How coronavirus has deeply flummoxed conservative media

[applegrove]

How coronavirus has deeply flummoxed conservative media

By Paul Waldman, Opinion writer at the Washington Post

Feb. 28, 2020 at 3:13 p.m. EST

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/28/how-coronavirus-has-deeply-flummuxed-conservative-media/?utm_source=reddit.com

"SNIP.....

Under ordinary circumstances, the ability to repeatedly pound home a single message is what makes conservative media such a potent political force. But right now they’re all over the map.

Ingraham’s point about fear brings us to the heart of their problem. Anyone even vaguely familiar with conservative media in general and Fox News in particular knows that fear (along with anger) is the very foundation of what they do. Fear is hot, fear is compelling, fear is engaging. Fear keeps viewers from clicking away and brings them back.

It’s well summarized by a line from the recent film “Bombshell,” in which a Fox News producer tells a new hire how to understand what they do at the network:

You have to adopt the mentality of an Irish street cop. The world is a bad place, people are lazy morons, minorities are criminals, sex is sick but interesting. Ask yourself what would scare my grandmother or piss off my grandfather, and that’s a Fox story.

When you hammer your viewers with that day after day, there’s one message that simply doesn’t fit: “Everything is fine.”



.....SNIP"

[keithbvadu2]

1. Hasn't flummoxed them so much that they don't blame Trump's handling of it on the democrats.

Hasn't flummoxed them so much that they don't blame Trump's handling of it on the democrats.

[brewens]

2. I was just joking with a buddy about that. Fear based morans that have to keep their mouth shut!

Literally the same people that thrive on fear have been told to make believe it's all fine. You know they don't believe it, and if it was a democratic party president, they would be going berserk! They just can't admit their fearless leader has them scared.

[The Genealogist]

3. They're used to attacking people and ideas, not dangerous viruses

It is outside their playbook. They can't mock it away, they can't hate it away, they can't other it, they can't stir up hordes of angry deplorables to damage it on social media. I'm sure they're crapping themselves silly trying to sync up some talking points to fix things for Trump.

Think about this for a minute: how many work hours are spent every week in this country trying to keep Trump afloat? For how many scores of people is their only job to bail Trump's ass out of messes? You get one of his dumpster fires under control to pacify the deplorable base, and look up to find he has lit ablaze another three dumpsters. The burnout must be terrible,

[yonder]

4. Great post. Their virus response reveals their nakedness of ideas.

They advance themselves by offering nothing but fear and when a different megaphone is necessary, suddenly discover their impotence.

[Initech]

5. Because we live in a world now where facts don't matter.

It's all about outrage and who outrages harder. The fact that Jim Bakker, a noted and repeated con artist sells a $125 bottle of "silver solution" that he claims will the Coronavirus is proof of that, and what's even worse is that he's sold out of this shit. That should be proof alone of how far gone humanity is.

[applegrove]

6. Will stop. You need to add the word stop.