Fox said "Jump!" Trump jumped.

Talk radio and Fox have a business model that requires confrontation and populist outrage. 

Ann Coulter

Yellow journalism made Trump, so it can break him. 

"Fox News is no longer the propaganda arm of the Republican Party. The Republican Party is the legislative arm of Fox News."   

                  Washington Monthly, Dec. 22, 2018

On Thursday morning readers of this blog saw my speculation that Fox News was doing more than journalism. They weren't just describing the state of affairs where Trump agreed with the House and Senate to keep the government open. They were advising Trump, bluntly, with a public spanking. That was the title of the Thursday blog: "Fox spanks Trump." 

Then it was a lucky guess. Trump might just switch and comply, I thought. Today is is settled fact. He did exactly that.

The people versus the elites. The news hosts on Fox and Friends are crowing, calling it a huge victory, "us against the elites." Fox understands that they--and talk radio--represent a populist sentiment. They are sending a message to Trump: do not fall into leading like the head of a government, working cooperatively in a consensus of stakeholders. 

Do the opposite. Lead like a populist who rejects consensus and expert opinion. 

He pushed out James Mattis? Good. James Mattiss' opinion on Syria is an example of the thinking of foreign policy experts. Elites. And it is the elites who think that a border wall is a waste of money. And the hand-wringers about a government shutdown are all DC and media elites who think a shutdown matters. 

Click: Cook Political Report on NBC/WSJ poll

It is common sense that a wall stops people. 

Fight, Trump, fight.

Fox and talk radio are insistent because they are pushing against a tide of backsliding by the GOP voters. The GOP House and Senate majorities were ready to compromise. GOP voters, now that Trump is in office, are choosing "compromise" over "stick to promises."  With Trump in 
charge, there is a growing desire for consensus. 

The Cook Political Report writes "This year 63% [of Republicans] support compromise. For their part, Democrats aren't feeling as magnanimous as they were when it was their party in the White House. In fact, for the first time, more Republicans than Democrats (63% to 57%), want to see their elected representatives find consensus."

That is dangerous for Fox and talk radio. Their message and business models require maintaining a feeling of outrage. Resentment. Anger. Confrontation. That is what builds and holds the audience.

Hearst and Pulitzer 

The needs of the news organ shape the policy. Trump heard the message. He jumped.

He was reminded that his own political business model also requires outrage. Resentment. Anger. Confrontation. 

They told him to resist backsliding into workaday governance. Stay angry. 

Caravan! MS-13! NFL players! Witch hunt!

This is not new in America. The Hearst and Pulitizer newspapers wanted a war with Spain in 1898. It was good for business, so they created the demand for that war. Remember the Maine, they wrote.

McKinley was forced to go along.

High school students read about this period of "yellow journalism" and get a message of the quaint naivety that people back then, that they could be so manipulated. The business needs of the popular media lead the politicians to war? Matters of huge consequence were led by the desire of media giants to maintain an audience?

Crazy, right?

We watched it happen this week.