Fox News Channel (FNC), also referred to as Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation. As of April 2009, the channel is available to 102 million households in the United States and further to viewers internationally, broadcasting primarily from its New York studios.

The channel was created by Australian-American media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who hired former NBC executive Roger Ailes as the founding CEO. The channel was launched on October 7, 1996 to 17 million cable subscribers. The channel grew in the late 1990s and 2000s to become the dominant cable news network in the United States. In 2010, the network's programs took the top 10 spots for most-watched cable news programs in the 25–54 demographic and the top 12 spots among total cable news programs viewers.

Critics have asserted that Fox News Channel promotes conservative political positions, and biased reporting. Commentators, news anchors, and reporters at Fox News Channel have responded that news reporting and political commentary operate independently of each other, and deny any bias in the news reporting.

Sean Hannity (born December 30, 1961) is a television host, author, and conservative political commentator. He is the host of The Sean Hannity Show, a nationally syndicated talk radio show that airs throughout the United States on Premiere Radio Networks. Hannity also hosts a cable news show, Hannity, on Fox News Channel. Hannity has written three New York Times–bestselling books:Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty over Liberalism, Deliver Us from Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism, and Conservative Victory: Defeating Obama’s Radical Agenda.

Hannity is the son of Hugh J. and Lillian F. Hannity. His paternal and maternal grandparents immigrated from Ireland. He has two sisters. He grew up in Franklin Square, New York and attended Sacred Heart Seminary in Hempstead, New York during his middle school years and St. Pius X Preparatory Seminary high school in Uniondale, New York. Hannity dropped out of New York University and Adelphi University.

Hannity hosted his first talk radio show in 1989 at the volunteer college station at UC Santa Barbara, KCSB-FM, while working as a general contractor. The show aired for 40 hours of air time; Regarding his first show, Hannity has said, "I wasn't good at it. I was terrible." Hannity's weekly show on KCSB was canceled after less than a year by station managers. This was after two shows featuring the book The AIDS Coverup: The Real and Alarming Facts about AIDS by Gene Antonio; among other remarks made during the broadcast, Hannity told a lesbian caller "I feel sorry for your child". The station later reversed its decision to dismiss Hannity due in part to a campaign conducted by the Santa Barbara Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. Hannity decided against returning to KCSB.

David Shepard Smith, Jr. (born January 14, 1964), known better as Shepard Smith, is an American television news anchor. He is host of Fox Report with Shepard Smith and Studio B weekdays on Fox News Channel. In addition, he anchors the 5:00 p.m. ET weekday news update on Fox News Radio, also titled Fox Report.

Smith was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi, the son of Dora Ellen Anderson, an English teacher, and David Shepard Smith, Sr., a cotton merchant. He attended Marshall Academy, a K–12 private school in Holly Springs, but completed his senior year of high school in Florida, where he, his mother, and brother moved after his parents separated. Smith went on to attend the University of Mississippi. He majored in journalism, but left two credits away from graduation. He frequently returns to the university during college football season and delivered the university's annual commencement address on May 10, 2008.

Smith signed his first television contract with WJHG-TV in Panama City Beach, Florida. He worked as a reporter for WCJB-TV in Gainesville, Florida (1985), a reporter for WBBH-TV in Fort Myers, reporter/anchor in Miami with WSVN and as a reporter at WCPX-TV (now WKMG-TV) in Orlando. In Los Angeles, California he was a correspondent for A Current Affair. He joined the Fox News Channel at its inception in 1996.

Reza Aslan (Persian رضا اصلان, born May 3, 1972) is an Iranian-American activist, a nationally acclaimed writer of religions. He is on the faculty at the University of California, Riverside, and is a contributing editor for The Daily Beast. His books include the international bestseller, No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, which has been translated into thirteen languages, and named one of the 100 most important books of the last decade. He is also the author of How to Win a Cosmic War, published in paperback as Beyond Fundamentalism: Confronting Religious Extremism in a Globalized Age. He is also editor of Tablet & Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East, published by W. W. Norton, and co-editor with Aaron Hahn-Tapper of Muslims and Jews in America: Commonalities, Contentions, and Complexities, published by Palgrave Macmillan. Dr. Reza Aslan is CEO of Aslan Media Inc., whose holdings include BoomGen Studios, the first ever motion picture studio entirely focused on entertainment content about the Greater Middle East and its globally dispersed communities. His non-profit organization, Aslan Media Initiatives (AslanMedia.com), uses social-media technology to provide news and information about the Middle East to young people all over the world.

Elisabeth Hasselbeck (née Filarski; born May 28, 1977) is an American television talk show host and television personality. She was a contestant on Survivor: The Australian Outback (2001), is a co-host on the daytime talk show The View, and is a contributor to the ABC morning broadcast Good Morning America.

Elisabeth DelPadre Filarski was born in Cranston, Rhode Island. She is the daughter of Roman Catholic-school teacher and lawyer Elizabeth DelPadre and architect Kenneth Filarski. She has one brother, Kenneth, Jr., a lawyer and aspiring musician. As a child, she lived in Providence and Cranston, Rhode Island.

Hasselbeck was raised Roman Catholic and attended St. Mary School in Cranston, followed by St. Mary Academy - Bay View in Riverside, Rhode Island, where she graduated in 1995. She then attended Boston College, where she captained the women's softball team for two seasons, winning consecutive Big East championships. With a concentration on large scale paintings and industrial design, Hasselbeck graduated with a fine arts degree in 1999. Hasselbeck started working for Puma in 1998, while attending Boston College. After graduation, she worked for Puma shoes as a member of its design team before her television career.