I probably use a million things as a starting point for this post, but I might as well pick on Kevin Drum as he’s one of the few left-wing bloggers I still kinda like. I saw this through Hot Air, and it’s a post on how the blogosphere doesn’t have as much influence as it thinks (to me it’s like the internet bubble, for a while the blogosphere had influence simply because politicians believed it had influence). In the post, Drum agrees with the Democrats on ignoring the whining of the tykes at the Daily Kos and going on FOX News, but he also says this off-hand:
“Objecting to Fox hosting a Democratic debate is one thing: it really doesn’t make sense to have a Democratic event hosted by an obvious arm of the Republican Party.”
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Now, I’m not very old, but I still remember back when conservatives had pretty much nothing. There was a couple papers and the National Review, but those didn’t get much circulation outside of people who weren’t already conservative. The rest of the media was completely liberal.
Now, there are flat-earthers who will deny that the media is liberal despite all the surveys of journalists’ political leanings. I’ve never quite understood why its death to these people to admit liberal bias because that doesn’t imply liberalism is wrong. Maybe they just really want to believe their fringe beliefs (and liberals in America have always been a small minority and always smaller than conservatives) are mainstream.
Anyway, conservatives somehow kept on going. Reagan was even elected and reelected in these conditions because its hard to keep good ideas down even when they’re filtered through so much crap (and it’s not framing; you have to have ideas that appeal to humanity).
Then there was Limbaugh. Liberals freaked out. Conservatives had completely taken over one small, insignificant part of the media, and liberal fascists came out in full force. Now, most of them are at least self-aware enough not to try and just throw Rush Limbaugh off the air, so their efforts were more to marginalize him with things like the Fairness Doctrine. They also ridiculed him every chance they got. In fairness, he ridiculed them — it’s just his ridicule was more accurate while they attacked him for made up things like that the purpose of his call screener was to keep off people who disagreed with him and that Rush was a racist (he is a conservative).
Capitalism being what it is, it became obvious that people were starved for different media than the liberal crap that was available. So there was FOX News. I remember the first time I saw it and noticed something different. They had a positive story on gun ownership. My initial reaction was, “That’s blatantly right-wing!” Then I thought about it. A very significant portion of Americans are for gun ownership, but I had never seen a positive story on gun ownership in the news before. While such a story seemed right-wing in comparison to the other media, it was actually just balance and reflecting the viewpoints of America. The media was so horrible that something actually “fair and balanced” would appear right-wing.
As we all know, FOX News was a huge success, and has garnered hate and ridicule like no news station before it. Now, from our perspective, the liberals constantly complaining about FOX News is extremely silly. All the complaints they make about FOX News could be made ten fold of about any other news channel. Liberals object to FOX News being “a wing of the Republican Party” but the other news had been openly routing for Democrats for decades. It’s not even very right-wing; we just have it on all the time because we like to know the news and the other channels are just too irritatingly liberal for us to stand the condescension. So why would liberals complain when they have all the other media and even publicly funded liberal media like PBS and NPR which conservatives are forced to pay for?
I think I know the answer, and it’s not all that liberals are fascists who feel the need to crack down on anything that challenges their viewpoints (though, that is a part of it). Let’s reflect a moment on how unnatural FOX News is. If all the rest of the media was naturally liberal, then it took some intervention to make FOX News not so. It’s clearly artificial. If you look at it that way, you can somewhat understand liberals objections to it. Even if FOX News is really a fair and balanced channel (I see it as slightly right of moderate) it took very clear right-wing bias to move it to moderate from the liberalism it should naturally exist in. FOX News is a product of much more blatant right wing bias than other media is of left wing bias. None of the other channels went left wing to win viewers; they’re just there because journalists tend to be liberal idiots. It’s like a dog that doesn’t chase after squirrels. It’s in the dogs instinct to chase and to kill. It might be good for the dog not to chase, but the fact that it doesn’t points to that someone intervened on the dog’s behavior. Similarly, journalist like to educate the dumb folk in the fly over country about how liberal viewpoints are better. If journalists aren’t doing that, then someone obviously intervened.
So, FOX News is the product of right wing bias. Not only that, it is a threat to liberals. We can laugh off most of the liberal crap out there because it’s stupid and will only influence the gullible. Liberals, on the other hand, think they’re the only smart ones and that everyone else is a gullible dupe waiting for right wing ideas to activate their inner Nazis. It is true, though, that simply by having right-wing ideas discussed openly anywhere converts way more people than left-wing ideas repeated over and over everywhere. As a kid, I was naturally liberal because I didn’t know any better. My parents are conservative Republicans, but they didn’t discuss politics much, so my political ideas were the touchy feely concepts I’d pick up from school and TV. I thought all problems could be solved by taking away all the guns and giving lots of money to poor people. It only took a couple of times of my parents having Rush Limbaugh on in the car for me to say, “Wow. That viewpoint makes a lot more sense.” And I’ve never looked back.
Most people aren’t very politically active. Obsessing on politics like many of us do is really a geeky thing. For most people, they’ll seize on whatever sounds most logical and appeals to their values, and that’s where conservatism wins out. If you have a fair and balanced channel watched by many people where conservative ideas are given a fair shake, then it’s going to convert many people to the conservative viewpoint. So liberals are right to worry about right-wing views appearing anywhere average people may see or hear them. Why are college campuses so liberal? Because it provides a place where liberals can be completely free of alternative views or even one person saying, “That’s completely insane.” And it often only takes one to shatter illusions as fragile as inhibited liberalism will produce. While having something like FOX News doesn’t insure conservatives will triumph and liberalism will be as marginalized as stupid ideas should be, it certainly helps. Also, its a huge obstacle to liberals taking over in America, and they’re well aware of it.
Liberalism often seems like less of an ideology and more of a system of coordinated hissy fits, and their railing against FOX News seems to be very emblematic of that. If you look closely, though, you can see the rationale behind they’re anger about it. When you understand that, it’s less frustrating. And then you can just go back to ignoring it.
It’s funny. MSNBC has really become more open that they’re left leaning. Funny, hasn’t helped their ratings at all.
Keith Olbermann is the highest rated guy at MSNBC and he still gets his butt handed to him by Uma Pemmaraju reading the news during commercials.
Excellent analysis, Frank! I too was a liberal in my college days because I was young, insulated from the real world and frankly devoid of critical thinking skills. Upon entering the real world it didn’t take long to figure out that Jimmy Carter was a moron. I then discovered Bill Buckley and then Ronald Reagan came along and I never looked back! Alas, now we have republicans telling us that it’s time to forget about Reagan! From my cold dead memory!!!
Very nice editorial, Frank. It has just the right blend of sound ideas, coherent thoughts, and mocking of liberals. Good stuff.
The Left has a need to control all communication and information flow. They adhere closely to the ideals of their intellectual leader who said, “Ideas are more dangerous than guns, we don’t allow our adversaries to have guns, why would we allow them to have ideas?”
FNC is not rigidly conservative, it is actually pretty middle of theroad. It only seems Right wing when compared to the Soros scripted broadcasts from MSDNC and CBS.
President Obama and the 61 seat Democrat Senate will restore the Fairness Doctrine very soon and Fox, Rush, Hannity and free speech will be gone.
I was staying up very late watching various news outlets during the Bush/Gore election coverage. No one else has ever commented on it, so maybe I imagined it. I wasn’t taping the coverage (why would I?), so the moment is lost in the ether.
I swear that Dan Rather turned to Ed Bradley just seconds before Florida was called for Bush (prematurely), and said “How can we still win this?” Before Ed could answer, Dan answered himself with a teeth-gritted statement that Florida was being called for Bush. I know he gritted his teeth to make that statement, but I wish I could lay to rest the opening question.
I suppose the obvious was that Dan said how can HE still win, with the identity of he being obvious since they had been talking about Gore closing in but having to get Florida to win (and narrowly trailing there). But I swear I heard Dan say “we”.
Of course, calling CBS liberally oriented or Dan Rather left-slanted is like calling your dog Spot or Rex – it’s so obvious why bother.
I just can’t imagine ussjimmycarter as a liberal ‘youth.’ Temporarily possessed – perhaps – by Minnesotta demons from across the isle in a brainwashed state much like my own. But not truly ‘liberal,’ ussjc.
I thought this was a ‘kindler gentler essay,’ Frank. And I sincerely believe that the production rate of brainwashed ‘youth’ now far exceeds their slow conversion to conservatism by the lessons of real life. The Obama phenomenon with it’s millions of glazed eyes and repetitive head nodding on faces with permanent, $hit-eating smiles is my proof. They’re reduced to remembering only several words from any speech. And unless we can turn this “cultural phenomenon” around, well, let’s just say it’s not looking too good – even for Fox News.
There is an old saying:
He who is not a liberal at age 20 has no heart.
He who is not a conservative at age 40 has no brain.
That was a long post. I didn’t finish it.
Unfortunately, college campuses are more stubbornly liberal than that. I am that guy that (constantly) tells people they are insane. I am known even to people I don’t know as “That Republican”. You have no idea how many times I have to correct them: “CONSERVATIVE, not REPUBLICAN!”.
But still, nothing changes.
And they have the nerve to teach ethics in journalism schools…
The O’Rielly Factor’s 2am re-run has twice as many viewers as Keith Obermans prime time slot.
Libs can piss and moan all they want but the fact is that Fox News is, and has been for many years, the number 1 rated (cable) news outfit by a long shot, its not even close. People just want the truth, they don’t want to hear what somebody else wants them to hear, (which is what you get from ABC, NBC, MSNBC, etc…) thay want to hear both sides of the issue and decide for themselvs. Thats why the libs are pissed, they dont want people to decide for themselvs, they just want them to get in line and follow suit.
I just read my son’s school newspaper. I couldn’t believe the editorials. One was about how Obama’s speech was no good because he didn’t address the horrible plight of the gays in this country because they cannot get married. The next was about how the FCC was unconstitutionally destroying the first amendment by telling the tv stations they cannot say certain words over the air. And this is in a very conservative part of Texas.
Oh well, I guess all I can do is keep teaching my kids what is right and how to properly cling to their bibles and six-shooters.
Good one. Yes, libs tend to believe Fox is “right-wing” because it is actually mid-stream: who knows how they’d react to something on the right?
“Liberalism often seems like less an ideology and more a system of coordinated hissy fits.”
I like that, albeit it is the left side of capital-L which is so (Marx [who only wote half of “Das Kapital” before changing his mind] may have been liberal, Engels [who financed Marx and finished the book his way] was certainly left).
And then there are the nuts – yeah, plenty on the so-called “extreme right” too, who, like the Phelps cult, are not on the right any more than they are on the left.
its funny, there is a double whammy on my college campus.
the dorms use their own (sort of) cable provider called educable, which does not carry Fox News.
Luckily, I no longer live in the dorms.
The most blatantly leftist liberal I know (and still consider a friend) is a Hillary supporter and recently admitted to me that he has switched over to Fox news because their coverage of the Democratic Primaries is much more balanced and not as biased towards Obama as CNN or MSNBC.
I told him it was only a matter of time before the scales completely dropped from his eyes.
A most fair and balanced assessment of the topic.
My t.v. is stuck on Fox news
Is Lou Dobbs a liberal?
Tucker Carlson?
Joe Scarborough?
Glenn Beck?
Cokie Roberts?
Chris Matthews?
Have you heard the mainstream media giving McCain a hard time about his Catholic-bashing spiritual advisor? His campaign finance violations? His flip-flop on the torture vote? Him concealing all his money in his billionaire wife’s secret accounts? He gets a free pass on all of it, because the media thinks he’s a maverick.
Why do conservatives think it’s okay to sympathize with terrorists? Bill O said he wished AQ would attack San Francisco and you guys worship him anyway. Annie C said the same thing about Tim McVeigh attacking Times Square, but she’s on every “liberal” news show trying to sell her book. Haven’t we seen enough enough dead cops and firemen? As usual, conservatives like to play the role of the victim and show they really don’t care about America.
What dimension did that escape from? Will it go back there if we trick it into saying its name backwards? “Hey! Bet you can’t say ‘gwadeht’!”
Sadly Jimmy I was the victim of the University of Iowa. Considered one of the most liberal of college university campuses even today. During my freshman year they bombed the bookstore and we had tear gas in the dorm during protests. Today they are totally PC! Of course the Iowa Hawkeye football team is still to be feared and worshiped by all!
I think I may have just found a new “sig file”.
Liberalism is not an ideology
It is the convergence of sickness and evil.
wow that 3rd to last paragraph is totally what happened to me…
except ive been conservative since 18…