PressEthic

Believe it or not, adore it or scorn it, the most influential and successful cable news channel made its debut on Oct. 7, 1996. Fox News will be raising their whiskey tumblers and anti-abortion bills this week, "celebrating a decade of fair and balanced news," according to their website.

Unfortunately for Murdoch and his Alfred Hitchcokian cohort, Roger Ailes, Fox is losing its numbers, in its first ratings slump.

According to the Miami Herald, "the years of explosive growth have ended at Fox. Viewership over the first eight months of the year was down 5 percent compared to 2005, with a steeper 13 percent decline in prime-time, according to Nielsen Media Research. For 12 straight months, Fox's prime-time audience has been smaller than the year before. Meanwhile, CNN viewership inched up 5 percent this year through August."

I'm not going to blather on about how Fox has changed television news. Much smarter people will do that for me.

I'd rather party! Yay, guys, let's celebrate Fox losing viewers and CNN kicking back at its more successful younger brother!

What will you do to celebrate this momentous... moment?

If you love it, perhaps you could write up a "I <3 U Doocy" sign and stand outside the studio in Rockefeller Center, all "Today Show" style, and become one of the "Fox & Friends." Maybe go to Fox's official 10th anniversary site and check out the very first minute of the very first hour of Fox News. My, they grow so quickly! Or you can check out some highlights, like when Bill O'Reilly interviewed Michael Moore or when Fox falsely announced that Bush won the 2000 election, before results were final.

If you hate it, you could buy one of these nifty "Suck on it Hannity" t-shirts or coffee mugs, courtesy of Ihatefoxnews.com. You can watch Robert Greenwald's "exceptionally damning" documentary, "Outfoxed," about the channel's biased news coverage and then check out the website operated by the doco's volunteers. Or peep Media Matters' reportage" on Fox News' crimes and ridiculous quotes, including one of their "news analysts" recently saying, "All I want, frankly, is a gay person in office who is not a sexual compulsive. I mean, is that too much to ask for?"

I know I'll be buying a t-shirt at the official Fox News store for my parents, who are huge fans and consider it the only news channel worth watching. I guess I'm reminding myself that they're just two of 845,000 viewers who watch Fox on a daily basis, and I'm still part of the lowly 466,000-member CNN club.