Do you Think FOX NEWS will Destroy the Republican Party?
Fox News is anything but fair and balanced. They create hysteria, spread lies, and deconstruct people of character, while all the while building huge ratings and promoting monsters like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity. This article by Leslie Savan speaks to the heart of this curious paradigm. Let me know what you think:
Over the past week or so, stories about conservative hypocrisies have been popping up in mainstream media like cute kitten videos on the “internets.” There was the Vatican blaming the news media for the pedophilia practiced by priests; the Republicans blaming the violence against Democrats on the Democrats themselves; Sarah Palin, intoning that “violence isn’t the answer,” studding a map with gunsights to target the Dems who should be gotten rid of come November; and, of course, fundraisers for the family values party trying to expense-account their visit to that faux-lesbian, bondage-themed nightclub in West Hollywood. It almost made you think the conservative movement was about to collapse under the weight of its own delusions.
But then the cable ratings came out and showed that Fox News had had its best quarter ever, and that it’s the second most-watched cable channel in prime time, right after USA Network.
And that made me think of another recent story, the purge of former Bush speechwriter David Frum from the American Enterprise Institute, largely for delivering quotes like this: “The Republicans originally thought that Fox works for us, and now we’re discovering we work for Fox. The balance here has been completely reversed, and the thing that sustains a strong Fox network is the thing that undermines a strong Republican Party.”
How is it that conservatives keep getting caught violating their supposed bedrock values, weakening and ultimately discrediting the party that carries their political hopes, yet the network that promotes their cause continues to soar above its competition?
What neocons obsessed with Israel and American foreign policy (like Frum, who coined the term “axis of evil”) can’t seem to grasp is the domestic failure of the Bush administration at just about every level. Frum believes his own hype, and thinks the battle can still be joined for a “muscular” foreign policy. But Roger Ailes and Fox News realize that the worm has turned. They recognize the need to wage a rear-guard fight in defense of fragile right-wing victories (from tax cuts to a packed courts system) won over the past quarter century. They also need to keep their people out of jail for war crimes. And the best way to do that is to keep American politics in a state of chaos, with tea parties and fresh social outrages at every turn.
And that’s Fox’s storyline, which happens to be pretty good TV. It’s like an episode of Lost -it doesn’t have to make sense, it just has to keep the feeling of claustrophobic, terror-induced suspense bubbling away.
So, in Fox’s Sim Nation, white America feels victimized, spat upon, and ultimately vindicated by the outcome of every story. Fox allows viewers to complete each arc of moral judgment in their minds, if they keep watching long enough. For example, Republican whip Eric Cantor started last week as the hamhanded apparatchik who tried to say the Dems were attracting violence by whining about it. Someone had shot a bullet through his office window after the health care bill passed, too, he said, but you didn’t hear him complaining about it–that is, until he mentioned it in a press conference, provoking local cops to announce it was only random gunfire and not a deliberate attack.
Many thanks to Leslie Savan and our friends at Alternet for their contribution.
On the grounds that the Republicans are politicians I certainly hope so! (They get destroyed I mean). Least you can assassinate yours. We aren’t allowed guns. I wonder why?
Hmm, I see them helping but frankly, the GoOPers don’t need any help, they seem to be hell bent on just destroying themselves. What I see happening are the more conservative dems breaking off and maybe forming what will be a new republican party. I could deal with that. Today we have Steele possibly being booted as RNC chairman talking about, he and PO are held to higher standards because they are black. Wait what, when can you EVER put those two men side by side? Ensign going to be indicted soon according to some sources. That could last a while into election season and will pull down some others with him. Fox created the monster that is the current GOP, so let it be hung around their necks.
=^..^=
That’s a great quote from David Frum “The Republicans originally thought that Fox works for us, and now we’re discovering we work for Fox. The balance here has been completely reversed, and the thing that sustains a strong Fox network is the thing that undermines a strong Republican Party.” Fox’s ratings are high but the Republican Party are not polling high in comparison. So, Frum could well be right.
I think Frum could be co-opted by the Dems.
Despite his being drummed out of the
corpscorpse, Frum still has a bad attitude about the role of media ina freesociety. I thought media shouldbe independent and unbiaseda propaganda organ. I see Bush’s speechwriter hasstruck againedited this comment.If the republicans continue to embrace the teabaggers then they will surely loose. No one has ever won elections with just the support of the fringe. He who holds the center holds the power. And there is a lot of moderates out there who have been shut out of the party.
While the conventional wisdom is on your side Bee, and I agree also, the “colonists” who raged against the King lo those many years ago were also considered the “fringe.” I am afraid to underestimate the fools…
Will Fox News destroy the Republican Party? I certainly hope so, but we will still a loyal opposition to keep us honest … one that is hopefully more rational. Too bad they give pachyderms such a bad name.
Well, that’s exactly what I was going to say, but you beat me to it, Octopus.
I love pachyderms. Intelligent, compassionate, creatures with strong family bonds, unlike the Republicans.