganda campaign. Ratings are just how they measure.

3. I believe that Rupert Murdoch would happily operate Fox and his other outlets at a dead loss as long as he could get the people of the developed world to live in a cloud of falsehood.
I believe the primary purpose of money media is to sell a worldview.

4. You can read Lewis F. Powell's 1974 memo and see that one of the specific steps he advocated was that the oligarchy / plutocracy buy the media and get their message out to the exclusion of all others.
They did.
Murdoch most of all.
It worked.
Donald Trump is President*.

5. Powell also advocated for endowing University chairs () and creating think tanks to publish this message. ()
This is not about operating media as a profit center. It is about mind control as a profit center, whether the media makes money or not.

6. The more costly media is to own and operate, the better this works out for the oligarchy / plutocracy.
Only a billionaire can own and operate a cable news outlet. Radio was vastly more democratic. Because cheaper. At every level.

7. Even TV talking heads are all multi-millionaires now. Can you imagine Maddow or Nicolle Wallace working for forty grand a year?
Fat chance.
Ben Franklin owned a letterpress, which I could afford today. His ideas changed an entire nation.
Today the King would buy his business.