• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, May 17, 2023

Blockbuster cable TV news is occurring more frequently, apparently. But maybe it isn't always about a block being busted. Maybe just a pebble being pushed.

Apparently, the latest is about an FBI investigation that should have never taken place. 

Special counsel John Durham examined this -- after three years following it -- and found out it was all about nothing, and that the FBI made some mistakes. But no officials were charged.

This is “blockbuster” news, Fox News Channel said Monday -- a word repeated many times by its daytime news hosts and prime-time opinionated personalities.

To be fair, Fox News isn’t the only one to use this tag on news stories. Still, it is just the latest example of how news gets sold to viewers.

Of course, real "blockbuster" news at Fox News happened just recently -- that it had settled a defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems where it agreed to pay $787.5 million -- the highest payment ever for a defamation suit. Soon afterwards, it fired its top prime-time personality Tucker Carlson.

So was this big news at the channel itself? You decide. Fox covered the former with a low-key approach, and the latter even less so.

At Fox Corp.'s upfront event on Monday, looking at all its TV/streaming platforms, it carefully avoided this for the most part -- especially given what analysts have always said was a very partisan approach at Fox News Channel. 

In addition, a special presentation of Fox News’ “The Five” steered clear of any loaded, political news content. After all, you don't want to upset anyone -- media-buying or brand-advertising executives, whatever side of the political aisle they sit on. There is upfront advertising money to be made here. 

Instead, Fox focused on its free, ad-supported streaming platform Tubi for a large part of its presentation -- as well as its Fox Sports TV hosts and personalities.

While Durham said the FBI stuff was a nothing burger, the initial investigation did reap some big results: A U.S. court convicted Russian nationals who interfered -- espionage conspiracy and tampering --  in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election. 

Special counsel Robert Mueller and his team of prosecutors indicted or got guilty pleas from 34 individuals -- six former Trump advisers, 26 Russian nationals, three Russian companies, and one California man.

That was blockbuster news back then.

What will be big news going forward now? Primed cable TV watchers may be waiting for the big "Deep State" reveal, I’m guessing. 

Do they have a website?  Where do Deep State-ers dine for lunch, anyway?  Maybe someone can get a reservation at the next table and break that blockbuster story.

That will yield higher ratings hopefully -- and pull in more big-name brand advertisers that Fox News Channel seems to need. 

Hello, upfront-ers. Want to make a blockbuster media deal?