Will Fox News cost the Republican Party the 2016 election?

[babylonsister]

http://theweek.com/article/index/258089/speedreads-will-fox-news-cost-the-republican-party-the-2016-election

Will Fox News cost the Republican Party the 2016 election?


It used to be that Democrats would view Fox News with a mixture of disdain and awe. Disdain for the channel's casual relationship with the facts, and its GOP-line-toeing under the motto "Fair and Balanced"; awe at its megaphonic ability to spread its feverish narrative to a huge audience that is deathly serious about politics and shows up at the polls.

But in the last election it became apparent that Fox News may be doing the Republican Party more harm than good, casting the entire party as insular, intolerant, and more than a little crazy. At least that is one of the themes of The Loudest Voice in the Room, Gabriel Sherman's book about Fox head Roger Ailes, which was reviewed by Steve Coll in the latest issue of The New York Review of Books. As Coll writes:

Here lies the problem in the alliance between Fox News and the Republican Party that Ailes has constructed. Fox owes its degree of profitability in part to its most passionate, even extremist, audience segment. To win national elections, the Grand Old Party, on the other hand, must win over moderate, racially diverse, and independent voters. By their very diversity and middling views, swing voters are not easy to target on television. The sort of news-talk programming most likely to attract a broad and moderate audience — hard news, weather news, crime news, sports, and perhaps a smattering of left–right debate formats — is essentially the CNN formula, which Fox has already rejected triumphantly. [New York Review of Books]

It's common for people to describe Fox News as being an arm of the Republican Party. But with the 2016 race starting to take shape, and the network doubling down on its reputation as the channel of old white men, it might more accurately be described as a huge thorn in the GOP's side.
- - Ryu Spaeth

[Cha]

1. K&R! mahalo babylonsistah

[Voice for Peace]

2. kick!

this made me smile.

[shenmue]

3. May it be so!

May Fox go off the air and into the toilet where it belongs!

[riversedge]

4. Make it so #1

[edbermac]

5. Does a bear shit in the woods?

Is water wet?

Does the Pope wear a funny hat?

Is the sky blue?

Does Dolly Parton sleep on her back?

[wandy]

6. I really don't care what costs the Republican Party the 2016 election........

As long as something does.
Who knows? After we are all done bickering about it we may choose the right person for the job.
Wouldn't that be something? Two times in a row.

[AlinPA]

7. I just read that review by Coll; there is a quote in it where Ailes had bragged about Fox 'news"

being number one and the other person said "There are a lot of stupid people out there".

All those stupid people is why I don't think Fox 'news' will damage the GOP's chances. Their viewers love the lies and propaganda.

[Blanks]

10. But when they are proven to be liars...

As they were in their projections for 2012. Even among their dyed-in-the-wool viewers - it becomes obvious that what they are peddling is not the facts.

Dick Morris and turd blossom KNEW that Romney was gonna win, they had the proof. They were just making shit up. It's too easy to remind republicans that they play fast and loose with the facts when you have a solid example to point to.

That and the fact that so many Fox News viewers believed that we found WMDs in Iraq.

[Johonny]

8. I think the party grifting will certainly hurt it

The shear amount of money that flows to non-political grifters like Ann Coulter, Sarah Palin or Mike Huckabee is amazing. Imagine trying to run for president when the grassroots people spend as much time promoting some made up idiot like Joe Not A Plumber than promoting you the guy running for office. The party is simply loaded with people looking to get in the news, then get out of office and into the gravy mill of speaking events, reality TV shows, pundit panels and opinion writing. None of which ever helps anyone get elected. Listen to Rush Limbaugh for a segment and you figure out his whole show is based on promoting HIM and not the GOP. It is about him getting paid. This mentality is siphoning huge resources from the party leaving them to run basically a clown car of morons for office.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

9. Meh... too far out into the future

Dumb America doesn't remember anything a politician said last week, let alone 2 or 3 years ago. The dumb Democratic Party has plenty opportunity to turn lemonade into lemons. We're so incompetent, it wouldn't surprise me at all.

[sheshe2]

11. MAKE IT SO!!!!!

Sorry, I didn't mean to yell! Actually I did!

Keep up the good work Fox Snooze!

[JoeyT]

12. I think it's pretty likely.

Fox can't back off the stupid. If they do, they lose their core audience. If they don't back off the stupid, almost anyone that gives them a chance will watch for ten minutes, realize the mouthpiece of the Republican party are a bunch of ignorant assholes, and change the channel.

Then every time someone like Stewart, Colbert, or just some random blogger on the internet mocks Fox, that impression will be reinforced.

Edited to add: I dunno about costing them the election, but I think they're going to hurt them a lot. Letting the baggers run around screaming like morons will hopefully do the rest.

[maced666]

13. This piece is full of it -

The author is suggesting to Fox to look to CNN for an audience? According to the ratings, CNN doesn't have an audience compared to Fox!
And if as the author suggests, Fox is and has been the network of old white men - how could it possibly sway one way or the other votes except those who watch?
It can't!
It never has and never will 'swing' elections or 'cost' elections.

The truth is far right wingers watch Fox news. DUH.
It's a preach to the choir situation. Always has, always will. No helping or hurting elections. Got nothing to do with it.

The above article says this - Republicans will lose next election because Fox news doesn't appeal to all political demographics.
How dumb is that?
Oh I agree, they will lose - but it's because the Democrats stand for health care, fair/equal wages and economic growth while the Republicans vote against all these measures.