Fox News is already making noise about America 250. CNN and MS NOW? Not so much. That gap might tell us more about the state of cable news than any ratings book ever could.
To be fair, we’re still months away from the July 4, 2026 celebration. Nobody expects wall-to-wall coverage right now. But Fox News has begun rolling out programming plans, and the silence from its competitors is rather noticeable. It raises a question worth asking now rather than later: can MS NOW and CNN authentically celebrate America’s 250th birthday the way most of the country will want to?
Here’s where it gets complicated. We’ve entered an era where a significant portion of the media views nearly everything through the lens of the current administration. President Trump’s presence in the White House has made even patriotic milestones feel politically charged to some outlets. That’s a problem. Not because criticism of the president is wrong, but because America 250 deserves to exist outside that framework entirely.
Think about what this anniversary actually represents. 250 years. It’s the kind of moment that should stop people, regardless of their politics, and make them say, yeah, this is f—ing awesome. Fox News seems to understand that instinctively. Whether MS NOW and CNN can get there is the real question.
And frankly, I’m not sure they can. That’s not a knock on the talent at either network. It’s more a structural concern. Both outlets have spent years cultivating audiences who view the current political climate with deep suspicion. Pivoting to genuine, full-throated American celebration — without hedging, without asterisks, without reminding viewers every ten minutes that this all sucks because of who’s in the White House — would require a kind of editorial courage that hasn’t exactly been on display lately.
There’s also the geography problem. This is something the media industry doesn’t discuss nearly enough. The newsrooms driving decisions at CNN and MS NOW are largely populated by people who live and breathe the I-95 corridor — New York, D.C., and everything in between. That’s a very specific American experience. It’s not wrong. But it’s incomplete.
Meanwhile, the average viewer in the Midwest, the South, or the Mountain West is going to throw a party on July 4th, wave a flag, and feel genuinely proud. They won’t be looking for caveats. They won’t want to hear about how everything sucks. They’ll be looking for a network that meets them where they are. Right now, Fox News is the largest cable outlet that appears ready to do that.
That’s a missed opportunity for the others. America 250 is the kind of event that could actually help a struggling network rebuild some trust with viewers it’s lost. CNN has been working to reposition itself. MS NOW knows its identity, but it still working on leaning into widening its viewership outside of its primetime stars. Leaning hard into a once-in-a-lifetime national celebration would be a smart play, both journalistically and commercially.
But that requires setting aside the resistance to anything that might look like it benefits the current administration’s narrative. And that’s a harder ask than it sounds.
So where does that leave us? Fox News enters this stretch with a head start and an audience already primed for celebration. CNN and MS NOW have time to course-correct, but the clock is ticking.
America 250 is going to be a big damn deal. It deserves to be. It’s a milestone that should feel unifying. Whether every network rises to that moment remains to be seen. I wouldn’t bet heavily on all of them getting it right. And that’s a shame, because this one’s too big to get wrong.
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
