Hard-core, head-banging conservatism turned Fox News into America's top-rated and most profitable cable news network. Now Fox owner Rupert Murdoch is betting the same uber-aggressive approach will work on America's business community.
In the early hours of today, Murdoch launches a new cable TV channel, the Fox Business Network, which will be available in more than 30m American homes. FBN is the latest venture overseen by Roger Ailes, the Murdoch eminence grise who established the full-frontal 'patriotic' style of Fox News. Murdoch and Ailes hope FBN can overtake CNBC, America's main business news channel, just as Fox News has bested once dominant CNN.
Although FBN has kept many of its tactics - if not its foxy presenters - under wraps until today, Murdoch and Ailes have been up-front about
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what they insist will be its unabashedly pro-business bias. And in trademark Fox fashion they have been lambasting CNBC for its more objective approach.
"They dwell too much on failures or scandals," Murdoch said last week.
"We don't get up every morning thinking business is bad," said Ailes. "Many times I've seen things on CNBC where they are not as friendly to corporations and profits as they should be."
CNBC spokesman Kevin Goldman retorts: "I'm not surprised the potential competition has begun its typical onslaught of lies and propaganda."
The aggressive nature of this battle for viewers is perhaps surprising given the tiny audience at stake. CNBC, with a household 'reach' three times larger than FBN's, still gets gets 250,000 viewers after 17 years on air. But those 250,000 viewers 
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