''Freedom Watch with Judge Napolitano'' is a television show hosted by Judge

Andrew Napolitano Andrew Peter Napolitano (born June 6, 1950) is an American syndicated columnist whose work appears in numerous publications, including ''The Washington Times'' and ''Reason''. He was an analyst for Fox News, commenting on legal news and trials. ...

, on Fox Business Network. The show aired from 2009 to 2012, focusing mainly on

libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's en ...

issues and perspectives.

The show

''Freedom Watch'' was created in February 2009 as an online show and originally webcast once a week. In September 2009, the show began webcasting three or four times a week. Frequent guests of the online show included Congressman

Ron Paul Ronald Ernest Paul (born August 20, 1935) is an American author, activist, physician and retired politician who served as the U.S. representative for Texas's 22nd congressional district from 1976 to 1977 and again from 1979 to 1985, as we ...

Lew Rockwell Llewellyn Harrison Rockwell Jr. (born July 1, 1944) is an American author, editor, and political consultant. A libertarian and a self-professed anarcho-capitalist, he founded and is the chairman of the Mises Institute, a non-profit dedicated t ...

, and

Peter Schiff Peter David Schiff (; born March 23, 1963) is an American stock broker, financial commentator, and radio personality. He is CEO and chief global strategist of Euro Pacific Capital Inc., a broker-dealer based in Westport, Connecticut. He is also ...

. In May 2010, it was announced that the show would be televised on the

Fox Business Network Fox Business (officially known as Fox Business Network, or FBN) is an American business news channel and website publication owned by the Fox News Media division of Fox Corporation. The channel broadcasts primarily from studios at 1211 Avenu ...

. The first televised episode, dubbed the "Tea Party Summit," aired on June 12, 2010 at 10:00 A.M., and featured then-Congressman Ron Paul; former Alaska Governor

Sarah Palin Sarah Louise Palin (; Heath; born February 11, 1964) is an American politician, commentator, author, and reality television personality who served as the ninth governor of Alaska from 2006 until her resignation in 2009. She was the 2008 R ...

; then-U.S. Senate Republican candidate, now-U.S. Senator

Rand Paul Randal Howard Paul (born January 7, 1963) is an American physician and politician serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States Senate, U.S. senator from Kentucky since 2011. A member of the Republican Party (Un ...

of Kentucky; Pennsylvania Governor

Ed Rendell Edward Gene Rendell (; born January 5, 1944) is an American lawyer, prosecutor, politician, and author. He served as the 45th Governor of Pennsylvania from 2003 to 2011, as chair of the national Democratic Party, and as the 96th Mayor of Philad ...

; U.S. Senator Jim DeMint; Congresswoman

Michele Bachmann Michele Marie Bachmann (; née Amble; born April 6, 1956) is an American politician who was the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for from 2007 until 2015. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...

; and former U.S. House Majority Leader

Dick Armey Richard Keith Armey (; born July 7, 1940) is an American economist and politician. He was a U.S. Representative from Texas's (1985–2003) and House Majority Leader (1995–2003). He was one of the engineers of the "Republican Revolution" of t ...

. On Monday, 15 November 2010, ''Freedom Watch with Judge Napolitano'' began to air new episodes every weeknight at 8:00 P.M. ET. Initially described as "the top-rated show on Fox Business," its ratings apparently began to slip in 2011.

Format

Judge Napolitano followed a pattern on the show: Each episode started with a short description of a liberty-oriented issue, laid out specifically as a segue into the phrase

... upheld r undermined, or needs to learnthese principles: * That government is best which governs least. * The people are entitled to a government that stays within the confines of the Constitution. * The Constitution was written to keep the government off the people's backs.

Napolitano would then have guests with whom he discussed various issues of the day. In the next segment of each episode, which he called the ''Freedom Files'', he would itemise some violations or victories of freedom. The second to last segment in each episode was a round table with a group of people of various political inclinations, anointed his ''Freedom Fighters''. He would always have one person of a generally "liberal" outlook, one person of a generally "conservative" outlook, and one person of a generally "libertarian" outlook in this round table. Each episode was then summed up with a monologue given by Napolitano, describing how the principles of liberty and justice applied to the issues at hand. This final segment was called ''The Plain Truth''.

Cancellation

In February 2012, Fox Business announced that while Napolitano would remain a network contributor, ''Freedom Watch'' (along with two other shows) was cancelled, in preference for a new lineup that would simply re-run popular episodes of other Fox Business shows each day. The final episode was aired on Monday, 13 February 2012.

Return

On May 24, 2016 Fox News posted an approximate five-minute episode of ''Freedom Watch'', and a second one on June 7, 2016. In an interview with Reason's

Nick Gillespie Nicholas John Gillespie (; born August 7, 1963) is an American libertarian journalist who was editor-in-chief of ''Reason'' magazine from 2000 to 2008 and editor-in-chief of Reason.com and Reason TV from 2008 to 2017. Gillespie originally joined ...

posted on July 18, 2018, Napolitano announced that the show would be returning to the air "probably before Thanksgiving" in 2018. On November 27, 2018 Napolitano began the show on ''

Fox Nation Fox Nation is an American subscription video on demand service. Announced on February 20, 2018, and launching on November 27 of that year, it is a companion to Fox News Channel carrying programming of interest to its audience, including origina ...

'', with the show re-titled ''Liberty File with Judge Napolitano''.

References

External links

* {{Fox Business Shows 2009 web series debuts 2010 American television series debuts 2012 American television series endings 2016 web series debuts 2010s American television talk shows Political mass media in the United States English-language television shows Fox Business original programming Libertarian television and radio shows Libertarianism in the United States