The
Patriot News Network (PNN, formerly the Coors News Network) was the first and perhaps most successful right-wing television network in the United States. Formed by former Republican media consultant Roger Ailes and financed in large part by Peter Coors, heir to the Coors beer fortune, the Coors News Network launched in 1977 to provide a "fair and balanced" viewpoint to what it perceived as the liberal-dominated Big Three (ABC, NBC and CBS) news broadcasters. Less than a year after its initial broadcast, the network renamed itself to the Patriot News Network after it became apparent that networks were hesitant to pick up a channel whose name was a repeated punchline on several comedy variety shows on the Big Three networks, most notably,
It's Saturday Night!.
Despite its politically conservative tilt, PNN was extremely innovative in its formatting, and media strategy. Taking advantage of right-wing direct-mail lists donated by social conservative activist Richard Viguerie, PNN was able to target its television audience to a level unheard of in the 1970s and 1980s. Eschewing direct competition with the Big Three networks for the first five years of its existence, PNN gradually built up a sizable following by offering favorable deals with small, independent broadcasters.
However, PNN's innovative news model was too far ahead of its time
— as networks who copied it in the satellite era would demonstrate
— and the network had to rely on funds from Coors and other members of his newsgroup to stay afloat for a majority of its lifespan. It also was fatally attached to the person of Roger Ailes, who was both the driving force for the network as well as its most brilliant and media-savvy executive. When investigative reporters witnessed Ailes' repeated harassment of female staffers and subsequently published their observations, it caused the entire network to come under scrutiny and reporters began publishing reports of a "frat-house culture" at PNN seemingly abetted by Ailes. The Coors News Group soon dwindled to Coors and two loyal partners as most of the less-dedicated partners left as public criticism mounted and investigations against Ailes began.
Having purchased most of the shares of the fleeing partners, Coors used his majority to fire Ailes and desperately worked to shore up his creation, but to no avail. Less than a year after firing Ailes, PNN aired its last broadcast and went off the air. While Ailes evaded criminal charges, he and the Coors News Group (as the former owners of PNN) settled a class-action lawsuit brought by former female staffers out of court for nearly $2 million.
Despite its short nine-year life and the shameful conduct of its architect, PNN was a pioneer in the field of niche television, whose innovations have been studied and copied for decades. It also served as the godfather of the several right-wing networks like the American News Channel, Sky America and Liberty Network that compete for right-of-center viewers who believe that the dominant media channels are pushing an ideologically liberal agenda.
View attachment 290611