After 21 Years, Fox News Drops 'Fair and Balanced' Slogan

Two decades of irony must have been enough.

On Wednesday, conservative 24-hour cable news outlet Fox News confirmed it will drop the slogan, "Fair and Balanced." According to New York Magazine, Fox executives have been instructed by management to market the network by its other tagline: "Most Watched. Most Trusted."

News of the shift in messaging was broken on Twitter by New York Magazine's National Affairs Editor Gabriel Sherman, who was quick to note that the "Fair and Balanced" tagline was too closely associated with Fox's deceased news mogul Roger Ailes "and had become a target for mockery."

Ailes, Fox News' founder and ex-chairman, resigned in 2016 amid allegations of sexual harassment from numerous female employees. He died at 77 last month.

The Huffington Post notes the "Fair and Balanced" tagline was actually considered an accurate assessment of the news channel's reporting. But that opinion was only held within the conservative outlet's own echo chamber (77% of Republicans believed the motto, and 66% of Democrats knew otherwise).

"Fair and Balanced" as a tagline became the subject of a 2003 court case against a pre-US Senate Al Franken. The news network unsuccessfully tried to request an injunction by a federal judge to block Franken from using the words on the cover of his book, ''Lies, and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right.''

After winning in court, Franken would later tell The New York Times: "In addition to thanking my own lawyers, I'd like to thank Fox's lawyers for filing one of the stupidest briefs I've ever seen in my life.''

A Fox News spokesperson confirmed with HuffPo that the network hasn't used the slogan in external marketing or on-air promotions since August 2016, but said "the shift has nothing to do with programming or editorial decisions."