One Nation Under Fox

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http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/248074

I've joked before, though I'm not really joking, that Fox isn't just a news channel — it's a way of life. It both reflects and sets the conservative political agenda. Fox News viewers would resent the suggestion that they are being subjected to propaganda, but that's exactly what's happening. You cannot invest so much faith in a single source without being influenced, if only subtly, by it.

The Fox agenda isn't so much the Republican Party as it is a certain type of free-market conservatism which deflects all blame onto government. Glenn Beck rails on about communists but directs far less vitriol at the likes of Goldman Sachs or AIG. For those firms were merely making a profit, as capitalists do; and as capitalism is unimpeachable, the fault must lie with government — always.

This is trickle-down populism, a movement not merely informed or encouraged by Fox News, but led by it. Indeed, in an Atlantic Monthly article this month, Princeton sociology and public affairs professor Paul Starr wrote that "in the absence of clear national leadership in the Republican Party, Fox's commentators (together with Rush Limbaugh) have effectively taken over that role themselves."

Consider this for a moment: Fox News not only as governing philosophy, but perhaps ultimately as government itself.

Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin jumped to Fox News perhaps because it's easier to shape the agenda than legislate it. But Palin may well run for president in 2012 — and who says she gives up her Fox gig if she does?

One nation under Fox News. Divisible? You bet.

As noted above, Fox fans are quick to dismiss any criticism as jealousy. Fox is doing something very right, they insist, because it's commanded their unswerving loyalty.

But that same ideological devotion has, in times past, been commanded by politicians and political parties. The loyalty itself is no different; but this might be the first time it's been commanded by a news channel. And that does indeed represent something new — and dangerous — under the sun.