Will Fox News Destroy the Republican Party?

[NorthCarolina]

The Nation / by Leslie Savan

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."

Link to article: http://www.alternet.org/story/146297/will_fox_news_destroy_the_republican_party_

[RKP5637]

1. Maybe we had it backward, maybe Fox is our friend... now my head does hurt...

I'm getting twisted! :banghead:

[polichick]

2. I don't know about "destroy" - maybe it's "transforming" it. nt

[JPerz]

3. Fix Friends

Fix news is comedy central...no wonder the ratings are high.

[Faygo Kid]

4. Fox News IS the Republican Party.

David Frum finally got it right when he said that Fox News doesn't work for the Republican Party, the Republican Party works for Fox News.

[YOY]

10. +1

n/t

[cliffordu]

5. One can only hope.

[Warpy]

6. Reagan did that when he sold out to the religious crazies

Hamiltonian parties always seem to make deals with the devil to boost their numbers enough to gain power. Then the devil takes over and blows the party apart.

The Republicans survived the southern bigots. They couldn't survive the collection of Armageddonist Christians and other crazy people Reagan courted. Now those crazy people are taking over and the party has lost all credibility as anything but a cult.

They might survive a few more years, but unless the crazies split off to form a new party, they're finished.

[Mopar151]

9. I agree, and it's a sad thing

I never thought 'ol Ronnie had all that much grip on reality, and Nancy was nuts. But the vacum of his "leadership" allowed power brokers and system-gamers like Gingrich and Abramoff sold us out cheap, to the benefit of radicals like Norquist, Cheney and Rove. These amoral idiots did deals with the devil, and they smoked a bunch of crack with ol' Scratch, too. Now the money men at Satan, Beelzebub, and Co. have begun to perfect the art of looting whole economies, and they send imps like Beck and Palin to distract us.

[applegrove]

7. I hope Fox does destroy the republican party.

[Doctor_J]

8. Since the ultra-right-wing, seditious, violent, Palin-led Fox "News" GOP is

predicted by most pollsters to make significant gains in November, this is a really dumb premise.

[openscandal]

11. Fox "Views" runs the country

Unfortunately this blatant extreme politics is how Republicans seemingly obtain not only ratings but votes. As ridiculous as it appears it seems that the way to sway 45+% of the population is to scare the bejesus out of them, and find the solution that best lines the politicians pockets. If anything, Fox "Views" only strengthens their reach by using fanatical (sometimes obscene) politics. However, viewpoints and history may teach us a different story, as I hope that wins out:

http://openscandal.com/2010/03/28/aging-empires-the-gop-in-the-age-of-information/

Link above may suggest that the growing population of educated individuals may actually combat this proposition. One can hope.

[bluescribbler]

12. We can only hope

I won't hold my breath, though.

[ThoughtCriminal]

13. Positive feed-back loop

Crazy feeds crazy and anyone who pauses a moment to point out where this is leading, gets kicked out of the loop.

[spinbaby]

14. That's it exactly

Let's hope it turns into a death spiral.

[JohnWxy]

15. While Faux news is very important we shouldn't under-estimate the importance of M$M. The GOP echo

chamber consistently repeats GOP propaganda as if it is reality, having "serious" discussions about fantasies made up by GOP disinformation artists.

Example: They insist on treating the lack of bipartisanship as if it's Obama's failure. NOBODY of the M$M talking heads has ever mentioned that the Corporate Lobbyist party filibustered 80% of the significant legislation proposed in Obama's first year in office. this is a a FACT that sheds too much light on the subject for the M$M Echo-Chamber.


M$M's phatic chatter is invaluable in the disinforming of the public.