A while ago I came upon this blog post
American political parties are made up of both formal organizations (such as the RNC) and informal networks. Fox News Channel, then, is properly understood as part of the expanded Republican Party, just like Hill staff of GOP Members of Congress, or pollsters who only work for Republicans, or activists who volunteer for Republican campaigns, or think tanks that generate legislation for Republicans to support.
The funny thing? It’s from Jonathan Bernstein’s blog and he wrote it in 2010 on his plain blog about politics. And in 2022 Mr. Bernstein is still writing, for Bloomberg. I’ve been reading him for years and he is still a good writer churning out a good column. Back in 2010 this was a normal totally noncontroversial view everywhere but the right wing fever swamp that still claimed Fox was fair and balanced.
Back in 2004 Robert Greenwald released Outfoxed, a brilliant documentary that explains the origins of Fox. They detail how Roger Ailes wanted GOP TV and what Ailes wanted GOP TV to do. Everything is documented. Again, none of this is any deep hidden mystery or the least bit controversial outside the fever swamp. Outfoxed was almost twenty years ago.
This is only half the story.
There is a feedback loop between right wing media hosts telling the base only what they want to hear and the base only listening to media that tells them what they want to hear. I use the image of the three headed dragon with two of the heads being the GOP and Fox and the third, the derpy head, being the GOP base.
Why does the base get the derpy head? It’s a base that is willing to accept the kettle logic that Jan 6th was totally peaceful. Also it was very violent because of Antifa. But that was totally justified because the election was stolen. Don’t ask for proof though. And it is Pelosi’s fault the peaceful protest didn’t have the national guard there to break it up. Knowing damn will that if it were broken up they would be claiming, 24/7 on Fox, they are being silenced.
These absurdities are why Fox CAN NOT under any circumstance, cover Jan 6th. If they tell the truth to the derpy head they will turn off Fox and go elsewhere.
But also, the GOP CAN NOT under any circumstance, repeat the truth of Jan 6th that they plainly stated on Jan 6th because the derpy head will move their support to the people telling them what they want to hear. There is also a feedback loop between the GOP establishment telling the base only what they want to hear and the base only supporting Republicans that tell them what they want to hear.
Do I have sympathy for them? No. Stephen King said it best:
