Cross posted from http://www.theprogressivesinfluence.com
FOX-FIX?
Fox News takes the lead in parading towards the eventual selection of the GOP Presidential candidate. You and I know that Fox News is truly not a news network. from the top down it is a political entity and serves effectively as a public relations wing of the Party. Do you need more convincing for your (already) accurate perception.
MEDIA-ite
Dick Morris on the Fox News Couch
It is clear the entire crew on that hyperbolic morning show was scripted as a Fox News commercial. Morris has proven he is a “pay-to-player’ based on this recent admissions that he has accepted money from both Palin and Cain camps in the past. I can only assume that such monetary receipts were for endorsements and supportive comments.
The salient point about the comment is an ever-present show producer sat nearby; a fact that adds validity to a position espoused by Jonathan Freedland guardian.co.uk, How Fox News is helping Barack Obama’s re-election bid, December 13, 2011. Why does Freeland posit as he does?
The extremism, anger, paranoia and sense of victimhood that Fox incubates are all unhealthy for the United States. But it’s inflicting particular damage on the Republican party, which could well lose a winnable election because of its supine relationship to a TV network. It turns out it is not liberals who should fear the Fox – it’s conservatives.
Now for the backstory…..
Freeland acknowledges that Fox News has the largest cable audience in the Untied States.
It’s not just usual-suspect lefties and professional Murdoch-haters who say it, mischievously exaggerating the cable TV network’s influence. Dick Morris, veteran political operative and Fox regular, noted the phenomenon himself the other day while sitting on the Fox sofa. “This is a phenomenon of this year’s election,” he said. “You don’t win Iowa in Iowa. You win it on this couch. You win it on Fox News.” In other words, it is Fox – with the largest cable news audience, representing a huge chunk of the Republican base – that is, in effect, picking the party’s nominee to face Obama next November.
Th real “wirra’ in Freeland’s work; Fox News will pick the 2012 GOP candidate for President. Freeland, with great imagery, depicts Roger Ailes does one who (based on the media and remaining shy of the obvious) will not endorse a candidate for president; he will ‘provide “sunshine” for some and “mouldering shadows” for others.
You ask how does The Guardians writer substantiate such a point?Well, he goes to one of the most reliable international information sources and media watchdogs: Media Matters.
Mediamatters.com offers Fox News Primary reports dating back to June 1, 2011. The reports are revealing in making a points via use of that which the Right: data.
How about supporting one’s (Freeland’s) argument with facts from a MediaMatters November 22, report: The Fox Primary By the Numbers, November 14 – 20. Why does Freeland posit as he does?
Last Week’s Results
Total time: 2 hours and 26 minutes; Total appearances: 20
Most Total Airtime on Fox: Newt Gingrich (34 minutes)
Most Total Appearances: Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, and Mitt Romney (3 appearances each)
Fox Show with the Most Total Candidate Airtime: Your World with Neil Cavuto (35 minutes)
Fox Show with the Most Candidate Appearances: Your World with Neil Cavuto (4 appearances)
Longest Candidate Interview: Hannity (15 minutes with Newt Gingrich)
Softball Question(s) of the Week: During the November 18 edition of The O’Reilly Factor, host Bill O’Reilly asked Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry this:
O’REILLY: Do you believe that Barack Obama — the person, not the President, the person because a lot of conservatives do believe this — doesn’t like America?
(A table of the November 14 – 20 data is available here.)
The Numbers Since June 1
Total time: 61 hours and 9 minutes; Total appearances: 505
Most Total Airtime on Fox since June 1: Herman Cain (9 hours and 50 minutes)
Most Total Appearances since June 1: John Bolton (67 appearances)
Fox Show with the Most Total Candidate Airtime Since June 1: On the Record with Greta Van Susteren (10 hours and 15 minutes)
Fox Show with the Most Candidate Appearances since June 1: On the Record with Greta Van Susteren (75 appearances)
Longest Candidate Interview since June 1: Stossel (40 minutes with Gary Johnson)
(A table of all the data since June 1 is available here.)
Over the past two weeks we have learned Fox News viewers may be the less informed viewers of any cable news network. If we take the MediaMatters premise (Fox News Primary) and data indicating Fox News viewers are less informed, we have a dilemma. A dilemma that will lead to the likes of Newt Gingrich as the GOP Presidential candidate.
Need anymore evidence of how Murdoch’s and Ailes’s Fox News may have the “FOX- FIX” on? Did Newt Gingrich not recently comment that John Boulton would be a good choice for Vice President of the United States of America? Now, on what basis would Gingrich make such statement. It is not a leap for me to make a connection to the MediaMatters data (above). [ Most Total Appearances since June 1: John Bolton (67 appearances) ] Gingrich has to know that compared to John Boulton, Dick Cheney would seem a disheartened, fearful and non-confident Lion of OZ.
The MediaMatters series and Freeland’s work for The Guardian are certainly worthy of continued following and review.
If I may take my concerns a bit further, are we absolutely certain a longstanding business model of News of the World (NoW) is not being deployed in some way in the United States?
How about a piece of humor. The data are truly revealing. Until his demise, Herman Cain was the most visible on Fox News. Now, that would have been a scary (Primary winner) thought.
Is Freeland suggesting the Fox will shoot itself in the foot?
I’m just sayin!
The Pardu's Scroll 
