Hey, this is Michael Lohanger, and you're listening to the On the Media Midweek

Podcast. When Fox News launched in 1996, critics called it, quote, disorganized,

incompetent, and laughably inept. called it

quote disorganized, incompetent, and laughably inept.

And during that election cycle, it barely registered.

But everything changed in 2000,

when Fox News called Florida and the presidency for George W Bush before any of the other

networks, potentially altering the outcome of the election in Bush's favor. The new series of Slowburn from Slate

takes that pivotal moment as its starting point to examine the place that Fox News

has since carved out in our culture.

The series traces the channel's surging popularity in those early years and profiles a bunch of people

who rose up to try to stop it.

For this week's podcast extra, we have that very first episode of

Slowburn for you. Here's the host of the series Josh Levine.

Mike Schneider was getting ready for one of the biggest moments of his journalism career.

It was November 1996, and he was about to anchor election night coverage on a national television network.

There was only one problem.

Even his biggest fans had no clue he was still on TV.

What they would say to me is, where you been?

Mike had been an anchor and correspondent on the today show, Good Morning America and Nightline.

Over decades he built his name as a solid old school journalist.

Be honest, Be fair.

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