Fox.
Newsmax.
One America News.
You are what you eat. Ignorance is bliss.
These "good Republicans" are normal rational people. They don't have "Fuck Joe Biden" signs on their cars. They aren't Q-Anon. They don't believe Hillary Clinton is a lizard who feeds on the blood of kidnapped children. They voted for Reagan, two Bushes, Dole, McCain, and Romney. They aren't crazy.
There are complicated explanations for why these otherwise-normal democracy-loving Republicans are silent in the face of such anti-democratic behavior. Trump charisma. White demographic anxiety. Subtle and un-subtle racism. Immigration panic. Or maybe it is mostly opposition against Democrats and woke-ness, abortion, spending priorities, tax policies, or too much "free money" to the wrong people.
There is also a simple explanation: News silos and the business of news. Republicans don't much see the anti-democratic side of Trump.
The for-profit news business is all about attracting an audience. A solid lock on a loyal customer niche is a very successful business model. Fox built a huge, profitable niche essentially doing infomercials for Trump and the GOP, but with some journalistic news sprinkled in during the afternoons. In the fractionalized market, people seek a predictable, consistent product. A Big Mac is a Big Mac. A Big Mac is not a salad. Not even mid-days.
Fox was tabloid. It has beautiful women with bare legs facing the camera. They wear form-fitting solid-color dresses and heavy makeup. Fox has flash. On-air hosts say provocative things. Trump was the perfect star vehicle for them--more glamorous and trashy and interesting than the earnest, boring Bushes or Mitt Romney.
Fox made a mis-step we have seen before with music labels, movie studios, and political machines. Fox created a monster, a star popular enough to go rogue. Trump's independence exposed another mis-step. Fox had tried to be a quasi-news organization. It gave Trump and his huge base of supporters reason to be disappointed in Fox. Trump has the power to move an audience to upstart Newsmax and One American News Network. They had better Big Macs and no salad.
Fox is scrambling to recapture its its core audience. That helps explain "good Republicans." Democrats may think the big news today is that Trump demanded the overthrow of an election. No. Maybe it is news that Pence said "Trump is wrong," signally a growing rift in the GOP. No. Would it be that Pence's Chief of Staff testified for hours to the January 6 commission, or that confidantes of Trump are being subpoenaed by the House, or that memos by Trump's lawyers outline a White House plan to void the 2020 election? No. What about the job report number, something Biden was thrilled to announce. No.
Fox still dominates the news diet of Republican voters. Here is the news they see on Fox and on its new rivals. Nothing about Pence, Cheney, or overthrowing an election. Zero. Not one word.
Fox News
25 top stories
Newsmax:
28 top stories
One America News Network:
22 top stories
11 comments:
It should be illegal to be so one sided on public airways. Blame Regan for this and the possible fall of democracy.
What's missing here is not a pretty indictment of Fox, but the grave omission by implication that today's CNN and MSNBC are somehow not at least bad or worse. A few years ago they said of Fox in essence, If you can't beat 'em, join 'em".
Trump's meteoric rise after his at-the-time laughable announcement of presidential candidacy was due not to Fox but to a combination of repeated fawning sessions on MSNBC with Joe and Mika, and at-will near-monologues permitted him on CNN.
MSNBC's star "joumalist", Rachel Maddow, had to take the same ignoble "I'm just an entertainer" copout in court over a defamation suit as did Alex Jones. CNN is a dumpster fire right now, its journalistic ethics and integrity in tatters, with more firings yet to follow the rotting head Jeff Zucker's shock ouster, for curating news coverage and creating public relations appearances on CNN for the embattled ex-NY governor Andrew Cuomo via Zucker's longtime illicit lover and CNN subordinate--and longtime Gov. Cuomo intimate--plus already-fired brother Chris Cuomo. Next I predict will be that unctuous media, ahem, integrity reporter and Zucker bagman Brian Stelter of the Sunday show, ahem, "Reliable Sources", who dishonestly denied the Zucker affair and tried to intimidate and quash reporting sources as recently just a few days ago. Don Lemon soon after that, and maybe Anderson Cooper. Two CNN executive producers are under indictment this year for child sex luring, and legal correspondent Jeffry Toobin was allowed back after openly masturbating during a work Zoom meeting. Good riddance to the entire smug, incestuous crew.
These days it's all advocacy journalism, all the time, whether it's cable news, the networks, or most of legacy print media. Democrats are welcome to their own silo of self-delusion to the contrary. The nation as a whole knows better, with the news media overall ranking below even Congress in popularity and trust. Fox looks pretty good by comparison.
If ignorance is bliss, why do consumers of Fox Noise, Newsmax and OAN tend to be so angry as well as ignorant?
Contrary to the false equivalence advanced by apologists for the insurrection, the CNN and MSNBC audience has never launched an armed attack against the Capitol of the United States at the direction of their so-called president.
Extremists on the right attack the capital on 1/6. Extremists on the left spent the summer of 2020 attacking the federal courthouse and the police guarding it in Portland Oregon. Not “false equivalence,” just equivalence. Is it
Michael:
What we had in Portland were a bunch of thugs wreaking havoc. In Washington, a sitting president called for his followers to gather, promising “It will be wild.” He fired them up and then sicced them on Congress as part of his attempt to overturn the election. If you can’t tell the difference between vandalism and sedition, that’s just one more sad example of our partisan divide actually being separate realities.
Next, I suppose you’ll be parroting the Republican National Committee and calling them “ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.”
Just had to note the Simpson's episode, with a Fox News helicopter flying overhead and emblazoned with the tagline "Not Racist. But #1 With Racists!"
More bothsidesism.
News Flash: multiple surveys show Fox viewers are the least informed on current events than any other media outlet.
But you won't see that on Fox.
Nor will you see Fox discuss its internal COVID precautions, which its hosts must follow.
But Fox makes money, which is all it cares about.
Fox News. Number 1 with domestic terrorists.
Owned by foreigners, too.
That's not true.
There were many protests for social justice. The burning and looting was not connected.
Read the newspaper. There are many many accounts of right wing- affiliated domestic terrorists showing up at these protest to cause trouble.
Then there's the kid who killed three when he brought a firearm to a protest under the guise of protecting the community.
That's right wing violence.
For the hundreds of 1/6/21 arrests there have been many accusations of it being left wing but, just like with the claims of election fraud, there has been zero proof.
None.
Again, The Simpsons speak the truth.
At least more than Trump, Fox or the right wingnuts here.
Mc--
Any comparison/contrast, however warranted and helpful, could be characterized pejoratively as "bothsidesism". Certainly the folks who would presume to inform you about Fox--and Governor Cuomo, and COVID in NYC--would encourage that characterization, especially the now-thoroughly debased CNN.
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